Ansha's Blog

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Last week we discussed Perseverance.  Sticking to it.  This week we’ll talk about Motivation.

What motivates you to persevere?  What keeps you writing.  As a writer we need to find what motivates our characters all the time.  Without proper motivation the actions of our characters are discordant.

As writers ourselves we need to find our motivation because this is a tough gig and we need to go back to our core motivation from time to time and justify why we do what we do.

What motivates you to write?  Why do you write?

My motivation for writing is to leave something behind that is uniquely mine.  To teach and inspire others.  To challenge myself to learn a difficult craft.

How do I stay motivated?  That’s the toughest to answer because some days motivation is hard to come by and it’s antonym discouragement takes its place.

I recently began reading The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  It analyses the lives of the highly successful.  And it’s fascinating.  In the book he discusses the rule of 10,000 hours (Chapter 2).  If one spends 10,000 hours working to be more proficient at something then they become a virtuoso at that complex task.  World class violinists, computer programmers, writers.  Once you put in your 10,000 hours you’re made, if it’s quality time and you focus on advancing your understanding and knowledge of the craft of writing.  Well, I’m willing to give it a go.  Put in my 10,000 hours, see if I can become a great writer.

It’s all in the math. So how much is 10,000 hours?  Right now I work about 3 hours a day reading and writing to actively advance my craft.  I wish it were more but I don’t live in a vacuum.  10000/3=3333.33 days. Um, okay that’s about 9 years.

NINE YEARS!  Well, okay at least now I know.  And I’ve already put in about 1 or 2 of those years. So I have roughly 7 more years of work.

Now 10k hours isn’t mere proficiency at the craft, its mastery.  So at some point in the next 7 years I’m going become proficient enough to write and sell a book.  And if I continue to work hard, I’ll write and sell more books.   But I’ve got to put in my time.

The fact that it’s only 7 years motivates me.  Seven years is not a lifetime.  But I could flounder for a lifetime if I don’t pay attention and I definitely do not want that.  How about you?  Do you think 10,000 hours is worth it?

Next week: Revision!

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So you’ve started you new Work In Progress. You’ve pounded out some words.  You’ve got a couple pages or maybe tens of pages under your belt.  Maybe even tens of thousands of words.  But now the honeymoon of starting the new WIP has waned.  Now what?

1. Keep Writing. Daily.

2. Focus on Positive Perseverance- Reward yourself in small ways for every page you write.

3. Take a timed short break (from an hour to a couple days, but give yourself a deadline to get back to work)

4. Get back to work!

5. Millions of people have started a novel, few finish… be the few

6. Find strategies to keep yourself working

Strategies that work for me when I get stuck or bored or both with my writing.

First and foremost, keep writing.  Sure you can take a creative break, but make it short, enough to recharge, and get back to writing every day.  Writing everyday is the only way to get through to the last page of your novel.  If you’re able to sit down every day and write even a few words, it’s like climbing a mountain, each step, even small ones will get you to the top.

If your story is stuck and you don’t know what to do about it, introduce a new character, just throw him/her into the mix…  don’t worry about issues that come up just add them… see what happens.  You can always take them out in revision.  Was it Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett that said, throw a guy in there with a gun.  Well, that would work for crime dramas and even comedies, but for Middle Grade, not so much.  But you get the point.

Interview your characters, ask them what is going on and why your story is stuck, or why the middle is dragging.

Take a note card and pen to bed with you. Write out the question “What do I need to do to move this story forward?” and put the card under your pillow.  Now sleep on it.  When you wake up, immediately ask yourself the question again.

Do you have an answer?  Even if it’s crazy write it down on the note card.  If you hear silence and just need coffee, save the card for tonight and try again.  This has worked for me on more than one occasion and I come back to it again and again.  It works for me.

Skip the middle. If you’re at the middle of your story and it’s boring you… Skip it.  Seriously.  Skip the middle.  Write the end of your story. Not only will this make you feel better but it will give you a place to start when you write The End.  Now go back and see if you can piece together events that fit in that space you left.

Words of wisdom.  As tempting as it might be, and man is it tempting. Do NOT start another WIP if you haven’t finished the first one. Sure you can write out some ideas to save for later, but don’t sabotage yourself by stopping and starting.  Learn to slog through those tough days and learn to work out your problems before jumping to something shiny and new.  You’ll get to The End.  And you’ll not only be glad you’ll be very proud of yourself and how often do you get that?

