I am feeling very drained today, if you couldn’t already tell from the lateness of this post.
But I do want to blog on a regular basis, and I don’t want to just post the scattered renants that used to be my thoughts before revision killed them all.
So. Lucky for me, some cool people did some awesome stuff with their blogs today, so allow me to direction your attention there, and ignore the revision-machete in my other hand.
This is Timothy Hallinan’s series of post of how to finish a novel. Before you phiffle that you’ve already finished a novel, I would take a look anyway. There is some useful stuff here.
Finishing Your Novel
Also, Kierstan White and some of her buddies posts their various writing processes. I found Kierstan’s especially amusing.
My Process
So there you go. You can haz links.
Back to the trenches!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
An Open Letter to My Muse
(Author’s note: My muse is a guy. I don’t know why, it’s just the way it is. *shrugs* And he’s much closer to Puck than Calliope, if you know what I mean.)
Dear Hammerstein,
I know we’ve had our differences in the past. You like to constantly flirt with my female author-friends, leaving me feeling like the third wheel. You always come up with good plot ideas for their stories, but hardly any for mine. If one of my writer friends asks for help coming with something, I have a thousand ideas immediately. If, however, I am trying to figure out how to make some element of my plot fit, it feels like I am cramming a square peg into a circular hole, while you stand on the sidelines chuckling.
To be fair, you do give me excellent character ideas. Yet I hardly have any ideas for the corresponding plot, which is problematic because characters need to DO something. I am the only one who is perfectly willing to read about my characters sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Is this how you get your kicks? Giving me a great character dynamic, but I’ll be darned if I can think of a proper plot to drop them in?
So I am writing this letter to you today to ask: What gives?
What have I ever done to you?
I feed you chocolate and cookies. Sometimes I stare at the computer screen, or lately, the printed pages in front of me, sure that chocolate will solve the problem. I read lots of books, about all kinds of cool subjects. I dutifully write down various bits of ideas, even though most of them are half baked at best, because of that one time you pulled two completely unrelated ideas together to make something really cool.
Those were good times. Now I am convinced that maybe someday you will combine two ideas again, so presently I have lots of little snippets in my idea folder.
I recently made a break through with my writing process thanks to your insight, so I know you’re still there. One of your favorite methods of idea delivery seems to be through my dreams, leading me to believe you must be Morpheus’s distant cousin (which is really cool, by the way), but this is problematic as well. Characters need to have some sort of purpose. I am all for cool scene ideas, really I am, but those scene have to exist within an entire book. I wish you would also enlighten me as to the context of the rest of the book those scenes go in. That would be really helpful.
I try to be a good author, I swear. I don’t just “wait for inspiration to strike”. I know you fired your last author because she was lax in her duties, and never showed up for your meetings. I try to have my butt in the chair at the same time everyday, and keep working through problems, even if the solution doesn’t immediately present itself.
I try to avoid those slutty new ideas too, that tempt me away from current works in progress. I drink lots of water and take my vitamins. I exercise regularly. I would drink milk, but I am lactose intolerant, so I save my dairy consumption for ice cream. You have already approved this.
So what gives? Is there someone else? Have you found another, younger author? I know I am not getting any younger, but I was hoping our relationship meant something more than just a pretty face to you. I had hoped all those moments of inspiration, coming to me like bolts of lightening, were your way of telling me you cared. Maybe I am just being naïve. Sometimes, when we meet up for brainstorming sessions, I could swear there’s another author’s font all over you. I can’t turn a blind eye anymore. I can’t pretend that I don’t notice that you’re out all night, always “working late”. I went to your house the other day, and your brother Ira was there with a heartbroken look on his face.
I just can’t do this anymore. The books are suffering because of it. It’s not me, it’s you. It’s time for us to part ways. I hope we can still be civil, but I am just too hurt right now to be friends. I’ll give all of your stuff to Ira; he’s been a better Muse to me than you ever have, and I’m not even his author. I am keeping the ideas we shared. We shouldn’t make them pay because we can’t get along anymore.
It’s time for me to move on.
Yours truly,
Elizabeth Poole
Dear Hammerstein,
I know we’ve had our differences in the past. You like to constantly flirt with my female author-friends, leaving me feeling like the third wheel. You always come up with good plot ideas for their stories, but hardly any for mine. If one of my writer friends asks for help coming with something, I have a thousand ideas immediately. If, however, I am trying to figure out how to make some element of my plot fit, it feels like I am cramming a square peg into a circular hole, while you stand on the sidelines chuckling. To be fair, you do give me excellent character ideas. Yet I hardly have any ideas for the corresponding plot, which is problematic because characters need to DO something. I am the only one who is perfectly willing to read about my characters sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Is this how you get your kicks? Giving me a great character dynamic, but I’ll be darned if I can think of a proper plot to drop them in?
So I am writing this letter to you today to ask: What gives?
What have I ever done to you?
I feed you chocolate and cookies. Sometimes I stare at the computer screen, or lately, the printed pages in front of me, sure that chocolate will solve the problem. I read lots of books, about all kinds of cool subjects. I dutifully write down various bits of ideas, even though most of them are half baked at best, because of that one time you pulled two completely unrelated ideas together to make something really cool.
Those were good times. Now I am convinced that maybe someday you will combine two ideas again, so presently I have lots of little snippets in my idea folder.
I recently made a break through with my writing process thanks to your insight, so I know you’re still there. One of your favorite methods of idea delivery seems to be through my dreams, leading me to believe you must be Morpheus’s distant cousin (which is really cool, by the way), but this is problematic as well. Characters need to have some sort of purpose. I am all for cool scene ideas, really I am, but those scene have to exist within an entire book. I wish you would also enlighten me as to the context of the rest of the book those scenes go in. That would be really helpful.
I try to be a good author, I swear. I don’t just “wait for inspiration to strike”. I know you fired your last author because she was lax in her duties, and never showed up for your meetings. I try to have my butt in the chair at the same time everyday, and keep working through problems, even if the solution doesn’t immediately present itself.
I try to avoid those slutty new ideas too, that tempt me away from current works in progress. I drink lots of water and take my vitamins. I exercise regularly. I would drink milk, but I am lactose intolerant, so I save my dairy consumption for ice cream. You have already approved this.
So what gives? Is there someone else? Have you found another, younger author? I know I am not getting any younger, but I was hoping our relationship meant something more than just a pretty face to you. I had hoped all those moments of inspiration, coming to me like bolts of lightening, were your way of telling me you cared. Maybe I am just being naïve. Sometimes, when we meet up for brainstorming sessions, I could swear there’s another author’s font all over you. I can’t turn a blind eye anymore. I can’t pretend that I don’t notice that you’re out all night, always “working late”. I went to your house the other day, and your brother Ira was there with a heartbroken look on his face.
