I’m leaving for Texas in a couple of days (moving), so the rest of this week and possibly into next I’m not sure how my internet access will be. I’ll post if I can, otherwise, I’ll see you when I get settled again.
Keep Writing!
I bit the bullet yesterday, so to speak, and finally wrote a death scene in Sean, my nano novel that never ends. I knew it was coming, knew it had happen. Still, I dragged my feet and hesitated before putting words to page.
Sometimes characters have to die. As I child I think I was traumatized by Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Charlotte’s Web, among others. Sometimes it’s only the expectation of a character’s death, like Lord of the Rings. But a character’s death can propel a story forward, or end it.
My biggest concern in all my writing, the one question I constantly ask myself is “Does this make sense?” Death doesn’t always make sense, but in those cases then the importance lies in the other characters reaction to it. Are the other characters angry? numb? Are they secretly glad for the death or is it the worst trauma of their lives?
Hopefully, if I’m doing my job right, even the death of a secondary character has an impact. My stories tend to be about reaction. Often my main characters are people thrust into circumstance and I stand back and watch to see what they do. So, though I feel bad about this character’s death I know it was necessary and will shape my main character for the rest of the story.
I was going to write about something else today, but I had an interesting dream this morning so I’ve been kicking at a story from a piece of dialogue I remembered. I’m still not sure where its going or what its even about, but I have a couple of characters and I’m just writing to see what they tell me. It might work, it might not. But I’ve learned that where the characters lead its usually a good idea to follow!
I’ve been trying to take the advice from Zen in the Art of Writing and write from emotion. Bradbury suggests writing from your fears. So I’ve been trying to do that. At first it was a few sentences, then I’d stop. The other day I wrote a page. Mostly right now it has to do with uncertainty. I’ve been operating for the last few months from a space where I have very little control over my external circumstance. There has been a lot of external bravado and a lot of internal fear.
I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. As a writer, it’s my job to take what I can from the world around and inside of me and breathe life into the embers. When it works it becomes a flame and a light to others. Other times, the embers wither and fade, even if they don’t completely turn to ash.
Writing from your fears is hard, and, well, scary. But you might be surprised what leaps to life when you let the embers catch some air and fuel.
Is it irony or sheer churlishness that I used a rejection letter as a bookmark in a book about the joy and zest of writing?
Ray Bradbury has long been one of my favorite authors. My first exposure to Bradbury was my parents worn copy of The Illustrated Man, which I read as a teen. Once I discovered a love of science fiction, there was a used bookstore in town where I could acquire cheap 60’s copies of all sorts of scifi. Bradbury, Clarke, and Heinlein were my beacons at that age. Star Trek (I preferred the classic) was my first fan fiction. I emulated the stories I loved, borrowed characters and made my first clumsy attempts at spinning my own worlds.
So imagine my burst of joy when I finally spotted this book in the store. I’d heard of Zen in the Art of Writing before, but I’m fairly certain I’d never laid eyes on a copy. There was no question I’d buy it.
Whoa. I dog eared one page. I never dog ear books. To me, often, books are precious things that should be handled with care. But this one…this one begs for a highlighter, for dog eared pages and a well worn, almost falling off cover and a broken spine. This book shouts about a writers Truth far better then virtually any book I have ever read, and I’ve read a lot of books about writing.
Bradbury lays it all out. His philosophy, his joy. The essay “Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle” actually brought me to the verge of tears. I can’t remember the last time an essay did that. It’s a book that may challenge you and shatter you.
This book belongs in any writers library. Really it applies to any creative person. And clearly, I can’t recommend it enough.
So, I got a rejection letter the other day, my first one from a magazine. Before I go any further, allow me to lay out Heinlein’s rules for writing:
Great article about it here. But the rules, despite being written in 1947, are still as applicable today as they were then. So, I put the manuscript back in the mail today to a different publisher and sent another story to the publisher that rejected the first. Rule 5 is the rule that keeps you from going crazy.
I’ve got some other things floating around in my head like a bunch of half-formed nebula, cradles for stars that might one day soon flare to life in spectacular fashion. One of these stories I sent out was an idea I first had maybe 13 years ago, only now committed to paper and making its way in the world with the hopes that someone will decide its good enough to hang up so the universe can see it shine.
One thing I’ve definitely found so far on this writing journey is that submitting things gives me anxiety like nothing doing. But, I do it anyway. Yesterday morning I sent off the Pisces story to The First Line. But I find myself agonizing far more over making sure my cover letter is good and my formatting is perfect then I ever do over the actual words on the page. Which isn’t to say I don’t worry about them too, but I am usually fairly confident in my stories, otherwise I wouldn’t be sending them off in the first place.
On the other hand, I’m sure that it’s much better to obsess over your formatting then to send it off all thrown together with nary a thought of how it looks. And I’m equally sure that nerves are par for the course when it comes to putting something you create out there.
The doing it anyway, despite nerves or anxiety, thats the important bit.
Sometimes stories are a struggle. You have to coax details out of the characters, sweat over the plot and fight to get the words on the page. Then there are the times a character whumps you over the head, ties you to the chair and demands that you tell his or her story NOW. I had one of these latter ones late Wednesday night.
See, I’d been letting one of the first lines from the lit mag I posted roll around my ahead a couple days. In an article on BoingBoing I came across the name Aquarius Cheers. Now, supposedly someone really has this name, so I couldn’t use that. But a character named Pisces jumped out at me when I was brushing my teeth to go to bed. Not only that, but more lines stared tumbling into my brain. I tried to tell the writing part of my brain to wait until morning, but Pisces would have none of that. So I wound up sitting on my bed writing a longhand short story until it was done.
Not saying any more about the story as I’m going to be submitting it to The First Line, but it is a good one and obviously this character has a very strong voice. Sometimes it’s nice to have a character hold you up in an alley, so to speak; what comes out can be magic.
This is relatively short notice, but the Writer’s Digest Poetry Contest is accepting entries until December 20, 2007. Poems can be in any form as long as they are under 32 lines long. $10 entry fee for your initial poem, $5 each additional. You can enter online if you pay by credit card. First place is $500. Also if your poems have been published anywhere, including your personal website, they are disqualified from entry.
Full rules and details are located on the contest page.
I think I’m going to see if I can’t dig one up to submit or write a new one, even if poetry is not my forte.