Category: Writing

Doubt

I read in a book, I think it was by Orson Scott Card, that at some point in every novel he’d call his agent and say he was quitting his novel project and he had something else he’d rather work on.

Sometimes I wonder how common that is among writers, and if we hit that wall of doubt in similar places. I suspect we don’t.

I’m finding my doubts coming through lately, slowing my pace considerably. Rough drafts I can knock out without much trouble, and I always tell myself it doesn’t matter what kind of shape it’s in, I can fix it later.

It’s after that when the doubts settle in. When I’m trying to change those stubborn passages until they work within the greater whole. When I’m working on the subplots that just popped up and took too much out of the main story. When the thing stares at me and just won’t do what I want it to do.

A couple of my short stories are similarly stalled at the moment. I’m at a loss how to pick up and go from here. I’d rather not start something new, but I don’t want to be doing nothing, either, when I’m so stuck on the current chapter of my book.

These niggling doubts hold me back, but I can’t just dismiss them. Well, I’d like to, but they won’t go away. It probably doesn’t help when I read about how tough it is to break into the publishing markets (nevermind that I’m already published, I still worry).

How do you deal with doubts?

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Critique Group

Writers and critique groups can’t be separated. Many writers need to have feedback to polish their stories, and critique groups are a good place to find that.

But what do you look for in a group? Where do you find one? How do you know it’s the right group for you?

Look for a group that is as serious as you are about writing, not more or less. If it’s a bad fit, you’ll either outstrip them with your progress or they’ll leave you behind. The meeting times need to work for you. Frequency needs to be long enough for you to get something else ready and not too frequent that you spent more time reviewing other’s work than minding your own.

One way to find a group is to ask other writers. They know which groups are good and can let you know a bit about it. Libraries and bookstores often host them. There are also a lot of writers online willing to meet virtually.

Knowing if it’s the right group for you is an individual decision. Can you get to the meetings and hold up your end of the critique? Are you getting the feedback you need for the piece? Can you work around all the personalities in the group?

That’s always a good question – the other people in the group. If you’re part of an existing group, they made it work. Some of them might grate on you, but the important part is working together. Sometimes it might seem impossible, but if you’re still learning from the group and getting what you need, it’s worth working against a difficult personality.

I hate missing my critique group. Luckily, I should be able to see them a bit next Saturday. I only hope I can get my stuff together by then.

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[Amazing Title Here]

A couple of my friends laugh at such stunning works of authoristry like the one above. Generally I use something like that as a placeholder when I’m not certain where the story is going or what will be the end.

Makes sense that a lot of they don’t get very far most of the time.

On the other hand, I’m not great at coming up with titles most of the time. I’m either spinning a title off that I think is fine, or I can’t think of one for the life of me. Some people seem to have a knack for it, and I don’t think I’m one of them.

So I always laugh when friends ask me for possible titles. Michelle Tuesday asked me about this last night. Incredibly, I had a few ideas, but I’m not sure whether or not she’ll be able to use them.

It’s fun to bandy about words in IM, though. She was going back and forth with another author we know who loves his puns. Maybe it’s easier to name some sorts of things. A group of musicians might be easier than another short story when there are already a few. Perhaps it’s just because it’s a defined thing, unlike the short story that’s slowly pouring from my brain.

Sometimes slow. Often unfocused when the title is missing. Is that what titles are for? To focus, to alert to what’s ahead for the reader, to bring out a main theme?

Working titles are sometimes meant to bridge between the beginning of the story and when the author can find something meaningful to title the work. My working title for The Art of Science was Janie’s Robot. I knew it wasn’t the best, but it kept me focused on one of the aspects of the story.

How do you use titles? Where do you find them? Do they pop out fully formed or does it take a lot of tweaking?

P.S. Thank you, Sarah, for the title for my book The Art of Science.

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When and Where?

People like routine, whether they admit it or not. Writers are no different, often choosing the same places and times to do their work.

I like it quiet, though I have proved I can write amid distractions. For the best efficiency of time and effort, I write when I won’t have interruptions. I find I do most of my writing when my daughter is napping and my husband is at work.

Research happens anytime I get a chance and can take notes. A lot of times the TV is on. For those of you who don’t know, my husband watches a lot of TV. I rarely pay much attention to it, though my comprehension is enough I can tell you the main storyline most times. My hands prefer to be busy, whether typing or knitting or rolling a ball back and forth with my daughter.

I have a digital recorder in my car that I sometimes use to capture ideas in the car. There are also notebooks stashed around the house and in my purse. I have a slush pile file where I keep ideas in case none of that is handy in front of the TV. (Often it isn’t anymore- a stray notebook is fair game where my daughter is concerned. She also loves to take my pens or crochet hooks and crawl/walk off with them.)

