Writers: We Are At War With Ourselves

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

I never realized how hard it is to do something creative, like write a novel. Every day is a battle to get going and stay focused and keep butt in chair and make stuff come out on the computer or on paper.

One of the biggest helps to me in this endeavor has been Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art. And it truly is a war, that must be fought and won every day.

I recently viewed an interview by Joanna Penn with Steven Pressfield about mental toughness and overcoming resistance. It’s worth watching, to get a sense of what Pressfield’s message.

The War of Art is in 3 parts – Part 1 describes what Pressfield calls “the Resistance.” He makes the Resistance sound like some malevolent, evil force in the universe. Well, maybe, but I think he’s exaggerating to make his point.

The third section is the good forces, Angels, that guide us on our way. He talks about God and the Universe.

Pressman’s stuff sounds like The Secret, which was popular back a few years. It is the kind of stuff that allows people to believe that if you think about getting that parking spot at work, you’ll drive into the lot and it will be there.

I don’t think it’s that big or that personal. It sounds more to me like the endorphins, the natural high we get when we exercise or make love, or do a number of other things.

But if it helps me or you get to work, that’s great. That’s his point.

The second section is about being on the job, being a professional, getting to work as if this were a job where you had to work to get paid. Well, you do. So just get to work. Whatever thought games you have to play with yourself. As Nike says, “Just Do It.”

I prefer Yoda’s essential bit of wisdom: “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Actually, Pressman sounds a bit like Yoda. All the stuff about “the Force.” But then this stuff is basic, universal.

Read Pressman but don’t get too hung upon the details. Feel the Force (the Angels, or whatever you want to call them), resist the Dark Side (the Resistance) and just get to work on your writing, or whatever it is you want to do.

How Poetry Adds to Fiction Writing

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

I love discovering new poets. The poetry I enjoy tends to be reflective, not love poems but about life and nature and the nature of life. I want poetry to (a) heighten my emotions, and (b) make me think. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it?

Two simple ways poetry can help your fiction writing: (1) Use of poems or lines from poems in the introduction or chapter headings of your novels, and (2) Use of poems to find a title for your novels. Shakespeare’s poems – and plays are especially good for this, as is the Bible.

But the best way poetry helps fiction writers is in improving writing.

Even the simplest poems, like this one, can bring strong images to writing:

In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

What a beautiful, haunting image this is.

I began looking at poetry as a way to write better when I realized I was writing fiction like non-fiction. For over 30 years, I’ve been writing manuals and how-to books to help people start and run small businesses.For example, from my current work-in-progress, The Thriving Writer:

Brand recognition is important and writers need that recognition as much as companies selling commercial products or services. James Patterson might be able to get away with not having a recognizable logo, but many writers have “branded” themselves in some way. As difficult as it is to come up with the perfect name, it’s even more difficult for many people to choose a logo that perfectly exemplifies their business. I’ve seen business people muddle over pages of logos with subtle differences, attempting to find THE ONE. Of course, like the name, the choice of a logo is one that stays with you for a very long time. Many of the same considerations apply to logos as to business names.

Pretty dry stuff. So I started gathering up poetry books, discovering new poets, and learning how to write with more imagery and subtlety of language, to make my novels less like how-to manuals and more poetic.

Jolene Paternoster says, “Fiction writers can look to poetry for original and beautiful descriptions of everyday happenings and objects.” That’s true. That’s what I’m trying to do.

And Bob Stallworthy says, “Good fiction, just like good poetry, has a lot to do with using precisely the right word in the right place in the line. And, …when we get this right we get the image we want that makes the reader say, “Wow! I never thought of it like that before.” Isn’t that what we, as writers, want?

While I agree with Bob, I think what we fiction writers want is for the language to be unnoticed but effective, so it doesn’t overpower the story. Like a little hot sauce – but not too much – in a fantastic Ultimate Grilled Cheese sandwich.

An example of beautiful poetic fiction writing, in one of my all-time favorite books: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. The author started out in computer science (talk about dry!) and got an MFA and went on to write this extraordinary novel. (I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads, something I almost never do.)

Here’s a sample:

This will be his earliest memory.

Red light, morning light. High ceiling canted overhead. Lazy click of toenails on wood. Between the honey-colored slats of the crib a whiskery muzzle slides forward until its cheeks pull back and a row of dainty front teeth bare themselves in a ridiculous grin.

The nose quivers. The velvet snout dimples.

All the house is quiet. Be still. Stay still.

A perfect example of “show, don’t tell” in lovely language.

So, I’m reading Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin, Stanley Kunitz, Yeats, (notice the Irish poets, please), Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and more, as I get the chance.

Some more recent additions to my list of favorite poets:

Robinson Jeffers. Example: The Place for No Story.

Loren Eisley. All the Night Wings (book)

Theodore Roethke Night Journey

Onward and upward.

Related: How to Enjoy Poetry

A recent article in the New York Times about “Poetry – Who Needs It?”

