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Jim Hines, author of The Stepsister Scheme (along with other wonders that reside on my “to read” list), has been conducting a survey of published authors over the last several months. The final day for it was March 15, so he’s begun compiling the data and giving us some interesting numbers.
Did you know, for instance, that the average author sells only one short story before becoming a published novelist? Interesting. Take a look at the results so far and keep an eye out for the rest of the results.
The Guardian asked a few of their favorite authors what they kept as their rules for writing fiction. What they came up with is a wonderful read. Some are purposefully thoughtful while others are just as purposefully opaque. A few of the tidbits.
From Elmore Leonard’s ten rules:
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story.
From Jonathan Franzen’s ten rules:
It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.
From PD James’ five rules:
Don’t just plan to write – write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.
And that’s just in the first half of the article. (Well, it’s more of a list of lists, but you know what I mean.)
Writer’s block. Such an ominous phrase. Even more so if you are a writer (or fancy yourself one).
I’ve spent my fair share of time hiding behind that wall, staring at a blank notebook or white screen, unable to pick up the pen or peck at keys on my keyboard. And truthfully, sometimes the words just won’t come. But, writer’s block is not that scary. You just have to know how to go around it. Not through it. Around it.
I’ve found that trying to go through it can be catastrophic. Eventually, you bend your quill on the wall and walk away thinking you just don’t have the tools. Not so, but it certainly feels that way. So, I go around it. And it works. Of course, going around your block can be almost as difficult as going through it.
What do I mean by going around your block? Write for writing’s sake. It doesn’t even matter what. If you’re truly desperate, you can open up your dictionary and writing a short sentence about each entry. (Aardvarks are a funnily named animal.) (Baboon is even more funny. Especially if you pronounce it Bah-Boon.) Find your grocery list. Write a sentence about each item. (Milk is white and contains calcium, which is good for your bones.) (Bread is a wholesome food. Unless you have Celiac’s Disease.) If you’re feeling uber adventurous, write a paragraph about how the food makes you feel. Or how you feel about the animal.
If you want to stay in a more fictional bent, cruise on over to CNN or Fox News. Take the first story that catches your eye. Now write a fictional short of a few paragraphs about the situation. Mud Slides in California? Write about a boy caught in a truck bed of a truck that is being pushed down the hill towards a cliff. What does he feel? How is he saved? Is he saved? Snow storm in Texas? Write about a 40 car pileup and how the people at home react when the people in the pileup don’t show. Who’s mad at their husband/wife/other for not showing up for Timmy’s basketball game? Who immediately expects the worst. Then, write about their thoughts and feelings when they find out what really happened.
I think we get stuck too often behind the wall with the phrase “write what you know”. Yes, that is always best; but much like a diet or a workout regimen, if we only eat the stuff we like (“know”) or only do the exercises that we like (“know”), we’ll end up fat and out of shape. So too will our writing engine end up fat and out of shape. Sometimes, you’ve got to push yourself to stretch your boundaries and exercise your imagination. And that probably is going to mean writing outside of your realm of knowledge. We’re not looking for Hugo level results. Heck, make stuff up. (A UFO caused the pileup on the snowy highway in Texas.)
Sometimes you have to just write for writing’s sake.
From author to author, we each have our own little fetishes about what we write with. Some prefer loose notebook paper and pen. Others like notebooks of any sort. Real purists even use fountain pens. And still others prefer their computer.
I’ll admit that there is a little twitch of something when I write by hand. The scratching of the pen on the paper. But when it comes right down to it, I type so much quicker than I can write with a pen. So, my preference is to use a computer. If I had my way, I’d have a nice laptop that I could carry about and use wherever. My budget doesn’t yet allow for that, so I’m stuck to using my desktop computer at home. It does the trick nicely enough, it just isn’t portable.
Despite my preference for a computer, there isn’t always one nearby. So, I’ve taken up the habit of keeping a small notebook in my pocket with a pen. It’s a cheap Wal*Mart knock-off of a Moleskine pocket ruled notebook. Frankly, I think I should have spent the extra money for the Moleskine, but it’ll do for the here and now. My little pocket notebook gives me the ability to write down little bits and ideas whenever they pop up. And it’s very handy.
I also have a large Moleskine notebook sitting at my desk. It doesn’t get used as much as the other notebook, or even the computer, but it gets a bit. For both, I am currently using a Pilot G2 pen. It’s got a nice fine point and the ink is relatively fast drying so there is little smearing. It also doesn’t bleed through too badly.
When it comes to the hard core computer writing, I have a bit of a more complex set up. Obviously, since my desktop doesn’t travel with me, I needed to find a way to take my stuff with me. For that, I’ve got a Western Digital 120GB passport USB drive. It works well for carrying around my data. Some are content to type away in Word or Notepad. It’s too disorganized for me. I’ve tested a few softwares. Each of them had to have one requirement. Free. The one I finally settled on was yWriter. It’s created by an author, which lends to it’s usability. It’s simple, yet allows for fairly robust control over structure and plot. With it, I can keep notes on each chapter, scene, and on the book overall. It’s got a word counter if you need that (Helpful for nanowrimo) and even gives you a count for the day if you want that as well.
I wrote a full novel of over 50,000 words last November. A full novel! I was so excited! I even managed to do a little bit of editing on it in December. Not much, but a little. Then the holidays struck and I haven’t touched it since. In fact, it’s been over a month since I even looked at it. And, while I still haven’t looked at it, I have done a bit of writing. Baby steps, I guess.
