Posts tagged with “on writing”
February 18
Kurt Vonnegut's eight rules for writing a short story
In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
- Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
- Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Vonnegut qualifies the list by adding that Flannery O’Connor broke all these rules except the first, and that great writers tend to do that. 02:37 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: on writing
February 02
Glimmertrain & Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's Strategies for Revision
From Glimmertrain’s latest newsletter, here’s an excerpt from a brief article by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig titled Strategies for Revision. These are my favorites, and I think the most useful and least touchy-feely.
Change your frame.03:50 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: on writing, article
I am a huge advocate of writing on giant paper, of spending as much time off the computer as possible. Sometimes I cover a wall with butcher paper and list all the image systems, objects, themes, and character arcs I am working with. Seeing everything at once allows me to see what I can essentialize, and how to modify character journeys to make them more resonant.
Make the familiar strange.
Write standing up. Write with your non-dominant hand. Write with a bag over your head. This will have the added effect of keeping you from self-editing too soon.
Make it delicious.
Write with felt tipped pens on silky paper. Look first-date amazing. Then sit at your desk, and get to work.
January 29
Your brain on fiction
From Cory at Boingboing:
”A forthcoming journal article in Psychological Science reports on the research of scientists from the Dynamic Cognition Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis into what brain activity takes place while we read narrative stories. The study concludes that our brains simulate the action in the story, echoing it as we read.”
Further proof that the brain is active during the imagination of events and characters that occurs while reading in the same areas as when it thinks it or does it in the real world. Yet another in a long line of experiments (including the much talked about mirror neurons) that allude to the brain having a single system of representation that is used in many forms. I’m always shocked it takes the science world this long to come to conclusions like this which would seem rather obvious to others. I have to admit I’m always surprised that the research world is surprised by this, and even more that it took them this long to get this far. No offense to you tireless neuroscientists, of course.
Click the image for boingboing’s post on the study.
December 10
Daily Routines
This is a nice little source of inspiration; chronicling the daily routines of other creatives. See, you're not alone. You just need discipline dammit! 09:44 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: on creativity, on writing, inspirationAugust 27
Discipline
Discipline is something I lack. I have to force it upon myself since I am a very lazy person by nature. But I also know that lack of self-discipline is really the only thing that ever holds you back. If you think it's something else, you're probably wrong. Sure, there are little things like time, money, inspiration, people, drama, industry politics, equipment, etc...but those are small items which you will always get around. Self-discipline is a career maker, and its lack is a a career-destroyer (before it even starts). <strong>Self-Reward: the old way</strong> For the last few years my self-discipline has taken the form of a reward system of breaks. In other words, if I sit down and do some creative work for X amount of time, then I reward myself by taking a break and smoking a cigarette, or opening a beer, or checking my email, or whatever. The point was, I made arbitrary landmarks like "If I work till 8pm, then I'll go smoke a cigarette". The problem with this system is it rewards diligence with a lack of diligence. It actually aided the self-discipline because it made the not-working portion of time the goal, when the whole point is to make the working portion the goal. Eventually you end up with all your excitement going to the next time you get to smoke that cigarette and you get a nasty smoking habit in the meantime. Don't reward time you want to spend with time off. It is counter-productive. At least for me. <strong>Self-Reward: the new way</strong> To combat this, I've devised a new system of self-reward. I have a whiteboard next to my desk at home. For every complete hour that I spend with my ass in my chair writing, I mark the whiteboard with a line. That line equals $10 which I transfer from my checking account to a floating savings account (a virtual piggy bank for loose change). So, every hour I spend glued to my seat and doing my creative work, I pay myself $10. Feel free to go in half hour increments if you must. This system pays you to keep working. And obviously its still your money, but it's "extra" money because it's not part of your checking account. It's a "feel free to spend this on whatever the hell you want because you've earned it" account, and it promotes my ass being glued to my chair. I started last week. I have $45 now. More importantly, I'm learning not to take breaks, and to have an enormous sense of accomplishment from each hour I get to work. 09:10 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: on writing, on creativity, discipline, obstructions, articleJuly 29
The Writing Salon: Bay Area writing classes
Suggested by Rosie Atkins as a good place for one-off classes. I'll be looking these over and trying one out very shortly. 11:47 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: education, on writing, classesJuly 17
Conversation with Kevin Lottes about editing
