Narrowing Characters, Narrows Plot...

 

Narrowing Down Your Characters = Narrowing Down Your Plot Possibilities...

 

If you're wondering where your story is taking you — and this is why your fingers won't move on the keys — consider this exercise:

 

Take each main character and make a list of what they will DO and NOT DO, according to their personality and motivation.

 

That will highlight the finite possible plot points to your tale.

 

Again, this is yet another reason WHY I do NOT espouse being a panster. 

You NEED TO KNOW before your fingers go!

 

Knowing what can't work is as important as what can in a book. That will keep your story on a reasonable trajectory, and often limit or remove those plot corners you could have painted yourself into had you not known, and plunked fingers on keys, regardless.

 

And again, this is another reason why it's SO important to take months, at least, getting to know your characters. Could you meet someone at a cocktail party, grab their hand, and know what they would do after you left the room? Hardly. Don't think it's any different for characters.

 

Whittle down your characters' options - likes, dislikes, needs, wants.

See who aligns with whom.

See who repels who.

 

You might color in your story's plot black holes just by this simple act.

Break Your Own Writer Rules...

 

Today, I want you to pretend that everything you "think" is correct about your beliefs as a writer is WRONG.

Yes, you read me right.

 

Pretend that if you are a devout believer in the Oxford Comma, today, you're not.

Pretend that if you believe in the 3-Act story, today, you won't.

Pretend that if you believe you can't write anything today, you CAN.

 

Now, don't argue with me. My fingers are in my ears, and I'm humming the theme song to the TV show, M*A*S*H, so I won't hear you anyways...

 

Today, DECIDE to be WRONG about all your pre-conceived writing notions.

Remember: Agatha Christie broke the cardinal murder mystery rule, creating an unreliable narrator in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

 

Writing IS ART.

Yes, there are rules.

Yes, you have to be skilled enough to know when to abide by them and when to break them.

 

But today, we are going to force you to think differently about yourself and your writing capability.

 

HOMEWORK: make a LIST of all the things you believe writing is, for you, then make a second list of how you could be wrong about ALL those beliefs, and an example of how you'd break your own "rules."

I need you to be more FLEXIBLE as an artist.

 

The fact that I know you're a) not writing at all, or b) can't finish that book is because c) you're too rigid in your own beliefs, and d) you're new to this writing world, so you probably are mistaken in many of those beliefs.

 

I said, don't argue...*fingers in ears, humming M*A*S*H...* I can, too, hit the high C at the end. Just listen! :-P

 

Okay, now go do this exercise.

I know you guys are out there, even if you're silent like the grave.

 

You're not commenting because you're scared of me, right?

I can appreciate that. 

 

Now, go off, quietly, and complete this exercise, and if you sneak back later, when I'm not here, to tell the others how this mind-blowing exercise went for you, I promise I won't eavesdrop.

 

And I won't hit you either... probably. :-)

Plot, Character Passion - How Long Can the Love Story Last?

 

Plot/Character Passion... How Long Can the Love Story Last?

It had better be months, if not years, my fellow scribes, for a book-length work takes a long time to create. The story and its characters... can you sustain the passion you have for both for however long it takes?

 

Odds of Long Term Literary Relationship Success: most new writers I've run across have no conscious idea of how immersed/dedicated you need to be with both in order to finish a book. 

 

To new writers, their story and the people in it, well, they fall in love at first sight, like you would with some handsome guy you barely know. And the two of you rush off to Vegas to get hitched. And after the honeymoon phase wears off, you guys can't return fast enough to Vegas to get a quickie divorce, aka, the new writer dropping that unfinished manuscript like it's a hot, infected potato, and shoves it into the back of their desk drawer, never to see the light again.

 

Grrreat...just peachy........

Are we still having fun?

 

Moral of this Pathetic Story: don't jump at the next shiny idea that hits your periphery. Think long and hard about it. Can it, and you, sustain the passion for the time it takes to flesh that pal out into a long work? Can you two endure the months of frustrating research before one word hits the page? Can you live through the bad drafts and the rewrites and the problematic scenes and sentences that take forever to get right, and even then, go to your editor smelling like poo?

 

Did I mention writing a book is work?

 

Hint: pick a story idea that has been with you for many years. All of my book-length pieces have been traumatic events or societal mysteries that have tumbled around in my head for decades, so without one word written, those happenings and the people they affected have always been there, in my subconscious, waiting for the right time to be chosen as books.

 

Note: that's not to say new ideas don't have lasting power. It's just ideas that you've already lived with for quite some time have become quiet loves, haven't they? Not some flash in the pan momentary passion.

 

The Plot: study it. Ensure it has lasting tension, story power, for 300 pages.

The Characters: have you fully rounded them out? Have you lived with them long enough so you guys CAN endure the mundane months/years ahead? In good writing times and in bad? And yes, my peeps, this book will be a marriage, for better, for worse, in more poverty than wealth. How dedicated are you to this relationship?

