The Importance of Breaks
The importance of breaks and rest for writers is not often discussed. I bring it up because I find it is important--even crucial, for writers to take breaks. I don't just mean breaks during a writing session. What I'm talking about is a sabbatical. Days off.
Yesterday (Sunday) when I woke up, my first urge was to dive into the site redesign. I had already spent most of Saturday working on it. I had it in my mind that I would get it done before Monday. I encountered a few snags, as often happens on these types of projects. There ended up being more work involved than I previously realized.
Instead of jumping right into action yesterday, I stopped myself. I felt a little guilty. My wife and I hadn't gone out even once yet for the weekend. It was a nice day, so I proposed that we head to a park nearby. We headed over to the park after picking up some refreshments.
The fresh air did me some good. I brought along my camera and took some photos. I'm always looking for excuses to haul out my camera. My wife and I took a relaxing walk through the park. There were ducks and geese being fed by other park strollers. Some men were fishing on a pier that juts out over the lake.
I did lose time working on the website redesign, but the tradeoff was more than worth it. I gained back a piece of sanity and perspective. Sometimes we become too self-absorbed in our work, or lifetsyles. We forget that there is an outside world, and that it is beautiful.
As writers we could all use a little more of that. Don't be afraid to take breaks. You'll get your work done, don't worry. Get a breath of fresh air. Clear your head. It might even help solve some of your problems. At the very least, it will give you a little perspective. Not to mention some overdue physical exercise--go for a walk.
P.S. The website will be done soon enough.
Working Silence
I've invested enough already in this blog that it's about time I did it justice with some custom graphics.
I'm working on a custom template for the site. That's right, no more generic Blogger template! Everything should stay virtually the same. It'll just be prettier.
I'm giving thought to some bonus content. Some things to make the site more of a writer's resource?
If any of you have requests or ideas, now is your time to speak up!
Research & Direct vs. Indirect Narrative
Writing the rough draft of Cameron Fields & the Thieves of Time in thirty days didn't leave much room for research. I was aware of my glaring ignorance during the writing process. This is why I've always railed against preaching glory of the drafting process. Key problems generating a first draft in thirty days:
- I didn't know anything about private investigation
- I didn't know anything about criminal investigation
While reading
How to Tell a Story: The Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales, I encountered a section on direct and indirect narrative.
Direct narrative is when you describe the action or events in detail. It's an actual scene.
Indirect narrative is when you gloss over the actions or events. An indirect narrative is a bridge or segue from one scene to another.
For example, if you were to write your character walking down the street and every detail of that experience, it would be a
direct narrative. If the character is only walking down the street so you can get to the next scene of the story, you would keep it short and just say; "Bob walked down the street and entered the hotel." Thus it becomes
indirect narrative.
What's amazing to me is that the direct narrative vs. indirect narrative haven't been discussed in any of the storytelling books I've read to date. That or I just don't remember, which illustrates the benefit to revising your knowledge of the craft.
One of the major problems of my first draft is that all the investigative portions are indirect narrative. Why? Because I don't know anything about investigations, or how they are conducted. I didn't have time to find out either. Fifty-thousand words in thirty days demands ignorance. Just write!
Write, write, write!You've got to read, too. Research! Otherwise your story will sink into
indirect narrative in parts that should be direct narrative, and vice versa.
Refreshing Your Storytelling Method
I started reading
How to Tell a Story: The Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost.
It's good to refresh my knowledge of story structure. I'm stuck on a few messy points in my story and this is a good reminder of what the craft is all about. It's somewhere between Lajos Egri's
Art Of Dramatic Writing
and McKee's
Story
.
I find no matter how many times I read this stuff, I always get something new out of it. Even when I've already read the ideas several times, I still get excited about bits like this;
"I still get a shiver when I stop to consider that I make my living in a marketplace where the best ideas, especially those with the most emotional impact, are powerful and compelling enough that they are eagerly bought and sold. It is a heady thought. We live in a society where, despite its ills and negative elements, we still have enough regard for the product of our best thinkers that we consider their ideas commodities that have definable monetary as well as intellectual value.
