Tips for Writers

Jul 09

It’s Monday, and, even though I am arguably living the dream job, I’m fighting the Monday-back-to-work-blues. The reason being – I’m floating around the dreaded middle and all I can think about is how much I want to pick up one of my older projects so that I can avoid having to face the glaring flaws I’m seeing in my story arc. I know I’m pulling away from what I originally set out to do, in part because some of my original ideas didn’t work. Why I continue to try to keep them in, even after they didn’t work in the first draft, I’m not really sure. But I know with each rewrite, my story is getting strong, so the only thing I can do is visualize the goal of seeing my work published, of truly being a writer, and push through.

I think one of the biggest things I’m struggling with is trying to stay true to the story I want to write. But so often when I read a story that is poorly developed, I think to myself, this person wasn’t willing to sacrifice the story they thought they wanted to tell for the story that they should tell; they ignored the story that worked for a story that is flawed.

When I wrote my Master’s thesis, I discovered 2 weeks before the due date that my hypothesis didn’t work. But instead of trying to submit something that was flawed, I worked my butt off to turn what I had into something that worked, at the sacrifice of a lot of data and many paragraphs and even chapters that I was proud of. While this was a struggle, it was what had to be done. I know I need to apply that same logic, that same part of my brain, to my fictional writing. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. If I want to call myself a writer, I need to not only be able to see when something doesn’t work, but I need to have the bravery to step back and rework scenes until I have something that does work.

What does your Monday have in store for you? Do you struggle with the middle? Or do you find your weakness elsewhere? How do you push through?

Jun 25

I’ve crossed the 3 month point for being a full-time writer. I know in the past month I have not been the best blogger. The reason is, I’ve been focusing so hard on my writing.

My writing class is almost over and I’m happy I took it. Through the critiques, I’ve gained confidence in my ability to write – the feedback on my writing has been very positive. But of course, being able to write and being able to tell a story are two different things. Now that I feel like I can actually write, I need to figure out if I can actually tell a story. I think I can, but that’s where beta readers will come in.

In the past month I’ve made a lot of progress on my novel. I’ve added conflicts and developed characters. I’ve added to the word count. I’ve figured out plot details. But, despite all of my progress, I still have a ways to go.

My goal for the next month is to finish the current draft, which is very nearly complete, and then work my butt off editing. I had hoped to be at the editing stage by June 1. That obviously did not happen. But part of why that didn’t happen is because I’ve been editing as I go along, going back and fixing things I know aren’t working. I still have a major fix that needs to be popped in around chapters 2/3, but I’ve decided to hold off on that and to just keep writing as though I’ve already done it.

My deadline for finishing is my wedding, which is rapidly approaching. I’ve always worked better under pressure, and I can definitely feel the pressure. But I don’t mind. I kind of like it. And knowing me, if I had until infinity to write my book, it would probably never get written. But knowing I have a deadline, well it helps me accept that it will never be perfect. Nothing ever is. Instead I just have to get it perfect enough. I have to treat it like a school paper, like my master’s thesis and accept that I can only get it as perfect as I’m capable of getting it and hopefully, if I’m lucky, that will be perfect enough.

May 28

I made a startling realization today. My main character and I are not interested in the same things. In fact, her favorite subject is the one subject in school that was always beyond me – science. And you know what is even worse? I realized that I’ve written another character in another work-in-progress that has these same interests.

As a writer, it seems like it would be easy to model my characters after me, to give them my hobbies and my interests. But did you ever have to draw a self-portrait in an art class? If so, you probably know how difficult a thing it is to try to recreate yourself. I could draw other people’s’ portraits, showing their flaws and beauties and making the entire thing come together in a wonderful recreation of that person, but when I sat down to do myself, all of my self-perceived flaws flew to the surface and there was nothing I could do to add in the beauty. And even worse, I couldn’t even get the flaws right because I wanted to downplay them. When things get too personal, bias creeps in. And bias rarely allows for a full story to be portrayed, just like it keeps a portrait from being complete.

