11 posts tagged “writing”

This list of tips for writers comes from an unlikely place.... the NEA blog on reading, which I was browsing trying to find the origin of that list I just posted.

1. Join a writers group, if only for the deadline. Always, for anything you write, have a deadline. When you meet one deadline, make another. When you blow one, definitely make another, and by all means forget you ever made the first one. Guilt is not your friend.

2. Be funny. Whether you’re writing comedy or not, be funny. If you can’t be funny, be amazing, because writing well without at least occasionally being funny is almost impossible. Try to make a reader laugh, or at least smile, with the way you pace and phrase a line. If you can’t use language to provoke one of the commonest, most pleasurable experiences around — laughter — how in the world are you going to do the harder but not necessarily better thing, and make a reader cry?

3. Enlarge your vocabulary. I’m serious. Your vocabulary is your tacklebox. If you go fishing with only a couple of lures, you’ll catch the same kind of fish over and over. Bring an overstuffed tacklebox, and there’s no lunker you can’t land. Use your vocabulary judiciously, of course, because not everybody has as big a one as you do. But don’t be afraid, every once in a while, to use a word your reader might not know. How else are they going to learn? How else did you?

4. Keep it sensual. By this I don’t mean write dirty, I mean engage all of a reader’s senses, especially but not exclusively the visual. Whether with a description or a metaphor, create pictures in your audience’s head. If you want to write about abstractions, be a philosopher, and reach even fewer readers than you already do.

5. Make stuff up. There’s been a vogue lately for writing that feeds on pre-existing material: novels about a famous love affair, novels about a notorious calamity, novels about great writers, etc. This kind of novel can work, but something original is almost always better than something derivative — more surprising, more fun, more suspenseful. In fiction, as on Wall Street, derivatives are an easy payday, but they don’t create wealth; they only redistribute it. The trouble with making up a new story is, alas, that it’s harder. Does Antioch teach a full-length course in plotting? I wonder, because it’s the least teachable skill a writer needs. If only it were the least important.

A related point here: the difference between telling the truth and making stuff up is getting slippery lately. When in doubt, trust what works. If the true stuff reads better, you’re probably writing nonfiction, so take out most of the made-up stuff. If the made-up stuff reads better, you’re writing fiction, so take out most of the true stuff. If you can’t decide which stuff reads better, write poetry. There at least, the true and the made-up belong together.

6. Keep rewriting the ending till it’s perfect; then wait a week and write it again. Writing an ending is the great lost art in American fiction. With the possible exception of your first graf, your last graf is the most important. If you can’t decide between two endings, they probably both need work.

7. Go for broke. Odds are you’ll be broke anyway, so you may as well go for it.

8 . Write every day. I’ve never tried this myself, but I hear it works.

Here are my favorites this week from my Twitter feed.  I can use up to 140 characters for each... and this is my favorite creative project recently.  Constraints are surprisingly liberating!  Please send me feedback.

true love's shadow / a spark can not burst / to flame
but in the presence of the other

---

Found: on concrete city floor
iridescent winged butterflies
huge shattered moths
four inch tiger-striped wasps.
Beauty misdirected.

---

springtime -
motherhood awaits.
pen beckons. heed it -
and then you, my dear, will
blossom into flame

A week or two ago, I decided that it might be fun to play around with the phenomenon of "micro-blogging" which is sort of new (circa 2007, old only to early adopter geeks, like me) with some creative writing.  The idea is that you have a blog, but it's a "micro-blog", i.e. each post is limited to 140 characters.  There are a whole slew of poets on twitter, and many of them are "following me" or in my "following" list (akin to the "neighborhood" on Vox).  Some are trying micro-fiction, and some are trying poetry, haiku, or something else.  Here are a few of my recent posts, and my twitter channel is here (tweetpoem), definitely take a look, sign up, and maybe even subscribe.
 

a cocoa-colored seagull presides at the waterline.
black beach corpse bugs scavenge
through beach grass necklaces
with sea spittle pearls.

3 am: the eardrum of the night.
you whisper secrets to me
not meant for
any mortal ear.

first night in a new beach house
all night
surf crashes from every orifice.
wind chimes tinkling madly in the wind.

red wine filters the evening
softens edges
warms food
tightens the distance between friends

I have to say that the most exciting thing for me is that I haven't written anything poetic (and these are mostly fragments of prose) in years, and I am SOOOOOO excited to be having poems "come to me" again.

It seems perfectly appropriate that its spring.

