A page a day
You know how sometimes you have to learn certain lessons for yourself? No matter how many times the advice is given to you previously?
I’m spending less time on this blog the last few weeks because I’ve been using all my word count in my work in progress. It’s kinda like NaNoWriMo, only it takes me longer than a month. Since September 22nd, I’ve completed 50,000 words of a projected 90,000-word story, most of which has gotten done between last month and this. I truly hope to be finished with the first draft by the end of January.
My first novel took me something like six years to write. The second took another five. Both required help from graduate school structure, mentors, and critique partners.
While my second novel goes through the process of finding an agent for representation, I’ve started manuscript #3. But my writing process is totally different.
I used to have to “warm up,” so to speak, before I could write. I had to clear my email and check certain other sites and generally procrastinate before I felt ready to write. (I recall more than one game of spider solitaire being a part of this process.) Once I was warmed up, if I didn’t have at least two hours or more ahead of me, I got frustrated and blocked and couldn’t write. I used to think if I didn’t complete a major chunk (a chapter or two) in a writing session that it wasn’t even worth my time to sit down and write.
Not so anymore. I wake up early every weekday morning and most weekends with the goal of getting a page done, even if it is a page of total crap that needs to be rewritten the next day. For the first month or two, a page is all I accomplished, and it seemed like such a paltry thing, but it was enough. Lately I rarely leave the computer without at least 1,000 words complete, and usually much more.
I think by forcing myself to get out a page, I forced myself to plot. My difficulty writing had always been that I just didn’t know what should come next. When I forced myself to write a little something every day, I forced something to come next. And that lead to another next and another next and another next.
During my time at SHU I was told that if I wrote a page a day for 365 days, I’d have a novel. (I’m sure this advice should be attributed to someone specific, but I remember it as advice that was simply passed around.) A year sounded like such a short time compared to the five or six it took to do each of my first two manuscripts. Finally following that advice has led to me getting a manuscript done (well, not yet, but I’m on track and confident) in six months.
My advice? Get your butt in the chair and dive “write” in! A page a day is all it takes!
The trilogy wait
A couple of weeks ago I finished reading Cassandra Clare’s first trilogy in The Mortal Instruments world: City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass. This is a YA fantasy series I had heard good things about, and I wasnt disappointed.
The thing is there is a second trilogy taking up where the first left off. The first book of the new trilogy has already been released, the second will be out in May of next year, and the third presumably sometime after that. (Clare is also in the middle of a prequel trilogy.) I was pretty satisfied by the first trilogys ending, and I really am not a very patient person when it comes to story. If the sequel trilogy were out in its entirety now, I would read it, but since it isnt, I wont. I don t like being left hanging.
Of course this is no ones problem but my own. I understand the reasons why trilogies/series are not written to completion before being published in parts.
Still, the Mortal Instruments experience reminds me of reading Dan Simmonss Hyperion, which for some reason I didnt know had three more books before the conclusion. Luckily all four books had been published when I read the first one, so I bought the others and saw the story to its end without delay.
I discovered Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials trilogy during the release of the second book, The Subtle Knife. I had to waitimpatientlyto read The Amber Spyglass. It was a long, but totally worthwhile, wait.
And then there were the years where Battlestar Galactica (the new one) and Lost were on TV. I remember that period as being a pretty rich one in my life for consuming story.
Of course this Star Wars fan had a really hard time waiting for George Lucas to finish his saga.
Do I even have to mention Harry Potter?
My point is more than a confessed dislike of delayed endings. Besides just being driven mad by the wait, I come up with my own ideas and speculations about what should happen. The more time I wait, the more speculation. A writer who can produce something even better than I imagined is the writer whose story I recommend to everyone I know. In many ways, this puts a heavy burden on a writer to outsmart all those people who, like me, will love the world theyve been introduced to and love to speculate within it.
Ive been very pleased with some of the endings Ive waited for. Not pleased with others. And I cant help but wonder if my reaction would have been different, in either direction, had I been able to experience the whole story without waiting.
As a writer of YA fantasy and science fiction, I feel the pressure to trilogize/serialize. This scares me because I dont know that I can write a final chapter better than the composite masterpiece of all my waiting readers.
Free creative writing course
Let’s say you’re a person who’s thinking about being a writer. You have little to no formal training and want to explore some topics in creative writing in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Or maybe you have some experience with creative writing and want to remind yourself of some of the basics. If you are such a person, or could put yourself in such a person’s shoes, I’d love some feedback on what’s below.
I’m putting together a syllabus for a course I’d like to volunteer to teach in my new community. Not long ago, I taught a community education course in my old town using this eight-week schedule. It met for about two hours once a week in the evening. Specifically, I’d love thoughts on . . .
1) What would be your ideal number of weeks for a course? Ideal number of hours in each weekly session?
2) What would be your ideal proportion of writing vs. critique vs. lessons? (Below there are seven weeks of lessons and one critique session. Writing exercises are part of the first seven weeks. We also look at passages from published books to illustrate the lessons.)
