Go Explore! Ideas Come from Everywhere

This past week I went on vacation, and had the chance to take a small break from my writing and go see some sights I had never seen before. Strolling the streets of San Francisco, seeing the flashy lights of Vegas, taking a tour through wine country, walking through the redwoods, and just driving new city streets provided great memories. But my trip also provided a wonderful chance to encounter many new sights, people, and cultures that all serve as the basis for great new ideas.

I think there is something to be said about the way we see things when we are encountering them for the first time. Fresh eyes, a bit of wonder, and keen observation allow for a viewing experience we don't often get from the things we see every day. How easy it is for something to be overlooked when it  becomes repetitive or familiar. But when vacationing, or visiting a new museum or landscape, we have a new perspective that interests the mind and sparks a thread of creativity is a new way.

One of most common things you hear in writing is to write what you know. Of course, there is ample room for imagination and fantasy, but I do think there is lots of value to this statement. When you know something, when you can deeply understand a place or a concept or a feeling, it comes across in your writing. Paired with this idea of exploration and new experiences, I think great things can happen in your writing. Not only are we increasing what we know by seeing and experiencing anew, but combining the exciting, inspired creativity of a new place with the more concrete, though perhaps intangible reality of what we know in our hearts and minds can provide the basis for a truly fabulous story. We need the newness as well as the old. We need to blend the architecture and dialect and unique aspects of a new city with the familiar characteristics and emotions and regions we know to make a story that is both alive and moving but also fully believable and grounded.

My trip reminded me of the value of simple observation. It reminded me that I need to get out and experience the greater life beyond my small niche. The world is happening all around us. There are millions of conversations and sights and ideas to be taken in. And the details you pick up from all different sections of the world will combine beautifully with the unique, important truths you already know.

So explore. Go for a long walk. Venture into a new neighborhood. Take the bus in a different direction and see what's out there. Seeing new sights doesn't have to mean traveling across time zones and state lines. It can simply mean opening up your eyes to the little, unfamiliar things that exist all around us. It will improve your stories, I know it will! And it might just give you a great new idea or two.

Writing About Yourself - Applying What You Know About Fiction to Your Nonfiction

This guest blog was written by Jonathan O'Connor, a M.F.A. Writing student in Atlanta, Georgia. O'Connor has been published in SCAN Magazine and The Connector, and continues to submit to literary journals across the country. Currently, he is working on a novel and creating a professional portfolio. His inspirations include Lewis Carroll, Angela Carter, Neil Gaiman, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. O'Connor keeps a blog, Words From a Caterpillar, where he talks about writing, life, and the writing life. 

In second grade my teacher had us keep a journal that we would write in every day for at least fifteen minutes. We could write whatever we wanted, but I always found myself drawn to fiction. I thought my life was too boring. Most of my stories were about dinosaurs that could talk or people with superpowers. Sometimes the two mixed. Those stories were the best.

Although I've scaled it back a bit since then, I have to say that not much has changed. I'm still drawn to fiction, to magic, and the impossible. Through writing I'm able to create worlds, to use my imagination and birth characters that often take a life of their own. Because of this, I always made fiction my focus. I believed it was the only venue to release the creativity inside me. I was wrong.

This past year I found the journal I kept in second grade. I read all the stories I wrote in it. Not to pat myself on the back, but for a second grader, they were pretty good. As I turned the pages I saw that each story was more fantastic than the next. I began to wonder why I so vehemently opposed writing a simple journal entry. Then it occurred to me, although part of my love of fiction is world-building and character creation, I think there is an equally strong side of me that is terrified of nonfiction.

As a fiction writer, I can pick my moments. I can choose to insert my thoughts, feelings, or experiences in a story at my discretion. Nonfiction can be much more personal. By their very nature essays, memoirs, articles, and the like, tend to focus on some aspect of self. Even writing a cookbook can be extremely personal when you think about the role food plays in our lives. Today, however, for the sake of brevity I am going to focus on the personal essay.