Brooklyn botanic - april 2007 - 74

A dear, dear friend has decided to undertake writing a screenplay. He is a psychiatric doctor by training, and has a deep empathetic understanding of others. I'm sure that whatever he produces will be insightful. In a conversation with him, I remembered that a favorite writing teacher had pulled together a list of writing guidelines which I thought would enable any beginning writer to produce something polished, while preserving that spark of originality which makes even simple writing evocative and lifelike. 

At this point in my life, I have taken innumerable writing classes:  at Grub Street Writers in Boston, at an adult learning center in London, at U-Mass Boston, and "Advanced Fiction" at my Ivy league college.  My favorite classes have been with the aforementioned favorite teacher in Brooklyn. NYC, (with some credit due to the perennial writers' muse Natalie Goldberg).   I thought I would condense her guidelines here to remind myself that good writing can be simple. 

5 guidelines for vivid writing

Be specific and concrete
Show your characters doing, talking, eating, loving. Don't get lost in their heads. 

Use original detail
Search for the unique, sensory details which you see and which others don't see to make your fictional world real and true to life.

Show characters through their gestures.
Do not characterize someone with a summary of their character (she was an attractive, but nervous and anxious blonde), but instead show this through gesture (Passersby watched her fidget with a half-empty pack of cigarettes, hiding behind her flip of hair, and chewing on her cuticles.)

Write what your characters (people) need
People care about the most pressing needs of your characters. The more compelling these are, the more compelling your work. Follow these needs, and readers will follow your characters through your pages.

Cut to the chase
Write about what is the most essential to you.

This is another journalling prompt from Sabrina Ward Harrison, who also writes a book on "Spilling Open."

The True and the Questions: A Journal

I have been built for....

• speed, with my runner's legs and calves and ankles (however not knees !)
  
• royalty, with champagne taste (irrespective of budget, more often beer budget, as the saying goes.)
• passion, with my emotions as high-flying and far-ranging as a kite
  
• practicality, with my practical upbringing, buried deeper in me than I ever could extract
• love affairs, because I love romantic people and intimacy and storytelling
• writing, because I am in love with words and stories and building narrative and prose
• guilt, because I am wired for it, apparently
• greatness, isn't everyone? :)
  
• a live that has never been lived before, because there is no one like me
• imagination, because mine runs wild
• art, because my mind works in ink-and-line drawings, graphic design, and splotches of paint
• dreaming, because I dream in colors (not "in color", just... colors)
• inspiring, because I love all things bright and inspirational
• this earth, because as I grow older I appreciate her works and creatures more and more :)
• precision, because I am an unfortunate perfectionist
• energy, because I always have a lot of it
• ideas, because they excite me so much
  
• vacations, because someone should be out on the beach listening to the waves come in
  
• big changes, because I like to ride them out
• slowness, because life goes so quickly by and all I feel is the sand slipping through my fingers.  only small exquisite moments captured infrequently enough.
  

This writing prompt was inspired by The True and the Questions.

Sometimes I....

... wish that I laughed more, and lost myself in daydreams slightly less often.  Sometimes I wish I could be carefree.  Sometimes I wish for more sunny days, and sometimes I am glad when it rains and it pours.  Sometimes I ramble on and on and on.  Sometimes I drink too much wine.  Sometimes I eat healthy breakfasts for three or four days in a row.  Sometimes I love to try new things, from learning how to train a puppy, to ziplining in the rain forest.  Sometimes I just want to bury my head in the sand. 

Sometimes I read another person's blog, or peruse their photos online, and intensely wish for their life, or at least feel an intense communion with it, like pressing my face against the glass.  Sometimes I am terribly vain.  Sometimes I take pictures of tiny animals, or patterns in the sand, or spray paint, or sunsets (dozens and dozens of them at a time.) 

Sometimes I spend a whole week cooking comfort foods, which for me are mince meat, spicy chicken curries, pasta with clams, or butter and cheese.  Sometimes I wish I could see pictures of all the places I want to visit, so as not to bother with the hassle of actually traveling.  Sometimes I wish for a prince, or fairy godmother, or parent, to rescue me, even though I am over 30 years old!  Sometimes I wish I could go back to my childhood when getting lost in a fairy tale for 6 hours was perfectly acceptable.  Sometimes I do it now, anyway.

Sometimes I stay up late playing video games.  Sometimes I wish I woke up early in the mornings so I could be perfect and get a lot done every day.  Sometimes, I envy true free spirits like Renee-Marie, and  my coffee-name is sally and Elizabeth, who are ok with messy studios, getting up late, and being gloriously, gloriously accepting of the universe.  (And themselves, and they create all the time!)

