Tag: Writing

Writing: Fast or Slow?

Do you ever wonder how fast you type? Usually it isn’t an issue, or is it?

Typing is a necessity for many of us, writers even more than most. Something about all those novels makes it hard to understand how you could manage at a slow pace. Do you do 120,000 words on a novel for how many revisions?

In the interest of keeping the writing time down, do you organize your thoughts? Do you wade through an outline or just start chugging from page one through to the end? Do you write longhand or do you sit at the keyboard for hours on end?

I love it when people get to study things like writers tend to be wordier when they do rough drafts at a keyboard instead of by hand. So what does it mean by wordier? Did they put the same writers side by side on the same topics and count words for each of the outpourings? I think it has to be difficult to make a really good comparison between writers. Especially when you consider that there gets to be a point where each writer makes a decision about the form that works better on an individual basis.

I’m one of those writers who logs hours in front of a keyboard. Perhaps less than some who transcribe their longhand so much slower than I type, but more than many if you consider all the other things I do in front of a monitor. Ha.

When I’m warmed up and awake, I can type about 100 words per minute. That’s from a typing test, though, and it isn’t about how fast I can create the words in my head. Creating requires more attention to detail and sometimes the proper word doesn’t just sprout from the fingertips. At times you end up with a blue where you really need a cerulean or a navy.

For me, the first draft is about getting the ideas out. It’s all about the concept. It’s one reason I just let it all run out from my fingers like they’re on fire when the ideas come fast. When they come slow, it’s one word at a time. It’s all about continuing the stream. Sometimes I skip ahead and come back to the troublesome parts. I don’t like to stop where it gets slow; I jump ahead if I have momentum to keep things moving. The movement is how I finish things. Some projects languish when I lose the steam to keep things on track.

It’s one reason I like NaNoWriMo. Everyone’s about moving and keeping the words spilling onto the page without worry about the inner editors getting in the way with whether it ought to be a separate sentence or hooked together with a semicolon. It seems like a small distinction, but it impacts the finished project.

So instead of recording just how fast I type, I’ve been keeping tabs on how fast I can pour out ideas. It varies on topic and particular day for my energy, but it looks like I could finish a day’s worth of a NaNo requirement between 30 and 90 minutes. Big swing, so I’m working on it to see if I can narrow the gap.

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What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

Yes, I’m serious. We all have our characters we come to love when we write. We have to in order to make it through an entire novel with them. Do you ever make it too easy on your main character?

In my writer’s group, one of the contributors is working on her first fiction project. She’s got a wonderful flair for description and the short bits she reads us are vivid. I’m sure it helps that she’s got a long history in nonfiction. One of the veterans asked her the question: “What’s the absolute worst thing that can happen to your protagonist? Do that and you’ll find your plot.”

It’s not always how I think of it, but it’s very good advice. Sometimes people try to go easy on their characters if they like them, though the best thing is to torture the poor protagonist until he wants to give up – except you never, ever let that happen. Even giving up is a choice and bad things can happen from it. Just like a juggler who throws all the balls in the air and then doesn’t try to catch them – one of them will turn into the brick to land on his head.

When was the last time you read a book where the worst thing didn’t happen? Did you get bored with reading it? The other extreme might be where believability hits. Did you put the book down because the events just couldn’t happen that way? Within each story world there are possibilities and consequences for every choice made.

Pretend you’re writing a young adult novel and Mom forbids the main character from talking on the phone for a week. The main character has two choices, to follow the restriction or to break it. Either choice has consequences. It seems very cut and dried, but what happens when you add the love interest who’s expecting a call that evening? What happens when you add the mother’s incessant checking of the phone logs? Then a father who allows it because he doesn’t know about the restriction? Does your character choose to follow the restriction even if it means the love interest will be upset? Does the character come clean to Dad about not being able to use the phone (and maybe even why)? Or is it just a one time thing that the character hopes won’t be noticed? Suddenly there’s a plot!

Might not be an epic plot right now, but the more consequences and reactions the writer adds to make the choices more tortured adds to the reader’s pleasure. Somehow George R. R. Martin gets named in protagonist-torturing crowd. Readers might get mad at him for killing off their beloved characters, but as far as I know they’re still reading. And making movies and a game out of the story line. I suppose we can’t all do it that way, but kudos to him for making it work well!