When I first entered my writing program my idea of writing an essay was the same as writing a research paper. The funny thing was that I had been reading tons of different types of essays my entire life, but I never cared enough to examine how they were different. Take Walden for example. Sure, Thoreau is tackling a much larger idea about living simply (I know this is an oversimplification), but his collection of essays also rings very personal. He is talking about his experience and ultimately who he is, who he is becoming, and who he wants to be.

A good personal essay does these things. A great personal essay does this and adds aspects of fiction writing to help tell your very nonfiction story.

Here is a cheesy example of how applying your fiction hand can make facts fun:

1. UNAPPLIED: When I was seven I went to the beach for the first time. It was crowded and I got separated from my family. I was scared. 
2. APPLIED: The sand looked like it was steaming. I was holding onto my mother's sweaty palm before she let go. I don't remember why or how, maybe I was distracted by the orange sun or the foaming waves, but within seconds I had lost her. My unheld hand began to shake as older beach-goers surrounded me.

Nonfiction is about communicating facts in a engaging way. The best nonfiction I've read has been so stuffed with this that at times I forgot that what I'm reading is a true life experience. Most recently I've read A Common Pornography by Kevin Sampsell which is completely non-fiction but is so entertaining that I forget how diehard fiction enthusiast I can be. This is true of other books as well (I often get roped into books by Chelsea Handler for beach reads), but no matter the nonfiction, what stands out is that they all follow and much more strongly written and conceived version of "APPLIED" option two. 

In fiction, writers are tasked with creating a world from scratch, filling it with characters, and creating conflict. In nonfiction, much of that has been done for you, but the writer must take the information they have to work with and communicate it is the most creative, vivid, and authentic way possible. Maybe you aren't creating a brand new world for yourself, but to your reader, the nonfiction world you describe can be just as vivid, engaging, heart-wrenching, and new as any fictitious world you could have ever dreamt up. 

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Delivery

You character is awaiting a delivery. She paces in front of the door. She checks her watch. She sighs continually. What is she waiting for? Is it a package for herself? A project she must complete? A gift she is hoping to give? Or perhaps it is something more secretive? A tool to help her carry out a heist? A piece of information she needs to figure out a mystery? An item that will help her get revenge?

She continues to wait. Does the package arrive? What will happen if it does, and what will happen if it doesn't? Explore the two scenarios, choosing the one that leads your character to the biggest moment of conflict. 

The Beauty of the Unknown — The Importance of Sometimes Feeling Lost in Your Writing

On my to do list today, after blogging, of course, is to pack. I am going on a trip to visit my wonderful friend in California, so naturally I have to prepare. Although I have a few days before I will actually be in the airport, waiting with the rest of the anxious travelers for the boarding announcement, seeing as it is the weekend and week days are usually packed with a variety of things, I figured I would get a head start. So with some laundry done and a mental list in my mind, I will begin gathering clothes and other items and stacking them in a neat little pile in my suitcase.

We all have an idea of what our trips will look like when we travel. What we pack reflects what we anticipate our trip to be. The general climate, any potential weather storms, the need for toilettries, outfits for varying occasions, and the itinerary for the week. But trips never exactly going as planned. Something unexpected happens for good or for bad. Someone becomes ill. The scenery isn't quite what we expected. A series of fortuitous events make your trip even better than you had imagined. Regardless of specific occurences, travelling is and always will be unexpected. No matter how much you may try to anticipate the trip, things will happen as they will, and while packing might help you to navigate the twists and turns, packing can't change the inherent uncertainties of travelling.

Such is writing.

Much like traveling, writing is a similar foray into a unknown world. And while we can outline and research, character sketch and plan, the experience is never as we anticipated. Although we might be prepared, we are certainly in the unknown.

This is both a fun, exciting part of writing as well as a bit of a downer. I know I certainly wish that writing could be easier sometimes — that all my preparatory work of brainstorming and outlining and mapping made the words flow beautifully onto the page as the scenes flew by with ease. But while some days prove tremendously fruitful and enjoyable, other days are equally as difficult. Yet, there is something rewarding about the days that are harder. You know, that moment when the scene finally comes out just as you'd planned or the hours of agonizing over the perfect details to solve your mystery and bring your character into their promised land culminate into one brilliant idea. In the unexpected, darker times of writing, where you have your luggage in your hand but just can't seem to figure out what corridor to go down, often that is when the best ideas come. When you are feeling most vulnerable and beat down, that's when you can truly delve into the adventure of the page. That's when some of the best scenes are writting.

