All That's Written

Confront

Ha! Rapscallions, knaves and pretend writers! I challenge thee, canst thou confront this business of writing?

But seriously, writing is a very serious business. Yes it is very hard to confront. Yep, hmm I don't know if you have what it takes. Very hard. You've got a lot to confront, it may be too much for you.

Or maybe...

Maybe that's all complete bullshit and you can confront this. I think it is complete and total bullshit. Therefore it is. You can confront it.

Confront what? Writing. Well that's not specific.  Okay let's be specific.

A. Can you confront sitting down and writing? Even if it's just a sentence, can you confront that? You can? Good, I thought so.

B. How about a story? Regardless of length can you finish a story? Hmm? Maybe a little harder. Okay, if you can confront sitting down and seeing through to completion a story then go to D. If not:

C. Can you write ten pages? Then one hundred? Once you can do both of those you should be ready for step B.

D. Are you able to throw away what you just wrote? In other words, can you edit it? Well if you can and can go over it all, not be paralyzed by the fear of never changing a word of the precious story you just completed and come to a totally satisfactory product from your point of view then that's a pass on D.

E. Can you show it to people? Just your friends now, maybe a few strangers, can you present it to them? Aha, if not work D some more. Or just go out and do it, get your confront up and show it to people. In doing this if they think it's rubbish you can either have them help you edit it or you can tell them to get lost. Either way, you confronted showing it to people.

F. Can you submit it? So now you send it in for publication. You go out and look for places to submit to and submit it.

G. Handle rejection? Sure.

H. Persevere until it is published? You better. And if you have trouble with this one edit it some more per D.

I. Now that you are published start back at A and write a whole lot more!

Yep, that is basically what you have got to do. None simpler than that, just get her done. Now, if you in fact cannot confront this whole list just calm down! All you have to confront is step A! Only after you confront step A do you have to confront step B, and then you go to C and on till publication.

So, that is all you have to do. Just start writing, persevere until it's done, start editing and showing it to people, then get it published. You know, soon I'm going to go over a bit of the know-how of how to get published because that is important to do. But first I'm going to run this little checklist by myself so I can get published. You see I'm not published right now. I'm maybe at...(looks at checklist) F. I've got some works, I'm going to work on publishing them. I have a couple stories I'm editing and getting ready for publication, but I don't have any real back off on writing stories, completing them and sending them around to my friends. Ask my friends, they hear from me all the time about my latest story. But I've got to get one published.

So, I'm actually not going to write my next blog post until I get a story sent in for publication. I say, a week, maybe two. So consider this a vacation from listening to me for a couple weeks! Lucky you!

Ha ha, okay, you guys are really fun to have around, talk to you later. Hopefully I inspire you a little to get off your ass and get your stories in the bookstores.

CME

Note: You're reading this blog, so I wrote it and got it out! Your turn! See you in a couple weeks, hope to also see some written works!

Coming To You Live From Across The Room

And it's good to see you to. I have been very busy lately and this is a good thing, I've got lots to write about. I told you how I sat down and just knocked off a story, well let me tell you a little about a project I'm working on which doesn't quite fall under that classification. In fact I might go so far as to call it a "project".

I am making a webcomic! Now interestingly enough I do not know how to draw. But that is Ok. Factually I don't have to draw, I just have to get someone else to do it. Thus my lovely assistant (who for now we shall call Codename: Bug) is going to do that. We also have a letterer (Codename: Franky) and so we seem to be in business.

Now, it's not very possible to sit down and write a comic in one go. I might go so far as to say it's impossible unless it's a very short comic. This is not a short comic me and "Bug" are creating, no sir, why I might go so far as to say it is going to be a "long" comic.

That being said I can't just bang it all out, which is what annoys me about larger works. You can't just really sit down and write it. You've got to outline. And once I've outlined I find it is still a bit hard to just stream through the thing.

Now, some people refer to this as "writer's block". I am in the middle of some writer's block. However, this is Ok! I am getting through it using an ancient technique I like to call "more outlining". I've written an outline, and I've gone over it a lot with "bug", but in additional run-throughs of the outline I am finding out additional facts about the cast and plot, and sometimes discovering additional plots and cast members! So it is very fun and it is resolving the writer's block.