This is why a good idea, whether at the heart of a piece of fiction or nonfiction, can sell when it's not that well written; and material that is wonderfully written will not always sell, because at its heart the idea contained within it is overly familiar or mundane, with little emotional impact.
In other words, authors whose books sell have a better developed story sense than their unsuccessful competitors. How do you, the novice writer, improve your chances of getting published? The answer is simple: Make sure your idea is told properly--that is, structured to be the most effective presentation of that idea, at its most emotionally gripping."
Pure candy. Refreshed your storytelling method lately?
Writing Camps: Thinkers vs. Feelers
There is a great post over at
Buzz, Balls & Hype about different
kinds of writers and how they handle friends & family not reading their books. Writers are divided into Thinkers and Feelers, and Dr. Sue goes on to say this;
"One group does not write “better” than the other; in fact, judging from the output of my friends and clients, one would be hard-pressed to identify which group a given author belongs to based on the evidence of the finished book. And, of course, no one falls neatly into either camp. But, loosely speaking, to a Thinker, the book is a well-made product. To a Feeler, it is a beloved child."
I'm definitely in the Thinker camp. At times, even a cold-hearted rationalist. For me writing isn't about feeling. I don't care what I feel or not at any given moment while writing.
I love ideas. Ideas are my passion. Conveying those ideas is passion to me. I cross the divide into feeling when it comes to dialogue though. When the dialogue between two characters reaches a climax, you nail the cues, and the lines come out just right. I get a confident joy from that.
When I publish my novel, I won't be too depressed if my friends and family don't read it. Why? Because in all honesty they aren't my target audience. I'm aiming at sci-fi and action fans. Sure, my friends and family like a good sci-fi or action flick on occasion. But not all of them are
driven to it. And you know what? I'm OK with that.
Thinker or Feeler--Which one are you?
Dumb Your Novel Down
Think your audience is smart enough to handle all those big words you throw at them? Guess again.
I was watching Oprah (with the wife, I swear!) and she did an audience poll on how many knew what a stock was, as in stock market.
59% didn't know. Yes. That's fifty-nine percent.
Now maybe more than half said no just so they could hear the answer. I'd be willing to give them that benefit of the doubt because I'm a nice guy.
But it makes you wonder, doesn't it?
If 59% don't know what stock means, how about all those other words in your novel?
A couple years ago I was reading through books about the brain, evolutionary psychology, converging fields of science, networks, etc. The authors of such books tend to use meaty prose to convey all their complex ideas. Thick language.
Well it started to seep into my vocabulary and my writing at the time. I remember my friends saying "Dude, you use big words." or "I have no idea what you just said."
It was like that scene out of the Hollywood blockbuster or disaster movie where the guy with the pocket protector says something unintelligible to the layperson and the heroes say, "In English, PLEASE!"
Welp, that was me. It seems all that science reading was going to my head. The worst part? I didn't even realize it. Since I had been reading the words, and using the words, I was comfortable with them. But my friends weren't.
I was spewing out paragraph upon paragraph of stuff that nobody could understand, much less want to read.
It took some serious effort to eject all that jargon and science-speak from my vocabulary just so that my friends could have a conversation without getting a headache.
It's all very funny now and I just laugh about it, but watching that poll on Oprah reminded me that most people don't read everything under the sun. They don't investigate everything. They just live 'ordinary lives' (whatever that means) and dip into a book here and there for a little entertainment or to pass the time.
Dumb down your novel. Do it for them. Everybody wants to get their book on Oprah so they can go on to sell a gazillion copies. That might be a possibility if that fifty-nine percent can understand it.
Writer Pragmatism
One of the hardest things in life is to set aside your morals, principles, and values in order to succeed, or just get things done.
This is true in writing just as it is for any other endeavor.
Every writer has a bias or set of principles by which they'll craft their perfect story. Some will say passionate drafting is the key, others will say logic, believability, plot, and premise are more important.