The following is an email exchange I recently had with a friend who has helped edit some of my work (and vice versa). The conversation touches on some useful tips on editing, and which apply to any type of creative critiquing. <br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><br />Kevin:<br /><br />Last night I was just thinking how hard it is to just read a draft of a story for what it is rather than trying to dissect it from the get-go, which I’m pretty guilty of. It’s tough to read a draft and not want to become the writer. Maybe I should start laying the red pen down and just work harder at reading it without wanting to change anything. I’m gulity of that. But just because that’s how I read my drafts, you know? It’s tough to switch hats, from being the writer to the reader, you know?<br /><br /><br />Me: <br /> <br />heh heh. i actually think you’re guilty of that a bit too. when i started reviewing people’s work i actually recognized that could be a problem and have established a system that i think works great. simply put…i read it twice. i read it first without a pen. just read it. at the end i’ll make a list of first impressions. then i read it again, this time with the pen. then i make a list of second impressions.<br /><br />that way you can actually read the story and get a feel for what the author wants it to be, or what it is on its own…without trying to impose your structure yet. and often your first impressions are very different than your second read…but both are important because a reader is usually not going to read it twice. but a second time allows a reviewer to look again and see what might be happening underneath…which obviously can help the author bring it out.<br /><br />if you’re having these questions, then i would strongly implore you to do the same. you can’t edit something if you don’t yet know what it is, ya know?<br /><br /> <br />Kevin: <br /> <br />Good point. Will do.<br /> <br />I wonder if Dylan has anyone read over his lyrics before he sings them to an audience or goes to record them or whatever? You think he asks what other’s think before he does his thing with it? How cool would that be? Having him hand you a draft of The Times Are A-Changin and say "What do you think? Do you think I should change anything?"<br /> <br />Sometimes I think we exhange our work with others, not for critiquing, but to seek praise. I know I’m guilty of that too. Sometimes I don’t care what others think I should change it to. I just want someone to tell me it was good, you know?<br /> <br /><br />Me: <br /><br />hahaha…yes. everyone asks someone…even if their wife is the sounding board or the bum on the street. and some people need more affirmation than others for sure. i totally agree though…sometimes you just want to know that it doesn’t suck. sometimes you just need objectivity, not for specifics…just because you’re too involved.<br /><br />and yes, sometimes you just want some ego inflation. but i think we’re both mature enough to have moved beyond simple ego inflation. if it were just that then you’d find a reader who loved everything you do. someone said that the best reader of your work is the one who likes it, but doesn’t love it. i would say you like my stuff but don’t love it…so its working out :)<br /><br />speaking of the dylan thing…which is hilarious…ever see the famliy guy when peter was writing songs with simon and garfunkel, and he was like "don’t you think it should be parsley, sage, rosemary, and lowry’s seasoning salt?" that’s the kind of feedback dylan would’ve gotten.<br /><br /><br />Kevin:<br /><br />Yeah, I don’t know what I would tell Dylan. Can you imagine me saying to him, "Umm, yeah, Bob, I’m not sure. Where’s the conflict in this? Why do you go from drowning in a flood to spanish leather boots? Who are you speaking to? I get lost in the middle of it. I think you should start over. The more you do it the better you’ll get." Ha! Yeah right. In my dreams. But you know, we really don’t know how hard he actually works on a song, do we? When he dies, they’ll probably find enough drafts of one song to fill up the Grand Canyon. <br /> <br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><br />The system I mention seems to be working out great. I picked it up after I realized I wanted to write and then interviewed various teachers and students and writers about their experiences with workshops and critiques. The common themes informed the system I mentioned which is really centered around trying to understand what the work you're looking at is trying to be on its own...not what you think it should be...and then responding accordingly. <br /><br />A few months back I took a one-day editing course through Berkeley Extension, and we did an exercise that really hit this home in a funny way. The instructor gave us a story that an 11-year old girl had written and told us to mark it up for revision. The joke was that while at first glance it looked atrocious (varying voice, words in odd places, run-on sentences, sentences out of order), if you actually took the time to realize you were editing an 11-year old's piece, it was pretty close to perfect. It sounded like an 11-year old should sound, and really did the job of pulling the reader through the experience of her brother leaving for war. In other words, sure, I might have written it differently, but it wasn't my piece. For what it was...the emotional tale of a sister and brother being split up...via the voice of an 11-year old, it was close to perfect and the reader had no trouble following along or being emotionally invested. <br /><br />I'll post up the story if I can find it. <br /> 11:01 AM | 0 Comments | Tags: collaborating, editing, article, on writingJune 04
Beginning writers often don’t give their characters enough particulars. Food is something that readers can understand.
— <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/dining/04vapnyar.html?_r=2&ref=dining&oref=slogin&oref=login" target="_blank">Lara Vapnyar</a>.
01:05 PM
|
0 Comments
|
Tags: inspiration, on writing