So, here I am and I really want to make excuses for why I haven't posted anything in what feels like forever, but I'm not going to make excuses. I should probably also come up with one excuse for why I tend to start blog sentences with words like "so" or "well," but I won't do that either. Like an ever curling and crashing wave, life sometimes pulls you away from the beaches of writing and sometimes washes you ashore to be stranded in your own mind -- caught up in characters and plots and dialogue and descriptions -- and I find you have to go with the flow [cliche, I know] and not fight it.
My Cat Can Help Your Writing
Reading Notes: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Just a quick note to say that 1) I'm alive and writing, and 2) I finally finished Water for Elephants after a month or two of not having time to read and then waiting for my purchased copy to come in the mail after the library copy had to go back.
Here are my notes: it was amazing!!!
Here are the extended notes:
Here are my notes: it was amazing!!!
Here are the extended notes:
Remembering the Basics
The Friedrich Agency recently posted an article listing the writing advice they gave to an aspiring 13 year old boy. I think this is a great list to remember the basics of what it is we writers are supposed to be doing -- reading other authors and keeping ourselves well rounded. It's short, sweet, and to the point. Have a look for yourself.
Writing Anyway
The past two weeks have been unusually rough for a whole host of reasons I won't go into which include not getting any actual fiction written. Right now my biggest challenge is submitting my novel Reading Glasses chapter by chapter to my writing group. I love them. They tell you when it works and when it doesn't. And when 60% of the group said they didn't care for the main character, I had to sit up straight in my chair and take it, full force in the face that this protagonist wasn't likable enough. So, back to the drawing board I went to remold this woman into someone the reader will want to follow into the depths of hell, otherwise when she goes there the reader might think she deserves it (which isn't my intention).
Here's the tricky bit and the part you don't learn about in any writing class. You can get trapped in the in between of knowing what isn't working and where you want to be, but feel powerless to climb out of the muck of writing quicksand on your own. Like any brainiac with an eye for distractors I made a scene chart for Reading Glasses -- a new one. I plotted each point of tension, each building of drama, and each climactic point I could. I rewrote the entire first chapter and changed how the qualities of my main character were being portrayed while still carrying the basic plot of the story. Instead of a bitch, she was more gracious. Instead of always getting the last word, I made her stumble because of what she said.
And then I shut down. I stared at my chart of what was supposed to happen next and then I stared at it some more. I was frozen. Trapped in the what should or shouldn't happen to my character next. I had to get away from my own mind and I had to do it quick if I was ever going to write another thing again. All the while my husband is saying I should work on another project all together, which of course, makes me think that's a good idea instead of facing my fears and writing my way out of my character problem.
Well, I finally just told my brain to shut up and I got to work. It wasn't fantastic, but it was progress. I had about enough energy to pop the cork off the writing wine, but as I write this, I have yet to actually tip the bottle and get the good stuff to pour out. The fact that the new writing wasn't that good doesn't scare me anywhere near as much as not writing at all, so I'll take the dry rotted cork any day. I hope you're able to do the same and take the bad writing as a good sign that the good writing isn't far away. When you can do that, it's a step in the right direction.
Here's the tricky bit and the part you don't learn about in any writing class. You can get trapped in the in between of knowing what isn't working and where you want to be, but feel powerless to climb out of the muck of writing quicksand on your own. Like any brainiac with an eye for distractors I made a scene chart for Reading Glasses -- a new one. I plotted each point of tension, each building of drama, and each climactic point I could. I rewrote the entire first chapter and changed how the qualities of my main character were being portrayed while still carrying the basic plot of the story. Instead of a bitch, she was more gracious. Instead of always getting the last word, I made her stumble because of what she said.
And then I shut down. I stared at my chart of what was supposed to happen next and then I stared at it some more. I was frozen. Trapped in the what should or shouldn't happen to my character next. I had to get away from my own mind and I had to do it quick if I was ever going to write another thing again. All the while my husband is saying I should work on another project all together, which of course, makes me think that's a good idea instead of facing my fears and writing my way out of my character problem.
