Gay Ingram's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

Yesterday I took an unfinished manuscript out of the box where I'd packed it away. That collection of notepads of scribbled pages, printed-out sheets of research notes and bits and pieces of ephemera just wouldn't leave me alone. It's a novel I began almost five years ago, filled with enthusiasm at the time. I got somewhat over one hundred printed pages into it and got stuck.

Well not actually stuck. Looking back, now I realize it was a remark by a critique partner that threw up the roadblock. I took the comment to heart and began comparing my work with others, resulting in total despair of it ever being something worth publishing. Try as I might from that point on, I could not generate any passion for the work. Off and on, I'd rescue it from its lodging place at the back of a shelf, struggle to get back into the flow of things, with no success.

One day as I was reading David Morrell's excellent Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing, I came across a statement where he mentioned: "there were times when a project wasn't going anywhere perhaps it didn't need to. If you had revised everything that needed revising and fixed everything that needed fixing, and it still wasn't working, perhaps the best solution was to set it aside and begin work on something different."

Yippee! This successful author was giving me permission to turn my back on a project that had caused me untold anguish for a couple years. Not yet ready to actually put it in a trash basket, I found a box big enough to hold all the notebooks and papers, stuffed everything inside and slide the box into the dark space beneath a worktable (my only available storage space.)

That worked for about a week. But the darn characters persisted in dancing around in my head, bothering me at the oddest moments. I guess they weren't too happy about their seclusion from the light.

So, I'm bringing them back to the computer. Hopefully, with a whole different attitude. It's apparent these character are going to continue to struggle to live. I have to assume this is a story that insist on being told. And that is what I will do. I will plug on, writing out the lives of these two women. But with no expectations of anything more.

Blanche and Katrina will live, experience the strong friendship that survives all that life throws their way. Eventually I will have another packet of printed pages to file away with other unpublished stories...stories that just demanded to be written.

Here in East Texas, we've been enjoying a final spell of Indian Summer weather before winter really sets in. Makes a person want to spend all their time out of doors, soaking up sunshine and watching leaves drift to the ground. Of course, all those falling leaves portend hours of raking sometime in the not too distant future.

But lounging in an Adirondack chair, steaming cup of coffee in hand, does not get the writing assignments completed. So, reluctantly I drag myself to my little office building and shuffle through writing possibilities, trying to stir up those writing juices.

I am not a spontaneous writer...one of those people who can't wait to face a blank page; someone whose brain is brimming over with ideas and story-lines that tumble in their head, each one scrambling to be first on the page.

I work best with a designated objective in mind. Sometimes it's a contest whose guidelines seem to jive with my style of writing. At other times, I find myself with a contract to produce a series of specific pieces of writing and I struggle as I reshape my words to conform to their requirements. Or I may need to present a concept of the craft in a manner acceptable to my favorite editor.

In fact, I have a shelf-full of motivational books for writers. You know, books like What If? or 30 Exercises For Lazy Writers. Oh, I always have good intentions but I just can't seem to stay enthused spending my writing time putting down words as if I were spilling my thoughts.

Every once in a while, I'll take one or another off the shelf, carry it to my writing desk and open a page. But I end up flipping page after page, looking for a topic that grabs me and inspires me to put something down on the paper.

Now that I think about it, my writing habits reflects who I am. I'm that person sitting in the group, not saying anything but vitally interested in hearing what others have to say. I'm a listener more than a talker. And how I choose to spend my writing time is a reflection of that. Only when I feel I have something that can't go unsaid will I apply myself and put it down on paper.
I may not be a prolific or financially successful writer, but I do feel what I have written has had something worthy to say.

How does one know they are a writer? Beginning writers are filled with self-doubts. You’ve jotted down some thoughts in the past that just seemed to come together in a poetic manner. Or journal writing has been an integral part of your life since your Aunt Marjorie gave you a diary for your ninth birthday. Maybe because a particular topic interests you intensely, you’ve immersed yourself in it and now are eager to share your knowledge with other by writing about it. So, what determines whether a person is a writer or not? The solitary fact that you have this inner urge to put pen to paper and write qualifies you as a writer.