I just can’t do this anymore. The books are suffering because of it. It’s not me, it’s you. It’s time for us to part ways. I hope we can still be civil, but I am just too hurt right now to be friends. I’ll give all of your stuff to Ira; he’s been a better Muse to me than you ever have, and I’m not even his author. I am keeping the ideas we shared. We shouldn’t make them pay because we can’t get along anymore.
It’s time for me to move on.
Yours truly,
Elizabeth Poole
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thoughtful Tuesday Post
Song Playing: Ain’t That a Kick in the Head by Dean Martin
Okay, sooo I was very busy the last two days doing wedding stuff. The good news is it’s all coming together nicely. The bad news is it’s taking up a lot of my free time. Despite this, I still managed to make some awesome progress with editing. Like 60 pages worth of progress between now and my last progress update. Go me! This might not sound like a lot of progress to you, but the process of editing I am using right now, that’s huge.
Basically, I am reading over my rough draft and looking for story problems, places where the worldbuilding fell apart, places where the character are acting out of character, and pieces that I love (so I don’t edit these out, throwing the baby out with the bath water). Every single page I read over I ask myself these questions. When I encounter a problem, I mark it with a special number and letter code that references a specific worksheet, one worksheet for each type of problem, and write the issue on the worksheet. This gives me the space to write something really long if I need to, and allows me to come back to the same rough draft and edit it more, without it getting too complicated.
So as you might figure, this is very time consuming. I am averaging one or two edits per page for places where I need to tighten up the story, or the character isn’t acting in a believable fashion. This book in particular is very green, so I have a long slog ahead of me. But it’s going to be worth it, because I love this story.
Today I wanted to throw my two cents into a hotly debated topic.
Nathan Bransford posted a question last week: “Does the Query System Work?”
The comments section quickly became rabid sea of people taking sides and wailing about the failings of the publishing industry in general and agents in particular.
The summation of the thoughts was this:
*Signed authors/readers said: “Yes it does, because that’s how I got my agent/because there are books in the store I want to read.”
Personally, I think this is faulty logic. Just because it worked for you, doesn’t mean it’s working for other people.
*People complained the system doesn’t work and that it was “luck” and “being in the right place at the right time”.
I agree with this notion, but…it also seems pointless to complain about it.
Note there’s a difference between commiserating and complaining. We will all commiserate about failed queries at some point in time. But most of us won’t go on angry tirades the minute the word “query” is mentioned.
A LOT of things in life run on either luck or fate, depending on your beliefs. If you’re not fated to get your book published until Agent X sees your query on Day 12 and a bolt of lightening strikes them down, then what’s the use bellyaching about it in the meantime? If you have to get lucky in order to make the same thing happen, why not accept it and move on?
Conversely, I also believe you make you own luck. Sure, there’s a element of chance and connecting with the right agent, but if you keep going, if you keep summiting your queries and improving your craft, and writing books, and taking classes, and doing everything you can to be the best writer you can be, you increase your chances of “getting lucky” and meeting the guy who introduced you to your future agent. Or hearing about the right agency to submit to.
*People complained that writing a query was hard, and they wasted a lot time of finding the criteria to properly compose the query and then the right agent to publish their work.
I do agree we spend loads of time finding the right agent, crafting the perfect query, only to get rejected. I agree this is hard, and we have better things to do with our time. But I also think that this is the model we’re working with at the moment, and just because something is HARD doesn’t mean it’s not working. I think the bit that comes after the query letter is up for more discussion than the letter itself.
The problem here is define “work”. I am not trying to argue semantics, but making a point.
On one hand, yes, the query system works in the sense that agents are signing writers, and books are being published.
On the other hand, there are (presumably) awesome writers not getting their books looked at because they failed to write a query that caught people’s eye. I am going to bypass the complaint that writing queries is “hard”. Writing a book is hard. Writing a query IS hard, it’s like writing a haiku in blood with your big toe. But I don’t think just because something is hard (read: extra work) doesn’t mean the entire system in general doesn’t work.
The real issue is there is we will NEVER have a way to properly quantify the query system, because there’s no way to track the queries that didn’t make it. Sure, we hear stories of authors receiving a trillion rejections (a trillion!) before finding an agent, but there’s also the assumption that during this period of rejection, the writer was getting better. Growing and learning the craft of writing and stuff. You can’t say for sure if this writer should have been published years ago, and therefore the query system failed, or if the writer was published exactly when he was technically good enough to snag an agent.
The main problem I have with a query letter is I don’t feel like it properly conveys someone’s skill as a writer. I mean, it does to a point, but I could hire someone to write my query letter. Also, with the Internet and forums, query letters are becoming more and more polished, and therefore, less indicative of the actual writing prowess of the writer.
BUT
It’s not feasible for an agent to read 5 pages each of the hundreds of people that submit to them, even though this gives the agent a better idea of the quality of writing and the style of the novel. We screen books this way at the bookstore. Read the first couple paragraphs. If you’re hooked, then you request a full manuscript. If it’s poorly written or boring, pass.
This is where I think your query letter could come into play. I think query letters should be a stepping stone, and agents should use query letters to screen out the weirdos and the people who don’t know how to write in basic English (or whatever language their country speaks). Less “make or break it” on the query letter, and more on the first five pages you send them. I would also say standardize the query letter guidelines would streamline everything more efficiently, but then again, I can only assume that different agencies have different guidelines for reasons unknown to us peons.
Overall, do I personally think the query letter system is working? No. I don’t. I don’t understand how some books are even published, books that break all the rules and defy all conventions. And by “break the rules” I don’t mean are avant garde a la Cormac McCarthy. I mean, I was writing better in high school. I am not saying that to be mean, but out of honest confusion.
I think there must be a better way for agents to find writers who not only write good books, and have good ideas, but are willing to work with the system. Who want to make writing their career. Nothing against the hobby novelists, either. To each his own, but I know agents want to find writers who aren’t just good at spinning a tale, but are also a good match. I think the agent-writer relationship could be a wonderful partnership, and there could be system with less trial and error. You hear about writers who find agents who want to “nit pick everything I do” and conversely, agents who “never call me back.” Some writers want a partner in the publishing business who will listen to their woes, but other writers just want someone they can chuck their next masterpiece at and go back to writing.
Guess what? Agents are the same way. Agents want writers who not only write book they can sell, but they want a write that is a good match for their work style. Some agents don’t want to have to hold an author hand while they have their eleventh meltdown. Some agents prefer to have a more formal, business relationship with their authors. Other agents want a personal connection with their clients, who want to find a writer who matches their drive and ambition, and will build a career with them.
Now, what else does this sound like…
Dating! This sounds exactly like dating.
And guess what? There are dating websites out there.