Well, I finally just told my brain to shut up and I got to work. It wasn't fantastic, but it was progress. I had about enough energy to pop the cork off the writing wine, but as I write this, I have yet to actually tip the bottle and get the good stuff to pour out. The fact that the new writing wasn't that good doesn't scare me anywhere near as much as not writing at all, so I'll take the dry rotted cork any day. I hope you're able to do the same and take the bad writing as a good sign that the good writing isn't far away. When you can do that, it's a step in the right direction.
Dips and Spinning and Demons, Oh My!
I'll say it. Today was a vicious day. What started so small and unassuming turned into this festering puss ball of unfinished work and distractions. I had about 15 projects on my desk (meaning my laptop since my desk is my lap these days) and only about three or four items had been completed by lunch time. This is not progress. I plugged away, pushed, shoved, bribed, all of the above, and when we sat down for dinner it felt like I had gotten nowhere.
That's when I realized I kept taking dips. Dipping into one project, moving away, and dipping into another. Have you ever done this? Are we crazy? I was working in small bites round and round, but never getting any one thing really pushed in the right direction. My sister and I call this spinning -- you have all this momentum and movement, yet you're not actually moving forward. If this one day was bad, it would be okay, but that seems to have been the theme for the week and no one let me in on it. Suckaroo.
 |
| *Not actual demon. |
It's like I was distracting myself, "oh, shiny," and going back to the document from an hour earlier only to leap frog over to something else ten minutes later. Like I was being possessed by some writing demon that didn't approve of final drafts or rereading pieces to edit them. Perhaps this demon needs to be named for the times when I do this, or perhaps he deserves to go nameless through the room as it makes messes of my work. Oh, wait! Let me open a new document and we can make a list to name him... Suggestions?
7 Ways to Make Inspiration Come to You
As a writer, what inspires you? Is it a great book you just finished reading? Did you sit at the park and "people watch" during your lunch break and get some ideas there? Were you meditating on margaritas to set the inner writer free? It's always interesting where different authors get their ideas. Some get more ideas the more they write, while others draw a blank in front of the page but excel after taking a jog to get the creative juices flowing.
I know I tend to find inspiration in examining life and relationships. I think about how people relate to each other, how they talk to each other, whether or not they touch, etc. If I want an idea for a story sometimes I think about or go to public places, the mall, the movie theater, the park. Sometimes just being alone and engaging in the five senses will spark some creativity. Other times I hear some bit of dialogue or read a line and a couple of paired words really grab me and that prompt is enough to build a story around.
Is your mind still blank? Here are seven other suggestions that might provide a spark you can turn into a fire.
1. Watch a film, read a book, or listen to a CD that puts you in the mood for writing or sets the tone for the writing you need to do. I find there are some stories that have a soundtrack and listening to a specific CD while I work on them adds to the experience.
2. Take a walk. Think about writing as you stroll down the street. This is a great way to work out plot holes, dialogue issues, or character backstories.
3. Take a walk. Don't think about writing at all. Be present in the moment to observe the sounds of running water or birds, the look of sunlight filtering through trees, or even the smell of the earth under fallen leaves.
4. "Business lunch." Take yourself out to eat alone or with a writer friend. Giving yourself a break from the computer or pen and paper and shutting to doors on your writer's mindset can often give you the freedom to let new information in that the internal editor wasn't allowing.
5. Free write like no one is watching. Open a new document or pull out a scrap piece of paper and write as fast as you can all the horrible things you can't write into your current story. If you're working on a romance novel, then quickly zip out a 500 word scene of someone stumbling in on a murder in progress. Write high-tech science fiction? Give yourself a 300 word description of an open meadow at sunrise.
6. Keep a journal. Often writing about the thoughts in your head and sorting through them can release that part of you that has been trying to be inspired but couldn't under all the clutter in your mind. Whether you write in a journal every day or only when you need to sort out plot points and characters, a lot can be uncovered in the process.
