A picture just might be worth a lot of words

      A picture just might be worth a lot of                         words

A friend of mine who follows my blog, suggested that perhaps a visual of what it looks like when I first get an idea, and then what follows as more ideas come to me.

I kind of liked that, but the only issue was i didn't have any new ideas. And the old sticky notes had long been put into recycling.

THen this afternoon it came to me, an idea for a new story, one that i know i will have no problem writing. So i came back home, got out the pile of sticky notes. Picked Green, and jotted down the ideas i had so far. I reckon i am only about half way through, but it's essential to get it all down while it's fresh.

I then jotted the ideas down on a separate piece of paper and expanded it a bit.

So there it is, the beginning of a story, and i can hardly wait to get started on my first draft.

From Seed to Tree

                                                        From Seed to Tree

Kind of hit the motherload of story ideas recently. Had three in the space of a couple of days. One was a very short noir bit that almost wrote itself. The second was more problematic. I wrote down the idea, and honestly thought it was a great idea for a good sci-fi tale. 

I took my own advice, wrote down everything I could think on the subject. Put them on bits of paper. Got off to a roaring great start, and then sputtered and stalled.

It just wasn't going anywhere. So guess what I did? Took a little time out and followed my own guidance again, and just wrote. And it was still rubbish. It was dull, confusing, and I didn't particularly like the main character.

The thing was, I knew I had something, and I was damned if I was going to abandon ship before I was sure it was going to sink.

Over the next few days I had a few ideas. I wrote them down as usual and then started fitting them in.

Suddenly my story was spinning off in new directions. I was slashing and burning and rebuilding until it finally started to take shape. The next thing was to go through and check for continuity as I had made so many changes. 

When I read through for my next re-write I thought, "I like this".

I still needed to do the final edits but it's definitely something I'd be happy to put in my next collection.

The point is, if you have an idea you really like and you are sure it's going to make a good story in the end, don't abort. Put it aside if need be, add in ideas you really may not be sure of, renovate to your hearts content, but don't give up on it. Your first instinct is always right, just give it a chance and it will unfold and finally make you smile. After all, you are a writer.

As for the third idea, I need to marinate in it for awhile, but I know I am on to something.

Why do Writers Write

A while I did a post on the reasons that you might want to write. I thought I'd go to the experts now and find out what motivated them to devote their life to the craft. Of course I would have needed a separate book just to capture all their thoughts. So I did the next best thing, encapsulated their answers into single words, and then made it into a word art picture. I tried to find the best combination of fonts and colours to make it easy to read. But if you have to squint a bit and put on the drug store reading glasses to decode the smaller print, that's okay because it's means you are engaged.

These ideas come from the great minds of such diverse writers as Stephen King, to Scotts Fitzgerald, Judy Blume, Lord Byron and Ernest Hemingway. But as you wade your way through I'm sure you'll find some common threads. Enjoy and see what maybe is a fit for you.

Now it Begins

 

I'm going to qualify this right off the bat.

There are many routes to getting your book on shelves or online.

They first of all involve completing a book that merits being published. By that I mean a polished, interesting or informative work that will be in demand. It doesn't have to be mainstream or particularly unique. Just something that there is an appetite for. 

It may be only one percent of the population that's interested in the history of archery. But if your offering is engaging, well written and easily accessible, you will still reach enough people to be successful.

How you get there may vary.

It may involve paying editors, formatters, a team of evaluators, researchers, experts.

If you have the resources or contacts, you may go through literary agents, various publishers and connections and eventually find your way in the public eye.

Nice for the few that can manage that.

It will more likely just be you tied to your computer, writing, rewriting, editing, re-editing, having friends give their input.

And then figuring out what to do with your manuscript.

Unless you are already a best selling author, you likely will do the latter.

 

Don't be discouraged. There are many self-publishing houses that are professional, honest, and helpful.

If you do your homework and network with those who have been there, you will be able to find one that takes you where you want to go.

Here are a few caveats. 

Aside from a basic publishing fee, which should be minimal, and of course the price of ordering hard copies, they should not be asking for any fees. If they are, run away, there are other fish in the sea. 

Once you are published and ready to start promoting, you are going to be deluged with people who offer to promote your book. 

My personal advice is to stay clear. You will pay more than you want, and not always be happy with the results.

They aren't all the same, but the ones I replied to very quickly showed they are not what I was looking for.

That being said, there are many routes to getting word out there. 

Join writer's groups. Many will network with each other's social media sites, promoting each others books.

Using the author's page on Amazon.

Using your publisher's promotions.

Blogging, vlogging.

Making your own YouTube videos.