What I really think would be cool if there was some sort of dating type website for authors and agents. That both sides—agents and authors—could make a profile. Genre, interests, projects, credits, etc. Agents would make a profile that reflects what genres they represent, and writers make a profile selected the genre they write in. Both profiles could link back to your website and blog. This would weed out people who submit to the wrong agent based on genre alone, saving both writers and agents time.
When a writer has a finished project, they could post a letter, sort of like a query letter, that states the basics of their book, like plot, word count and genre, and agents could search these letters for books that sound interesting. The time agents spend answering queries now could be spent looking through this data base (or bases).
Conversely, writers could also contact agents with finished projects, but now it’s a two way street. Agents could connect us when we write something that sound like something they would want to represent, and vice versa.
There could be forums were people post writing questions, and agents woes, and it could streamline the entire process for both writers and agents.
Agents have complained/mentioned recently that they are swamped with queries. I know agents don’t want to close themselves to submissions, just to catch up. This seems counterintuitive to their objective to get more clients.
Writers spend a lot of time looking up information on agents and publishing companies, and crafting the perfect query for each person. What if it was all in one place?
It wouldn’t solve ALL of the problems, of course. You would still get rejected, you would still not always connect with the agent you had your eye on, but it seems like it could cut out the middle man and get right down to the heart of the agent-author relationship: Do you want my book? Did you write a book I would want to represent?
I want to storm the publishing gates now, but there are no gates to storm. *sigh*
So clearly what I am talking about is just an idea. Do you think this would work? Am I missing something obvious?
It’s a day for pie-in-the-sky dreams anyway.
Nathan Bransford is following up with his question by holding a little contest to be an agent for a day. He’s going to post query letters and you can vote on which letter you would ask for a partial from. It should be interesting experiment to say the least.
Okay, sooo I was very busy the last two days doing wedding stuff. The good news is it’s all coming together nicely. The bad news is it’s taking up a lot of my free time. Despite this, I still managed to make some awesome progress with editing. Like 60 pages worth of progress between now and my last progress update. Go me! This might not sound like a lot of progress to you, but the process of editing I am using right now, that’s huge.
Basically, I am reading over my rough draft and looking for story problems, places where the worldbuilding fell apart, places where the character are acting out of character, and pieces that I love (so I don’t edit these out, throwing the baby out with the bath water). Every single page I read over I ask myself these questions. When I encounter a problem, I mark it with a special number and letter code that references a specific worksheet, one worksheet for each type of problem, and write the issue on the worksheet. This gives me the space to write something really long if I need to, and allows me to come back to the same rough draft and edit it more, without it getting too complicated.
So as you might figure, this is very time consuming. I am averaging one or two edits per page for places where I need to tighten up the story, or the character isn’t acting in a believable fashion. This book in particular is very green, so I have a long slog ahead of me. But it’s going to be worth it, because I love this story.
Today I wanted to throw my two cents into a hotly debated topic.
Nathan Bransford posted a question last week: “Does the Query System Work?”
The comments section quickly became rabid sea of people taking sides and wailing about the failings of the publishing industry in general and agents in particular.
The summation of the thoughts was this:
*Signed authors/readers said: “Yes it does, because that’s how I got my agent/because there are books in the store I want to read.”
Personally, I think this is faulty logic. Just because it worked for you, doesn’t mean it’s working for other people.
*People complained the system doesn’t work and that it was “luck” and “being in the right place at the right time”.
I agree with this notion, but…it also seems pointless to complain about it.
Note there’s a difference between commiserating and complaining. We will all commiserate about failed queries at some point in time. But most of us won’t go on angry tirades the minute the word “query” is mentioned.
A LOT of things in life run on either luck or fate, depending on your beliefs. If you’re not fated to get your book published until Agent X sees your query on Day 12 and a bolt of lightening strikes them down, then what’s the use bellyaching about it in the meantime? If you have to get lucky in order to make the same thing happen, why not accept it and move on?
Conversely, I also believe you make you own luck. Sure, there’s a element of chance and connecting with the right agent, but if you keep going, if you keep summiting your queries and improving your craft, and writing books, and taking classes, and doing everything you can to be the best writer you can be, you increase your chances of “getting lucky” and meeting the guy who introduced you to your future agent. Or hearing about the right agency to submit to.
*People complained that writing a query was hard, and they wasted a lot time of finding the criteria to properly compose the query and then the right agent to publish their work.
I do agree we spend loads of time finding the right agent, crafting the perfect query, only to get rejected. I agree this is hard, and we have better things to do with our time. But I also think that this is the model we’re working with at the moment, and just because something is HARD doesn’t mean it’s not working. I think the bit that comes after the query letter is up for more discussion than the letter itself.
The problem here is define “work”. I am not trying to argue semantics, but making a point.
On one hand, yes, the query system works in the sense that agents are signing writers, and books are being published.
On the other hand, there are (presumably) awesome writers not getting their books looked at because they failed to write a query that caught people’s eye. I am going to bypass the complaint that writing queries is “hard”. Writing a book is hard. Writing a query IS hard, it’s like writing a haiku in blood with your big toe. But I don’t think just because something is hard (read: extra work) doesn’t mean the entire system in general doesn’t work.
The real issue is there is we will NEVER have a way to properly quantify the query system, because there’s no way to track the queries that didn’t make it. Sure, we hear stories of authors receiving a trillion rejections (a trillion!) before finding an agent, but there’s also the assumption that during this period of rejection, the writer was getting better. Growing and learning the craft of writing and stuff. You can’t say for sure if this writer should have been published years ago, and therefore the query system failed, or if the writer was published exactly when he was technically good enough to snag an agent.
The main problem I have with a query letter is I don’t feel like it properly conveys someone’s skill as a writer. I mean, it does to a point, but I could hire someone to write my query letter. Also, with the Internet and forums, query letters are becoming more and more polished, and therefore, less indicative of the actual writing prowess of the writer.
BUT
It’s not feasible for an agent to read 5 pages each of the hundreds of people that submit to them, even though this gives the agent a better idea of the quality of writing and the style of the novel. We screen books this way at the bookstore. Read the first couple paragraphs. If you’re hooked, then you request a full manuscript. If it’s poorly written or boring, pass.
This is where I think your query letter could come into play. I think query letters should be a stepping stone, and agents should use query letters to screen out the weirdos and the people who don’t know how to write in basic English (or whatever language their country speaks). Less “make or break it” on the query letter, and more on the first five pages you send them. I would also say standardize the query letter guidelines would streamline everything more efficiently, but then again, I can only assume that different agencies have different guidelines for reasons unknown to us peons.
Overall, do I personally think the query letter system is working? No. I don’t. I don’t understand how some books are even published, books that break all the rules and defy all conventions. And by “break the rules” I don’t mean are avant garde a la Cormac McCarthy. I mean, I was writing better in high school. I am not saying that to be mean, but out of honest confusion.
