Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 6

Boredom precedes creativity

Remember how when you were bored in class, you absentmindedly doodled in your notebook? Or maybe you gazed out the window and saw the shapes of clouds (giraffe! dragon! whale!). Or maybe you came up with a new brilliant jumping technique to beat those mean girls at recess in hopscotch? (My case. And I beat them, too.)

Or maybe you remember a dull summer day when it rained, and the school was out, and it was vacation time, but for some reason you had nothing to do and were bored out of your mi...

Fiction is not reality

Forget about what you know or how things are in real life.

Your job isn't to document the truth. Your job is to make readers believe in your truth.

The difference between these two approaches is, in the first one you'll be held back by the facts, as backwards as it sounds. I know because I've been there. I've sunk countless hours into researching train schedules for T.U.B.E., and ballet terms, and historical Russian events in precisely 1989 when the story happens, and so on. This is what has r...

Impersonate your characters

The best way I found how to do it is to act them out, aloud.

So while I write, I speak through all dialogue aloud, acting it as if I were acting in a movie, and switching from character to character, changing the tone of my voice, the inflections, even getting up and moving in different ways.

It allows me to inhabit the character completely. 

It's also quite funny and adds to the joy of writing (especially all the giggling that comes along with it, and making faces while staring in the mirror)....

Tell your story, and tell it YOUR way

YOUR voice is the one we want to hear.

There is only YOU, and that YOU wants to be heard. Copying others will only get you so far, and it'll never allow your true YOU to shine. To tell YOUR story.

So tell your story, and tell it YOUR way.

You don't know when you'll die, do you? Neither do I. None of us do.

What if you knew? What if you had only a few days left to live? That'd allow you to let go of your fear of being YOU, wouldn't it?

Then pretend.

Wake up and pretend you're going to die in a few...

Never settle for average

It's not about perfectionism (you can perfect your writing till you're blue in the face and not make it better).

It's about pushing yourself to the limits of what you can do.

It's not about pleasing others (you can never please everyone with your writing—by trying to do so you'll end up pleasing no one).

It's about pleasing your sense of accomplishment, knowing you did your best.

It's not about the word count or the chapter count or the book count (it doesn't matter in the end how many of what y...

Need help? Ask questions

You're not alone in this, though it might feel like it.

There were many MANY writers before you, there will be many MANY writers after you, and there are many MANY writers right now struggling with the same thing.

So don't suffer alone and in silence. Ask questions.

Ask them anywhere, and keep asking, no matter how silly they seem.

Chances are, someone somewhere has figured out a way to solve your problem, and they might be willing to help. You never know unless you ask.

Plus, asking builds commu...

Write something stunning

If it stuns you, it'll stun your reader.

If it moves you, it'll move your reader.

If it makes you forget about time, it'll make your reader forget about time.

So write something stunning, something moving, something that makes you forget about time and space and all your problems. Something that sucks you in completely and doesn't let you go until you finish.

Trust yourself.

If what you wrote has stunned you, know that there is someone out there who is just like you, and who will get stunned by y...

Allow the story to come to you, not the other way around

Don't force it.

When stuck or unsure or lost, close everything (your laptop, your notebook, your skull with your pulsing, jittering brain) and WALK AWAY INTO SILENCE.

Whatever time you have planned for writing, fill it up with doing nothing.

And I do mean exactly that.

DO NOTHING.

If it's hard for you, then focus on your breathing. Listen to your breaths. Meditate. 

If meditation is not something you know how to do or want to try, speak in your mind through your actions, to the point of silliness,...

Find a writing partner or a coach

Since I started working with my writing partner, the difference in the quality of the material I’m putting out has soared. And it’s not because I somehow got better overnight. 

It’s because when you have another brain joined in thinking through your story, you see things you haven’t seen before. 

This post isn’t meant to pump up the importance of having a writing coach. It’s meant to share what treasure it is, to share your ideas with and to trust another human being.

We’re not meant to write a...

Use metaphors

When writing about particularly sensitive topics (trauma, child abuse, suicide, war, rape, racism, sexism, any kind of phobia, any political issues, etc.), make it palatable for the reader. 

How? Wrap it up in a metaphor. 

We’re only beginning to learn empathy as a society. We still react with anger and hatred vs. responding with understanding and compassion. We don’t know how to talk about our pain, how to listen to others talk about their pain, and how to facilitate this conversation as a pe...