Whenever I open the file that contains my novel, I have an overwhelming urge to write a blog post. When I come over here to write a blog post, the main characters of my novel dance through my mind and beg for me to continue their story.
And you now know how I'm spending my morning.
"In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it." —Michelangelo
"I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need." —Rodin
... that is the question.
I've had a few people ask me if I'm going to participate in this November's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Challenge and up until a few days ago, I was confident I would. Now, I'm not so sure. For those unfamiliar with the challenge, participants are required to write a minimum 50,000-word novel within the thirty days of November. If they do so, and it is validated with the official NaNoWriMo word counter, they are considered a winner and a few prizes and accolades are distributed.
I participated and successfully completed the challenge last year, writing a 52101-word novel within the first 14 days of the month. It was not great fun but it was rewarding in that I accomplished the goal and was able to write The End on something of that magnitude.
The story wasn't particularly enjoyable to me, it was something that had been rattling around in my head for years, so I didn't feel quite so much like I was writing but rather, taking dictation from my brain. It wasn't new, it wasn't exciting and it certainly wasn't something for which I had to struggle. Hence, the 14 day completion time.
This year, if I were to do it again, I would need to start now and begin blocking the plot, interviewing my characters and building the fictional world the story is set in. The process intrigues me but the time commitment doesn't. I have so many personal obligations, classes and trips scheduled between now and the end of the year, I don't know that I want to commit to something that overwhelming right now.
Fiction writing is still important to me but I'm not sure this challenge is, at least not this year. I'm really enjoying my personal life right now and spending that many hours of the few non-working hours I have in a fictional world just doesn't have the appeal it did last year. I'm still mulling it over but I think my decision is quickly being made for me.
Maybe next year?
I didn't win the fiction writing contest nor place within the top 25. All I know is that I was somewhere in the top 100, out of the original pool of 300+, but I don't know if I was 26 or 100. In the grand scheme, I suppose that isn't too important. What I really find exciting is the critique I received in my inbox today.
My writing was judged on three areas and could receive a rating of 1-5 in each, with 5 being the highest score. My story earned a score of 13 out of 15, with 5's in the Subject and Content areas and a 3 in the Technical area.
I wasn't sure what to expect, having never been critiqued before, but I like what I received. The reviewer highlighted words and phrases within my story (different colors used for different examples of problems) and then below explained what the issue was and how I could improve.
Some of the positive comments were: There were no grammar or punctuation errors and no clichés. The story had a nice plot/point with subtle conflict and tension and it was 'compelling.' The things that could be improved were: The passive voice was used too frequently, two sentences were 'clunky' or hard to read smoothly, and there was one place I used an adjective when a descriptive phrase would have been better.
The final comments were: "I really like the way you started this story! They say time heals, but when you don’t know how much time has passed, that makes it interesting. You did a good job of letting the reader know what happened through the replay in her mind, and a great job in having the main character come to the realization that she wouldn’t have gone. Just work on keeping the story in the active tense! Thank you for sharing with us!"
Sounds like it wasn't too bad, right?
I am anxious to find another contest to enter and see how well I can apply what I learned from this one to make an even better story. Hopefully it will have a critique offering as well and I can continue to learn and grow and hone this craft I love so dearly. I am looking forward to trying.
critique, fiction, goals, writing in About Writing For many, the best and worst part about writing is that it is a solitary activity. You, the author, are the only one who knows the story you want to tell, the only one who can describe what your mind sees, the only one who knows when the word you write is the right word. While in the act of writing you cannot interact with others to much degree because concentration and focus are key in getting the words out. Depending on what you are writing, a single completed piece may take days, months, or even years to complete. That means many hours set aside to be alone with your laptop or notebook, your determination and your ideas. That time is important. The very act of creating something so important and so intimate, that comes directly from the innermost parts of you is liberating and powerful. It is not meant to be shared.
I do not know why I was born with a need to write. Not everyone is born this way. I wonder if it was a natural habit to develop given my awkward childhood shyness or if spending all my time reading books and writing stories made me a loner and shy around people. I suppose someone, someday, will think that is worthy of study. Yet, what I am learning as I grow in this craft is that writing is a lot more collaborative than I thought.
That is the best and worst of it for me. Yes, you can write your story alone, completely alone, if that is what you prefer, but I am finding my writing is even better when I have a partner to read, critique and push me to the next level. Even if you write the entire story alone, if you are intent on publishing, you will have to send it to beta readers for review and feedback before sending it to an agent and a publisher, all of whom are going to read and edit and pick apart your work. It takes a great deal of people to get an idea from a story to a published work.
I struggle with other people reading my fiction. I do not know why other than I am not confident that it is good. It is not that I hate failing (though I do), I just really feel like I should be at a certain level before I even bother other people with my work. I do not know what that level is yet but I do not feel I have reached it. I find this strange because I have no problem writing here, about my life, and having anyone who happens by reading it. Why am I so reluctant to share my other writing?
That is why that fiction contest I entered was such a major step for me. Not only did I ask a friend to read my entry before I sent it in but an entire panel of judges read it. And I paid extra for them to send me a critique on it! This was a huge step.