I think there must be a better way for agents to find writers who not only write good books, and have good ideas, but are willing to work with the system. Who want to make writing their career. Nothing against the hobby novelists, either. To each his own, but I know agents want to find writers who aren’t just good at spinning a tale, but are also a good match. I think the agent-writer relationship could be a wonderful partnership, and there could be system with less trial and error. You hear about writers who find agents who want to “nit pick everything I do” and conversely, agents who “never call me back.” Some writers want a partner in the publishing business who will listen to their woes, but other writers just want someone they can chuck their next masterpiece at and go back to writing.
Guess what? Agents are the same way. Agents want writers who not only write book they can sell, but they want a write that is a good match for their work style. Some agents don’t want to have to hold an author hand while they have their eleventh meltdown. Some agents prefer to have a more formal, business relationship with their authors. Other agents want a personal connection with their clients, who want to find a writer who matches their drive and ambition, and will build a career with them.
Now, what else does this sound like…
Dating! This sounds exactly like dating.
And guess what? There are dating websites out there.
What I really think would be cool if there was some sort of dating type website for authors and agents. That both sides—agents and authors—could make a profile. Genre, interests, projects, credits, etc. Agents would make a profile that reflects what genres they represent, and writers make a profile selected the genre they write in. Both profiles could link back to your website and blog. This would weed out people who submit to the wrong agent based on genre alone, saving both writers and agents time.
When a writer has a finished project, they could post a letter, sort of like a query letter, that states the basics of their book, like plot, word count and genre, and agents could search these letters for books that sound interesting. The time agents spend answering queries now could be spent looking through this data base (or bases).
Conversely, writers could also contact agents with finished projects, but now it’s a two way street. Agents could connect us when we write something that sound like something they would want to represent, and vice versa.
There could be forums were people post writing questions, and agents woes, and it could streamline the entire process for both writers and agents.
Agents have complained/mentioned recently that they are swamped with queries. I know agents don’t want to close themselves to submissions, just to catch up. This seems counterintuitive to their objective to get more clients.
Writers spend a lot of time looking up information on agents and publishing companies, and crafting the perfect query for each person. What if it was all in one place?
It wouldn’t solve ALL of the problems, of course. You would still get rejected, you would still not always connect with the agent you had your eye on, but it seems like it could cut out the middle man and get right down to the heart of the agent-author relationship: Do you want my book? Did you write a book I would want to represent?
I want to storm the publishing gates now, but there are no gates to storm. *sigh*
So clearly what I am talking about is just an idea. Do you think this would work? Am I missing something obvious?
It’s a day for pie-in-the-sky dreams anyway.
Nathan Bransford is following up with his question by holding a little contest to be an agent for a day. He’s going to post query letters and you can vote on which letter you would ask for a partial from. It should be interesting experiment to say the least.
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Exploratory Draft
Quote: “Me, I have recently taken to calling that first flawed, juicy, wild draft the “exploratory draft.” It sounds so much more exciting than “first draft.” It sounds fearless, like you’re stepping into an unknown territory with a knife strapped to your thigh, or like you’re sailing around an uncharted island, looking for a place to drop anchor so you can dive in and swim ashore. And it IS kind of like that, because in your early days with your idea, no matter how well you think you know it from your daydreaming, brainstorming, and outlining, you can’t really know it until you’re IN it.
You have to find the story -- and that’s what exploratory drafts are for: exploring the unmapped lands of your idea and mapping them.”
~Laini Taylor
Song Playing: Welcome to the Jungle Guns and Roses
I am reporting deep in the editing trenches, machete in one hand and a pen in the other. I read a really great post about Plot by Laini Taylor, which in turn lead me to her post on Revision. Right now I am reading everything I can on revision, if only to give me more ideas on doing so. I find it’s an efficient way to motivate me, because whenever I read a technique on revision, it makes me want to try it. And what do you know, I have this fresh First Draft, just waiting to be revised.
The best idea I gleaned from Laini’s post on revision is she calls her first drafts “exploratory drafts”. This is an awesome idea. It really encapsulates how I am trying to view this draft. Not as this concrete thing made of stone, where I can only chisel a bit here, and smooth out a rough edge there, but a wild romp of an idea that I took for a test drive. Sure, I crashed into numerous mailboxes with this manuscript, but don’t we all?
It’s better to look at what you have and think: How can this be better? How can I make this character more interesting? Instead of just tinkering around with the sentence structure, all the while wondering why your writing feels flat.
Why settle for good enough? Why settle for “well, that’s the way I wrote it, so that’s the way it stays.” Trust me, I know. You’re thinking, “Nooo! I thought I was done with the writing part!” But what’s the rush? Especially for those of us not published, and not working with contracts and deadlines, you literally have all the time you need to make this the best story it can be. When you’re editing, you need to make sure to clean under the couch and underneath the sink too, not just dust for loose modifiers, and throw away purple prose.
The important thing is to reimage things for THIS story. You’re not making a monument to every idea that you’ve ever had, but you are making a monument to this idea. Sometimes you haven’t figured out what that idea is until AFTER you’ve written the first draft. That’s okay. That’s how a lot of writers work, if the blogs I read are any indication. It’s how this book turned out. As I revise and work my way through the scenes, I think of a better way to introduce the character, reimage ways to get the character from Plot Point A to Plot Point B, and come up with ways to tie subplots together.
I am not saying you should utterly change everything about your first draft (unless you need to), but I do think it’s in your better interest—and the book’s—if you allow yourself to be open to change. Even though the first draft feels very concrete, that’s a lie. It’s not concrete. You wrote everything exactly the way it is, and you can also change everything about chapter 12, or delete that chapter all together, if that’s what you need to do in order to make it the best book it can be.
Notice how I am saying “the best book it can be”. There’s always some amount of growth when you finish a book. I am a better writer now than I was six months ago, and I am definitely a better writer now than I was when I wrote the book. The idea isn’t to shelf this book, and write another, but to use what I have learned to make this book better.
Which brings me to my next point. Writers want to know when they should stop revising. Some people get stuck in this revision cycle for years, telling you proudly that they’ve been revising their masterpiece for 12 years.
Maybe you need 12 years to revise a certain book. I recently read an amazing book that took the author 7 years to write. I can bet you though she wasn’t working on that book nonstop for 7 years. She probably nurtured and prodded the book off and on over the year while doing other things.
Some people can revise a book in two weeks, and it comes out of the end of her gauntlet-like revision process as a publishable work. Personally, I would pay money to witness this bloody process in action, forget gladiator fights. Two week complete revision? Ouch!
