Eating the Elephant

And other good, hopefully inspiring stuff.

Have you ever felt completely hopeless about writing an entire novel?

Does completing a novel seem so daunting a task that you simply cannot see yourself ever getting one written?

That feeling, coupled with having to support a family, made me swear off writing a novel for almost a decade. I just could not imagine finishing a project that seemed so big, while also having a job, or any kind of life. Short stories were one thing, but:

How could I write an entire novel?

“How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.”  ~ Anonymous

The way to write a novel is simply to sit down every day, and write some of it. It’s so simple. It seems like it should be obvious this is how they get done, and yet, for years I struggled with the overwhelming bigness of getting a novel written.

In The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron recommends writing what she dubbed Morning Pages. This, by any other name, is simply writing every day. Whatever you want to call it, writing every day is key to getting the flow of ideas and words going.

“If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.”  ~ Louis L’Amour

Here’s another issue that haunted me during those unproductive, frozen years: Didn’t I have to have an outline? A brilliant concept with the plot twists and subplots, all thought out in advance and laid down like a road map? Surely writing a novel required some higher form of genius that I wasn’t capable of manifesting. I had to have the whole thing thought out before I started, right?

I’d never previously had a plot thought out for any of the novellas or short stories I’d written. They’d always occurred to me as I wrote the first draft—which, by the way, was part of my excitement and delight in writing them.

But a novel was a much bigger, more complicated thing, and all The Experts were shouting that I had to have an outline. (Well…not all of them. Just the really loud ones.)

It wasn’t enough that I had some characters that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

It wasn’t enough that I wanted to see what they would do, what choices they would make, in the world I imagined them in.

I had to have a high premise and plot points. Simply wanting to discover the repercussions of my characters choices, for good or evil, wouldn’t cut it.

Completely erroneous thinking, as it turns out.

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”  ~ E.L. Doctorow

Here’s what I discovered: Plot is what happens when you sit down and write. The plot to your novel will show up if you do. It has to be excavated in pretty much the same way an archeologist digs up long buried bones. And once found, in the act of writing the first draft, the writer’s next job is to simply scrape and brush away everything that is NOT THAT.

It would have saved me so many wasted years if someone had just told me this. Okay, someone was saying it. Julia Cameron certainly was. And Diana Gabaldon’s always been open and honest about her process.  But I didn’t hear them over those other people shouting and waving their arms.

So, now I’m telling you: If you aren’t a genius—and most of us aren’t—just bring your excitement to your special writing place and sit down and write about those characters you love so much, and that fascinating world that they live in. Every day. It’ll be okay.

Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.  ~ Anne Lamott  (AKA, Blessed Patron Saint of the Shitty First Draft)

If those two obstacles weren’t enough, there was this other damn thing. (Isn’t there always?) Every time I sat down to write I could only squeeze out 2000 or so words, and as often as not they were just so so; not polished and filled with awe inspiring metaphor like the novels I loved. I mistook this as proof that I wasn’t a writer. I mean, I didn’t have what it takes, obviously. Otherwise what I wrote would be brilliant, light-filled, like all those published novels, wouldn’t it?

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”  ~ James Michener

“The first draft of anything is shit.”  ~  Ernest Hemingway

I believe I will end my post here, rather than attempt to add anything to Hemingway’s wisdom.

I hope this helps. XO

Now, what are you doing sitting here reading my blog? Haven’t you got something better to do?

5 Reasons For Writers To Read

Reading will give you an edge on the opposition

I sat across the table from a guy who looked to be in his mid forties. He told us he was writing a spy novel. It was filled with action, he said. He’d come to this particular group because he needed feedback and wanted others to read what he’d written so far, and tell him where it was going wrong. He hoped he wouldn’t have to read too many other peoples’ work—he didn’t have a lot of time, and honestly, he hadn’t ever read very much. He didn’t enjoy reading.

I tried not to laugh. I looked around, but couldn’t find anything handy to throw at him.

