On [Not] Writing

It’s been over a month since I sat down with the intention to write seriously. I’ve been overcommitted, struggling to learn the music for my violin recital and for the cantata at church. Instead of writing and publishing my work, I’ve been making art, or crocheting, or even cleaning the house.

I feel empty and dry. This morning I tried to read a poem by Louise Glück, but it was too subtle for a quick reading and I’m tired. Oh God, I am so tired. I’ve been sleeping at least six hours a night – which is a lot for me – but for some reason it isn’t enough.

Today I brought my coffee upstairs, cleaned the glass on the French doors, and wrote about not writing. Because sometimes, what I need most is to see the sky clearly. To be honest with myself. To sit down, pick up a pen, and begin.

Photo: Guian Bolisay  (Instant Vantage)

This was a really fun workshop to teach, so I'm posting my handout and lesson plan here. 

Read the poems and try your hand at writing a bop or a tanka. Or teach the workshop yourself, if you like. The materials are here for you to use.

Link to Handout

Link to Lesson Plan

Crossing the Great Divide

Editing and revision may be the bane of a writer’s existence. Ted Kooser wrote:

“Revision, and I mean extensive revision, is the key to transforming a mediocre poem into a work that can touch and even alter a reader’s heart.  It’s the biggest part of the poet’s job description.  I’ve published hundreds of poems, most of them less than twenty lines in length, and people are always surprised to learn that I might take a single short poem through twenty, or thirty, or even forty versions before I think it’s finished” (The Poetry Home Repair Manual 16).

He reminds us to be patient:

“Don’t worry that the process of revision seems slow.  The writer’s tools were developed early - paper, pen, and ink; a watchful eye; an open heart - and good writing is still the patient handiwork of those simple tools.  A poet who makes only one really fine poem during his life gives far more to the world that the poet who publishes twenty books of mediocre verse” (ibid. 148).

Why should we bother to work so hard, for so little reward? Kenneth Koch in his discussion of “poetry language” concludes by saying:

"The last inclination of the poetry language I'll mention - though there are more - is specifically addressed to making whatever is said into a work of art. Without this one, of course, you may be writing, but you're not writing poetry" (Making Your Own Days 69).

Never Give Me a Security Clearance!

Seriously.

I attempted this writing prompt from Kenneth Koch's Making Your Own Days:

________________________ but I never told anyone 

[repeat as necessary to create the poem]

Time Tracking Tools for Writers - Getting Started

You know you need to keep better track of your time, but how can you do it easily, without spending a lot of money?

Many software companies offer a brief free trial, followed by a monthly fee or subscription.  If you are making enough money on your writing to justify an expense of $60 or more per year, go for it.  If you're just starting out, or if you are a poet like me, you might prefer something a little less pricey.  You can always upgrade after you make the New York Times Bestseller List.

I personally use Caato, a free time tracker that lets me know how much time I'm spending on each writing task.  I can enter the times manually, or I can let it keep track of my work time down to the second.

If you were to enlarge this screen shot, you'd see that so far this year, I've spent an inordinate amount of time clearing my desk - which seems low-level but I've gotten really tired of not having room to work, so this really is a first-quarter priority for me.

Another embarrassing insight is that I've spent a lot of time on "NOS" (not otherwise specified) tasks, so in February I'll be watching that category closely, to make sure I'm really using my time well, and not just puttering about at my desk.  It's pretty easy to avoid the hard work of writing by playing at it, and I'm always prone to falling into rabbit holes.

If you don't use a Mac or if you also use mobile platforms, Caato won't be the best choice for you.  Fortunately, there are a myriad of options out there for every computer, tablet, phone and gadget imaginable.  Here's a link to a really useful list from appadvice.com.

Time Tracking Tools for Writers - Why?

  

Effective time management skills may seem more appropriate for a Fortune 500 executive than a freelance writer, but creative people may need good time management tools and habits more than anybody else on the planet.