However long it takes you, you should be improving the book. That’s the key. You should be able to see the progress between draft 2 and draft 3. Or 1 to 2, or whatever draft you are on. If the book isn’t moving forward, if you’re just dinking around with a word here and there, you’re procrastinating and it’s time to kick the book out the door to sink or swim.
What about you? How do you view your first draft? As one big experiment or something more solid? When do you know you’re done revising?
You have to find the story -- and that’s what exploratory drafts are for: exploring the unmapped lands of your idea and mapping them.”
~Laini Taylor
Song Playing: Welcome to the Jungle Guns and Roses
I am reporting deep in the editing trenches, machete in one hand and a pen in the other. I read a really great post about Plot by Laini Taylor, which in turn lead me to her post on Revision. Right now I am reading everything I can on revision, if only to give me more ideas on doing so. I find it’s an efficient way to motivate me, because whenever I read a technique on revision, it makes me want to try it. And what do you know, I have this fresh First Draft, just waiting to be revised.
The best idea I gleaned from Laini’s post on revision is she calls her first drafts “exploratory drafts”. This is an awesome idea. It really encapsulates how I am trying to view this draft. Not as this concrete thing made of stone, where I can only chisel a bit here, and smooth out a rough edge there, but a wild romp of an idea that I took for a test drive. Sure, I crashed into numerous mailboxes with this manuscript, but don’t we all?
It’s better to look at what you have and think: How can this be better? How can I make this character more interesting? Instead of just tinkering around with the sentence structure, all the while wondering why your writing feels flat.
Why settle for good enough? Why settle for “well, that’s the way I wrote it, so that’s the way it stays.” Trust me, I know. You’re thinking, “Nooo! I thought I was done with the writing part!” But what’s the rush? Especially for those of us not published, and not working with contracts and deadlines, you literally have all the time you need to make this the best story it can be. When you’re editing, you need to make sure to clean under the couch and underneath the sink too, not just dust for loose modifiers, and throw away purple prose.
The important thing is to reimage things for THIS story. You’re not making a monument to every idea that you’ve ever had, but you are making a monument to this idea. Sometimes you haven’t figured out what that idea is until AFTER you’ve written the first draft. That’s okay. That’s how a lot of writers work, if the blogs I read are any indication. It’s how this book turned out. As I revise and work my way through the scenes, I think of a better way to introduce the character, reimage ways to get the character from Plot Point A to Plot Point B, and come up with ways to tie subplots together.
I am not saying you should utterly change everything about your first draft (unless you need to), but I do think it’s in your better interest—and the book’s—if you allow yourself to be open to change. Even though the first draft feels very concrete, that’s a lie. It’s not concrete. You wrote everything exactly the way it is, and you can also change everything about chapter 12, or delete that chapter all together, if that’s what you need to do in order to make it the best book it can be.
Notice how I am saying “the best book it can be”. There’s always some amount of growth when you finish a book. I am a better writer now than I was six months ago, and I am definitely a better writer now than I was when I wrote the book. The idea isn’t to shelf this book, and write another, but to use what I have learned to make this book better.
Which brings me to my next point. Writers want to know when they should stop revising. Some people get stuck in this revision cycle for years, telling you proudly that they’ve been revising their masterpiece for 12 years.
Maybe you need 12 years to revise a certain book. I recently read an amazing book that took the author 7 years to write. I can bet you though she wasn’t working on that book nonstop for 7 years. She probably nurtured and prodded the book off and on over the year while doing other things.
Some people can revise a book in two weeks, and it comes out of the end of her gauntlet-like revision process as a publishable work. Personally, I would pay money to witness this bloody process in action, forget gladiator fights. Two week complete revision? Ouch!
However long it takes you, you should be improving the book. That’s the key. You should be able to see the progress between draft 2 and draft 3. Or 1 to 2, or whatever draft you are on. If the book isn’t moving forward, if you’re just dinking around with a word here and there, you’re procrastinating and it’s time to kick the book out the door to sink or swim.
What about you? How do you view your first draft? As one big experiment or something more solid? When do you know you’re done revising?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Ultimate Quest
Song Playing: Holy Diver by Dio
***Warning: Extreme dorkyness ahead***
Yesterday I embarked on a noble quest. This is a quest I think we writers all take at least once in our career. This quest gripped me throughout most of the day. It started innocently enough. I was working on my laptop, which has an older version of MS Word than my desktop. Some of my favorite fonts are not on it, as a result. So I thought I would download them.
Any of you who have been on this quest before…well, you know what happened next…
I typed “free font downloads” and hours later, I emerged with fourteen new fonts. I did not find a free download of Georgia, or Book Antiqua, or Gill Sans, or Century, like I was looking for (I assume now that you can’t download them for free, after some thought about copyrights and such). Instead, I found other fonts to fill the void that Georgia and Century had left. Cool fonts. One of my new ideas is about an exorcist’s apprentice, and I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if I have a gothic-looking font for this project?”
I have several gothic-looking fonts now, but the problem is most of them are not going to be easy to write a novel with. I could use some as headers, but they aren’t good for writing long documents, like books. Some of them are really busy, some are super teeny-tiny (seriously, font-designers, what’s up with squishing words together? Don’t you know how hard that is to read? Especially after hours of staring at the computer screen?), some of them look like they are in all caps, and some of them are so dark they look like someone made them with the “bold” button on. It’s hard to see how a font is going to work out with just a sample sentence, which is why I wound up with so many fonts and so few actual contenders for the Gothic Font of Choice.
I have three qualities that I look for in fonts that I write a book in:
*Medium sized. I can’t stand those teeny fonts or the really big ones that fit roughly two words per page.
*Clean. They need to be clean to look at. If the font is too busy or distracting, I see the words on the screen in front of me, and have a harder time getting into the “zone” to write. Fonts guilty of being too busy for my taste include: Bradley Hand, Castellar, Copperplate Gothic, and Curlz MT. Calisto MT is borderline for me. Sometimes I think it’s just over the line of being too busy and cutesy, and sometimes I think it can come and play with it’s big brother Georgia.
*Pretty to look at. This is subjective, of course, but I want it to have some decoration without it being too distracting. Too many curly-cues and flair to the letters and I look at the words (I am looking at you, Bradley Hand. I think most writers had that thought, “Hey, I am a writer, but I am using a computer. Why not use Bradley Hand? It’s like handwriting on the computer!”…two minutes later, you get annoyed with how the words look and you stumble across trusty old Verdana, or perhaps Book Antiqua and never look back). I fell in love with Book Antiqua first, and now I am stuck in a Georgia phase. I also like to use Century, Palatino Linotype and Bookman Old Style.
I tried Century Gothic to fill my gothic font needs, but it’s a little plain. Century Gothic looks more like a font I would edit in, not write with. Franklin Gothic Book is nice, but again with the too small and squished together problem. I thought about Constantia, though this one might be too dark, I haven’t decided yet. Bookman Old Style is nice, and a contender for the prize.
