Arthur Gibson's Blog: A Journey In Mind, page 9

Loose Ends

Sometimes a story isn't just a story. Sometimes it is a link in a larger chain. The characters and the events they are caught up in are large enough for more than one story. When this happens, the author is left with a dilemna. How many loose ends can you leave?

Any reader who picks up a book that they know is part of a series is not looking for answers to everything. At the same time, a reader who gets answers to nothing will feel cheated. One master of the loose end is Robert Jordan. In his Wheel of Time series every book answers questions and poses dozens more. At no time do you feel cheated. At no time do you contemplate not getting the next book because you really want to see what happens and learn what it all means.

A good rule of thumb is to look at the story in two parts. The first is the particular part of it you are telling at that moment. Wrap that up. Then look at the story as a whole. Feel free to leave clues. Just make sure you write them down so that they are answered in further stories. Leave the reader wanting to know more. But always answer the questions eventually so that they don't feel let down.

Why Wait?

When you have finished a story, why not start editing right away? Why wait? Because it is the best favor you could do yourself. Build in that wait time into any deadlines or projections of completion you have. It is the single most useful break you can give yourself.

When we are writing, we get involved in our stories. We know them. We learn them. We breathe them. We become blind to their foibles and errors. By taking a break, we can bring new eyes to the story. We can see it arbitrarily. We are no longer part of it. We need to step back and see the forest and the trees that make it up.

A break does not need to be for months. A day or two will do. Just make sure you are not thinking about the story during that time. Read a good book. Watch movies. Go and play with the kids. Do the chores that have been piling up. Do anything except work on your story.

When you come back, you will be refreshed and ready to do your editing. You will see those things you have been missing. You will have a fresh perspective. You will edit well and it will benefit your work. So wait. Don't rush in. Give yourself and your story time to breathe.

Bah

I hate the flu. Especially when it is raining and cold. Hard to breathe. Hard to sit up. Aches to type. Not going to get much done today.

Keep Them Turning

I know I have a good book in my hands when I do not want to put it down. I know I have a dud when I can put it down and not get back to it for days. As writers, we should seek to deprive everyone who reads us of sleep. We should try to keep them wanting to turn the pages.

This can be done in many ways. Cliff hanging chapter endings. A sense of danger towards the characters. A general feeling of suspense. Action getting more and more intense. Romance building up. Humor and misunderstandings coming again and again. The specific way you do it depends on what genre you are writing in and what type of story that you have. Those are just techniques. The only true way to keep your readers turning pages is with quality writing.

You do not want your readers continuing to flip pages because they are witnessing a train wreck and want to see if it could possibly be worse. The thought "it must get better" is not one you want on their minds. Instead, you want them engrossed. Captivated. There with you every word.

Make your characters real. These are real people. They react like real people. They are just in extraordinary circumstances. Show that. Make them come alive. Dialogue is king. Good dialogue is emperor.

Paint beautiful settings. Don't waste three pages describing the drapes or the way the electrical current flows through the machinery. Give them what they need to see your setting. Then move on.

Let the story flow. Give it a pace and stick to it. Don't break it up with a lot of unnecessary scenes. Let it flow. Let one point lead you to the next point in an organic pattern.

Good writing makes for good reading. Readers will keep reading your book if they forget themselves. They will keep reading if they care for the characters. This is the secret of all great books. We care what happens to these people.

Always Expanding

Sometimes I wonder if I can write "short" stories, lol. With the pressure of a deadline off I am revisiting the story. Naturally, I am adding more story to it. For some reason I just like to expand what I have written. It might not be easy on editing, but I do think the ideas end up being richer.

Over for 2011

I did not make it. While I did manage to create a body of work this month, I do not believe it is up to publishing standards. Too much was rushed. If my entry had made it into the final category, I do not think that it would have had a chance of winning. I considered entering a previous work into the contest, but it closed before I made up my mind. Ah, well. I will continue on with the editing process and we will see when it is done to my satisfaction. I think it was a good effort this year, but not up to quality.

Are You A Writer?

