Coming up with ideas by Karen Fainges

Every bit of advice I have ever come across on beating writer’s block seems to boil down to two things. Read and write.

 

Just forcing the pen onto the paper even if it is nonsense does seem to help free the blockage. More of that next post. In this one, let’s concentrate on the reading side.

 

It is important to read authors to examine their craft. See what sentence structures work for you. How do they turn a phrase? What pacing do they use? Punctuation, page layout, literary tools – the list goes on.

 

I find an even better reason to read. It gives you ideas. Something they say will strike a chord with your own characters or set them off arguing in your head. An issue too difficult to raise will suddenly become clear.

 

The important thing is not to plagiarise. I often read over some of my work after rereading one of my favourite authors and see phrases or ideas coming almost straight from them. Of course I remove them, or quote the source, but this kind of mistake is very easy to do and I am sure some stolen words still seep through.

 

The other way to beat the writing blues is read a book you hate. Pretend you are their editor. Ask yourself, how would you fix the book so it is less annoying. Now go back to your own work with your editor’s hat still on. See how many times you have made the same mistakes. Reading aloud is the ideal way to do this. For some reason, a line when it is merely ink on the page seems to transform when read aloud. Sometimes, it becomes beautiful – especially poems and plays that are meant to be performed. Sometimes, every note is sour. Try it, read your work aloud and see what you think.

Hot enough for you? by Karen Fainges

Front Cover of The Children of Tamal

 It was strange reading Michelle’s post about winter. In Australia, of course, it is summer. And how! The whole country is having a heat wave. As I type, it is 10:am and 36 degrees centigrade and on its way to 42.  (That’s 97 going up to 107 in Fahrenheit).

So for me, I am fight not the doldrums but the sweats. I find it’s too hot to think much. So I tend to go somewhere else to write. I hop into the spa and bubble in the cool with a notepad and pen. My hubbie built a little cover to use as a table.

Or I sit under a tree in the breeze. Sometimes I take my daughter to the public pool and sit watching others and trying to make up stories about them or even just describe them as if they are a character. It makes for a great pool of secondary characters to feed into stories and on occasions I have had these develop into full blown characters in their own right. The great thing about Mount Isa is that we have over 70 different cultures, so there is always a different aspect of humanity to examine. One hint though, be sure to wear sun glasses so they don’t think you are staring.

And I try to trick myself into thinking it is cooler by listening to cool sounds in the background, water running etc. There are plenty of CD’s and downloads out there to help this http://www.listeningearth.com.au/albums/Nature_Sound_Albums.htm and they can set a mood without being distracting. So there is always an excuse not to write, but plenty of ways to get yourself started as well.

Overcoming Writers Block by Heidi Thomas

You just can’t get there from here.”

How many times have you heard that direction-giving joke? But often that line describes a type of writer’s block. You’ve written up to a certain point. You know where you want to go up ahead. But what do you write in between? Personally, I have wasted hours, days, even weeks, trying to figure out what to write next, so I can get to that future scene I already have in my head.

But wait. Who says you have to write in a linear fashion? What if you write out of sequence? Aha! Now, you’ve given yourself permission to write the scene from your head and it flows wonderfully. Another Aha! Questions and solutions actually appear about how the character might have arrived here from there. You’re not stuck any more.

As a writing instructor once explained, to build a bridge, one first needs to erect a scaffold. It’s not a lot different in writing. You have several important scaffold scenes in your story or novel that have to take place (there will probably be more than one of each of these scenes in your book):

1.    The Introductory Scene where the reader meets your main character.

2.    A Meeting Scene, where the main character meets another character (maybe the love interest or maybe his nemesis) This is another form of Introductory Scene.

3.    A Conflict Scene where two characters battle it out, whether physically, verbally, or in a match of wits. Or where the character battles himself.

4.    A Realization Scene-the moment the character realizes something about herself that is a turning point. Or realizes her “enemy” is really her friend.