Despite the fonts I downloaded, I am not sure if I have found the perfect font yet. Some of the pretty fonts I downloaded (I am not going to link back to where I downloaded them. I am not a 100% sure you won’t get a virus (although I did check the website before I downloaded anything), and then come and blame me. So just Google them if you want to look at them):
*Daybreaker: This looks like it’s all in bold, but it’s relatively clean to read. It has an almost faded look to it in 12pt, but I would have to make the size larger if I wanted to write a book with it. It looks like a vampire wrote it, that’s the best way I can describe it.
*SF Gothican: This one is on the small side as well, but very clean to read, and about as dark as Georgia is, which is my preference. It’s downfall is it’s a little busy. It almost looks like script in 12 pt. I am still considering this one.
*Gothikka: This font is similar to Gothican, but it’s a little cleaner to read. It’s just as small as Gothican though, so I would have to write with it in larger size than 12pt, which is really annoying. It’s on the borderline of whether I think it too busy or not.
*Lombardic: this font looks like medieval lettering. It’s medium intensity, but the letters are too busy to write a book with. It’s a contender for my title page though.
*Letter Gothic: I might use this one, or at least to edit with it. It’s very clean, but the spacing is sparse. It’s like a prettier version of Courier, for those of you who thought “Man, I wish Courier was just a bit prettier, but still looked like a typewriter made it.”
Because face it, Courier is a little plain.
*Elphinstone: I love this font. It had a cool name, it’s clean, decorative without being too busy. My main complaint is the tails to the letters don’t drop down all the way, so it can be a little confusing, and once again, it’s small to read in 12 pt. It’s also reads more like script and less like typing, so that could be good or bad. Overall, a great font.
The next three fonts aren’t gothic-looking, but I downloaded them because they were pretty.
*GF Halda Normal: this font is on the darker side, and looks like handwriting, but with very sparse spacing and lettering. If Lucida Handwriting and Courier had a love child, Halda Normal would be it. I am not sure if I would use this to write a book though, because it’s looks so much like handwriting, I am not sure if I would be distracted or not. We shall see.
*Hansa: this font is clean and resembles handwriting as well. If Lucida Handwriting cheated on Courier to have a love child with Papyrus, this is the font they would have. This is like a nicer, more respectable version of Papyrus.
*Swansea: this is a really nice font. It’s pretty and clean, similar to Century, but a little darker. I will definitely use this one in the future.
So my quest for the perfect font to write my new book in is still ongoing, which is fine since I have editing to do anyways. At the moment I am considering: Century Gothic, Letter Gothic, Gothikka, Bookman Old Style, and Franklin Gothic Book.
Now that I have spent an entire post taking about fonts, I would like to know if I am the only one who is this particular about fonts? Do you deliberate between fonts before starting a new project, or do you just use the same one until you get sick of it? Are there some favorite fonts I haven’t mentioned? Any suggestions for me?
***Warning: Extreme dorkyness ahead***
Yesterday I embarked on a noble quest. This is a quest I think we writers all take at least once in our career. This quest gripped me throughout most of the day. It started innocently enough. I was working on my laptop, which has an older version of MS Word than my desktop. Some of my favorite fonts are not on it, as a result. So I thought I would download them.
Any of you who have been on this quest before…well, you know what happened next…
I typed “free font downloads” and hours later, I emerged with fourteen new fonts. I did not find a free download of Georgia, or Book Antiqua, or Gill Sans, or Century, like I was looking for (I assume now that you can’t download them for free, after some thought about copyrights and such). Instead, I found other fonts to fill the void that Georgia and Century had left. Cool fonts. One of my new ideas is about an exorcist’s apprentice, and I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if I have a gothic-looking font for this project?”
I have several gothic-looking fonts now, but the problem is most of them are not going to be easy to write a novel with. I could use some as headers, but they aren’t good for writing long documents, like books. Some of them are really busy, some are super teeny-tiny (seriously, font-designers, what’s up with squishing words together? Don’t you know how hard that is to read? Especially after hours of staring at the computer screen?), some of them look like they are in all caps, and some of them are so dark they look like someone made them with the “bold” button on. It’s hard to see how a font is going to work out with just a sample sentence, which is why I wound up with so many fonts and so few actual contenders for the Gothic Font of Choice.
I have three qualities that I look for in fonts that I write a book in:
*Medium sized. I can’t stand those teeny fonts or the really big ones that fit roughly two words per page.
*Clean. They need to be clean to look at. If the font is too busy or distracting, I see the words on the screen in front of me, and have a harder time getting into the “zone” to write. Fonts guilty of being too busy for my taste include: Bradley Hand, Castellar, Copperplate Gothic, and Curlz MT. Calisto MT is borderline for me. Sometimes I think it’s just over the line of being too busy and cutesy, and sometimes I think it can come and play with it’s big brother Georgia.
*Pretty to look at. This is subjective, of course, but I want it to have some decoration without it being too distracting. Too many curly-cues and flair to the letters and I look at the words (I am looking at you, Bradley Hand. I think most writers had that thought, “Hey, I am a writer, but I am using a computer. Why not use Bradley Hand? It’s like handwriting on the computer!”…two minutes later, you get annoyed with how the words look and you stumble across trusty old Verdana, or perhaps Book Antiqua and never look back). I fell in love with Book Antiqua first, and now I am stuck in a Georgia phase. I also like to use Century, Palatino Linotype and Bookman Old Style.
I tried Century Gothic to fill my gothic font needs, but it’s a little plain. Century Gothic looks more like a font I would edit in, not write with. Franklin Gothic Book is nice, but again with the too small and squished together problem. I thought about Constantia, though this one might be too dark, I haven’t decided yet. Bookman Old Style is nice, and a contender for the prize.
Despite the fonts I downloaded, I am not sure if I have found the perfect font yet. Some of the pretty fonts I downloaded (I am not going to link back to where I downloaded them. I am not a 100% sure you won’t get a virus (although I did check the website before I downloaded anything), and then come and blame me. So just Google them if you want to look at them):
*Daybreaker: This looks like it’s all in bold, but it’s relatively clean to read. It has an almost faded look to it in 12pt, but I would have to make the size larger if I wanted to write a book with it. It looks like a vampire wrote it, that’s the best way I can describe it.
*SF Gothican: This one is on the small side as well, but very clean to read, and about as dark as Georgia is, which is my preference. It’s downfall is it’s a little busy. It almost looks like script in 12 pt. I am still considering this one.
*Gothikka: This font is similar to Gothican, but it’s a little cleaner to read. It’s just as small as Gothican though, so I would have to write with it in larger size than 12pt, which is really annoying. It’s on the borderline of whether I think it too busy or not.
