June 26, 2005
-
I totally forgot to mention and thank bastetmax for recommending Christopher Vogler’s “The Writer’s Journey.” It was the perfect thing for me to read but it’s taking me forever because every other page is some crucial thing I have to think about.
I’ve been mulling this over. It was part of an e-mail I got in response to my mention of his comfort level with writing.
He wrote: “And I’m not sure I ever want to become too comfortable either. I know I’m comfortable enough once I find the heat of the words. But outside of that…the comfort of knowing my process…”
“The comfort of knowing my process” really stayed with me. And I thought about what my process was, if I had one. I think I’m trying everything once. Since I didn’t know the beginning of the story, I started in the middle with a pretty linear approach. But once I started coming up against some pretty big gaps – There were places I had to wait on because I didn’t know what was going to happen – I switched to writing the parts I was sure of, and one day I got to this one line and I knew it was the last line. So then I had to go back and start hooking things up, finding segues and deciding, like with a movie, when to cut to the next scene, and what that should be; the order of events. And like with the rhythm of the words, I had to find a rhythm for switching scenes. The work I sent to my teacher had the third edit and that was putting all the description in and changing from present to past tense. I really prefer using both tenses at once, even though I know that’s the kiss of death. I don’t mean in the same sentence but, for the sake of immediacy, I like to switch into first.
I started with writing 1500 words a day. This was for Nanowrimo. Every morning I’d edit what I wrote the day before. And I like to do it that way. But when I went back, after about 4 months – I wasn’t doing anywhere near 1500 words during the holidays – I found all kinds of things that needed fixing, things that had looked okay the next morning. I can fuss with stuff a lot and I think it keeps getting better. But I know there comes a point when I can look at something one too many times and can’t tell shit about it. So I stay way away from that.
Because my story covers so many years, I am looking at a way to have the early years be part of the backstory instead of the beginning. And I’m getting into this thing where the characters have secrets from each other, as a way to create tension. So much to learn.
So how do YOU do it? Tell me what works for you, whether it’s a short story, poetry, whatever. I’m especially curious about the poetry process because, for the life of me, I don’t know how that’s supposed to happen. Please forgive “supposed,” you know what I mean.
After reading Paulygrl’s comment I must add that only during Nanowrimo did I wake up, come down, and sit here until 1500 new words hit the page. And it only lasted a month. After the contest was over my word count dwindled. Some days I didn’t even work on it. Then Christmas came and a week would go by. I became estranged from my characters. But the classes have really helped and I am hard at it now. Never again will I leave my characters for that long.
Comments (17)
It is working when I’m not at all sure what the next sentence will be, or what the character will do next. It is not working when I’m fighting to tell a specific story. I’d rather leave the “figuring it all out” to the editing process. But of course, that is so much easier with microfiction or short fiction than when you’re bound by the idea of the novel. Of course, why should we ever be bound by the idea of the traditional novel? Its 250 years old, maybe it deserves to be retired.
I write prose poetry, smaller pieces, pieces that can form perhaps a book or a certain way of looking at things, I’m not sure what I’ll do with them all ultimately. My NaNo novel was a linear exploration, starting at a beginning, in a job I was at, continuing until I had written 50,000 words, each day having only a vague idea what was going to happen next, so it was an exciting process… don’t know if I could formulate the plot first and then write it out & manage to keep my enthusiasm going. Read somewhere that that’s the difference between a poet & a novelist – the one doesn’t know the ending, the other does. The poet discovers it as they go, the novelist tells us where they’ve been. Don’t know if that’s true, but an interesting idea. I can edit shorter pieces, do that all the time. The longer one, I have no idea how to do. So that’s where I am right now- working on the prose poetry & artwork, not knowing quite what to do with the novel just yet. Trusting the process though…
Great post, btw. Thanks for sharing & giving us lots to think about… *hugs xo
hia ydurp,
love your post today; wow I have to commend you on your diligent quest on finding a writing system that works for you, no easy task, I know from experience. I have been writing my first novel for about 1 year now, (yes 1 year, even though I am in the edit, re-write stage) and I am still trying to shape a congruent mode that works best for me…and my story, like yours, contains flashbacks, so I know what you mean by having to keep the reader interested and not confusing them as to where the story is at any given moment. I think as writers we are ever evolving when it comes to a personal process; I also think it depends on what we are writing at the time, even though the basics still stay the same…for me, I have never set an exact number as to how much to write in any given day; I’ve found that seems too daunting. I have found to go as far as I can with each writing session, and before I get too far removed from my muse at the time. That’s why I commend you on your discipline; you really do seem to have a good rhythm to your writing when it comes to accomplishing so much in a day’s time…sorry to have rambled on…writers do that, huh?
have a great evening and write on…
paulygrl
…i like the spontaneous generation of ideas that come about as matters percolate in your thoughts, different directions based on things you see or hear, or think of while jogging…and then sometimes i can see twenty chapters ahead…but what would i know, i’ve never published a thing…
MoreWhereThatCameFrom: I’m extremely curious about your stories, as you seem to post the beginning and then we wait for however long it takes for the rest to come. So I am assuming you have the storyline in mind before you begin. Or is it just the premise?