The key is to know what works, why it works, and how to use it.
I tend to favor certain tools like plot over others such as whimsy or blindly following the muse.
If all you ever use are the same favorite tools over and over again, you will never develop or improve your skills.
Practice makes perfect, but I don't entirely subscribe to the idea that you just have to keep writing to "get all the bad ideas out." It is true that you have to fail sometimes in order to succeed. If that's what is meant by "getting the bad ideas out" then I agree. But quality of my ideas has very little to do quantity or output for me. My inspiration comes from research and understanding literary techniques.
Having a string of bad ideas doesn't mean you're going to have good ones next. You have to know what to look for, your tools, and how to use them.
The best literary techniques often share features with other topics like marketing and product design. A creative person, artist, or writer often doesn't seen the connection between marketing, product design, and creativity but it is undeniably there.
As an example, creative people champion originality. The problem is that every person has a unique voice but that does not make their story or 'product' original.
Whereas an expert marketer might look for holes in the market and say, "There's no product that exists here. Nobody has done this yet! Let's do it!"
So it is entirely possible for a marketing gimp to be more creative than an author. This is because writers rarely look for holes in the market to fill. They are too concerned with their own little brand of derivitive. "My favorite books are murder mysteries! Therefore, I'm going to write books just like my favorite murder mystery author!"
But they already exist, and hold that position in the market. So what can you do differently?
Look for holes. Look for weakness. Look for things that don't exist, or exist but are done very poorly. You need to think opportunity. Be a rascal, a weasel, a fox. Think like a military strategist.
But to do that you have to get beyond some difficult mental barriers.
Our human culture is engaged in a battle between knowledge and beliefs. Guess what? Belief wins every time. Ignorance powers belief. Because to believe something, you've ruled out the other options and made a decision. Belief is undermined by knowledge. Knowledge opens up the possibilities. It opens doors where you thought all were closed.
As writers we often champion knowledge and put it on a pedestal. Leave belief to the priests, shamans, snake-oil salesmen, voodoo practitioners, witch doctors, etc.
Have we forgotten our own kind? Writers of fiction are in the business of building mythology and belief! We too are the priests and shamans!
We're selling a world and a set of characters. To sell them effectively we have to make them believable. We have to construct the perfect lie, the perfect sales pitch for our creation.
Learn all the tools available to you. Learn when to use one vs. another. How do you know? Whichever one makes your story better.
Remember that the goal of writing is communication, even in fiction.
When it comes to communication, use what works.
Entertainment First, Art Second
Ok... it's time for a little rant.
I'm subscribed to a lot of blogs about writing. In the past few weeks I've read some sniveling potshots against Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code.
I've heard everything from
"It's awful writing!" to
"I want to read writing that's inspired, passionate! Not like Dan Brown's novel! Oh sure... it has a good plot, whatever! But it's not inspired!"Oh really? Sure, I'll admit that maybe Dan Brown's prose could be a little more poetic. What's the point? His basic stories are entertaining. They're fast-paced, interesting, and well-constructed.
So why the hate?
I have a theory.
It's because most writers get all steeped in their own passion and blaze into a fury of writing their 'inspired' chapter or two then they burn out and give up.
Or they release a novel that's shining with flowery prose, but a crap story.
Because they don't have the discipline to undertake years of research, and focus on the perfect plot, trying to craft the most entertaining story they possibly can.
I know Dan Brown did. I'm sure he had to research every single location he depicts in The DaVinci Code. You can't write intimate details about the Louvre unless you've been there, or have read about it, or taken photographs. Probably all of the above.
I'm sure he spent a good chunk O' time with his nose buried in historical accounts of Jesus, and the history of the Vatican.
And you can bet your life he took copious notes.
How would I know? Because nobody, repeat, nobody can just pull those kinds of ideas out of their butt. That only comes from diligent research. It's the kind of synthesis that only comes from a long, careful process of assimilating non-fiction themes and ideas.
And this is where the Dan Brown hatred starts to peeve me.