This is not to say that my characters do not have bits of me inside of them. Often I substitute in a fear or an insecurity or a quirk or a personality trait. I may make my character shy or overly chatty when she is uncomfortable. Or I might go the opposite and, instead of adding in my insecurities, I may make that character confident about the things I lack confidence in. Adding in emotions I know help make the character more real.

I also add bits of other people I know, but I never make a character a spitting image of someone I know. Instead I may take one of my insecurities and mix it with my friends facial features and my brother’s talent and my other friend’s strange quirk. This allows me to create a dynamic, unique character. This is what helps me to make my characters real.

Unfortunately, though, to make a character real, you have to be able to write in real details. Meaning, if you character is interested in science and genetics, I, as the writer, have to research science and genetics so that I can add in little tidbits throughout the narrative, things that will tie back to the main character’s interests and personality and help bring the story alive.

So who knows, maybe by the end of the summer I will have a better grasp on science or at least be able to convince people through my writing that I have a grasp on it.

How do you come up with inspiration for your characters? Do you research their interests or do you try to give them your own interests?

May 16

Whenever I come up with a story idea that I’m excited about, I share it with the fiance. And, more often than not, he says “oh, that sounds like [insert already published book].” Then I get frustrated and decide my idea is not good enough and move on to something else. But you know what, there are few original core ideas left. It is how you alter the core, the bits you add in, like your characters and your setting, that make it unique.

I read a post over at Writer Unboxed, Write Like a Comparative Mythologist, that summed it up really well:

Even if you are telling ‘essentially the same story’ as someone else, you are not ‘ripping off’—you are adding to the conversation… If you view your story as another answer to the same issue, then you will realize that as long as you are sincerely dealing with the issue, you cannot ‘rip someone off’ just for having a similar premise.

This is good advice to remember when someone tells you “oh, that reminds me of…” or when you read something that has a similar concept to your own WIP. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated, but instead of letting that frustration get you down, use it to work harder to make your work stand out.

May 14

I’m currently enrolled in an online writing course – Writing the Young Adult Novel – through Writer’s Digest University and, as is inevitable with any writing course, there are critiques.

Critiques are, unfortunately, part of being a writer. Anytime someone reads what you wrote, they are going to critique it. Sometimes they give you the feedback, sometimes you read it in the form of a review, and sometimes they think it but never give words to their thoughts. Even though I hate waiting for a critique and psych myself out, I would much rather actually receive one, especially if it includes constructive criticism, than to have no idea what people think of my work.

Waiting for my first critique was very stressful. But you know what, the stress was unfounded. In fact, it wasn’t a bad critique. What has turned out to be more difficult is critiquing the work of the other students. I want to provide constructive criticism while also providing encouragement. This is not the easiest thing to do. When I work in publishing, I often had to compile the critiques made by beta readers and then deliver them to authors. I’d like to think this work and reading all of the reviews to compile summaries, has helped me to write better critiques. But I know that’s not true. I know that when it comes to being brutally honest, I would rather sugar coat. Maybe it’s all those years I spent living in the south. Or maybe it’s because I know how devastating a negative critique can be.

When it comes down to it though, if you can’t stomach an honest critique, you won’t go far as a writer. In writing critiques for my classmates, I am appreciating just how difficult it is for editors and agents to respond to queries. I am also improving as a writer by learning to identify what works and what does not work. While the critique process is difficult, both the give and the take, I know it is helping me to become a stronger writer.

How do you feel about critiques? Do you give them? Are you brutally honest or do you try to sugar coat things? How do you find people to critique your own work?

May 09

I love my work-in-progress, but sometimes, we need to take a little time out. Sometimes, I get an idea for something else and it just won’t leave my mind. It consumes the creative parts of my brain, distracting me from my project and making writing time difficult. When this happens, I’ve found it to be more beneficial to take an hour or half a day or even a day off of my work-in-progress to write the scene or character sketch or plot outline that is distracting me. Then, when I return to my work-in-progress, I’m more focused.

What do you do when a competing interest jumps into the spotlight? Do you take a time-out or do you try to push through, ignore the urge and force yourself to focus on your current project?