 

My Advice: keep a running notebook of all those shiny, new ideas, but think long and hard about the ones you "think" could make a book. If the passion dies, so will the piece. And a new writer holds enough doubt in their head. They don't need to pile on.

 

Spoiler Alert: In the movie, Love Story, Ally McGraw croaks, so Ryan O'Neal doesn't have time to get sick of her bratty ways... ;-)

Writing Every Day - A Truism Accepted...

 

A writing truism I could no longer have a hissy fit about, and neither can you – writing every day…

 

Nope. Don't X me out.

Slowly back your fingers away from that mouse or touchpad.

Stop with your "talk to the hand" hissy fit, and read me.

 

Once upon a time, I WAS YOU.

I thought this "truism" was a load of animal poo-poo.

I went YEARS not accepting this adage tripe.

Problem was, I was wrong. 

 

You must know, it's damn hard for me to acknowledge the error of my ways, as I think I'm quite "special." *patting myself softly on the head, and yelling to the asylum nurse, "Where’s my Thorazine!"*;-)

 

Thus, I will explain…

 

Many writers conferences ago, I befriended a rough-round-the-edges celebrated Scottish-Canadian scribe, whose blue pencil group session I attended. He said a lot of realistic, practical things, but the one thing which stuck in my brain was him simply stating, "You have to show up for work" to achieve literary success. He declared that if you plan on becoming a serious writer, you have to wake each day, get dressed and go to work, aka WRITE, and adopt a work-ethic expected in any other full time job.

 

If you take seriously this métier...

If you truly want to start and FINISH your book...

If you want to go from hobbyist writer to master wordsmith with many quality works under your name…

Then, there is no other way.

 

I don't care if you're the smartest nut in the nut barrel, and you ooze prodigy slime... if you do not practice every work day like you would in any other endeavor where you hoped to succeed, then you are full of animal poo-poo like I once was, and you won’t get where you want to go with your writing.

 

You can attend all the conferences you want.

You can belong to a plethora of writers groups.

You can talk smack on the process and wax purple prose pathetic on your WIP, but unless you put your money where your mouth is, unless you lay rubber on the road, unless you freakin' sit down, open up that file and smack down and/or edit words on that WIP Every Single Day, you,

a) won't finish that WIP

b) won't write well on that WIP

c) and you won't go on to finish other works well either.

A. Simple. Unavoidable. Fact.

 

Yes, just like with any other career, you must take off 2 weekend days. Your mind needs to rest, and to subconsciously churn literary milk into cream on that WIP. But during your writing work week, you show up for work. NO excuses.

 

Annnd yes... to train yourself to do this...can be like shoving bamboo shoots under your finger nails. You will grunt, and groan and curse and fail, and start again, and hate this process for the 6 straight WEEKS it will take you to adopt this new habit.

Yes, you read me right. 6 weeks. 42 days of constant showing up to "work."

Why? Because humans are not that smart. It takes that amount of time to have our minds and bodies acclimate, and automatically act upon, a new task. Don’t believe me? Look it up, naysayers…

 

And how do I know this will work?

Because I did it. I suffered through those 42 days. I screwed up three times, started over three times, and finally wrote for 42 days straight.

And I suffered through this torture because I inherently knew that celebrated writer was right.

 

It's been no different in the other skills I've previously adopted.

Why should life be any cushier in becoming a wordsmith?

Why do new writers who want to become master writers think learning this skill will be easy, and packed full of yummy cake and icing fun?

That mistaken belief continues to blow my mind.

 

In my life as a competitive swimmer,

I had to swim endless laps to execute strokes, faster, many hours after the other leisure swimmers got to go home.

As a grade school football player,

I had to re-run plays as the quarterback until those plays became automatic, if I wanted to win a game.

As a student pianist,

I had to play piano scales 'til I bored myself silly to memorize the proper fingering and to learn the different notes to easily play songs.

And I had to do the same in choir.

 

And undoubtedly YOU have had to do the same in the skills you've already learned.

 

That thing mothers constantly spout to kids when they're trying to learn a new skill..., "Practice makes perfect." Well, I'll be damned, if they weren't right.

Frig! Why do mothers always have to be right!

 

So, once I finally came out of my writing every day tantrum and realized the necessity of this rule in all acquired skills, I decided to mature-up and take up the challenge, and write for 42 days straight. 

 

1) I set up a calendar sheet with 42 days. I tacked it up next to my writing spot.

2) I checked off each day after I wrote, and at the end of each week, I gave myself a sticker. (Yes, I've never tired from acquiring achievement stars like we all got in grade school. Hey, stop snickering... it takes very little for me to feel "special.")

3) And at the end of the 42 days, I got a really SPECIAL sticker... and a few celebratory cocktails... your treat can be whatever you wish. I'm a kid at heart, and of North Irish descent, so you can see where my drooling lies...