People act as if he pulled everything out his butt. As if the success of his story was pure luck. As if his lack of flowery prose and artsy sentiment somehow make his stories undeserving of success.
"My prose is better!" or
"My writing is more inspired!" a lot of wannabe authors say.
Yeah? Well you're not Dan Brown. And you probably don't have the discipline for years of research, gutting and re-gutting your story until it's nothing but fast-paced action.
Any author worth a grain of salt, and can put envy aside for five seconds and take a look at The DaVinci Code, Digital Fortress, or any of Dan Brown's novels will realize instantly that the guy put some serious research and editing into those babies.
I've griped in past posts how so many authors bore reader to tears for the first quarter of a novel.
They describe the paint peeling from the walls of a location that's not even central to the story. They describe the grass growing. Then, 50-150 pages in, they finally begin their story.
And I'm sure authors who commit such a heinous storytelling sin wonder why Dan Brown is so successful.
Maybe because he
doesn't do that?There is so much more to storytelling than just flowery prose. There's so much more to storytelling than being inspired, or getting the creative juices flowing.
It's easy to play Le Artisté and pretend that your rough draft is a masterpiece of pure, divine inspiration. It's another thing to spend years researching, editing and re-editing your story. Then maybe, just maybe, you can be Dan Brown.
He may not be the greatest writer on the planet. But he's a competent storyteller.
We're talking about fiction, correct? Entertainment? You can spew all the hatred about Dan Brown that you want, but you can't deny the fact his stories are entertaining.
Entertainment is the main purpose of fiction. For all their passion and inspiration, more authors should aspire to be entertaining. Leave art to the painters and poets. Besides, if you strive for art you're going to end up with something that's pretentious and self-absorbed. I'd much rather read an entertaining story than someone's failed attempt at art.
Bring on the good stories!
Your Book: Supply vs. Demand
I've had several conversations where the other person expressed the importance of distribution and availability of an author's book. The sentiment goes; If you just get your book out there in bookstores, people will randomly buy it.
As if getting it out there is all it takes.We've all seen bargain bins,
right? So much for just getting it out there.
I'm going to let you in on something that can be learned in any industry. Independent game developers are always looking for that magical distribution method that will allow them to ditch publishers and retailers. Why? So they can become
amazingly rich and famous Game Gods with no publisher, distributor, or retailer strings attached!.Musicians struggle and dream of the day anyone can buy their CD in Circuit City or Best Buy.
"If I could see myself in the store, then I'll know I've made it!"Remember the bargain bin?
Distribution is a bankrupt marketing strategy. There are thousands of books collecting dust on the shelves of Barnes & Noble and Borders. I wonder what those authors would say if you approached them with a wide smile and said,
"All you need to do is get in bookstores!"Most of them would probably say, "Big deal. I'm already in bookstores. Tell me something that'll make my book sell." They might just punch you the face than respond to that advice. That's O.K., they're only the bitter ones. ;-)
Authors rarely have a problem with supply of their books. Their books are collecting dust in some bookstore, or for the self-published, in boxes of a spare room or the garage.
Supply should be the last worry in an author's mind. Why? Because...
Supply means nothing without demand.Imagine your worst supply nightmare. Imagine everyone wants your book but nobody can find it anywhere on the planet. Riots are breaking out and mobs of people are foaming at the mouth just to get a copy of your book. Ok, what's the problem? Being in demand is a good thing, right? That just means every book you print gets snatched up by the rabid masses as soon as it becomes available.
Yet few authors ever achieve that kind of demand. So I'll say it again;
Supply is not a problem.Supply is almost never a problem. I might even go so far as to say having a supply problem would be a good thing.
If you've got a finished book printed and ready to sell, there are many ways to get it to the customer. Most authors have a problem getting people interested in their work.
Focus on creating demand, and supply will naturally follow.
Story: Best Friend, Live-in Buddy
Every day when I wake up, I think about my story. Every night when I go to bed, I think about my story. All my reading lately has been research to improve parts of the story.
