We not only have holiday company for a few days at the little log house at Killian Knob, but I am up against a deadline, or two! The post below is a repeat post from 2009 but bears repeating. And it applies to more than just writing!
As for me, I am right now doing some last minute edits on the final Graces novel in the Graces Trilogy. The contract is signed. A date of March/April is planned for its release, and as well, Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Books is re-doing Secret Graces's cover so that all three Graces Sagas bookcovers are similar, so they look like a trilogy (I had a lot of mixed letters/comments on the original cover for SG-some hated/some loved). I can't wait to see what SG and the third Graces novel covers will look like - I still become excited; I still am giddy about it all.
And as well, Rose & Thorn will go live January 15 - we are busy preparing the winter issue. My New Years Holiday will be busy, but in a good kind of way.
So now -
What someone wrote in a comment one day: “You know all that is what kind of halts me
in writing. It just overwhelms me and then I block. I like blogging because I
have the feel of freely writing. I guess it is a bit of a quirk.”
Never never never never never never never never never never
never never never never never NEVER NEVER NEVER let anything stop you from
writing if this is what you want to do
and you are ready to discipline yourself to it—no one else on this earth or
beyond should stand in your way: no advice from well-meaning writers, no rules,
no nuttin’.
Trust me when I say that if you really want to write a
novel, or stories, then you must practice your craft and the only way to
practice is to just sit down and write. As you practice, you will figure out
what works for you, what your “voice” is, what your “tics” are, what your
weaknesses and strengths are, what delights you and urges you on and what
frustrates you and makes you want to stop writing. You will find out your own
personal style of writing in both how you write and what you write.
But listen! If you are happy writing blog posts, what is
wrong with that? If you write a successful blog and people come to your site
and leave happy interested comments, are
you not a success? Are you not writing for an audience who loves coming by
and seeing what you have written?
When I began writing Tender Graces, I didn’t have a clue what
I was doing; I didn’t even know how to write dialogue! But I had desire. I had
discipline. I had want. I just wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and things
began to come clear as to my own style and voice and what made me feel
comfortable. I wrote 200,000 words and most of those had to be trashed or
re-cast or fiddle-dee-deed, but, boy did I have fun, and boy did I learn much
about what kind of writer I’d be. I was writing for an audience of one: Me.
That is free-ing, let me tell you!
Don’t let the “rules” or advice of others stop you or scare
you or make you feel as if you are somehow lacking if you don’t write in a
certain way—just write and in the writing find out who you are, what kind of
writer you are, what you love to write, and how you will write. I can’t stress
this enough. Find what makes you happy and do it.
If the writing feels strained and you want to back away from
it, then find out what is hindering you: Are you writing for someone else? Are
you listening to too many writers (like me!) give advice and it confuses you?
Are you straining towards something that isn’t meant for you?
Stop. Sit in your chair. Open a word doc (or pull out pen
and paper) and Begin. Just have some fun, see what comes out. Who cares if you
have so-just-very-little; who cares
if there are many adverbs and present
participles and dangling participlesand
similes and blah blah blah blah—how will you know what you want, or where
you want to go, or how far you will take things, until you sit down and begin?
How will you know what makes you happy until you write it without restraint?
I had to get to a
certain point in my writing before the advice I read made sense –Hear that:
I had to know how to sit down and write
and find out what kind of writer I’d be before all the “rules” began to make
sense, and only then could I use them, manipulate them, have fun with
them—and I’m still having fun, and I’m still learning my craft—there is always
room for growth, never become complacent even if you are a best-seller.
You all would laugh your arses off if you could see some of
my first attempts at writing stories. So what? I laugh too! Haw! But I also see
how far I’ve come, how much I’ve learned and how much more I can learn. Lawd, even some of the works I've had published I want to go in and change the heck out of them!
Sit. Breathe. Tune out the voices. Have fun. And, write how
and what you want, and where and for whom you want. Be sincere.
Dig it out from the you that is uniquely you.
See y'all Friday for Links Day! Hope you are having a wonderful holiday.
Work-out: In my personal trainer days, I used to tell clients to “listen to their bodies” to let them know how much they could do. I now recognize how this isn’t always the case. Sometimes our bodies/minds want to fool us, because it is Hard.
When I was in Oregon, I jogged a rather difficult path with my son. It surprised me how much trouble I was having, because I thought I’d been doing The Difficult Workout on my treadmill. It wasn’t until I returned home that I recognized what I had been doing. Before my trip to Oregon, I'd be on the treadmill and whenever the end of a song came, I’d stop, take a drink, stretch a bit, and then hit it again. What I noticed once I returned from Oregon was that as a song began to end, my body began to tell me to STOP! I saw how I intently watched that little indicator to see when the song would end, and could actually feel the tension in my body urge me to STOP.
I didn’t stop that time, or the next, or next, and soon my body began to adjust to the idea that I wasn’t going to let it get away with it. There are times we must push through when our bodies/minds tell us it wants to slow down or stop—not to the point of exhaustion or dangerous over-working, but that you’ll need to figure out for yourself -- what is your truths and what is your justifications/excuses.
Writer: Some days I just ain’t feelin’ it, you know? Some days I whine that I haven't even been noticed by the New York Times, much less on their best seller's list. Publishers Weekly, why hast thouest forsaken me? Oprah, well dang, that's a long shot of a mil to half of one. Little Indie Bookstores I touted so hard, why ain't my books in your stores? Oh sigh. Wah Wah Wah Woe.