Next time you take a look at your plot, whether you’ve finished writing or if you outline beforehand, really dig in to see if you’ve made your protagonist’s life as troubled as you can. That’s when you know you’re writing a good story.

Note: This is not to say that writers love to torture people. We’re pretty much just aiming to get readers, and we can’t overdose on all the sugary fluffiness that it would require to make an entire novel out of things happening that aren’t bad. 

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Criticism or Ridicule?

Free speech is a beautiful thing. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and has the ability to express it.

But, sometimes, I wonder what the point of expressing an opinion in a certain way is. I love to read. I love to write. I love this form of expression – and many of you who follow me on Google+ or Facebook will have noticed the YouTube video Words Are My Sandbox.

I learned from reviewing other authors and from working in critique groups that often it’s good to sandwich the bad stuff inside the good things you find about the piece. There are some where it can be difficult to find something nice. There are also venues with spoken-only reading and critique where it is easy to focus on just one flaw and miss all the rest of the beauty of that segment. Many groups implement rules about how to treat other writers and others try to focus on how professional the advice may be – but nearly all of them are not about tearing down an amateur. I know I never would want to be the reason someone decides to stop expressing opinions through words.

How does that change when someone becomes a big name professional? Why is it that I hear conversations where people discuss only the bad aspects of some series and trash the author for it? There are so many examples, but here are two:

1. Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight series seems to take a bad rap from a lot of people. I know many who love the novels and read them again and again. I read them and enjoyed them, but they’re not something that will draw me to read them 50 million times. I’ve heard people call them nothing but a teenage romance and think it’s awful for a 110 year old man (or however old Edward’s character was at the time of publication) to be after a 17 year old girl. Whatever else you say about them, didn’t Meyer make some interesting characters?

2. J. K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series has throwbacks to the British boarding school novels. Sure. I’m sure there were other critics, possibly about the whole good versus evil thing. But there were rich things in the story, too, that some of the amateur people won’t admit.

Maybe it boils down to jealousy or something else I can’t easily name. I don’t think a single novel will fit every reader out there – which is why we have so many different genres and subgenres and points of view on everything. I wonder if that’s how you know you’re successful – that there are people out there trying to trash your accomplishment. Perhaps I’m just too thin-skinned and I worry what people will say about my work if it’s out there more. It hasn’t stopped me from pursuing publishing yet, and it isn’t likely to in the future.

I can acknowledge that many of the authors I read and enjoy have flaws. Some of them take much less flack than others, but some are much better known than the rest, too. It doesn’t make anyone more discerning to burn another in effigy.

Next time you want to stomp all over someone else’s expressed art, think to yourself- did I even try to see the good in it? What is it about this that so many people find fascinating? We don’t have to “agree to disagree” (don’t get me started on the wrongness of this phrase) or agree on anything at all, but it might be nice to acknowledge that not everyone who disagrees with you is completely wrong. And, also, that the tired, worn-out, dog-eared copy of whatever your favorite novel is has its own baggage. Peace!

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Just Around the Corner

NaNoWriMo is almost here. Seriously, it’s a month and two days away. Yet I get Twitter updates saying “33 Days to NaNo!” and I get excited. One of my friends put together an entire challenge to be ready to write a novel in November, and I help her organize it every year (fourth year running).

The energy is gathering among people throwing in their hats, making decisions about what possible project might be good enough to focus so much time and effort. Sometimes we agonize over the big decisions, like can we manage to get enough world-building in the beginning to make it stretch over the novel writing time without slowing down. It’s a particularly large problem for anyone starting a science fiction or fantasy novel of any kind. How do you get enough of the NaNoverse painted if you drive in on Day 1 without any preparation at all?

It was just that question that drives so many of my friends to undertake a small amount of early work before attempting that big novel. We gather and cheer each other on – digitally since we’re geographically diverse – and sometimes even help get past the inevitable block.

The NaNoWriMo challenge is about writing a novel in a month – usually stated at 50,000 words. The problem with that stated challenge is that most novels don’t end at 50k. In science fiction and fantasy, they’re often between 70,000 and 120,ooo words. For young adult it’s much closer to the guidelines. Many of the challenge-takers stop at 50k instead of finishing the book, or they write so that the book ends at 50k. Then when it’s time for the revisions it gets interesting.