Now I kind of went over writer's block in an earlier post, what to do if the creative juices aren't flowing. I don't know if I mentioned outlines or not. (Note: I just checked the post and I didn't!) But outlines are super important if you are stuck. I don't care if you're one of those "I like to run with the story as I go" types, it really will help you to get a bird's eye view of the corner you just ran into. You get new ideas and you feel good and then you start writing and you feel really good. Why you might just finish the story and feel excellent!

Last thing before I end off. Recently someone had said to me writing is an individual thing. They are so very wrong! I have been writing more, so I've been a bit happier than usual. As a result I have also been constantly encouraging my friends to keep writing, which has caused them to write more! It has also kept my mind on writing and less on other more petty things in life (like reading). Thus I can emphatically state it is not a solo activity! It is important to have friends to talk to about this stuff! And it produces better writings, so go get all your friends interested in writing or some other art and encourage each other to keep at it. You'll benefit, they'll benefit.

CME

Note: Shouldn't you be writing a blog yourself so you can send me the link and have me read it?

How much is that story in the window?

Hello! I just want to say this more officially even than the last post establishes that the blog shall now update randomly. I hope you enjoy.

Actually I’ve been enjoying a lot more lately. I’ve been writing. The major Sci-Fi story I’m working on is going great, actually should have it done in about a week, and yesterday I sat down and wrote a story in one go! Two hours! That was one of the questions on the last post, now it has been answered. And it was amazing, this feeling should be experienced by every aspiring writer, as it is by the already successful writer; completing a story! Nothing like it.

 

Now, today’s topic is “How much is your story worth?”

 

The answer depends on you. A story that sits in your attic collecting dust is not worth anything. Nor do I state that the worth of a story is solely based on it’s sales, though I think this plays a big role. I don’t think it’s quality or money, I think it is a third thing.

Let’s take a look:

1. Quality.

The fact is good quality work speaks for itself, but you must understand that art is a field in which quality to one person may be crap to another. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so it is with art. Good quality stuff is considered good by a majority of people, but if you as an artist think only of quality you aren’t going to get anywhere.

First off you can’t justify you’re story in anyway if the readers don’t dig it. Sorry, you’re writing for them. They’re your boss and you have to do what pleases them. If you think your work is too high quality for them, well that may cut it for some fields of the arts where they hand out subsidies, or if you live in Hollywood, but it doesn’t cut it with the broader writing field. Good work is not judged by you or your friends. The first person it is judged by is the publisher, then the readers. If you think yourself “above commercial concerns” think again. It means you’re not in it for blood and your not a writer.

So don’t write for yourself and don’t justify why you didn’t get published, you are in this for the money like everyone else otherwise you have a day job. I’m really talking about goals here more than anything else. Is it your goal to write the great novel of our day and not care if it’s published or not? Well that story is worth nothing. If it really is great! In that case it will sell, otherwise it's back to the drawing board.

2. Money.

But is it all about the money? No, not entirely. To be entirely clear here, money should not be your motivation in writing. No, that doesn't contradict what I just said. A story should sell. You should want it to sell. But that shouldn’t be why you are writing (Overlord Chris decrees this should not be your purpose in writing!). Seriously though, money shouldn’t be your only goal.

There is nothing wrong with it. The guy who writes horrible stuff that at least enough people read that he gets paid is better than the artsy guy we showed in the beginning. Mr. Money may have slightly worse motivations than the artsy guy, but I think he is better in the long run as a writer. Here is my problem with those only concerned with making money.

Art is creative. If you are only motivated by money in this endeavor you will produce works that will sell, and be forgotten. You will not inspire and you will not create. There is no art, no communication of ideal or purpose.

My purpose in writing, as stated in blog post 1, is to create and inspire. Thus I look down on you a bit if you pursue your writing career only to make money. You will not create works of value, just of profit. It is a limited worth and does not create much for the future, but there you go.

Some are fine with this. And I’m fine with them. Like I said they get their works and the works are read, so I applaud that. Their goal in writing that story is solely to make a buck. It is a paying job and writing is a job after all. But I do not respect you if that is your only purpose in writing, and you will not achieve the desired attributes that come with this third point I will now enumerate.

3. Impact.

It is a combination of 1 and 2, quality and quantity, which brings about impact.