Sometimes, I wish I could put my arms straight out, lean back, and fall into the arms of the universe, and have everything turn out fine.  Sometimes I read my horoscope and believe it, and buy US Weekly and read the gossip about celebrities.

Epilogue:

My cheesy Yahoo horoscope today was this.  But I liked it, so I'm posting it.

Do you want to take things to a deeper level in your life? Instead of having a job, do you want to have a career? Instead of having a romantic relationship, do you want to be married? Instead of renting a home, do you want to buy one? These goals are good, they are healthy, and best of all -- they are attainable. You need to understand that. To reach them, take baby steps. You can't get to where you want to go all at once. Understand that things take time, and you will get there.

If you have been reading my blog, you may know that I have been wrestling with a massive ten year case of writing block.  I've come to the conclusion that caring too much about writing the Great American Novel was truly dampening any creative urges I may have once had.  I'm starting over: remembering what I used to write about ten years ago, starting with baby steps, and keeping it light, focusing on what I want to say, rather than an end goal. 

So along these lines, I posted a question a few weeks back to some close friends, looking for topics.  Sometimes your friends can see what's perfectly obvious, like the nose on your face, which you can't.

can i take requests? what kind of novel would you *like* to read by me? what kind of story..... i'm feeling so stuck here, i'm going mad. *what do you want to read?*

m. writes:

hah! this is a great question, perhaps even a great start for a possible opening of a possible novel (if your novel plans to be somewhat postmodern in its projection and dis-assemblage, with a nice, modernist, classical twist at the end - just to take postmodern to the extreme...). i think you might be writing a novel about x and y (x and y being topics of choice and/or accident), combined with a meditation on the art of writing, which is always a tricky maneuver (any more tricky than writing just about anything?), but can be quite enticing.

j. sends:

1) sci-fi, but not the geeky techno kind. more like how bradbury or philip k dick did it. the issues are human, amplified and distorted by the futuristic setting.
2) historical (non-fiction) on your ancestors.
3) modern fiction set in england involving murder, mystery, and intrigue.

s. is looking for:

Balancing life, relationships, and careers?

y. muses:

I just went to a book reading Thursday night for a collection of essays by writers in their 20s and 30s about nature, edited by a '99er, Bonnie Tsui. I loved the essay excerpts that were read. So that's my current inspiration: something about nature. Not just as in camping, but also finding nature in the urban landscape, in the sidewalks and how it helps you orient yourself in the city. Learning to listen and see nature around you.

p. notes:

[...] stories about people..........

d. reiterates:

Same suggestion as last time...coming of age with your heart, not
your mind, in a post-Ivy league, hyperanalytical, power-paced world.

I'm marveling at all the ways I found to attribute quotes. :)

More significantly, it seems the lessons are: people want to read stories that are relevant to their lives, and that good storytelling still takes the cake. And the people that know and love me very deeply will want to read things which are very personal to me.  But I'm pretty shy...

I'd be curious to hear what the blog community thinks.  Any other requests? :)

I grew up on the East Coast, in a type A, "warrior" family (quite literally, we are of the Indian warrior caste).  Ambition was in our daily bread, in the air we breathed every moment of every day, in our sports practices, in the extra hours of studying we'd do and more.

I had a very interesting two hour conversation with an art therapist last week, and told her about my ten year writing block.  "It is very curious," I told her.  "While I was growing up, stories would just come to me.  A poem would alight on my shoulder, fully-fledged, and all I had to do was to chase it and scribble it down.  Perhaps to the day, the moment I decided I wanted to be a writer, all this creativity fled!  And if I am to be perfectly honest with myself, I haven't had a good idea since!"

"Ah," she said wisely.  "That makes perfect sense.  Once you had ambition, your creativity left -- it knew there was no place for it.  That was the right thing for it to do, to protect itself!"

I felt as though I'd been struck by a large pounding wave, gasping to clear the water from my eyes and nose, and to breathe again.  Ambition?  Wrong?  Worse - anathema to creativity?

I have been speaking with all my writer, artist and filmmaker friends about this.  I had a long conversation with Rose today, who had some very wise things to say.  I am curious what others think, and whether this is something every artist wrestles with (I suspect it is). 

Also, in web surfing, I discovered some lovely Osho quotes, which I will close with.  I think this process is a little like opening the mind up, to let go and leave behind fear.  Nothing good is ever created out of fear, at least that much I know for certain.