I heard last week that I did not make the final cut of the contest. I will learn later this month if I made it within the top 25 or not, but I now know I was not in the top ten. Am I disappointed? A bit. But I am more scared/nervous/excited to hear what comes back in the critique. I have this hope that within that unbiased feedback I will learn where I am on this journey, what next steps I need to take and whether or not I am at that level I feel I need to be to more easily reach out and ask for help along the way. I am learning I cannot do this alone.
Edited to add: I just happened across this piece and felt it had to be shared.
authors, fiction, goals, publishing, writing in About Writing To keep me motivated and progressing on my fiction writing, I have added a new word count status section within The Write Stuff section in the sidebar. My ultimate goal is to write around 5000 words a week on fiction pieces but I think, like most things, I will have to build up to that. I need to get into the habit of writing regularly before I can set stretch goals. So my first goal is to get into the writing habit and achieve at least 1500 words a week. I am hoping publishing my progress and having you hold me accountable will be a great help. I'll start each new week on Sunday.
I made time to work on one of my novels last week and it felt great. I was busy creating history by developing independent scenes of the world that my characters live in before the story begins. This has been incredibly helpful because this is a fantasy novel and a good deal of it will take place in a world I have to create. The world exists before the story starts so I need to understand the world before I start. To aid in this, I started writing short scenes about the environment and the lives of my characters. Some of the characters have been secondary, some throwaway, but all have been important in helping me get a feel for life in this new world.
I wrote about the character whose job it is to awaken before the rest and prepare the early meal for everyone. I wrote about the leader’s mate, who may or may not be alive by the time the story begins. I wrote a scene about a young boy and his often absent caretaker. I wrote a scene describing the great hall in which these creatures gather and another about the leader’s private living quarters. I wrote paragraphs just about the lighting and atmosphere. I can now visualize the world and explain with a lot more clarity what a day in the life there is like.
My friend calls this act of creating history “world building.” I like that. It is empowering to have the ability to create a world from nothing but your imagination and keyboard clicks. It can also be overwhelming because I want this world to be new and fresh to the reader and at the same time I want the reader to quickly feel at home so that they want to stay. My mind keeps going back to two books I read that created new worlds, Wicked by Gregory Maguire and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. In Wicked, I felt lost most of the time. The book was written using vocabulary that was difficult, if not nearly impossible, to recall and understand. I am not discounting the skill of creating a new language and a new world as he did but this book was not a pleasant read for me. I never felt engaged in that story.
Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid's Tale, on the other hand, was beautifully written. Though it took place in a fantastical world, it was still familiar and easy to navigate through. When she used different vocabulary, she used words whose meanings were easily interpreted by the reader. I felt involved in the story, not hopelessly on the outside. That is what I wish to accomplish with this novel.
fiction, goals, writing in About Writing The author Nicola Morgan has had two interesting articles this week about authors and age. (She blogs here.) The questions were asked by one of her readers if it is more difficult for an older author to get their first book published, and if so, at what age did it seem to make a difference, and why did age matter at all?
I read through the first few paragraphs of the first article with trepidation. I started imagining a year or two or five down the road, with my finely-polished manuscript in hand, ready to begin knocking on agents' doors and having them slammed in my face because I was no longer considered young enough to publish. I am not sure which I felt more strongly, depressed or angry.
I kept reading and learned that statistically speaking, yes, it can be harder for an older author to get published (and by older, one agent said over 50 years old) because there is a perception that older people are less technologically savvy, less fit for the grueling travel of a book tour, and some agents simply want to represent younger authors because they are more likely to have many decades of book writing in front of them.
At this point, I was less depressed but definitely more angry and I was arguing back in my head, "But I am technologically savvy, healthy as a horse, and, pay me enough to retire and I'll write all the books you want." Amazing how much I wanted to be published when I thought it had just been ripped out of my hands.
Ms. Morgan ended her article with the reminder that in the end, it is the story that makes the deal. Write a fantastic book and you are not going to be turned away, regardless of age. However, the older you are, the more fantastic that book will need to be.
But no pressure.
Her second article was a follow-up to the first and said actually age probably matters most for authors who write in the children and young adult genres. The author's voice, especially in those genres, needed to be fresh and modern to appeal to that demographic. Here is where age could play a role, if the author has not kept up with modern writing.
Her biggest piece of advice to authors was not to offer their age to prospective agents in the first place. Let the writing shine and speak for itself. Just make sure that when it does, it does not tell your age.
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As readers, does it matter to you how old an author is? Would you find it harder to buy into a plot about a twenty-something year old if you knew the author was approaching sixty? Have you ever been able to guess an author's age by the writing and if so, did it cause you to enjoy the book less?
authors, fiction, publishing, writing in About Writing My writing has gone out the window the past couple of weeks. I am one of those people who needs everything, or at least almost everything, in order before I can give my brain over to the creative side. With the stress at work, some issues in my personal life, and the general chaos of trying to fit about 30 hours of life into a 24 hour day, sitting down and writing has not been a priority.
Besides not being able to focus long enough to put words together, I have been feeling uncertain about my decision to write fiction. I have stalled on the novel, my short stories are atrocious, and the one poem I wrote last week was so bad, I laughed, and the subject matter was loss and devastation. So yes, very bad.
