The problem is that I often jump into writing new ideas, only to later realize that I don’t have enough of a story arc and/or emotional journey to make for a compelling story. That means I have to put on the brakes and try to figure out what my story is about and how my character will change. Otherwise, my manuscript turns into people just standing around talking about nothing.

Out of the four projects, I’ve whittled things down to two. One is a dark YA that is probably the most challenging project I’ve ever tackled. The other is a tween comedy with a touch of magic. Since these two are so different, I’ve been able to hop between them for the past couple weeks without too much of a problem. It helps that one is in first person and one is in third, so I can keep the voices pretty distinct.

Of course, with the dark YA, I’m still struggling to figure most of it out. The tween one also has some kinks that need to be worked out, but I have a much clearer grasp of the character and of the overall story. I think these two projects should keep me pretty busy over the summer (provided no other ideas burst in and demand to be written).

How are you doing with your WIP? Anyone else suffering from idea overload?

It usually takes a little time to get over my hyper-criticism and get into the groove of writing something new. I have to tell myself that it’s okay if the characters feel like cardboard cutouts and the dialogue sounds wooden. I can fix it in revisions. I’ve also learned that sometimes you have to set the bar really low in order to get the hyper critic in your head to shut up, so I tell myself: “This isn’t bad for a first draft.”

But sometimes, that hyper critic won’t shut up, and you have to find a way to keep going anyway. I think the best you can do is remind yourself why you like this story (even if you hate every word of it at the moment) and tell yourself that the next draft will be better.

If that still doesn’t work, come back here and read this: YOUR WRITING IS NOT TERRIBLE!

After all, would this kitten be gazing at you adoringly if you were a terrible writer?

]]> http://www.annastan.com/2011/06/your-writing-is-not-terrible/feed/ 19 http://www.annastan.com/2011/05/learning-to-write/ http://www.annastan.com/2011/05/learning-to-write/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 11:47:55 +0000 annastan http://www.annastan.com/?p=3973 Not too long ago, someone (I can’t remember who!) linked to Joe Konrath’s post on marketing. At the end of his post, Konrath listed several inspiring quotes on writing. Many of them rang true for me, including: “Hard work trumps talent. Persistence trumps inspiration. Humility trumps ego.” But there was one quote that didn’t sit quite well with me:

When you’re learning how to walk, you don’t take classes. You don’t read how-to books. You don’t pay experts to help you, or do it for you. You just keep falling until you learn on your own.

I do understand what Konrath is saying, that no one is going to do the work for you. If you’re serious about writing, you need to put in the time to develop your craft. But what doesn’t quite work for me about Konrath’s analogy is that children don’t learn how to walk all on their own. They learn from watching other people, and they have adults encouraging them along the way.

Similarly, writers learn from others by reading work they admire and by learning all they can from people who are further along in the journey. A writer needs to put in the time to perfect her craft, but she also learns from the feedback she receives from critique partners, beta readers, teachers, agents, and editors. Writing might feel solitary, but learning how to write is anything but. If we try to do it all on our own, we might just end up crawling for the rest of our lives.

By the way, if you have a minute, check out my post at the Enchanted Inkpot today on how it feels to read/write fantasy.

Here are a couple techniques I’ve been using to try to sneak in some writing time:

Do a little at a time

I used to think I needed to set aside Writing Time in order to be productive, but now I know that even a couple minutes dedicated to writing can feel satisfying. On days that I know are going to be particularly busy, I try to sit down first thing in the morning with my coffee and a notebook and just write for five or ten minutes. Even if I spend the rest of the day rushing around, at least I’ll have that little bit of creativity to start off my day.

Write by hand

Usually, I write on the computer, but I’ve started writing in my notebook more often. I read somewhere that writing by hand actually stimulates your brain more than typing, making you more creative, which is an added bonus. Not only is writing by hand more flexible (you can write anywhere) but it also means that you eliminate distractions such as email, Facebook, etc.

Let your mind wander

Anytime you’re doing something repetitive or mindless, try to use that opportunity to do some creative thinking. Think about the project you’re working on or about one of your characters. Ask yourself questions or just let your mind make associations. (Make sure to jot down your ideas as soon as you can.)

I think the main thing to keep in mind is that even if you don’t have a lot of physical time to write, just making that effort to make writing a more active part of your day can make it feel like a bigger priority in your life.

How do you write when you don’t have time? Any techniques you’ve found particularly useful?

Rejection is a natural part of trying to get your writing published, but that doesn’t make it any easier. We’re always told not to take rejection personally, but it’s almost impossible not to when the project you’ve been working on for months (maybe years) has been deemed not good enough. I think it’s perfectly fine to wallow for a day after that rejection comes in. Yes, it’s only one person’s opinion but that one opinion can make you feel completely inadequate. But wallowing is only the first step in dealing with rejection.