Those of you in it for fame and fortune, you’re all fine and good. Those who aren’t concerned with the material aspect of money, well ok. But those who take both in stride towards the end of creating truly great works that will be read by millions and go down in history, well that’s a different matter. Here we see the true artist, and the one who is most endowed of the desired fame and fortune by the way.

That is my opinion. What do you need to be great? You need to write exemplary works in large quantity and get a really good agent so a lot of people read them. That’s impact, that’s greatness, and it’s all borne of one person saying to themselves one day, “You know, I think I can make a difference…”

CME

Note: Judging by the traffic for this blog I am not quite that person yet. Please tell your friends, I’d love to write for them too.

Hello?

My apologies to those who have checked my blog recently and found it un-updated. I have been in the process of actually writing my stories, and I am about done with one. So that is where my time has gone into.

Now, I have to get back to this story, but I do have an interesting post today (like any of my posts aren’t interesting? Tcha.)

These are my 59 random questions about writing:

 

Does a story have to have a beginning? A Middle? An End?

How many characters have to be in a story?

How many viewpoints can you tell a story from?

Is it possible to write a story in the second person?

Is it wrong to get a great idea from one of your favorite stories and write it?

What would it be like to kill the main character of the story?

Does a story have to have a point?

Should you use a semi-colon in a place where you are not sure whether to use a comma or a period or should you re-structure your sentence?

Do stories have to have words?

What are words?

Where is the line between complicated and confusing?

Are they the same thing?

Do you as a writer have to be interested in a story to make your readers interested?

Does a genre specific story have to be mainly about that genre?

Can you write a story in one go?

Is bad technique compensated for by good concept?

Is there a limit to how good you can be at writing?

Is writing more important to the writer or the reader?

What determines how good a story is? Sales? Readers? Critics? Writer’s opinion? All of the above?

Why do fools write?

Can you break the rules of writing?

Are there rules of writing?

Who wrote the rules of writing?

How many people does it take to complete a story?

Is it wrong to base your story on real-life events?

Do you have to read books to write books?

Have you written before this life?

How long can you make a story before your reader quits reading it?

Should a writer’s unfinished work be completed posthumously?

Are you a writer?

Can you write?

Do you write?

Do you have to write in only one genre?

Where do you get your inspiration?

Is the color blue an appropriate writing topic?

Is writing comparable to film making?

Which came first, the writer or the story?

How much story would a blind old tory write about if he had a story?

Is publication the end all of writing?

Is it right for a writer to defend or explain his works to those who write against them?

What would happen if you combined two unrelated story ideas together?

How many great stories were never recognized because no one picked them up?

What rights does an editor have when it comes to editing your story?

Should stories contain subjects that are objectionable if it isn’t central to the plot? As in Sex? Drugs? Racism? Sexism? Other isms?

Should a writer use a pseudonym?

What in god’s name were you thinking when you picked up that pen for the first time?

Does this list have an end?

If you have the answers well that’s too bad for you. If you don’t I hope I’ve made you think.

CME

Note: The answer to the last question is "No." Make up your own questions and post them as comments on this page!

The Writing Process Part 5, The Ending

Alright, this is the last of the posts specifically devoted to the writing process. After this we will have a series of posts about writing in general, my favourite written works, my writing, and additional posts about the writing process. Thanks for reading, it's a pleasure to write for you.

Now we have the ending. The end of your story is where you bring it all together and you leave your reader amazed, inspired and very glad he picked up your book. It is where you tie all the loose ends you've left thus far in the story, and is almost always a conclusion and a stop for the series of events you've laid out.

The dragon is slain, so the prince and the princess decide to get hitched. The cowboy shoots out the villains at their secret hideout and the town is saved. The forces of evil have been triumphed over by the forces of good. All that jazz. I would give you some examples from well known books but I just realized that would give away the ending, and that's the best part! Instead, you should read the endings from:

Mission Earth

The Belgariad

Harry Potter

Alice In Wonderland

The Lord of the Rings

Fear

The Lord of the Flies

Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow

Etc.

Etc.

You get the idea. You should read some good books. If I didn't list your favorite book here, either I haven't read it or didn't like the ending. You'll also notice that I am indicating whole series more often than not, I do that sometimes, so if I haven't read your favorite series in full than I can't say I liked the ending can I? Also there's a slight chance I have read it but didn't like the ending, in which case you should send me angry comments! I am always in need of suggestions for good books to read.