You see, writing is like life — fully of uncertainty and never what you expect. We don't know what will come around the next bend. And although we can try to plan the heck out of everything, you know it will never quite turn out that way. There is always a surprise waiting just beyond your line of sight.

To be honest, this is not always something that is easy for me. I'm a planner, for better or for worse. But   while I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of packing and preparing to the best of our abilities, I also know that sometimes when you're lost you might just stumble upon what you've been looking for — or even something better.

Wednesday's Writing Prompt – Bored

Your character is bored. Plain and simple. There's nothing to do. Nothing on TV. No one to talk to. He's desperately wanting for something to happen. So he begins looking around the room he is in.

Describe what he sees. Have him move around, touching things, picking them up, shifting them around. Think about how things feel in addition to how they look. Does he move things around or put them back exactly in their place? Then, he discovers something surprising. What is it? Perhaps he notices an object that wasn't there before – that he's certain wasn't left by him. Maybe he's finds that an object he thought was solid actually has a hidden compartment within it. Or, he finds a note slipped between two dusty books. How does this discovery affect your character? Is this beginning of a new conflict, or somehow tied to a preexisting one? What are the thoughts going through your characters mind? What does this set in motion? Where will this lead your character?

Perfection Comes from Patience — Not in the First Draft

This week, I worked on one scene for quite some time — much longer than I can remember working on another singular scene in a quite a while. Although there were plenty of moments of sitting and thinking, or jumping ahead to get down the other ideas that popped into my mind for later scene, I kept coming back to this one scene: working and reworking it; contemplating what I wanted to say and the appropriate responses of the characters; balancing the need to give information while also trying to make sure it remained interesting and moving forward. It was quite a doozy. But when I started to think about why it was so hard, it became really clear to me. It wasn't just hard because I was having a writing-block moment. It was because it really mattered. And the scenes that really matter the most are often the hardest to write.

See, the part I was most stuck on is a portion of a scene in which my two characters discover some super important information that they've been looking for for quite some time now. So not only is it a typical scene where pacing must be right and interesting things have to happen, but it's also a time where their characterization is key, and their reactions must be believable, and the important information must be perfectly stated in just the right way to help all the pieces tie together. Oh yeah, and, they read it from a book. So of course, I have to write the text of that book with a distinct voice of its own. Lots of layers, right?

Most of the problem wasn't finding the words themselves, but actually figuring out what I needed to say in the right way. Within my novel, I've conceived this scene as one that plays a pivotal role in getting my protagonist closer to the mystery she is trying to solve. So I want the details to be perfect. And I want to make sure this isn't just another scene that gives some information, but that it is a scene that marks a shift between the first part of her journey and the second. With this new knowledge, she will be able to go out, to set forth into the quest she is destined for and become empowered to seek her goal. But the more I thought about how important I wanted this scene to be, and how each detail had to be right, the harder it became.

I brain-stormed. I talked to a friend about it. I wrote and deleted, moved things around, thought some more, brains-stormed some more, and continued writing. And I am happy to say that I got it to a place I am comfortable with. But it certainly was a struggle.

Sometimes, we put added pressure on scenes to make them right the first time, which is of course exactly what I described about. But while I think this is very important, especially within the most pivotal one or two scenes within your book, I also think it's important to remember that you, and I, still have time to work out all the kinks in revision. I mean, perhaps my later scenes will better help me understand my current scene. In fact, I am quite sure that it will — for when I can see the work as a complete whole, I will have a better view of all the pieces and how they fit together. And maybe later I'll change my mind about how I want my protagonist to react. Or the perfect bit of dialogue will pop in my head while I'm riding the T or working on a project at work.

