I've found that I haven't been writing much lately. I tend to blame this on my husband. If it's any of you knew him, you'd know how ridiculous that is; he is a very supportive and encouraging husband. He just happens to be convenient. You see, if I didn't blame him, I'd be forced to blame myself -- where the true guilt lies.

Like I've written so many, many times before -- I know I want to be a full-time writer. I know from past experience that I can make it work and be relatively successful at it. Yet, I don't write. Writing has never been one of those things that comes easy to me (written that many times before also), editing is a nightmare, and typo's abound. Somewhere among the misspellings, the overused m-dash, my strange love of the colon, is some good writing. But it's not safe.

I know in the world of finance, business, and consulting I can make very good money. I know in the world of writing it would take me about two to three years to get back up to making an okay living (at freelance magazine writing). So part of me doesn't want to give up the money, and that part of me I get, and can get over. However, part of me doesn't want to give up the energy of business. I remind myself that if, I mean when, I publish a book that business energy, acumen will work well for me and perhaps, even give me an edge over other newly published books. That need for the adrenaline rush that a busy day gives me is, as I grow older, lessens every year. I think I'm at that point, that tipping point, where I could make this work. So I believe, if I put in the work over the next two years, I could retire, or at least cut way back on the business side of life, and let the creative side flourish for a change.

What about you? What, if anything, keeps you from writing today?
 

I recently saw the remake of the movie the Karate Kid. I still like that movie. Every time I watch it (I've seen the old one on TV a few times) I'm motivated by it.

For writers specifically it is a great teacher. In the new movie the kid had to pick up his coat, hang it on a hook, take it off the hook, put the coat on, take the coat off, drop in on the ground ... and start all over again.

At first the kids does it begrudgingly. After a short time complains but when he is clear that in order to reach his goal (of being able to defend himself against the bullies) he has to do what his teacher asks. Then after days of doing this same thing, he eventually submits to the will of the actions.

Then after days and days of doing this one sequence of moves, he really gets frustrated and in a rage wants to quit. Just at that moment, the teacher strips the coat from the kid's hands and yells the sequence as he attacks the kid, and the now automatic responses (movements of his arms picking up and putting on the coat ect) are used to block the teachers attack.

So, you say, what does this have to do with writing? Writing is about the only activity, business, sport, hobby, any anything ... that people think they can just sit down and write. But really it is like every other activity, business, sport or hobby - in that in order to get good at it - we have to practice. And it really isn't until we fully submit to that concept that we begin to truly grow as writers. The practice never ends ... even for the best and or highest paid writers.

So, how do you practice. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Here are a few of the ways I've come up with over the years. These are in no particular order, nor are necessarily my ideas - but please forgive me, for I don't remember where some of them originated --

1) Participating in Contests

2) Write a story about your day. If your days are like mine, making the story interesting can be a challenge!

3) Sit in a food court, pick interesting person and write about them.

4) Read good writers.

5) Read a great passage from a great writer and break it down. What made it good emotionally, what made it good technically - sentence structure, length, paragraph structure length? What?? Look at it from all angles.

6) Read that same great passage from a great author -- and write something identical but in different words. Use the same sentence structure -- sentence by sentence, paragraph length etc...try to emulate everything about the writing but use different words and a different scene.

7) Same passage as above. Rewrite that great passage but this time same words, same scene but rewrite it badly. Define what made it bad.

8) Grammar exercises from school books and Internet sites.

9) Sentence diagramming.

10) Read about great writing, grammar etc (writing is always better than reading, but use the reading to help "grade" your writing... )

11) Edit. Not just line edit your work, but really edit it. Step back and ask -
--- Does it flow? Read the first sentence of each paragraph and see if the piece overall makes sense.
--- Is every sentence optimized. For every sentence, reverse it - is it better? Compound or simplify it -- is it better? Remove it - does it matter? -- emphasize it - is it better.
--- Sentences with lists - are they parallel? all staring with vers or nouns, parallel in constructions (one, two or three words), sequence order, or large to small or some other meaningful organization.
--- and on and on and on...

What are your ways of PRACTICING? Not just writing, but really trying to get better and better at the craft of writing? I'd love to hear 'em !!







Keep on writing!!
Dee
ArizonaHeat

 

I write, begin more things, but rarely finish anything. The few short stories I have finished, I can thank contests for. So the novels I've started -- well they sit dormant, sometimes for years, before I get back to them -- but even then I don't finish them -- not even the first drafts. I wonder why that is?

Let's see, all the reasons I don't finish things... hmmm good idea for an in-and-out.

1. It won't be good enough.

This isn't the classic perfectionist excuse but same result. Writing is one thing that doesn't come easily to me. That is the main reason I'm attracted to it - it's difficult for me. Not the ideas, not the desire -- but the technical aspects of writing. I'm not detailed oriented, so editing is almost impossible. For me knowledge has been my greatest tool in my success tool box. If I don't know how to do something, I dive into books, talking with people who do know how, anything I can get my hands on -- to learn what I need to know to be successful. But with writing -- I've tried that. I've read probably over 100 books, joined several review groups, read, read and read more. But I still don't know enough about structure, character developments, dialogue etc.

2. I don't write enough.

Because of item #1 above, I have the preconception that what I write won't be good enough, so I don't write enough. I know, on an intellectual level that actual writing is what will make me good (or at a minimum, at least make me better). I know, on an intellectual level, that everything else I've been good at as come at the cost of "practice", yet with writing, I don't give it its due. So my reluctance to put in the time, has to be more than just fear of it not being good enough. So dig deeper...