In a Station of the Metro

by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

– See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15421#sthash.q8yefZgi.dpuf

Two Ways to Jump-Start Your Novel – Or Procrastinate Creatively

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

It depends on how you look at it. I’ve found two ways to get started writing again on my novel. Unfortunately, neither actually involves writing the novel. They both involve getting deeper into the novel and working out structure. Both have helped me work out issues and settle questions I had in my mind, and both have given me a mental boost to start writing again.

I finished my first – really awful – draft, went to a writer’s workshop, read some books on writing, and I’m now taking a course on storytelling. In the process, I have re-started my novel, working on a second draft. But some suggestions in the writing course and the workshop got me working on my novel again. Although they took some time – several days on each – I have been able to use them to begin working more confidently on my novel, knowing where the story is going and where it will end up.

I made up both of these, but they might be out there somewhere, in a similar form and I know other people have different ways of doing this (note cards, posters, etc.). There’s nothing new under the sun, after all.

1. The Story table. I created a simple table in Word. My purpose was to see things in parallel – the outer journey (plot) of the book and the inner journey of the main character. After I started, I added the inner journey of what was going on with the antagonist and the descriptions and events for the other main characters, including character arcs for some of them. Then I added sub-plots, and “breadcrumbs” (those hints that will be needed at the end).

The headings for the columns in the table are:

Structure: The basic story diagram (from The Writer’s Compass: From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages) of rising action, plot points, to climax and falling action.

* Storyline: Next to the structure, what’s happening when, by days and times. The plot points on the first column are next to the events at those points.

* Timeline/history. What’s happening in the outside world each day of the story. The timeline/history has been created (see below).

* Protagonist – internal – character arc. What’s happening with the protagonist; what she is feeling, thinking, how her character is developing.

* Sub-plots. What’s going on with other characters who are important to the story.

* Antagonist. What’s going on at each point with the antagonist, relative to each point in the story.

* Breadcrumbs. Points at which I need to insert specific facts which will be needed later.

2. History/timeline. This document was developed from a suggestion at the writing workshop that I needed to set up the “rules” for the world I was creating. I want to write historical fiction, so it made sense to do this. It would work well for all types of fiction, though, as the author is creating a world that may differ in small or large dimensions from the world we actually live in. To think of it another way, the world appears differently to each of us, so the author can create the world in his or her own image.

This document is a detailed description of the world of the story, before the story starts and during the timeline of the story. No individuals are mentioned, but events are described in detail, along with situations and facts about the various areas of the city. For each day, the weather and other natural phenomena (eclipses, for example) are described.

For example,

Timeline/History

Falls River, Iowa ,is a small city of about 100,000 people, with a county of about 150,000 people. People outside of the town, in the county, live in various small communities. The smaller communities are largely farming – corn and soybeans and some cattle and pigs. The city is on the Dover River.

Day 1: September 19, 2018.
The day was clear and sunny, an early fall day. The temperature was about 64 at 10 a.m. The high for the day was 71, falling to 55 at 10 p.m.

The electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) was detonated at 10,000 feet in the atmosphere at 10:20 a.m. on Wednesday, September 19, 2018, over Kansas. The blast immediately wiped out all electronic devices and the electrical grid of most of the U.S. (except California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii, and the western parts of Nevada.)

No cars made after the 1970s were able to run because of their computer circuitry. Older cars would run, but it would be difficult to find gas for them because gas station pumps were not working and no gasoline trucks could deliver more gas.

Phones and cell phones, portable devices, tablets, and computers would not operate once they ran out of batteries. No satellite service was available and no Wi-Fi networks would work because routers running on electricity were inoperable…..

How my “writing tools” have helped me with my draft:

1. The story table helped me figure out where the plot points should occur, the character arcs of the protagonist and other major characters, how tension needs to build through the novel, how the sub-plots fit in, and how/when breadcrumbs might fit in. It sounds like a lot of work – and it was – but I’m moving ahead more confidently now, and having the outline in my head and on paper is immensely helpful in letting me be free to write instead of worrying about where I’m going.

2. The history/timeline made me spot inconsistencies in what was going on in the story and in the greater world. It also gave me some ways to bring in information to my characters, who were shut off from the world. It was fun to write the history, and I was finding some creative ways to add to the story. I might not use much of this, but it is important to know more than you put into a story.

With all this work, it’s taken me about a week, but I think it’s been helpful. Or have I just been procrastinating? What do you think?

5 Things ‘House of Cards’ Taught Me About Novel Writing

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

House of Cards Opening Sequence (LINK) — Image via Manybits – Flickr Creative Commons

I just finished watching all 13 episodes of House of Cards, the second season. Wow! I reserve my superlatives for only the best, and this is it. I give it 10 stars! But as I was caught up in the drama, I reflected on what the writers were doing and I could see lots of value for my own novel writing efforts.

Netflix just released the entire 13 episodes of the second season of House of Cards. The story focuses on Congressman Frank Underwood and his wife Claire. At the beginning of the first season Frank was denied the Secretary of State post he wanted in the new administration, and he sets out to get revenge on the president he worked to elect. Claire helps him and they have trusted allies and enemies. While I don’t want to give away all the plot twists, I can give you some general idea of some of the learning moments I experienced.

