Writer's Life

Writing is an agonizing life. You love your family and your characters pretty much the same (although I don't stay awake at night thinking how best to torture my family). You pace in your bedroom/office, despairing over your sloppy writing and eating Lindor Truffles like popcorn.

You can't afford to sit around and wait for inspiration, which is about half as reliable as weed killer. And when inspiration does hit, you're in a darkened movie theater with no access to paper, and all you can do is whip out your cell phone and jot notes while people behind you kick your seat and tell you to stop texting.

If writing is such a miserable life, why do so many people do it?
We're writers. We crave misery. It gives us good ideas for our books.
I will always be a writer. I couldn't change that now, not even if I tried. You might as well suck the soul out of my body.

But that's just me. Why do you write?

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Finding Time to Write Part II

Photo by Rick Bowden

I was skimming through Marc Shapiro's J. K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter when something caught my eye. Despite the pressure of being a single mother, working to stay alive, and all that "rubbish", she manage to find the time to write and completed The Sorcerer's Stone in one year. It's not as if she had unlimited time on her hands. But she prioritized her writing.

She wrote during train rides, at cafes, on scraps of papers. She rushed to finish her secretarial work so that she could use the corporate computer to write. She prayed constantly that no one would have a birthday or a meeting that she'd be obliged to attend.

Every spare moment she had, she wrote.

I know we have busy lives. I know that we rush to take care of families, work, and the occasional curve balls life throws at us. I know that writing can seem like just another thing on an already full plate.

But maybe we're just forgetting why we write. We write because we want to. No one's forcing you to do anything. So just remember your first writing sessions when writing was pulling characters from thin air and watching them walk around the page.

We need to stop dreading the blank page. If you've lost the love of writing, try free-writing every day before you write your novel. It gets your creative juices flowing before you have to tackle the novel.

In all honesty, this post title is a lie. We don't Find time to write; we Make time.

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Omitting Needless Words

Photo taken by Ville Miettinen

Most of us want to write a novel. Some us may write fro kids while others target young adults. There's a big difference between an easy reader and a YA Fantasy; for one thing; size.
For the most part, we want to end up with a book that's around 250 pages. Which is why its disappointing when the rough draft comes out to be...40 pages, like my first rough draft (In size 12, Times New Roman).
For some, its only too easy to write Above and Beyond the Call of Duty and end up with rough drafts 700 pages in length. (Stephanie Meyer *cough*)
Others have a hard time thinking up enough events. And that's where the trouble begins.
The slower writers feel obliged to add any random scene and long-winded paragraphs, just so they can meet to word count goal. I'll admit, I've done this. But then I stumbled onto the best bit of writing advice I'd ever received:

Cut unnecessary parts...you'll never run out of ideas, so don't be afraid to let go of things.
-Todd Mitchell

And he's perfectly right.
Revision is mostly about hacking your novel to pieces and sewing it back together. Anything that doesn't belong needs to go.
If only it was that simple.
But, like most writers, we get attached. We fall in love with plot, with clever little aphorisms, with characters, with conflicts. And it hurts to let them go.
But let go we must.

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The One Rule to Writing

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

~W. Somerset Maugham

By now, we’ve probably heard plenty of writing rules. Show don’t tell, start with action, the main character must develop, pace yourself, ect.

And then, of course, there’s everyone’s personal rules. According to George Orwell, the six rules are
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print,
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do,
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out,
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active,
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent,
6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.

Or maybe you’ll prefer John Rechy’s three rules; Show don’t tell, write about what you know, and always have a sympathetic character for the reader to relate to.

If that’s not enough, there’s always Elmore Leonard’s ten rules, Kurt Vonnegut’s ten, Norman Holland’s three, or Steven Goldsberry’s one hundred and one.

I believe that there’s only one rule: Write.

Sure, learn the craft of writing. Study what makes a reader tick and publishers squeal with joy. By all means, follow writing blogs, google images of random people who resemble your characters, and make playlists for your story. But nothing will ever replace the movement of pen on paper. Less talk, more action.

Now, I know this sounds obvious, but a lot of writers (like me) catch ourselves spending more time worrying that we’re not writing instead of actually doing it.

If your butt isn’t in the chair, you will not write a word.

So, Step 1, pull out a notebook and a pencil. Sit down. Comfortable? Good, because you’re not allowed leave. Chain your ankle to the desk if you have to.
Now….write.

