The Truth Behind Writing

Noemi Martinez

All writers must mature and experiment to discover their own effective, efficient writing process. However, as writers, we must keep in mind the following points, the writing truths.

Writing Is Usually Hard Work

Sometimes writers and aspiring writers believe that while they are straining over the page, the rest of the world is out there pleasantly writing away with no effort. On the contrary, writing is rarely a piece of cake for anyone. Sure, there are a few who write easily without a worry as to content, focus or audience, but they are the exception. For everyone else, writing is hard work.

Writing Takes Time

Nothing complex or involved can be done quickly, and writing is no exception. Stand back and look at the writing process as a series of steps. Brainstroming, freewriting, idea clustering; all take time and must be fully formed out before the actual writing begins. At each process, take a look back and evaluate the topic being discussed. If you have deviated and the writing is must follow a certain theme or topic, backtrack and start again. If you wait until the last minute to tackle your writing, you will build in frustration and failure. In addition, writing often goes better if you allow yourself enough time to break it down into manageable steps. This way, you can establish intermediate goals and experience success each time one of these goals is completed. In addition, each success can press you forward with a caffinee like kick of confidence that makes for better writing.

Everyone Gets Stuck From time to time

When this happens to you, leave your writing for a time and renew yourself by doing other things. Don't read a book or anything written. This will clear your mind and not muddle your thoughts on your current writer's block. When you return to your work, you may have the answer to your dilemma. If not, try to discover why the problem exists and appraise the worth of the writing assignment.

More Than Anything Else, Writing Means Revision

Writers are unfair to themselves if they expect their first few drafts to be perfect. Unfortunately, first efforts are seldom agreeable. Professional writers are always tinkering with their work or making total redesigns to their drafts as they try to find the results they are after, and if pros must revise, inexperienced writers shouldn't count on getting it right the first time.

So, if you look at an early effort and discover everything is not what it should be, do not despair or conclude that you cannot write. Instead, get in there and revise. Often writing starts as one thing and end up as another. This changes can improve not only the writer but the writing. Even though you may have planned carefully and executed your plan to the best of your ability, you may discover that what you have is not working. When you realize you have major problems and no attempts at revision seem to help enough, then you may have to begin again. When you have a final piece of writing that is much better than the first draft, you will be glad you edited, revised and started over again.
© Noemi Martinez.

Writer's Dozen: The Twelve Lessons I've Learned So Far

By Talia Carner

I began my writing life eight years ago, when, previously unaware of such a desire, I sat at my computer and poured out a 640-page novel. I knew I had found a new calling -- the first task of which was to fix that maiden effort. Since then, I've learned a lot, although I am just beyond the novice stage at this craft.

Here is my newly accumulated wisdom:

Stay away from Big Theories and those who espouse them; they are stifling, disheartening, self-indulgent -- and deadly. A Big Theory is one that tells you that you shouldn't even attempt to write unless some very big -- and usually impossible-- requirement is first met (for example get an MFA first; get reborn, this time in an exotic land.) These theories often come out of academic circles, and if you listen to them, you'll never produce a single finished piece of writing. Big "how-to write" books with writing tips are okay as long as they are not Big Theory books.

When it comes to fiction, you may write about what you know, but don't limit yourself to your own narrow, unworldly experiences. Write more about what you don't know. Like an actor on stage, immerse yourself in the heads and hearts of other characters. Give them jobs you need to research, or set them in places you've only glimpsed. If you write only about what you know, you'll exhaust your material before your first book is complete.

Study grammar. Keep a grammar book on your night table and read it when you go to bed. (As a bonus, you'll get a good night's sleep.) Dog-ear the rules you never knew existed or ones you have forgotten. In the long run, there is no escape from it: you must know your grammar.

