Fiction Scribe

Yesterday I talked about how novels are more organic than solid. Yes, novel writing is taught, but there is no one way to write a novel (or short story). Even in your personal experience, one idea may come to you quietly while some may smack you over the head and drag you along for the ride.

How do you encourage your stories to be unique and organic? Here are five tips on how you can encourage the full organic experience from your novel or short story:

Always carry a paper and pen with you. I know I always say this, but there is a reason I say it.

Write in different places. Comfort isn’t everything. Some writers need perfect conditions to write but that dramatically decreases the amount of time you can actually spend writing. It’ll be good for your writing for you to get out and about as well.

Let your novel lead. I said this yesterday and I’ll say it again: You never write a novel the exact same way twice. Don’t base decisions about your current work in progress on your last project.

Don’t be too controlling. Experiment or try things you. Even if you write yourself into a dead end or a place you didn’t expect, no material need be wasted. Maybe you can use it for something else.

Have fun. If writing is always work for you, then you’re doing the wrong thing.

***This post is part of the Fiction Scribe 100 Comments Contest. Click on the link to find out how you can win.***

Novel and short story writing is often taught, but any writer will tell you that there is no one way to write a novel. Some outline, some don’t. Some let the characters lead while others let the world be the dominant force.

No matter how you do it, I’m willing to venture you don’t write novels the same way twice.

I think of novels as a bit of a more organic thing than something I simply sit down and write. Each novel takes me in a different way. My current work in progress is presenting itself to me in little bits and pieces, none of which are in order. I have had novels keep me up at night because I simply had to finish writing that chapter or scene. I have completely outlined a novella before writing it, and I have also outlined absolutely nothing.

Sometimes the characters lead. Actually, with my work, the characters often lead, but even that varies from story to story.

As it should.

The organic novel is a good thing. It means that not every novel is the same in a very basic and perhaps even slightly subconscious way. The way your novel takes you in your writing it (by the hair, by the balls, or a more gentle approach) is often the way it will take your reader.

While your reader may not have to take a midnight cemetery ghost tour to really capture the essence of the book, the fact that your novel demanded that of you just goes to show that each one is and should be different.

Don’t resist where your novel takes you. Let it lead. You can always edit later.

***This post is part of the Fiction Scribe 100 Comments Contest. Click on the link to find out how you can win.***

Hello there. How are you?

Perfection: Writing? How can you possibly write when your office is a mess, you have other work to do, you don’t know what you’re going to eat for dinner, you don’t have the right music –

I think you can see where this is going. Like many writers (writers who have a talent for procrastination, especially) I often become the victim of my perfectionist voice. The voice which is never satisfied with the surroundings, the music, the state of the world, the state of hunger…

If you have the power and determination to actually sit down and write, then you have to deal with the perfectionist voice doubting your writing voice, your ability, your talent (if you can convince your voice that you have any), and your future prospects in the world of writing among other things.

Needless to say, I don’t get a lot of writing done when I listen to the voice for too long. My two biggest problems (excuses) are the thought I have other things to do or not having a great writing environment.

Things you can do to get past your perfectionist:

*Make a goal of writing in different places.
*Don’t think about writing too long before you do it. Decide on writing and then do it.
*Freewrite before you start in on writing in your work in progress.

Do you have any other tricks to getting past your perfectionist.

Literary Agent Janet Reid recently posted about Why You Got Summarily Rejected Today.

It never fails to amaze me how many people don’t seem to understand that there are guidelines for a reason. Guidelines for your submissions make lives easier for agents around the world, so why would you not follow them?

As I said in Pet Peeve #21 - Questioning Guidelines:

“I can understand if you want to clarify something like a technical term or the like with someone who knows, but my teeth truly grind when I see someone ask something like this:

“The guidelines say to submit three consecutive chapters, but can I submit chapters three, nine, and eleven?”

Yes, I’ve seen it.

First, it’s not “can I” it’s “may I”. Secondly? Open a Word document, type in “consecutive”, and press shift and F7. (I’m assuming if you have a question like this about the guidelines, you don’t have an actual hard copy of a dictionary or thesaurus.) In none of the alternatives does it even hint that “three consecutive” is anything other than three in a row or three chapters - one after another.”

And yet people still go on and on, wondering if they can do something other than exactly what the agent/publishing company has asked for. That doesn’t make any sense as far as I am concerned.

But if you don’t want to take it from me, then listen to an agent: “There’s a reason that query letters have a certain form to them. There’s a reason I ask for a hook before I ask to read the pages. I’m not doing that to make you crazy. I’m doing it so that when you send me an email, I don’t go crazy, and auto-reject you.”

