Category: Writing

Planting Crops and Planning Manuscripts

6/3/2022

The photo is of potatoes that ended up on my table.

Writing is a lot like planning and planting a crop. You have to begin, and you have to see the story through until the end. Editing equals weeding. Nurturing the ideas is the same as getting the rain and sunshine. You can have a drought.

It may be a bit of a gamble—and include some knowledge—to get the garden grown and the potatoes ready to be stored for winter.

Before the first word is on the page, you can already taste the flavor of the story, imagine a bit of the characters. See the lushness. Imagine the harvest.

Then the endeavor truly starts. The first word is written, and the book begins. A lot of hours are in front of the author, just as a lot of effort is in front of the gardener.

For me, I usually give up on the garden. But I can't give up on my characters.

Photo credit: Liz Tyner
Garden credit: Definitely not Liz Tyner

Modern Art Style

2/19/2021

I think I first saw a picture of the car before I was old enough to drive, and was fascinated but not impressed with the sight as modern art.

After forgetting about it, I discovered the actual car in front of one of the Smithsonian art museums.

Again, I spent some time perusing it.

Later, I showed the picture to someone else and he took a moment to look at it. To study it.

Now it sticks in my memory.

That's the secret, I believe, that artists are striving for. To create something that another person will take an extra moment with. That will linger in their mind.

Art is subjective. People can disagree about it. And it's even subjective within me. What I don't think is art on one day, may speak to me on another day.

How Much Does An Author Read?

2/5/2021

Reading….

Sadly, as a writer, I’ve been keeping the deep secret that I don’t read much anymore. The time, you know. As soon as I finish writing one book, I’m anxious to start another one.

So as I sit here—now a non-reader—and I look around my room.

I see the 900 page reference book I purchased a few months ago. One of the new romance novels I bought. Plus, on my nightstand, there’s an out-of- print book on writing that I was lucky to find online. And I just finished Dean Koontz’s book, Trixie, A Big Little Life, a non-fiction audio book...but I stopped reading at Chapter 20, right before the end because it’s mainly a biography about a dog, and we know what happens at the end if the book was written after the main character’s death. So, it ended happily for me as Trixie will live on.

As for e-books, I downloaded The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and am planning to read it at night. Some of the other books on my e-reader have been read recently. I started one a second time.

It dawned on me that a writer who says they don’t read much may be comparing themselves to the person they used to be who would leave the library with a big bundle of books every two weeks. Or every week.

It’s kinda like thinking you didn’t have that many calories on a day until you walk by the trash and see the candy wrappers. By the evidence around me, I read a lot more than I realized.

Explaining Enough or Not Enough

1/18/2021

Worried about describing too much in a book? Well, if you're worried about it, chances are you might be explaining too much.

You're writing a mental video...as well as a book.

The reader needs to see what is going on.

Sure you need to add a little explanation here and there. Usually, it's called backstory. With that, and character's thoughts and actions, depth is created.

But, would you rather have someone tell you about the movie they saw, or would your rather see it yourself?

The reader is the same way. Create the videos for them with your words.

How much is too much and how much is too little?

It's hard to say without reading the story. I was in a writing class once and the teacher said everyone needed to cut the extra explanations they were using in their stories. Except one person needed to add more. That was me.

But the difference in my writing and the others' stories could have been because I'd written poetry and non-fiction pieces for publication. I'd already learned to pare my writing way back, but not how to bring it into book length.

Writing 101: Overwhelmed By a Lily

1/25/2020

Writing a manuscript can seem a bit daunting. This bug is inspecting a flower and seems overwhelmed. But it's just a lily. And while it truly is a magnificent flower, from his perspective, he could get trapped inside.

Sometimes people writing a book get trapped inside the first three chapters.

The beginning of the book is setting the stage for the reader. The story needs to take off, and the characters need their own world.

Just jump in, and don't get lost inside. Turn the page. Step back.

I didn't stick around to see what happened to the little bug. But I hope—instead of being overwhelmed, he took it all in perspective and found what he was looking for.

Writing: How Do I Get Past Chapter One?

1/4/2020

If your New Year's Resolution is to write a book, go for it. Four tips for getting started:

Dive in.
Don't worry about getting it perfect the first time.
Chain yourself to the chair. Set three appointment times on your phone, and have three dates a week to be in the chair until you're finished. Or...five dates.
Get positive reinforcement from your characters. You've left them hanging. The poor little ones won't have a life—a happy ending—or another breath until you get back in there and wrestle with them. Can you do that to your little ones? (I hope not!)

Writing 101: Procrastination

12/21/2019

Procrastination is to writing what Scrooge is to Christmas.

Charles Dickens said that procrastination is the thief of time.

While I was looking that up, I saw a bunch of other things online about procrastination which pulled me their direction.

You can't write a book when "more important" things are pulling you away.

Just make sure they are more important to you. Is it really how you want to spend your time?

If it is...go for it. You can always, always write that book next year. Well, not that book. You'll have a different idea for a different book eventually. But you can always write that the year after.

Those little characters inside your head might give up on you, and wander off into another person's head.

The answer to procrastination?

Prioritize.

Writing 101: Do I add too much....

11/9/2019

A new writer might ask:
Do I put too much violence in the story? Too much dialog? Not enough dialog?
Too much backstory?

The answer isn't the same for everyone.

You can simply try to write a second version changing whatever it is you're concerned about. Put the story aside for a while, and go back and review both versions.

Get several friends to read a section of your writing, and listen to the comments objectively and watch for similar opinions. If several people notice a problem, then likely it's not just a matter of taste.

Be honest with yourself.

Writing 101...Where Do I Write?

8/10/2019

Where do writer's write?

While writing, a sportsman’s blind is a great opportunity for me to watch the bird feeder, and sometimes get surprised by the animals. A covey of quail scattered once when I stepped out of the blind, and I was so disappointed I’d not stayed put for only five more minutes. But for all I know, they could have been sitting behind me from the time I sat down.

It’s not unusual for me to perch my keyboard outside. I find it inspirational. It’s hard to have writer’s block if you keep moving away from it.

Sometimes, a standing desk is the only way to go.

There's really no rule about where to write...but a word of warning... Writing in an airport is fine, but if you're a person who unconsciously lives the scenes...be aware...your face may give you away... You could be entertaining the other people around you.

Five Writing Tips

12/1/2018

   1. You can revise a project forever. Don't fall into that trap. No one gets out with the same book, and you might learn more from writing several stories than turning story A into story B.
   2. It's almost a contradiction of #1, but write the book of your heart and revise it to get the book that is a better story.
   3. Write something that makes someone feel an emotion or link to your character. It isn't always easy. Want proof, try it. And if you prove me wrong and discover it's easy, I'm fine with that too. The world needs as many good stories as it can get.
   4. Writers who write a lot don't always remember their stories or characters' names, but it's okay. They've documented them on the page. They can go back and look them up. But for that moment when they were writing, that character and story should have been as alive to them as anyone with a birth certificate.
   5. Writing fiction is all about reality. Creating a world in the imagination. Your characters need body language, pauses, expressions and maybe a few aches and pains.

Elmore Leonard's rules:
https://www.liferichpublishing.com/AuthorResources/General/Elmore-Leonards-Ten-Rules-Of-Writing.aspx

Pixar's Rules:
https://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/07/pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling/

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