Collect interesting new words, exquisite phrases, strong adjectives, and sentences you wish you had written. Dream up similes and images, note impressions and germs of ideas, and store them away for future use. Develop a computer database and categorize your collection for easy retrieval. While doing so, get rid of your pieces of paper, envelope backs, restaurant napkins. Go 21st century. No more notebooks. I know writers who have accumulated thousands of pages they must scan to find a single thread of an idea. Grrrrrrrr. Think of it as your own personal Thesaurus, Flip Dictionary, Book of Quotations, Word Power, Fact Finder, and Encyclopedia of Proverbs rolled into one.

Ask for feedback -- and listen to it. You are in the business of communication. If the ideas and emotions expressed in your writing meet a blank wall, is it the fault of your readers who "simply don't get it"? Leave your ego in the basement and don't explain to your reviewer verbally what your written words failed to communicate. I never think that my work is so perfect that it is beyond improvement, especially when the feedback is seconded by other readers. And by the way, if you stay up to write the story all night, it is not ready in the morning. Not only you should wait (days, weeks, months) to reread the story, but also it would be wise to first pass it by some fellow writers whose constructive critiquing might save you a retraction or a rejection.

Read how-to books and articles: How to structure a story, how to write a dialogue, how to develop a scene, how to sharpen your prose. Apply the newly acquired lessons to your current writing, but also keep going back to older pieces. If they weren't published but still possess something unique and fresh, perhaps you can salvage them with new writing tricks.

Read Dear Abby and other advice columnists. Their readers' letters reflect life's vicissitudes and tribulations. Choose a letter whose topic makes you stop and think, then write a story from the point of view of one of the characters. Emotions are everything. Reach deep into that well, and hook your readers. Even if you're not a proficient typist, close your eyes, get into a trance, and type away. Who are you? Where are you now? What are the details of the moment, of your surroundings? What personal dynamics have led to this particular predicament described in the newspaper column?

"Kill your babies" was the hardest rule to impose upon myself. I found, though, that when I love a particular sentence or word so much that it escapes every round of editing unscathed, chances are it no longer quite fits in the story either in content or in spirit. Oh, I have so many babies crying in the bowels of my computer. I compensate for my loss by entering them into my database for future use.

Multiple-submit. Forget editors requesting exclusivity. Your beard will reach the ground as you wait for life to happen -- and for them to respond. A full 1/3 of editors will never use your SASE. If you seriously want your story to see the light of the day, send your story -- workshopped and polished, of course -- to 20-40 suitable publications in each round. Ditto for submitting a manuscript to agents. That would be the day when two agents offer you representation. (They multiple submit to publishers!)

Listen. Really listen to life shaping around you. I must admit, I had no idea that I wasn't taking enough notice until I began to write. Now I listen to cadence, word choice, voice, non-verbal communication, the development of an idea -- especially when that party guest or the girl in the bus or the man in the restaurant has a problem expressing themselves. How else can I write a meaningful dialogue, get ideas for new stories, build characters?

Use all your senses. Check each piece of your writing for taste, smell, sight, sound, touch. Start experiencing the world again by reviewing your own impressions. The other night, during an ice storm, I went out to smell the air (burning wood), hear the sound (tinkling bells, occasional snapping of a frozen twig), see the sight (light flickering through crystal-covered tree branches), taste (careful here, my tongue could stick to the lamppost) and touch (luxuriantly smooth and almost stinging).

Experimental writing and breaking the rules work best after you've mastered the craft. Picasso was an extraordinarily accomplished figurative painter before he chopped up his subjects' faces and limbs. The lack of balanced composition and sure-footed knowledge of what should be on the canvas (or paper) bleed through in amateurish work.

Don't launch your adult life by devoting it to writing a novel. Unless you are extraordinarily talented, get a life first. If writing is your calling, it will come knocking; you won't escape the urge. But until such time, you must develop life experience: suffer an obnoxious boss, forgive your parents, get betrayed by your best friend, get to know closely people from all ages, races, classes and parts of the world, from all religious and political affiliations. Experience the range of emotions only life can bring -- success, betrayal, obsession, loss, love.

