Yesterday, Write Stuff asked readers, “When do you write?” The ideal answer was “always,” meaning that when a writer is away from her keyboard or notebook, she is still writing in the back of her mind.

Although I didn’t think to answer “always” to the question, the post struck a chord. Most of my best ideas have developed when I first wrote down an idea, then later did some freewriting to explore its possibilities, then let the idea hang on the tree in the back of my mind until it was ripe and ready. When the same idea comes back again and again, each time with richer possibilities, I know it’s a good idea.

I’m reminded of what Orson Scott Card said in How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy:

“Good stories don’t come from trying to write a story the moment I think of the first idea. All but a handful of stories have come from combining two completely unrelated ideas that have been following their own tracks through my imagination. And all the stories I was still proud of six months after writing them have come from ideas that ripened for many months—usually years—between the time I first thought of them and the time they were ready to put into a story.”

It makes me wonder if I shouldn’t let some of my ideas ripen a little longer before plucking them. Or if perhaps I should revisit some of the stories I wrote as a kid. They’re horrible, of course, but some of the ideas still come back to me after all this time. Maybe there was something there after all, something that could be combined with some of my newer ideas. I think it’s worth a look through the archives.

The old cliche to “write what you know” doesn’t really mean that if you’re a teacher, all your characters should be teachers, or that if you were born in the Midwest all your stories should take place there. It means you should write out of your experience of the world and human emotion. In this sense, all of us are always gathering material for our stories.

What about you? Are you always writing?

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Posted: December 5th, 2007 under Writing.
Comments: 2

What is a writer? Is it someone who makes a living writing? Is it someone who has been published? Or is it just someone who writes? And when I say “someone who writes,” I don’t mean that everyone who writes a grocery list should be accused of being a writer. I mean people who write purposefully, whether they have aspirations of publication or not.

I don’t tend to make these distinctions, but if asked, I say that I’m an amateur writer. I certainly don’t have the presumption to compare myself to famous writers of the past, or even to anyone who’s published, but I still think I’m a writer, albeit an amateur one.

I’ve been thinking about the meaning of being a writer today, because I’ve just been reading 101 Reasons to Stop Writing and trying to decide if I’m offended or not. I think Sean Lindsay has some good points. Far too many people think of the “wealth and fame” they’ll have when they’re published long before they even have a first draft. And there are probably far too many bad books published. But I couldn’t help but wonder: who’s tying this poor man down and making him buy and read all these terrible books? Publishing, like all businesses, is market driven. If there are bad books being published, it’s probably because there are people who will buy them.

Lindsay also criticizes NaNoWriMo pretty severely. Like many people who disparage NaNo, I think he’s trying too hard. Yes, judging by the NaNo forums, some participants think they will have a complete novel, ready to send to publishers, by the end of the month. But many serious writers also use the adrenaline from NaNo’s forced pace to increase the time they spend writing or to help them work toward a goal. And many participants just write because it’s fun, challenging, and an exercise in creativity. True, the emphasis on writing “crap” is perhaps overdone in the NaNo promotional literature, but the larger point is to overcome inhibitions and take creative risks. And most participants understand that what they have at the end of NaNo is an extremely rough draft.

So what does this have to do with the definition of “writer”? When I’m confronted with the idea that I should just stop writing if I’m not good enough to be a bestselling author, I feel the need to reinforce the validity of writing as an amateur, for fun. Why should anyone who enjoys writing stop? The idea seems comparable to saying that those who bicycle for fun should stop unless they’re good enough to compete in the Tour de France. Or that the people who play instruments in the community band should stop if they have no future as professional musicians. There’s no shame in pursuing an activity just for fun.

So although I agree with some of Lindsay’s reasons, he hasn’t convinced me to stop writing. What about you?

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Posted: December 4th, 2007 under Inspiration, Writing.
Comments: 4

This is my fifth and final report on my progress toward my goal of completing a 50,000 word novel by November 30 as part of National Novel Writing Month. Read more of my thoughts on NaNoWriMo.

I fell over the finish line at about 10:30 p.m. on November 30 with 50,060 words. So I made it. I wrote more words on one project than I ever have before. I even feel slightly more like a writer.

I didn’t, however, finish a draft. I do have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but parts of the middle are more like “notes” than “scenes.” In order for me to feel like I’ve finished a rough draft, I need to flesh out these notes into actual scenes, but I need a little break before doing any more writing.

So this weekend I started outlining my novel in yWriter. Why am I outlining after I’ve written, you might ask? Well, I started with a rough outline, but I found that as I wrote, the story took off in a few different directions, I added characters here and there, and the result is kind of a mess. yWriter is helping me get a big picture look at my novel and where I need to add and remove material. I’ll review yWriter on Friday.

NaNoWriMo was both harder and easier than I thought it would be. Harder because despite all my elaborate planning, I was still writing right down to the wire. A large part of this, of course, was due to the trouble I had with my wrists in the second week. The rest was due to procrastination.

But NaNo was easier than I anticipated because although I began with only a hazy idea of a plot and a couple of characters, I was never stuck for long. When I came to a scene I didn’t know how to write, I just made a note about what needed to happen in that scene and continued. After I reached the end, I went back and completed some of those scenes, and I still have several left to write. But I was never afflicted with the dreaded writer’s block. Distracted, yes, blocked no. Amazingly, I don’t really find the process of writing to be difficult. The hard part is making myself sit down and write. So whether or not I write is a matter of discipline rather than inspiration, which is an encouraging thought. I suspect this was the case all along; I just needed to prove it to myself.

Please notice that I didn’t say that writing well is easy. My rough draft is just that: rough, unpolished, sometimes incomprehensible. But I expected that, and I embrace that. A rough draft means that I didn’t let myself get distracted by all the mistakes I was making. I didn’t let myself revise as I was writing, which is the curse that’s always made me lose interest in my previous novel attempts. So I’m proud of my draft full of stumbling sentences and awkward dialog, because it means I stood back and let myself write.

Of course, the roughness of my draft also means I have a lot of work ahead of me, but really, I can’t imagine it being any other way. Perhaps after my twentieth novel, the process will be smooth and logical, but I never expected my first novel to be something anyone would want to read but me. All the same, I’m looking forward to revising it after I’ve finished those few last scenes and set it aside for a month or so. I believe that working through the whole process is the only way to learn how to write a novel.

I know that NaNo isn’t for everyone, but it’s been a great experience for me. I’ve renewed my faith in myself as a writer, and I’ve written more on one project than I ever have before. I’m already looking forward to my next novel and next year’s NaNoWriMo. And parts of me are thinking about other crazy writing things I can do. Maybe I’ll try to write a novel in a week, or a weekend. Or maybe I’ll make my next project much longer. Maybe I’ll start that epic fantasy novel I’ve always wanted to write. Maybe my next novel will be in a different genre.

NaNo has also challenged me to try new methods of writing. This time, I started with only vague ideas for plot and character. Next time I might try a more detailed outline. And of course, now I have the opportunity to try writing in a whole new way with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. My NaNoWrMo experience has given me the confidence to reach for my writing goals.

If you participated in NaNoWriMo, I’d love to know how it went for you. Were you satisfied with the results of your efforts? Would you recommend the experience to others? Let me know in the comments.

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Posted: December 3rd, 2007 under NaNoWriMo.
Comments: 4