The twenty or so other writers in the library meeting room stared at him in thoughtful silence. Then a young woman of about nineteen or twenty chirped up to say that she didn’t like to read either. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t like to read, she amended, it was just that it took her so long to finish a book that she lost interest, and so she never finished very many of them. She concluded that she was probably just too busy to read.

I felt my nostrils twitch.

You do realize you have to read to be a writer, I said.

The young woman looked at me as if I were a hydra and one of my heads had just bared its teeth.

The man looked first sullen…then his expression changed to dismissive. He refused to look at me. What did I know.

But my statement seemed to have unleashed the hounds. The stunned writers around the table all spoke at once. In a less civilized world I might have witnessed some violence,  a spanking, or an eye gouging. I think it is written somewhere; maybe in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People: “Don’t walk into a room full of writers and admit you don’t like to read.”

Or maybe that was the bible…

Anyway, here’s what I believe: If a person wants to write they had better LOVE reading. It should be right up there with your top two or three favorite things to do. Eating, sex, reading. Or maybe: Eating, reading, sex. Something like that. You should have stacks of books all around you at home, and be reading through them like a paper mulcher chews through logs. The library, bookstore, or on line book buying joint should be your hallowed place.

Why?

1. You’ll probably actually enjoy writing, if you like to read. (And writing well is hard, so you better enjoy it.)
2. It will be a whole lot easier to learn how to write if you’ve digested 1000 or more good books.
3. You’ll  know what’s been done before, and how it was done.
4. It will keep you from making a fool of yourself.  (This one’s not true…I just wanted to have 5 reasons.)
5. It’ll keep you from getting your ass kicked by other writers. (This one is true.)
   

   Reading makes you sexy and smart

Ideally you need to have read many, many books over the course of your life. The reason for this is because you will have absorbed technique. Things like story arc and transitions, dialogue, and the fine balance between narrative and action. You will learn what works (from the good books) and what doesn’t (from the bad ones). These lessons are much easier to learn through osmosis than by being taught in a classroom.

You will have a huge bank of knowledge of what’s been done before to draw upon. And this knowledge will guide you. That nifty beat sheet will already live in your soul, and everything you write will automatically be holographically tested against it to see if it holds up…as you write.

If you’ve read widely, in many different genres, you will have a much broader knowledge base. And this will serve you well, enriching your writing, no matter which genre you choose for your own novels and stories. The best reads often contain elements of many genres.

A writer who doesn’t like to read is like a painter who doesn’t like to look. It’s like a musician who doesn’t want to bother to listen. It’s like a potter who doesn’t like clay. It’s like a gardener who doesn’t love dirt. It’s like a chef who doesn’t like to taste.

I get that some folks don’t like to read. But if you don’t enjoy books, why write one?

Go make a movie, or something.

Your son the famous painter might see you reading, think you look nice, and paint you

Check out these great links.

Here’s what Diana Gabaldon has to say about reading for writers.

And here’s what Joshua Becker over at becoming minimalist is doing to get a few books read this year.

Guest Post featuring Erika Marks

I’m happy to have debut author Erika Marks as my guest here this week. Her post is a timely one; whether you’re a published author, or an aspiring one, fitting writing in during the holidays can be a challenge!

All I Want for Christmas is 200 More Words: Making Progress On One’s WIP During the Holidays, And Other Urban Legends.

by Erika Marks

For those of us who are accustomed to having chunks of our work day (and nights) to write, the holiday season can mean a bit of a schedule shake-up. With out of town guests arriving, priorities change (as well they should!) and with that change means having less time to write—or maybe putting the WIP away completely.

Now we all know that stepping away from a manuscript can be a good thing–but most of us will go kicking-and-screaming, especially when we are in deep in a WIP. There’s no question that shutting off our writer’s brain is about as easy as shutting off the I-want-another-glass-of-egg-nog switch. But writing during the busy holidays need not be feast or famine. There are a few ways in which a writer can maintain their cheer and their word count.