One of the three most common things I hear people say growing up is that they want to be a writer. I have dealt with lots of kids of various ages. Some small. Some teens. But as they get older the desire does not always fade. It gets pushed to the background. It gets filed in the "I could never do that" portion of our dreams. We grow up wanting to be astronauts and firemen and Superman and our Mother. But why does writing last longer than many of those dreams and goals?

Writing has a romantic tinge to it. Putting down your thoughts on paper. Creating stories and characters beloved by the world. There is a nice picture to it. It has a cool feeling that never really fades. That inner you that no one else sees escapes onto paper and takes the world by storm. Every book you read that makes you feel good ends up rekindling that desire to do that. To make one yourself. It is an idea that gets underneath our skin and rarely lets go.

But are you one? Are you a writer? Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, and grammer. Those are all skills that can be learned. Do you have the characters inside of yourself? Do you have the stories? You might not write well in a technical sense, but do you write anyway? Do you make characters that leap off the page regardless of your own faults? If so, you could be a writer. A writer is someone who creates stories on paper. Simple as that. We all seek to be proficient at the technical side. Editors help us with that. Word processing tools help us with that. But that is on the outside. Inside, you could very well have the gift.

Is there a single defining definition? Many people would say no. I disagree. I think there is a simple formula to show to yourself if you are a writer or not. It is not my brainstorm. I heard R.A. Salvatore say it. I think he is absolutely right. "If you want to know if you are a writer, don't write for a day. If you can't then you are a writer." A writer is someone who writes. On paper, on computer, or in their head. Every single day they chase character and plot in their minds or on a page. Every single day. Sometimes for long periods of time. Sometimes for short. But every day something will happen. That is a writer.

Salvatore went on to note that if he hadn't become professional he would still have written just as much - if not more - than he has. That is the case for all writers. Whether we are successful or in print or unknown, we have story after story after story that we have created. We chase our dreams to do it professionally. We are content to share with friends. We use the Internet to share with the world. But we all create characters and stories and tell our tales. Are you a writer? Try not writing for a day and you'll know.

Dear Diary

Many writers use writing diaries. On any given day they log what they were working on and how much they got done. Some use point form on a daily basis (Road to Witherspool 4pages, full day) and summarize once it is complete (House of the Evil Kitten 85pages, 19days). But why do they do it? Is there any purpose to it?

When a writer is starting out, they have dreams. Your name in the headlines. Your books on the Best Seller lists. Perhaps interview or book tours. Perhaps just getting up each morning and being able to sit at your desk and work of your stories without worrying about the daily grind. Dreams of success. Of making it. But you rarely find the utter conceit of an assumption of making it. We believe that we will succeed but we do not assume we will succeed. A writers diary can be useful looking back over a career to see what we accomplished. To find those treasures that we worked on but cast aside for whatever reason. In many writers libraries they are among the personal papers that get donated. But no one starting out keeps a diary assuming that it will be needed for posterity. So conceit or ego is not a reason to keep one.

A writers diary is work. And it can be depressing if you let it rule your life. Sitting down at a desk to log that you sat there and accomplished nothing is not fun. Sitting down to record another day's work and realizing you have been slogging at a story for ages and it still doesn't work for you is also not a joy. Some days it is hard enough to produce good work. Logging our efforts can seem to be a waste. But pushing forward and creating that record can be a benefit. We can see what we have done. We get a sense of accomplishment. Yes, it was hard but we are finished. We can look back at a period and realize that we seemed to get nothing done but actually completed a lot. It is hard, but it is worth it. Strike 'it is easy' as a reason.

The best reason I know to keep one is just the simple fact that writers are creative. Just like I keep notebooks upon notebooks full of story ideas, it is good to have a record of what I am doing. If I sit down at the end of a week or a month and feel like I am all over the place, I can look over my journal and see that I was. Out of the 8 days I put in at the desk, only 2 were spent on the same piece. The rest of the time was spent in false starts or unproductive avenues. I can then sit down to complete something. I can sit down and think through some of the false starts to see if they should be scraped entirely or just re-worked. After all, there was a kernel of idea in there somewhere.