Well, Kat, suck it up. Sit your arse down in the chair, fingers to keys, and write. Timed scheduled writing isn’t going to do it for me, but that's just me. If I have to watch the clock, then I’m going to be ever aware of that clock ticking: 15 minutes of writing? Okay – tic toc tic toc tic toc. The work also isn’t going to be done by my whining about how haaarrrrd it is to be a wrriiiiiitteer—um, maybe it is sometimes hard, but the jobs I had before were soul-suckers, and which would I rather be doing? Tic Toc – let me take a wild guess here: writing? Duh! Yes! Time to stop whining and time to stop my “mind/body” from telling me I caaaaann’t. Books aren’t written by rolling our eyes and sighing about how writers are full of angst and woe-is-me. Royalties aren’t paid to writers who aren’t producing books. The work is done by doing the work. There will be "off days" and I'll respect them, but I must find my truth versus my excuses.
Work-out: Sometimes I want some chocolate, dammit. Sometimes I want to sit on my ass and do nothing but eat that chocolate and feel depressed and not do a danged ole thing. Some days feel sucky.
I don't know if I could ever run a maratttthooonnnn. I'm tired of not eating what I waaaant toooooo. How come she looks so good and young and dewy and she doesn't hardly do a thing and I work my ass off to stay in shhaaaaape (though maybe she is working her ass off, how do I know, huhn). But when I sit on my ass and gobble down an entire box of chocolates, feeling sorry for myself and the state of Everything, what happens is I feel even worse than before. My body is bloated and sick from Chocolate Overload.
I’m sluggish, tired, cranky. Better I’d gone for a walk in my beautiful calming cove and then treated myself to just a few pieces of that chocolate, savoring every bite and feeling happy I ain't doing so bad for a 54 year old -it's fruitless to compare myself to a 20 or 30 year old. It's fruitless and stupid to compare ourselves to Any One Out There: say that loud and say it again and again and again and ever more again: Don't compare yourself to others. Carve your own path. And, geez, you don't know who is comparing themselves to You and wishing they had what you had: just sayin'!
Writer: Sometimes I just want some chocolate. Sometimes I want to sit on my ass and do nothing but eat chocolate and feel depressed and not do a danged ole thing. Some days feel sucky. Well, guess what? So do thousands of other people, and if thousands of us sat our asses on the couch and ate chocolate and did nothing, who’d write the books/newspapers/articles/blogs? Who'd take care of business? Who'd make my supper, GMR? (haw!) This business isn’t always easy, but ask yourself: Is this what I really want to do? Am I ready to be in this for the long-haul? Do I love writing more than my right arm? Am I ready to sacrifice? Can I handle the rejection without breaking up and breaking down? Sometimes this is the easiest best job in the entire danged ole world, and other times it sucks like a big fat suckity sucky britches—but I love it more than my right arm. And, see "soul-sucking jobs" comment above. And also see "comparing yourself" above. Then get back to work.
Work-out: At the end of a grueling work-out, find time to stretch those muscles, and then just as important as the work-out and the stretch comes the quiet moment of reflection. Time and distance from wants and needs will lift us away as we respect our bodies, minds, hearts.
Writer: When the writing day is done, find a moment to reflect on this writing life. Calm the voices, the rejections, the expectations, the harried hurry and the long-ass frustrating waits, and remember just why you love this life so much. The raw beginnings of it, when it was just you and a white space of whatever in the world you wanted to say to anyone who would listen, even if it was only your own ears. Find that joy in quiet reflection. Give yourself a big ole break, okay? There isn't a one of us who can tell you how to do this life and why and how much. We can only find our truths and learn to ignore our excuses/justifications--and they can be sneaky.
Relax. It'll all be okay. Your journey will not be mine and mine will not be hers his yours. Calm. Calm.
Work-out: Night comes. Time to rest the body. Rest is as important as movement. A good night’s sleep prepares you for the next day’s challenge. Let go and sleep sleep. Be grateful for the body that carries you from day to day. Keep it healthy and strong and then give it rest.
Writer: When lying your head upon your pillow, writer, remember to give gratitude for what you have accomplished. This business is so much about looking ahead to what we “should” accomplish, or what may come, or what we hope will come, that we must remember what we did achieve, hold on to it, let it come with us into our dreams. “You Did This! Good for You!” Sleep. Dream. Going to sleep with a heart of gratitude will ready you for the next day’s challenge.
Namaste.
Write.
Update: here is the 'clip' of my fun time with Steph Jordan's "Living in Color." Stephanie is a HUGE supporter of writers, musicians, artists, and etc.
1960s Bestsellers. I found this site while looking at book covers. Bellebooks may end up re-doing my Graces Trilogy book covers so that all three "go together" better. Tender Graces and Secret Graces have such different covers, there is a bit of disconnect perhaps? Anyway, more on that later as I find out! Although, it would be cool to hear what you all think about the covers of TG and SG and Sweetie--which one is your favorite?
I saw this on my MSN Home page - lawd! Crazy Super Fans. Now, thing is, y'all, um, how come no one has tattooed me on their back? huh? Huh? Or all over their torso? Well? I'm waiting *tap tap tap tap tap* ... laughing.
I've been enjoying this webcomic by really nice guys named Cliff and Patrick. They're trying to get it off the ground, so if you have time, stop by and read about Shadow the Super Cat - he's like Garfield's cousin once removed or something *laugh*
Beginning Thursday evening, I'll be a guest author at Cathryn's Place. I'll post the link to it on Friday. Meanwhile, stop by and say hello to Cathryn - a former Louisianian turned Californian!