*Lombardic: this font looks like medieval lettering. It’s medium intensity, but the letters are too busy to write a book with. It’s a contender for my title page though.
*Letter Gothic: I might use this one, or at least to edit with it. It’s very clean, but the spacing is sparse. It’s like a prettier version of Courier, for those of you who thought “Man, I wish Courier was just a bit prettier, but still looked like a typewriter made it.”
Because face it, Courier is a little plain.*Elphinstone: I love this font. It had a cool name, it’s clean, decorative without being too busy. My main complaint is the tails to the letters don’t drop down all the way, so it can be a little confusing, and once again, it’s small to read in 12 pt. It’s also reads more like script and less like typing, so that could be good or bad. Overall, a great font.
The next three fonts aren’t gothic-looking, but I downloaded them because they were pretty.
*GF Halda Normal: this font is on the darker side, and looks like handwriting, but with very sparse spacing and lettering. If Lucida Handwriting and Courier had a love child, Halda Normal would be it. I am not sure if I would use this to write a book though, because it’s looks so much like handwriting, I am not sure if I would be distracted or not. We shall see.
*Hansa: this font is clean and resembles handwriting as well. If Lucida Handwriting cheated on Courier to have a love child with Papyrus, this is the font they would have. This is like a nicer, more respectable version of Papyrus.
*Swansea: this is a really nice font. It’s pretty and clean, similar to Century, but a little darker. I will definitely use this one in the future.
So my quest for the perfect font to write my new book in is still ongoing, which is fine since I have editing to do anyways. At the moment I am considering: Century Gothic, Letter Gothic, Gothikka, Bookman Old Style, and Franklin Gothic Book.
Now that I have spent an entire post taking about fonts, I would like to know if I am the only one who is this particular about fonts? Do you deliberate between fonts before starting a new project, or do you just use the same one until you get sick of it? Are there some favorite fonts I haven’t mentioned? Any suggestions for me?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A Character's Network
Quote: “Sometimes the relationship that your character has with other people around him will be important to the story, but often they’ll be there merely to give a sense that he has a full life, or to add an occasional comic touch. No matter how you use these mini-relationships in your story, though, the main benefit is that your character won’t seem to be puppets, alive only when they’re on stage and someone is pulling the strings.”
--Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Song Playing: Mad World by Gary Jules
Progress Report: Editing is going well. Slowly, but I am marching ever onward. Inevitably, like time and twinkies.
Today we’re going to talk (or post) about a character’s network. Not who they get their Internet from, or their marketing strategy, but who they hang out with.
You interact with all sorts of people every day. At work, at home, at the store…these are places that your character will come into contact with all sorts of people. Weird people, stuck up people, old people. Young bratty kids with sticky fingers, punk teenagers wearing too much make up and listening to loud music, mothers with harassed looks on their faces and a pack of kids. Guys in three-piece business suits glued to their cellphones, twenty somethings holding hands with thirty somethings, and little old ladies with blue hair. You get the picture.
These are the people—and more—your character will hang out with. And not everyone acts the same way around each group of people. How your character interacts with these people help show their personality. We’ve all heard the adage of how a person acts alone says a lot about them. How your character acts when he’s around another group of people also says a lot about them. And not just in the obvious way of he kicks helpless puppies when people aren’t around, or helps little old ladies cross the street. Does the store owner know your character’s name as she walks in the door? Does said store manager greet your character with a smile or with a frown? Even something as small as that can clue your readers into what sort of person your character is.
These outside interactions can also complicate the story and add a touch of realism. If your character is a jerk to all of those around him, and starts running from the cops, he might slip into his corner grocery store. All of that lip he gave the store owner might come back and bit him in the butt when the store owner throws him back on the street just in time for the cops to catch him.
I like to separate who my character comes into contact with into groups. Their family is an obvious group, as are friends, co-workers, and daily interaction. Daily interaction qualifies as the people they see on the street on the way to the store, at the store, while clothing shopping, while eating…you get the point.
After I develop some personality traits, I like to figure out how they interact with other people close to them. Take a Type A personality type, a corporate mogul kinda guy who has to be in control all the time. What do you think is going to happen when this guy sees his father? Would he show deferment and respect to his old man? Or would he be overbearing even to his father? Both reactions would say something about his character, and be interesting.
So the next time you think about characters, don’t forget to look further than just inside their personality for clues to who they are.
--Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Song Playing: Mad World by Gary Jules
Progress Report: Editing is going well. Slowly, but I am marching ever onward. Inevitably, like time and twinkies.
Today we’re going to talk (or post) about a character’s network. Not who they get their Internet from, or their marketing strategy, but who they hang out with.
You interact with all sorts of people every day. At work, at home, at the store…these are places that your character will come into contact with all sorts of people. Weird people, stuck up people, old people. Young bratty kids with sticky fingers, punk teenagers wearing too much make up and listening to loud music, mothers with harassed looks on their faces and a pack of kids. Guys in three-piece business suits glued to their cellphones, twenty somethings holding hands with thirty somethings, and little old ladies with blue hair. You get the picture.
These are the people—and more—your character will hang out with. And not everyone acts the same way around each group of people. How your character interacts with these people help show their personality. We’ve all heard the adage of how a person acts alone says a lot about them. How your character acts when he’s around another group of people also says a lot about them. And not just in the obvious way of he kicks helpless puppies when people aren’t around, or helps little old ladies cross the street. Does the store owner know your character’s name as she walks in the door? Does said store manager greet your character with a smile or with a frown? Even something as small as that can clue your readers into what sort of person your character is.
These outside interactions can also complicate the story and add a touch of realism. If your character is a jerk to all of those around him, and starts running from the cops, he might slip into his corner grocery store. All of that lip he gave the store owner might come back and bit him in the butt when the store owner throws him back on the street just in time for the cops to catch him.
I like to separate who my character comes into contact with into groups. Their family is an obvious group, as are friends, co-workers, and daily interaction. Daily interaction qualifies as the people they see on the street on the way to the store, at the store, while clothing shopping, while eating…you get the point.
After I develop some personality traits, I like to figure out how they interact with other people close to them. Take a Type A personality type, a corporate mogul kinda guy who has to be in control all the time. What do you think is going to happen when this guy sees his father? Would he show deferment and respect to his old man? Or would he be overbearing even to his father? Both reactions would say something about his character, and be interesting.
So the next time you think about characters, don’t forget to look further than just inside their personality for clues to who they are.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Secret No One Knows
Quote: “If you want to write something that will move other people, you have to come to terms with the fact that the writer is by profession a squealer. He learns by starting to squeal on himself.”