A writer is someone who writes. It doesn’t take having something published to be a writer. All it takes is the desire to write. No outside force can validate you as a writer. If you have a desire to write, only taking yourself seriously as a writer is needed. Here are some habits to develop that will help you feel more like the writer you are.

1.A writer writes on a regular basis. Examine your life and find a time, hopefully during your best energy time. Make an appointment with yourself to write every day at this time. Write it into your calendar – each day at such-and-such time I will devote to my writing, even if it’s only fifteen minutes. Let nothing take precedence or interfere with the appointment you’ve made with yourself to write.

2.During that set aside time, devote your energies to writing or thinking about your writing. Even if you don’t have a designated project to work on or an idea to develop, use this time to concentrate on your writing. Don’t use the time to pay bills or catch up on correspondence unless it is writing related. You can use the time to create a list about things you want to write about. Freewriting or clustering are excellent techniques for priming the writing pump.

3.Have a designated place to write. Always go to this place, be it a separate room or just a flat space tucked into a corner of the bedroom, at the appointed time to write. You may begin with just writing materials and a file folder or two. Add a shelf for the basic resource books you’ll be acquiring or tuck them under your writing surface if there’s no wall space. Do what you can to make this space look and feel like a writer’s space.

4.Everything you write has worth. Remember, you are your own worse critic. No artist or musician has perfect mastery of his or her craft immediately. It takes practice to perfect their skills. The same is true for a writer. Even bad writing can be a learning experience. Nothing you write is a waste of time. Practice writing is practicing your craft.

5.The state of being a writer means you are a writer all the time. Train yourself to think like a writer. Look at the world you live in everyday as a crop to be harvested for your writing. Carry a pen and notepad with you at all times. Don’t trust your memory to remember. If an idea or thought isn’t written down as soon as possible, it will be lost. Even one word written down will help revive the complete thought when you have time to get back to your notations.

Developing these good writing habits will go a long way in building your self-image of yourself as a writer. Getting the next best-selling “Great American Novel” published isn’t a requirement for considering yourself a writer; fulfilling that act of putting words on paper is what makes you a writer. Lift up your head and be proud to say: “I am a writer.”

In every story, there needs to be a discovery. A light-bulb moment when a life-lesson is learned. If your character remains in the same place at the end of the story as he/she was in the beginning, then you've missed the mark.

Force yourself to dig deeply into your character's personality; search for a revelation of something wrong that needs to be righted. Discovery of the meat of your piece will set your spine to tingling, your head to spin. You'll grin like someone whose been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Sometimes it's just a tiny incident that starts a landslide of change in your character's life. Something incidental yet it will resonate with your readers, causing them to say, "Oh yeah, that's me too."

Reading a back issue of Personal Journaling, I became aware that there are several reasons why I journal every day.

My serious effort to be consistent came about as a result of Julia Cameron’s influential book, The Artist’s Way. I connected with what she had to say about being committed to what she called ‘daily pages.’ It wasn’t so much her urge to write every day, but the reasoning she gave for doing these daily pages. She pointed out that in doing so every day at the approximate same time, in an identical location each day, your objective was to form a new habit, to train your brain and hand into a cooperative effort to write. As this repetitive exercise became more familiar and the routine established, the act of sitting down to write for a specific length of time would become an almost automatic practice.

And I have found it so.

But there have been other benefits derived as a result of establishing this routine into my daily schedule.

I’ve found it true that just the act of settling myself at the desk in my bedroom, lighting a nearby candle, opening the spiral 5-subject notebook I’ve chosen to use and picking up my pen seemed to open a floodgate, causing the words to flow effortlessly as my writing strives to keep up with the thoughts that come to me.

I’ve found whenever I have an assignment or an article that’s due, there isn't any doubt about having words come or any hesitation to begin the work.

You've probably all been part of a mini-workshop or writing presentation where the person in charge announces: “we will now write for ten minutes on...” Somewhere over the years of keeping up my daily pages, I’ve eradicated that ‘freezing up’ feeling that used to grab me whenever required to attempt spontaneous writing. Those instances, when they happen, no longer bring on a sense of terror and frustration.