It is too easy to write what is the fad. It is too easy to get an idea and begin to follow that instead of the one you are working on that is getting cumbersome. A diary or journal of your writing can help to show you your patterns. It can help to show you what you are accomplishing. It can help to show you if you can take on a new project. It can help to guide you towards successfully meeting your deadlines. Nature abhors a vacuum. Don't let your writing suck you down. Log it. Pay attention to it. Focus it. We can all be productive within the time that we have. A diary can only help you with that.

What Do You Sacrifice For A Deadline?

It looms. The monster in the closet of every writer. The source of the drool coming from under your bed. The deadline. As it approaches, the pressure mounts. Each page you look at takes on more weight. Can you do it?

You need to be done by this date.

At first the date was a long way off. You had all the time in the world. You paced yourself. You crafted. You went over things again and again. But time slips away. It marches on. It is inexorable. And now you are facing your deadline with an incomplete manuscript.

Make yourself a coffee or tea. Grab a glass of water. Take a deep breath. Sit down and look out your window at the world. Take your mind off "the date". Then look at the manuscript. What is it missing?

If the manuscript is not fully written, can you write it? What is your pace of writing? 4-5 pages a day you are happy with? 1-2? 6? Whatever the amount, look dispassionately at your deadline and see if you can make it. If you can't, then you have a problem. You may miss the contest you are aiming for. You may have to ask for an extension. You may be in real trouble and be unable to get an extension. If you can't, then you need to hunker down and finish or alter what you are writing. Altering is never good. It changes the story. It changes the pace. I always vote for sleepless nights, hectic days, and plowing through those pages to the finish line.

If the manuscript is not edited, does it need to be? Of course the answer is yes, lol. Unless you are a writer as talented as Rex Stout and do your editing in your head (I could be wrong but I think in his career he only edited or re-wrote before submission something like 3 or 4 items. In total he wrote 56-58 pieces in his Wolfe saga alone.), editing is a required task. Spelling. Punctuation. Grammar. Story points. Who said what. Minor changes to wording. Major changes to wording. This is the bread and butter of the re-write. So how much can you edit a day? Will you get it done? Does the deadline mean a fully complete manuscript (for say a magazine publication date) or can you submit a first/second draft (for say a publishing house) and let them know there are a few editorial changes you are still making. If you inform whoever you are submitting to that you are still editing, you may get another week.

All I can say is good luck. A deadline is nothing to sneeze at. A good writer respects the deadline and gets a good reputation for meeting them. It is work. Hard work. But worth it in the end.

Whose Line Was It?

Who said it? That is the question to answer when you are reading a long piece of dialogue. I cannot count the number of times I have read a book and had to pause here and there to scroll my eyes back up and see who started speaking. By counting on, off, on I then know who is speaking the line that got me confused. This is something that happens to every author. It is not always the fault of the author. Sometimes we as readers start skimming. We get the gist of what is written, but we are not reading every word.

Every author approaches the problem differently. There is no correct or incorrect way of doing it. I once read a book in which an entire chapter was a dinner conversation of two people on a date. After every single line the author put in either 'he said' or 'she said'. At first it was somewhat off putting, but after a few pages you just didn't see it anymore. Other authors tell you who is speaking. 'Bob said' 'Jane said' etc. Others start you off and only interject a 'said' if another characters enters the conversation. One very frustrating author tended to have all his characters call the other characters by name in some way every time they spoke. 'You know, Jim.' 'But Henry, I don't think' and so on. No one speaks that way.

I once wrote a story in which one of the major character never used contractions. He used the long form of every word every time he spoke. It lent him a rather distinct style of speaking. As an exercise in fun, write something and have one character not use contractions. Try really hard. Then edit it a day later and see how many contractions managed to sneak past. Our speaking style is so full of these shortenings that it is natural for it to leak through into our writing. In a way, it lends us an advantage for period pieces. Just by writing in the style they spoke at the time lends an air of authenticity to our writing.

In the end our goal as writers is to engage our readers and tell a story. We cannot tell as effective a story if they do not know who is saying what. We can use a he/she said formula, a George said formula, or some other kind of disctintive tag for our characters. There are many ways to do it. The best way to know if you are successful is to read your work aloud to yourself. If it flows and you have no trouble switching from voice to voice in your head, then you have succeeded. But if you find you have to pause and think of who was talking then you need to do some editing.