But essentially the ending has to have sufficient impact to knock the reader out of his socks. Even if the first 479 pages of your book were a compelling and subtle compendium of creeping suspense, even these stories need an ending that just launches the reader three feet back of his head. Anti-climaxes suck, please do not write them.

Now, on the chance that your 479 pages before page 480 were all rubbish you will have a hard time pulling off a convincing ending. It would probably be more profitable to just go back and re-write the beginning and middle until they are not rubbish and then do your ending. The ending is the most important part of the story, but that doesn't mean you can drag your heels with a weak story up to that point. And your reader may never get around to reading your ending, mayn't he?

Inspirational, that's important. Why is your story inspirational? Because you chose a specific idea to get across to the reader at the onset of your writing, perhaps even several. Now's your chance, if you were subtle about it before the ending you should now leave the reader with no doubt in his/her mind you are completely right.

It usually involves some sort of massive plot twist. Or, more accurately, it usually involves our hero overcoming difficulties arising from a massive plot twist just a few pages before. Happy endings are not required, just realize you are responsible for any lynchings you might cause to happen, as you will be the one being lynched. To a small degree your readers become the character you are portraying, they develop an empathy for them and briefly (or lenghtly) they share the same ideas and motivations, and you're going to have this person fail in the end? Next time make it a happy ending.

Then again Shakespeare's most famous play was Romeo and Juliet, so end your stories however you like. As long as you're as good as Shakespeare. And hey, who says you aren't?

But the things you can do with your ending are unlimited, make it a climaz, get your idea across, and knock your reader out of his head. They'll come back for more, no question.

Ok, now that you're done reading my soliloquy on how to write, and now that it has truthfully ended, where do we go from here? For the answer, see you next time.

CME

The Writing Process Part 4, The Middle

If anyone were to take at point blank value what I'm about to say, they’d be wrong. In the first place, taking things at point blank can be dangerous, especially when explosives are involved. And second it shows a distinct lack of objectivity in evaluating the information you receive before you believe it, meaning you are a sheep. Don’t be a sheep; this is all opinion so you can make up your own damn mind about it.

The middle is perhaps the most varied and confusing part of your story. Or, at least when it comes to writing a blog about it. There are a lot of aspects, I may miss some but it’s gonna be good fun talking about it anyway so here goes.

Basically this is where you tell the story. There are a lot of tools you use like foreshadowing* and plot twists**, but not a lot of that interests me, I’m interested in telling a story. So that’s what I look for when I get information about writing this middle part.

There isn’t much change in the basic rule I enumerated in the last post, make it  interesting and understandable. Of course, that’s not all there is to it, why would it be? That's boring, and I assure you this business of writing is never boring.

During the middle, you have the fun task of introducing and developing each of your characters. Now that is fun. See, you don’t always get the opportunity to see through the eyes of each character, but you still create that character by what the others see, there’s a whole lot of fun you and your readers can have with this. Of course, there's nothing that says you have to do the whole story from one perspective, it's your story so you make the rules.

Another thing you create is the plot. You advance the story by having the characters do certain things, showing the others reacting to this, having each with his own motivations that explain why he does the things he does, usually there’s some battle of good and evil on some level, that’s fun, and you can have lots of plot twists, unexpected things happening, that’s all good (did I mention I'm very interested in plot twists?). You can do whatever you damn please as long as it advances the story.

I like to tell my stories in unconventional ways. Showing things from different viewpoints is a good way of doing this. In the entire series of Sherlock Holmes, you never see the story told through Holme's viewpoint, yet he is the main character. Well it wouldn’t be any fun if you knew what the amazing Sherlock was thinking as he was thinking it, you have to wait and see how he has figured out everything at the end.

Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow are essentially the same story, but told through two sets of eyes, Ender’s and Bean’s. It makes for very good reading.

So, my stories have a lot of different viewpoints to play around with. Another thing is: I really like Time-Traveling stories. I’ll probably do a whole series. But here's the trick: all of the stories are going to be connected, they will exist in the same universe and interact with each other. So it’s like one big story! Good fun is on the way, I assure you.