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Made to Stick for Writers: Epilogue

So if being sticky is so easy, how come people aren't just automatically programmed to think and act in those terms? What's in our way?

The Brothers Heath refer to this obstruction as the Curse of Knowledge.
An excerpt from the book:

"In 1990, Elizabeth Newton earned a Ph.D. in psychology...by studying a simple game in which she assigned people to one o two roles: 'tappers' or 'listeners'. Tappers receive a list of twenty-five well-known songs such as 'Happy Birthday' and 'The Star-Spangled Banner'. Each tapper was asked to pick a song and tap out the rhythm to a listener (by knocking on the table). The listener's job was to guess the song, based on the rhythm being tapped...
"The listener's job in this game is difficult...The tappers got their message across 1 time in 40, but they thought they were getting their message across 1 time in 2. Why?
"When a tapper taps, she is hearing the song in her head...Meanwhile the listeners can't hear the tune-all they can hear is a bunch of disconnected taps...
"It's hard to be a tapper. The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (the song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it's like to lack that knowledge. When they're tapping they can't imagine what it's like for the listeners to hear isolated taps rather than a song. This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has 'cursed' us."

Writers are the tappers in this equation. We hear the story in our head. We know the characters by heart. We see every detail, even the unwritten ones. The key is to getting that story across the gap to the reader. Write the book you most want to read, because you are the only one can tell it.

Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue (You are here)

These posts are nothing more or less then the principles I've learned and applied after reading Made to Stick. I encourage you to read the book yourself. It might come in handy on the road to being published.

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Made to Stick for Writers: Story

Finally, something both readers and writers understand; story.

People have tried for years to classify stories by their plot. Aristotle claimed that there exist only four; simple tragic, simple fortunate, complex tragic, and complex fortunate.
Christopher Booker insists there are seven (overcoming the monster, rags to riches, quest, voyage and return, tragedy, comedy, and rebirth) while Robert McKee argues that there are twenty-five.

According to the authors of Made to Stick, successful and sticky stories can be categorized into three basic plots.

The Challenge Plot
The most basic of the Basic Plots. Character faces insurmountable odds and succeeds.
This includes most of Booker's plots such as overcoming the monster, rags to riches, and the quest.
The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Dracula, and Cinderella are all Challenge plots.

The Connection Plot
Two people (or groups of people) from radically different backgrounds come together. The tension in these types of plot can range from the consequences of being found out or the struggle to understand each other.
This is where you find your Romeo and Juliet, Twilight, and Titanic movie.

The Creativity Plot
The character has a mental breakthrough that allows them to deal with problems.
Stories such as Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone or Galileo's analysis of the Solar System.
But not all Creative Plots are about changing the world.
When Ernest Shakleton and his crew were stranded, members threatened to mutiny; an act that could mean death for everyone. So Shackleton assigned the whiners to sleep in the same tent as himself. His presence toned down their negativity so that it didn't spread to others.


Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story (You are here)
Part 7: Epilogue

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Made to Stick for Writers: Concrete

When I was first learning French, I would pore over my notes, struggling to hit it home that “chien” meant “dog” and “pomme” meant “apple.” But it never seemed to stick. It was hard to see one word as a literal translation of another.
Then one day my teacher shows up lugging a bag of pretend food. She held up the plastic apple and declared “pomme.”
Everything clicked. “Pomme” was the firm fruit whose taste, texture, and smell were familiar to me. She gave me something visual. She gave me a concrete definition.

That’s what a concrete story does; it latches onto the reader’s memories and triggers the five senses. The reader feels like they’re watching alongside the characters.

Studies of the human memory show that we’re better at remembering concrete nouns versus abstract ones. It’s easier to remember something you can visualize (grapefruit, train) rather than something abstract (equality, hope).

Writers constantly present the abstracted form of the noun “Pain”. To say “he cried in pain” is not enough. Don’t tell me that he’s in pain, show me.
Lois Lowry provides an excellent example in her book The Giver as she describes a broken leg;

Then, the first wave of pain. He gasped. It was as if a hatchet lay lodged in his leg, slicing through each nerve with a hot blade. In his agony he perceived the word “fire” and felt flames licking at the torn bone and flesh. He tried to move, and could not…

The description uses several concrete nouns; “hatchet”, “hot blade”, “fire”, “torn bone and flesh”. The agony feels almost real, as if we too are experiencing it.