I live and breathe my story on a daily basis. It's starting to feel a little weird. You know, like a house guest that overstays their welcome. At first you're glad to have the company. You get along great and enjoy lots of time together. Then as time passes, you wake each day thinking,
"Oh yeah. You again. Hmph."It's not as bad as I picture an unwelcome houseguest, but the closeness and ever-presence of the story in my mind and life are changing my perception of the writing process.
I don't see any other way to do it. It's like a relationship. If I want the story to improve and get better then I have to invest daily.
It's just like any other kind of improvement, including self-improvement. You have to form habits that reinforce the bettering.
At least if I ever get bored, I know my story is there to keep me company. Boredom, however, isn't much of a problem these days!
The Weak Story Links
Ever since completing a rough (I mean ROUGH) draft for the National Novel Writing Month in November, I've had several parts of the story that I wasn't terribly happy with.
I'm revisiting those parts now, as they're holding up everything else at the moment. Your story is only as good as its weakest link.
The weaker parts of the story involve places where Cameron, my hero, should be using some investigative procedure. Another part I glossed over was the forensics gathering of a crime scene.
I don't know exactly what investigative nor forensics procedure is, so I glossed over those parts for the rough draft. No time for research when you've got 50,000 words to write, right?
Thankfully I've got great sources for information and inspiration. Now it's time to go back and fill in the missing details. I wish I could have included these details from the beginning. But that's the hurried drafting process for you!
It's time to replace the weak links.
Self-Publishing
It may be too early to talk about this since I'm still in the editing stages of my novel. But why not?
I will self-publish it. Not P.O.D. (print on demand) but true self-publishing.
There are many reasons behind my decision, and some people have argued with me about it. Here are five reasons I'm self-publishing:
1) Intellectual property is the only thing a creator has. In business and marketing, it is the most important thing. Why would you give that up to a publisher?
2) I will have to promote my book til I bleed, whether or not a megapublisher picks it up. The simple facts are, publishers aren't going to work that hard to sell your book unless you're Stephen King. So if I have to promote my book either way, I'd rather promote it for my own good. Which leads to,
3) Why give up 85% or more of your revenue to somebody else? YOU wrote the book. It's YOUR intellectual property. It's YOUR product. All that blood, sweat, and tears for a pathetic seven to fifteen percent? I'm not greedy. I just know what all my effort was worth. It's worth more than seven percent. Especially given I've put a lot of marketing and branding knowledge & research into the intellectual property of my novel.
4) I know my book best. I'm an avid student of business, marketing, branding, PR, advertising, etc. A publisher has a million other books to promote. Why will they give yours any special attention? Do they know your property as well as you? See #2 and #3.
5) All the other reasons aside this is the most important. I love business and marketing. I want to be my own product manager for my intellectual properties. Creating and selling my novel is fun. Building up PR, publicity, buzz, and selling my novel will be just as fun as writing it.
The knowledge that it's your product, and everything is up to you--That's the best kind of motivation I can possibly imagine.
Imagine an alternate scenario, where I'm only getting 7% of the revenue. The harder I promote my book, the more money the publisher makes. You're an employee of the publisher. Many authors have day jobs. Who needs another one? Did you write a novel to become an employee? Most likely the answer is no.
The whole idea in writing a novel for me was to excerise a little creativity and control. To create something that is mine that can't be mucked with by a publisher or anyone else.
I've looked into Print On Demand companies like BookSurge owned by Amazon. It seems OK. There's one catch. They act as the publisher, and you, as the author, only get a cut. A royalty. The figures are much better than a traditional publisher would provide, but you're still giving up a majority of the revenue to them.
So I've decided to incorporate when my novel is ready, get my ISBN and bar codes, and send it off to a printer. I rather like the burden of having stacks upon stacks of boxes with my book filling up a spare room or a garage. It will be fun to make that pile disappear.
Business is fun. The more independence you have the better off you are. Retain your rights. Hold onto that intellectual property. It's all you've got!
