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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Aug 20

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Walter Mosley’s tips for how to write a novel in a year or less

Author Walter Mosley’s book “This Year You Write Your Novel” is chock full of great tips for doing just that.

Some writers create rituals for their writing: lighting a candle, working in a certain place, listening to a favorite playlist, writing with a special pen. Mosley says his only ritual is that he writes every morning.

“The only thing that matters is that you write, write, write. It doesn’t have to be good writing. As a matter of fact, almost all first drafts are pretty bad. What matters is that you get down the words on the page or the screen—or into the tape recorder, if you work like that.”

The next morning, he reads over what he wrote the day before—making minor edits but mostly to get back in the flow of his story. Some days will be rough and unbearable and others will feel sublime as if the words are flowing from a spring of inspiration. Mosley says to ignore these feelings, either way. Happy or sad, the story has to come out.

“Stick to your schedule. Try to write a certain amount every day—let’s say somewhere between 600 and 1,200 words. Do not labor over what’s been written. Go over yesterday’s work cursorily to reorient yourself, then move on.”

In this manner, he says, a first draft can be done in three months and what you will have in front of you is the “heart of the book.” From this heart, you will rewrite and polish and edit until you have your finished story.

But the most important part is getting that first draft down. To see what else Mosley has to say about writing your novel in a year, check out his book. He packs more tips and wisdom into one hundred pages, than some tomes I’ve read.

Aug 19

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Try these writing (and reading) exercises to hone your skills

Musicians riff and play scales to practice. Athletes have training routines. Why shouldn’t writers do writing exercises? Sometimes, a writing exercise turns into a poem or short story or becomes the seed of a novel or essay.

Writing exercises offer a way to experiment without the pressure of “getting it right.” They can prompt ideas for your work in progress and warm you up to write for an extended period. If you’re facing a blank page, a writing exercise might be the way in to something new.

Daily writing exercises help establish a routine. The hardest thing about working on a goal can be getting started, whether it’s exercising or writing. Just getting to the gym, putting your running clothes on and stepping out the door, or sitting down in front of your computer or notebook is the first step. Once you’re there, the rest isn’t so hard. And once you’re done with the “workout,” doesn’t it feel great?

Try this exercise: Find a random object in your house. It could be a souvenir you brought home from a vacation, a piece of art, a gift someone gave you, or a memento from your childhood. Write for 10 minutes about the object. Write about what it means to you, how you acquired it, why you keep it. Tell this object’s story.

Read more

Aug 15

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How strong are your scenes? Use this checklist to find out

Have you ever started reading a book and felt like nothing really happened? I saw a TV show recently where several characters set out to “save one character’s wife and baby from the bad guy,” but ended up bumbling around, seemed to give up or forget what they went out for, got sidetracked, and then went back to camp. This went on for awhile. It was boring. And annoying.

It’s not as if nothing happened, but those things had nothing to do with the initial goal of the scene. I wanted to scream at the characters, “Hey, what about the mom and baby?!”

When this happens in a book or TV series, I don’t want to keep reading or watching. I’m probably not the only one.

So how can we avoid this problem of, “nothing happening?” Check out my checklist:

Before diving into the writing, create a rough outline and sense of where the story is headed. Yes, things change, but a general road map can help maintain a sense of direction about what you’re writing and why. Read more

Aug 14

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Do you need to be a great grammarian to be a great writer?

I have to admit I am not the perfect grammarian. When I write, I often “wing” such things as commas and semi-colons. Later, when I go back over my work, I often chuckle at the silly and unlikely places I’ve stashed a comma.

Granted, as writers, we need to have a good understanding of our language but I don’t think we need to obsess over it. That’s what editors are for, right?

I love what author Joan Didion has to say about grammar: Read more

Aug 12

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How to ground readers in a scene using killer details

The more I write scenes, the more aware of my surroundings I become. In “The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer,” Sandra Scofield says that, “the incidental movements and activities of characters help to define them, and the things they surround themselves with and use are part of who they are….What they do in response to events can be external signs of what they are feeling.”

We don’t want to interrupt the flow of a scene or dialogue by filling the scene with unnecessary detail but we do want enough detail to have our characters feel grounded in space and time and, if possible, we want to use details that can show who the characters are. Read more

Jul 31

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Write what you don’t know and what you do

You’ve heard the writing adage, “write what you know.” Writing about what you know has a benefit of giving your writing a sense of authority — the level of detail and accuracy that makes readers feel confident and immersed in the story or ideas.

But I especially like to write about what I don’t know. For one thing, I’m a learning junkie, so I get to feed my curiosity while I write. And when it comes to some forms of writing, we don’t know what we know until we engage in writing, which is an act of discovery.

Think about how you can blend what you know with what you don’t know.

Think of your experiences and knowledge as an element or starting point. A place you know well might be your setting, but everything that happens could be brand new. Use what you know, the details and images, as a way to free your imagination. Then trust your creative powers to invent something new.

Here are two advantages to embracing the unknown: You’ll widen your writing possibilities. You aren’t limiting yourself. Think of yourself as a writing explorer. You’ll bring a fresh perspective. You might see something in an original, creative way that reveals a new spin, plot twist, or original idea.

Jul 30

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Write dialogue cues like a bestselling author

At the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Conference this weekend, I took a series of phenomenal classes from writing teacher and psychologist Margie Lawson. I thought I was a fairly decent writer—I have a few awards to prove it—but what I learned this weekend after taking Lawson’s classes is that “I don’t know nothing yet.”

Let’s just say that by the end of the day I literally had one brain cell left.

One of my favorite classes was on dialogue cues. For the most part, I’ve already learned to keep my dialogue tags short. He said. She said. And to avoid attributions like the following:

  • “I don’t like you,” he said, disdainfully
  • “I hate you,” she said, angrily
  • “Don’t move,” he growled
  • “Get away from me,” she hissed Read more
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