To make your story concrete, use concrete details. Through the five senses, describe what is happening to your character. What do they see, smell, hear, taste, and feel?
Don’t tell me the house was old. Show me the bald patches of roof tile, the door with a zigzag crack running down the middle, the sooty window panes broken into jagged teeth, the stench of mildew, the creak of an old shutter in the wind, the splintered wood, the dusty air you choke down every time you breathe.

Put the reader in the story.

Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete (You are here)
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue

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Made to Stick for Writers: Unexpected

To make something unexpected you must break a pattern. Doing so captures the audience’s attention. “Once upon a time…” is so common that the sentence fails to surprise.

In Patricia Kindl’s book Goose Chase she began with, “The King killed my canary today.”
Already we have several questions: Why did the king kill her canary? What does he have against birds or the narrator? Who is this king? How did he kill it? Was it an accident?

First of all, it’s surprising. It’s not the usual way for a fairytale to begin. Secondly, it’s interesting. We realize that we’re missing a lot of vital information and so we want to keep reading to find answers.

To be unexpected you must grab the audience’s interest and, more importantly, hold it.

Surprise
We become surprised because what we expect to happen doesn’t. In other words, our “guessing machines” fail us.
If that’s the case, then it should be easy to create a “hook” at the beginning of our stories, right? All we should need to do is write a surprising sentence. Wrong.

While our hooks need to be somewhat surprising, it can be difficult to craft one that avoids planting a red herring.
For example, if the first sentence was “Sitting in the shade of the tree early that morning, I could never have imagined that by sundown my whole family would be dead.”
What! We inwardly gasp. How did the whole family die?
We’d be curious to discover the cause and to read the, no doubt, thrilling adventure that led to their demise.

But what if the book suddenly begins describing every aspect of the narrator’s staircase. She then explains to us that her “whole family” consists of an old greyhound named Maddock who trips on said staircase and dies. Thus, by sundown, the narrator’s “whole family” is dead. It’s only after that episode that we get to the actual story, which is much less thrilling than we imagined.

You’d probably feel tricked and frustrated. The hook sentence turned out to be a red herring that did nothing but attempt to lure you into a dull story.

To write a successful hook it must both surprise and reflect the main idea, or the core, of the story. The stupid dog dying was NOT the story’s main idea and so it failed. Miserably.

Interest

Now that we’ve got the reader’s attention, how do we keep it?
Let’s talk Velcro; Velcro connects because one side is made of hooks and the other is made of loops. The hooks snag the loops and Voila! It sticks together.

We have the “hooks’, so to speak. We have the answers to the reader’s questions. But before we can answer their questions, we have to make them want the answer. We have to make them realize that they’re missing crucial information.

To do so, ask yourself, “What questions do I want my audience to ask?”

Once we know the questions ourselves, we can gently point out what the reader doesn't know by creating mystery.

“The man was killed by the king because he distributed treasonous flyers” leaves very little to become curious about.
By withholding information we can create mystery.
Instead, we could show the man being arrested by the king’s guard. We could show the guard proclaiming that, as a traitor, he will be tried.
Now we’ve got the reader asking questions; What did the man do that was so treasonous? What will happen at his trial? Will he end up dying?

Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected (You are here)
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue

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Made to Stick for Writers: Simple

Let's get this straight; "simple" does not mean "dumbing down". It means "core".
For writers, who thrive on details, simple can seem like a misnomer. From what I can tell, the simple principle is very seldom used in the actual writing process. But it can help while planning and publishing.

Planning
Even if you don't believe in outlines, finding your core message beforehand creates focus. The story unfolds smoother.
Try to figure out the core, or main idea, by asking yourself;

In one sentence, what is the main idea of this story?

Twilight: A seventeen-year-old girl falls in love with a vampire who has a hard time not eating her.
Harry Potter: A neglected boy discovers that he's a wizard and goes to a school of magic.
The Hunger Games: A girl takes her sister's place in a cruel arena where only one person is allowed to survive.

These one sentence descriptions can later be used when you're attempting to publish your work.

Publishing
One of the biggest challenges in writing is convincing a publisher that your book will sell itself. Quoting from the book:

In Hollywood, people use core ideas called "high-concept pitches." You've probably heard some of them. Speed was "Die Hard on a bus." 13 going on 30 was "Big for girls." Alien was "Jaws on a spaceship."