May 07

Photo by: Stephen Coles, http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/

Research is important for a successful novel regardless of your genre. When I first started writing, I figured research was only necessary for historical fiction or Michael Crichton-type thrillers. I was certain that fantasy and futuristic writers didn’t need to bother with research. I mean, they build their own worlds. What’s there to research?

But boy was I wrong.

Research, Research, Research: Examples from the Real World

Think about the last novel you read. Now think about the details. As an example, I will use one of the last novel I read, Wondrous Strange. In this urban fantasy, the main character, Kelley, is an actress in a Shakespeare play and fairy lure is laced throughout the book. There are also other fantastical characters. To write this book, Lesley Livingston needed to be familiar with fairy tales from different cultures. She also needed to be familiar with a variety of Shakespeare plays and other fantasy creatures and the folktales that accompanied them.

My current WIP is set in the future. Like it or not, writing a book set in the future also requires research. While it is not a hard sci-fi book, readers will expect some sci-fi elements. What does the future look like? What new, amazing technology have they developed? To figure this out, I have to spend time looking at trends in technology and science and, based off of these things, make educated guesses about what these things will look like in the future.

Where do I go to Research?

Two of my main sources of research are TechCrunch and Mashable. TechCrunch blogs about technology startups and Web 2.0. Mashable is a news blog that explores web technology, news, new websites/social networks, etc. I also skim the technology and science sections in several online newspapers and follow NASA and Astronomy Magazine on Twitter. A lot of days, I don’t see anything that sparks my creativity. But sometimes, I get a little nugget that grows into an amazing idea.

Take my current WIP. The main premise came from a news story. I occasionally listen to a podcast called Mysterious Universe. I was listening to it one day and they were talking about solar flares and underground homes that are being built to protect people from these flares. So I went to the internet and started researching these things and the idea took off. What if there was a solar flare that destroyed earth and the wealthy escaped in a space ship and return years later, thinking Earth was uninhabited only to discover that people had been living in underground safety pods. Cue conflict.

No matter what genre you are writing in, you will always need to do your homework.

How do you research? Do you use research for inspiration?

May 02

What's your kryptonite?

Every writer has her weaknesses. I recently read a post on Writer Unboxed, What I’ve Learned About Writing a Novel, where author Sarah Pekkanen discusses her struggles with writing a novel that was more than just a character novel. To achieve this, she had to learn about plot and how to make a story really flow. By overcoming her weakness, she has become a successful author. But to get to the point where you can write books that people want to read, you have to accept that no writer is perfect. Everyone has a weakness. But if you can figure out what your writing weakness is, you just might succeed in selling your novel.

It’s all in the Details

I figured out what my weakness was at a young age. I stink at description. And it’s no wonder since I usually skim through the descriptions in books, racing ahead to get to the good stuff, the plot. But, sadly, description is pretty important in books. You need it to set the scene. While I don’t like overly descriptive books, I also don’t enjoy books that are poorly described. And, truth-be-told, I probably read a lot more description than I mean to read.

In high school I came up with what I thought was a brilliant solution to this problem. I would just write plays. Then I could use barebones description and focus on fast-paced plot and dialogue and character building. There were two problems with this approach. 1 – this was the lazy way out. 2 – I’m not overly fond of actors. In fact, I only lasted about a year as a theater major.

Once I came back around to novel-writing, I realized that I wasted a lot of time taking the easy route. I could have been honing my description writing skills. Instead, I spent hours learning how to properly format a script. Useful if I decide to write a book with a playwright as the main character, but not so useful if I want that book to have any shred of description.

Practice, practice, practice – Exercising your creativity

How do you overcome your weaknesses? In writing, sadly, the only real way to do this is through practice. You have to exercise your creative mind. In the past I often skipped exercises in writing books that focused on description. Now I am forcing myself to work through them. And it is not always pretty. I am also forcing myself to read every word in the books I consume, description and all. I’ve learned to plot by being a voracious reader and seeing first hand what does and does not work. By focusing on description in published books, I am also starting to pick up on things that work and do not work.