Now for our Random Video:
In honor of Elizabeth Taylor in the sad news of her passing - an Icon -here is one of her finest performances: Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and the scene "What a Dump"
If you call yourself a writer/artist/quilter/photographer/musician/etc, then you know the kaleidoscope of angst and joy and marvel and frustration and success and failure that comes with our creative identities. Or, perhaps you are questioning whether you can call yourself Creative? I’m surely not in a position to define what makes for, say, A Writer, but if I tried to, I’d say: you are a writer if at times you want to throw everything you have ever written in a big word-funeral pyre and dance around it nekkid laughing hysterically while it burns burns BURNS and you’ll become a cat enthusiast or collect rubber bands, anything but to be a writer. Instead, you take a deep breath and you get back to the work of writing.
awooooOOOoooo
Here’s what I imagined would happen when I received word that my first novel would be published: I’d jump up, scream WHAHOOO!, run to hug Good Man Roger, email gamillions of people, and then go celebrate with Ketel One and tonics. Here is what really happened: I'm sitting alone in the dark. I'm sipping Deep Creek Blend, the sun just slipping over the Smoky Mountains. I read the email of how Bellebooks wants to offer me a contract. There is no sound but Not Quite Fat Labrador’s snoring. I stand, walk dazed around the little log house, and it is hours later before I tell anyone—because I might jinx it. Because it may not be Real. Because I don't deserve it. Because something will happen to screw it up. Now, first novel has become second, then third, and soon novella and fourth novel. Have I done any real celebrating? I guess not.
inspiration in nature
Hold on, I’m going to jump up and do a jig (fiddle music here--*kat does a moonshined Hill-William jig*). Okay, I’m back…thanks, whew, I needed that celebration for what I have accomplished. Now you do a jig for your accomplishments - and don't sit here and tell me you do not have any! *eagle eyeing you* - I Accomplished Something before my novels were published - I just didn't let myself believe in that. So - do your Jig! Come on - right now - I'll wait *Jeopardy music here*
finding beauty in our world
Anyone who writes knows the long, hard, frustrating, maddening journey to novel/book/any publication. The work has only just begun. The writing, the tweaking, the querying, the rejections, and then finally the acceptance are only parts of the complete package that make the word Author. Sure, there are “overnight successes” who push out a book in three days and it’s picked up by a big time publisher and hits the New York Times bestseller list two minutes later and the author is soon rolling buck-nekkid on his/her bed atop a pile of cash. In reality, most “overnight successes” have worked their arses off to make their dreams come true. The rest of us are just awed to finally see our works in print or completing a project (while secretly wishing we'll be rolling buck-nekkid on a pile of cash *teeheehee*).
Here’s the thing, my friends: each of us is born with a purpose, even if that purpose is only to live to tell a story or paint a picture, or quilt a quilt, or design a building, or Create Something. Our voices matter; we all have experiences to set down in our own way, secrets to whisper in the dark or take to the light, or ideals to shout that facilitate change. There is the purpose for which we live: we must reveal the stories in whatever forum we find inspiration from - all of us are creative in some way: Believe This.
capture the mystery of our lives
Thornton Wilder says, “…the work is not a thing that we make, but an already-made thing which we discover.”
So, what of your story? What do you long to say so your words are scattered to the winds of the universe, finding root and then growing thick and strong, the growth reaching up and reaching out? How will you find your way to your voice?
Saturday's event went well. I had a nice turn-out and we raised some money for Share the Warmth/Mountain Projects. My face was red and hot like it gets, and I fidgeted around nervously, like always *laugh* - but people seemed happy and I was happy, so that's all that matters. GMR's jambalaya, cookies, and brownies were gobbled up, and that's a good thing, too. I met and talked to some wonderful people - and again, that's a good thing.
I was thinking about things and my blog and all, and notice where I generally tend to shy away from giving out "writer's advice" even though this is a "writer's blog." But, thing is, there's so much of it out there. So many places giving advice, what else could I tell you? I'm always willing and love to answer questions and help when I can, but, really, all our paths are different, and all our many ways of writing are unique, our journeys varied.
We all just do the best we can do. We all just put our hearts in it and hope that the path we're on is the correct one -- well you know what? There's no way to know whether you are on the correct path until you come to a fork in it and have to make another decision, or you come to the end of it and either there's something you've always wanted there that makes you completely happy, or there's nothing there you want and you have to turn back around and go back the way you came - or, you decide to plunge ahead and make a new path.
I read a blog yesterday where the writer, Cathy West, talked about "is this the fun part?" Because she knows the publishing path isn't all roses and easy strolling along - you can feel as if you are stumbling down some rough road as you are writing your work, then as you query for it that path can be full of thorns and shifting dirt and uphill uphill uphill, but once you are published, the work is not over - unless you are satisfied only with the idea of having a book published, printed, and on a couple of bookshelves. Once you are published, you must decide what your goals are and then take that path. My friends, the writing of the work is the wonderful magical time - unless you are one of the few who hate the process (and there are writers like that - much as I don't understand it, they are there -perhaps they aren't writing what they want but want is wanted from them or what they think is wanted from them?)
If one isn't careful, the frustrations along the paths to and when published can tarnish the joy of the business--the business of books, of words and language, of characters, of stories.
I will tell you, too, that someone will always be more successful than you are, as long as you define success outside of yourself - as long as you look outward to what someone else is doing and what they have and who they are, you may never find joy and contentment in what you have accomplished.
Well, guess I am giving out advice after all, though I didn't mean to! Thanksgiving is round the corner, so maybe this week and next week is a good time for us all to consider what we have instead of what we want, or what we think we want. Maybe this week and next week is a good time to feel Satisfied. To feel Complete. To look around at where we are on our path and actually see what is around us instead of always looking ahead, or trying to find the path another person has taken that has surely led them to Success.
Maybe this week and next week we all need to do the old-fashioned "counting our blessings" - touch the heads of our children/grandchildren, kiss the lips of our partners/spouses, hug our friends, take a walk and NOTICE something in nature, find wonder in this Earth we live on, be in the Here and the Now all this week.
That's my challenge to you - to be Right Here and Right Now all this and Thanksgiving week (even if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving or live in Canada and already have, you can still do this). To be grateful for something or someone instead of wondering "What comes next?" Here. Now. That's what we have -that's the Sure Thing. Right this moment, there is something or someone in front of you that you haven't given attention to - even if it is your own Self.