…i usually have 2-6 stories/chapters on the back burner from ideas that have cropped up from time to time…currently i have about 10 which i’m thinking will take me to the end of this little elizabeth project i’m currently enamoured with, so a pretty firm idea of where its going from here, although what will come out exactly, i’m not clear on that …i’m looking forward to writing some of these chapters, its going to be fun…but more ideas get generated as i move along, and some of the ideas look less appetizing or fitting as i move through and get dropped, or will be delayed for some future project…but for the stockbroker story, i was inspired by my own line, that’s all i had…thanks ; )…and then really had a hard time trying to figure out what to do with it…it kind of showed, because the ending was less powerful than if i had a great story idea from the beginning, which usually entails a great ending…sometimes i’ll write the whole story in one shot and just post the beginning, just to be consistent…it buys me time to complete some future post…but at this point i’m not taking it too seriously…and nobody else seems to be either ; )
I wish that all of the stories in my head could make it into text. I don’t have any of that skill. That skill for writing down my stories.
I know how they go in my head, but I have no idea how to get them onto the page.
I made my last post in my xanga. I plan to open a new one, but one that he doesn’t know about it.
Please e-mail me @ sare_meegan_kumagai@yahoo.com if you’re interested in seeing me here on Xanga. I will let you know what my new username is.
*sare*
on poetry -
my process is often this -
i have phrases that strike me, whether it be out of nature or love or regret or a certain emotion that strikes me with enough force to evoke a metaphor, an image, or just a unique spin on the language. i bottle those phrases constantly on my mind and open the bottles when i want to write.
that is when i find that the wave of emotion (or whatever it was that moved me so) is called back to my mind and i can write in the same moment in which i felt. i could go on and on about the editing process, but it seems this post was more about the creative process.
maybe you just have to set a personal goal outside of the nano….i always want to write in the order of the book in my head, but it rarely happens that way
I have so many “scenes” that I’ve written. I think they are good beginnings…until they sit for a time, and I start wondering what led up to those things. Where the hell are they going? I overwhelm myself. Doing NaNo forced me to actually write, from beginning to end. I had no idea what I was going to write. I barely made up the characters’ names two days before I started writing. I had a vague idea about a plot…and a location, since I wanted to put my characters some place I’d been so I could easily put in those descriptions without having to do massive research. (Have I mentioned I hate research? lol!) I can write to someone’s specifications. I took a course on writing books and articles for children and easily aced it. Left on my own, I cringe at being bound by a formula. Writing poetry is different. It’s just the telling of a moment…or describing a feeling with a few connected moments. I’ve written some prose poetry (it’s around here, somewhere), but, again, I don’t make myself use any particular style. It cramps me…trying to remember what should and shouldn’t go into things.
Of course, I’ve not published anything other than a ghost story, online. hehehe So I have no idea how my work stands up to criticism. But…for me, it’s all about the writing, not about the sales. If someone else digs my work, great! If not, well, I do. *smile*
I love you, again…GFW
I wait until I feel like I’m going to vomit from the pressure, clean a room or 2, pet my kitties–telling them that they’re the most beautiful kitties on god’s green earth (yeah right, like there’s a god) and then just sleep it off.
Your writing continues to bloom. Thank you for the wonderful comments, as usual. I know that you and my mother would get along. In fact, it’s you specifically who has made me encourage my mother to get a Xanga. She hasn’t yet, and probably won’t, because she’s too shy and unsure of herself. I tell her she should talk with some interested people of her ilk and write until she can write no more. I should do the 1500 words a day thing, but I have plenty of excuses not to. I do try to get on this Xanga thing about every day and write or at least comment. It helps my brain work better. I can feel it
Glad the Vogler book is working for you. I love it! And I never really ever finish it. I just keep coming back to sections that are meaningful.
I really don’t like those rules about “write 1,500 words a day” or “write a page a day” or even “write every day.” These just rub me the wrong way. Maybe it’s because I wrote every day for more than 20-some years as a journalist, but I don’t need someone cracking the whip over me and saying how much I have to write. I do it MY way. I write a scene until it feel write and then put away the writing for the day. Sometimes that scene will be an entire chapter. Sometimes I feel like writing two chapters. Whatever works that day is what I feel I was supposed to do.
Feel free to ignore the rules. This is a CREATIVE enterprise and not inclusion in some cult group with rules and regulations.
Lynn (coming down off her soapbox)
Oh, yeah, I’ll keep up with the tennis in my blog. I had enough people tell me they didn’t mind reading about it. Office said she had many unsubscriptions and thought it had to do with our tennis obsession.
Lynn
i don’t think it’s a bad thing to leave your book behind a while and return to it. i find when i return, i’ve grown as a writer and see things i was blind to before, but Lynn is right- you have to find what works for you and work it!
thanks for your insightful comments!
What works for me, poetry wise, is writing stream of consciousness for a while until the thing in my head gets on the page, even if it gets there in splatters. Then I edit. Find the main metaphor or thought, pare it down until it’s tight.
Novel wise, well, I do a lot of thinking and very little writing lately, but what works for me is writing a scene at a time instead of writing a number of words or whatever.
And why were you not going to comment anymore? Are you a quid pro quo blogger? My apologies for not commenting much.
F
Regarding poetry, a piece will often begin as a phrase that gets stuck in my head. I try to write them down when they occur to me, otherwise the day will intrude and steal the germ away. But often as not, when I sit down, the thing will spill itself in my big steaming pile onto the paper and I have to sort it out.