5.    A Resolution Scene, where a problem is resolved (not necessarily the main one, but a problem nonetheless).

6.    A Final Scene, which may or may not be your actual ending. An interesting exercise is to write a scene in which your main character(s) are old and looking back at what happened, what he/she/they learned, how they’ve changed, what they would’ve done differently, etc. That can give you an insight to “fill in the blanks.”

Another interesting exercise is to write a letter from your main character to yourself, as if this person has just learned you are writing a book about her, how she feels about that, any advice she might have for you, etc. This can be quite revealing. Sometimes you learn that you have a reluctant character, one who doesn’t want her story told. So you have to figure out how to win her over.

A recent article in The Writer magazine talked about writing out of order. The author made similar suggestions to the ones above, such as:

1.    Write a scene in which the main character enters a new place.

2.    Take a minor character you’ve introduced and write a scene where he/she appears later in the story.

3.    Choose a character other than the main character-someone you’d like to know more about, and write a monologue in which she explores or explains herself.

4.    Write a scene where your main character has a dream that advances the story.

5.    Make a list of at least five crucial scenes that you think will be important for the story/novel (see “scaffold scenes above.)

Any one or all of these scenes may or may not appear in your final draft, but they will help you keep writing and develop ideas.

Have fun, write on and defeat that Writer’s Block! (Now, I just have to take my own advice.)

Raised on a ranch in isolated eastern Montana, Heidi Thomas has had a penchant for reading and writing since she was a child. Armed with a degree in journalism from the University of Montana, she worked for the Daily Missoulian newspaper, and has had numerous magazine articles published.

A tidbit of family history, that her grandmother rode steers in rodeos during the 1920s, spurred Heidi to write a novel based on that grandmother’s life.

Cowgirl Dreams is the first in a series about strong, independent Montana Women. http://www.HeidiMThomas.com

When is it too much stress? by Karen Fainges

We all have very busy lives. Sometimes it gets a bit too much. So how do you tell when you have writer’s cramp or you are just too stressed out to write?

Everyone has different symptoms. The main thing is to become aware of yours. Do you start biting your nails, or scratch at skin irritations? Do you get cold sores or catch every sniffle going around? My husband worries every time I listen to a particular piece of music or watch a certain video. For some reason I return to them like a child’s comforting blanket without even being aware of it sometimes.

And sometimes, despite taking care of yourself, things happen that make it all too hard. When that happens – you have to take care of yourself. Make that doctor’s appointment or visit to a counsellor. Stress is a medical condition just like a cold or a broken leg. Just like those, sometimes you have to take medicine and healing takes time. Don’t discount it just because it is something you can’t see.

Now those empathic ones amongst you are thinking – ah, she has had to deal with stress. Yep, diagnosed with depression. And guilty of letting it go on way too long. Don’t let yourself drag on, get help. It is actually a really good feeling when you realise, ‘ hey  a lot of people feel like this’.

It is possible to stop feeling down and get back on your feet. It isn’t just a normal part of a busy life, but something you have to work at, just like keeping to a diet, or regular exercise. And then everything – including writing becomes easier.

Winging It? by Christine Duncan

This post is a bit of a gripe and is not related what I was trying to say last week. But do you ever sit down to a deadline (for say, your blog) knowing you have to write something and yet you have no idea what to write?

Uh huh. Me too. There are some days when it feels as though every topic, every thought in my head is already covered and copyrighted somewhere by someone else. And yet, I have to write something. I tend to go looking for ideas at Crimespace or in my research when that happens. Or I go looking through my hard drive. Often I have jotted a note down somewhere about a blog topic that I ‘ve thought of but don’t have the time to research or write about just then. Yet many bloggers and tweeters seem to just…write whatever comes into their heads.

Over the years there have been a number of writing exercises out there like this. You know, the warm-ups where you sit down and just write with out stopping, without censorship, without planning it out-whatever you’re thinking about at the time so that once you’ve done your ten (or fifteen or whatever) minutes, you will be primed to write on your WIP. I believe Bird by Bird has an exercies like this, and I’m sure I’ve seen it in writing magazines and the like.

It may prime the pump, folks but it’s not necessarily great reading. I don’t want to read blogs just for the sake of reading. I don’t what to see tweets on the clouds you just saw outside your window. Hey! I’ve got my own clouds.