Most cities have book festivals, such as Word on the Street in Toronto.

In short, if you look you will find it.

It won't cost an arm and a leg and you'll likely be happy with the results.

And yeah, it'll involve a lot of work, but then again you just finished an entire book so this is small potatoes.

You Are A Writer, So Write Already

 

Well it seems i've been at this for just over a year now. 

Huzzah!

A note of thanks to those who have followed me faithfully or even not so faithfully. My hope is that you have gotten something of value from it.

And to repeat my beginning posts, remember this is just one dude's take on writing; what has worked for me. It may not be your cup of tea. 

But there is one irrefutable fact in my messages.

If you want to write, if something in there wants to get on to paper, or screen, then you need to write.

Yes that is a no brainer.

Yet so many people say they want to write something and when i ask them what they've written, they look like they've been caught pilfering the coffee fund.

And if I were to probe, which I no longer do, they would have a litany of reasons, such as time constraints, lack of confidence, they don't know where to go with the idea.

Well here's another no brainer. If you don't write it down, one thing is sure, you will never know how it ends.

So I am going back to my earliest messages. If you have an idea, and you really want to do something with it, write it down.

Open up a word document, slap a title on it, and then put down all your ideas. Use sticky notes. Jot in on the hydro bill. But please, put it down.

Guess what, it may be a load of rubbish and you may go nowhere with it, but you have made a start.

After that you may have more ideas to add to that first one, or for a new direction. 

Doesn't matter. Write it down.

So what's next?

Nothing? Maybe. Something? That's more likely.

Somewhere, something you have jotted down will simmer in your brain. Maybe you'll get a boost from life around you.

But if you really want to write, you'll come back to it and add.

New ideas will start to come out of the blue. 

Before you know it you will have given birth to your own baby story.

Just remember, as long as it has all it's nouns and verbs you'll be happy.

Soon you'll take that baby and dress it all up in sentences and paragraphs, until you have a fully developed piece.

It may not be pretty, and it may need a lot of work, but the most important things is you're on your way.

 Remember you don't have to be a "Writer" to write. All you need to do is put down your thoughts. 

There's lots of time to hone the craft later. 

Yes you can take courses. By all means share what you've done with friends. Join some online writer's groups and ask for advice. 

But to coin the cliche, just do it.

There is no fearsome Grade Eleven language teacher going to scar your page with red ink.

There is no critic waiting to ridicule you in print.

You are free to write what you want.

And for every one idea you really get intimate with, there may be four you abandon. 

But if you really want to write, you will be hooked. The rest will take care of itself.

Where We Are So Far

Molière

"Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”

I had planned to do a little on editing, but I reckoned it can wait. Instead, on the chance I have a few new readers, I thought I'd give a little recap about this blog, and how I came to get my passion for writing.

Now if you are someone who finds writing to be a chore, has no urge to put your thoughts down on metaphorical paper, and have no need to see your name in print; I might suggest you go to a blog on cooking, pets, hockey, Tibetan Throat SInging or whatever lights your torch; immediately. But if you are someone who has always wanted to share your ideas and stories with others, then please continue. Also, if you recognized that previous, horrible run on sentence, then you might want to stick around.

Now the first part of this is all about me, so if that doesn't interest you either, then you are excused.

I really didn't think about writing until I was past my school years. The first clue that I had a knack for the written word came in Uni when I managed to take the three facts I could remember, turn them into a four page essay on my History or Poli Sci exam, and manage to pull off an A. It sure wasn't my knowledge of the subject, but my ability to spin it out into something that sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

Later, working in Talk Radio, I wrote intros and scripts for interviews and on air features. At this point I realized I totally enjoyed the time I spent writing. 

I began jotting down notes about events of the day, opinions, dreams, whatever came into my mind.

We all have stories going through our head, so it seemed natural to write them down. Once that started to happen, I was hooked. I couldn't just leave what I thought was a good I idea without following it through. Sometimes it went nowhere, but there were the wonderful times when the gates opened wide and a flood of ideas emerged on my screen, often not even consciously.   

So much about me. Now how does this relate to you?

If you have that same bug, writing just becomes part of your life. Whenever you have the time, you take ideas and play around with them until you have something passable, and then you revise, edit, renovate until you feel confident to share it with friends, fellow writers, or maybe the world. It's really pretty awesome. And yes that's an overworked word, but it's honestly how it feels.

Now you are a writer and there's no looking back. 

And if that's the case, I ask you to kindly go back and read the rest of this blog. I give my own take on the craft, taken from years of experience. It may not work for everyone, but it does work for me. And after all this has mostly been all about me.

I've Got Nothing. Yet.