Namaste.
(I'm laughing because it just dawned upon my pea-head that Thanksgiving is NEXT week, so I added in some "next weeks" to the "this weeks" *laughing!*
Has a stare-down with a chipmunk who’s climbed up the Tulip Poplar and is cramming as many sunflower seeds into his cheeks he can possibly fit. He sees you. You see him. The stare begins. You win when he runs away, but you feel silly about it and then hum softly to yourself as if it doesn’t matter.
Watches Rachael Ray chop garlic at the speed of sound while talking about her family while waving her hands around while shaking a pot of simmering meat while pouring EVOO while grinning that big ole grin. Feeling inspired, you go into the kitchen to prepare your feast and instead come away with a handful of walnuts, three grapes, fourteen almonds, a half container of yogurt, sixty-seven Hershey’s kisses, and forty-three thousand M&M’s.
You look out the door and the chipmunk is staring at you again . . . commence Round Two of stare-down. The chipmunk turns its back on you in disgust and you sigh. One of the grapes falls to the floor and you don’t care.
You write completely inane blog posts about how writers waste time and hardly feel ashamed of your lack of motivation and imagination at all, hardly, sorta kinda hardly at all. You kick the grape hard enough to burst the skin and your toe is sticky.
You flip the channel on the TV when the commercial that has that creepy hamburger King comes on and makes you go “ewww” but there’s another commercial with that really loud annoying brain-bursting-to-pieces-with-lots-of-blood-and-brain-guts woman touting rugs, and while flipping, you come across a segment on Black Holes and Dark Matter and become fascinated, yet distracted, and then lose your train of thought and then . . . then you . . . you . . .
The chipmunk’s cheeks are so huge, you can’t believe his face doesn’t explode. You stare with your mouth slightly open, and the chipmunk completely ignores you. This makes you feel as if you don’t matter. You cram M&M’s in your cheeks and the chipmunk looks at you in disgust. You yell at the chipmunk, “Whash your problem? Shtop shtaring at me! Get a life, geesh!”
Finally, you open up your word document and begin. And it feels good. It’s the best thing in the world. It’s all you ever really wanted to do . . . you just didn’t want to be told you had to do it; you wanted it to be all your own idea.
(this may be a reprint, then again, it may not be - it could be just something I wrote and never posted; I can't rememeber these things - my brain is bleeding from the blond rug woman commercial AUGH AUGH ARGH! . . . by the way, you may have noticed I am on a MWF schedule and am trying to be regular about Wednesdays being random linkages and/or photos day - MF I'll do whatever - I'm too chaotic...wheee!)
Grammar to Some of You is like Me to Math—I do not care if math is "easy." I do not care if it is simply formulas where one plugs in numbers and Voila! the answer is there. I am unconcerned that Math is a science and always true. My brain will not accept such logic. Perhaps grammar is in a sense illogical and that is why I love to study it, fiddle with it.
Grammar is slippery and cantankerous; however, when it is applied properly, it creates prose that slides across our brains in a deliciously beautiful way. Yet, to complicate matters, the on-purpose manipulation of grammar in our fiction and in some non-fiction can make the prose interesting and uniquely ours.
“Know the rules so you can break them effectively.” Despite my Grammar Can Be Cool attitude, I also believe in breaking grammar rules to create prose that better fits your voice and your style of work.
I am providing links below to start you off, to help you to begin to understand what so many do not quite understand (and what even editors will pull out their hair over). Things such as: where to place commas and semicolons and colons (commas, semicolons, and colons -- Oh my!), is it a which or a that and who really cares but editors (Kat wrote words, which have letters), punctuation inside quotes or outside quotes ("Why," she said, "I know the answer to that."), fewer versus less (I have fewer cookies than you do, so I have less food to eat), different from or different than, hanging participles (okay, I admit I love a good hanging participle), split infinitives, and the list goes on or so it seems to the writer who just wants to write her prose—she beings to feel jealous of poets, for they can throw grammar caution to the wind.
Why, even as I write this post, I worry I will forget my Grammar PooBahness and leave a big fat error or two for everyone to sniggle over. If you find a grammatical error, call me on it in the comments section below, and if I agree, I will surely admit it, you bet your by grammar gollies I will! And if you do find a grammatical error and I agree to it, I’ll send you a gift.
My friends, the more polished your prose, the better it reads. Even if the person reading does not know why your work reads so well, they will surely notice how beautiful the result is. And wait! There’s more! As an added bonus, the more you know and automatically do as you write, the less work for you to worry about in re-writes. Yes? Yes!
Which and that, oh, I get it now—commas before whiches. And when comparing different from versus different than? Why, no problem as it's different from almost all of the time. Indeed and alas, it is those grammatical “almosts” and “sometimes” that drive writers and even editors to distraction, one hair pull at a time. Split infinitives, well: to be it is and be to not no more. Commas are pauses. Semi-colons "link" complete thoughts. Et cetera et cetera et cetera!
To start you on your Grammar Journey, here are some sites that may help you to understand The Wild World of Grammar. There are certainly more out there, so find the one(s) that you like and dip your toe into the ocean of Grammar. Start by understanding one grammar question at a time and build from there.
And, of course, if you do not already own one, go out and buy that beautifully slim, but chock-full of gooey goodness grammar and tips: Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style
I was round to Nathan Bransford’s blog today, and he mentioned the “kill your darlings” phrase that has been attributed to authors, but I am not really sure who first came up with that gem.
I’ve killed me some darlin's in my time, let me tell you what! However, I do remember a time when I didn’t know just what that meant—I mean, I knew in theory kind of sort of, but in reality it only confused me. I could see the obvious phrases or words that could come out, but “Darlings?” What the heck is a Darling? I often thought, and would tear my clothes asunder.