Inspiration struck and I pulled out my handy notebook and jotted down a few lines. And then, later, I added more. Woo! Hoo! I had forgotten how wonderful it feels as the words spill out onto the page or screen. I prefer typing to writing as I do the first faster, but I find that a notebook will do in a pinch. Especially when that notebook is a moleskine. But, that’s a topic for another post. I’m just excited that I wrote something. So excited, in fact, that I’m going to share what I wrote.
The sliver of a moon whispered sweet nothings into my ear. My anticipation grew. It would still be days before she grew full and our passion would be released. Call me whatever you want. I’ve been called many things, by Werewolf is the most common.
Many carry the misconception that my kind are only werewolves during the full moon. The full moon is merely when the moon’s pull is greatest. It ebbs and flows with each cycle. Another misconception is that we have increased strength and are violent. In fact, we are no stronger than any other man. The violent part is mostly true. It’s in the nature of what we are. The moon’s whispers grow louder as it grows fuller. Eventually it becomes so loud that one can hardly hear ones own thoughts. It drives you mad. And violent.
My name is Argyl. And I am a werewolf.
It’s nothing special. Mostly, it’s rough around the edges and the flow is jumpy. But. It is something written that wasn’t several days ago.
There is a line which prospective authors like to toe. That line is the line between reading too much about writing and not doing any writing, and doing too much writing without truly knowing what it is that they are doing. Everytime I read a book about writing, I feel as if I’ve fallen off of some cliff that is that line and have plunged into the land of the people who read about how to write but never do any actual writing. (Unless, of course, you count a blog post. I don’t.)
There are many who would not recommend reading any books on writing, but merely using what talent you have and practicing until you are good enough to be published. I’m not one of those people. I believe that if you can learn something about writing and hone your skill a little between practicing, you should. After all, if a book like this one will save you several rewrites, that’s that much more time you’ll have to write the sequel to your novel.
On to the book itself. I’ve read several books on writing. I’ll save you the list, albeit a short one, and suffice to say that some are a complete waste of time. This book, Between the Lines, is not one of those. In fact, if I were asked which of the books on writing I’ve read is the best, this would be it. Morrell doesn’t mince words and tell you about the process of writing. If you’re looking for methods and places of writing, this isn’t your book. What you do get with this book, however, is a very indepth look at the elements that make a regular old novel into a great novel. Even a bestseller.
Throughout the book, Morrell breaks down those elements and pairs them with specific examples that illustrate why they work and where. I found that she didn’t preach or lecture about the elements either. Each of the chapters/elements is given in very plain and understandable language and the author doesn’t assume that the reader is a complete idiot. With each of the elements, I found myself thinking to my current work in progress and, in nearly every case, finding something (or several somethings.) came to mind immediately that could benefit from that element.
Overall, this is a very powerful book for anyone who writes, whether it be fiction or not. As I said, I would recommend this book over any of the other writing books that I have read so far. If you’re a budding author, I suggest you find yourself a copy of this book and give it at least one read. Pick it up at your local library, B&N, or Amazon. I think you’ll thank yourself, and I guarantee that if you use the advice given, your future editor will likely thank you as well.
I think I may be finally reaching the way down deep bottom of the valley that came on November 28th. That was the day that I hit 50,000 words. I started on November 1 and made just under 52,000 by the end of November. And what a rush! But, oh, what a fall that comes after you hit that 50,000 words.
After spending 30 straight days with your budding novel, you are suddenly free from any solid goals. And without any new ones, you are likely to stagnate. You’ll read a few people who claim that taking the month of December off can be good. It gives you a bit of space from the act of writing the novel and gives your mind some time to digest it fully and begin to weave in new threads that will allow you to finish the novel. (That may be true, actually.)
But, if you’ve just spent 30 days of solid writing, don’t just stop altogether. I did, and wish I hadn’t. I went from averaging over 1500 words a day to only writing 1500 in the entire month. (Unless you count blog posts like this one. It’s a different category for me.) I should have picked up on some other story or started something new. The effect here is that I now have to try and force myself back into the flow of things. Ugh.
Enough meandering around that though.
Reflecting back on NaNoWriMo 2009, there are several amazingly good things that came out of it for me. Of course, the most important and amazing of it all is that I won by writing 50,000 words. I also learned some very important things about my self and my work as a writer. I’ve written, off and on, for many years, but never with any seriousness. And I am very much still an amateur. There is so much to this writing thing that I don’t know and that I need to know. I’m positive that I’ve only scratched the surface of it.
I used to think that writing was just something you did. That very little thought should go into it and it will just flow along on it’s own and come out the other end perfect. Boy, was I delusional. There are moments where the story and its characters flow right off the ends of your fingers and you don’t even have to think about what’s going on to write it. They are not nearly as frequent as they should be. And the end result after 50,000 words and 30 days? Trash. Well, not literally. I have no intention of actually trashing the thing. But, as I read back over it, there are plot holes everywhere, expansive gaps that leave me wondering just where the plot went. Some of the dialogue is spectacular (If I say so myself), but quite a bit of it is very rough and clumsy. There are vast sections of the novel where I do a great bit of telling without one speck of showing. And there are more than one character who turned out flat.
Looking at that long list, I have to remind myself that the inner editor in us all will be the most critical of any editor.
And after it’s all said and done, I’m thankful for the experience. And it may take me until next October to be forgettful enough of the whole thing to be crazy enough to try that hectic schedule again. But, I probably will. After all, writing is what it’s all about, and that’s the fun part.