I’ve never been one to wander into a coffee shop and make a silent corner my writing home. Sometimes I listen to music, but many times it’s difficult to match the project to the soundtrack. And the wrong soundtrack throws off the entire project. At this point, it would be harder to take off and have someone watch my daughter than just try to make the most use of her naps. She also plays pretty well by herself sometimes if I’m in the middle of something big.

I can’t take that for granted, though. When she’s awake she can get into everything (!) – so we generally are in very close proximity and attempting to fold laundry rather than letting me write.

Last time she ate half a PB Twix candy bar. And loved it. Three minutes can make a difference, which is why the scissors, pens, and other potentially dangerous items are all out of reach.

And why I write during naptimes, after bedtime and, if I manage, before she wakes in the morning. Several people have recommended that I get up before she does, but if she’s up a lot at night (like last Saturday she had me up between 12:30 and 3 am, as in, I was up the entire time) I simply cannot wake before she does at 6:30 or so.

I’m just glad it doesn’t happen much. And I do get time to write. I make time for it.

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Head-Hopping

Have you heard of head-hopping? What is head-hopping?

A writer is accused of head-hopping when the thoughts of more than one character are shown without a break of some kind. It’s considered sloppy at best.

Why?

As writers, we do our best to have the reader identify with the protagonist. Most of the time, that is also our main viewpoint character. This is who the reader spends the most time with in a book, and the writer always hopes the readers want more. It is also our first rule to be clear.

I know, there are a ton of big-name authors who don’t follow those rules. The thing is, they’re big-name authors and people buy their books just because they’ve been written. I’m not that lucky. While there are a few people who have purchased my book that I don’t know, the majority of people who own The Art of Science I know personally. (Thank you, everyone!) I want to write well enough to become a big-name sometime. At that point, I hope I do still play by the “rules” of writing.

No promises, though.

Clarity begs us to write from one perspective at a time, like we see as we go through life. It makes things clearer to know, for certain, that you will only be behind one person’s eyes at a time.

I mean, when was the last time you were sitting in a classroom and actually heard the teacher’s thoughts? You can evaluate his demeanor, find positive or negative qualities in the tone of his voice, or interpret his gestures in any way you want, but part of that will be based on the teacher and the rest filtered through some part of the viewpoint character in the way conclusions are drawn from there. And if not through the viewpoint character, then by intrusion of the author.

Giving direct thoughts that can’t be heard by the current viewpoint character is the author telling us things, rather than showing how it happens. Unless, of course, you have an actual mind-reader.

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Reflection of the Author

Have you run into a reader who thought that because you wrote a story, it must be true? Or worse, it must be about you?

It doesn’t matter in what genre a writer chooses to write, unless it’s non-fiction, it isn’t true. I know this is going to sound weird, but that means the story was created as a flight of fantasy for the author. Some of the might be more nightmare than daydream, but it’s still something made-up.

Sometimes part of it is true, but that doesn’t mean a reader can figure out which parts are borrowed from reality by reading. At least, not by a good writer.

I had a story I wrote where the original version had three characters based on real-life people. The first draft had the main character looking through ‘my’ eyes, but I shifted the viewpoint to a different character in the next draft. It became a better story because of it. To further confound people, none of the events that happened in the story were true. I just borrowed the characters to illustrate something I wanted to show in a story. I ended up changing quite a bit about each of them as I went, too. I don’t think the other people I borrowed would recognize themselves. I didn’t recognize myself in there when I was done.

I’m not sure I’m actually done with that story, or it might not be done with me. It’s such a fine line to say who’s steering these things sometimes.

Next time you pick up a book, stop yourself from wondering what happened in the author’s life to make her write that way. A writer’s mind is rich with things that could happen, if this and that changed, or if something else had been different. Subjects may be researched and not from personal experience. It might be because a story in the newspaper seemed too good to pass up for fiction. Imagination will fill in gaps where research leaves a writer wanting for information.

The question that remains in my mind is whether to look askance about any writer who poses that question about me. It makes me think more that he can’t imagine as many things as I do, and maybe his writing is about something true about him.

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Write What You Know

While this advice is almost a cliché, it is also true. Most of us write what we know, or we learn about it well enough to fool most, if not all, readers.

I know two people who write with characters in the military. One of them is ex-Navy. The other has a mother who retired from military and is a volunteer for Soldier’s Angels, among other things. Both have knowledge beyond the layperson, and neither has a problem letting me know if I make a mistake.