Here are a few things I try to remember when the muse doesn’t want to take a holiday.

Carve out a temporary workspace. Part of what can be hard during the holidays is that lack of routine and structure. Now don’t get me wrong: normally, I LOVE to mix things up. But when it comes to writing, it’s a tough adjustment to make—even temporarily. If you have guests staying in a space you might usually use to write (my office is our dining table so that’s definitely out), try making a temporary workspace in another room with a door you can close (Yes, that includes closets. I’m not kidding. I’ve lived in NYC—I require very little space). Just knowing you can still have access to your work in a private setting does wonders to quell those stress bubbles that can boil up.

Leave things on a good note. As Rita Coolidge sang, “I’d rather leave while I’m in love,” and nowhere does this apply than when it comes to having to leave my manuscript for a while. I don’t know about you all, but I can’t stand to walk away from a WIP if it’s going badly. Which is why if I know things will be getting busy and writing time will be scarce, I try my best to leave my manuscript in a good place. And by good place, I mean in the middle of a scene that’s really rolling—like-mac-truck-without-breaks rolling. You’re thinking, No! How can I do that? I have to finish it! But let me ask you something: Would you rather step away with excitement knowing you are going back to a scene that is working—or finish it off in the heat of the moment only to hate where that runaway truck has gone off the road and know you have to let it sit there in flames for days? Yeah, me neither.

Keep scrap paper nearby. You never know when inspiration will strike and free moments in the thick of a busy holiday are few and far between, which means seizing them when you can. Waiting to pick up a relative, standing in line at the store, washing dishes! Keep something to write on and with nearby so you can take advantage of those fleeting moments of writing/plotting time. (I speak from experience—my purse is filled with note-covered receipts that I sift through weekly).

Make your goal for broad strokes, not polished scenes. See this “break” as an opportunity to look at the larger issues within your novel. Don’t focus on trying to work through certain scenes (you won’t be able to dedicate the time to it most likely and will just end up frustrated) but rather use the time to flesh out bigger themes in your novel. Have fifteen minutes of quiet? Thumbnail-sketch several chapters. Or take a character and consider their motivation, their emotional impact—do you need to raise the stakes for them? Think outline, not fine line.

Give yourself permission to bow out of the festivities for a few minutes here and there. The holiday season won’t come to a roaring halt if you excuse yourself from your guests for a few minutes. It doesn’t make you a lousy host/parent/spouse/friend/child if you tune out and tune in to your writing in that private space we discussed earlier.

But along those same lines, give yourself permission to take a break. As important as it is to feel that you have the freedom to pursue ideas when they strike (and rest assured, there’s a very good chance that elusive solution to your problematic ninth chapter will arrive to you the instant you sit down for your holiday feast!), it’s also important to let yourself let go for a few days. In my experience, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder—except when it comes to putting away a manuscript for a break.

Now go have yourselves a wonderful holiday, everyone!

BIO: Erika Marks is a native New Englander who was raised in Maine and has worked as an illustrator, cake decorator, and carpenter. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband, a native New Orleanian, their two daughters, and their dog. LITTLE GALE GUMBO is her first novel.

Erika’s website

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Awards Time!

Stacy Green over at Turning the Page has kindly nominated me for the 7×7 award. Thank you, Stacy. I’m honored. The rules are that the recipient must link back to seven posts in seven categories, and then must pass the award on to seven deserving recipients, so here goes:

Most Beautiful:Faith, Let Go and Know.

Most Helpful: Drafting vs Outlining. I wrote this in response to a member of my workshop who was doubting the writing process. I believe there are as many writing processes as there are writers, and there is no wrong way to write… except the way that produces no writing at all.

Most Popular:A Goodly Deal of Cursing combines humor with Medieval swearing, so no surprise that it was so popular!