Think about it - we are busy, creative people with obsessive tendencies who are interested in everything, who may fixate on a new idea or task and forget everything else or who may be distracted by almost anything in our environment.  Most of us have to write in odd moments while holding a full-time job and/or raising a family.

To make things worse, we're writing in a constantly changing environment, with markets that are evolving and an industry that provides less editing and marketing support to writers.  We have to take on many of the promotional and marketing tasks which were previously handled for us by publishers.

Oh, and did I mention that many of us are novices, beginners who are on the steep part of the learning curve, where every task seems to take more time than we expected, and we experience more failures than successes, whether we're writing a first novel, self-publishing the first book of poems, or just stumbling through the revision process?  Even established writers have to be lifelong learners who are constantly experimenting and trying something new in order to keep their writing fresh or to keep up with changes in the market.

If you can't manage your time effectively, how on earth are you going to get your writing done?  You need tools and skills.


CREDITS - Artwork

• "Man Typing" by wesd440. <https://openclipart.org/detail/220395/Man-Typing>
• "busy busy busy" by cactuscowboy <https://openclipart.org/detail/290725/busy-busy-busy>

Novel Writing Tips: How to Introduce Your Main Character

Because I am trained primarily as a poet, I am always perplexed by attempting to critique fiction. So today's question is:

 Do experienced, published authors (as opposed to aspiring authors) actually introduce their main characters by first and last name immediately?

I have a gut feeling that good writers don't do this, but I don't have evidence to back this up. I do have two novels here in the motor home with me: Explorer and Destroyer, both by C.J. Cherryh, plus some Kindle books. So I can do some research on this even without access to an entire library.

 EXPLORER BY C.J. CHERRYH: “Steam went up as the shower needled Bren's back….” NO for example #1

DESTROYER BY C.J. CHERRYH: Two ¶'s about spider plants aboard the starship, mention of another character (Narani) by first name only, and finally, mention of our main character's name, but not in direct reference to him. Rather, “Bren Cameron's devoted staff had by now offered spider plants to every colonist in the deck above…”. So I'm going to say a QUALIFIED NO for example #2.

ROLLING IN THE DEEP BY MIRA GRANT. Opens with dialogue: “Captain Seghers, permission to come aboard?” End of next long ¶, we discover her full name in this sentence: “Deaths were unlikely, given the number of precautions in place, but Jovanie Seghers had been working the ocean long enough to know that nothing could be ruled out.” I'm going to call that a NO.

FRANKENSTEIN BY MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY: Narrator is writing a letter to his sister, and signs it R. Walton. NO

DRACULA BY BRAM STOKER: Chapter heading “Jonathan Harker's Journal” - so no clunky introduction in the text. I'm calling this a NO.

FOLLOW YOU HOME by Mark Edwards. First-person narrator, identified only as Daniel when kissed by Laura. NO.

WAR BRIDES by Helen Bryan. In the first sentence of the prologue, we have our first example of full name and title for a main character: “In the departure lounge of the Atlanta airport on an early May evening, Alice Osbourne Lightfoot, the trip's organizer, smiled at everybody and said, "Hey! How you doin' this evenin'?” As she ticked their names of her list of their London-bound party.“ Finally, a YES. 

TAKE ME WITH YOU BY CATHERINE RYAN HYDE. "August Schroeder stood at the rear door of his broken-down motor home, looking out through the small, square window.” A second YES.

WAR AND PEACE BY LEO TOLSTOY. One paragraph of dialogue, then “It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Maria Fedorovna.” YES #3.

CHIMERA BY MIRA GRANT. Opens with a transcription of a video recording. “DR. CALE: My name is Dr. Shanti Cale.” I think we have to call this YES #4.

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN BY PAULA HAWKINS. First-person narrator, so NO.

2030: THE REAL STORY OF WHAT HAPPENS TO AMERICA BY ALBERT BROOKS. “It was a normal day, or so it seemed. Actually, nothing in 2030 seemed normal, not to Brad Miller anyway.” YES #5. 