Whoops. Here I go with a Big Theory. What did I tell you about Big Theories? Ignore them!

How To Keep Your Story Engine Running

By James Scott Bell
Beginning a novel is easy. You can start with a bang, introduce colorful characters, set up intrigue, and generally gun the story engine like teenager in his first car.It's that long middle section that's a challenge.

Sometimes your plot engine starts to sputter and spit as it rolls through Act 2.It may even stall. Instead of words flowing out of your tapping fingers, your hands freeze over the keyboard as you stare at the screen. You don't know how to answer the question What happens next?Some simple repairs may be in order.

PLOT FIXES

Review your basics.Do you have a protagonist with an objective? Arresting characters can only carry a book so far. Unless they are actively, passionately trying to get (or get away from) something, you'll soon run into plot stall.Further, the objective must be absolutely crucial to the protagonist' s well-being. If it isn't, why should the readers care about what happ ens?Suppose you have a lawyer whose objective is to leave his law firm and start his own practice. That has implications for his professional life but is not, by itself, enough to sustain novel-length interest.

But what if the law firm is a Mafia front and leaving is not permitted (unless it's in a pine box)? Then you definitely have the protagonist' s well-being at stake, and a plot that moves--as does John Grisham's The Firm.Watch out for the decision objective, because it is usually weak. This is when a character decides to do something, maybe out of interest or curiosity. Yes, he moves toward a goal, but only because he's decided to do so; he could very well have decided not to.

The best objectives are thrust on the characters. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker could have decided to leave his planet and go off to become a Jedi. Weak. But when his aunt and uncle are killed by Empire minions, he has a strong reason to leave and join the rebellion.Sheriff Brody in Jaws does not simply decide to take a fishing trip. He goes after the shark because it will kill more of the people in his town, and the mayor has decided to keep the beaches open. The hunt for the shark is a forced decision.

Next, look at the opposition character. Is he as strong (or preferably stronger) than your protagonist? Is he three dimensional? Have you given him a complex background so he's not just the personification of evil?All opposition characters believe what they are doing is justified. Create this justification, and even some empathy, for your opposition. Attractive villains are more dangerous than the old-fashioned moustache twirlers. In The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter's charms nearly outweigh his, ahem, appetites. He is an unforgettable- -and scarier--character as a result.

CHARACTER REMEDIES

There is also a chance that your main characters run out of gas in the desert of Act 2. Here are some warning signs:• An overabundance of small talk• Too much introspection• Too little conscious actionThe good news is, character solutions are easy once you identify what's gone wrong.With small talk, the character is usually in a scene with someone on her side, an ally in the overall story. Perhaps these two are sitting in a restaurant, chatting about events:"What's the good word these days, Tina?" Rhonda asked."Oh, a little of this, a little of that." Tina smiled and raised her water glass."I know, same old, same old. How's Bill?""Bill's just fine. A good man.""You're a lucky woman.""Yes, I guess I am."

Dull. So put some inner or outer tension in the conversation. For inner tension, show us a character's thoughts and little actions that reveal her insides:"What's the good word these days, Tina?" Rhonda asked."Oh, a little of this, a little of that." Tina gritted her teeth into a smile. She raised her water glass, holding it too tightly. Relax, she told herself. Don’t let her know Bill walked out."I know, same old, same old. How's Bill?"Tina took a deep breath and fought to keep from trembling. "Bill's just fine. A good man."

You can also show outer tension between friends by creating arguments:"What's the good word these days, Tina?" Rhonda asked."What is that supposed to mean?" Tina took a sip of water."I'm just asking. Are you all right?""Of course I'm all right. What is this, psych 101?"Rhonda looked away, shaking her head.Introspection, a character reflecting on his plight, is good in small doses.

But if the character's thoughts run on too long -- and a good rule of thumb is that 200 words is getting too long -- the reader may start to lose interest.Simply break up introspection with action. The action doesn't have to be violent or intense, though it should at least contain some uncertainty.