See you next week in the continuing series on How I Write.  We’ll be discussing how to stay motivated!

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I’m sorry I’m late posting this week. I’ll probably be late responding to comments too. I’m on vacation in Central PA and I have limited access to a computer.

I also decided to take a vacation from working on my WIP this week too. Sometimes you need a little break so you can come back with fresh eyes.

But the blog must go on!

So the discussion this week is how we start a new work in progress.

Prior weeks we discussed how to get the ideas, how to plot and how to research to make sure we’re on the right track. This week it’s how to do the actual writing.

I have to say the best motto for writing the first draft I take from Nike, JUST DO IT. You really have to set aside your misgivings and fears and just do it. Get that first draft written. Most, if not all writers will tell you the real writing comes during revision.

I personally love the first draft phase though. I love the wondrous discovery of the beginning.

I start as you know by outlining using Christopher Vogler’s book The Writer’s Journey.

But during the initial writing phase I use a different word processor designed by a programmer/writer, called yWriter

Ywriter allows the writer to write out of sequence and for me this is the most important aspect of the application. I realized I was one of those zany writers who cannot write in a straight line. I do have to plot but then my first thoughts go to those high moments in the story. Sometimes I even write the ending first! Granted all of these scenes are subject to change as the story progresses and as I revise but as my creative brain works I need to write out those big scenes first. Ywriter lets me do this easily.

The next step is to set a schedule for myself. I have 2 little kids so I have to be flexible. But I do try to stick to the rule of writing everyday while I’m drafting. You need to do it everyday to keep your brain thinking about your story. Taking a break during the drafting process causes more delay than you want, trying to get your mind back up to speed drives me crazy.

My favorite way to draft the first one is to do something called Fast Draft. A term coined by Candace Havens who started a yahoo group to give back to other writers. I can credit her solely will getting me over that first big hurdle when it came to actually sitting down and doing the work. Fast Draft forces you to committ to write 20 pages a day or about 5000 words a day.

As a writer I now understand that 2500 words is a high number for daily writing, 5000 is insane. But there’s a wonderful catch to it.

You only write this way for 2 week. 14 days. Your order out, you get a sitter, you create 2 weeks of writing heaven/hell. But you commit to it.

The first 3 days of it are rough, you don’t know your story very well, writing 20 pages is physically and mentally draining. But by day 4 you’ve immersed your brain, you’re thinking about your story 24/7 and you have breakthroughs, you have flashes of brilliance and you get into the flow. It’s enlightening. It’s creativity at its best. And you’re pushing out the page count in record time.

At 20 pages a day you can’t even begin to worry about editing, and you must learn to push through or work through ’stuck’ points and move on. It’s quite liberating. I highly recommend it. It’s only 2 weeks, and you’ll have 50k words when you’re done.

This is how I start my new works in progress. I hope this gives you some ideas on what might work best for you! Happy Writing!

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The devil is in the detail when it comes to writing fiction.  Small tidbits of detail can add much needed depth to your story.  I’m all about making each and every detail relevant to your story.  If my hero is drinking a can of soda, I have to mention which brand.  And understand WHY he is drinking a Mountain Dew instead of Coke or Pepsi.  But there’s a catch, you must research why… you must have some basis in fact or you’ll push your reader right out of their suspension of disbelief.

For the love of Pete and all your other readers please do not use movies as a source for information. Directors and screen writers use creative license to tweak facts in order to create a story people will want to watch on the big screen.  Writing fiction is a bit more subtle. Those little details need to be accurate or they can break the spell that binds the reader to your book.

Examples of how poor research lost a reader:

A couple of years ago I picked up an Oprah’s Book Club book.  I’ll be nice and not mention the name, but that’s also because I can’t remember it or the writer. You don’t want this to happen to you.

The book was historical fiction set in the late 1800’s about a poor girl in Appalachia.  I had read about half the book at this point. It was a good story, not great, but good.  Until I got to the part where the girl is making homemade Christmas ornaments out of aluminum foil*.  Now I’m not a history buff.  But somewhere in my brain I remembered reading about a medal that was given to Abraham Lincoln that was made of aluminum. Because at that time aluminum required so much energy to produce it was considered a precious metal.