After feeling sorry for yourself and eating a lot of cookies, you pick yourself up and resubmit your project. If you’ve gotten several rejections with the same feedback (e.g. your ending needs to be stronger) then you might want to hold off on resubmitting for a few days until you can get that ending fixed. And then you send it out again and again, for as long as it takes, until you find that person who will fall in love with your story.

It may take forever and you may wind up revising a hundred more times and eating a mountain of cookies, but you can’t give up! As Brian Yansky so wisely said on his blog, “You have to be stubborn to be a writer.” Being stubborn can seem impossible sometimes, especially since writers tend to be sensitive types. But if you’ve set out to get published then you have to be absolutely bull-headed until you reach that goal.

And in the meantime, while you’re submitting and resubmitting, keep writing! If you only focus on one project, you’ll limit your potential. What if that first book isn’t meant to get you published? What if it’s meant to teach you how to write? So be stubborn, keep submitting, but also keep working on new projects, because you never know what will happen, and it’ll never happen if you don’t keep forging ahead.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I figured out how to make an idea for a setting (which I blogged about here) into a space travel story. Suddenly it all made so much sense, like this was the story I’ve been meant to write forever. I’ve started writing snippets of scenes, and so far things are looking good.

I’ve started lots of projects over the years, but there are only a few that have felt like ones I was meant to be telling. A big sign is what I mentioned above: the story is one I would have liked to read when I was young. It’s also important to consider if you’ll still love it a year from now. Right now, I would say yes to both, so I think that means I’m on the right track.

Do you have a story you’ve always wanted to tell? How do you know which projects are ones you’re meant to work on?

If you’ve lost that sense of excitement, take a step back and try to figure out why:

-Has the project gone in the wrong direction?

-Are you putting too much pressure on yourself to finish it by a certain time?

-Might this not be the right project for you at this point in time?

If you’re serious about writing, you should treat it like a job, which means writing even when you don’t feel like it. But it’s also a job that you should, on some level, love doing.

If you find yourself hating every minute of it, try to recapture whatever it was that drew you to the project in the first place. Because if you hate writing it, can you really expect people to enjoy reading it?

The story chronicles a journey, so it does require a fair amount of description. But do we really need to know what every character is eating, for example? These kinds of details can add richness to a story, but when there are too many of them, it starts to bog things down. I keep thinking these details will be important, but then it seems like they’re just there for atmosphere.

As I said, I’m really enjoying the story and the over-description isn’t going to keep me from reading on, but it does make me wonder if the book could have been trimmed down a bit to make it a tighter story. As with everything in writing, it’s all about balance. You want to draw a vivid world for your readers, but if you’re going to make them lug around a big, fat book, you want to make sure every word of that book is worth it.

ETA: And no, I’m not talking about Across the Universe (which I have listed on my “what I’m reading”)! I haven’t actually started that one yet, but I have a feeling I’m going to love it.

I started to panic. Had I really written something so cliched and not even realized it? For years I’ve been taught that cliches are bad: death to all cliches! I started thinking of ways to change it, to make the friendship go in a different direction, but none of it felt right.

Finally, I consulted with my husband who’s the only person to read the story thus far. “Don’t worry about it,” he told me. “There is nothing else cliched in your story. Maybe that one can stay.” (This is why I keep him around; he’s always so level-headed.)

When I thought about it, I realized that he might be right. Okay, so maybe an element in my story has been overdone. But, as my husband reminded me, some cliches exist for a reason: because they can be effective. By having my protagonist lose her only friend, I take away her security blanket, thus giving her even more challenges to overcome.

If my manuscript was one cliche after another, it would be time to rethink it. But I think I’ve put enough of my spin on things that the more common elements won’t be too glaring. Hopefully the cliche police won’t come to take me away.

Have you come across any cliches in your writing? When do you decide that a cliche must die and when do you spare its life?

As I thought more about this story, its world fascinated me. It’s an unjust world where awful things happen. If I attempted to turn the idea into a novel, at some point the terrible aspects of this world would have to be addressed; the main character would have to attempt to right the world’s wrongs.

But that’s not what I wanted. I wanted to give readers a glimpse of the world through this character’s strong emotional experience. And then I wanted to leave the world unresolved because that’s scarier. As I said, this idea was born from a nightmare; I wanted to convey that feeling of dread and horror.

It’s been years since I worked on a short story so I must admit I’m a bit rusty, but as I’m writing, I’m remembering what I love about short fiction. Every moment has to be strong and meaningful. Everything that happens needs to matter.

Of course, this is a lesson for all fiction, including novels. But short stories are a way for readers to jump into a world or situation, experience it at its most intense, and then return home again. And I suppose for writers of short stories, the process is somewhat the same.