K-Love quoted a study out this week stating that 40% of all Tweets out there are about the minutia. (Okay, they were nicer–they didn’t use the word minutia. I’m paraphrasing, okay?) I have to say, if all you got to write about is what the cute girl who was riding past you on the bike was wearing, I’d rather you took a blog/tweet vacation. I’ll catch you later. I promise.

Go ahead. Tell me I’m cranky. I know it.

Using What You’ve Got by Christine Duncan

Are you ever not in the mood to write whatever it is you’re writing? I’m not talking about writer’s block here, but just those times where your life is not paralleling your book. So your next logical scene is a love scene but you’re in a foot stomping, let-me-at-’em mood and do not want to even think romance right now.
I seldom write linearly for just that reason. I have to work myself up to write scary (or even very sad) parts and some days I just don’t want to deal with feeling scared or sad. Lots of people force themselves to sit down and write it anyway. I figure there will be a day coming up when it will feel okay so I just go on to another part that I know must be coming.
Since I don’t outline, this is more difficult than it sounds. Sometimes this has resulted in the book taking turns that I never anticipated. Sometimes, it means that I waste a day writing something that will never see the light of day. But usually, I know in a general way where things are going. For instance, in my present WIP, my character has been building to having it out with her teenage daughter. If I’m feeling cranky (or chippy, if you’re Canadian) today, I can write that scene instead of the Christmas scene that I should be writing if I were keeping it in logical order.
The other trick to doing this is to somehow name or number the scene so that it is in your file somewhere near where you think you are going to need it. When I go back and do the next draft I put everything together and I may forget that I have written certain scenes. (Yeah, I’ve done it more than once.) So I have learned to have a file on the computer titled scenes I’m using. In it, I put the stuff that is out of order. The rest of the book is in (semi) chapter order with a file for each chapter. All of it is in one big folder with one folder per book.
I try to title the out of order scenes in some way so that I can figure out what the heck they are about. It makes putting everything together a little easier.
I would like to think that I am organized but the truth is, I seldom am. So I have learned to compensate and use what I’ve got. And if what I’ve got is a bad mood–well, better to take it out on the characters, right? And I get to stay productive.

Keep going

I’ve recently taken to doing 10 minute meditations first thing in the morning before work.  (Yes, even before I pour myself a coffee.)  My inner voice has been whispering to me for a while (*ahem* years) to sit down and listen.  

All the meditations I’m doing at the moment are based on the Chakras and they’re all from Youtube (because I get bored doing the same ones over and over).   

Like most meditation novices, my unruley mind wanders off a lot but that’s ok, I know this will improve with practice.  This morning, I tried a new guided Chakra Flower meditation.  It was lovely all the way through and I was able to focus better than usual.  At the end, the narrator said it was time to  receive a gift from a higher power.  The gift could be an image, an idea, a feeling – anything at all.   

My gift was two words “keep going”.  Timely really because I feel like I’m not getting anywhere with my writing and I’ve had another setback with my health this week. 

But the message was clear so I’m going to keep going.  I’m going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and do the next indicated thing…which right now is to get this post loaded up on-time.

The Joys of Email Critique by Christine Duncan

   

   My critique buddies (You know who you are, ladies.) and I are playing a game.  It’s kinda sorta a game of (this is embarrassing) tag.  It goes like this.  One of us will email another, suggesting we exchange chapters. Let’s call this the I’m-just-checking-that you’re-still-writing phase. It is accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment.  We’re doing something.  We’re starting critique again.