CREATIVITY has nothing to do with any activity in particular -- with painting, poetry, dancing, singing. It has nothing to do with anything in particular.

Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of doing it is not purely economical, then it is creative. If you have something growing out of it within you, if it gives you growth, it is spiritual, it is creative, it is divine.

When ambition enters, creativity disappears -- because an ambitious man cannot be creative, because an ambitious man cannot love any activity for its own sake. While he is painting he is looking ahead; he is thinking, 'When am I going to get a Nobel Prize?' When he is writing a novel, he is looking ahead. He is always in the future -- and a creative person is always in the present.

Each man comes into this world with a specific destiny -- he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally -- you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The Whole intends to do something through you.

I remember; I remember moments which have never happened to me.  I remember waking up in the middle of the night, convinced by a dream that someone was about to attack my sweet younger sibling or myself.  I remember peeling out of bed to check the door locks, sliding open and heavily clicking shut the deadbolt, just in case, and sliding a slender kitchen knife under my pillow.  I remember peering around at the dark room, to ascertain whether I was in the middle of one of those nightmare scenarios from a television mini-series.   Is that shadow a figure on the couch, watching me?  Is someone hiding in the kitchen in the dark beside the bookcase?  How would I protect myself -- even with this flimsy knife.  My sister would be much better prepared, because she can actually fight.  This knife wouldn't hurt anyone because what really hurts is the intent to do harm.

I don't remember any other mornings like this one: triumphant, couched in the success of a cosy dinner party the evening before, leftovers in the fridge and two empty wine bottles perched on the kitchen floor to be recycled.  I don't remember any other mornings with sunlight streaming in through my south facing windows. fingers clicking softly on the keys, a vase of heavenly white and crimson purple hyacinths fragrancing the air around me, and a glass of pomegranate green tea filling me with calm and antioxidants and all that good stuff. Even my brow bone worry lines do not appear this morning.  The British opera singer slash mobile phone salesperson who is all the rage on the internet sings Pavarotti; he is also triumphant this morning.

I remember something someone told me, long, long ago.  But I do not remember the words, not right now, just the spirit.  I would tell you, but it would be ruined in the sharing.  Every secret is only powerful as the promise kept, not delivered, nor wasted, nor splurged, nor spilled.   Let me keep something to myself, please!

morning - snowdrops - hyacinths - glorious purple - heavenly scent - unearthly scent - angels singing - Paul Potts - Car Phone Warehouse - Simon Cowell, tears in eyes.  sunny morning.  sun dodged from behind a cloud, windows filled with a swell of light.  sunshine.  "everybody hurts sometimes" - in italian.  turkish social club.  buena vista social club.  cuba.  bad water.  bad stomach.  going south.   reverse prostitution.  emotional weariness.  traveling to china.
  excursions.  shanghai.  hong kong.  cracked covers.  spy stories.  huge mystery.  mystery to solve.  clues along the way.  discovery of family connections.  hidden palace in rajasthan.  the house of a centuries dead poet.  spy kids.  sky kids.  white goats.  urge.  ease.  telepathy.  chestnuts.  core.  center.  freedom.  freedom from tears. 

heartbreak.  my way.  theater producer.  eggs.  grapes.  mango, coconut.  cake batter.  frosting, cupcakes.  chocolate butterscotch cookies.  elegance and grace.  moving on.  leaving heartbreak behind.  inferiority complex.  dark chocolate.  guilt.  rabies.  chickens, pigs, farmyard, farmhouse.  kite.  stork.  elegance.  trumpeter swan.  boston common.  harrod's.  afternoon tea.  determined to be happy.  historical association.  oxford.  bodleian.  obscure, esoteric.  harmless eccentric - paper - wars - cobble - cobweb - harshness - situation - war room - rainbow room - prose - emergent - rabble-rousing - insouciance - jetset - ignorance - ignoramus -- parasite -- parasitic.  comfort zone - shug - spikes - martini - marinara -- ocean -- ocean of ignorance -- glory days.  marathon -- beauty -- simplicity
 -- maps -- zone -- island -- virtual worlds -- anywhere -- anything -- golden -- passionate -- luxury -- spirits singing -- spirits weeping -- nuns -- monastery -- angel -- angel of darkness -- redemption -- redemptive -- uncover -- sorrow -- joyous occasion -- nurse -- child -- house -- comfort -- attic -- parlor -- echo -- nauseous -- power -- power games.  boys with toys -- dangerous power -- power corrupts -- power heals. 

chilly transition -- nice death -- smooth transition -- power of thinking -- open-minded.