On the other hand, you end up with a half-finished novel even if you didn’t finish the challenge, and the rules are all about starting a new challenge next year, rather than finishing something that was an abandoned idea.

Another drawback is that it is difficult to look at that novel when December rolls around. The energy will sap into a stupor as the crowd that cheered everyone to the finish is taking a collective breath and thinking they ought to rejoin their families and friends. Edits are pushed off from December to June to some other future date. I think it’s just difficult to be that dedicated all the time for most people. Fits and starts get me through some edits, but I’m not consistent in that area.

Someday I’ll wrangle a bunch of people into NaNoEdMo with me, not that March is a better time than November but I think the energy of having a group working through the words would be fun and inspiring to get through it.

Who else plans to take a dash at a massive dump of creative words in November? What do you do with your manuscript when you finish (yes, we’re assuming that we’re all going to finish)? Does the creative flow of energy help you get in the spirit of the novel? Do you ever get bogged down by the pressure of 1667 words per day rather than gushing out of a story? I’d love to hear what NaNoWriMo means to you.

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Speaking of Time

I’m sure it means I come from an overly technical background when I regularly have discussions and debates with my husband about how pregnant I am in months. It isn’t about whether or not the time is relative – 24 weeks is 24 weeks no matter what scale you use. [No, I’m not opening debate about how pregnant I am; I can be perfectly fine with the one the doctors use.]

But here’s where the debate lies: is 24 weeks equal to 6 months? My husband’s overly technical answer is no. He insists there are 4.3 weeks per month and that must be taken into account. I suppose he’s got a point, since there are 52 weeks in a year and 6 months is half a year, so 26 weeks, right? The issue there is that there are supposed to be 4 weeks in 1 month. Isn’t that what we learned when we were young? And 6 times 4 is 24. Feels like there ought to be wiggle room.

Then you add in the pregnancy thing being 40 weeks, give or take, and you get a messy tangle. Do you count that as ten months? Do you start the count from a different week to make things more confusing, but less difficult to say “I’m five months pregnant.” Do you ever wonder why we allow such discrepancies? Can’t it be fixed to say one month is so many days and so many weeks?

It’s probably just as easy as switching to the metric system. Something that is resisted in this country yet would make things easier once completed.

It also makes me think of time in books. Often I read science fiction and fantasy. Rarely is another time system used that isn’t based on Gregorian calendar. Many fantasy books turn months into moons, and it changes the pace and tone, but it’s a similar system. Science fiction often uses something along the same lines. Star Trek uses a stardate, but it’s simply a different way to state it.

One series I read by Gayle Greeno, The Ghatti’s Tale, had a system with eight days per week. At the time it made me wonder why more authors didn’t try something like that. Time and its passage isn’t a main focus in these novels or it might have become a problem. Like creating a new language and having to understand all the rules involved, time has its own issues. We think in terms of calendars we know. Once a reader has to convert all of the references into something that has no common point to the popular system of time measurement, it might give the reader a chance to check out and put the book down.

What do you think? Have you ever tried to create a time system for a book that didn’t have large similarities to the Gregorian calendar? Did it become a gargantuan task to keep everything straight in your head and your readers? How many books have you encountered that significantly altered the way time was measured for the story and did it change your opinion of the book?

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Writing Habits

A writer is one who writes. For many, it becomes an ingrained habit with practice. Somehow it starts with an innocent scrap of paper to overcome many notebooks and writing files. Even through the rest of the activities of writing and life, writers are encouraged to write every day. Sometimes they’re called morning pages, but not everyone manages to get them out every morning.

Do you write at a specific time every day? What do you write? Do you consider blogging writing? Do you just work it in when you can in your day, or do you allot specific time to do it? If you miss that time, does your day feel off? Under what circumstances can you not write and still consider yourself a writer? How many missed days before you feel like it’s too far out of your niche to pick up the pen again?

Morning pages happen in the beginning of the day. One big reason behind making them morning pages is the parts of your day that are prioritized are more likely to happen. For many it’s far too easy at night to say, oh, I’ll do it tomorrow. After work and family and all the other commitments, it can just be too much. If there are reasons you allot a different time of day to writing, it has to be a priority in order to make certain it gets completed. Since my toddler is much more of a morning person than I am, my pages tend to be during naptime.