I’m pretty sure I will always have to work on my description writing skills. Maybe it will become second nature to me one day. I hope it does, but I’m not going to count on it. Instead, I’m going to keep on exercising my creativity with the hopes that I can at least manage to fool readers into believing that I’m an expert writer with zero flaws

What’s your kryptonite? How do you confront your weaknesses?

Apr 30

Now that I’ve been writing for 6 weeks (crazy, I know), I’ve managed to hammer down my schedule. So I thought I would have a follow-up to my typical day.

8:00 – wake up; make coffee; tidy the house; read a couple of chapters from whatever book I’m reading

9:00 – sit down in front of the computer; read blogs and email; respond to email/comment on blogs; add a tweet or two

10:00 – start writing

12:00 – lunch

12:45 – reread what I’ve written and write some more

3:00 – write a blog post; check twitter; search for new blogs to follow; brainstorm for future ideas

4:30 – do some more writing

6:00 – work out

7:00 – make dinner

8:00 – watch tv

10:00 – read a few more chapters; go to bed.

So you can see that writing is only part of the job. In fact, only about 4-6 hours of my day are spent writing. The rest of my time is spent networking and following the industry. Sometimes this includes reading books, checking out predictions for where the market is headed, watching teenager-aimed television shows to better understand my target audience (if you haven’t checked out Dance Academy, do it. It’s been my favorite find), reading news articles to give me inspiration for future ideas, etc. And I know that when I get to the proper editing stage, my schedule will change even more and it will include fewer hours of actual writing.

What this also shows is that if you cannot write full-time, you can still write a novel. You just have to be more selective about which aspects of the job you focus on. When I was working full-time, I cut most of the non-writing tasks from my writing life. With my limited time, they just didn’t make sense. Now that I have the time to really make writing my proper job, I can more easily justify all of the extras that go into a writing career.

How much time do you spend writing a day or a week?

Apr 25

People always ask me if I was an English major. Actually, I was an Anthropology major. And I then got my Master’s in Archaeology. In fact, I despised this boy in college who was an English major so I tried to avoid any English classes I thought he might be taking. Mature, I know, but hey, I was 18. It seemed like a really good idea at the time.

I’ve always felt a little leery about my chosen career path. What if by not taking a million lit classes, I missed out on my opportunity to be a better writer? Now that I am writing full-time, I can actually take the time to read the writing technique books I never had time for when I was writing in between my full-time job, dinner, house work, life, etc. And you know what reading technique books is teaching me? That you don’t need a class to be a good writer, but it won’t hurt you if you take one.

I just finished James Scott Bell’s Write Great Fiction – Plot & Structure, and what I got from it were not ways to write better, but rather ways for me to express the things I already know. Any prolific reader knows what does and does not work in a plot, but can you verbalize why a plot is or is not working? When I write, I pull from my experiences as a reader to make sure my plot is moving at the right pace, my characters are likable and exhibiting growth, and that the first chapter grabs you from the get-go. But now that I’ve read this book, I can analyze why I’m doing these things. Often when I write I can tell that something is wrong. As I said, I’ve read enough books to know how a book should flow. But I can’t always explain why it isn’t working. I just know that it’s not.

Now that I have time to read books on technique, I feel less inferior about my degrees. But you know what else I have gotten from reading technique books? A new set of vocabulary for talking about books and analyzing the good and the bad. And maybe, just maybe, having read this and other technique books will allow me to better critique my own work and help me produce something people want to read.

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Page 2

Monday Blues and the Dreaded Middle

My life as a full-time writer: 3 months and counting

Accepting people for who they are: Or, what to do when your main character is interested in things you could care less about

Finding Originality in the Familiar

Critiques – the give and take

Sometimes you need a time out

Researching the Novel

Research, Research, Research: Examples from the Real World

Where do I go to Research?

Understanding Your Weaknesses and Writing Past Them

It’s all in the Details

Practice, practice, practice – Exercising your creativity

My Life as a Full-time Writer: Week 6

Books on Writing Technique – Are they worth your time?