When I read the about the girl and the tin foil stars I was immediately jarred out of the story.  Like someone cutting holes in my mental movie screen. Not only could I not pick the book up again but I couldn’t read anything by that author again.  I felt that they hadn’t done their homework**.  And it was something so small.  She could have made rag doll angels instead and the story would have been fine.  But the author chose a detail that didn’t fit and it ruined the story for me.  Obviously it didn’t ruin the story for Oprah.  I have other examples*** of similar research gone awry.  Please don’t include yourself and your writing with this group.

Take the time before your story**** to research the subject/history/location you are writing about.  And use multiple resources for accuracy.  For parts of your story that require a depth of knowledge, seek out experts in the field. Many are more than happy to share their knowledge.

Research also has a catch.  Don’t let it eat up all your writing time.  Do some initial research but then write your story. Get that draft out.  You’ll find areas where you’ll need more info.  Make a note of it and conduct additional research when you’re done with the first draft.

Do you have examples where a lack of research (um, besides this blog post) has pushed you out of a story?

Next week: How to start that new WIP, see you then!

* Since writing this article I decided to do some research on aluminum foil which came into wide production around 1926.  Prior to this Tin foil (a different metal, easier to process) was in wide use around the turn of the century.  As some of you may be aware tin foil is a commonly used term for aluminum foil even though it’s not really accurate.  If the author used the word tin foil in her writing she would be accurate (although I still wonder if the underprivileged in Appalachia would be able to purchase tin foil at the time the story takes place).  And so, I have proved the importance of researching BEFORE you write.  As an example, my blog post, although well intended, is completely void.

** The writer obvious DID do her homework.

*** Which I should have used!

**** And your blog post!

This week’s we’ll be touching on Character development, Plot or Arc building and World Building which I realize now is overload for a single blog post.  So we’ll touch on a few aspects of each and how I do it.  When you write you’ll probably have your own way or use some of what I do.  It’s totally up to you and what is the easiest most effective way for you to be creative and get the work done.

I’m a plotter.  I’ve learned over the years that there are 2 different types of writers. Plotters and Pantsers.  Pansters usually (but not always) start with a character.  Meaning their ideas show up as characters and they follow that character by writing about them and seeing where it takes them.

I’m going to use a car driving analogy here.

Pantsers write like they’re driving at night with the headlights on.  They write as far ahead as they can see and move forward.

A Plotter’s idea usually (but not always) shows up as a plot idea or string of events, or a specific character along with those series of events.  That’s how it works for me.  But I can’t start writing about that character until I know where I’m going.  I need a map.

Plotters write like they’re driving at night with the headlights on but with a map in their hand watching for signposts and land marks, all the while, moving forward.

First I come up with the idea. Then I sit around and think about the major plot points this idea needs to have.  This is where Christopher Vogler’s book comes in super handy.  He has 13 guideposts in his book that walk me through my potential story.  His style of story-telling is the type of story I like to read and write about and that’s why I use his methods.

This is where character and character arc show up for me.  I have to ask myself WHO would be the best person to carry out this heroic journey?  I start to develop some type of character at this point.  Someone with issues… problems of his or her own that they need to face. It’s important that the journey I send them on test their beliefs in themselves and their world.

I have to admit I am very aware that my character development is weak when I begin a new work in progress (WIP).  My characters grow deeper as I write about them, as I put them through their trials in the story.  At the end of my first draft I review my character arc and make sure it follows the plot line as it should.  But this I’ll cover when we get to Revisions!

I feel like I’m being very vague about everything.  I think that’s because there are so many details at this creative point that I can’t enumerate them all.  Perhaps I’ll start another series of posts that will delve deeper into each aspect, let me know if you’d be interested!

To sum up, after I come up with the idea, I sit down and outline my plot and come up with my main character and subsequent characters that I’ll need.  This outline is very much like a synopsis.  It’s a couple of pages long (single spaced) with Vogler’s plot points labeled and ideas written in paragraph form for each of the big scenes.  Including the last and final scene.

Yes, I like to know my ending.  It does not, as some suggest, make me bored with the story.  On the contrary, it excites me to know where I’m headed.  I love building up my story to the final climactic conclusion.

Next week we’ll discuss Research, which is the final thing I do before starting the FIRST DRAFT.  No matter what you write, from SF to Romance, you’ll need to know details about the world and characters you plan to create.  Happy Writing!  See you next week!

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