 

Okay, well I've talked about so called writer's block, and I hope I convince you that is mostly a myth concocted to scare you back to the laptop, or whatever your preferred device is, and forcing you to write any drivel that comes into your noggin, just so you can fool yourself into believing you have something to offer at this moment. Like this run on sentence for instance.

Now that might work for some. Sometimes it's just like unclogging a drain. Once you get rid of that knotted up congealed mess of hair and cooking oil, the floodgates open and you can't keep up with all the creativity spewing from your previously numb frontal lobe.

But usually the only thing you are missing is a story line. That doesn't mean you are unable to write. It just means you haven't found something that tickles your mind enough to make you want to pursue it.

Here's the truth. The ideas are out there. Everywhere. They are regurgitation themselves from your past, the events of the day, the banter at the coffee machine, the news of the day, even the meaningless pablum you watched on the telly last night. I'll repeat it.

They Are There! Everywhere!!

So why aren't they pouring out onto the screen?

There are dozens of reasons. Maybe you are too occupied with other concerns. Perhaps you are dismissing potential plots without even giving them a second glance. What if you are just tired?

So what to do. First just open yourself to ideas. Look around, pay attention, it's all there, but you're missing it.

Maybe even a little affirmation can help.

When you get a nibble, just jot it down and move on.

Later on one of the nibbles may result in you landing the big one.

Also write something else. Go back and edit some old stories that you may have abandoned. Put down your frustration on paper. 

Do a blog. Even if it's just for yourself.

But just write something, anything that will stop your mind from telling you, you don't have it anymore.

Barring an accidental lobotomy, you writing gift will not disappear. It's right there just waiting for you to give it the go ahead. 

There are times we are going to find that the well has run a bit dry. But that doesn't mean it won't rain tomorrow. 

You are a writer, and that doesn't change because you haven't come up with the perfect tale this week.

Trimming the Fat

                                                               Trimming the Fat

I've just finished cutting my latest story from 30 thousand words down to 20k.

Now before you start applauding, please let me clarify a few things.

I did not cut those words out as some kind of challenge, to myself or others. I didn't need to trim it down to enter a contest. 

I cut it down because when I read it, I realized it had a lot of unnecessarily self-serving language.

This was confirmed by a few friends who liked the story, but said they got lost in some of the descriptions and conversations. 

My story was morbidly obese.

This is a common affliction among writers. Many times we are so pleased with a piece of dialogue, or the way we have created an atmosphere, that we are unaware that what we have written is bogged down with an excess of literary devices, repetition, and unnecessary banter. 

I believe that's what "not being able to see the forest for the trees" actually means.

The thing is, if the reader finds it hard to find the plot inside your byzantine and brobdingnagian (yes i did that on purpose) language, they are going to lose the thread and interest.

You remember teachers telling you to use as many colourful and descriptive words as possible, and to put in lots of dialogue.

That's true to a point, but like many things in life, there is a law of diminishing returns. When things get too unwieldy they lose their effectiveness, and in the case of a story, their point.

It's not easy, this is your baby, and you hang on every brilliant word. But sometimes you need to go in there with a metaphorical scythe and cut down everything that stands in the way of a sharp, clear, effective tale.

So even though it hurts, when you start to edit, be discriminating. Is everything on that page adding to your story, or is it a distraction. Get the opinion of a few more sets of eyes if you are so lucky.

When you are done you will feel ten pounds lighter, and your readers will thank you.

 

Why I Am Reading This?

 

'

I'm just going to dive right in and answer this without any preamble and hurrah. 

Well maybe just one.

If you are reading because your instructor has assigned you some tedious pages, or if you are trying to figure out the instructions for assembling an Ikea wall unit, or if you are reading your Visa contract (oh wait, nobody actually reads those things). Then this post probably doesn't apply to you.

However if you are reading for sheer enjoyment, and are now immersed in your book, and plan to follow through, it's probably for a few reasons. 

#1 You are enjoying it. It's what people call a good read.

Now honestly number one is the only important motive. If you are enjoying it, it's a good read, for you. 

There is a caveat here. We have to realize that a fan of war stories is not going to be enthralled by a Hallmark Romance. Likewise someone who loves historical drama is likely to close a book on a deep space adventure, very quickly.

But for those who love what they read, there are a few things that make it, and I repeat it for emphasis, A Good Read.

Characters. If you have interesting characters who you genuinely care about, even if you aren't that fond of them, then you will likely get involved in the story even if it is not that original. A good cast can make a story sparkle.

The language is easy to read. If you have to go back and try to figure out what was just said, your pages spent with that book are numbered at best. One of the reasons I couldn't make it through the Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings. Yes there I said it, you may stone me later, it's just too laborious. Too many names and places. Reading can be challenging but it shouldn't be hard.

