Meera Lester's Blog, page 3
November 14, 2010
WRITING DISCIPLINE
Writing Against Deadline
Fiction, they say, takes as long as it takes. Like many novelists, I write nonfiction to support my fiction habit. The goal I’ve set for myself is to finish my novel by this time next year…and when I say finish, I mean the first and second drafts. As for nonfiction, I’m writing my newest book against an unbelievably tight deadline–start to finish–two and a half months It’s only 70,000 words and I’m more than half finished as of this post, but by December 15 I will have to turn that book in. I wouldn’t be able to do it if I weren’t highly disciplined. I often work 12 to 15-hours a day because of the incredible amount of research that this book requires. It’s about sacred travel and travel books always require a lot of research. Writing is a wonderful vocation, but the hours can be long and the pay…let’s just say most of us working writers are at the bottom of the food chain. But the truth is, there’s no work I’d rather be doing. I’d be willing to be that other writers feel the same way.
July 13, 2010
ON WRITING WELL
I recently had a discussion with some writer friends about the challenges of lifting your writing out of mediocrity. What, indeed, sets your story apart from the millions of stories that writers all over the world are creating every single day? For starters, my friends suggested that your story and your voice is unique. Others noted that it is the process of rewriting that brings out the elegance and shine of your prose. Our discussion inspired me discover what literary giants of the past had to say on the subject of good writing. I’m also interested in what you think.
The most essential gift for a good writer is an essential, built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar, and all great writers have had it. –Ernest Hemingway
I try to leave out the parts that people skip. –Elmore Leonard
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say but what we are unable to say. –Anais Nin
I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter. –James Michener
The difference between the right word and the almost write word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.–Mark Twain
You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit let the fire show through the smoke. — Arthur Polotnik
PRIMING THE PUMP
My friends and family can’t understand it. They think that my brain just engages anytime my fingers get near a keyboard since I have written hundreds of articles and over two dozen books for a variety of publishers. But occasionally, I will sit down to write on a topic or work on my novel and nothing happens. The words seem all jammed up inside my head. On such days, writing is hard work. Priming the pump helps.
What do I mean by priming the pump? For me, it means reading a book about my chosen topic, listening to music that relates to my topic, or doing research to get me thinking about the subject. If that doesn’t work, I move my body, literally.
Instead of stressing on not being able to produce words on the page, I get up and do something to shift the energy–wash the dishes, feed the chickens, walk in nature, do yoga, or tend my plants–in short, anything that takes me away from the work and gives my mind time to cogitate on what it is I want to write. It’s allowing the mind time to figure out how to tell the story before you actually sit down to type it.