I think I can stop here, and say with certainty that yes, main characters are usually introduced by their first and last names, but their names are rarely (if ever) the opening words of the novel.

Fiction Writers: How do you begin a sequel?

You could, of course, start with lots of explanation, but that's a rather tedious way to open a novel.  I like how James A. Hetley did it in the first paragraphs of The Winter Oak (New York:  Ace Books, 2004).

Read through this passage a couple of times, and notice what Hetley does:

---

David gritted his teeth and followed Jo's hand through the darkness.  He assumed the rest of her was still attached.  Dark, clammy nothings brushed past his face and hissed in his ears.  Phantoms teased the corners of his eyes, shapes black against black, yellow against yellow, flowing through the ghost images his brain played to give substance to emptiness.

The touches, sounds, and shapes plucked at his fear like virtuosi on overtaut harp strings.  The air smelled of sodden graveyards, thick and rank in his nose and against his skin as if he had to swim through it.

Under the Sidhe hill, he thought.  Three steps between magic and reality.  Magic with teeth and claws as long as his forearm, magic that Jo carried in her genes.

He felt cold sweat between his shoulder blades and trickling down his sides under his arms.  This was taking far too long.

---

Let's take a writerly look at what Hetley's done.

• DON'T BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING.  Hetley starts in media res - in the middle of the action.  We 're off and running from the first sentence.  Or, in this case, immediately slogging through a terrifying world which shouldn't exist.
• INCLUDE A QUICK INTRODUCTION TO THE SETTING.  With just a few sentences, Hetley sketches a horrific world of darkness, vile smells, and dangerous magic.  By the third short paragraph, we already know that we are somewhere between our world and the realm of Celtic magic, and we also know that the fae in this world are not going to be nice.  
• INTRODUCE THE READER TO THE CHARACTER(S).  I love the sentence, "He assumed the rest of her was still attached" [i.e., Jo's body is still attached to her hand].  This tells us something about David's character, that he has a sense of humor and is a bit of a "smart ass."  I like him already, and want to find out more about him and this crazy situation.
• USE HUMOR AND SURPRISE TO KEEP THE READER AWAKE.  "He assumed the rest of her was still attached" is both funny and unexpected.  But it's like seasoning in a good tortilla soup - just enough to spice things up, but not too much.
• USE POETIC TECHNIQUES LIKE SIMILE AND METAPHOR.  The second paragraph is a bit overwritten, but it turns out to be appropriate because David is a musician in a Celtic band, and a poet.  Of course he thinks in similes.  And the use of smell - the sense which evokes the most emotion - is a nice touch.  We associate putrefaction, and graveyards, with scary bad stuff.  I'm feelin' it.
• EMPLOY PHYSICAL CLUES TO REVEAL EMOTIONAL STATES.  We know that David's stressed, because he's gritting his teeth - a nice variation of the old "show, don't tell" rule to let us know what a character's feeling without saying, "He was so scared!"  Paragraph three:  Hetley does it again:  "He felt cold sweat between his shoulder blades and trickling down his sides under his arms."  Yep, that's definitely pretty scared.
• GROUND THE READER IN BOTH PLACE AND TIME.  Hetley uses a single phrase "under the Sidhe hill" to ground us in a particular reality.  If you know Celtic myth, you know at least half of where we are and what we're dealing with.   We'll find out about the "reality" part later.  The time is some variation of now, our contemporary world, because the narrator says, "magic Jo carried in her genes," and we know that nobody talked about genes before the discovery of DNA.  In the past, when people talked about genetics, they'd say "blood" instead of "genes."  
• USE SPECIFIC LANGUAGE AND THE MOST EFFECTIVE WORDS to introduce us to the characters.  The use of "Jo" instead of a full name like "Josephine" or a more feminine nickname like "Josie" tells us something about Jo, too:  she's a no-nonsense, tough, modern girl.  The fact that David knows what's in her genes means they've been together for a while, and since they're holding hands, you might guess (correctly) that they are lovers.
• GIVE YOUR READER CLUES ABOUT THE CHARACTERS' RELATIONSHIPS.  Yet another application of "Show, don't tell."  We've actually already learned a lot about Jo and David:  she's got fairy blood; he (we can infer) does not.  She's the leader; this is natural to her and alien to David.  He's been through this before, and he didn't like the experience then. 
• USE FORESHADOWING.  Phantoms, graveyard, the Sidhe, "magic with teeth and claws as long as his forearm" - as a reader, I'm guessing that David's in for a wild ride, and I am eager to travel with him.