 

Let me tell you.

It was not easy.

I'm not going to be like so many article writers out there, sugar-coating this process, and blow smoke up your butt.

It's no cakewalk, but it CAN BE DONE.

I did it.

 

I knew all I had to do was open up my laptop, and on my bad days, just type the single word, "the."

That would count as writing because I had gone through the motions of...

a) going to my writing spot

b) opening up my laptop

c) opening up a word processing page

d) typing the word, "the"

e) saving my “work.”

f) closing my laptop

g) and leaving my writing spot for that day.

And on the good days, of course, I wrote a lot more. You will, too.

 

The Key: It's the MENTAL PROCESS you need to undergo, and through it, the taming of your FEAR of writing. There is no other earthly way to achieve said than to undertake this challenge.

 

After those 42 days, well, my brain transformed!

It simply got used to the process, and in turn, ignored the fear.

 

Note: the fear, that "stage fright," will never go away.

It's part of being an artist of any stripe.

It WILL be with you until the day you die.

 

BUT your mind and body will learn to write THROUGH THE FEAR.

You will no longer put off the act of writing.

You will no longer say to yourself, "I'm too tired, I don't feel well, I'm too busy, I have others things to do."

 

And what happens after that happens?

You go from an erratic, so-so writer to a prolific, skilled writer pretty darn fast!

Faster than I ever thought possible.

And with your noticeable improvement, your DESIRE to write every day grows, too!

Now, it's a positive loop.

Now, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You've killed the excuses and put that stage fright in its place.

And you're on your way, every day, to higher and higher quality, and quantity, output.

And from that moment on, you can truly call yourself a writer.

You know why?

Because you actually write. Every writer work day.

That's why. 

 

You no longer just talk smack about writing.

You finally put the pedal to the metal and shed those ridiculous excuses that to be a serious scribe demands writing every work day.

 

Wake up, peeps.

Smell the coffee.

It's what you and I need to do.

 

Now, are you up for trying the challenge?

42 straight days.

No minimum word count.

Write on anything you want.

On your bad days, simply type the word, "the" and be done for the day.

On your good days, type more.

If you screw up and miss a day, start over, start back on Day One, and begin again.

 

Keep your swearing down to dull roar. I’m trying to write over here…;-)

 

If you are serious about becoming a wordsmith — and have reached the end of my rant here today — are you WILLING to try what I tried? I'll NEVER ask you to do anything I haven't already experienced. Okay? Trust me. Follow me. 

 

Comment below your experience before, during and after the challenge.

 

I'm here. I get you.

We are all on the same literary ladder.

We're just hanging by our bloody finger nails to different rungs.

 

Now.......GO!

Let's DO this.

A Book's Log Line... Do You Know Your Story?

 

Do you know what a Log Line is?

When to use it?

And that it's YOUR KEY to overcoming your perceived writer's block.

Bet you didn't know that!

Well, it is. 

 

If your book's log line rolls naturally off your tongue, you inherently know your book's story arc. Your tale isn't just a tale anymore; it's seeped into your writer DNA.

 

What is a Log Line?

It's a one-sentence summary declaration of your book.

Simple.

Not so... 

 

Many new writers get stumped on this beaut, and for good reason. If you do NOT know the impetus and arc of your story, you will not succeed at boiling that story down to one sentence which encapsulates the hook, the inciting incident and the main character's raison d'être.

 

When to use a Log Line?

In an in-person pitch to a publisher or acquisition editor, to anyone wanting to know what your book is about. The time it takes you to state your story summary in an elevator ride to any influencer or interested party.

 

When I find one of my process group writers stumbling over creating this sentence, it's proof to me that they simply do not know their story well enough to competently write it. I refer them back to their outline, or have them create one — chances are they haven't — even if they tell me their draft is done. I know by their log line confusion/frustration, there will be big plot development and character motivation gaffes in that draft without me even looking.

 

HOMEWORK: If you're struggling to write on your WIP - Work In Progress - stop, and attempt to write a log line for your book. One sentence that encapsulates all. If you try and can't succeed, return to your outline or make an outline. You don't yet know your story's purpose in life.

 

Fact: Your brain can't competently, fully, write to the finish, what it doesn't know. Get to know your story. Start with its Log Line.

 

Below, in the Comments Section, state your book's working title, genre, and log line to me here. 

Let's see if you've got your story in the bag!

Walking the Writer Fear Tightrope...

 

Today's exercise is an easy one to do...

 

• List all your most severe fears about writing your book. The worst outcomes if you decided to start, and FINISH, that novel or nonfiction work.

• Then, sometime soon, find a trusted friend and read each item out loud to them, and let them give you THEIR distanced take/thoughts on each fear.

• Write down their thoughts next to each fear, and sit with that insight for a while. Let your friend's reasoned and rational viewpoint sink in.

