What I've Learned Along the Way
Jan. 2nd, 2010 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
writerfangirlSo now that I wrote my epic of all posts on Livejouranl about teachers (not how I planned it, just how it turned out), my brain won't go back to rest. It is active, it is vivacious. It wants to get words out. My brain is plotting in my favor and wants to get as many words out as possible.
When I was in community college and university, I got all sorts of advice about writing and realized some things myself.
1. Write as long as you need in order to tell the story that you're telling. - This was writer Susan Straight's lesson to my fiction class when we wanted to know how many words she required for our class work.
2. Cross out every other line of your story. Don't be afraid to kill your babies nor be married to your words in the drafting or revising process. - The idea of this was told to me by Stephanie Hammer, mentor and friend. This is still a difficult one for me to grasp.
3. What matters most is your own opinion, what you hear, the story that you want to tell. If you receive negative criticism, and you do not agree with it, don't accept it. Be gracious to the person giving it, but don't apply it to your story. - In addition to this, I was further told to imagine saying f*** you to the critics! The basic idea? Don't let the naysayers get you down. :)
4. Write about what interests you. Write what you would like to read.
5. Read books that are of the genre you want to write. Familiarize yourself with the genre and the other writers in the genre.
6. Some of the best dialogue you can get is what you hear from people who use it. So go outside, listen, and write down what you hear people say. - This gem also came from Stephanie. It was an exercise she had us do in her Metafiction class. And let me tell you: it is a lot of fun to listen to others! Sometimes people say the most interesting things.
7. Always keep a pad of paper and a pen around you at all times. When you sleep, when you're awake. You never know when you might need them. - Ideas can strike at any time. Be prepared for them. If I didn't have my journal and pen by me, I might not have been able to compile this list. :) It struck at 3AM!
8. Always make a point to write on a daily basis. Take an hour out of your day, preferably a particular hour of every day. Make it routine. - This routine building can help in make ideas strike at that time, too. Your brain knows what you're going to be doing and is prepared to reward you.
9. Anything can be accomplished in writing if you are willing to work hard and challenge yourself. There is no excuse for bad writing. Something can always be done with a character even if you don't automatically see all the avenues available to you. Don't be short-sighted and stay away from thinking that you have ran out of ideas for a character.
10. Consider the outcome (and how things are going to be from now on) to a major thematic event before going there. Does the event create outcomes that you are still interested in writing?
11. If you introduce conflict and resolution, also introduce follow through and therapy for the characters. If you don't, you are at risk of writing what I call the Road Runner and Wiley E. Coyote syndrome. In the old Looney Toons cartoon, Wiley E. Coyote is constantly trying to kill Road Runner, but he always fails. It's tedious and boring. Keep this out of your story. If people get hurt, they need physical and mental recovery too. Oftentimes, the mental recovery is more important than the physical. Also: don't play the "out of sight, out of mind" game. Just because you don't want to write a character anymore does not mean your audience has forgotten about him or her.
12. The writer should be invisible in the writing, unless the writer is a character in the story.
13. There is a difference between imitation and plagiarism. Painters and other artists use imitation of other artists to learn new techniques in with their own art. Writers can do this too. Writers can play with techniques and learn how to build up their own techniques. The piece might not be publishable, but it might be. Sometimes, you just need to experiment.
14. Writing is never finished and that's okay. I once saw former Poet Laureate (before he was Poet Laureate) Donald Hall read his poetry at my university. Hall commented how he had changed some of his poem after it was published. He had actually corrected it in the book.
15. Change up the place you're writing at. If you're inside, go outside and write. Find a coffee shop, a spiritual place. Somewhere where you feel energized. Expose yourself to new situations, new senses. Writers are illuminates of the truth.
What are some of the lessons that you have learned or observed?
When I was in community college and university, I got all sorts of advice about writing and realized some things myself.
1. Write as long as you need in order to tell the story that you're telling. - This was writer Susan Straight's lesson to my fiction class when we wanted to know how many words she required for our class work.
2. Cross out every other line of your story. Don't be afraid to kill your babies nor be married to your words in the drafting or revising process. - The idea of this was told to me by Stephanie Hammer, mentor and friend. This is still a difficult one for me to grasp.
3. What matters most is your own opinion, what you hear, the story that you want to tell. If you receive negative criticism, and you do not agree with it, don't accept it. Be gracious to the person giving it, but don't apply it to your story. - In addition to this, I was further told to imagine saying f*** you to the critics! The basic idea? Don't let the naysayers get you down. :)
4. Write about what interests you. Write what you would like to read.
5. Read books that are of the genre you want to write. Familiarize yourself with the genre and the other writers in the genre.
6. Some of the best dialogue you can get is what you hear from people who use it. So go outside, listen, and write down what you hear people say. - This gem also came from Stephanie. It was an exercise she had us do in her Metafiction class. And let me tell you: it is a lot of fun to listen to others! Sometimes people say the most interesting things.
7. Always keep a pad of paper and a pen around you at all times. When you sleep, when you're awake. You never know when you might need them. - Ideas can strike at any time. Be prepared for them. If I didn't have my journal and pen by me, I might not have been able to compile this list. :) It struck at 3AM!
8. Always make a point to write on a daily basis. Take an hour out of your day, preferably a particular hour of every day. Make it routine. - This routine building can help in make ideas strike at that time, too. Your brain knows what you're going to be doing and is prepared to reward you.
9. Anything can be accomplished in writing if you are willing to work hard and challenge yourself. There is no excuse for bad writing. Something can always be done with a character even if you don't automatically see all the avenues available to you. Don't be short-sighted and stay away from thinking that you have ran out of ideas for a character.
10. Consider the outcome (and how things are going to be from now on) to a major thematic event before going there. Does the event create outcomes that you are still interested in writing?
11. If you introduce conflict and resolution, also introduce follow through and therapy for the characters. If you don't, you are at risk of writing what I call the Road Runner and Wiley E. Coyote syndrome. In the old Looney Toons cartoon, Wiley E. Coyote is constantly trying to kill Road Runner, but he always fails. It's tedious and boring. Keep this out of your story. If people get hurt, they need physical and mental recovery too. Oftentimes, the mental recovery is more important than the physical. Also: don't play the "out of sight, out of mind" game. Just because you don't want to write a character anymore does not mean your audience has forgotten about him or her.
12. The writer should be invisible in the writing, unless the writer is a character in the story.
13. There is a difference between imitation and plagiarism. Painters and other artists use imitation of other artists to learn new techniques in with their own art. Writers can do this too. Writers can play with techniques and learn how to build up their own techniques. The piece might not be publishable, but it might be. Sometimes, you just need to experiment.
14. Writing is never finished and that's okay. I once saw former Poet Laureate (before he was Poet Laureate) Donald Hall read his poetry at my university. Hall commented how he had changed some of his poem after it was published. He had actually corrected it in the book.
15. Change up the place you're writing at. If you're inside, go outside and write. Find a coffee shop, a spiritual place. Somewhere where you feel energized. Expose yourself to new situations, new senses. Writers are illuminates of the truth.
What are some of the lessons that you have learned or observed?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-02 01:30 am (UTC)First, I don't put my work somewhere where it can be critiqued. I'm afraid to.
My characters are rarely in danger or harmed.
I write from first person the best and do it most often. From my own point of view. Is this putting the writer into the story?