You can tell stories out of order, you can make the bad guy the main character your story is told through. For the most part the series Mission Earth is told this way, through the eyes of the assassin and saboteur, Soltan Gris, sent to stop Mission Earth and our real hero, Jettero Heller. (By the way, in case you were wondering you should definitely read all the books I just mentioned here.) So you can do all kinds of different stuff to convey your story.

Way, way back in the first of this little series, I said you need an overall idea, a moral of sorts or a concept you’re trying to convey to your audience. If a story does nothing else, it does this. Through the actions of the characters, their ideas, the situations they get themselves in and the outcome of those situations, you do this. If nothing else, that is what you are trying to do. So this middle is the place to do it, and at the end too, but hey, we're not on that post yet!

You know, I’m not going to make this a long post. I am essentially going to talk about the middle and the overall writing process throughout the remainder of this blog, so trying to put 500 posts into one is not something I’m keen on doing. Besides, it is your story.

CME

Note: Unexpectedly, it turns out I’m really an antagonistic pacifist who goes about murdering imaginary people. And then interestingly enough, it turns out I’m really that guy's twin brother, forced to live in his attic and write his blog posts. Kind of puts all this in a certain perspective, huh?

*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foreshadowing

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_twist

The Writing Process Part 3, the Beginning

This series of posts are to be understood as works of fiction. None of the persons, places or situations referenced herein are based on real life persons, places or situations, and any similarity between these mentioned and real life instances are completely coincidental.

And so, now we have the beginning. A good beginning is important, it will establish the rest of your story. But what is a beginning? Where do you begin?

To quote the famous Lewis Carroll: “Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” But enough silliness, let’s begin in earnest with this.

When I sit down to write a story, I’m often puzzled as to where I should begin. If I so chose I could write out the main character’s whole life, starting from birth onward. But then there’s all this boring stuff before you get to the story that you’d want to skip (first words, watching TV, that vacation to the beach in which Julia's hair caught on fire, etc.). That won’t do. But where to begin?

You begin at the beginning. Your story has a certain point when it launches, the first in a series of connected events. That’s your beginning, and you have to make sure your audience 1) understands it, and 2) is interested in it. You can’t start midway of the epic battle that changed the course of the war and started the post-apocalyptic setting of your story, or if you do the reader has to be able to pick it up and easily understand what’s going on. I sometimes find when reading that the point in which the writer chose to start me off doesn’t make a lot of sense till I’ve read the first few pages, then go back and re-read. Please don’t do this, at least not if I have to read your book.

But keep it interesting. Starting three days before the battle that changed the war so you can understand why the battle happened, covering the battle in detail, then showing the events just after would make an interesting first chapter, but it would have to be done well. Starting before the war might be the subject of a sequel, but not a beginning. It’s really up to you all in all, you know your story better than I do.

If you feel compelled to start in a confusing place for the reader for the sake of the story, go right ahead. I would much prefer you start at a place in which the reader can understand and then fill in the confusin bits later once your reader has reality with the story, but the choice is yours. Making a point of comprehension will be better for your readers and better for you if you want me to write one of thyose kudos recommending your book on the back cover (i.e. I won't.).

That being said I have a number of confusing plots that will probably violate this once they are published anyway, so who's counting?

Anyway, there are a few things you want to establish with your opening. For instance, the main character. How does he think? What are his actions, his motivations, name, etc.

Another is the overall mood of the story, I mean you could write the opening of the story in a different style than the rest of the book, but would you want to? I wouldn’t, again up to you. If it were up to me I’d establish the feel of the story then and there.

And you also have to establish the scope of the story. Is it an account of how the civilization fell or how the relationship broke apart? Well, your beginning should focus on setting all that up for the reader also. You can have the book expand in scope later, such as Shogun where it starts with a ship pilot's desperate efforts to find safe land in a storm till eventually he's...no, know what? I'm not going to ruin it for you, suffice to say he's involved in bigger things by the end. So the scope of your story can change, but it starts at the beginning.

The beginning is where you get your readers from. You have a few pages to a chapter, tops, to get your reader interested. So it’s got to count and it’s got to pull them in. You probably have the most wonderful plot and the most breathtaking ending the literary world has ever seen, I beleive it, but you do want the readers to get to that part, right? Ok, so you need to write your opening with a view towards getting your reader interested in sitting down and reading it.

Now the best article on how to do this is one by L. Ron Hubbard, called ”Suspense”.* Read it and listen to what he has to say, he says it way better than I ever could. Another good article on beginnings in general is the one referenced in the last post by Orson Scott Card. You should read both of them.

