The Week I Didn't Write — Or Thought I Wasn't Going To

With only a conclusion, a final proofread, and one final class to attend, I am just hours short of completing my degree. Wow. How the time flies.

This week has been a relatively easy week for me. With only one paper left to worry about, it was a low pressure week as I allowed myself ample time to outline, write here and there, and just feel the unique sense of "yes, I have to do this paper, but no, I don't actually have to freak out about it because I have time to spare and everything is totally under control."

So I also decided that I wasn't going to worry about novel either. I would take a week off from writing. I need to start my revision soon, but I also needed to give my mind some time to rest, I figured. Time would allow me perspective on my work and also the mental recouping I absolutely am in need of. But as the week went on, a funny thing began to happen. Ideas started popping up everywhere, and once they did, it was like my brain just wouldn't stop.

I read a newspaper article — therein waited a great new topic for a book. I read a blog post — it sparked the idea for a great new setting perfect for an ensemble cast of characters. I thought about my novel — and an idea here, and a line of dialogue there.  I looked back at some of my other story ideas as I contemplate what will be next project later in the summer/fall, and with each section of my notebook I read, ideas just started flowing until I had no idea which I'll choose because they all seem so appealing right now!

I was amazed. I still am, hence why I'm blogging about it. Why, on the week that I decided to really take a break, did my mind suddenly kick into wonderful, creative overdrive? Why was I constantly scrambling to get down that idea before I left for a meeting, in the midst of conversation, and right before I was about to fall asleep? Don't get me wrong. It's a welcomed experience, and certainly good for my current and future projects! But it got me thinking about why this happened. And these are the things I came up with:

First, I definitely think this is an outgrowth of the discipline of writing. For a whole year now, I've been very dedicated to two different projects. Not to say I didn't practice the discipline of writing before, but this year was different. The year might have even been one spent on overdrive in terms of my writing, but that's okay, because I truly learned just how far discipline and ambition can take me. So now, I'm used to writing rigorously. I am used to holding myself to a demanding schedule. And while I think I can afford to tone it down at times, discipline creates better writing. And it keeps my brain thinking and exploring and creating. Certainly a plus!

I also think that with the end of school comes the advent of new things. New projects, new freedom, more time to write what I want and not work on papers that might be stimulating but are not actually helping me with my novel. I've known school was coming to a close for a long time now, and that freedom was just around the corner. But now I can feel it. And I'm excited. So I guess all these ideas are bubbling to the surface because I can now actually pursue them. I can write one project while planning the next. Maybe I'll even try writing two at once (but only if I am really having an overflow of ideas happening — or on second thought, maybe not!). Regardless, I think my subconscious is responding to the imminent freedom. And again, I'll take it. It's always been to have too many ideas than too few.

Finally, as I begin to revise my most recent novel, which I love a lot, I am also looking forward to writing new things. Throughout this year in particular, I have truly discovered the benefits, and the enjoyment within revising. But for me, I think the thrill of the new idea and the writing of that project that has long awaited me still outweighs the excitement of revising. Hence my brain constantly looking forward to the next first draft somewhere down the line.

So whatever the reasons, I'll certainly take it. It feels good to know that as I finish school, I am still ready to work. I am ready to pursue my writing with just as much gusto as I had during the school year, when deadlines and requirements spurred me forward. Only now, my love of story telling can be sole my motivating factor, and I can work in my own way, on whatever I want, whenever I want! It's quite liberating, I must say. But I am certainly indebted to the schooling that has helped me to get here. And I'm really looking forward to the future :)

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Support

Your character is in a time of need. Whether it be emotional, physical, or a combination of both, your character needs someone to support her. Who does she turn to? What is this character's relationship to your protagonist? Is this supporting character also experiencing the same difficulties, or is he or she removed from the situation?

Write a conversation between your protagonist and her friend. Work on revealing their relationship through the ways they interact. Ask yourself what they are not saying to each other, and what this reveals. How does this related to the large conflict of your story? And how can you use the relationship as both a positive support for your character and a relationship that propels the greater story forward?

Why We Need Books, Even Our Own

This week has been a tough week up here in Boston, Massachusetts. Working just blocks from the bomb site, watching the tragedies unfold on the news, and then being told to stay in our homes, this week has been like no other. And many of us will continue to feel the effects of the

People say times like these remind you of what is important. I would definitely agree that this week has reminded me. But in addition to the importance of relationships and living our life fully, this week has also reminded me just how important books are. Just how much I need them, and how much we all need them.

Because our world so often leads us into hard, scary, trying situations, I know that for many people books provide a place of shelter. A refuge from daily life, even when life is going so tremendously well. Not all books are happy or easy to read, and they are not meant to be. But books provide the reader with a new experience of the world. They let you slip into another skin, leaving the constraints of your own life behind. They stretch the limits of the self as you experience life through another’s eyes — in another time, another world, another perspective, another worldview. They comfort you. They teach you about others. They teach you about you. They give you a quiet, intimate, connect experience in a way that other mediums cannot. They let you be whoever you want to be. And they embrace you, as a participant, important to the shared transaction between reader and text.

