Rewriting

If you're anything like me, there's a particular part of the writing process that you love and another that you would just love to chuck out the window. I think any writer of even minor experience understands the importance of each part of the process. For me, I didn't realize the value of revising until I received my first professional assignment. It was a freelance article that I'd pitched to a magazine. We decided to take a bit of a dry run on their website first and I was surprised my editor offered to pick up my pitch for the magazine afterward-- I do not think I did well at all, and my editor basically rewrote most of the article before it went up. You see, I hadn't spent any time in revision-- I'd never really had to before because all my teachers and professors accepted what I turned in, telling me how good it was. 

I'm grateful to my first editor and the second chance he gave me. We had a bit more time, so when I sent him a draft, he sent it back with extensive notes on what to change. I made those changes, and got more notes back. Over and over. I think it was the 4th or 5th round when I threw out everything I'd written, internalized his notes and started again. And it was wonderful. Sure, I still had to go through a few rounds with that, but I'd learned the value of the rewrite, rather than just the edit. 

My writing life has been much better ever since. With my current assignment, I went through three full rewrites before I submitted it for feedback, each far superior to the one prior. I anticipate a lot of feedback still, but that's how I grow as a writer. 

Of course, time contains me from doing very many rewrites for this blog. So, you get what is basically a first draft. I'd love to get to the point where I have more time to rewrite here, but for now, this will just have to do. Between my full time day job, the 10 semester credits I'm taking for a certification, my freelance writing work, not to mention home and family-- there's not much time left for this blog. At least not yet. 

Predictability

This weekend, I finally got around to watching The Hunger Games. I've only gotten a few chapters into the book before I put it down. I know it's an extremely popular book lately and I have every intention of going back to it, but I just wasn't able to get into it when I first tried. It doesn't help that I've got an enormous and ever-growing backlog of books that keep vying for my attention. Anyway, I thought the movie was okay-- well acted and decently written, but I couldn't help but see through it. And that's what's got me posting today.

You see, I'm an over-thinker, as anyone who followed my liveblogging of Mistborn will know. I've experienced a great deal of stories through books, movies, video games, and I know specific story-beats when I see them. Take when the dog-beast jumps out of the woods--I'm trying to avoid spoilers, just in case--there is so much that telegraphs it before it happens: music (or lack thereof), dialogue, camera angle, body posture, and so on. It was only my wife sitting next to me that kept me from saying "now" just as the hidden beast lunged-- she hates it when I do that.

And here is where I'm torn. When I write, I want my story and its pacing to be unique, unpredictable. I want to write the kind of story I love to read, where events are clear and connected, with subtle clues laid along, but never telegraphed to the reader. But I also understand that story-beats occur the way they do because they are successful. My wife jumped, letting out a little scream, when the beast leaped out of the forest. That pacing worked for her, and for countless others-- just not for me.

When I first started writing, I wanted to go against every story-template I know. I didn't want to write a hero's journey. Happily-ever-after isn't my kind of tale. Yet, if I broke with the tried-and-true entirely, I ran the risk of never finding a sizable audience. Now, I've reconsidered. It's not about making a new mold, it's about choosing to break just the right parts of an existing mold. There are countless authors already doing this to great effect. I loved Ender's Game for the twist and melancholy ending and The Giver for the ambiguity it offers about the fate of the main character. Or in a slightly different vein, The Walking Dead adventure game by Telltale reinvigorates the zombie-story with small changes in gameplay. Chopping into a zombie's head one swing at a time really drives the experience home, giving you a moment to reflect between swings. It's what each of these does differently that sticks with me. How about you? Do you enjoy traditional stories or ones that change it up?

Getting some Traction

So, it's taken me more than a week to come back. In fact, looking at the notes I left myself, it's been quite a while. At the time I was reading a book about organization that talked about getting your most awful-but-important task done first-- right at the beginning of the day. The book used a Mark Twain quote about eating a frog first thing in the morning, that way you know that nothing worse can happen that day. It was some really great stuff and I was planning to really dive in here, but then my daytime job hit full swing with a new position and it's taking a lot more of my time and energy than I anticipated. It'd be nice if I could say I got a substantial raise with all the extra responsibility, but such is not the case. The extra $100 or so a month is nice, but nothing when compared with the sheer weight of my new position.

But this post is about getting some traction with my writing. My wheels have been spinning a long time now, and so I've fallen back into what got me going the last time around. I've sent some pitches around for some freelance writing work for websites and magazines. One's pretty promising, if a bit slow in the processing. It's not my novel, sadly, but it's writing. And it was this kind of writing that made me fall in love with words again and brought me back to the blank page. It was this kind of writing that propelled me 20k words into my novel before my inner editor and the overly complicated logistics of an online writing group drained my reservoir. I loved that group; my writing just wasn't ready for it. That, and we never really got to know each other on a personal level, and that made critiquing and receiving critiques more difficult-- I never quite knew the tone of the person behind the feedback. Plus, our group kept growing randomly and when we hit eight or nine, I think most of us basically gave up. Four or five is the perfect size, I think. But if any of them read this, I did learn a ton and I am grateful for what the group did. And I wish each of you well with your books. I'd love to see us all on the shelf one day. And if not, keep writing.

I wish I could say my traction is firm and I'm making headway. I'm not there yet, but I think about my writing everyday. And I long to get back to it in full force again. I hope to soon. I really do. What about you? How do you keep your traction going?