A character walking through a house, alone, can be trying to find a lost object. Or a phone number. Introspection can then be dropped in between beats:Where had he put it? If he didn't find the keys, he was cooked. But he was always cooked, it seemed. Life had handed him plenty of slaps. He was used to it. So what if he lashed out at others? Why should he suffer alone?He lifted the sofa cushions. The keys weren't there, either.

Finally, if a character is not taking steps toward her objective, it is a sign that she is not passionate enough about the stakes.In her book Getting Into Character (Wiley), Brandilyn Collins counsels coloring the passions of the characters. This deepening will generate layers of emotion that propel the character forward.To begin coloring a character's passion, identify her deepest desire. Name it. Then explore all the emotional aspects surrounding that desire.

The desire for revenge, for example, can include anger, shock, resentment, embarrassment, shame.Delve into each of these and the reasons they attach to the character. Push them to their limits and analyze your character anew.

Now look at the opposite of the main desire. For revenge, you might take a look at compassion, mercy, love. These will give you the seeds of a character's inner conflict. And a character with doubts is a lot more engaging than one who has everything all figured out.Now it is left to you to illustrate, in dramatic fashion, the character's multi-faceted emotional struggles. You have a deep well of passion to draw from. Driving a novel to the last page involves frequent stops, refueling, and some work under the hood.

Use these techniques to keep rolling toward a satisfying end.

James Scott Bell is an award-winning novelist and writer conference speaker. His latest novels are the legal thriller Sins of the Fathers (Zondervan) and the historical epic Glimpses of Paradise (Bethany House). He's also the author of Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure (Writers Digest Books). Visit his website: www.jamesscottbell. com

When To Revise

by Durant Imboden

Polish first or forge ahead?

When you're writing a long manuscript, it's hard to resist the temptation to improve what you've already written--even if that means delaying the completion of your book, play, or screenplay.

For many writers, revising existing text has several advantages over forging ahead:

· It helps the writer avoid difficult questions such as "What happens in the next chapter?"
· It's easier than writing new material.
· It lets the writer polish a diamond in the rough into a glittering gem that can be enjoyed privately or displayed to an appreciative audience.

Most writing handbooks insist that revisions should be delayed until a work is completed, if only because so many new writers fail to get beyond the first 25 or 50 pages. The attitude seems to be, "Better a flawed concerto than an unfinished symphony."

This is certainly a reasonable point of view, but it ignores the fact that many authors (and not just beginners) tend to write without being analytical. By forging ahead, the writer runs the risk of producing a manuscript that just doesn't work in terms of character, plot, or (in the case of nonfiction) logical cohesion.

Here's an alternative suggestion:
Write the "setup" section of your manuscript, which might be the first 50 pages of a novel or the first 30 pages of a screenplay.

Next, take time to reflect on what you've written and see what needs fixing. Does your original concept, treatment, or outline still work? If not, this is the time to make basic structural changes, modify character attributes, and make final preparations for the months of work that lie ahead.

To avoid the "fine tuning but never finishing" syndrome, set deadlines for each stage of the work. For example:

· Revise setup section: Two weeks.
· Revise subsequent chapters: No more than one day of revision for each week of new writing.

It's also a good idea to have an overall schedule for the project--e.g., 2-3 pages a day, 15 pages a week, 60 pages a month, with revisions sandwiched in as time allows. This will motivate you to keep working, since you'll be able to relax by polishing your text whenever you meet your production goals.

Finding Time To Write

So you want to be a writer. Since you have made the monumental decision, now it's time to get started.

Finding time to write

With every day already packed full of must-do activities, where can aspiring authors find that extra time each day to write?

Are you convinced that you could succeed as a writer, if you just had more time to write? Is your day already packed with “must-do” activities? Do you wonder where prolific writers find that precious commodity--time to write? The answer is that they make time in their 24-hour day, which, incidentally, is exactly the same length as yours and mine. If you are really serious about writing, you, too, can make time, no matter how packed your schedule seems to be.

