Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. That's the saying right? Let me just say, a whole lot of life has been happening and nowhere near enough fiction writing. As I think I've said before, I do freelance writing as my "day job" and fiction on the side. This is proving a fatal experience for my spirit and as freelancing work rises, the lifeblood of fiction drops. My freelance job is draining me and there's been no recharge. This doesn't make one happy.
So, since I'm turning 32 in two days, I'm determined to get back on track (since I may die soon). I say this in jest, of course we all "may" die soon, but every birthday is when I kind of glance behind me and this year I was none too pleased at what I saw on the fiction writing front. That being said, I'm going to storm into my brain and give it a big shake down. I'm tossing out all the old furniture, turning the lights up, and cleaning this place from top to bottom.
It's like when I was little and my mom would clean the house and then say something like, "there are going to be a lot of changes around here because this house will never look like that again." Only I'm going to tell my brain that. I'm going to put myself on lockdown if I have to! In the next couple of days I'm going to come up with a plan for the year ahead where fiction is concerned and by God I'm going to hit my goals and flip off freelance writing when I need to. Not that freelance is bad, it's not, it pays my bills, but I end up writing about installing fence posts until midnight instead of working on my writing. This will be big and there will be casualties, but story writing needs to get back on the front burner. I'll let you know what I come up with asap. Any suggestions?
Quick Tip: Plotting Plots
The bare bones version is this: when you plot your plot, write down in order of appearance all of the major twists and turns of your story. Make note of huge revelations, the conflicts, the unexpected events that happen to your main character and what he/she does about it. Get it all on paper, to the best of your ability, exactly what it is that happens in your story and then look for problems. Search for holes in your plot as well as gaps of time in your story where you notice nothing really is happening between page 50 and page 100. Let this be your guide for adding more bulk or removing excess from your story.
Ants and Other Distractions
I sit down to write at my trusty laptop. It’s dark. It’s always dark (to me) in my living room thanks to the tacky 50’s era metal awning which covers over half the window. My solution during the daytime anyway is to open the front door and let the light pour in through the screen door. Light is a good thing until you see a battalion of mini-ants trailing from the corner of the door all the way to your daughter’s chair where she sometimes sits and eats snacks when watching TV.
Quick Tip: Saving Your Work
Want a little extra security? When working on a large project, like novel revisions or a collection of stories or articles, be sure to email yourself a copy of your work to an email address you have access to from any computer terminal. While I use a lot of email addresses, I usually send a copy of my big projects to my GMail account. That way, no matter what happens to my beloved laptop or flash drive, I can run to the library and log in to my email and retrieve my documents.
Floods and Dry Spells
A lot of authors will tell you they just sit in the same chair everyday and write for the same amount of time every day and the magic just happens. This isn’t always the way it goes for the rest of us. While I have no doubt that making appointments to write is necessary, helpful, and effective since you can come away from each writing session with a sense of accomplishment, that doesn’t take into account floods and dry spells.
Quick Tip: Timed Writing
Try to make the environment around you disappear so you can focus 100% of your energy to the story, journal entry, chapter, or poem. Keep a piece of scrap paper nearby so when you remember you need to buy onions at the grocery store you can quickly jot it down and throw the thought out of your head, then get back to your writing. Time your writing and see just how nice it is to hone in on your creative juice.
Hunting Words
A while back I told you about getting your butt into the library. Of, course I’m certain you have done so, because I said so. Now that I’ve gotten you into the library and poking around my Dewey decimal buddy 808 (where the writing books live), I want you to step to the right toward 807.
I find it of absolutely no coincidence that just before the writing and literature section are the books along the nature of “Advanced Whitetail Hunting” and “Treasury of Sporting Guns.” Anyone that has been writing and revising for any amount of time should understand what it’s like to hunt for the right word, plot, character, agent, publisher, etc.
This shit is hard and other people (non-writers) just don’t get that.
They may make fun of you for going to library, staying up talking to yourself about your story, journaling about fake people that don’t exist to find out more about them. Ah, but Dewey gets it. Dewey puts the books about hunting down and killing wild animals for sport right next to the books about writing for a reason.
Writing is a painstaking task that requires more than loading a gun and pulling a trigger.
Writing requires waiting it out in the dark of morning, listening for cues that what you’re searching for is coming toward you, and waiting until just the right moment to strike with just the right weapon/words.
You must always remember that writing is an enjoyable challenge, yes challenge (even for the best of us), and if you find yourself breezing through your story without a hitch, then you’re probably missing something.
Kill any good stories lately? Share your tales of hunting words in the comments section below?
I find it of absolutely no coincidence that just before the writing and literature section are the books along the nature of “Advanced Whitetail Hunting” and “Treasury of Sporting Guns.” Anyone that has been writing and revising for any amount of time should understand what it’s like to hunt for the right word, plot, character, agent, publisher, etc.
This shit is hard and other people (non-writers) just don’t get that.
They may make fun of you for going to library, staying up talking to yourself about your story, journaling about fake people that don’t exist to find out more about them. Ah, but Dewey gets it. Dewey puts the books about hunting down and killing wild animals for sport right next to the books about writing for a reason.
Writing is a painstaking task that requires more than loading a gun and pulling a trigger.
Writing requires waiting it out in the dark of morning, listening for cues that what you’re searching for is coming toward you, and waiting until just the right moment to strike with just the right weapon/words.
You must always remember that writing is an enjoyable challenge, yes challenge (even for the best of us), and if you find yourself breezing through your story without a hitch, then you’re probably missing something.
Kill any good stories lately? Share your tales of hunting words in the comments section below?
Making Time
Probably the number one thing that keeps writers from writing is the fact that they don’t make time to do it. Myself included, it usually sounds something like this: “I can’t find any time to write.” Maybe a little more nasal, a little more whiny, but that's what it sounds like. "I can't find time."
Well, that’s what we say. We can’t find it, but the real matter is that we don’t make it.
Writing requires that you make the time. Not just that it’s a good idea to have a regular routine of writing from seven to eight o’clock every day, but that you have to do so in order to focus your creative energy in one direction and keep your writing/story/characters moving.
Well, that’s what we say. We can’t find it, but the real matter is that we don’t make it.
Writing requires that you make the time. Not just that it’s a good idea to have a regular routine of writing from seven to eight o’clock every day, but that you have to do so in order to focus your creative energy in one direction and keep your writing/story/characters moving.
The Positives of Goals
There’s a beauty to accomplishing a big task, especially when it comes to writing. Sure, deep down we all want to be recognized for our work, whether it’s by our friends, co-workers, family, or Matt Lauer. No matter the form of acknowledgement, we all want to see something come of the fruits of our labor. But what comes before this sparkling recognition and cheer? Work. Lots and lots of independent, isolated, secluded work.
Get Thee to a Library
I don’t know if you’ve been to the library lately or not, but if you haven’t, you better get your butt in gear and go. To be "well read" or even to isolate yourself into one genre, one of the best places to do this is in between the stacks of the library. Also, for anyone to be a “good” writer (good being a relative term) they have to be a “good” reader (good meaning to read at least a book or two a month). If you buy all of your books at full price in hardcover you’re looking at spending anywhere from $300 to $360 a year on books. This could be more if you read more than one book a month. This is equivalent to buying 120 lattes or doing something that is actually meaningful with that money.
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