How would I know a darling to be able to kill it?
That, my friends, is the burning question that I'm afraid cannot be answered by any writer giving advice, much as we may try. This, I believe, is one of those “Unteachable Things” that writers really must figure out on their own, in their own way. They must have their AHA moment(s) and then the mists lift and things become clear—or not, and then it’s a whole lot of guessing or hoping or experimenting or jumping up and down on our manuscripts and screaming and then running nekkid down the street pulling out our hair.
However, it does become easier. Things do become clear. The "Kill Your Darlings" begins to make sense to you - with practicing your craft. With writing and writing and re-writing and re-writing. It happens more often with second books than with first books, and even more with third books and beyond. The Delete Key becomes our best friend. Why? I dunno; well, I do, but that's a whole nuther bunches of words and this will be too long as it is.
Knowing every Darlin' to Kill verses Prose That Should Stay is, well, at times subjective, and at other times necessary, at some times clear and sweet, and at other times we run down the street nekkid screaming and pulling out our hair.
Have you ever watched deleted scenes in a movie and thought, “Oh geez, so glad they took that out!” But of course we are seeing the deleted scenes in the context of what we’ve just watched. Imagine if those deleted scenes were still in the movie—some of them may bring out a “why did they put that in there?” or “I’m bored right now;” and then others may fit right in without a glitch. But one thing is for certain, most all of the time the deleted scenes are not missed as we watch the final movie-product. It isn’t as if we are sitting there saying, “Something is missing here, I wonder if they deleted a scene?” Then again, there may be times we say, “Wait, something is missing here . . .” ah, isn’t it an ever-moving vague wavery line made of pencil that can be erased and replaced, erased and replaced, and even misplaced?
We have to use our own judgment and instincts to kill our darlin’s - unless you want to trust someone else to kill them for you . . . someone who can be cold and impersonal and . . . well, Word Murderous. I believe I have finally become Word Murderous with my manuscripts, and even in my murderous state, I am sure there are darlin's I leave, because, well, I wanna that's why.
I’ve said it before: there is no magic. There is only the writing and tweaking and rewriting and editing and hoping and dreaming and doing the best we can.
How many times have you written something you thought was GOLDEN plucked straight from the GOLDEN tree of GOLDEN words, and then when you sent your work out into the world with glee, no one mentions that GOLDEN part--what? they didn't notice your GOLDEN words! Heathens! Blasphemers! Cretins!--, but instead, they mention some other part you hadn’t even paid attention to, and in fact, you almost deleted that scene because it seemed so, well, NOT GOLDEN. We writers aren’t always the best judge of what a reader will respond to and love. That's reassuring while darling killing, isn't it? huhn.
Killing our Darlings can be one of the most frustrating or scary exercises in our writing, but it can deliver our prose to a higher level of "oh, hey . . ." Friends, all we can do is practice our craft, practice practice practice practice, use our best instincts, did I say practice?, and when it's all said and The End'ed, hope for the best.
What do you have to say about Killing your Darlings?
I consider myself a pretty durn good speller. However, there are some words that trip me up every time, and with those words I have to play little games with myself. Some of those games have finally finally led me to the correct spelling without that tripping up. Most are my own made up games; however, one like the Principal/Principle I heard from somewhere or other so I know what to do when writing about the school principal versus the principle of the thing (the principal is my pal).
There’s separate—seems easy enough of a word, but I’d hesitate on it. Two a’s or one? Until I began saying to myself as I typed it: Sep – AR – Rate. Problem solved!
Shampaine, although I can’t imagine a time when I couldn’t spell champagne – oops! Ha! I just hesitated on the word until I thought in my head: sham – pag – nee. Haw!
What about obsess? – Hey! I just did it! Although I usually obsess over how many ssss’ss there are in obsess. Success—two c’s, two ss’s – this I know, but I suppose if I didn’t, I’d say in my head: Suck-Cess, teehee.
Accommodate: yup, two c's, two m's! Tomorrow Tomorrow I love ya Tomorrow - you have one M and two R's! These things I know. But sometimes the more simple the word, the more I second guess myself. Huhn.
Many of us may have words we stumble or hesitate over. Of course, if we’re writing in Word, our computer may fix it for us. But in twitter or facebook or commenting or . . . well, there just may be those times when we need to know how to spell something and spelling it correctly would be awfully nice.
What about you? What word(s) trip you up? How do you deal with it/remember to spell it right? Or, like me, are there some words you obsssesss about and can’t ever seem to remember to spell correctly? ------
Here’s a secret: I don’t have a clue what Virginia Kate’s favorite flavor of ice cream is. If I thought about it, maybe I’d have her go into the ice cream parlor and she’d step up to the counter and she’d order a . . . *kat thinks* . . . chocolate dipped cone. There. She doesn’t like pistachio like I do. She’d eat strawberry, though, yeah; we both like strawberry with real chunks of strawberries in there.
Sometimes authors make detailed “character sketches.” They know their characters so well, up to the minutetednest detail—their favorite foods, their favorite movies, how they look from the top of their head to the souls of their feet—every detail about their physical appearance. They know every like and dislike, every nuance, every place the character has been or worked or gone to school, etc etc etc.
When I first began writing fiction, I thought there was This Way I was supposed to write and think and do and be, and if I wasn’t This Way, then I wasn’t a Real Writer. I might as well have put thick gloves on my hands and tried to write that way. For thinking “what we are supposed to do” versus “what is comfortable and real and instinctual” for us creates boundaries where there should be free space.