All in all, if it doesn’t feel right to you, you can always do it over. That is one of the most important guide lines for your work, if it doesn’t feel good enough for you then it isn’t good enough. And the only other more important rule is, is it good enough for your readers?

CME

Note: This post is something of an opening for the two next posts, the Middle and the Ending. The question is, what have I begun and will my readers forgive me?

*http://writer.lronhubbard.org/page52.htm

The Writing Process Part 2, The Outline

This is the second in a series of posts about the writing process. These posts are not to be confused with fact, which would fall under non-fiction. Since it is very clearly understood that I almost never write non-fiction it shouldn’t be hard to correctly interpret this work.

When you have your idea for the story you’re about to write, it is now time for the outline.  Aren’t you glad there are so many steps between you and actually writing the story?

The outline is just a basic look at the story, its characters, what the plot’s about, maybe a chapter by chapter list. You do it so you can get the whole story down and know where you are going, and not get lost midway and wind up with a lot of plot-holes.  It is a snapshot of the whole world you are about to create.

It might go like:

Story: Web Log Midnight

Basic Idea: A man begins innocently down the road of blogging and slowly degenerates down into insanity. Hilarity and tragedy ensue.

Main Character: Chester Ellington, the hero and only character the readers ever meet, he is at the beginning a very normal and nice person with an amazing ability to write and at the end he is insane.

Chapter 1: He's calling his friend and saying he's starting a blog, his friend thinks he's insane.

Chapter 2: We read some of his blog. He usually writes about music or his life, job, friends, etc.

Chapter 3: He's missed some appointments and his friends haven't seen him for a bit, one calls and asks what's up. He says his attention has been on a lot of stuff going on in his life, plus this blog...

Chapter 4: We see more blog posts. The blog posts are getting better, he writes them with an intensity and dedicates a lot of time into each one. Also the posts are becoming more and more frequent, as he descends into the first bit of his madness.

Chapter 5: He breaks up with his girlfriend, a teary goodbye on both of their parts which is bitter and more than a bit ironic because it is done over the phone. Despite the fact that it's so teary he's being an asshole and doing it over the phone because of his preoccupation with writing, managing and promoting the blog.

Chapter 6: Now the insanity shows up in the blog itself a bit. He begins to write about blogs, as a blog is supposed to be about your life and his life is now almost completely blogging. He is making a lot of money doing this and decides to quit his job. He phones his boss and quits.

Chapter 7: Now he's blogging constantly. Hygiene, sleep and normal eating periods have been thrown out the window completely. He creates a website just so he can use it to direct more traffic to his blog. The only time he calls anyone is to order pizza or to tell everyone he knows about this blog.

Chapter 8: And, finally we have a strange shift of story. All of a sudden it's now through his friend Jason's viewpoint. He calls our main character Chester but gets no response. He's heading that way anyway and decides to drop by. He goes in with a spare key which is above the door and finds Chester dead at his computer, from a lack of food and sleep that finally did him in. End of story.

See, the best thing about an outline is it helps you clarify your story right from the get go. I actually had no idea what I was going to jot down for chapters 5 through 8, but as I went through the words came out.

So, a written outline can help you clarify the story, and it can also help you remember bits and pieces of it. You may forget how this or that part was supposed to go and, (refers back) aha! The cannibals were going to attack after the plane flies by without seeing our heroes, got it!

You don't have to stick to your outline 100%, actually you don't have to stick to any percentage of it. Orson Scott Card wrote the opening of Ender's Shadow four times before he found the right way to do it, scrapping the old and starting anew each time.* So you think the story should go in a different direction, so change the direction! Damn the outline, go ahead!

Now, I will leave you with one last thought, and that is this: you don't have to write an outline at all to write a story. Some people just don't, they prefer to figure it out as they write, and to write a bit and, hmmm, write some more, and well what if the earthquake happened just then, then write some more...you see they just roll with it. It's a matter of preference, do you like to have it all figured out or do you like to run with the story? That one's up to you.

Me you ask? I like both, I'll often write an outline but I also like just running with the story. I do a sort of hybrid of writing an outline and then generally disregarding it till the story is finished. Good fun, eh?