7. Exercise. Sitting still for hours on end can be exhausting, but while your brain is working a mile a minute, your legs, back, arms, heart, and core are in reality just sitting around going unused. Regular exercise can push your body and turn off your brain for a while. More than likely this will also improve your sleep. (See how I assume you're not getting enough sleep? Most of us aren't.)
Wherever you find your muse the important thing to remember is to keep writing whether they find you today or not. There will be days without inspiration but that doesn't mean it won't come to you. Once you realize where to find your inspiration, remember to go back to that place often to make the inspiration come to you.
Now it's your turn. Share where you find your inspiration in the comments section.
I know I tend to find inspiration in examining life and relationships. I think about how people relate to each other, how they talk to each other, whether or not they touch, etc. If I want an idea for a story sometimes I think about or go to public places, the mall, the movie theater, the park. Sometimes just being alone and engaging in the five senses will spark some creativity. Other times I hear some bit of dialogue or read a line and a couple of paired words really grab me and that prompt is enough to build a story around.
Is your mind still blank? Here are seven other suggestions that might provide a spark you can turn into a fire.
1. Watch a film, read a book, or listen to a CD that puts you in the mood for writing or sets the tone for the writing you need to do. I find there are some stories that have a soundtrack and listening to a specific CD while I work on them adds to the experience.
2. Take a walk. Think about writing as you stroll down the street. This is a great way to work out plot holes, dialogue issues, or character backstories.
3. Take a walk. Don't think about writing at all. Be present in the moment to observe the sounds of running water or birds, the look of sunlight filtering through trees, or even the smell of the earth under fallen leaves.
4. "Business lunch." Take yourself out to eat alone or with a writer friend. Giving yourself a break from the computer or pen and paper and shutting to doors on your writer's mindset can often give you the freedom to let new information in that the internal editor wasn't allowing.
5. Free write like no one is watching. Open a new document or pull out a scrap piece of paper and write as fast as you can all the horrible things you can't write into your current story. If you're working on a romance novel, then quickly zip out a 500 word scene of someone stumbling in on a murder in progress. Write high-tech science fiction? Give yourself a 300 word description of an open meadow at sunrise.
6. Keep a journal. Often writing about the thoughts in your head and sorting through them can release that part of you that has been trying to be inspired but couldn't under all the clutter in your mind. Whether you write in a journal every day or only when you need to sort out plot points and characters, a lot can be uncovered in the process.
7. Exercise. Sitting still for hours on end can be exhausting, but while your brain is working a mile a minute, your legs, back, arms, heart, and core are in reality just sitting around going unused. Regular exercise can push your body and turn off your brain for a while. More than likely this will also improve your sleep. (See how I assume you're not getting enough sleep? Most of us aren't.)
Wherever you find your muse the important thing to remember is to keep writing whether they find you today or not. There will be days without inspiration but that doesn't mean it won't come to you. Once you realize where to find your inspiration, remember to go back to that place often to make the inspiration come to you.
Now it's your turn. Share where you find your inspiration in the comments section.
Confessions: Small Complaint about the Kindle
My dad gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I love it. It made me want to cry just opening it because it's something that I've considered getting, but would never buy for myself. With a child you stop thinking anything over about $25 is worthy of your own wants, so it wouldn't have ever happened. Since then I've downloaded a bazillion free titles and even a couple of games my daughter and I can play together. I've also been checking out a few samples of books that I'm not sure I want to read. A sample gives you the first however many pages of a book without purchase (like standing in the bookstore)--enough to wet your whistle or turn you off entirely from buying the book.
Well, I was thinking about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I've read other stuff by Hurston, but wasn't sure about getting this one since I would have to pay for it. So, I downloaded the sample with introduction by Edwidge Danticat (who I also enjoy as an author). Here's the problem: 100% of the sample is the introduction! I'd like to think someone at the wheel could make it so samples were the actual text of the story and not the first physical pages of the book, but I know that ship sailed with computer automation in control of just about everything these days.