Antarctica
Watched March of the Penguins last night. It's cool to see a story without actors. The penguins give the narrative a different feel. Even though it was a documentary, it played more like a fiction.
I must be crazy because Antarctica looks like a fun place to me. Or maybe I just miss the snowy Minnesota childhood.
There's also a great deal of mystery for me. I've always wondered what's under the ice. Aliens vs. Predator stole my idea of ruins buried beneath the ice.
That and the strange undersea creatures that live below the iced-over surface. It's a fascinating place--a bit like an alien world.
The desolation of the setting lends a great ominous backdrop to The Thing.
No big points to be made today, just observations.
Core Concepts
Creative people often have a hard time with their core concepts. A lot of people start out with
"A bunch of stuff." and it stays that way. The finished work is fragmented and unfocused.
It's easy for the reader or audience to see that the creator tried the Kitchen Sink approach; They picked random things they thought were cool and mashed them together into a foul-tasting recipe that doesn't make any sense.
I used to have that problem, until I studied business, branding, and marketing. You need to find a core concept, and dig in. Stake your claim. Built an castle and a moat around that concept. Own that concept.
When Robert Rodriguez felt lost while making El Mariachi he would think of the guitar case full of weapons. That was the foundation on top of which he built the trilogy that included Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
By Desperado the case of weapons was taken to a new level by having cases that featured heavy machineguns and a rocket launcher within them. By the third movie, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, there was a guitar case that drove on wheels by remote control and blew up an army truck full of soldiers.
That was pretty silly.
But it worked.The hero is a mariachi who is often forced to fight against his will. Instead of playing his guitar and singing, he has to fight or seek revenge. So what better place for his weapons than the guitar case? What better disguise than a guitar case?
It's ridiculous at times, but it reinforces the core concepts of the stories. While the mariachi movies are mindless popcorn fun, a lot of authors could use some of those simple, core concepts that are easy to communicate. That's what marketing is all about. It's a shame that many 'marketing experts' even get that one wrong.
Don't pollute your ideas or message. Nobody wanted New Coke. Find some core concepts, a 'classic' message, and dig in. Stay true! Build your mythology.
Once you've developed your core concept you can push it even further. Become entrenched. Grab that core concept and don't let go!
Rebel Without a Crew
Rebel Without a Crew is one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Anyone interested in storytelling ought to give it a read. Truly inspiring.
I could go on and on about how inspiring the book was for me, but that won't do it justice. Just read it.
Thinking Outside the Novel
Sin City was filmed in an efficient way because Rodriguez adapted it straight from Frank Miller's graphic novel.
The DaVinci Code was probably easier to film than other novel adaptations because Dan Brown kept the chapters short, to the point, with mini-cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Each chapter was more like a scene in a movie.
Authors strive to get their work noticed. One way to get noticed is to adapt or have your work adapted into other mediums. The easiest way to do this is to create your work with other mediums in mind.
Cameron Fields & the Thieves of Time is around 120 pages. I intend to keep it about that length, as it's roughly the length of the average screenplay. The translation goes;
One page per minute of screen time. If I keep out unnecessary commentary, musing, or other self-indulgent writers' behavior, the story will be filled with mostly action and dialogue. The novel will read closer to a script.
Eventually, I may have a graphic novel made out of it. It may sound funny for me to say this, but I'm not that big on graphic novels. I don't prefer the medium to say, novels or film. It's just another medium to me. But as an author and a student of business I see the graphic novel as an excellent marketing tool. It worked for Frank Miller, and he wasn't even creating a graphic novel with that in mind!
Authors need to think outside the box if they want to get their work noticed. Let me rephrase that; Authors need to think
outside the novel for a better chance at getting their work noticed.
One of my principles in writing Cameron Fields & the Thieves of Time is; The easier a story translates into other mediums, the easier it is for people to read and understand. This means it's also easier to get people interested.
None of the things I've mentioned here guarantee somebody will take interest in your novel. There are no guarantees, in life nor in novel-selling. Making your novel film-friendly is just one of the many things you can do to stack the odds in your favor.