FACT: You are too close to those fears to have a rational, reasonable opinion.

Your fears have stolen your objectivity.

 

If you were in the Arctic, and you suffered snow blindness, your sighted friend would have to be the one to guide you to safety, right?

Well, your friend's viewpoints on your fear list is your path to safety.

Heed them.

Follow them.

Real life is never as horrendous as our wild imaginings.

 

And at the end of this exercise, paste the question below near where you write...

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR READERS' LIVES IF THEY NEVER GET TO READ YOUR BOOK?

 

That's the ONLY fear that truly exists.

 

Now, go on, and do the exercise.

If you're not writing, you NEED to do this to clean your mind.

The Story Start and The End...

 

The Start and the End...

You need to know where you're going in order to get there.

 

This may sound like a DUH! fact, but new writers often forget this, or worse, ignore this fact outright.

 

Yesss... you can start out on a forest trek, having zero idea where you're going, but the odds of you getting lost and eating your hiking boot leather for nourishment is fairly high.

 

So it goes with ANY endeavor.

 

Why new writers think story-telling is exempt from this life-saving practice is beyond me. They conjure up a flowing neck scarf, chiffon curtains, and an unseen ocean breeze that births their muse, and off they go to tale creation perfection land, plunking down one mindless word after another... 

 

There are no words to match my rolling eyes and look of disdain...

 

Yesss... by sheer luck, those words may draft out a hint of a story just like a lottery ticket may make you a millionaire. But odds are I'll be finishing my umpteenth book while said Pantser - one who writes by the seat of their pants, with no idea where they're going - will endlessly toil over editing rewrites until their fingers bleed.

 

I've painfully, sadly, witnessed this first hand.

There was a woman I met at a writer's conference in 2013 who refused to even entertain the need for a story path, and to date, I'm editing my fourth literary novel, and she's still rewriting that tale, the constant rewrites long ago killing whatever passion there may have been in the original words and idea. 

 

So, yes, you can subscribe to the breezy notion of Pantserdom, but from where I'm sitting that's a hot seat in the despondent depths of Hell.

 

I'm NOT forcing you to know every nook and cranny of your story. 

What I'm saying is you need to know from the start where the tale starts and where it ends. 

What you see first and what you see last. 

That's so your path is straight and true along that journey.

 

You're guiding readers, remember? 

Do you want them to eat their hiking boot leather for nourishment, too?

 

If you begin to outline the scenes you see, right now, even in vague, 1-2 sentence terms, each on their own scene card, then as you move forward in the tale, you will write along a productive path.

 

In my youth, I used to be a long distance swimmer. I would know where I first dove in, and I would know my end point. And along the way, I had a coach in a boat alongside me to ensure I didn't stray too far away from the route, so I would reach the end point in the most efficient manner. If I hadn't had a guide, I could have easily strayed off course and become too exhausted to finish the competition, never mind placing first. 

 

Don't assume writing a book is anything different.

 

If you have wild, romantic notions of this métier, drop them.

They don't exist in reality.

 

Write down the first scene you see.

Write down the last scene you see.

Write down any scenes which come to your mind that get you along that path, from Start to Finish.

 

Remember: No scene card is written in stone.

They can always be changed or altered in their line-up. 

 

What this rough fleshing out does for you is two things:

a) it gets your mind focusing on a single tale, so it can work on it in the conscious and the subconscious,

b) it provides your mind with a guided story path to follow to book completion. 

 

The odds of you,

~ wildly going off course

~ writing yourself into a plot corner

~ creating plot/character black holes

is IMMENSE without a rough story guide.

 

In my current literary novel, AIR, I saw an image of the capsized USS Oklahoma battleship, and the moment I saw it, a disembodied voice said to me, "We're in here. Get us out." Then, sometime later - it may have been a few days - I saw the end scene. I knew where this tale was going.

 

As the weeks drew on, and I began to research the history of the Oklahoma's part in the Pearl Harbor attack, all six primary characters began to take shape in my mind and subsequent scenes birthed that would get me from scene A to scene Z, and I jotted each down in 1-2 sentences on a recipe card.

 

Over the next months, those cards increased, and my knowledge of the history/facts got to the point where I was ready to begin writing. And from that moment on, all it took was to flip those scene cards, one by one, and draft those scenes into a full narrative.

 

Writing a book is not rocket science, but it does have a process, and the sooner you realize this the better your book writing success will be.

 

It doesn't matter in what genre you write or what unreal worlds exist therein. If it's a book humans will read, it must have a reasoned progression. That is not to say there won't be surprises along the way, for the author, first, and of course, for the reader, but you need a path to follow so no such plot/character block or black hole will materialize - mechanical or psychological - in completing your book.

 

Before you put up your hand in protest, seriously consider what I've just said. I'm spouting a truism which has led to completing four research-heavy historical literary novels, one child's adventure story memoir, and a writer's How To.