Spinning Wheels

I've been thinking a lot lately about the methods I use to measure myself. Whether it's in my writing, my day job, or my relationships, I have an unwritten rubric against which I measure myself. Did I meet my word-goal for the day? Did I finish my to-do list? Did I accomplish everything asked of me at work? Did I spend enough time with my wife? Lately, it seems, the answer to most of these is no. I've been feeling like a car on an icy road-- the pedal is down and the motor is revving, but the wheels are just spinning against the slick. Any driver who lives in the snow knows that spinning out never helps the tires regain traction, in fact, it just makes the situation worse by solidifying the layer of ice between the car and the road. The best solution is to slow the tires and let the weight of the car bear down on the tires to give them what friction they can, then to use a rocking motion to get the car out from the icy rut.

So, what's this got to do with anything? Well, for me, it means I've got to slow myself down and get some friction between me and the things that are most important to me. I could spend endless days doing meaningless things-- there's always plenty of them-- or I could bear down on the few that actually matter.

Sounds good, right? But how to do it? That's what I want to focus on for next week. See you then.

What it takes

Wow, I'm coming off the tail end of a couple of really hard weeks. It's likely no one noticed this time around, but I hadn't realized I'd missed last week until I was already half way into the week. Yeah, I'm not thrilled to have missed one so soon after making my plans. Whenever I think of my favorite writing-blogs and how they manage to keep to their schedule, I have to realize that most of them write full-time (not that I'm suggesting that's easier, but it certainly is more focused). It's the aspiring writers who are in a difficult pinch, at least if like me, you're holding down a steady job, trying to write and blog as well, not to mention family. Yeah, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be going in. More than anything, I wish I could write full-time. That's the dream, after all. But I think it takes a set of particular somethings to get there.

It takes discipline and honing of one's life. It takes writing skill. It takes something worth saying. It takes days and days. It takes frustration. It takes a soul wrenching desire, such that it twists and ties up your innards to propel you forward. It takes practice. It takes time. Lots and lots of time. 

When I was younger, I wanted to be in professional sports. It was a young child's dream and didn't last long-- particularly when I learned what it would take to get there. I don't think writing professionally is any different. It takes just as much talent, skill, practice, and sheer determination to make it. 

I'm not so sure I've got all that yet, but I'm working at it. How about you?

Jameson

Scheduling and Priorities

So, I've been reading Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People this week. Actually, I've been listening to it on audiobook. It's read by the author in a nice, presentation-style flow and tone. As some of you may already know, I've been having a really hard time with some of my priority-management-- particularly in my writing. I figured this book may help.

I've just started reading the section on the importance/urgency priority matrix. If that's new for you, let me break it down: There's a box with 4 squares inside. The top two boxes (Quadrants I and II) represent things that are important (the most urgent in the left box and the not-urgent in the right). The bottom two boxes (Q III and IV) are for unimportant things (again, urgent in the left and not-urgent in the right). Most of the time, Covey says, our lives can become dominated by the left side of the matrix, by the things that are urgent, regardless of importance. Then, items that were important/not urgent suddenly become urgent and you never quite catch up. Covey's assertion, at least as far as I've read, is to spend more time in the top boxes by (at least initially) saying 'no' to things in the bottom boxes.

Writing is a Quadrant II task for me. It's important-- vitally important to me-- but it's not urgent. And I've been letting it slide, replaced by unimportant things. So, taking Covey's idea, I've started to consider devoting some time each day for Quadrant II items. I'd like it to be at least an hour, but with school starting up for me, I may have to juggle that--

Wait a second... school just needs to be put in it's place just like everything else. Doing Quadrant II items before they become urgent is important to me, and it'll make school better as well. Plus, anything that brings writing to the forefront is valuable to me.

So, that's my goal-- an hour of Q II tasks each day, of which writing will be one. What about you? How do you make sure to get your writing done?

What you read while you write

What you read while you write...

Everything I've ever read or heard about being a writer has told me two fundamental truths: To be a writer you must write and to be a writer you must read. A lot. I wholeheartedly agree with those statements. There is no substitute.

This week, I've been reading Robert's Rules of Writing by Robert Masello. His approach to 101 writing rules seems to be a bit off the traditionally beaten path. I'd like to focus on one of his rules: #14 "Stop Reading". Now, before you take that thought too far, let me explain what he means by that statement. It's not a call to cease all reading, but a warning of how other writers' words and ideas can fill your mind and hijack your story. It's about avoiding works similar to your own while you work on it, to leave your mind free from any accidental influence.

I've seen it in my own work. Even while reading Mistborn recently, I found myself thinking that a specific plot device or character type could go well in my work in progress. It wasn't so much that Brandon Sanderson was taking over my story as I was handing it to him and saying: Please, make it better for me. It does not work that way, nor should it. My story is mine to craft.

Masello does make a suggestion (it's not like writers could easily cut themselves off, nor should we. Reading is what motivates and inspires many writers). He suggests selecting works far different from that which you are writing. Non-fiction presents a great opportunity for me, or perhaps some thriller fiction or literary. Just stay away from Fantasy while I'm writing one.

So, in that spirit, I've picked up 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as well as a book on Ancient Rome. Not to worry, I'm not planning a chapter by chapter dissection of either. What I am planning, however, is to figure out how I'm supposed to survive without reading my favorite genre while I work on my book. Maybe it'll help me work harder on my book and get it done sooner.

What about you? Do you limit what you read while you write?

Jameson