Do you write one story at a time, focusing all your time and effort on that one story or do you like to write two or three (or even more) at once? Is one or the other the ‘right’ way to go?

I usually have a few story ideas bouncing around in my mind when I choose one and decide to have a go with it. That doesn’t mean I ignore the other ideas. Note cards are oh so useful that way. I’ll write down all the ideas and go with one from there.

However, does that mean I’ll stick with that one? Not necessarily. I might switch around a few times before I really settle down into one story. The settling down process could see me with many pages written/typed in each story idea or just leaving the other note cards in my idea drawer. It all depends on the story.

When I was younger and always “busy” with everything in my life, I often kept about five stories going. I didn’t really stop any to finish one so much as I paused with others for a brief amount of time.

Is writing more than one story the makings of foolishness? I don’t think so.

Obviously when you start narrowing down to the end of one story and then get into the first edit, you should probably focus on one story. That way you don’t get mixed up or confused in any way. As for just the writing of the first draft…

…why not? If you can keep everything straight, then go for it.

Do you focus on one or many when you write?

I began reading a fantasy trilogy early last year and in the first book I became rather attached to one character. She wasn’t a major character – at least not at the level she should have been after the first book – but I identified with her all the same and looked forward to the chapters with her in it.

I finished the first book, then the second, and hoped that in the third book, there would be something great for her. Her own happy ending. Unfortunately for me, she was (quite literally) ripped apart toward the end of the book along with her lover.

Needless to say, I was a bit upset and nauseated at the turn of events.

As a reader, I felt a bit pissed off for a while, but the writer in me emerged eventually and calmed me down. See, the writer in me recognized the brilliance of the move. Of course it would be more potent to kill her and her lover off because first, she was expendable, and second, it just might get the reader to feel something.

Goal accomplished.

Writing within your comfortable boundaries might satisfy your grandmother and Uncle Dick, but it won’t get your reader to feel much or take anything away from the story once s/he is done reading. (That’s assuming you’re talented enough to keep their attention through an entire story.)

The quote “Kill your darlings” is actually a lot better advice than you might think. In fact, it might be one of the more important pieces of advice you’ll ever hear.

If you need a little exercise in the killing department, take a character you like from your current work in progress and create a scene in which s/he dies. Violently. If anyone thinks you’re a bit off, you can tell them I told you to do it.

While Mr. Reasons of 101 Reasons to Stop Writing would love it if I talked about this as a permanent thing, that’s not the case. However, I am going to tell you what you think I’m going to tell you.

It’s okay to stop and put the pen down.

Yesterday I went to the air conditioned library to escape the brain melting 100+ degree heat of the Australian sunshine. While there, I had one of the best writing days I have had in a long time, finishing up the work day at over 3,000 words typed for the day.

Do I attribute this to a fabulous muse? The delicious smoothie I had while there? The wonders of air conditioning?

Perhaps, in part, but by and large I attribute it to the fact I took a few days off writing. I tried not to think about it. I relaxed. I went people watching.

Basically, I did what every writer needs to do now and then not only to write better but to manage to keep whatever amount of sanity you have:

Get out of the writing room!

Yes, writing is about putting your ass down in the chair and getting some writing done, but it’s also about living. If you never get out of the writing room and experience life, then who do you think you are going about as if you have something to write about?

If possible, sometime this week get out and go somewhere new. Or, at least, go somewhere you rarely go. On your lunch break, after work, whenever works best for you. Go somewhere new and live it up. Experience things.

Do it because this is one of the few times I’m going to tell you to get your bum out of the chair.

…then I have the money, honey.

Isn’t that how that song goes? I can’t quite remember and I really can’t be bothered to Google right now.

I have touched on the subject of time to write not being something you find but rather, something you make. However, I didn’t talk about ways you can make better use of your time when trying to make that precious time to write.

And let’s face it – we’re all ‘too busy’ for a lot of things, but that shouldn’t be the case with your writing.

Here are some quick tips from posts of the past to help you on your way to making more time for your writing:

*Make your to-do list - quickly, don’t use it as a stall - before you start writing. That way you don’t have to worry about trying to remember all you have to do along with all your characters have to do, where your plot is going, etc.

*For one entire day - the whole day - take a notepad or note cards with you everywhere. (You should be doing this already, by the way. Tsk, tsk.) I want you to document the times and events of your day. Even how much time you sit down to watch television to how much time you allow yourself to enjoy your chef salad at lunch time.

Don’t adjust yourself in any way. Take the day as you would always do it, and try not to pay attention to what you’ve written until the day is over.