 

Do you want to complete your book with a minimum of frustration and edit rewrites?

Or does the romantic notion of writing like a Pantser supersede your desire to competently finish your book?

 

Reality or Fantasy, peeps?

Unfinished manuscript? Published book?

It's up to you.

Your First Book - Don't Make It a Memoir...

 

New writers often think writing about some aspect of their troubled past, however veiled in a fictional story or a straight-up memoir, will be their Opus Magnum.

If this is your first book, you're wrong.

 

Writing on emotionally charged topics, personally experienced, is a double whammy of difficulty. Now, you're combining your lack of experience writing a book-length work with a troubled mind. You think your quest to reach answers for yourself and the world is through this undertaking, when all it will do is frustrate you more.

 

Result: you will find it far too difficult to face these memories to competently complete a long work, and that work will end up in the back of your drawer for years, leaving a bitter taste about writing in your mouth that may have you never write again, all because you chose to face two difficulties at once.

 

Solution: for your first book, and maybe a few more thereafter, select an objective topic, one that is not emotionally charged. Make that topic be far removed from your personal life experience, but in a genre you enjoy reading yourself. Doing this will free you from the pressure of experiencing something difficult while learning to write a book-length work. Your chances of enjoying the process and staying with the work to a competent conclusion are infinitely far greater this way.

 

And once you have one or two books completed and have become accustomed to what it takes - mechanically and artistically - then, you can tackle more difficult, personally charged issues like a memoir of a troubled past.

As a first time book writer, you simply cannot do both.

You can argue with me all you want, but this is a fact.

 

If this describes you and your partially written novel chock-a-block full of angst, put it aside, and start something new. You need to learn how to FINISH a book before tackling life's big woes. Make it easy on yourself to handle one task and then another.

 

This is the reality of writing talking to you, not the romance.

 

HOMEWORK: decide tonight if your current WIP - Work in Progress - is a veiled angst-ridden memoir. If it is, accept the reality that you're not skilled enough yet to take on that topic, and choose a lighter tale. 

 

This is you not failing. This is you succeeding. 

 

Example: does a beginner skier choose a black diamond run or the green beginner run as his first hill? You see my point here? 

 

Tonight, take a long hard look at yourself and your skill level, and make the successful choice. 

You'll thank me later.

The Story Idea Hoarder...

 

The Idea Hoarder - An Addiction to the Next New Shiny Thing...

Most of you, I imagine, have seen the TV show, Hoarders, where people collect everything and anything, and never organize or throw away any of those things, their hoard becoming an uncontrollable monster that impedes their life progress.

 

Slot in story ideas for a house hoard... are you seeing a connection here, my wittle furry writers???

 

Many wordsmiths have an addiction to the next Shiny New Idea.

Often, those writers have sky-scraper sized mounds of notebooks and half scribbled attempts on those collected ideas, but none are completely fleshed out nor finished because, yet again, another new and shiny idea presents itself. I imagine it's the equivalent of shoe or book shopping to some, and like any hoard, the pile becomes uncontrollable, and eventually paralyzing.

 

If a person comes into adulthood with this affliction, I'll be honest here… it's tough to un-ring that bell. 

 

I've tried with quite a few writers, and it becomes a hand-holding endeavor to get the writer from to A to Z on a single idea. It's not because they aren't dead smart. They are. It's a matter of having them apply two skills, muscles they don't often flex - focus and discipline.

 

Idea Hoarders are like squirrels on Speed.

I'd seriously rather herd cats.

Sorry for the reality check here...

 

And those two skills are put to the test when Idea Hoarders are left to their own devices. It's the same as letting an addicted shopper in a mall or an alcoholic in a bar, unsupervised. Idea Hoarders will find that next new shiny idea and wander away from the hard work of fleshing out the previous one.

 

It has a lot to do with the need to escape. 

 

Fun is, well, way more fun than the work needed to write an idea through to completion. That takes a semi-truck-filled load of patience and perseverance to endure the days when the words fight to hit the page, and those are aspects of the writers process never very appealing to the Idea Hoarder.

 

If you feel this maybe you, and in order to exist you need to be working on more than one project at a time, then you need to become very adept at Session Juggling. That's where you schedule writing sessions to work on each project at hand, and you do NOT stray from that schedule, and you do NOT work on more than one project in a given writing session.

 

The scheduling format can take whatever shape you want. Maybe on weeks 1 and 3 of a month, you work on Project A, and Project B is dealt with on weeks 2 and 4. Maybe within a writing week, you designate certain days to certain projects. Or maybe you add up the total amount of weekly hours devoted to writing, and you divvy them up per the many projects on hand.

 

THE KEY: NO project is abandoned. Each has its time in the writing sun, as it were. Each has its own working session(s), so it can be worked through and completed right to typing/writing, The End. It will take you longer to get there because you are working on multiples, but get there you WILL. No more idea hoarding.