Whether it be a tale about alternate universes and string theory, or whether it is about a boy and his dog, it needs to flow softly and smoothly and wrap you up in it's own particular form of magic. After all, reading is an escape. If what you are reading stresses you out, the point is defeated.

Interesting language, turns of phrase, description, colourful words will also keep you reading long after bedtime.

Just to add, they is no shame in reading ten pages of a book, staring at it and saying "I can't do this." If you haven't been hooked in the first chapter or so, it likely isn't going to happen no matter what lofty expectations you had.

Now for all you writer's out there, please take heed. If you can put all of this into what you write, there's a pretty good chance you'll have something worthwhile out there, or even something remarkable. 

So Why Do We Write

 

This is not meant to be a treatise on the history of the written word.  That's certainly a mighty big task to put into a blog post. Besides there are libraries full of books, written by much more learned people than me, which delve in the written symbols and words of humankind. So please do not take me to task on my facts as they are actually only mildly relevant to this post.

But a mini lesson could be helpful, here it goes. 

We have records of picture images going back to the Paleolithic era. For the sake of simplicity I am going to lump drawing and written symbols together here.

If you have a chance to pop over to France and visit the caves in Lascaux you will find remarkable drawings over 20 000 old. You quickly realize these were draw to chronicle hunts, weapons and other daily affairs of the time.

The earliest known writing system was Cuneiform, which by comparison is a modern marvel, dating back between 3 500 and 5 000 BC.  This mostly represented agricultural output, contracts, religion and later, finances, law and government. 

So let's go back to the original question. Why do we write?

Well apparently, it's to convey meaning, communicate.

Whether it be a message such as "milk, bread, wine"...or something a bit more significant: "Dear John, I have run off with the cable guy. Dinner's in the oven?", there is a message we are trying to get across.

As this communication game has progressed, we have moved beyond simple messages. We use it to tell stories, chronical history, explain procedures, write up unintelligible Credit Card and Phone Contracts. Writing is used to express our feelings, foster emotions, promote fear. It's used to tell the neophyte how to make mashed potatoes.

It's found on diplomas, legislation, religious texts, medical diagnosis, traffic signs.

From the most basic STOP sign, to law books which line the walls in the Supreme Court, language is all around us.

But for all the different forms and versions of writing, there is but one motive, and that's to convey meaning.

Everyone is a writer of some sort.

But some of us give ourselves the title, Writer.

If you are a Writer with a capital W, you have another purpose, and that's to make your writing something that benefits others. Something the readers will use for practical purposes, or instead will carry them away from the practical into the world of wonder and fantasy.

If you are one of those, your task is move writing into creation.

  

It Takes A Village: Sometimes

 

Maybe one of a writer's greatest fears is that what they have written is not as good as they thought? I've written many stories where I had a good characters, and an interesting story line, but then wondered whether I was kidding myself. Perhaps it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. 

 Is it possible I am not as brilliant as I thought I was? 

So, what to do?

It isn't rocket science to see we need a second opinion, and a third and maybe a dozen more. Sure, we can ask friends to give it a read and see what they say, but that's likely going to be a wee bit biased, and make a whole bunch of people uncomfortable.

How about finding like-minded people to look over your work and give their take on it? That's the ticket.

The best way to do that is to join some writers groups. 

Currently I have two groups that meet once a week, to read, listen and critique each other's work. 

There are also lots of authors groups on social media such as Facebook, Linkedin and TikTok. Here you can just sign up, and join in when you see fit.

These are platforms where we can share stories, ask for advice, give suggestions and basically share our passion with others. It's a place for people to encourage each other and perhaps help them get back on track when they feel they are losing their writer's mojo.

I haven't mentioned specific groups, because honestly you need to do a bit of homework and check them out for yourself. They may not always be your personal cup of tea, and what I find helpful you may find smug and pedantic. 

Members may be well meaning, but they don't get your style.

The main thing is to find a group that you can trust to be honest and give helpful suggestions. 

Even if you don't agree with many of the comments, you may find new insight which helps you turn what you've written from being just another story, into a masterpiece.

John Donne said no one is an island. We can all use a bit of help and support, and if you find a solid group of writers who are serious about bringing out the best in each other, you've found gold.

There is a caveat, some people use an authors group the platform as a kind of speaker's corner. You'll know who they are soon enough and realize they aren't worth the time. 

In the long run though, when you find a compatible and helpful group, with whom you can share your writing, you will feel the benefit. Plus, you will be helping others to pursue their love of writing as well.