What I learned from watching House of Cards:

1. Less is More. Subtle and understated is better. A few words go a long way. In one scene, a man is about to do something and he looks at his fiance and asks, “You think I’m weak, don’t you?” She says nothing. Very understated, but you get the message. It’s left to the viewer to decide. A few lines of dialogue with interruptions are enough to show us the tension between two of Frank’s staffers. We don’t need to be hit over the head with the message.

2. Breadcrumbs are teasers. Speaking of little hints, I love the breadcrumbs, little bits of scenes that give the reader an idea of something to come. Showing someone with a gun sets up tension in the reader’s mind. The reader wants to know, expects to know what is going to happen. House of Cards does this brilliantly.

Characters get texts or phone calls and you’re not sure what they were about, but they are explained later. Or someone is in a scene and someone else is watching them but we don’t know who or why.

These breadcrumbs keep us interested, as do asides in a novel or information we don’t know that we need. Just make sure the breadcrumbs amount to something later. This is the concept that, if you show a gun in the first scene, it must be used before the end of the book. Don’t tease readers without following through.

3. Characters are multifaceted. Frank and Claire Underwood are pretty bad people – or are they? We see them doing some bad things, but we also see them in some tender scenes together and we see them thinking about and doing some pretty touching things. That makes them human, and believable. Frank develops a new hobby based on his interest in the Civil War and his family’s history, and some of the pain in Claire’s past is revealed. This pain also shows us more about the relationship between Claire and Frank, which is complex and therefore interesting.

Ruth Rendell, mystery and psychological thriller author, says, “I try, and I think I succeed, in making my readers feel sorry for my psychopaths, because I do.” The House of Cards writers have this figured out too.

4. Symbolism shows. Instead of telling us how Frank feels about his Southern roots, we see a symbolic gesture in what he does with a ring. A pair of cufflinks provides a moment of humor, but also a way to understand the relationship between Frank and another character. A birthday cake and how both Frank and Claire react to it shows more about their relationship.

5. Leave ’em guessing. Every scene, every chapter, in House of Cards has some tension at the end, something shocking, something unanswered, or some thought that leaves the reader on the edge of her seat. In a novel, even works that are not mystery or suspense, you can end scenes and especially chapters with danglers.

The end of the season included a major plot resolution, but left lots of hanging questions that will – I hope – be resolved next season. I don’t like major cliffhangers at the end of a season or a novel because I think that’s unfair to readers, but a little mystery at the end of a novel is okay – it makes readers want to read the next one but doesn’t torture them for a year or more.

Attending a Writer’s Workshop – What It’s All About

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

Once we reach a certain age and have been working in some type of responsible position for a few years, we have been to a boatload of workshops, conferences, and seminars. A writer’s workshop is a little different, but not much.

At this point in my fiction writing career, I’ve attended a writer’s conference, Midwest Writer’s Workshop (MWW) last July in Muncie, Indiana, and a workshop, Writer’s in Paradise (WIP) at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

What you will probably experience:

A famous or semi-famous or not-so-famous-but-available-and-cheap author talking about how he or she did it and you can too, or about writing in general.
Some discussion of craft, either general or specific to genre: good beginnings, how to write a mystery, plotting secrets, etc. The value of the session depends on the value of the presenter.
Opportunities to interact with other writers-to-be, of all ages and sizes. Many want to write the next Twilight or 50 Shades. A select few might be good possibilities for an online writer’s group.
Sessions on technical stuff like how to get a blog. The two big topics will be “self-publishing – is it evil?” and “writer platform and why the mainstream publishers will make you have one.” In case you missed out on those two topics.
Possibly some type of critique of your work, either in a small group discussion setting or one-on-one.
Networking and connection to editors or agents. MWW included a pitch session with an agent; WIP had no explicit time to connect with a specific agent, but lots of opportunity to network.

Writer’s Workshop vs. Writer’s Conference
In my opinion, at a writer’s conference people go to presentations, whereas a workshop is a place where you can get a more intensive discussion of your work. But don’t go by titles. The MWW is mostly a conference. There is a keynote speaker (usually a semi-famous author), craft sessions, and technical sessions. WIP focuses more on small group discussions of manuscripts (25 pages) and you must apply to be considered (I’m not sure how many are turned down).

Exclusive or not?

Some conferences or workshops are very exclusive, with a vetting process that includes a submission of work. WIP required a manuscript submission (25 pages) to be accepted. Others, like MWW, are pretty much for everyone, up to a point of turning away people if they reach a maximum capacity.

Where you go and what you do depends on what you want and where you are in your writing career. You may also want a residency or retreat (you hibernate and write) or a festival (like a book festival).

Here are some places to get more information about writer’s workshops and conferences in 2014. I looked in all three, because some might not be listed in all places:

Newpages.com Writing Conferences and Festivals

Association of Writers and Publishers – Directory of Conferences and Seminars

Poets and Writers Conferences and Residencies Database