 

An Idea Hoarder has to decide to recalibrate their mindset. It can't be just about hoarding ideas and not fleshing those out to a product that a reader can enjoy/seek knowledge. Ideas don't help anybody if they aren't thoroughly constructed and delivered as a completed product. Everybody can have an idea. It's what an artist DOES with that idea that counts.

 

HOMEWORK: If you think you're an Idea Hoarder, tonight, get serious with those shiny new tidbits of thought, and craft a weekly or monthly schedule where each new story has its allotted writing session.

I recommend no more than three ideas scheduled at any one time. Personally, I'm not a fan of multiple idea juggling, but with Idea Hoarders, compromise is the next best thing. Just ensure you schedule only what you can realistically and physically handle, so writer burnout doesn't take hold.

 

And just the like TV show, let's order in the dump trucks and hire the organizers to divide and conquer your schizophrenic approach to writing, and let's get a few cherished projects done... instead of them toppling over on you and burying you alive!

 

Okay, that last visual is a shiny new idea right there.

It's mine.

Don't hoard it! :-P

Fear of Writing, Fear of Loss...

 

Humans gauge the attractiveness of an activity by what they'll gain from it, immediately or long term. Those who seek immediate gratification reject the long term option, not because they can't see the end goal, but because they have decided they cannot endure the interim losses required to achieve that end goal.

 

And long term artistic endeavors have a basket-full of interim losses:

Loss of Free Time - FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out — to do more instantly enjoyable activities.

Loss of Brain Energy - needed to focus to write well.

Loss of Control - you are given no certainty that your crafted sentences are the right sentences.

Loss of Contentment - if you end up struggling/having frustration with a problematic sentence or plot hole or character motivation.

Loss of Material Rewards - you are given no certainty they will ever exist.

Writers need to be patient people, and many new writers haven't adjusted their expectations to long term gratification, accepting there will be many immediate losses along the way.

 

In any worthwhile activity, this short term loss vs long term win reality exists, and each of us has to decide what we're mentally prepared to give. This is why I loathe new writers who say they write because it's "fun." Already, they are ignoring or repressing this reality. I'm not trying to be a Debby Downer here. By actually mentally preparing yourself for these losses, to reach the ultimate goal, you'll be in a better frame of mind to endure those inevitable bad days of writing where you feel you'll never write yourself out of the book issues that rear their ugly heads.

 

Being realistic.

Being patient.

Being a long term visionary when everyone else around you can't see what you see.

It takes fortitude to master a craft. 

"Fun" and excitement about this "shiny new idea" won't get you very far.

 

HOMEWORK: make a list of Immediate Losses and Long Term Gains in finishing your book. 

 

Come face-to-face with your ultimate fear of loss, and once you do, you'll be far better prepared to march on to typing, "The End." 

 

Like in life, there's fun and there's work. 

 

Fun is cotton candy.

Work is steak.

In your goals, which one do you think will better sustain you?

Stop Petting Your Blofeld Cat...

 

We've not met in person, but I know you well.

You have a pet Work In Progress manuscript that is not finished, that you sit down and pick at every once in a while... and have done for the last decade!

 

*Sigh............*

 

Yesss, I know, you WUV your pet WIP.

I see you lovingly stroke it like Ernest Stavro Blofeld did to his white Persian cat in the '67 Bond flick, You Only Live Twice.

 

*Sigh.................*

 

Here's the deal:

Time and fiddling do NOT make you a better writer.

Many completed works do.

 

And if you never finish this first work, to know what mistakes were made and what successes were achieved, you will NEVER acquire the skills needed to complete another work ever again.

 

Yesss, some writers take a decade or more to finish a great work, BUT those writers are upper-level profs who have long studied the craft and/or have finished and published many shorter works before this long-drafted novel. All the Light We Cannot See and Winds of War spring to mind.

 

My guess, you are none of the above.

Sorry, man, but I'm here to help you finish your book.

Not humor you.

 

Where you are right now in your craft, you simply cannot know what works and what doesn't, and as yet haven't a clue how to complete a long work, so you CAN move onto the next to up your skill set to create better works.

 

Again, this issue is mostly psychological.

 

Subconsciously, you know if you don't finish this pet WIP, then in your mind every good outcome is still possible, and as there have been no critical eyes on the piece to tarnish your belief that THIS work soars above all others for all time, your Ego has not yet been bruised. Yes, writers have fantastic imaginations and wear their hearts on their sleeves...;-)

 

Thus, you will never complete a work which soars UNTIL you've completed MANY less stratospheric works. Fact. The word "completed" being the operative here.

 

HOMEWORK: decide TODAY that come hell or high water, or purely pedestrian prose, your pet WIP WILL be finished, so you are free to start another.

 

Your first book will never be your best book.

I know, harsh truth, but that's a writer's reality right there.

Accept these facts, and move on.