I'm not mad, just disappointed. It's no secret Amazon has had some questionable issues in the past like selling pedophile how-to books and allowing authors to post 43 positive reviews of their own books to boost their star rating, but this is disappointing on a different front. If I went into an ice cream shop and wanted a sample they wouldn't show me the cone, they would give me some of the ice cream. Likewise, I don't want to sample an introduction to a literary work, I want to sample the actual work. Granted, this is the first sample where this has been a problem, but something tells me it won't be the last...
Well, I was thinking about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I've read other stuff by Hurston, but wasn't sure about getting this one since I would have to pay for it. So, I downloaded the sample with introduction by Edwidge Danticat (who I also enjoy as an author). Here's the problem: 100% of the sample is the introduction! I'd like to think someone at the wheel could make it so samples were the actual text of the story and not the first physical pages of the book, but I know that ship sailed with computer automation in control of just about everything these days.
I'm not mad, just disappointed. It's no secret Amazon has had some questionable issues in the past like selling pedophile how-to books and allowing authors to post 43 positive reviews of their own books to boost their star rating, but this is disappointing on a different front. If I went into an ice cream shop and wanted a sample they wouldn't show me the cone, they would give me some of the ice cream. Likewise, I don't want to sample an introduction to a literary work, I want to sample the actual work. Granted, this is the first sample where this has been a problem, but something tells me it won't be the last...
Critique Groups: The Writing Mirror You Need
I applied and was accepted into a writing critique group last week thanks to some amazing information from a very inspiring writer. I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am for this group and how remarkable they are at picking apart a story or chapter and guiding the rebuilding process.
To be clear, this isn't my first writing group. I was a part of several workshops through both undergrad and grad school, and knew what I liked and what I didn't. My problem over the last few years has been trying to find a group of writers that wanted to publish and who were tough with their critiques. If you ever want to get better at your writing, then you need a set of people that are willing to tell you when you're holding back, writing crap, or blowing the reader away with crisp dialogue or realistic description.
This is where a critique group can be amazing, because a writing group is the equivalent of holding up a mirror to your writing. You're going to see your own errors in other members' stories, you're going to get called on it when you haven't given something your all, and your going to, as a consequence of it all, keep plot, character, voice, and other aspects of story in the forefront of your mind as you work.
If you feel like you're writing in a vacuum and don't know if your story is really coming across the way you think it is, then it might just be time to start looking for a group that will be that mirror or reality.
To be clear, this isn't my first writing group. I was a part of several workshops through both undergrad and grad school, and knew what I liked and what I didn't. My problem over the last few years has been trying to find a group of writers that wanted to publish and who were tough with their critiques. If you ever want to get better at your writing, then you need a set of people that are willing to tell you when you're holding back, writing crap, or blowing the reader away with crisp dialogue or realistic description.
This is where a critique group can be amazing, because a writing group is the equivalent of holding up a mirror to your writing. You're going to see your own errors in other members' stories, you're going to get called on it when you haven't given something your all, and your going to, as a consequence of it all, keep plot, character, voice, and other aspects of story in the forefront of your mind as you work.
If you feel like you're writing in a vacuum and don't know if your story is really coming across the way you think it is, then it might just be time to start looking for a group that will be that mirror or reality.
How Editing Will Make You a Better First Draft Writer
Author Anne Lamott says in her book "Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" that you have to understand you're going to write "shitty first drafts." It's as inevitable as the sun rising or spilling something on your shirt right before a big presentation. You will also, because of those horrible first drafts, have to revise your writing. Revision is a necessity and anyone who thinks publishable work happens on the first draft level has a lot to learn about writing or is kidding themselves.
The process of revision can be grouped into at least two categories which will require more than two passes over your manuscript. The two categories are as follows: edit for story and edit for clarity. Edit for story sounds deceptively simple, but what it requires is looking over this thing you have created and deciding what is worthy of staying and what desperately needs to get kicked out. This can include changing characters, filling plot holes, killing off characters, changing scene locations, pushing the story forward in places where it drags, or adding more emotional pull or impact to your characters as well as a slew of other things. Your gut and good writing friends can tell you what's wrong with the story and then your job is to fix it.
