Friday, June 18, 2010
Character Questions
"What happens next?"
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
3 Things You Need to be a Writer.
There is no way you can be a writer without actually writing. Find time to write or make time to write as much as you can. Try and write everyday if you can. You can't call yourself a writer if you treat it like a half-ass hobby.
You need to READ...
Not necessarily read but you must study the art of story. Books, good TV, good movies, articles, comic books(My favorite), etc. You must consume a lot of the medium you want to be a apart of or are apart of.
And you need to LIVE...
The thing I see a lot of my fellow writers refusing to do. They write and they write but maybe they are a little too anti-social. Find out about life have fun, do bad things, do good things get knocked up, or knock someone up. Do this so one you tell your story whatever it may be. You have some sort of basis in reality. Life is not only in books and it's way to short to miss out on because you want to watch your favorite episode of your favorite TV show again(I'm guilty). That tragic lonely writer shit is old. Immerse yourself in the real world and I guarantee you will find the greatest stories of all.
That is all
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Maybe, I Just Need To Listen
I think to myself, I can do this.
The thing is, non-fiction and I have had, like, a really bad history. Non-fiction has been that really lame boyfriend that never listens or does what I want, for once. It's always been rocky and every time I've decided to give it a second or third or fourth chance, I just get really pissed off... 3-year-old style.
Non-fiction is for bitches, anyway! I'll proclaim even though I'm not sure what, exactly, that's supposed to mean. I'll throw my pen to the ground and my notebook, too. Then I'll tell everyone who will listen, which is usually either my boyfriend or the cat, that I'm a fiction writer. Non-fiction just isn't my thing. This is me totally justifying the fact that something was hard and I gave up.
As I listen, I obviously literally hear their voice but I also hear their voice in the phrasing they chose, how they express a conversation, etc. It's more conversational and yes, it's mostly because they are speaking to someone else but essentially, that's the idea. Written or verbal, I think non-fiction tries to convey a more concise message within the story. I feel that what the author is trying to say is pretty clear cut. No speculation like with fiction. I mean, I certainly could be wrong on this. I haven't read every piece of non-fiction that ever existed but from what I have read and more often, heard, this seems to be the case.
The biggest problem I seem to face is that I doubt myself in non-fiction. I think that there's something amiss when I write because I'm forced to be me. With fiction, I am these other characters. I can make them do whatever I want but when the story is directly about me in some way... I feel restricted and the writing suffers. I want to get over this hurdle so badly and when I'm listening to this podcast, it seems to click with me. Like, YES that's it, do you get it now? And I DO get it. It's just a matter of giving non-fiction another shot, of really trying and understanding that it's going to take a little more work than usual.
So, as the lights fade and REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling" begins to play. I'm holding my hand out to you, Non-Fiction and asking if maybe, we can give us just one more chance...
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Invisible Bridge
So I just finished The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer and to say it blew my mind is a total understatement; it’s pretty much solving every problem I’m having with my own goddamn book. At least, I think it is—what I did was turn over the bottom corner of the pages I want to come back to and figure out how the hell she crafted that thing she just crafted, and then I read forward ‘cause I was so in to the story that I didn’t want to stop. Later, I’ll go back (although I’m sort of worried about that, ‘cause the bottom corners of like half the pages are turned over, and this is a six hundred page book, so to really study it will take a feat much greater than reading it, although reading it was pretty hard, too, not because it’s long but because the shit that happened to these characters made me want to kick down the wall). I bought the book last Saturday and finished it in a week. I read at night, on the train in the mornings, during Caleb’s naptime. I invented a stomachache so I could hide out and read it.
It’s just totally badass.
Now what will I read? Got to have something new, as well as going back to the old. I’ve had Lorrie Moore’s new one, Gate at the Stairs, on my shelf for six months. Also, Dave Egger’s Zeitoun. But those are both in FIRST PERSON. I need third, third, third, multiple vantage point third!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Experiments in Editing
I'm forever fascinated with how other authors edit. The quirkier the better. I like sampling other people's techniques in the hopes of being able to add it to my own Authorly Arsenal.
Recently, I stumbled upon something almost by accident. When I edit, I do so with a hard copy and a set of colorful pens. Round one of editing consists of taking one of said colorful pens and going through to take out any redundancies. After each pen and paper editing round, I'll make the corrections on the computer copy.
So, it was during one of my computer corrections that I happened to glance down and see my word count dwindling. It stopped at 3,967. I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can get that down to an even 3K?"
The challenge began! I took the hard copy of the manuscript and really forced myself to look over it (keep in mind, this was already my fourth or fifth time scouring the piece). I would go line by line word by word and ask myself if it REALLY had to be there, if it lent anything to the story. 967 words is nothing to scoff at and when you've already done some significant editing, it's no walk in the park.
Although the goal was 3,000 words, I didn't quite make it. The final word count was something like, 3,039. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. As much as I tried, I couldn't get rid of those last 39 words. In not being able to do that, I realized that I had made the piece as concise as I could. I could say with confidence that every word was necessary for the story I was trying to tell.