But I have to realize that just because it's hard, and just because it comes at this exact point in my story doesn't mean I have to have it all together now. There are many drafts to come. So perhaps I can just ease up a bit, knowing that I've got something down that already had a lot of thought behind it.

I may have a detailed outline now, but remembering that my novel, as a first draft, is fluid and has the time and space to change is important both to the success of the novel, and to my sanity. So while I fully believe in working hard and writing intentionally in the first draft, I need to remember that perfect doesn't have to happen today; and that all great novels and finished products were not so great at the get-go. They come with time. They come with patience.

So as I move onto the next scene, let's all take a deep breath, and trust that we did our best, and still have a whole lot of great work in front of us. We can do it. I am sure we can. Happy Writing!

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Visitor

Your character has a visitor coming. But not just any visitor — the person who creates the most stress and tension; someone who comes with the highest of expectations.

Who is this visitor? Is this visit for business purposes? A personal relationship? A parent or guardian? What are the potential ramifications of the visit? Does your character stand to lose anything if the meeting does not go well? Or is she perhaps trying to gain something from the exchange?

Think about all the steps she needs to go through to prepare. Cleaning, getting work done, planning the right outfit, providing the right food. Take your character through a series of preparatory steps, all the while using the actions to reflect her internal feelings. Does she talk to herself as she goes? Or is she constantly frustrated by her plans not working out as she'd hoped? Or do things go smoothly, and the only thing left to worry about is the moment when the visitor arrives at her door?

Themes — What Are They and Why They Matter

A couple weeks ago, my mentor asked me to consider what themes I wanted to come across in my book. After my second batch of pages, she said now was about the time when they should start to emerge. Reading her comments, I nodded my head before realizing that I wasn't quite sure exactly what she meant by 'theme' or how exactly I should be working it into my pages. I mean, I don't want my book coming across as some kind of didactic 'message book' that tells the reader exactly what I want them to think and feel about a certain topic. So during our next conversation, I asked her directly (despite feeling a little dumb), and said, "What exactly do you mean by themes? And how should I bring them out more?"

I don't know if you're like me, but I know that we all understand what a theme is. We've all been through middle school and standardized testing where someone asks us to identify the theme of a passage. But still, when it came to trying to make one in my own writing, or more so, trying to make one stand out within the pages, I felt a little unsure. So this is what my mentor said: A theme is a message I want my reader to take away from my book. Not a didactic lesson, or a judgement on how to live, but more of a human connection created between my characters and my reader. Thinking about it this way, I nodded my head for real. A theme is the connected, shared emotion I want to offer my reader. Yes, it is in some ways a message, but it should be based around emotion and struggle and the truth that sometimes living is hard.

Doing a writing exercise to brainstorm just what I thought my themes could be, I came up with three take-aways for my novel. Sharing them with my mentor, she thought they all fit well within the context of the story, and were good messages for readers to connect with. But while this helped me come to a greater understanding of just what my themes should be, and how a theme or themes fit into my book at all, it left me with the question of how exactly to get these themes across.

I think the answer can be different for each and every theme, and each and every book. For some, it is continually pointing out a significant struggle or lesson your character is dealing with without stating it directly, while for others, a theme might have to be explicitly stated by one of your characters in the book. Regardless, writing with the intention and knowledge of your themes is an essential aspect of getting them across. For example, one of my themes for my current novel is tradition — both the break of, and the discomfort and sometimes negative consequences of doing so, as well as the creation of new traditions that come from following your heart. Although I am not inserting the word tradition in every other sentence, or having the adult characters always talk about it or my protagonist agonize over it either, tradition has become a large part of my plot, and thus affects the action of the story tremendously. So while some might not identify tradition as a theme within my text, because it is intertwined with the plot so heavily, it is something a reader isn't like to miss — whether they can articulate its importance or not.

But regardless of how exactly you work theme into your narratives, I've come to realize that theme — the moment of emotional connectedness that will stay with the reader after the book has come to a close — is an important part of both the writing and reading experience. The trick is to find a theme that seamlessly fits into your novel and is true to the heart of the story you are writing.