     The recipient, either due to general busy-ness or just plain lack of organization, will not respond for–oh, say, five or ten days–give or take.  Hey, it’s summer, it’s hot, thunderstorming, we’re having a barbecue–take your pick. When the recipient finally realizes that she has an email from a critique partner, panic mode sets in.  Exchange chapters?  Have I written something?  Where is it?  What is it?
     Finally, she responds.  “I’m game if you are.”  The idea is that if she says yes, she will definitely, absolutely, really, write something or better yet, locate the stuff she knows she has written–whereever it is.  She just needs a few days for everything to jell.  This too, gives a feeling of accomplishment, although no actual chapters have yet been exchanged.
   By that time, the original e-mailer has gone back to–hey, it’s summer.  It’s hot, thunderstorming, I think I’m allergic to rag-weed mode and is no longer reading her email so religiously.  It takes days, but once she realizes there is a response, she goes out of the checking-if-you’re-writing phase to the hmm, maybe-I’d-better-get-on-the-stick phase.  This is not as emotionally worrysome as the previous phase, but is a bit of an adrenaline rush.  All it takes is some organization, she thinks.   So she writes back.  “Sure, send me something.”
   Weeks have gone by this way.  Months.  With nothing more than the illusion that something is going to get done here soon.  No one minds; the illusion is pretty.  And it’s summer and it’s hot.  But then the days start to creep toward Fall.  Fall, when traditionally school starts and new agendas are formed, somehow leads to organization.  We’ll exchange chapters.  Religiously.  For weeks.  Until we go into the holiday season, which these days starts around the middle of October,  when we will… lapse into our game of tag because we have to buy Halloween candy and think about costumes and it’s getting cold.
   Sigh.

   Which is why, I think, soon, as soon as it stops being so hot, and thunderstorming, I’m going back to in-person critique.  I can still do email critique too, I’m sure of it.  E-mail me, ladies!

 

In your PJ’s by Karen Fainges

Destiny Sets - read the first chapter free online

Reading Christine’s post started me thinking. One of the best things I ever did for my writing was get a PDA or personal digital assissant. Most people call them smart phones now, they are like a mini computer you hold in your hand. It is the old “keep a notebook beside the bed” hint that writiers seem to give out in interviews all the time.

Having a PDA meant I always had a notepad to scribble quick notes to myself, and if my hands were covered in soil (which they never are, I kill plastic plants),  I could leave myself a voice message rather than having to type. My PDA goes everywhere with me, and I can jot down quick prompts to myself all day, so when I am finally in front of the keyboard, I can get them down. Even at night I might roll over and scribble down a quick note about a dream. It is strange how many thoughts dump into your brain at the end of the day.

It doesn’t always work.  I was looking at a prompt the other day, scratching my head and going “what was I thinking”. Even that seems to help though to get the creative juices flowing. It is strange how it works, but it does work for me. And the weirdest thing, having voice seems to work even more than written notes. I can add the emotion I was feeling at the time, maybe hum a quick piece of music that gave me ideas, even take a quick photo of something that made sense at the time.

Electronic doohickeys aren’t for everyone – still you can find most of these features on your mobile phone now, even the cheap ones. And if you can’t work it, give it to a 6 year old to teach you how. They are whizzes and have no fear, thay will just hit buttons until they figure it out. There is a lesson to be learnt there somewhere. Carpe diem or maybe, seize the buttons.

The Worst Thing

The surest way I have ever found to get myself out of writer’s block is to ask, “What is the absolute worst thing you can do to your character?”  Bujold put me on to the idea and I love her for it. Find the one thing that would really disturb the character and do it. This tends to work in two ways.

1. You really have to get to know their motivations to answer that question, and
2. They start to do all sorts of interesting things to avoid it.

One of my favourite characters that I have ever written was born from just this process. The world I was writing was based very strongly on survival of the fittest. So what if they met someone who was surviving quite well but was in a wheel chair? How would they cope?

To my considerable surprise, the main character fell head over heels in love with her. Who knew he had it in him? As I typed, I could see it unfold and really threw me. No one reacted the way I thought they would. I really got to know them in a whole new way and the characters became a lot more real. Just like us, facing adversity really made them grow as people and gave them substance.

            One of my favourite movies is Soapdish. A line in that movie goes something like, “I’m normal, who wants to watch me on TV?” While characters can be normal people, they should always be given something extraordinary to overcome, losing the farm, finding their father’s murderer, finding the ‘Forgotten Crystal of Doom’, whatever the genre, giving them something to battle makes them interesting. And what should they battle? Well ask yourself – what is the worst thing that can happen to them? And see what happens.