I’m not saying that books will heal all wounds. And I don’t think that books are the only things that matter. Because, honestly, I believe in people, and the need for relationships. I believe that conversations and interactions often do more than anything else can. But I also believe that quiet time, reflection, and new experiences add to the quality of our lives. And books provide all of these. They shelter us in their pages, and they challenge us, each and every time. They help us in hard times, and make good times even better.

So as writers, I think this week provides an important take away. It reminds us of something we’ve known all along but sometimes forget in the busyness of life, and even in the hope of writing a good book. And that is this:

Write what you want to put out into the world. Write what you want to the world to know, what you want the world to feel. Write what you need to write, for the good of your own soul.

By this, I don’t mean writing didactic books that instruct and scold, or even creating emotional elegies of what is or what was or what you’d like the future to hold. But writing something that you want to put out into this world. Something that can potentially last beyond you. A text that conveys your bit of hope for yourself, and for others. The life lesson that you want to offer, or the emotion you want to share, or that tidbit of wisdom that you’ve gained from your experiences.

We never quite know what tomorrow holds. But one thing I know is I want to put something good into this world. Something that will help others to cope or escape or laugh or feel. Something that I might need myself.  

Visualizing — Seeing and Creating A World, And the Fun You Can Have Doing That

Last week, my friend Richard asked me a really good question. He said, " When you're writing, how much do you visualize? Do you see the things happening in your mind, and how much do you know about what your characters look like?" This was a really great question, because even though I definitely do this, I hadn't really spent to much time contemplating how or why I visualize. So I started thinking about this, and of course, here's my blog post about it!

My answer to Richard was the I visualize differently for different things. For example, I know I pay a lot of attention to the way characters move and what they express in their body language. So I often find myself acting out hand movements or different expressions in my room, trying to break down just how to catpure that head tilt or hand gesture or facial expression in my text. But when it comes to the faces of the characters themselves, meaning what they look like exactly, it isn't quite the same for me.

Explaining this to Richard, I realized that while of course I know what my characters look like in terms of basic characteristics, general size, key descriptive markers, and all of their mannerisms, I don't have a crystal clear image of their face in my head. Mostly I know how they move. I see them acting out these situations, and in my mind I am often even looking at them head on, rather than just through their eyes. But still, the face isn't perfectly clear. Funny, right? I'm not sure. My characters aren't modeled after someone I know, and I don't work from a picture or prototype of sorts. So if I had to cast a person to play my character in a movie, I think I'd know when I found her. But right now, I am not quite positive exactly what she looks like.

Another thing I spend a lot of time visualizing is the surroundings. Not every detail of every part of the world, but all the immediate places that my character resides. For my current project, I have put a lot of time and description into making the library a real, tangible place for the reader, because as my characters go there again and again, I want the reader to feel as if he is right there with them — sitting on the seat cushion, climbing the stairs, admiring the enormous bookshelves with heavy, fancy books on them. Similarly, the city square becomes an important locale in my novel. So of course, I spent a lot of time visualizing just what it would look like, but beyond that also what it felt like. The smells, the sounds, how fast people walk, the feel of the cobblestones, the layout of the plaza. I guess I spend the most time visualizing place (in addition to body language), because to me, as a reader walks beside my character, I want him to feel as though he is actually beside her, understanding and taking in each new detail as she does.

Currently, as I am in the last stretch of writing my novel, my character has finally embarked on the journey the whole narrative has been leading up to (Yay!). As of last night, she's in the woods. Literally. So again, to evoke feeling, I want to spend a lot of time visualizing just what the woods looks like. Not necessarily every aspect of the woods, but the immediate details of how she visualizes
It's funny. Much like I don't exactly know what my character's faces look like, I don't fully know
It's like I'm in a tunnel, and all I can see is what is immediately around me. But that's okay. Those are the things I need. The sensory description that will put you right there with her.

Of course, I can jump out of said tunnel to look down over the landscape and know where everything is in relation to each other and how large the wood is (which I have done because I made extensive maps for this project before I started), but what I visualize, what I see when I am writing are only the details of the present moment.

And this can be fun. It's engrossing. The way my reader would be feeling present in the moment, so am I. Though I often change my mind and swap details that can perhaps change the setting substantially, I am still right there in it. Only now, instead of tall, looming trees, I am seeing shorter ones, with branches that stick out and pull your hair. Or, in the new town she's about to arrive in, the houses are clustered in a flat open area. They're actually situated right among the trees.

But that's okay. Because visualizing helped me realize what the most interesting setting looks like and the problems inherent in movement and place that I might not otherwise realize. Visualization is a key tool for novel writing, or any writing really. It may look different for you and me, or it may look different even within my own process. But it is important, and beyond that, it allows you the experience of being a reader to your own writing — throwing yourself so deeply into the world that it is almost as if you are just a traveller, there to take some pictures, and record your findings.