Am I reading too much into this?  Nope.  It's all there in the text, for any alert reader to discover; and with a writer of Hetley's caliber, it's not there by accident.  This is a carefully crafted introduction to the story, beautifully done, with everything you need to get you hooked and reading.

When I say carefully crafted, I mean it - this is the kind of writing that emerges through multiple revisions.  Most likely, there will just be hints of it in the first draft, phrases and ideas the writer can build on, and lots of flotsam and jetsam to edit out.

If I were to write a sequel to something, Hetley's opening is how I'd want to my novel to begin.  In media res, with a clear setting in time and place, and enough of an introduction to the characters to make me want to read on and get to know them better.  But nothing heavy-handed, nothing clunky or out of place.  He makes it all sound natural and easy.

Nice work, Mr. Hetley!

Why read blogs? (part 3)

Finally, blog writers read blogs in order to improve their writing skills.  I do not know of a good writer who was not also a voracious reader.  Why is reading so important?  Because we learn to write in much the same way that we, as infants, learn to speak our native language.

We naturally acquire language from listening, speaking, and getting feedback from more fluent speakers.  Similarly, writers internalize their writing skills by reading, writing and getting feedback from other writers.  If we don't know other writers, it is harder to improve, but we can still read thoughtfully, analyze the works of writers we love, write regularly, and reflect upon what we are learning.

There are no shortcuts to excellence.  Good writing comes from thoughtfully reading and re-reading the best writing of others, then trying their techniques in your own work.   Leo Babauta says succinctly, "If you want to be a good blog writer, you should read blogs with good writing." 

Today's Links

How to Improve Writing by Reading

Ten free ways to improve your writing

Bibliography

Babauta, Leo. "15 Must-read Blogs for Blog Writers." Freelance Switch. 22 May 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. <http://freelanceswitch.com/freelance-writing/15-must-read-blogs-for-blog-writers/>.

Why read blogs? (Part 2)

Students and serious people read blogs to further their research:  "Many weblogs are specialized newsletters. These can help you in your research, and will give you important news and obscure pieces of information that can round out any research paper" (Zuiker).

Some blog readers are skeptics.  They read blogs to get an honest, alternate viewpoint, not what Big Business wants you to hear.  As Anton Zuiker has observed:

Another important reason to read weblogs is the state of the media today – corporate behemoths own the major outlets of our news and opinion and entertainment. The nanopublishing revolution of weblogging allows individuals an inexpensive and simple way to reach millions of readers. Some are even using weblogs to keep the established media honest, in a trend called 'watchblogs.'

When dealing with people she didn't trust, my mother would often remark, "You have to take what she says with a grain of salt" or "You can't believe everything you hear."  Television detectives remind us to "follow the money," because profit motives can lead to deception and even (gasp) murder.

It's good to have information sources that aren't on somebody's payroll, and whose   investment portfolios are not connected to a specific product or point of view.

Today's Links

Technorati's Top 100 - A blog list which is updated daily.

The Two-Way.  National Public Radio's newsblog, with breaking news, analysis, and readers' comments.  As NPR says, "We're counting on you to keep us honest."

Bibliography

Zuiker, Anton. "Why Read a Blog." BLOGGING101. 27 Feb. 2004. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <http://www.unc.edu/~zuiker/blogging101/readwrite.html>.