*While brushing your teeth. Staring at yourself in the mirror can be fun, but you could be writing down notes while you’re doing it. It also gets you to brush your teeth longer (usually) which will be good for your dental hygiene.

For more on time management, check out Turn Off Your Brain and Time Management Part One, Two and Three.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

“You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time you must make it.” – Charles Buxton, English author (1823-1871)

Even in the 1800s people understood that ‘we’re all busy’ and no one ever seems to have enough time for anything. That’s why when it comes to writing you can’t sit around waiting for inspiration to come to you.

You have to go out and find it.

The same goes with ‘finding’ time for your writing. It’s up to you. If you are dedicated enough to your craft, then you will make the time. Even if you have to give up some of your sleep hours to do so.

Yes, it’s all find and well for me to talk about how you have to go out and find inspiration instead of waiting for it, but where do you look?

If you honestly need to ask me that, then you either have a long way to go in the world
Writers write about life. The world. People. Anyone, anywhere, everything. As a writer, you are an observer. You shouldn’t expect to sit holed away in your writing room for all eternity and write masterpieces.

At one point or another, you have to get out there and truly look at the world. Connect. Therein lies inspiration. In the everyday, in observations, in people watching.

Try going out somewhere at least once a week to observe and listen to people. Explore places you’ve never been. Listen to what people are talking about. Find things that interest you and the things that interest them.

Find inspiration.

Ah, it’s finally happened; you have written your first draft.

If you follow the Stephen King method, you can finally open the door of your writing room and reintroduce yourself to your family. Order a pizza, open a bottle of wine, bake a chocolate cake… Do whatever it is you do to celebrate a good occasion.

The next day, when you’re getting past the hangover and the sour stomach from too much wine, pizza, and chocolate cake, you once again enter your writing room/space.

There it is. Your manuscript. Draft numero uno. Ugly/beautiful thing.

You’re now faced with the question many writers are faced with: How long do I wait before I write the second draft?

Fantasy author Karen Miller surprised me when she said she didn’t wait between drafts. When she finished her first draft, she went right back to the beginning and started working on the second draft.

In On Writing, Stephen King recommends at least six weeks of rest time between the first draft and the second.

I find myself caught in the middle. I see the point of doing it right away. The characters are still fresh in your mind with voices stronger than ever, you know more or less for sure what your ending is going to be, and you’re more familiar with the steps of the story than you were in the beginning.

But then again, the break between drafts lets your mind have a break so you can come back to things with ‘fresh eyes’.

Call me traditional, but I highly recommend the break somewhere along the line. Whether it’s between draft one and two or two and three, there is no self-editing tool like taking a break and coming back to it with the mind of an editor instead of a writer.

Do you take a break between drafts? If yes, how long? Why? If no, why not?

You sit down to write wearing ____ with ____ in view, ____ on your music player and a bowl/plate of ____ to one side just in case you feel a bit hungry while you’re writing.

Does this sound at all like you?

And we wonder where the stereotypical writer with a glass of bourbon (a bottle if he’s been published a few times) to one side and a cigarette (unlit if the muse has taken over for a brief, blissful moment) in his mouth.

Many writers, to write, feel the need to have their favourite pen in hand or absolutely have to have that bowl of M&Ms nearby for that chocolate/sugar fix when the going gets tough.

My thing used to be that I wrote longhand and I needed to write with the same pen through the whole thing until the pen ran out of ink. If I lost this pen (which only happened a couple times before I realized how stupidly uncomfortable it made me), I would not write until I found the pen again.

I think my family should have feared more for my sanity than their reputations when they figured out I’m a writer. (Frankly, their reputation had been screwed quite thoroughly long before I took pen to paper.)

Most of us have our habits, whether they’re like my old pen habit (oh, did I mention I had to write stories, no matter how many pens ran out, in the same colour ink from beginning to end?), the spaces we need to write, the music, the noise, or whatever else.

If you need things that don’t involve things like ritual sacrifice, then habits are fine. We all have them.

What are your writing habits? What do you ‘need’ to write? What makes your writing experience feel ‘not quite right’ without it?

One of the hardest things for aspiring writers (and some accomplished writers) is to complete this equation.

As we know all too well, doing the laundry or washing the lawn never looked as good as it does when you’re supposed to be writing.

So how do you get yourself in the chair? Here are a few tips:

1. Just do it. Yeah, I know you’re groaning now, but give me a second. It’s obvious that a big part of this is getting yourself in the habit, right? Well, you can’t start a habit by waiting for motivation to come, that’s for sure.