Life and business are all about probability. We could all use better odds.
Wannabes & Fakers Need Not Apply
In every field there are people in love with the idea of being something rather than the harsh reality that line of work often entails.
In my research to add realism and depth to my sci-fi detective story Cameron Fields & the Thieves of Time, I've been poring over
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating. It had this to say on the subject of Wannabes:
"Cop Wannabes don't make good private investigators. They're more in love with the idea of "being like a PI" than actually doing the work that a PI has to do.
It's similar to being a writer. Many people love the idea of "being a writer." They see the romantic image of the writer slaving over a keyboard, pounding out his work. OR they see themselves sitting at the beach, writing the great American novel on a pad of paper while the gulls chatter overhead. That's the romance of being a writer. The reality is much different."
The author goes on to talk about some of the aspects of private investigation. This part stood out:
"I can't think of anything more interesting than being a private investigator. But it also has hour after hour of sheer tedium. The job requires a mountain of paperwork and documentation. If small details are "your thing," then the private investigative field may be for you. If you're not up for the paperwork, dotting the i and crossing every t, then you'd better think again."
I work in the game industry every day and the situation is exactly the same. Many people love the "idea of making games," an idea that is fixated on the myth of playing games all day. If only! Every game developer wishes he could play games all day long. The reality is much different. If you're a modeler, you create models all day long. If you're a level designer, you design levels all day long. If you're a sound designer, you create sounds all day long. The only game-playing that takes place is if you need to test a design or asset within the game. But that's not play, it's testing. You're not playing. You're observing how things work, if they do at all!
I'm discovering through the process of writing, editing, and publishing my novel that the idea I had beforehand is a lot different from the reality of it. Thankfully, the reality of the process is something I'm enjoying.
Enjoyment of the craft will show in your work, or when people talk to you about your work.
Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, creator of El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids, and co-director of Sin City with Frank Miller describes the enthusiasm for movie-making in his book
Rebel Without a Crew.
You need to have the passion to stick through the boring and difficult parts of any creative endeavor. That passion will also lend you another type of creativity; The passion to make things happen no matter what the difficulty or cost.
Everyone told Rodriguez he couldn't make a film without a huge crew and a large budget. He proved them wrong by making El Mariachi for $7,000 doing most of the work himself.
Not everyone is a Robert Rodriguez, but if you plan on chasing a dream you need to have the same level of passion and committment that will get you through the long days and hard nights of the creative process.
Wannabes and fakers need not apply.
Editing Joy?
My last few posts have been gripes about the editing process, so I thought I'd turn things around a bit and talk about the fun parts of editing.
Much of the editing process is hyper-critical of the language and ideas. Occasionally as I edit I find golden opportunities to insert something important that strengthens the themes and ideas.
For example, there is serious black market trade in my universe. The heroes enter the hideout of a shady character. This shady character is a trader and a scavenger. When I wrote the first draft I described some interesting things he had laying around his hideout.
I realized during this editing pass though, that none of the things I described were necessariliy illegal. They were just 'interesting things' in a broader sense. Bits and pieces of larger things you might see in this futuristic city and world. So here I have the opportunity to insert description of some of the things that are illegal to trade or very rare. Somehow I missed out on that opportunity the first time around.
Rediscovering this opportunity on the editing pass brought a smile and surge of excitement. Opportunities to strengthen the ideas and themes of the world or characters brighten the drudgery of language edits & cuts.
There is some joy to editing afterall!
Ouch: Why Editing Hurts
This picture is an example of why the editing process hurts. When you're crossing out entire paragraphs sometimes, it makes you wonder why you bothered to write in the first place.
The crossed out paragraph illustrates one of my worst writing tendencies; The rambling explanation. When it comes to showing vs. telling, telling is natural for any writer. Showing is difficult. It requires restraint and the willingness to cut rambling explanations. If you're going to replace the rambling explanation, do it with action or dialogue.
In this example, the crossed out paragraph was an explanation for why Cameron's office was not destroyed when some thugs were putting pressure on him.