I have always wanted to believe I was a writer, that I was born to be a writer. I still believe that, I just wonder if it is fiction I am supposed to be writing. I compare myself to the writers I follow on the internet and I do not seem remotely similar to them. If they are to be believed, their minds are overflowing with story ideas, their characters are so real that they can smell them, and their plots are so complex and detailed that they require the use of graphs and maps and entire binders of notes on back stories and plot points just to keep it all straight.
That is just not me.
There is little I enjoy more than curling up on the sofa with a warm blanket and a good book and reading all afternoon. I just do not know how to write a book I would want to read. Maybe it is inexperience. Maybe it is self-doubt. Maybe it is just a matter of needing a little guidance or education or training.
Or maybe I am just not meant to be a writer of fiction.
I am trying to work through this as best I can. I refuse to give up yet because I do not think I have given it a good try. But in the back of my mind, I am still contemplating other options. Maybe I am meant to write personal articles, slice of life essays or a multi-million dollar self-help book. Maybe I am meant to write a book helping others figure out what to write. I do not know yet.
I know I am a writer. I know I have talent--raw and underdeveloped--but talent. I just do not know what I am supposed to write.
dreams, fiction, new endings, writing in About Writing The LDBF is a phenomenal writer. He is capable of putting together strings of sentences that completely transport you into his story. Your breath catches, your pulse quickens, your eyes widen, as his words grab you, lift you, and move you through the worlds he creates. He has a great gift and I am so fortunate that he shares his writing with me.
It was our passion for writing and an attraction to each other's writing that brought us together. Writing was all we had in the beginning. It is our foundation, both individually and as a couple. Our writing dreams provide us a connection and head us in the same direction. It is one of our greater bonds.
There are days, many days, that I doubt my talent and I fear my dreams are just too far out of reach. I do not know that I have it, whatever it is, that intangible quality, that is the difference between a good writer and a great writer. He has it. He oozes it, is redolent of it. I do not know that I have it. I am reminded of the line a former piano teacher once told me, "Anyone can learn to play the notes but only those with talent can make music." I may just be playing the notes.
I said as much to him this weekend. When I compare my writing to his, mine falls short every time. His response was immediate and supportive. He reminded me that we have very different styles and write in different genres. He is a master of the types of stories he tells; I write in an entirely different way, in my own style. In the literary sense, I am trying to compare great jazz with a classic concerto. They can both be beautiful while being completely different.
I am my own worst critic (his remark, my admission) and I do need to keep at it (his suggestion, my acknowledgment). He provided the caring push I needed. Anything worth doing well takes time. I will continue to learn, continue to try, continue to write.
He is a phenomenal writer, yes, but I can be, too. I just need to focus on, and play, my own type of music.
When is the last time you read a short story?
The last collection of short stories I read was by John Steinbeck, called The Pastures of Heaven, a book of twelve interrelated short stories, or short novels, as Steinbeck liked to call them. If you are not familiar with Steinbeck or have not liked some of his other works, I would heartily recommend this book. He is great at creating characters who are so real they cast shadows and this book showcases that talent brilliantly.
I have great respect for the short story author as I have written a couple of them myself for fiction writing contests. It is more difficult than one might suspect and in my woefully inexperienced opinion, substantially more difficult than writing a novel. In a novel, one has room to stretch out, amble a bit from plot point to plot point or elaborate on the setting of a scene, and as long as you keep the reader engaged, you can get away with that. In short stories that luxury is not there. You have very few words[1] to create the character(s), get your reader invested, set-up the scene, introduce conflict, and find resolution. Every word must be impactful and powerful.
While I am plodding away on my novel, I am becoming quite enamored of the short story. I recently sorted through my writing and found I have added twelve of them to my collection of writing just in the past three months. I am not satisfied with the quality of the work yet but I am intrigued with the telling of a story in just a few pages.
I happened to find a short story editor and publisher online and read an interesting article this week from her, in which she admitted she did not read short stories. (I assume she meant other than for her work.) She said she liked to read before bed and did not care for the emotional investment she had to make in learning new characters, getting caught up in their drama and then feeling the jolt at the end of the story at that time of day. She preferred to pick up a novel, read a chapter or two, and be able to put it back down without having gone through that whole cycle of emotions.
She recently made the decision to support the short story by reading one every day for 365 days. She changed her routine so that she starts her morning with a short story and has found the mental stimulation has improved her creativity and productivity throughout the work day. What a great endorsement for this type of fiction. I do not care to set the same goal but I am pledging to read at least one short story a week this year to stir my imagination and help me learn more about the craft. It will force me to seek out new authors as well and I am looking forward to that.
There is a challenge to finding the perfect few words to convey the message that appeals to me. Perhaps this is where my creativity will lead me.
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[1] - I have found three types of short stories: micro fiction (up to 100 words), flash fiction (100-1000 words) and the "regular" short story (1000-7500 words) so there truly are few words with which to work. To put that into context for you, this blog post in its entirety is 580 words.
fiction, short stories, writing in About Writing 