Not that I write about the military, but if I did, I’d run it by them for critique.

Science fiction has a basis in fact, but any time you run into an alien civilization or culture, we lose most places where we can reference something. And it has to be human, in some way, shape, or form. A science fiction writer must abide by the known science at the time, but after that he’s free to build whatever or whomever he wants.

I miss the days of Martians. So many of the classics I read have them featuring prominently.

The question then runs – what about fantasy writers? What is it about them that gives us a reference to write about dragons, vampires, or magic? These things have never been proven to exist… Proven being a key word to use. I suppose no one can prove without a doubt that there is a god out there, either, yet religion thrives outside the fantasy field.

Is it a coincidence that L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer, also created a religion? Or is it simply something that stems out of the mind of an extremely creative person to get others to buy in? Did he believe any of it, or did he just build it and they came?

I forgot who said it recently, but an agent asked at a gathering where the speaker was telling the hapless authors to give credentials about their work, what credentials gave her authority to write about vampires? She never got an answer. The speaker changed the subject. Lovely.

What references can I provide for my science fiction and fantasy forays? I love to imagine what isn’t there. That served me well as an engineer to design new products and redesign to improve existing ones. It also lets me paint pictures with words of things no one has imagined yet. I’m not going to put that on my fiction cover letters, though.

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Surprise!

In my mailbox, I found Shade. This new YA novel by Jeri Smith Ready promises romance, ghosts, and mystery. Something in the world has changed, called The Shift, and anyone born after can see and hear ghosts. The main character, Aura, loses her boyfriend (in life, but she can still see and hear his purple spirit) and meets a new, living guy who comforts her. Sounds like quite a triangle.

I can’t wait to read it.

I was even more astonished to see it was signed to me in the front cover. Wow, what a lovely gift from a friend. Surprise gifts like this leave me a little speechless. I love giving gifts like that, but I never know what to say in return. “Thank you” doesn’t seem to cut it.

And it wasn’t for a specific holiday, like my birthday. It was just out of the blue.

I suppose now I should begin plotting how to surprise gift her back in such a spectacular way. Maybe I’ll send it onward to someone else. It would definitely be less expected. Perhaps both?

Gift-giving is so difficult to capture the essence of, sometimes. There’s definitely an art to it.

When was the last time you received a completely unexpected gift that made you smile? When was the last time you gave a gift that delighted the recipient?

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Random Blogger

It’s no secret I freelance sometimes. Depending on the topic and my interest level, blogging for others is a lot of fun.

The research takes a little time, but it’s great to learn something new. (Who, me, like to learn?) Then the blog post pours out of somewhere. Usually it flows easily. I’m not one to write 6000 word mammoths, sticking very close to 300 words for the most part. Perhaps I’ll begin working on lengthening my attention span per topic.

It may not be the most lucrative hobby, but anything fun can’t be bad.

Sometimes I look at those blog for money sites, like ProBlogger. I mean, it seems like a good idea, but does it work? I suppose I might try it sometime, once I finish another novel or something.

The novel really is the focus of my work these days, outside of being a mother and wife and all those other things I do: teaching, tutoring… It never ends.

It’s all about doing what you love, right? The sayings abound- do what you love and the money will follow and do what you love and never go to work again.

Of course, if that was true, parenting would be a paid career posting, rather than paying out your nose for the privilege of parenting.

Money isn’t everything. If cliches are so good at saying what we mean, why can’t we write with them? I guess we need more ways to express our creativity.

Until the next novel, I suppose I will just keep randomly blogging. Not so random here as me, but randomly for others. And learning tidbits that might make it into other stories, where those bits of knowledge of music, beer, and golf come together.

At least it hones my writing skills in some ways, plus research. There are much worse things I could be doing with my [spare- ha!] time.

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Learning Languages

Just because a character is learning a language doesn’t mean you need to dump a bunch of information at the reader. By ‘information’ I mean the endless words that are not native to the language the story is in.

I think this is especially true for fantasy authors who may create their own.

Some authors are masters of creating languages, like J.R.R. Tolkien. We’re not all linguistic gurus, though, and we shouldn’t subject our readers to random strings of letters.

Not everyone loves Star Trek enough to learn Klingon, Vulcan, or any number of other created languages associated with it, and similarly most readers will not be pretending to be one of your creatures.

If you’re curious about creating a language, though, go here.

Don’t forget that characters might speak in programming languages or some other math-based jargon. That’s part of the beauty of creating a different world.

Just remember there’s no need to show off all the research you did. The story will be stronger most of the time without it.

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