It’s April. Do you know where your blog is?
So, I decided, being the sane, plodding person that I am, to challenge myself for April. Self, sez I, I need a challenge. The internetz sez do the A-Z in April.
Okay. I’ll do it TWICE!
Yup.
Totally sane.
Come egg me on:
In my previous post, I wrote about the process of writing a novel. Today I wanted to discuss my first step.
I start with a picture, or a sense of a scene like in a movie. I’m a very visual thinker, in that I think in images. I write the scene so I can put it into words, clarify it, make it real.
I get images from anywhere. I see people in a park. I see an image on the internet. I get a scene in my head. I see something, some consequence or un-told potential story, in a television show or movie.
The trick is to follow that thing you see in your head. I’ve had writers tell me, “I don’t write out of order.” Yet, these same folks are blocked and not moving forward on their story. “I see this thing over here, but I have to finish the first part before I can write it.” Why? Story is sacred. If you see it, write it. You can always go back to that first scene when you’re done. But if you have a scene in your head clamoring to get out, respect your own process and, by all that’s holy, put it down on paper or by keyboard.
A couple resources:
First, a book – Josip Novakovich’s Fiction Writer’s Workshop.
In it, Mr. Novakovich gives you an entire chapter on “Sources of Fiction” wherein he gives you examples and exercises for finding inspiration for stories. In my opinion, this book is a must-have for writers and that particular chapter is a must-do.
Second, a thought on pictures.
Google Images is a treasure-trove of ideas, as are image-specific sites like Imgur. I love to browse BeatifulMag, a fantastic, gorgeous site (not work-safe) dedicated to the beauty of the male form. My husband’s site, Wolfshead Photography, focuses on the female form; as does Charles Oliver Jones. Wherever you find images that speak to you, write about them – who is in the picture? I don’t mean in a literal sense, as in “Who is that model.” No, I mean something deeper. In your mind, in the privacy of your own Story, who is that person? What are they doing? Where is that place? What’s going on there?
Third, prompt yourself.
Writing prompts are a writer’s gold. Learn how to use them. Search the internet for the word “prompts” and do one of them every day for a week. Gather some other writing-minded buddies and go to a café or quite place for 2 hours and share prompts in increments of 15 minutes’ writing time, 10 minutes sharing time until the 2 hours is up – I guarantee it will fly by.
However you get ideas, trust them and write to them. Set a goal of filling a notebook a month with ideas, prompts, sketches, and miscellany. Play with your writing and write the same story three different times – once from the main character’s point of view, once from the villain’s, and once from you as the author writing about watching the events first hand. See what you learn and are inspired to write next.
Then write that next thing.
Above all, write.
Write on!
Of course, who wants to eat an elephant? They’re tremendous creatures, highly intelligent and protective of their clans. So perhaps, eating an elephant isn’t a great metaphor for writing novels. Elephants are tough to hunt, protected species in many of their habitats, have tough hides, and can kill a person.
On the other hand, maybe that’s not so off-base? Writing novels can certainly feel like we’re on safari in a strange land, hunting big game without the right big game rifle. So I figured I’d share one writer’s approach (i.e. my approach), at least as it is right now – with the caveat that it’s subject to change.
I think that’s the most important thing to keep in mind when we’re bent on being this thing called “writer”. The definition changes from writer to writer and for the same writer, as time goes on and one’s process evolves. This means, therefore, there’s no one write answer.
There are, however, things that work for one writer – and reading about those can sometimes help inform our own process. So what’s writing a novel like for me?
Step 1 – The Picture
Step 2 – The Infatuation – Day and Night, Night and Day
Step 3 – The Kids Are Now Teenagers – Or, It’s Now Hard Work: the Lazy Writer’s Guide to Editing
Step 4 – Appearance Is Everything – Packaging Your Novel for the World – or a Specific Publisher
Step 5 – Social Media – the Introvert’s Answer to Networking, or the Extrovert’s Playground
Over the coming months, when it’s my turn for Writer Wednesday (the first Wednesday of the month), I’ll explore each of these five steps in depth. But I want to leave you with a parting thought:
If you want to write a novel, the only secret is this:
Write that novel.
Write on!
*Image credit: From article, “The Elephant’s Trunk”, by Jordan Hayley Abramson, Science in Our World: Certainty & Controversy, Penn State University Website, 10/16/2011, Link: http://www.personal.psu.edu/afr3/blogs/SIOW/2011/10/the-elephants-trunk.html, accessed 07/17/2013.
As I sit here, grumbling that I have a blog post due and I’m sick and would rather be in bed, I’m reminded yet again of the power of the little: one small step can, over time, add up to big progress.
What do I mean?
I’m facilitating a workshop using Julia Cameron’s book, FINDING WATER. Sundays are the day I post the new week’s essay and discussion-starter. Today, though, I’m dealing with a cold that seems to want to suck all my energy out of my nose.
After fighting with it for a while, I cracked open the book and the words on the page jumped out at me: “What small step can I take today?” I don’t have to write a huge essay, just grist for the mill. I just have to start the conversation and keep the ball moving. A small tap will do.
Rachel and I are celebrating the release of our novel, TIGER TIGER, from Samhain Publishing. At times, we had to remind ourselves to just focus on the next right step. Finish one chapter. Edit one section. Draft the synopsis. These small steps can add up to a novel.
So, dear reader, I offer this to you. What small step can you take in the direction of your own art?
But what does that mean for Writer Wednesday?
Here are some of the questions I tried to answer as I worked on the redesign:
Lots has been written on the benefits of vacation and how to take one, where to go, what to do, etc. etc. ad nauseum infinitum.