Themes need to have an authentic connection to the story itself. Trying to throw in a message that has nothing to do with your actual storyline isn't going to help you at all. If anything, it will stand out as misplaced and perhaps even come across as didactic. So taking some time to stop and think about the messages your story is sending you is a good place to start. After all, while you are the writer, you are also a novel's first and truest reader. So make sure it resonates with you first and is something you care deeply about, for how else with your future readers care and connect with this theme.

Perhaps theme comes across a bit more overtly in texts for children or is even more significant, but it is undoubtedly present within adult novels as well. Theme, as defined by this emotional connection, is what will elevate your story from a good narrative to one that resonates with your reader. It will sharpen your novel and make your story memorable rather than a text defined for only a good plot or characterization. Theme gets at the heart of the story you are telling. And ultimately, it's the hearts of the reader we are targeting, not just their brain. So spend some time thinking about the heart behind your story, and just what you want to convey. It will make your story better, and perhaps connect you even more closely to your characters than before.

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Valentine's Day

Your character is the object of someone's affection, and it just happens to be Valentine's Day. How does your character feel about this person? It is unrequited love? Love that is felt just as strongly in return? Or a struggling relationship which is only magnified by the pressure of the holiday?

Place these two characters in a situation together. Perhaps they share a classroom, get stuck next to each other during a long car ride, or have schedule to get together for a date in honor of St. Valentine. How will their relationship unfold? Is your protagonist the one to initiate conversation, or is he the more passive one in the situation. Did one send the other a valentine, or forget all together? Begin a dialogue and see where it takes them.

Now throw in a third person — an unexpected presence that makes one or more of your characters uncomfortable. Why does she make things uncomfortable? Is she simply a friend showing up at the wrong moment, or someone acting out of spite or jealousy? How does she change the action of your scene? What does your protagonist do in response?

Speak Up! — Avoiding Hesitant Characters and Using Your Words to Assert Meaning

Receiving my pages back from my mentor this weekend, one thing that jumped out at me through her insightful comments was the occasional and sometimes not so occasional slip from a strong, assertive voice to a more tentative, hesitant one. Instead of my character saying something in a strong, positive manner, the language I chose made it seem almost as if they didn't really want to speak of their feelings,  or they weren't quite sure what they thought. But certainly, this is not a good way for my characters to come across, and not an effective manner for establishing a strong, engaging story for the reader.

When reading a story, it is important for the characters to come across as people who have a consistent voice, know who they are (to some extent), and convey their emotions in a clear manner. Of course, this does not mean that all characters always know how they feel or what they want, or that a character can't be inconsistent if that is what an author intends. But even so, creating characters who only half-way say what they mean or never fully say what they are trying to convey doesn't make for a strong reading experience, or for a character who will last well beyond the last page turn of the book.

I think part of this tendency comes from our own hesitation as writers sometimes. I know that in working through this first draft of my current novel, I'm not always sure exactly what I want to say or how I want to say it for every line. But we don't want the characters to reveal whatever hesitation we have as writers. We want them to stand strong, defined on the page, and confidently owning who they are. Even if you have a character who is completely lacking self-confidence or is desperately unsure of who she is, you still need her to assert herself as unconfident, perhaps not by saying so, but by simply using the words she speaks to convey a decisive point. This may sound a bit confusing as we are getting into the line between us writers (or creators) creating and controlling these characters and the characters sometimes creating and dictating their own paths, but still — the point is that each of our characters need to assert something. Whether its fear, joy, trepidation, anger, or insecurity, no character can do this half way. At least not an effective character.

Words like "probably" and "possible", the passive voice, and phrases like "she could feel" instead of "she felt"are all good indicators that perhaps a sentence needs to be reevaluated and made stronger. Having another person read through your work and look for these things is a helpful tool for identifying your own hesitant writing since we all know that we miss things when we read our own work. And, remembering that this will be something you can make better again and again as you work through your revisions is something to keep in mind. We all struggle with making our words convey exactly what we want them, too. So it's certainly not just you, and it's not just me. 