 

Stop petting your Blofeld cat.

Fear of Being Critiqued...

 

New writers get their feelings hurt when someone reads their manuscript and points out the inherent flaws. They might not admit the hurt, but it's there...

 

It amazes me why writers should be any different from any other apprentice in any other métier.

 

If a beginner pianist gets a note wrong in the song they are playing, everybody listening — including the pianist — knows they made a mistake.

They accept the pianist needs more practice.

The pianist accepts they need more practice.

Nobody gets offended.

Nobody debates the issue.

The pianist gets more practice and someday soon they will perform the piece again without those flaws. Nobody has a meltdown about it.

 

Then WHY do beginner writers not accept this fact?

Because writing is broken down like this:

20% skill

9% imagination

1% luck

70% psychological.

 

Yes, my furry wittle writers... the greatest percentage of successful writing is to surmount the psychological.

 

It will happen, but not without extreme amounts of practice, completing many types and lengths of works on many subjects with many styles of delivery utilized, and ALL ably critiqued.

 

No, my pretties, it doesn't happen because you own a pen and some paper or a laptop, and you happen to have a thought in your head.

I'll repeat that: It doesn't happen because you own a pen and some paper or a laptop, and you happen to have a thought in your head.

 

The fear of critique disintegrates the moment you accept this fact.

You are freed from any Ego you are petting right now inside your head.

You accept you ARE an apprentice.

You accept you WILL make mistakes.

You acknowledge it's your craft that needs work, NOT your person.

 

So, what does this awareness do for you? 

You no longer feel afraid of submitting your manuscripts to others for assessment. 

 

Note: by "others" I mean learned souls when it comes to the mechanics of writing - plot/character development, style consistency, grammar/proofing.

And no, your mother doesn't count as a learned soul unless she's an English or Creative Writing university prof, and can distance herself from being your mom (likely not).

 

From this point forward, you EXPECT to get your manuscript back with as much red pen ink on it as the original black. And when you do, you LEARN from those corrections.

You don't ignore them.

You don't avoid them.

You don't gloss over them.

You own and internalize them, and take them as GIFTS, never making those same mistakes again.

 

Example in Point: I once typed the word, "shinny" instead of "shiny" in a manuscript. Word confusions like this are tricky to locate by a writer, but, of course, my beta reader easily caught it, and chuckled! And I laughed too, feeling like a 4-square idiot! Well, let me tell you, a month doesn't go by that I don't read either of those words or attempt to use those words that my past gaffe doesn't spring to mind, and I smile. And that mistake happened YEARS ago!

 

If the reader hadn't pointed that error out to me, how would I have known to be more careful in searching for similarly spelled word sets? That critique became a lifelong gift!

 

After many years of writing manuscripts with words written into the multi-millions, I no longer fear critique.

I expect it.

I welcome it.

And if someone who reads my MSs doesn't have anything critical to say, then I get suspicious, and look even harder for the gaffes I KNOW are there.

 

And as new writers, so should you!

 

Remember what I said: writing is mostly a psychological endeavor. The sooner you get over yourself and let your Ego take a flying leap, the sooner your craft will improve.

 

Reality Check: You will be correcting your works and learning this craft for the rest of your life. There are no perfect writers. Ask any master pianist.

Social Media Writing...

 

Social Media Posting/Commenting...

Everyone does it.

 

People wanting to be writers should do it well. Do you?

~ Do you adhere to proper sentence structure, including punctuation?

~ Do you complete a thought, separate ideas into their own paragraphs?

~ Do you, even in flash snippets, create a Start, Middle and End to your post?

~ Do you endeavor to take your readers into a story bubble virtually every single time?

I'm going out on a limb here and say, nope, you don't.

 

To be a writer, you have to BE a writer.

It's not enough to start writing on your Great American Novel when the muse hits you but every other day, write like you're in 4th grade.

 

You ARE your words, if you truly want to become a wordsmith.

You ARE ON, LIVE, 24/7, as a writer, every time you post anything, anywhere, and for the rest of your life.

 

This effort is not solely for your readers, but for you, for if you do NOT practice crafting good works EVERY DAY - however micro-small or tome big, online or off - you will simply not improve enough to competently finish any work, Great American Novel or not. That is a fact.

 

Ask any aspiring pianist how much they practice the scales before they even attempt playing a piece.

 

At some point, you have to look yourself in the mirror and decide if you're in this endeavor for life or merely in love with the romantic notion of becoming a writer. Those choices are worlds apart.

 

HOMEWORK: Consider how you have posted online in the past and decide, TODAY, to up your literary game, that with every word you publish...

~ It will be your best word - mechanically, stylistically, intellectually.

~ It will strengthen your branding Image.

~ And it will be authentically you, the very best of you.

 

*Remember: A master in any métier never achieved said standing by engaging part-time.*

Decide to be a full-time apprentice. 