For me personally, when it comes to character, I learned I have to discover my character(s) as I write, and even in that discovering, just as it is with meeting real people, I never know every detail about them, and may never ever know every detail. Even now, with two Virginia Kate (Graces) books written, I am still discovering who Virginia Kate is. If I have an ice cream scene, that’s when I find out what flavor she chooses and likes (chocolate dipped cone or Strawberry! Now I know!). Maybe she’ll talk about her favorite movie and then again, maybe she doesn't have one or doesn't know herself or doesn't care. I know she loves books, and has a special place for her Black Stallion and Black Beauty books, but what does she read as an adult? Well, I don’t know yet. She hasn’t had time to read because she’s going through her families’ archives (their letters, journals, photos) and storytelling their lives.
Writers love to give advice—heck, that’s what I’m doing here. We do it because we want to tell you “it’s all okay; really!;” we want to support you and help you; we want to give you guidance; we want to perhaps make things a bit easier on you where we had to muddle our way through; and we want to talk about the craft, the language, because it is important to us and we love it so.
How you write; how the process is for you is an individual decision. If you like to discover your character as you go along, or if you like to write detailed character descriptions, or somewhere in between—who can tell you/us which is “right or wrong” because no way is “right or wrong.” If you read how a writer does his or her thing and then you try to duplicate that and in that trying to duplicate you hit wall after wall—your character becomes wooden, or doesn’t seem real to you, or something just isn’t right about this character dang it all!—then take off the gloves and feel the flexing of your own fingers, the feel of the keys, the freedom of ungloved hands.
If you’ve ever watched reality television shows like American Idol, those dance shows, Bravo’s Top Chef, or Next Food Network Star, you will have a glimpse of what it is like to be an editor for a magazine or online journal when hard decisions have to be made on who will be the Winner and who will walk away disappointed.
Let’s take American Idol as an example, and I’ll use the example loosely for my purposes. Multiple of thousands of singers apply and those thousands must be culled down to an amount that can be handled by the show’s judges for our viewing pleasure. Don’t you think out of those thousands a few exceptional singers may slip through the cracks? Of course it will happen. But, the judges have, say, their top fifty. From those fifty, they must cull it down again. Good singers are told no.
The judges now have their twenty top picks. Of the thirty that were rejected, there were some really good singers, but, the twenty have that extra something or had a good day compared to a bad day; still, out of the thirty that were told no, there was dang good talent.
The twenty singers sing their singers off. The judges ponder and argue and disagree and listen to them again. But, at last they must again cull the twenty really great singers down by half to ten. That means ten Great Talented singers are sent home, rejected. That means those judges have to tell these talented people they aren’t going through to Hollywood.
Ten are left. The judges can only pick three from these top singers. This is so difficult, the judges try to find any little thing that separates the ten from each other so they can find that Top Three. They study and ponder and argue. Finally, they just have to make a decision. There’s no way around it. These gorgeously talented ten singers have to be cut down to three. Seven singers have to go home, even though they are some of the best of the best. Out of those seven who go home, there may be a few who really should not have, but the decision is made.
Out of multiple-thousands of singers, three singers stand as The Very Best Singers in the Land. The judges had to find a way to pick out Three—that is the rules, that’s how it goes, that’s how it is done.
The hardest thing of all for those judges to do is to send home singers who have Great Talent. The hardest thing of all is for the judges and the people to pick out One from the Three and declare that One the best of the Best. So, two will go home and one will be named The Best.
The singers who go home from that first Top Fifty group of singers will feel as if they are lacking in talent. The two who are not picked as Top Singer in the Land feel a little better, but not much, because they did not win. They begin to doubt their talents. But this is not the Truth. What is true is the judges can only pick One singer as the One. And the process is a difficult one, one that is subjective, pondered over, argued over, angsted over, tossed and turned over. Sending home Great Talent is the worst feeling in the world. Telling Great Talent NO is the worst feeling in the world—and the judges can only hope those Great Talents try again and never give up their dream. When Simon Cowell tells someone, “You are good.” He means it, even if that person was not ultimately picked, they should take that “you are good” and fly with it over the moon. Because in the end, only One is chosen, and that one has to have the approval of more than one judge. That one somehow made it to the One by sheer luck and talent and timing and et cetera.
The worst thing in the world is sending rejection letters to Great Writers. It is especially difficult for editors who are also writers, because we know the feeling of it. When we send out our first batch of rejections letters, there are going to be writers who receive them who were in that Top Fifty, Top Thirty, Top Ten, Top Three, but, only “one” can be chosen.
For us, out of the many many many stories we receive in our Rose & Thorn inbox for one reading period, we can only pick nine, and in some instances, ten. Good writers, Great writers are going to find rejections in their inboxes. There’s no way around it. We do try to send encouragement to those who make it to the top of the list, but we also know some will slip through the cracks because we are human and we are busy.
Don’t give up in the face of rejection. You do not know how close you may have come to receiving that acceptance, or if one magazine says No, someone else says Yes. Believe this, especially if you receive an encouraging note from editors. That means you were Noticed. That means your work was angsted and pondered and mulled over by that editor. That said, some publications do not send encouragement – that doesn’t mean your story wasn’t considered, it just means that magazine is too busy or it is just their policy not to send anything but form rejections, or it means you slipped through the cracks because editors are extremely busy.
That’s why you do not give up. Ever. If it’s important to you, you will plunge ahead. For perhaps next time will be your turn.
First, before I go on, when I write something here about what an author or writer may have done in something I’m reading, it is not the book I am reading now—these are just examples from things I’ve read in the past at some point or things I may have previously done with my own work and then one day had a AHA moment. Just wanted to make that clear.
I know I’m picky. The pickier I get, the more things I notice when I read. Of course, it’s the more I notice in my own writing as well, and then I have to eradicate or tweak or fix. I’m not perfect, and as I’ve told all of you, pointing out the things I like to clean up in my manuscript sets me up for people to read my work and find the very things I mention—it’s going to happen, that’s just how it is!