After you have edited for story and deleted pages, paragraphs, even continents from your manuscript you should know without a doubt what is staying in. Then you can edit for clarity. This involves the painful task of line editing your work as best introduced by Aimee L. Salter in her Self-Editing series as seek and destroy missions. You search your story for unnecessary words, poor grammar, verb tense inconsistencies, etc., all of which will tighten your work for clarity and make the story more clear and accessible for the reader.
Now, that's a lot of work, you say, and it is. A lot of work which can take days, weeks, months, and even years with the right or wrong author and the right or wrong story. Taking all of this into consideration, wouldn't it just be easier if you wrote a better first draft? It's true, revision makes you realize how much you want to be a better first drafter. If you aren't challenging yourself with revisions, then you can't possibly grow as a writer. My father told me once that life is the opposite of school: you take the test and then you learn the lesson. This also applies to writing since revision work can teach you more about fresh, first draft writing than actually doing the first draft writing can.
For example, if you realize through the revision process that you use the word "just" too much and every time you turn around you've put "just" in the dialogue, the exposition, descriptions, and so on, I guarantee you're going to quit writing "just" so damn much on the next story you write because you're sick of seeing the thing and having to delete or replace it a million times. My problem, as you can see by the beginning of this paragraph, is using run on sentences. My new job, therefore, in first draft writing is to write shorter, precise, more direct sentences.
I promise you if you put on your armor and go into battle with your manuscript to fix both story and clarity you will become a better first draft writer because you will be made aware of what you're doing. Man is programmed to learn from mistakes, so take this opportunity to use the lengthy, tedious, yet rewarding revision process as your teacher for how to conscientiously construct a better first draft.
The process of revision can be grouped into at least two categories which will require more than two passes over your manuscript. The two categories are as follows: edit for story and edit for clarity. Edit for story sounds deceptively simple, but what it requires is looking over this thing you have created and deciding what is worthy of staying and what desperately needs to get kicked out. This can include changing characters, filling plot holes, killing off characters, changing scene locations, pushing the story forward in places where it drags, or adding more emotional pull or impact to your characters as well as a slew of other things. Your gut and good writing friends can tell you what's wrong with the story and then your job is to fix it.
After you have edited for story and deleted pages, paragraphs, even continents from your manuscript you should know without a doubt what is staying in. Then you can edit for clarity. This involves the painful task of line editing your work as best introduced by Aimee L. Salter in her Self-Editing series as seek and destroy missions. You search your story for unnecessary words, poor grammar, verb tense inconsistencies, etc., all of which will tighten your work for clarity and make the story more clear and accessible for the reader.
Now, that's a lot of work, you say, and it is. A lot of work which can take days, weeks, months, and even years with the right or wrong author and the right or wrong story. Taking all of this into consideration, wouldn't it just be easier if you wrote a better first draft? It's true, revision makes you realize how much you want to be a better first drafter. If you aren't challenging yourself with revisions, then you can't possibly grow as a writer. My father told me once that life is the opposite of school: you take the test and then you learn the lesson. This also applies to writing since revision work can teach you more about fresh, first draft writing than actually doing the first draft writing can.
For example, if you realize through the revision process that you use the word "just" too much and every time you turn around you've put "just" in the dialogue, the exposition, descriptions, and so on, I guarantee you're going to quit writing "just" so damn much on the next story you write because you're sick of seeing the thing and having to delete or replace it a million times. My problem, as you can see by the beginning of this paragraph, is using run on sentences. My new job, therefore, in first draft writing is to write shorter, precise, more direct sentences.
I promise you if you put on your armor and go into battle with your manuscript to fix both story and clarity you will become a better first draft writer because you will be made aware of what you're doing. Man is programmed to learn from mistakes, so take this opportunity to use the lengthy, tedious, yet rewarding revision process as your teacher for how to conscientiously construct a better first draft.
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