3) Any topics you’d like covered that aren’t mentioned below?
week 1: Description
An important concept for a writer to understand is the difference between showing and telling and when to use either. We will explore this concept as well as the use of all five senses in descriptive writing, how to select setting details to create a particular effect, and the concept of proportion.
week 2: Characterization
Most readers will fall in love with a story because they fall in love with its characters. We will discuss ways character is revealed, including selection of descriptive detail, using the mirror, words, actions, other characters, contrasts, and choices characters make.
week 3: Dialogue
A significant portion of a publishable story must be dialogue. This week we will look at proper dialogue format, speech tags, beats, and writing off-the-nose. We will review two common pitfalls of writing dialogue: Tom Swifties and As-You-Know-Bob (aka maid-and-butler), and we will discuss the choices of using profanity and/or dialect in characters’ speech.
week 4: Language
There’s no way around it, the most beautiful story and most memorable characters will mean little if your language isn’t readable. “Omit needless words!” (the 10% rule) is our mantra for this week. We will look at such common problem areas as overuse of adverbs, weak verbs, distracting repetition, misplaced modifiers, disagreement between subject/verb and pronoun/antecedent, lack of parallel structure, improper comma use, cliche. We will look at purple prose and the language of melodrama. We will also look at examples of the excellent use of simile, metaphor, and hyperbole to make writing more effective.
week 5: Story
The plan for a novel must consider long-term goals for plot and character. We will look at novel structure and what must go into a novel’s beginning, middle, and end in order to satisfy a reader. Topics include character arcs, the hero’s journey, the promise and the pay-off, and creating frustration.
week 6: Business
We will look at examples of the cover letter, the synopsis, and proper manuscript format and discuss the properties of each. We will also touch on such practical issues as beginning a platform, searching for an agent, furthering your writing education, and e-publishing/print-on-demand.
week 7: Potpourri
Topics include point of view (types and “camera distance”), hooks, cliffhangers, in medias res, backstory, symbol, motif, theme, and echo.
week 8: Critique
Completely optional but highly encouraged! Students may submit up to five pages of writing, properly formatted, for critique. These pages may be a cover letter, synopsis, and/or opening page(s) for a novel and must be received by the instructor and classmates no later than [insert deadline]. At home (yes, homework!) and previous to our final meeting, we will read each others’ pages and write comments in the text. At our final meeting we will share our feedback . . . and maybe a little party food.
Thanks for any and all feedback on this!
Traveling epiphanies
One of my favorite ways to connect with mywriterself is to travel, and my favorite vacations are ones that are busy. Many people prefer spending a week relaxing at the beach or cruising a new social scene, but I enjoy vacations where I’m exploring nature and/or history. It’s not unusual for me to plan an itinerary where I overnight in several different places.
My especial favorites are national parks, ancient ruins, and working cathedrals. For me, there is no way to feel closer to the divine than to stand on the rim of the grand canyon or to walk through the ruins at Tintern Abbey. I want more than anything to tour the Holy Land and to see the older placeseastern and westernwhere civilization was born.
But I’ve had epiphanies closer to homestanding on a beach, walking a city street, hiking a trail, running around a lake, taking a drive on a country road.
During travel I reopen the mental space (no computer, no phone, no TV) to contemplate the vastness/smallness of the world, of human experience, of something mystical binding it all. Sometimes I feel like if I reach out just a little further I’ll come to an understanding, and it’s in this nearness where I find the urge to write, the urge to capture a feeling of insight that passes almost as quickly as it comes.
I don’t think I write whole novels in this poetical-spiritual headspace. My novel writing is a little too practical for that. But I do hope that somewhere in the climax of each book, a reader will feel that epiphany, that glimpse of understanding that inspires me to write.
After all, isn’t reading a novel simply another form of travel?
Denali National Park, Alaska, 2011
Where have you traveled and found inspiration?
Crank it out
The reason most people fail instead of succeed is that they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.
I’ve tried to find this quotation’s author so I can give proper attribution, but my attempts on the internet keep coming up “unknown.” I first heard these words when the boys track team where I used to coach had it put on the backs of their long-sleeve T-shirts. Shortly thereafter, the girls team had their own shirts made with the same quote. So many years later, I still have these shirts the teams gave me.
It’s obvious how this quote relates to track and field. When you’re competing, or when you’re working out, or when you’re supposed to be working out, there are so many temptations to slack off, give up, or simply doubt yourself. Athletes who work through these temptations tend to find greater success. I would think it’s obvious this quote also relates to pretty much anything else in life. If you want something badly enough, you have to work at it no matter how you’re tempted to slack off in the now. You must always remind yourself of why you’re working.
In my case, my goal is to be a professional writer. Over the course of my writing my first manuscript, I wasn’t sure of this goal. I didn’t need the motivation of a potential writing career because I was writing to get a masters degree, and I had a built-in structure of deadlines through my graduate program. I began my second manuscript after graduation, and I was doing pretty well until I hit a major life-hurdle and stopped writing altogether. Returning to grad school for another degree helped me get that manuscript done.
But somehow things are different for my third. It’s partly simple maturity, but I’ve also finally come to the conclusion I want to be a writer.
It used to be that the stars would have to align, the earth had to fall silent, and several muses needed to be singing in order for me to write. I required huge chunks of hours at a time because it took forever for me to warm up to write and then struggle through plotting. It wasn’t worth my effort to start a writing session that didn’t result in one or more complete chapters.
Now, with a little one in my care, this is impossible. It was close to impossible before, which is why I took a very long time to finish my first two manuscripts. Somewhere along the way someone told me if I wrote a page a day for year, I’d have a manuscript. This made sense, but I just couldn’t do it.
In the last month or so, I’ve been getting up extra early every weekday to write. Some days I only do crank out one pagebut this is the goal. Some days I write a page of notes, either of ideas or research. Many days I get more than one page done. This is working for me, but the trick is that I don’t give in to the million other easier things I could be doing at the computer (or to sleeping in). I save those for the reward when my page is done.
I know that I’m capable of getting more words done in a day, but for now it’s still a little hard with the toddler pulling me away to “go play marbles” every three seconds. I’ve always done my best work under pressure, and I hope someday soon to sign with an agent and begin the deadline process with a publisher.
Do you have any special ways you’ve tackled the temptation to give up what you want most for what you want at the moment?