Whether you write or end up doodling for half an hour, sit at your desk at the same time every day. If you can’t swing the same time every day, at least do it for the same amount of time every day. It takes three weeks to get into a habit, so start now.

2. Mind drain. This is useful no matter what you’re doing. If you find yourself getting distracted or caught up in other things, take some time to do a mind drain. Pick a notebook and for a certain amount of time or pages (I usually do it for a half an hour each morning before starting work) write without stopping.

Get everything off your mind and onto the paper. Keep a notepad there, too, if you find you are checking back to the page because you wrote a to-do list.

3. Close the door. This advice comes from Stephen King. The first draft of any story you write is strictly for you. You are telling the story to yourself. When it comes time for working on the following drafts and editing, then you can open the door.

Get to it and get writing.

Fear. That’s what it all comes down to, doesn’t it? The reason you’re not writing?

Oh, I used to tell myself that I was just too busy to right, too. There was just too much going on for me to think about writing. I mean, not only do you have to sit down, then you have to think about what to write, and then? Then you actually have to write it.

Sound familiar?

Well, whether you know it or not, the most likely reason you’re not writing (or doing whatever artistic activity brings you pleasure) is not lack of time but lack of confidence.

I’m not trying to criticize you. I’ve been there. I avoided my creative writing for months by drowning myself in as many writing related tasks as I could. That way I could still say that I was writing, but I could also avoid my creative writing.

I didn’t want to consciously avoid my creative writing; I was simply afraid. Why? Well, part of getting past the fears, doubts, and blocks is figuring out your own personal reasons for not writing.

Do you think you’ll never be successful? Is your past filled with people cutting you down and telling you that you’ll never be what you want to be? Did you have a childhood focused on being told you need to do something that will pay the bills?

Take some time and think about why you’re not writing. On of the best ways to do this, courtesy of The Artist’s Way, is to write “I [your name] am an excellent writer who will get published.” Doing that will bring out all your little fears and doubts so you can snatch them and figure out what’s behind them.

This could be the first step in unleashing your creativity like it has never been unleashed before.

Though humorously portrayed, too much blogging, like too much of pretty much anything, can be bad for you.

You knew that.

But could your blogging be ruining your writing abilities? In writing communities, this can be a very hot topic. What writer would want to do something to permanently ruin their ability to write?

You writing stopping your creative writing sounds a bit far out there, and it is. Blogging in itself won’t ruin your creative writing abilities by any means. It may influence them, but it won’t ruin them.

As a blogger, what you have to worry about is blogging too much. Do you spend more time blogging than you do creative writing? And no, you can’t count your character blog(s) as creative writing. It’s still blogging.

Do you blog more about what you’re going to write than you do actually writing? Do you spend more time reading other’s blogs than you do writing?

As with everything, moderation is key. I’m a feed reader woman myself with entirely too many blogs on it, but I still only spend a half an hour maximum reading it. I have a weight loss blog site, a personal blog, and a book/character interview blog. With those three combined, I still don’t spend more than an hour blogging.

The thing about blogging is that it can easily sweep your time away. If you want to know how much time you’re taking for both blogging and creative writing, keep track of the times and what you do during the day. If you’re spending more time blogging than creative writing, then something needs to change.

That is, if you want to get that novel done any time soon.

But everybody is doing it…

Yes, even I am doing a list of the top ten posts on Fiction Scribe in 2007. These posts are not the most viewed, the most dugg/netscaped, the most anything other than the most memorable to me.

I have put up a lot of posts this year, so there are probably a lot of posts people like that I’m not going to mention. If you have a favourite, feel free to mention it in the comments. Also feel free to link to your top ten post lists for your site.

(Listed in no particular order.)

1. Eight Ways to Kill Your Characters - This is definitely one of my favourite posts because it was one of the most fun!
2. Sandi Kahn Shelton Interview - Sandi is a lovely lady and was a pleasure to work with. She’s a great writer and I’ll always remember her book as my introduction to women’s fiction.
3. Pet Peeve #44 - Anti-”said” Writers
4. Book Burning - I am still outraged that this happened. Thankfully, my sweet, sweet husband bought me a new copy.
5. FanFiction
6. Creative Spaces - This is actually the whole category. I love seeing what other people’s writing spaces are like.
7. Pet Peeve #16 Discussion - There is a great discussion in the comments section about making money, traditional publishing, and more.
8. Making An Honest Blogger’s Dollar - This led to the above post.
9. Take Your Prozac - An important post about writers and depression.
10. Clippy Knows All - Just hilarious.

Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have a favourite post I missed? Let me know.