3. I might look foolish.

This fear has held me back in many areas. Comes from my mother drilling into me how "stupid" I was throughout my life. Again, on an intellectual level, I know I'm not stupid, and by most people have told me I'm pretty smart. If financial success is any benchmark of intelligence, than again I'm pretty smart. The possibility of putting myself out there as a writer, then having someone I know - who thinks I'm smart -- read it, and laugh - well, that would bother me. I guess I envision them reading my work and saying: She thinks she's a writer? She should have quit her day job (which I haven't but someday would like to).

4. I always use the excuse - I just don't have time.

Running two businesses, dealing with my OCD partner, trying to be a decent wife, friend, step-mom, etc... all take time. But when I'm honest with myself, it isn't that I don't have time -- it's that I don't give my writing any priority. It's always at the bottom of the list - if there is any time left over. Who ever has time leftover?

5. I don't feel well enough to write.

This has been a legitimate problem in the last three years, but I've been using the excuse for over 20 years. Yes, you'd think I'd be tired of hearing myself say it by now. However the funny part of this is I think writing is the one profession I can do -- EVEN THOUGH I'm sick. It's not very demanding physically, I set my own hours, and I'm doing something I love so the stress is significantly lower than what I do now. So more writing, would actually lead to feeling better - but instead I do less.

If I read these excuses from somebody's else blog, this is what I'd be thinking:

1) Get over yourself

2) Shut-up and Write

3) Who cares if its not good and it's probably better than you think.

4) If you really -- I'm mean - REALLY - want to write - you WILL.

5) If you're not writing enough now, it's because you are gaining something by playing the pity card - oh, poor pity me, I don't have time, I feel to sick, I'm swamped at work [insert any excuse here] to write -- boo hoo. Again, if you really want to write - you WILL make it a priority.

6) Best way to get over looking foolish - is to LOOK FOOLISH. It's not going to kill you, it won't hurt you, it could even be a great learning experience. But in the end, it probably won't be nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.

7) Don't feel well? Come on. Think about the published author Christy Brown who is a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. The only limb he can move is his LEFT FOOT (hence the movie based on him called "My Left Foot" ). He had nothing, physically, financially -- nothing but his brain -- and he's published. Now, what's your excuse?

Well, that about covers it. As you can see, I don't take to excuses from other people, so why should I tolerate them in myself.

Having looked at my excuses and then viewed them as if they were someone else's, and asking how I would I respond to someone else's whining (the way I did) -- well that was eye opening!!

Time to write...
 

Ideas. How many times do I have to tell myself to write down ideas, and sparks of interest WHEN I GET THEM. But no, I always say, "Oh, I'll remember that. It's such a great idea, or spark for other ideas - I KNOW I'll remember that." ... but alas, not but an hour later, the idea has vanished. I remember that I had a great idea, that it was really, really good... but nothing else.

Is it age? Is it multi-tasking? Is it too much to do? Too much on my plate? Lack of vitiams? Too much sugar? What?

How do you create the habit, the non-thinking reaction to just write it down NOW! Not later, not in a minute, not after I develop the idea more in my mind... NOW.

How do you do it?

 

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I've been reading a book "The Anatomy of Story" by John Truby. He breaks down how he constructs the foundation of a novel - the pre-writing or planning part is what I'd call it. It's a pretty left brain approach to the planning, so that your right brain can take off and relax during the actual writing (my words, not his). I like that about it.

So last night I thought I'd give it a try with an idea that I've worked on for over ten years. I have about 100 pages written and it all stinks, but I believe in the originial core of the idea and am still passionate about it. So, what the heck, if this Truby guy could help me flush out the story, then so be it.

I did everything in Chapter 1 through 2 and working on 3. That includes stuff like defining your premise, determining the hero's goal, defining the hero's weakness, offsetting that with the basic action that leads to his change. Defining other characters, their roles, their values, and how they balance or counter balance the roals / goals/ and value of the hero. And so on and so on...

The story premise, moral argument, and single line cause and effect (his terms), I have a flushed out but now I see I need more information (reserach) to really give the story some depth (which was drastically missing before). So this process has really helped. It also showed me what the story is really about - not what I thought it was about in the beginning. The process made me dig deeper into what the story was telling in a broader sense. This gave me the ability to see the characters even better because now I have a broader and deeper sense of the meaning, and thus, the characters web could grow, as Truby says, much more organically.

Chapter three is on characters - so I'm still working on that. I'll also do that research I mentioned, so that I can firm up the premise, moral argument, and single cause and effect.

Good stuff...
 

What better excuse not to write then I'm too busy planning a vacation. The kids and grandkids from New York and we are planning to rent a beach house in California. then the California branch of the family can also join us on and off as their schedules permits. Wonderful idea. Hard to implement. Organizing the schedule for ten adults and four kids -- and finding a place available that week (whatever that week is) and at a price that every one agrees on ... well now, that's work!!


 

Today I'm busy doing my last assignment for the PDG, and doing donated reviews for the auction. Always seems to be something. I spent the moring on english grammar skills though. Fascinating stuff on ESL sights. Seems like people that learn English as a second language have better grammar knowledge that those of us who have it has their first (and probably) only language.


 

Beginnings suck. All the Authors I know have no trouble with beginnings, they wake up in the morning with great beginnings swimming in their head, like salmon in the spring time. They instantly jump into developing those beginnings, move through the first draft with ease and confidence, revise and edit with passion and skill - and publish with no effort.

Me. Well I'm just the opposite. I have no ideas, and good thing, because I wouldn't know how to develop them. I don't know grammar rules, so revising and editing are, well, impossible. And publishing? What's that mean...?

Okay, so maybe, reality is somewhere in the middle. Middle? hmmm... sounds like we just skipped right past the beginning. Maybe that's the ticket, skip right past the beginning and start in the middle -- they say (the infamous they) the first section of every draft is trash anyway -- so why write it!