I never understood, until I had my own book published, just how easy it is to miss an error in your manuscript. There are so many layers of work/editing. First, you write the thing and it’s 80,000 to 100,000 words or so—that’s a lot of words where things can sneak in and hide. Then, you edit it and edit it and rewrite and tweak and even though you think you are being careful, a perfectly good sentence can become imperfect if you aren’t careful in the re-writing of it. The manuscript then goes to the editor(s) at your publishers and they make notes; you go in and fix whatever they found and while there you find something else. The galley proof comes, and you tweak from there and maybe find a couple of other things to fix. Sometimes while fixing something you make a new error, especially when in a hurry to get it back for deadline. Not to mention how difficult it is to spot little errors in a manuscript everyone has read more than once, especially You, which means Me--before sending my manuscript to the publishers/editors, I have gone through it multiple upon multiples of times. How many? More than five, I'm thinking more than ten. I haven't counted, but I do it because I want it to be clean and as perfect as I can get it and still make my deadline. But, folks, it’s a wonder that a book avoids mistakes at all, and most do not, so we all need reader's understanding.
Today I want to talk about one example of how we imagine the scene as we read it. Look at the Mary Worth cartoon. Notice how the man is talking while he is sipping his drink. That’s a perfect example of what I sometimes read in novels. The author will write the scene something like this:
Jeannette sipped her coffee. “I’m furious at Tim!”
So, how is Jeannette sipping her coffee and talking at the same time?
Oh, come on now, you may be saying, we all know the author means she sips her coffee and then says the dialogue line. Yeah, I know that, but still; when I read that, my brain picks up an image of Jeannette with the cup of coffee to her lips and it’s dribbling and spilling all over because she’s gurgling out “I’m furious at Tim!” –she’s sipping and talking at the same time. It’s just a personal thang with me. I’d even feel better if it simply read:
Jeannette sipped her coffee, then said, “I’m furious at Tim!”
Yeah yeah, I’ve read oodles of books that are written the way the first scene is written, but, it still drives me nuts, just as reading the Mary Worth comic does—the guy is drinking his drink, so how can he do that and talk at the same time? Huhn. Just saying. It’s easy to fix it, easy to find the habit of looking at our scenes as if they are really happening. I like my characters to drink or eat without talking; I’m just funny that way.
How about you? Do scenes like this bother you? Or have you never noticed before (but will now because Kathryn ruined it for you and now you will notice those things all the time, dang it all! *laughing*)?
Hope you all had great NANO experiences, and if you did not make your goal of word count, so what? You wrote something, didn't you? You have something to work with and tweak. Maybe a new idea came to you. Maybe you found out something about yourself and your writing. Maybe you will file it away and come back to it later. Whether you wrote 1000 words or 30,000 words or the entire 50,000 words, you created something from nothing. Brava.
Do you ever become bored with your manuscript? I'm here to tell you that sometimes you will feel bored with it. Sometimes you will feel as if you want to ditch it and go work on something else, or to sit upon your couch and drink vodka tonics and eat chocolate and forget that you ever called yourself a writer in the first danged place . . . yeah!
If you are writing your novel/story and lose interest, or are not motivated to keep writing, then take a break. Work on something else, then go back to it with fresh perspective. If you are still bored and unmotivated, maybe it's time to consider why. If you become bored by reading your work, and are not excited about working on it, your readers may feel that boredom as well. We should be the first champions, the first lovers of, the first excited readers of our work. We should be excited and motivated and happy as little happy clams--except for those times when we are going "ARGHHHH!"
I’m working on the continuing story of Virginia Kate, Secret Graces. This time, I have a deadline. There is not a lot of time to put away my manuscript and work on something else, or else I miss that deadline. With what would become Tender Graces, I had “all the time in the world,” for I had no one waiting on me to deliver—I only had my own motivations, and my love of Virginia Kate and the other characters, the setting, the landscape, the language and words. Still, I had my days. Too many of "those days" spent doubting and angsting--what a waste, or maybe instead of "waste" I was feeling my way around, learning, processing. Yeah, that's it!
But, no matter how I feel or do not feel with Secret Graces, I had a point to start, and I have a definite point to get the manuscript to Bellebooks. Period. For every day I step away from the work and whine or gripe or piddle de doo means extra time I need to find to catch up. Writing for deadline is a different feel than writing for the sake of writing (as you Nanowrimo-ers may be feeling!).
After setting down all the words comes the “edits and re-writes.” This is where many writers get the "YAWWNNNs." This means reading your ms over and over and over and over. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read the entire manuscript of SG. Do I wish it to be Done and in the hands of my publishers? Yes. For I want to move on. I have more to write. I have the Sweetie novel I want to start re-writes/edits on. I have short stories I’d like to take a look at again. But, with each reading of SG, of Virginia Kate’s story, I find a way to fall in love with her again. And even when I don't, doesn't matter -- the work must be done and I must do the work.
It’s okay to be bored with your work at times. It’s okay to feel frustrated. It’s okay to put it away in frustration. It’s okay to hate being a writer sometimes. It’s okay to stomp your feet and raise a fist to the sky and ask, “WHY DO I DO THIS? WHY WHY WHY DO I TORTURE MYSELF IN THIS WAY? I SUCK; MY WORK SUCKS; BEING A WRITER SUCKS! NO ONE LOVES ME!” Yes, it’s perfectly normal and fine to rant, as long as you get back to work. Scream and stomp and angst and feel depressed and feel defeated and feel horrid and yucky and icky and poodly doo doo and sob and rant. . . And Then Get Back To Work.
Now, go stomp up a hissy fit and then take a deep breath and fall in love with your characters and their stories all over again.