Most Controversial: The Pit and the Pendulum. This one riled some folks up. The really angriest comments (those with swearing and threats) never made it to light. It is my blog, after all.

Most Surprisingly Successful: Full Moon Madness Maybe this one shouldn’t have surprised me, but I thought I was just writing a silly little bit of something. People really do love werewolves.

Most Underrated: Going Deeper My post about a moment of inspiration brought on by a quote from Pat Conroy.

Most Prideworthy: This one should probably also be The Pit and the Pendulum. I stuck by my beliefs in that one, and didn’t back down. I feel pretty good about that. But since that post is already filling the Controversial slot: She because I had fun bringing my muse to life and giving her a persona.

I’d like to pass this award on to these seven wonderful recipients:

1) Nina Badzin: Nina’s blog is always upbeat, straight-talking (I find myself nodding my head a lot when reading her posts) and she has some great posts on blogging and Twitter etiquette that are worth checking out.

2) Melissa Crytzer Fry: Melissa is a fellow Arizonian who uses her camera and her considerable writing skills to share her love of the desert.

3) Jolina Petersheim: Jolina will sometimes make you cry, but mostly she’ll make you laugh.

4) Leah Singer: Leah’s beautiful blog is a blend of the good things in life; cooking, family, crafts, and books.

5) Julia Munroe Martin: Wordsxo is all about Maine, and writing, and like my blog, just whatever Julia feels like writing about on any given morning.

6) Erika Marks: the same writing that makes her posts so fun is just what you get to enjoy in her first published novel, Little Gale Gumbo.

7) Natalia Sylvester: Natalia is a freelance author with a sweet writing style and unique view on the world who posts about writing and life, and the writing life.

Why Do You Write?

A woman in my writers workshop shared this joke with all the rest of us via email. I don’t know where she got it, so I can’t attribute it, but here it is:

A writer died and was given the option of going to heaven or hell.

She decided to check out each place first. As the writer descended into the fiery pits, she saw row upon row of writers chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they were repeatedly whipped with thorny lashes.

“Oh my,” said the writer. “Let me see heaven now.”

A few moments later, as she ascended into heaven, she saw rows of writers, chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they, too, were whipped with thorny lashes.

“Wait a minute,” said the writer. “This is just as bad as hell!”

“Oh no, it’s not,” replied an unseen voice. “Here, your work gets published.”

A flurry of emails followed with one writer wondering:

Do you suppose purgatory is any better?

To which the wit that had sent the joke quipped:

Probably in purgatory you’re waiting for an agent to respond.

Writers all have different attitudes and ideas about why they write. Some claim to actually dislike it. Others, and I’m among them, say we aren’t happy unless we are living a writing life.

But pretty much every writer asks themselves at some point: Why write?

I write because I have these stories inside me. And I know that I am their only way out into the world; their conduit. I dream about my characters, and they pester me, until I write them down. If I don’t sit down and write them, they just keep swirling in my head. (I get an image here, of my head as a toilet bowl…shrieking, struggling characters swirling and swirling around in torrents of water…but I am reluctant to write it. I don’t like the idea of my head as a toilet. But there it is…and now I have written it.)

As much as I desire to obtain an agent and get traditionally published, it’s not the reason I write, really. I’d say it’s the reason I polish, and sweat, and work at perfecting some of what I write. (Check out my friend Natalia’s blog post about showing first drafts to others…it’s excellent. She’s so brave!) But initially I write to get the story out and into the physical, tangible world, where I can see it, and begin to grasp what it is. (To flush my toilet bowl head perhaps? Okay…enough with the toilet bowl thing…I don’t like where this is going!)

I write because I love language. More specifically, I love the English language. I love reading beautiful language, which can be about ugly things sometimes, but if it is written in such a way that it moves us, then regardless of the topic it can be beautiful. And I want to do that.

