Clark Hays's Blog - Posts Tagged "techniques"
Writing, and Other Hopeless Afflictions
Tips and tricks from the trenches.
Note: This is a guest post we wrote for Rebecca's Writing Services website.
Writing is the worst thing you can do in the world. For starters, it’s thankless. And chances are you’ll never make any money at it. Plus you’ll be relentlessly critiqued and judged by countless people, some (many?) of whom feel obliged to assassinate your character in the process. And forget about having a social life, or any kind of life, really. You have to spend all of your time writing and all of your spare time marketing your writing and all your spare, spare time reading better writers than yourself. (Note: there’s no such thing as spare, spare, spare time — that’s just called “sleep,” and it’s in short supply).
If you’re still reading this, it’s too late for you — you’re afflicted. There’s no hope. But we do have a few tips and tricks to help you manage the unfortunate condition that will shape the rest of your life.
Be selfish. Writing requires alone time, and lots of it. When people ask you to do anything that isn’t writing, say no. Don’t even make excuses for your action; that just takes extra time away from writing. Related tip: Make sure your significant other suffers from the same affliction; you won’t feel quite as lonely as you sit on opposite sides of the room ignoring each other while you work.
Be social. The only thing worse than not focusing on writing is focusing too much on writing. Over-focusing can blind you from being creative. In order to charge the part of your brain that fuels good writing, you have to get out in the world, see people and do fun things.
Be confident. Writing requires a huge ego. If you aren’t convinced that every single word you write is electric and riveting, better than any word ever committed to paper in history, writing is just a hobby. Try scrapbooking instead. Or pickling things.
Be insecure. Writing requires a healthy dose of insecurity. You have to constantly challenge yourself to improve and you can’t improve if you don’t open yourself to risk. And by risk, we mean feedback. Join a writing group or pay an editor. Do not trust your friends. Unless you friends and family don’t really like you; then their feedback might be helpful.
Be realistic. Writing is hard work and it never gets easier. If your books aren’t selling, you have to write more and better, and market harder. If your books are selling, you need to write more and better sequels and fight for control of your movie scripts and worry about international rights. If you go into this thinking anything about it is easy, or success is guaranteed, you are in for a long, disappointing ride.
Be optimistic. If you can’t envision yourself being wildly successful — like J.K. Rowling levels of success — why bother? There’s always pickling things.
One thing about writers is that they are naturally astute and if you’ve been paying attention, you probably noticed this advice is all sorts of diametrically opposed. That’s because the affliction of writing requires a continuous and long-running, self imposed derangement of the senses, a willful bipolar disorder, a life-long creative mood swing between extremes. Embrace it and learn to make the most of it. That’s the only advice that really matters.
But if you’re still reading and want some actual, practical advice, here it is: try online dating. No, not for yourself — for your characters.
If you really want to get to know your characters inside and out — and that’s the only way your readers will want to spend uninterrupted time with them — they have to be real. Some people write short stories about their characters, others write biographical sketches. To really get inside their heads, write their dating profile for some online hook up site. And not what you think their profile should be — write their profile like they would write it: inflating their good qualities and minimizing their bad qualities, glossing over their quirks and balancing what they really want in a partner with what is socially acceptable to ask for.
Then write the feedback their blind date sent back to midnighthookups.com after their first meeting.
There’s no quicker way to get behind the eyes of your characters than by throwing them into the world of dating.
Note: If you have any more tips, please share them! We're getting ready to start book four and we can use all the help we can get...
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
Note: This is a guest post we wrote for Rebecca's Writing Services website.
Writing is the worst thing you can do in the world. For starters, it’s thankless. And chances are you’ll never make any money at it. Plus you’ll be relentlessly critiqued and judged by countless people, some (many?) of whom feel obliged to assassinate your character in the process. And forget about having a social life, or any kind of life, really. You have to spend all of your time writing and all of your spare time marketing your writing and all your spare, spare time reading better writers than yourself. (Note: there’s no such thing as spare, spare, spare time — that’s just called “sleep,” and it’s in short supply).
If you’re still reading this, it’s too late for you — you’re afflicted. There’s no hope. But we do have a few tips and tricks to help you manage the unfortunate condition that will shape the rest of your life.
Be selfish. Writing requires alone time, and lots of it. When people ask you to do anything that isn’t writing, say no. Don’t even make excuses for your action; that just takes extra time away from writing. Related tip: Make sure your significant other suffers from the same affliction; you won’t feel quite as lonely as you sit on opposite sides of the room ignoring each other while you work.
Be social. The only thing worse than not focusing on writing is focusing too much on writing. Over-focusing can blind you from being creative. In order to charge the part of your brain that fuels good writing, you have to get out in the world, see people and do fun things.
Be confident. Writing requires a huge ego. If you aren’t convinced that every single word you write is electric and riveting, better than any word ever committed to paper in history, writing is just a hobby. Try scrapbooking instead. Or pickling things.
Be insecure. Writing requires a healthy dose of insecurity. You have to constantly challenge yourself to improve and you can’t improve if you don’t open yourself to risk. And by risk, we mean feedback. Join a writing group or pay an editor. Do not trust your friends. Unless you friends and family don’t really like you; then their feedback might be helpful.
Be realistic. Writing is hard work and it never gets easier. If your books aren’t selling, you have to write more and better, and market harder. If your books are selling, you need to write more and better sequels and fight for control of your movie scripts and worry about international rights. If you go into this thinking anything about it is easy, or success is guaranteed, you are in for a long, disappointing ride.
Be optimistic. If you can’t envision yourself being wildly successful — like J.K. Rowling levels of success — why bother? There’s always pickling things.
One thing about writers is that they are naturally astute and if you’ve been paying attention, you probably noticed this advice is all sorts of diametrically opposed. That’s because the affliction of writing requires a continuous and long-running, self imposed derangement of the senses, a willful bipolar disorder, a life-long creative mood swing between extremes. Embrace it and learn to make the most of it. That’s the only advice that really matters.
But if you’re still reading and want some actual, practical advice, here it is: try online dating. No, not for yourself — for your characters.
If you really want to get to know your characters inside and out — and that’s the only way your readers will want to spend uninterrupted time with them — they have to be real. Some people write short stories about their characters, others write biographical sketches. To really get inside their heads, write their dating profile for some online hook up site. And not what you think their profile should be — write their profile like they would write it: inflating their good qualities and minimizing their bad qualities, glossing over their quirks and balancing what they really want in a partner with what is socially acceptable to ask for.
Then write the feedback their blind date sent back to midnighthookups.com after their first meeting.
There’s no quicker way to get behind the eyes of your characters than by throwing them into the world of dating.
Note: If you have any more tips, please share them! We're getting ready to start book four and we can use all the help we can get...
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