CME

Note: This post was written without the use of an outline. And now the author must retire due to unforeseen complications involving three cookies, loud speakers, a crash, and the number 6.

*http://hatrack.com/writingclass/lessons/1998-10-29.shtml

The Writing Process Part 1: Inspiration

This will be the first in a series of posts about (you guessed it) the writing process. I’m not the first or the most qualified to speak on the subject. Then again, this isn’t really going to be a dissertation on how to write, this is my experience with the writing process. My only hope is that I leave you at best a little bit more informed, and at least a little bit more amused. With that said, let’s get started!

Before you write you need something to write about. You need an idea. So that’s step one.

This is the same as regular conversation, actually. You get an idea and you say it to the person. You don’t just go on jabbering without any point (I hope) but you have something to communicate. So it is with writing.

Inspiration is a very funny thing. It strikes at odd moments. You are sitting there with nothing on your mind or your bored or your out for a walk or whatever and suddenly inspiration comes knocking. Wham! Where did that come from?

That’s how it is for me, I’m not doing anything and I get an idea for a story. Specifically it most often happens when I’m doing something unrelated. I once got an idea for a story while looking up a word in a dictionary; actually I think that happened twice. Another time I got an idea for a story looking out at a city at night. I wrote a poem inspired by my glasses being broken and how different it was without them.

There was one time when I was just sitting there and a poem started writing itself in my head, and I had to write it down. Well I would write down a bit and I hardly had to think before the next bit came to mind. After a bit of editing and retouch it was done, all in all it took about twenty minutes. I got an award for that poem; that was one of my favorites. But to this day I had no idea what inspired that poem, it was just out of the blue!

So you need an idea. And I'm not just talking about getting some great story in mind, what's the idea behind the story? Why tell that story? Now don't get all introverted and defensive as to why your story should be told, it's a really good one. I'm the first to think so. But it needs a point, a purpose, something to make it worth while for the reader.

You can have the greatest plot ever, just an intricate masterpeice, but just a plot, no message behind it. And no one's going to read that, just no one. That's not just opinion (well yes it is, but shush), think and see if you can come up with one really great story that didn't have a message behind it? Uh-huh, told ya, story needs a message.

So how do you get inspired anyway?

As a writer you aren’t limited in your scope of what you can write about. There aren’t any limits. Why, I have confidence that you, this very minute, could sit down and find something and have it inspire you, no matter what it was. You could pick out something, anything, in the room and write a story about it, just get the plot and the message behind it and have it be a really good one and it wouldn't take you any time at all to do. You could do this, your imagination’s the only limit and imagination muscles were meant to be stretched every once in awhile!

Some of my favorite things to do to get inspired:

1. See some really great art! Nothing like it, get your hands on some real awe-inspiring stuff. Just take your breath away kind of works. A really great painting, or a song, or a story, whatever it is. Obviously you don't steal the other person's work, but you can get some really great inspiration this way.

My favorite story is Alice In Wonderland. Great story, all about a world completely created by a little girl which has the most fun and insouciant attitude I've ever seen. Wonderful stuff, I apply that attitude to life, of creating my own world based on my ideas, because it makes life more fun and encourages me to use my imagination when I write. The story inspires me to create, on and off the printed page, and so I call it my favorite.

2. Get a good night's sleep! Ever had a dream, bizzare as it was, that gave you an idea? Or maybe during that point between waking and sleeping you suddenly get some inkling of a story line or something. Even more so, just writing on a full night's sleep can be a wondrous thing. Have you tried writing when you're dead tired? Yeah, sometimes you get inspiration striking at the weirdest times and you gotta sit down and write it out. Then again, after a good night's sleep you get the rest of it easy in your head and you find you can write it out clearly. Fully rested = clear head = good story = more pay for you as a writer!

3. Talk to your friends! Important, if your mind's all in a twist and you can't get your fingers to hit the keys then you gotta cheer up! Sure you could push through it, grind out the wordage till your gears get loose again. Then again, why suffer? If you have some friends who are writers, or even just friends, then go have a get together. This is great if you don't have any story on the drawing board, you can walk away with six or seven of em!

4. Take a walk! My personal favorite, by far. You get so much space this way, just go for a walk and look around. I'd say most of my ideas have come from this. There's nothing I like more than a good walk to clear out my universe and make it my own, especially at night.