I consider blogging separate from writing. I struggle to always turn out fiction, though. Sometimes I make it about fiction or my goals, especially if I’m deep into rewriting something and the distraction to write something new will carry me away from the project that needs to be finished. But I know I have trouble finishing projects. It’s why I have rough drafts lying around taunting me to polish them. One day I’m going to catch up – I swear…

All right. Not today or anytime soon.

I miss writing when I haven’t for a space of a few days. It doesn’t happen often. Rarely a few other priorities try to raise their ugly heads and get some attention. I hate it when that happens.

How sacred is your writing? Do you maintain morning pages or some other form of daily writing activity? I’d love to hear what you do to get back on track when the inevitable derailing occurs.

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Feeling Creative

I know it’s from an entire week of doing almost nothing but reading, writing, and critiquing. Almost nothing, because while I abandoned my family responsibilities I did call home twice a day to talk to my two year old. I think she appreciated it.

Having the focus and the deadlines made me do much more toward writing than I do in my normal life. I read every day, though it isn’t much. I write more often than not. [I know I’m supposed to say I write every day here, too, and I’m working on it. I’m on a 23 day streak at 750words and I wrote more than that most days of the class. Not quite every day, but I’m getting closer.]

I read a lot of excerpts and short stories I might not have found otherwise. I’m still working on organizing my list of books to read. I went to two readings at Prairie Lights, too.

During lectures sometimes I had to write down questions, little sparks of information that might turn into interesting stories. Probably will, but who knows when? It’s just a great week to start thinking about everything that everyday life seems to push to the side.

Which brings the inevitable spark of guilt about that novel I’ve been rewriting. The short story I’d like to keep a short story threatens to become another novel draft. Okay, it’d be a good novel, but I need another novel to write like I need a flat tire. Please, don’t let me be tempting fate with that statement because I still remember having issues with flat tires. Cross your fingers for me.

Sometimes I hear the clock ticking, like I need to be finished with this project or other by a certain date. I don’t like having so many projects unfinished. How many writing projects can one person juggle? And that one person better not be one of those machine-authors who has a couple books out a year. I think they must use interesting devices to play with time or not need sleep or something else out of a speculative fiction book.

How many writing projects can you handle? Do you make them wait their turn in line or do you let some of them skip the queue if they’re insistent? Maybe I’ll make them fight it out in my dreams or something and let the winner get written – even though that would totally be unfair to have a half-human fighter against some random teenagers. Of course, the teenagers have their own posses, so perhaps the better money would be on them.

I suppose I’ll find out soon enough. Happy writing to all.

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The Summer Writing Festival

It’s been a blast so far, two and a half days down and three to go.

I went to a poetry reading last night, and the books piled on the counter make me wonder about how we’ll sign them when the naysayers get their way and we have ebooks. Will there be a way to digitally tag them? Will it matter when we meet the authors? What will they buy when they listen to us read?

It’s not today’s problem, and it’s supposedly better not to borrow trouble before you need to.

I finished today’s homework. It takes time to read all the stories and make comments. I have gathered a reading list that doesn’t include all the things I’ve encountered, but I’m working on it. I won’t finish it by Christmas, and I’m only halfway through the week.

The other writers around here are great. Some of them seem in awe about the science fiction writers in our class and ask things like how do we ever manage to come up with those ideas? One of them was from a really nice lady taking a class called “Write what you don’t know.”

It’s better than one student got from another session, with the writers there expecting a raygun because she wrote something speculative. Oy, rayguns!

I’m enjoying the focus on speculative writing. Some of them also love YA like I do, so it feels like I’m among people who understand why I’m drawn to it.

The pace isn’t what I’m accustomed to – since there’s a lot of mental things to do with writing assignments and critiquing, when my usual day is spent chasing a toddler. It’s fun, just different. So while I’m tired, I also get up the next morning excited to go. And missing my little girl, of course. Today marks the longest time I’ve been away from her. At least we get to chat on the phone.

Off for another day of learning. 🙂

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Strong Points

Have you noticed, as a writer, there does not seem to be a lot of separation of tasks? I mean, sure, we write, we rewrite, we edit, we polish, which all supposedly falls under the umbrella of writing. The writers I know often seem to be better at one side than the other as far as the writing and the editing go. Some people race through rough drafts with the ease of a knife through butter, and others can polish a sentence to the shine of a mirror in one pass.