So how come nobody talks about coming back from a vacation and how to get back into the swing of things? It’s the beginning of June and almost the Summer Solstice and I’d rather hide under my bed and nap.
So, in honor of napping, let’s discuss summer reading!
TIGER TIGER is available now for pre-order from Samhain Publishing and will be out officially on July 23rd. The most exciting part of this book, for me, is them trying to find the killer. They know it’s a tiger, and they know it’s not one of Neal’s men, but they have trouble finding the actual perpetrator. It was fun trying to figure out how to hide some of the clues and reveal others, and decide when to do it. You’ll have to tell us if it “worked” for the story or not.
In the meantime, I’m going to go hide under a pillow with my kitten. Enjoy!
—
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings
My links: Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora
Knoontime Knitting: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry
Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook
The Writer Zen Garden: The Writers Retreat Blog | Forum | Facebook | Twitter
Team Blogs: Nightlight | Nightlight FB Page | Beyond the Veil | BtV FB Page | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers | LGBTFFW FB Page
Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere Press
Check out BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing.
Check out EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Books.
Check out “Taking a Chance“, available from Torquere Books.
Check out COOK LIKE A WRITER , available from Barnes and Noble.
Watch for TIGER TIGER, coming July 23, 2013, from Samhain Publishing.
I am considering changing my career and have gone back to the basics, which for me, is What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles (which, if you haven’t read it or it’s been awhile, go pick up the new version, it’s awesome). In the very first chapter, he writes about Hope and how to find it.
I think he’s right-on. You can read his book for his four keys to finding hope because they’re well worth reading – regardless of where you are on your career path. But for my purposes here, I wanted to highlight his first point: make sure you have at least two alternatives in every situation.
We’ve talked about this kind of mindset on Writer’s Retreat before. Darla’s Keeping the Faith and my own Power to the People are two recent examples. Writing is, by its nature, a solitary pursuit and it’s critical to keeping the fingers moving on the keyboard that we keep the right mindset. I don’t know if “right” is exactly the word I want, more likely it’s “effective” as in, “does what I’m doing work to keep me on the page?” If it does, great, if not, try something else. And that, Dear Reader, is where having alternatives comes in handy.
For example, let’s say we’re writing a story about Jake and Luke. Jake is a biker and Luke is a day trader. What happens if we make Jake a suburban cyclist instead? Or what if Luke is a child counselor? What if Luke is Lydia? What if they’re brother and sister, instead of a romantic partnership?
It makes sense from a battle standpoint, as well. There’s an old saying, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” How does a strategist prevail, then? By having a backup plan, contingency plan, whatever you want to call it. Figure it’s your Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it matters that you have it.
After all, having a plan to survive the apocalypse means you have to hope that you will survive the apocalypse, eh?
See why hope is so important?
I wanted to share with you some recent photographs I took while flying across the country to visit Rachel. Many of the pictures don’t seem like pictures of land, more like textures or maybe even baked cookies on a sheet. What do you see?
What do you see?
—
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings
My links: Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora
Knoontime Knitting: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry
Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook
The Writer Zen Garden: The Writers Retreat Blog | Forum | Facebook | Twitter
Team Blogs: Nightlight | Nightlight FB Page | Beyond the Veil | BtV FB Page | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers | LGBTFFW FB Page
Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere Press
Check out BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing.
Check out EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Books.
Check out “Taking a Chance“, part of the Charity Sips 2012 to benefit NOH8, available from Torquere Books.
Watch for COOK LIKE A WRITER, coming February 2013 from the Guerrilla Chicks.
Watch for TIGER TIGER, coming July, 2013, from Samhain Publishing.
In college, one of our assigned books was Ways of Seeing by John Berger, based on a series of 30-minute films in the early 1970’s. While I recommend the book, this isn’t a review of it. Rather, the title is evokative of a state of mind. It’s on my shelf in my line-of-site from where I do a lot of my writing, so it’s something that’s in the background of my consciousness and the words have become a phrase in the substrata of my mind.
The way we see is unique. Each of us could look at the same scene and come away with different impressions and imagery of what we saw. This is valuable and necessary. We don’t have to believe it for it to be true; we just have to see.
Do you have a camera, even just the simple one in your phone? (Granted, some of the smart phones out there have cameras that are anything but simple.) Have you experimented with just shooting a picture series of what you look at every day? Try this:
Tomorrow, as you go about your daily round, take pictures. If you drive, pause and snap what you see out your windshield before you start driving. If you walk or take transit, snap pictures of stuff you see every time you go on your route. The more mundane, the better. Like a detective, we are after data and facts, not art.
Do you dislike pictures of yourself? Experiment by taking one picture of yourself every day this week. Do not judge; just take the picture and record the date. “This is what I looked like on Tuesday.” Play with different expressions and poses. If you find yourself with one particular expression a lot, make that expression (for example, the one you have on your face when the phone rings) and take a picture of yourself. What do you look like with that expression?
If you don’t have a camera, there are several good, inexpensive models you can find here, here, and here. See if you have a friend who would loan you theirs. If you have an affiliation with a school, they sometimes have them available for loan.
The point here is to become acquainted with how we see the world. A fun twist on this exercise is to do it at the same time as your kids and then compare notes. See what you might learn about each other. Be prepared – leave your expectations at the door. When you open your eyes and look, you’ll never know what you might see.
Have fun!
Join me over at Delilah Devlin’s blog today for some ruminations on the magic of craft.
Happy Holidays!