 

Engage your brain with every thought, every word choice, every response, so the practice you need, you will receive, and the reader will benefit from your every attempt, always.

Can't Write? Go Outside...

 

Can't write?

Close your laptop and get outside.

Do something physical.

 

Your blank mind is telling you that your imagination well is dry... from a lack of body movement, a lack of oxygen, and a lack of living life.

 

Today, hit the backyard and pull some weeds or wash your car or go for a walk. 

 

Whatever you do, wholly ingest the world around you — all your senses, take it in. You simply cannot write on life if you're not living it, and yes, even during a pandemic there are safe ways to be outside and commune with the world around you.

 

I assure you that after you start living, so will your writing breathe.

 

Remember: a grand and vivid tale can birth from the smallest, simplest of things - a spider's web, a lady bug, a leaf, the rustling in the trees. Never underestimate Mother Nature's ability to teach you a thing or two, even if you think you know a thing or two. ;-)

 

Those of you who try this today, comment below about your experience.

Emotional Writing - Which Category Are You?

 

There seems to be two types of writers...

1) ones who can experience a deeply emotional event, and can distance themselves from their emotions enough to immediately, and competently, write on that event. Often, those writers end up being reporters. I'm thinking of Hemingway in the Spanish Civil War, Farley Mowat in WWII, and Neil Sheehan in Vietnam.

2) ones whose emotions are so strong, their psyches too attached to the event that immediate and competent writing on said will be fraught with grammatical errors and poor word choices - not the writer's usual M. O. 

 

If you're in the first category, good on you!

You're probably hunkering down in some foxhole right this very minute, and with muddy fingers hacking out a genius draft with a stubby pencil and a wet and tattered notebook. You are my hero.

 

If you're in the second, welcome to my world.

 

I remember back in high school, in Grade 12, we had to take a career survey. It was some high-fangled computer algorithm gadget thingy that when you answered a bevy of questions, it would spit out on a daisy wheel printer sheet the best careers for you. Yesss, this was just shy of the Stone Age, stop snickering.

 

I remember these were my choices:

* Political Diplomat

* Nun

* Reporter

Those of you who know me personally, STOP LAUGHING!

Seriously, I hear you out there, rolling around on your carpet.

STOP IT, I say!

 

My response to said choices:

* I'm of Northern Irish descent, and if I had lived in Northern Ireland, my lifeless corpse would have decayed ages ago in some lowly ditch, as a result of my unknowingly mouthing off to a clandestine IRA member I found in a Catholic pub I purposely frequented, to purposely tear a hole in the social fabric, for shits 'n' giggles. I have friends who live near Belfast, who plead with me to this very day, to stay the heck in Canada if I treasure my life. It seems diplomatic foreplay is not my forte. ;-)

* Referencing the above, it's obvious I'm not Catholic, and my love of booze and swearing like a drunken sailor wouldn't make me many friends in the nunnery, I'm thinking.

* As much as I love fast-paced jobs and writing, the combo would probably physically kill me over time. I don't smoke or do drugs, so I guess I'd end up becoming an alcoholic from the daily pressures of grinding out good articles on harrowing events, 10 minutes before deadline.

 

My long-winded point here is if you cannot divide your mind, so quality prose can be produced on a sensitive subject, you MUST take a mental chill-pill after experiencing an emotional event, well before you begin to write. For emotional writers like myself, there is no other way.

 

Steps to Better Emotional-Induced Writing for the 2nd Category:

1) Experience the event. Take it in with all your senses. Make notes in real time. Own your emotions, as they will be the well from which you will draw to craft your future prose piece.

2) Go home, rest and heal. Take a step back, and regain your mental and physical strength. You have expended everything you had just to survive through that event. Now's the time to rest and digest.

3) Gather your notes and do further extraneous research - read, listen, and watch everything on the subject. Get more immersed, but do it from an emotionally safe distance.

4) Synthesize all your information into a completed draft. Every day, work a bit on that draft until you've edited out any lingering emotional gaffes. It takes days to re-read and assess the piece through objective eyes.

5) And when, and only when, you read a solid researched piece, which conveys your deep emotions in a cohesive, error-free way, hit Publish.

 

Yes, being in the second category is a tough row to hoe.

Rest and research and literal time and distance away from the event will be what gets your emotions working for you, not against you, in the prose.

 

Bonus to being in the Second Category:

Your measured literary response will produce a far deeper resonance with your reader than what can be written on the fly. The piece will exude a complex mastery of emotions and your embed knowledge.

Your work may never be the first public response, but it might be the last, the final word which forever lingers on the minds of readers.

 

HOMEWORK:

Today, look yourself in the mirror.

Be honest with your strengths, and especially your weaknesses.

And decide which writer category you are.

And hone the strengths inherent in that category.

 

You can't be all things to all people.

Be the best at who you are for people who love to read you for who you are.

That's where literary success lives.