In summary, go out, get inspired, get a good idea, make a story out of it. Hope I've inspired you.

CME

Note: This blog post was inspired by numerous great artistic works, a good night's sleep and the author's self-imposed deadline for updating his blog.

Grammar is Arbitrary!

This post, if they read it, will step on the toes of a lot of Grammarians, Linguistics Majors and English Professors.  But it’s fun to write anyway, so here goes.

Grammar is, essentially, arbitrary.  It has its place in formal communication and non-fiction writing, but in fictional writing and spoken communication it becomes, to a degree, arbitrary. That’s important; it’s not completely arbitrary, only to a degree.

Grammar: Noun

1.    The study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed.

2.    These features or constructions themselves.

3.    An account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these constructions.

Therefore:

1.    Assists communication in general to the degree it establishes a language and makes that language usable.

2.    Are useful to the degree they aid communication.

3.    Are useful to the extent they can be understood and to the degree they aid communication.

Now, I like grammar, I hate when I find I’ve written something that sounds like gibberish. As a matter of course I write with the best grammar possible.

However, we are dealing with fictional writing here, and there are times when Billy Joe is going to exclaim:

“Frank! Git the hos owt hea and rite quick! Little Jimmy been struck by a wolf an half bled hisself to death!”

Ok, ha ha, the characters in a story can or cannot use correct grammar, depending on what the author is trying to show about that character. And there are regional differences of language to take into account, accents, etc.

Well, what about the narrator? The writer has every right to go, himself, into character and throw correct and proper grammar out the window. You as a writer will use a different style to write a western than you do a romance (if you happen to write both westerns and romances), and the grammar you use will change, such as:

But Jenny couldn’t have…she couldn’t have been there last night.  He just couldn’t believe it…how could she?  His mind was numb, how…how could it…it couldn’t…how…

He finally managed to speak, a low and tortured plea,

“I-I c-c-can’t…Jenny…NOOO!!!!!”

Well!  That is a dramatic little piece of romance/suspense (I hope) that perfect grammar would have ruined!  For instance:

But Jenny couldn’t have been there last night.  Hank just couldn’t believe it.  His mind was numb in trying to conceive how.

He finally managed to speak, in a low and tortured plea:

“I don’t understand. Jenny,” he broke off mid sentence, “NOOOOO!!!!!”

Ugh. A reconstruction of the whole thing is necessary to convey it with proper grammar.  You see the problem, a distortion of the events, albeit slight, was necessary to communicate it! This is grammar getting in the way of communication, in which the author is trying to convey the present scene as perfectly as possible, but were he to use correct grammar he would have to nix a part or all of his idea. That’s a crime! That’s a perfectly good idea you’ve got there, why let grammar get in the way?

Now, I must say you need a very good grasp of the rules you are about to break to make it work. There’s no excuse for bad grammar! Being ignorant of a grammatical rule and breaking it; well let me tell you I would be as mortified as any Grammarian.  For instance, there is a rule about not using a conjunction to start a sentence, unless it is being used for emphasis or to make a point.  Example:

Benny didn’t know where or when he would get his revenge, how long it would take or if he could achieve it. It was impossible; he would never see them again.

But he made a vow that no matter how long it took, he would find them. Despite the odds, no matter what obstacles he was met with, HE WOULD FIND THEM!!

And, the counterpart using bad grammar:

Benny didn’t know where he would get his revenge. And he didn’t know when he would get his revenge. Or how long it would take, or if he could achieve it. It was impossible. And he would never see them again.

BUT, he made a vow that no matter how long it took, he would find them. And despite the odds, no matter what obstacles he was met with, HE WOULD FIND THEM!!

That’s exaggerated; nobody breaks the rule that much. But after reading 100 pages of someone misusing their conjunctions it sure feels like it, and you put the guy’s book down and think “What a hack!” Believe me, the editor thinks so. It’s an important point, if you’re going to break a rule of grammar you have to know that rule inside out. You have to know what you’re trying to communicate and know it well.

That’s my maxim in writing, "You can break any rule, as long as you know the rule your breaking."

CME

Note: Eleven grammatical and/or spelling errors were brought to the attention of the author before they were fixed (including two in the making of this note). No spell checks, dictionaries, or other human, online or printed sources of grammatical information were harmed in the making of this post.