But when I think about the books that affected me the most, or the books for which I admire the prose or the strength of character, all of them have this same element in common. Their words assert meaning. And their characters' words clearly convey who they are, uniquely, consistently, and with no shame. So as we work through our prose, and develop our characters, let's keep this in mind: write characters who are not hesitant to reveal who they are, even if they are only revealing insecurities. And don't be afraid to rework that sentence over and over again, until the right words shine and are just as powerful as you had hoped. 

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — A Walk in the Woods

Your character is taking a walk in the woods. There is snow all around. Silence fills there air. Is your character used to this climate, or is it entirely new to him? Is he trying to get somewhere specific, or just needing to clear his head? Perhaps he simply loves the stillness.

But then, he notices something up ahead. A rustling. A light. Something unexpected. What is it? Does your character know? Was this the purpose of his walk? Or does he feel trepidation about what might be ahead? Does he choose to turn around or does he continue onward, to see what it is.

What is on the other side? Is it symbolic? Realistic? Transformative? Does the reader know before your character does, and if your character chooses to turn back, how does the mystery affect his life?

The Super Bowl of Writing — Reminders to Help Us Get There and Keep Chasing After the Dream

Every year there is a lot of hype about the Super Bowl. Almost everyone watches it, snacks are provided, and everyone tunes into the see the infamous half-time show which people either love or criticize. And for the fans of the teams who are in the game, and undoubtedly those who just really love the sport, there is a lot of excitement that comes with this day. But this week I started thinking, for every player who made the Super Bowl, there are exponentially more who didn't.  And for every person who worked hard to get there, there are just as many more whose hard work didn't land them in the game this time. But even though they didn't make it this year, none of those players watching from home love the game any less. And no one is giving up on the dream of the Super Bowl next year.

So why all this thought about the Super Bowl, you ask. Because I think it is a great metaphor for writing, and the place I find myself in now, and know many of my friends and fellow writers are in, too.

I know for me, and many of my friends, there is a lot of hope and anxiety around finishing your book quickly, making all the revisions, sending out to agents, and of course, getting published. But yet, in the same way that not every team gets to the Super Bowl every year, not every project we write is going to be an instant success. Do you ever have those days where you sit in front of the computer for hours and barely get half as far as you wanted? Or those days where the sentences just aren't coming out right, and you know there is totally a better way to say it that is just simply eluding you? Or, after sending out hundreds of queries, you still can't get anyone to bite? I think the answer is we all go through these things as we work hard to reach out Super Bowl of writing: publication.

But even though it can be discouraging to not make it into the final game of the year, or not get accepted for publication right away, I think it is often important to reflect on the reasons why we write – and why we love to write. So that's why I'm writing this post – to remind us all, and certainly myself, that sometimes things don't happen as quickly or quite the way we want them, but that doesn't mean they won't happen in the future, and that absolutely doesn't mean we should give up on the dreams that we love.

I know for me, from fourth grade and beyond, sometimes all I wanted to do was read. Going to the bookstore was the best, and coming out with a stack full of books so generously given to me by my parents was even better. I loved the stories I plunged myself into every week. I loved the characters and the new world views and all I learned from experiencing life after life through these fictional worlds that became so real, as if they were happening all around me. I couldn't get enough of reading, and while I enjoyed many other things as well, nothing quite felt the same way as spending time with a truly fabulous book.

So as I got older, kept reading and started writing, I realized the books that meant the most to me, the shaped my world view and became part of my beating heart, were the books of my youth. And the idea that I could make a book that so affects someone the way hundreds of books affected me — breathtaking. If only I am so blessed.

So maybe I haven't quite reached my Super Bowl of sorts yet. And maybe you haven't reached yours either. Or perhaps you are stepping into the arena for the very first time, or are even a season pro returning for another great game. But remembering why we write, and why we love books in the hard moments, big and small, can help us to keep going. Those reminders can help us train hard and stay focused; they can help us reach out for help when we need it and keep us reading all we can. But one thing that is true about all of us writers is that we love books, and we love the idea that our created worlds could do for another what others have done for us.

So why do you write? And how can that keep you motivated when you just need that extra push of encouragement as you faithfully pursue your own Super Bowl?