So why do analogies work? Basically, it presents a new concept by tapping into a concept you already know. Take, for example, these book reviews;

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
"A delightful...debut from an author who dances in the footsteps of P.L. Travers and Roald Dahl."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review

The Dark Stairs
"Move over Nancy Drew, Herculeah Jones has arrived!"
-School Library Journal

Stormbreaker
"What if James Bond started spying as a teenager?"
-Kirkus Review

Wolf Queen
"A diverting escapade for fans of Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdy and Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted."
-Kirkus Review

Piratica
"There's a taste of Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones."
-Kirkus Review, starred Review


Intro
Part 1: Simple (You are here)
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue

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Made to Stick for Writers: Intro

Every author dreams of writing a book that sticks, one that the reader thinks about long after they've turned the last page. One that captures their attention and, more importantly, holds it.

In Chip and Dan Heath's book Made to Stick, they broke down the elements of a sticky idea into six principles (the acronym spells SUCCESs. Clever, no?). The idea must be a

Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Story

How can this apply this to writing?
WriterSense presents Made to Stick for Writers.

Intro (You are here)
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue

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Graphic Novels and ReMIND

I've heard some people say that graphic novels aren't real books. They're supposedly for "wimpy readers" and "are no better than picture books".

Sure, it's faster to read a graphic novel. But does that make it any less of a story?
What about The Arrival by Shaun Tan? It has no words. Zip. Zero. Rien. Yet it's one of my favorite books.

Alright, Here's how I see it; It is just as hard to create plot for a graphic novel as it is to create plot for, let's say, ...a seven hundred page book.

In fact (and most of you might hate me for this) it can be harder to make a graphic novel. The Drawings alone require serious effort.

Some people would argue this; "But...but, with graphic novels you don't have to worry about showing not telling, or character descriptions, or giving detailed scenery descriptions."

Well, no, but you don't have to worry about drawing the same character every stinkin' page.

Graphic novels, when done right, bring together story and art.

And while we're on the subject, let's talk about Jason.
Jason Brubacker has been working on his graphic novel for four years. He's been posting pages of it every Monday on his blog.
The story is brilliant, the art is breath-taking, and...he's publishing it in March!

Okay, now that we've established that this Jason is a writer just like the rest of us, let's give him our support. To get 2,000 copies of his book, ReMIND, printed, he needs $3,000 more. $6,000 if he wants it done nice, like in the picture.
I'm not saying donate. I'm saying BUY.
For twenty bucks (Free Shipping!) you can get a 135-paged hardbound copy of ReMIND when it comes out. If you're not sure whether you want to actually BUY it, check out his blog, read a few pages, and you'll probably be drawn in like I was.

Made up your mind to support your fellow writer? Good. Then click here to pledge.

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Guest Post: Writing Professionally

Hello, friends. It's Olive Tree, from HorseFeathers.
Let's see... I'm a pretty whimsical person, and I guess I write to share my crazy thoughts with others. A lot of the time I'll have a very vivid dream and turn it into a story or incorporate it into whatever story I am working on at the moment...I prefer to write fantasy, because all the rules are up to me — plus, describing new worlds and species gives me special joy. My current novel,...is nearly finished...I'm very excited about getting it published... I jotted down the first few sentences over three years ago! However, I actually published my first book this February.

One of the biggest problems I run into personally and that I see in other peoples' work is that it doesn't look professional. At all. This bugs the bejeezes out of me because I know that they have hopes to be published, but there's no chance when their work looks like that. So here's a few tips to make your writing sound like it was done by a professional author.

1: Make it proper

Improper spelling, grammar, and punctuation set off red flags everywhere! Spelling is something you can't skimp on when you want your writing to sound the best. Turn on spell check. Please. Punctuation is in the same boat... don't use more than one ! or ?, no more than three ..., use the proper "", and never use ?! or any other such combination. Learn how to use : , ; , and —. Indent and form a new paragraph when someone speaks. Instead of ALL CAPS, make it in italics. As for grammar, I suggest everybody read the Elements of Style. It's a short but very helpful book that will teach you how to make your writing look good. Of course, proper grammar all. the. time. is a big no-no as well... sentence fragments, run-ons, or dialect that may use improper grammar are all hugely important to give your book a personality and a style. But if you constantly make mistakes (especially in 3rd person) your writing will sound young and unprofessional.
Basically, read your favorite books (preferably not YA/children's books) and notice how the author uses the tactics above.