I write for the thrill of crafting beautiful passages. If you’re an avid reader, then you know what I mean. You come across some passages in books that make your pulse speed up and that you have to read again, and again, because they are so evocative and lovely, and just…well…sublime. (You read them to your writer pals, because you know another writer will understand.) I was at breakfast with a couple of writer friends the other day and one of them spoke of how these passages can come out during a moment when we are tapped in to the source of the story. The perfect words can flow onto the page during these magical, connected moments.

And then we look at what we’ve written and think…did I write that?

Is there any greater thrill? Any greater satisfaction?

The other reason I write is because I am a miserable, crotchety wench if I don’t write. (My family will verify this, if anyone doubts it.) I gave up writing once, for about 10 years, telling myself I needed to make money and focus on my family. But that experiment is a post for another day.

Writers: Why do you write?

Feel the Burn

Taking Our Novels From Second Rate, To Great!

For those of you who have frequented workout classes and gyms over the years, you have undoubtedly heard the expression feel the burn. You know what it means: feel the pain of a weak muscle growing more efficient through use, of your body becoming more honed and tight. Wouldn’t you like to do that for your WIP?

Allowing someone, especially another writer, to read your WIP can feel like exposing a newborn to the elements on a dark hillside. Yet it must be done.

We submit our chapters to beta-readers, writers groups, workshops, and writer friends. We take our beloved characters and plots and lay them at the feet of others. If we are very fortunate we know some good folks; some fellow writers who are willing and wise enough to help us.

If we’ve been doing this writing thing for a while we can by now distinguish the help that is truly needed, from the help that is just another writer’s opinion or prejudice. And that’s important. I don’t recommend taking everyone’s comments and using them. It’s your novel. You are the artist. Monet did not have somebody looking over his shoulder telling him not to use those greens and blues. (Or if he did, he knew enough not to listen.) We all have our own way we prefer a sentence to be structured, or punctuated, or a scene set. Those are suggestions to consider. They can sometimes be helpful, but…

There are the deeper, more weighty suggestions. Those that ask us to think about how a character is perceived by a reader. Those that question a plot twist, scene development, or pace. Those that highlight a sag in tension. These are the suggestions that set us to thinking and working on a weak slice of our novel, and if we stick with it, if we put in the effort, the result will be a leaner, more honed novel. One that will keep the reader licking her finger and turning the page.

I discovered a trick recently that I am going to share with you. It’s deceptively simple. But it helped me feel less overwhelmed by the whole rewriting process, because, like a weight machine in a gym helps us isolate a specific muscle, this little trick helps me isolate and focus in on one area, or solution, at a time. Here’s what I do:

1. I copy and paste a section of the novel— where I’ve identified a weakness— into a blank document.  (Usually between 4000 – 6000 words.)
2. I give the piece a name and save it.
3. Then I give myself a question that addresses the weakness that has become apparent, or been pointed out to me, like, what would my MC be feeling here? Or, how can I describe this scene so it draws the reader in? Or, how can I get across the information the reader needs, without giving away the twist?
4. I keep this flabby piece of the novel open on my computer for however long it takes to write it the best it can be. It can take hours, or days, but it doesn’t get put back into the novel until I know, with certainty, that it does what it is supposed to do, and does it well.
5. Then I copy and paste it back into the main body of the novel, and move on to the next Area To Be Improved. (I don’t allow myself to think of these as ‘problem areas’, because problem areas tend to become problems. Just a little Jedi-mind-trick I play on myself.)

I think the reason this method works so well for me is that it makes each issue seem smaller and more manageable. Instead of feeling the psychological weight of every place that needs work in the novel, I focus in on only the one I’ve isolated. I usually write anything new in red. But using track changes will work too. I like to work new parts in red because when I’m done I can see at a glance how much, or little, had to be changed. Sometimes there’s just a smattering of red in a section I’ve finished. Other times there are entire paragraphs of red.

I know there are many ways to handle whipping a novel in shape. I’d love to hear about yours.

Do you have any tricks for getting through the last rewrites? How do you go about the big process of honing your novel?