Another discovery: there are times as I’m writing along I find myself reeling in thoughts that are resolutions to dilemmas I’d considered unsolvable. So, I just keep on writing, saying to myself, “Isn’t that interesting?”

Another way these daily pages help me, is in providing a place to express my frustrations and anger about situations over which I have no control. My journal pages give me somewhere to rant and rave without doing damage. And writing about the circumstances usually brings me a degree of acceptance once I’ve expressed my feelings.

I highly recommend every writer set aside a small portion of their day–perhaps just ten minutes to begin with. I can almost guarantee the writing time will expand to longer periods as you become more comfortable with the activity and it becomes a more familiar routine. Try it; I promise only good results.

I’d like to address a couple terms that pop up often in the writing and publishing world: query and elevator pitch.

A query does not have to be a masterpiece to grab an agent or editor's attention. What
it has to do is 1) impress the agent/editor with good, clear writing and an interesting plot summary, 2) describe the work as fiction or non, provide a word count, and suggest a genre,
and 3) list your credentials as a capable writer.

“elevator pitch” - a short, snappy description of your book used to quickly and simply define it and to inspire interest. You generally have thirty seconds to two minutes. You know your book better than anyone; what do you think really sets your work apart?

A story, like an Oriental carpet, is a pattern and everything in it is supposed to contribute to the design. Ultimately, something should happen in your story; some difference should be made.
But real life is not perfectly ordered–real life is messily patterned, if patterned at all. Fiction that is too neatly patterned will not feel real.
A plot is nothing more than a recap of what your characters do. Plot arises out of opposing forces–forces that come out of the characters. The actions of the characters must have significance; what gives significance to actions is to take the characters toward some kind of resolution from whatever predicament they may be facing. Events happen to,and because of people/characters.
The people you are writing about cause things to happen. The action must follow from some knowledge imparted about the characters. Your character must do that specific “something” because it is the only thing they can do in a given situation, because of who they are rather than because that is what you, the author, wants them to do.
When plot problems occur and our characters refuse to do what we ask of them, it usually means the author is thinking about how the author would handle the problem, not how the character would. If you create characters that are strikingly different from each other will greatly eliminate plotting problems.

The stories that live within us do not move in straight lines, no more than our lives do. They move in circles, so it is wise to learn to listen, even write, in circles. There are stories inside stories, between stories; stories that may be incorporated into poetry, prose, or short stories--yes, even novels.

Finding them, finding our way through them is as hard as finding our way home. Part of the finding is the getting lost. When we're lost, we become attentive to our surroundings; the sounds, the sights, the contradictions and the likenesses.

This has been paraphrased from WRITING FOR YOUR LIFE by Deena Metzer. If you aren't familiar with this book I highly recommend it to writers of all genres.Writing for Your Life: Discovering the Story of Your Life's Journey

A novelist's key concern is to create an east-to-read balance between writing in summary, exposition, or writing in scene, action.

Exposition is a form of summary, any words in your story that are not dramatizing an action.

Action, on the other hand, are specifically tied to the movements of characters in scenes.

The tense of the verb in use indicates whether we are writing summary or scene.
Developing a working knowledge of verb tenses, you can apply this information to create and control the balance between summary and action in your work.

Compound tenses define the moments either before or after the dramatic present, and the simple tenses reveal the dramatic present.

An example:
'is doing' is a compound tense of the verb. Use of a compound verb indicates the sentence is summary.
"bends " is the simple tense of the verb and describes her specific action in the scene.

In most cases, tenses function in this matter, giving you the author, a means to consciously strengthen and control the balance between summary and action in your story.

Write in a friendly, self-confident tone. Bypass the cutesy and over-familiar. Be Professional.

List any qualifications, relevant previous publication credits, writing credentials, especially if you've studied with a prominent person, or on-the-job experience that would lend credence to this particular manuscript or even what inspired the writing of this book.

Follow submission requirements to the letter. Your synopsis should provide a thumbnail sketch of who, what, where, when and why--the theme, setting, principal players, all in a few sentences.

The point of a cover letter is to introduce yourself and your work. It is the sample of your work that you include which will clinch the deal.