--Sol Stein
Song playing: Rust by Zakk Wlyde
Today I had an interesting conversation with a writer friend of mine. We talked about how we both have writing that we don’t want anyone to see. Period. Mostly scenes, or bits of writing scribbles, that we would just absolutely die if someone else read it. Some of this is just because it’s old writing and therefore embarrassing by nature, but for me at least (since I obviously haven’t read her secret stuff) these scenes are about things I was feeling or situations I explored that I didn’t want anyone else to know about. Some of the scenes aren’t even embarrassing by nature, but the act of writing out my personal feelings involved made me want to hide it away. All of these scenes contain characters and sometimes conflict, and one thing or another about the scene I found very personal to write about, and so hide them away.
I never really thought much about these private scribblings, but as I reflect on it now, I realize it’s helped me as a writer to get these feelings on paper. It helped in the therapeutic sense, of course, even though I never wrote from the “I feel” or “I think” way—it was always about other characters going through a similar situation I experienced. It also helped me develop my writing voice, because I was writing just for me, just so I could write about what was on my mind. Writing like this translated over well into my novels, because it’s easier now to write the tough scenes.
Writing like that also helped me practice putting the deeper core of my feelings and emotions to the page, so now I can write emotionally charged scene much easier.
It’s a good trick too, to tell yourself what you are writing never has to be seen by other people. I think it’s like training wheels that you may need in the beginning, and even from time to time in your life, to help you write honestly, without pulling your punches.
For example, I have a book idea, that I know will be a book someday, but for some reason it feels really personal. There’s no plot involved, the characters don’t resemble me in the least, but SOMEthing about this book makes me want to hide it away, and scribble it in the dark, like Fluffykins the cat feels the need to give birth to her kittens in the most secret, small place in your apartment. The book is a lot darker than I usually write about, so I think that’s part of it, and there’s a core of raw emotional pain for both of the characters centered in the book, so that’s probably another reason as well.
For whatever reason, it feels almost too personal, so naturally, I want to hide it away. So I trick myself. I tell myself I will never have to show anyone this book. When I sit down to flesh it out and work on it, I never ever have to let anyone know about it. I haven’t had to trick myself into telling the truth in a while, but I might have to do that when it comes time to write this book. That’s okay though, whatever gets the story told.
It’s my humble opinion that as an author, you need to get used to telling on yourself. That’s okay, I have made my peace with that a while ago. But sometimes an idea will stir that defensive mechanism, and you will have to quash it to get the story told. Having a way around your own defenses comes in handy, as well as a way of getting your feelings out in the most honest fashion possible. It makes for some excellent writing, let me tell you.
When I say honest, by the way, I mean don’t sugar coat the truth. Let’s say your character is a thief. You might want to sugar coat the truth, and say he’s only stealing to feed his family. That might be. But maybe, your character loves stealing things too, just for the sake of it. He loves feels smarter and more powerful that the merchants that have trampled on him his entire life. I have read stories that have glossed over the bad actions of their characters, because they were afraid the reader wouldn’t like a thief.
Judging by the reaction that Hannibal Lector gets, readers will put up with various degrees of villainy, if the character is real enough. So tell the truth. Write from the heart, the way the character is really feeling, petty jealousies and moments of greatest shame and times of bliss alike.
You start writing from the heart by writing from your own heart.
What about you guys? Am I the only one with secret scribbles? Times where the writing feels a little too personal, for no apparent reason? What do you do to make sure you stay the course?
--Sol Stein
Song playing: Rust by Zakk Wlyde
Today I had an interesting conversation with a writer friend of mine. We talked about how we both have writing that we don’t want anyone to see. Period. Mostly scenes, or bits of writing scribbles, that we would just absolutely die if someone else read it. Some of this is just because it’s old writing and therefore embarrassing by nature, but for me at least (since I obviously haven’t read her secret stuff) these scenes are about things I was feeling or situations I explored that I didn’t want anyone else to know about. Some of the scenes aren’t even embarrassing by nature, but the act of writing out my personal feelings involved made me want to hide it away. All of these scenes contain characters and sometimes conflict, and one thing or another about the scene I found very personal to write about, and so hide them away.
I never really thought much about these private scribblings, but as I reflect on it now, I realize it’s helped me as a writer to get these feelings on paper. It helped in the therapeutic sense, of course, even though I never wrote from the “I feel” or “I think” way—it was always about other characters going through a similar situation I experienced. It also helped me develop my writing voice, because I was writing just for me, just so I could write about what was on my mind. Writing like this translated over well into my novels, because it’s easier now to write the tough scenes.
Writing like that also helped me practice putting the deeper core of my feelings and emotions to the page, so now I can write emotionally charged scene much easier.
It’s a good trick too, to tell yourself what you are writing never has to be seen by other people. I think it’s like training wheels that you may need in the beginning, and even from time to time in your life, to help you write honestly, without pulling your punches.
For example, I have a book idea, that I know will be a book someday, but for some reason it feels really personal. There’s no plot involved, the characters don’t resemble me in the least, but SOMEthing about this book makes me want to hide it away, and scribble it in the dark, like Fluffykins the cat feels the need to give birth to her kittens in the most secret, small place in your apartment. The book is a lot darker than I usually write about, so I think that’s part of it, and there’s a core of raw emotional pain for both of the characters centered in the book, so that’s probably another reason as well.
For whatever reason, it feels almost too personal, so naturally, I want to hide it away. So I trick myself. I tell myself I will never have to show anyone this book. When I sit down to flesh it out and work on it, I never ever have to let anyone know about it. I haven’t had to trick myself into telling the truth in a while, but I might have to do that when it comes time to write this book. That’s okay though, whatever gets the story told.
It’s my humble opinion that as an author, you need to get used to telling on yourself. That’s okay, I have made my peace with that a while ago. But sometimes an idea will stir that defensive mechanism, and you will have to quash it to get the story told. Having a way around your own defenses comes in handy, as well as a way of getting your feelings out in the most honest fashion possible. It makes for some excellent writing, let me tell you.
When I say honest, by the way, I mean don’t sugar coat the truth. Let’s say your character is a thief. You might want to sugar coat the truth, and say he’s only stealing to feed his family. That might be. But maybe, your character loves stealing things too, just for the sake of it. He loves feels smarter and more powerful that the merchants that have trampled on him his entire life. I have read stories that have glossed over the bad actions of their characters, because they were afraid the reader wouldn’t like a thief.
Judging by the reaction that Hannibal Lector gets, readers will put up with various degrees of villainy, if the character is real enough. So tell the truth. Write from the heart, the way the character is really feeling, petty jealousies and moments of greatest shame and times of bliss alike.
You start writing from the heart by writing from your own heart.
What about you guys? Am I the only one with secret scribbles? Times where the writing feels a little too personal, for no apparent reason? What do you do to make sure you stay the course?
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