1. GET AWAY FROM THE TV SET. Most of us would never admit the actual number of hours we spend there. Why not establish that first hour, or even half hour each evening as your special time for writing? If you have your work area ready to go as soon as you sit down, you’d be surprised at how much work you can get done in just half an hour.

2. GET A NEW HAIRSTYLE. You are probably asking, “What does my hair have to do with writing?” A lot, if you are spending 30-40 minutes a day setting and styling your hair. Have your hairdresser work out a style for you that is quick and easy. Voila! Another half hour a day for writing. (This tip is mainly for the women readers, but a few of you men may find it useful, too.)

3. GET ORGANIZED. Divide a small loose-leaf notebook, into sections and spend some time planning your writing at the beginning of each month. (Or week, if you prefer.) Give each article or story you plan to work on that week or month its own section. Make a rough outline of the article or story on the first page of each section. Keep the notebook handy. When a new idea occurs to you, rush to the notebook and jot it down.

4. GET RID OF activities that steal your time and give nothing in return. If you belong to a writer’s group or some other club that has deteriorated into a boring social afternoon each week, just think how many words you could write during that same period of time. Don’t become a recluse, though. Writers do need the stimulation of being with others. Just cut out activities that waste your time instead of enriching your life.

5. GET LESS PARTICULAR about household chores. Does your carpet really need vacuuming every single day? Why not try it once or twice a week? If the roof doesn’t fall in, you’ve probably discovered a way to snatch a little more writing time for yourself.

6. GET SMART. Do you rush to the mall several times a month to look for gifts for friends and relatives? Instead, make a list of the gifts you will need each month of the year. Then, once a month, pick up all the gifts you will need for the next 30 days. Once a year would be even better, but sizes and tastes change so that might not be practical. Do throw in a couple of generic gifts in case something unexpected comes up.

7. GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN. Do you bake cookies when store-bought ones taste just as good (or better) and actually, in many cases, cost less? Spend a few hours once a month planning menus, preparing and freezing casseroles, etc. Then, while those casseroles bake, you can write.

8. GET OUT OF THE GROCERY STORE. Plan ahead. Make a list showing the aisles of your local grocery store and what is located in each. Keep the list in a handy spot so that family members can write down items that need to be replenished. On grocery buying day, copy the list on your fax machine, and give each family member a copy. At the grocery store, divide the aisles between you, your partner, and your children (if they are old enough) and meet at the front counter in 5 minutes. A few more minutes at the check-out and you are on your way home--- to write. (This not only saves time; it also saves money that would ordinarily be spent on impulse buying.)

9. GET A HEAD START on morning chores. If you love to write in the early morning but can’t because of the rush to fix breakfast, get kids ready for school, make lunches, etc., switch most of these activities to just before bedtime the night before. Help the kids lay out their clothes and supplies for the next day, make lunches and freeze them, and set the table for breakfast. Not only will they get to sleep later in the morning, but you will have a little extra quiet time to write.

10. GET A GRIP on those stray moments that pop up in everyone’s day. Carry your notebook, or even a little purse or pocket size spiral tablet and utilize the time you wait for your kids while they take swimming, piano, or karate lessons. Don’t waste time in doctor or dentist’s office reading articles that are 2 years old when you could spend it creating brand new copy. Is the professor late for a class you are taking? Pull out that little spiral notebook. Even if you need peace and quiet to write great literature, these unexpected moments can be used to organize your thoughts on a new subject, outline a new article, or plot out the next months dinner menus. The point is, recognize these moments as a gift of time, and use them productively.

There you have it: ten very workable ideas to help you find more time to write. There are other interesting things to do in life, but most real writers can’t imagine what they might be. If you have read this far, you are without doubt one of them. Here’s hoping your next article or story will reach your waiting public very soon.