I have tried all but one of the Community Coffee gift set coffees --the Bread Pudding. Since Thanksgiving is next Thursday, I thought that flavor of coffee would be perfect to serve to our Theater guests coming for Thanksgiving--the theater friends we call The Regulars--and to get their reactions. I will write about these coffees - and as I said, I will have a contest so you can win coffee and a travel mug.
Sometimes I'll write something, such as I did in Tender Graces, or as I'll do in Secret Graces, and it will "bug" me. I'll read back over it and as I'm reading it, something pokes at me. At times, I try to ignore this poke, especially if it's gentle or not quite insistent. I'll wait and read back over it another time, and there's that little poke again. That's when I tell myself, "Okay, stop trying to ignore it, you have to change/take out/fix this part."
Those "pokes" whether gentle or not so gentle are your literary instincts telling you that something isn't quite right.
For example, yesterday I was reading a paragraph in Secret Graces and had that “poke” feeling. That thing in the back of my head calling for my attention. And I knew exactly what it was. I had too much description. Virginia Kate is talking about the heat and humidity of South Louisiana while underneath an oak tree waiting for Jade. I liked every one of the words/sentences/phrases I used in that paragraph, had written them with love, but, it was simply too much. I was essentially saying the same thing more than once, even more than twice. Delete delete delete. Poke.
Even reading over yesterday’s excerpts from SG, I am eyeing two things that are right on the edge of slipping out of Virginia Kate’s “Voice.” Would she say it exactly like that? Something is poking me so I'll need to address it so that I say the same thing, or VK does, but where I am danged sure it’s all Virginia Kate’s voice. I did read in the comments where someone said they could hear VK’s accent, and that makes me grin from ear to clichéd ear. Yay! That’s what you want. You want your readers to read your work and immediately picture, see, hear, imagine, your character. You don't want them to stop at a point and think, "Would that character say that/do that?" Voice, to me, is one of the most important things to get exactly Right. Really really really really Right. I tap into that character, get in their head and in their skin, and I don't want to come out. Imagine watching a movie where the character every now and then speaks in another voice, or acts like another character, or suddenly turns to you in the audience and speaks directly to you (unless this is how the movie is structured On Purpose), and you are sitting in the audience aware of yourself sitting in the audience watching something happen on the screen that is acted by actors, you have been bumped out of the world the movie once had you in. Poke.
Sometimes dialogue will poke me. Oops, I’m saying too much, or it's not natural. So, delete delete delete. I like short snappy dialogue. The only time my dialogue may go “longer” (and I don’t like monologues) is when a particular character is a blabbermouth, and even in those instances, I play with the way I do it so the dialogue doesn’t go on and on but only suggests the blabbermouth. Poke.
Pay attention, listen, to those little whispers, or pokes, or even slaps upside your head. Listen to your instincts. Yes, sometimes we want to leave in our lovely words, or we think what we've written is really cool, or we want to make sure our reader “gets it,” but those pokes are there to let you know that what you are doing at that place in your manuscript needs attention. Besides, if you NOTICE it, won't your readers NOTICE it, too? And NOTICE isn't always a good thing. There are always more lovely/cool words. You don’t want to sacrifice voice or good strong narrative/dialogue to ram your point across. You don’t have to over-explain things to your readers—they’re smart, they’ll get it. You don't have to 'show off' what you know because in doing that you call attention to yourself and not your characters and their story. You don't want to insert yourself or your own ideas/ideals onto your character.
Believe me, sometimes when I’m poked, I’m annoyed. I like what I’ve written and don’t want to change it; however, I’ve learned to listen to my instincts, my pokes. These things come from practicing your craft, from reading, from being aware, from opening yourself up to your instincts, from knowing that it is easy to hit that delete button—easier than you ever realized, because by hitting that delete button, your remaining words take on a greater impact.
Sometimes we feel the need to stuff down too much information to our reader at once, instead of gradually feeding information to the reader, or hinting, or giving them just enough so that they come to their own conclusions.
Or, we'll want the reader to know some "backstory" or other information that is crucial to the storyline and we shove it down their throats in dialogue, in an unnatural way.
Such as,
After describing her heaving bosoms, aqualine green eyes, pouty lips, and determined chin in the mirror, arms akimbo, she stomped her little foot and cried to the room because no one was standing there, "I am going back to the market on fifty-first street today, where I went last week to get tomatoes for the famous homemade sauce my family has made for generations, and while there I saw that dark and dastardly street vendor Raoul and Raoul stole my broach just as it happened with my mother and her mothers mother and her grandmother before her! I shall have vengeance on Raoul this very day or else my name isn't Sabrina Janna Barbarito Deligato!"
Okay, for some reason I always laugh when I see "arms akimbo" - I've never used arms akimbo in my life (other than this example *haw*), but last night while reading a book I saw it! I'd not seen that way to describe hands on hips in ages. I'll never use arms akimbo, but I suppose if you must you must *laughing*
So, friends, what I am talking about here is when you want to take the easy or cheating or unimaginative or lazy way out and force down the throats of your readers information instead of thinking of a better way to allow them to find out in a more natural, or gradual, or the old "show not tell" way, or in a way that gives the reader credit for knowing or figuring out much more than we as writers think they do/can.
I wanted to make a comment about the post below concerning the "describing character while looking in the mirror." Some of you wrote: "Oh no, I have a describing in the mirror scene!" Well, I have a mirror scene: Young Virginia Kate runs to her bedroom to get her camera, sees herself in the mirror, and notices her hair is messy, she has a spot of ketchup on her blouse and it reminds her of the snake's blood. So, she makes these observations and goes on. That's something we'd all do, wouldn't we? We'd pass a mirror and make an observation about ourselves.
But, more important, remember what I keep saying: If you convince your audience, make them believe, make them happy to be where you lead them, engage them in your character's world, you have done your job--Period.