2: Make it plausible

If your villain is bad to the bone, or your hero has no flaws, your book will be really, really boring. Instead, give your villain an awful past, or your main character a violent streak they cannot control or some sort of internal struggle.
Also, if you use magic in your book, don't make everything ever-so-easy. You can't have your character sitting on the couch getting fat while his/her magic saves the world, with zero effort from the character.

3: Review

Whoops... suddenly your character has blond hair... wasn't it red in the beginning of the story? Or perhaps a minor character has switched names or genders without your noticing. And whatever happened to your main character's faithful dog? He seems to have disappeared.
If your work is inconsistent, even in the minor details, your book will die a very slow and painful death. Solution? Review! Either go back and read from the top every time before you begin working on it, or (if that takes several hours since your book is long, like me) every so often read the whole thing with a critical eye. Which brings me to number four...

4: Be your own critic

Okay everyone... ditch your ego and pretend you are a critic with a razor-sharp pen. Find any imperfections? Of course you did. Now go back to your usual self and fix what the "critic" found wrong or weak. I can't stress how important this is. Similarly,

5: Get a pre-editor

If you're not quite ready for a professional editor, get your most brutally honest friend, teacher, or family friend to read your story and give you honest-to-goodness feedback. Tell them to be merciless. Obviously a background in writing or publishing is preferred.
They might come back and tell you that your book is the worst they've ever read. Be ready for this. Authors must have a thick skin.
(I am always willing to read your work and give you feedback. Be warned... I'm one of those brutally-honest types.)

6: Variety and the over-use of it

If you're using "said" over and over, that's a problem. If you're repeating a name, that is a huuuge problem. Try using more descriptive words: "mumbled" or "cried"; "the girl" or "his friend".
But be careful! Too much variety will leave the reader confused and your work too wordy. Don't fall into the sandpit of variety. Teeter on the edge instead. It's a careful balance, one you have to find for yourself.

7: Have fun!

Add some humor. Make something silly. Go ahead, model a character after yourself, flaws and all. It's your book, and chances are that if you try to contain your style too much it won't sell, because it will sound like every other teen author trying to realize a foggy dream of authorship.

Good luck, and happy writing!
-Olive Tree

[If you would like to submit a guest post, e-mail me, Story Weaver, at writersnse@gmail.com]

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Procrastination

With summer at our heels, now our excuses are gone. We have more time than ever during the year and we should be writing.

So why aren't we?

Summer is shorter than it used to be. (500 Days of Summer? I wish.) Even if we write like crazy during our vacations, if we are lax on normal work-weeks we'll never get much done. We have summer for our hobbies. But we also must find time on normal days.

Don't waste one minute. Time is precious. A simple math equation will prove that:
People say that "time is money" and that "money is power", right?

TIME=MONEY
MONEY=POWER
So...

TIME=POWER

To have time is to have the power to do anything. Those who waste time will never get anything done.
Don't procrastinate. Do.

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Writing What You Want

I've repeatedly said in posts that "You are the author. The decisions are up to you. It's your book, do whatever you want..."
But sometime you have to sacrifice what you want for what makes sense.

I've developing another rough draft on the side. In it, I want the main character to fall in love with this girl. But that messes up my plot and destroys the personality I've created for my character. As much as I'd love a love story, I can't do it while retaining the character's true form (and the girl doesn't deserve him anyway.)

R.L. LaFevers, when writing Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist, created a character that she didn't want. On her blog, she said;

While I was writing the first book I ran into the problem of Nate and Aunt Phil having to travel all over the world...and how to make it interesting rather than episodic or a simple tour guide recounting. Drama, I thought! I need to increase the tension! Make Nate proactive!

So I had Aunt Phil send Nate out on the wing to go up to the propeller and see what was gumming up the prop...
And much to everyone's surprise (not the least of which mine) it was a gremlin who was gumming up the works and out she popped into the story.
B-but . . . I didn't want a gremlin in the book! It didn't work! It mucked up the world I was building and mixed mythologies and . . . and . . . No, I wailed!
But try as hard as I might, I simply could not write the book without her. And if you know how life works, it is probably not surprising to learn that for many readers she is one of the most popular parts of the book.

Sometimes, no matter how badly you want something, your book must come first.
Hey, no one ever said writing a novel was easy.