None of that goes with the rest of what the writer has to do – be visible. Does it take an awesome writer to gain visibility? Answers may vary, but the short answer is no. You can say all you want about what makes a great writer, but those talents are not the same as the ones to get you noticed by your audience. All of that is about publicity.

Publicity takes different strengths entirely. You can’t be afraid to be noticed or to have people look at you. It’s silly because most of the writers I know are fairly shy people. A lot of them wouldn’t mind at all if you locked them in a tower and bounced their manuscripts off to be published somewhere – but it doesn’t really work that way.

Once you gain some notoriety, then there are both good and bad ratings of your work. Well, this gives the sensitive writer something else to be shy about. One always hopes there will be something good to say about the work in question, but someone out there is always willing to dash your hopes.

There are published books out there about the rejection letters other writers received. I think these books are supposed to be inspirational, but how much rejection is one supposed to take? Once the book comes out and an author waits for reviews, they might be good and might be bad. Plus, even financial success and movie deals won’t stop an amateur or even a non-writer from saying how the book could have been better or saying that the author isn’t good.

Do you ever stop and say, really? First, they tell you not to go into the field because it’s cutthroat. Second, they tell you to expect you’re getting better if you get a hand-written rejection. Third, even getting a book deal with a major publishing house and sharing your vision of character and plot with all the readers and getting your name to be recognized and you still need to deal with the naysayers? Does anyone know when s/he’s reached success?

I know if I believed everything they told me I probably wouldn’t keep writing and submitting my work. Part of why I do it is just to share them with people who would like to read them. In keeping with that goal, I’m posting a story on this site for free within the next week or so. Ironing out the last few kinks in the electronic formats with a copyeditor friend of mine. Don’t be afraid to comment whether you like it or not – partly I want to know that you’re reading it. If you want to send me feedback, please do so to my email. I would dearly love to hear from all of you.

Part of surviving the writing business is knowing where you’re strong and emphasizing those points. I’m not the best at promotion, but I am learning as I go and definitely figuring things out. Enjoy the freebie. I haven’t decided if I’m going to make it a regular thing, but that is definitely something I wouldn’t mind doing if the response is good. [A good response being a lot of people want to read it, not just a lack of death-threats for me to stop writing in my inbox.]

Happy reading.

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Bird by Bird

Anne Lamott wrote Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. It’s a book I’ve seen on many lists for writers to read. I doubt anyone can read all the writing books out there and still manage to find time to write, but many find inspiration or small gems of wisdom between the covers.

Lamott made me think in several places. Her tone is very conversational and lends itself well to letting the reader think she’s confiding directly. She amused me when she talked about her successful writer friends and how she felt she couldn’t be friends with them after their success and dealing with her own jealousy.

Some things resonated deeper, though. How do you think your life will change after you’re published? Maybe it seems like the stars will shine down and everything will sparkle, but it’s not going to give you inner validation. She’s definitely right when she says it isn’t going to change who you are. If you’re not enough before, you still won’t be.

[This is not saying it isn’t awesome. It just isn’t everything.]

There’s always going to be someone better, too, or more successful, or even less deserving. But there’s also a reminder there about why we write. It wasn’t just to be rich and famous, was it? Because there seem to be a hundred easier ways to become rich and/or famous besides writing.

Like many others who advise writers, she advocates to write. She employs examples from writing classes and conferences she’s led that illustrate how she handles things like criticism and motivating others. How many of us know how to dish out or receive a critique? Have you thought about what you would say to someone who’s a much less accomplished writer (and likely new to it) that would help them improve and yet not discourage them? It’s one thing to not think you can simply send the story out to be published, but if you crush a beginning writer, what good is that?

After finishing the book, I read the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I think the people who commented either loved it or hated it. Someone gave it a bad review because he (or she, who knows?) received several copies of it. Is that a reason to give a book a bad review? I’m not exactly sure if the commenter even read the book. That seems unfair to me.

But I guess I’d be glad for a lot of reviews on a book of mine. That would mean it was getting read. Like having it in the bargain bin in front of the store – it might be like having the store be completely unconcerned if it got stolen, but it’s much better than being remaindered in the dumpster out back.

I’m glad I read the book. I understand why it’s recommended for writers to read. I definitely see why many believe it to be inspirational. Something about finding someone who understands our feelings can make us more dedicated to the work. Whatever makes us keep writing seems like a good thing to me.

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