The thing is, does anyone care that it is
not destroyed? And if it were destroyed, I would just describe the destruction. Yet on first impulse I felt the need to describe the
lack of destruction.Oh silly me. Cut, cut, cut. Gaffes like this are embarassing. This is why editing is a painful process for me.
On one hand you need the willingness to let certain things go when they add little or nothing to the story.
On the other hand you mourn the loss of time and effort you put in to write the paragraph. Or you wonder what you were thinking--if you were thinking at all.
It's a bit like looking in the mirror and saying "This is all wrong, wrong, wrong."
One consolation is this goes with any creative territory. Another consolation?
It's not about you or your bruised ego. It's about the story.
P.S. Looking at this scanned page a second time, I see even more errors to correct. That guarantees a second or even third pass. Maybe I should give up writing for editing?
Small Investments Add Up
The editing process has been slow. I get through about ten to twenty pages per day. I've also had some trouble making time for reading and research. Prior to NaNoWriMo, I would have said the same thing about writing.
Just do a little bit each day. Don't worry too much about how little or how much. Just get some in each day and it will add up. The editing process isn't going as fast as I would like, but I'm OK with that because I'm making progress every day no matter how slow.
Progress is all that matters. Every little bit counts. Small investments add up.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich had
something to say on this topic.
Mr. Cranky Editor
You've probably noticed a tinge of angst in my last few posts regarding the editing process. The process is bringing out a bit of self-hatred. It's the good kind of self-hatred where you want to hold everything to the flame until it burns. When I'm done everything will be pure.
It's similar to self-improvement in other areas of my life. I won't be happy til I've put it through the meatgrinder...
Here are some self-improving, flame-broiled observations from the editing process:
- I don't write as well as I thought I did as far as the language is concerned. All those books I read on proper writing, style, usage, etc.? Read em' again. After that, read them yet again!
- My navel-gazing, reflective, tangental thought processes end up in my writing too much. All I do is think, think, think. That doesn't mean my characters have to share the same annoying tendency. It's not good for the story.
- Watching movies while I'm editing is cool. It keeps my mind focused on dialogue and the way things play out on screen. It also helps me through the process. I can only edit about ten to twenty pages each session before I start to burn out. Watching a movie while I casually mark up my manuscript is a nice way to buffer my burnout. "See, look! That writer did it in dialogue and it worked!" It provides ideas for execution in certain places.
- And last but not least, it's a good thing I waited three weeks. I'm glad I don't edit as I go. I'd never get anything done. Mr. Cranky Pants Editor is too harsh for the initial creative process itself. He'd kill it. I'm glad I kept him locked up for three weeks after I finished the rough draft.
It's an interesting process. Every bit as interesting as writing the first draft. I apologize for any crankiness. Cranky Editor is running the show right now.
Yesterday (Sunday) when I woke up, my first urge was to dive into the site redesign. I had already spent most of Saturday working on it. I had it in my mind that I would get it done before Monday. I encountered a few snags, as often happens on these types of projects. There ended up being more work involved than I previously realized.
Instead of jumping right into action yesterday, I stopped myself. I felt a little guilty. My wife and I hadn't gone out even once yet for the weekend. It was a nice day, so I proposed that we head to a park nearby. We headed over to the park after picking up some refreshments.
The fresh air did me some good. I brought along my camera and took some photos. I'm always looking for excuses to haul out my camera. My wife and I took a relaxing walk through the park. There were ducks and geese being fed by other park strollers. Some men were fishing on a pier that juts out over the lake.
I did lose time working on the website redesign, but the tradeoff was more than worth it. I gained back a piece of sanity and perspective. Sometimes we become too self-absorbed in our work, or lifetsyles. We forget that there is an outside world, and that it is beautiful.
As writers we could all use a little more of that. Don't be afraid to take breaks. You'll get your work done, don't worry. Get a breath of fresh air. Clear your head. It might even help solve some of your problems. At the very least, it will give you a little perspective. Not to mention some overdue physical exercise--go for a walk.