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Finding Time to Write

It's a problem every writer will face. There is no magic solution. You need to change something; you need to make time, or find time.

Writing entails using every available moment. There are times when you're sitting around doing nothing. Use that time. Utilize your lunch breaks, time in the waiting room, the bus, or the dull parts of a professor's lecture. And if you think it looks lame walking around with a notebook, there's nothing stupid about an intelligent person fufilling their dreams.

Or make time. Clear out your schedule. Hey, instead of spending three hours on Facebook, why don't you write? Decide not to watch that movie, and use those two hours to your advantage.
I'm not saying cut all communications with family and friends. You have to gage for yourself if a certain activity is worthwhile.

In addition to all that, set aside a specific time to write each day. Try to write daily, even if you're not inspired, even if you'll end up trashing everything you wrote anyway.

It takes dedication.
How badly do you want to get it finished? To get it published?
Only the most determined of writers succeed. Decide now to be that writer.

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How to Cure Writer's Block

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the long awaited antidote for writer's block, envied and sought after by writers worldwide...
Write about writer's block.

After writing Friday's post on writer's block, I felt inspired again. Ideas flew back into my mind and now I'm writing comfortably.

It makes sense, doesn't it? When you're going through a block, that's all you can think about. This leaves next to no room for productive thoughts about your writing.

So do what we writers do best; write.
Rant and complain about your block on paper. Get all that stress out of your head to make space for your story.
Go on. What have you got to lose?

Results vary. Side effects include strokes of genius, cheerfulness, relief, and a brilliant writing ability. Consult your muse to see if WRITERSENSE is right for you.

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Writing Jokes

Picture by dottydotcom.deviantart.com

Many people want to write a funny, satirical novel. We want laughs, even in the darkest of hours.
I've learned the hard way that you can't force clever punch lines.

For example, one of my first stories had a character who I'd established as the laugh it off, never serious, comic relief character.
During dull moments in the story I forced corny and lame jokes into her mouth.  I modified funny things that people said in real life and dropped it into the story, even when it broke the pace of the scene. I figured, if its funny in real life, why shouldn't it be funny here?

It doesn't work that way.
All the jokes I inserted fell flat, and caused even the most supportive relative to raise an eyebrow while editing.

Humor, I've found, is usually stumbled upon accidentally. The funniest jokes are the ones that come out of thin air.But the same holds true for real life.
Don't try too hard. Like a lot of aspects of writing, you've got to wait for inspiration to strike.

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Deadlines

Deadlines seemed to be feared by everyone. They're a "threat".

I prefer to think of them differently.

Writers need goals, something to motivate them.

Paul F. Tompkins said, "I need fear to make me creative...I like to say, it takes pressure to make a diamond."

If you have no finish line, what's the point of even starting?

Set a deadline for yourself, an achievable goal like finishing a your rough draft before summer break.
And then celebrate it. You are that much closer to being published.

"Success is a finished book, a stack of pages, each filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world."
~Tom Clancy

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Writers: Born or Made?

I guess this question could be asked of any artistic profession.

Some people, after complimented, say that they were "born with it". Was I born with the ability to write? I don't know. I hadn't even considered writing for fun until 5 years ago. (So I guess that makes my profile description sort of a lie.)

It's my opinion that you can do anything if you practice and study the subject long enough.

Yet some people while being taught a new subject have "a knack" for it right off the bat.

I think it's that everyone has some things they excell at, and some things they're not-so-good at. But that's not to say they cannot do the things they suck at (sorry, that sounds harsh), but that they have to work harder than others to do it well.

What do you think?

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Reading While Writing

Usually if your a writer, you're also a reader. You don't have to be a Fanatical-Barnes-&-Nobles-Coffee-shop-person to be a reader.

But I've found that sometimes reading can change the tone of your book.

For example, I once was reading Pride & Predjudice. I would alternately put down the book to write some of my story. What came out was diologue along the lines of, "And how are you on this blissfully beautiful morn?", and a character that suspiciously resembled Mr. Darcy.

What you read affects what you write. It can turn the story in a whole new direction (not necessarily bad) or can affect your voice as a writer.

What so often happens is that you want your story to be as masterfully brilliant as that writer's book.

I'm not saying abandon all books, but be careful that your writer's voice isn't being compromised or that you're only adding something because it worked out in someone else's story.

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