This is What I Do Rather Than Write

I review my collection of quotes! Because my procrastination knows no bounds.


Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. ~ H. Jackson Brown

An old racetrack joke reminds you that your program contains all the winners' names. I stare at my typewriter keys with the same thought. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik

There's only one person who needs a glass of water oftener than a small child tucked in for the night, and that's a writer sitting down to write. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

I do not like to write - I like to have written. ~Gloria Steinem

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. ~Hannah Arendt

I think we need to be put back in touch with our childhood...to be reminded of what's important, like memories about people we loved, or things that happened to us that affected our lives, things we can laugh about and shed a few tears about... I think storytelling is a way of saying 'I love you. I love you enough to tell you something that means a great deal to me.' ~ Kathryn Tucker Windham

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new. ~Samuel Johnson

Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps, if you are not willing to move your feet. ~ Author Unknown

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you want to know your past--look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future-- look into your present actions. ~ Buddhist Saying

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re GOING to do. ~ Henry Ford

It’s never too late to become the person you might have been. ~ George Eliot

I write so I’ll know what I’m thinking about. ~ Flannery O’Connor

How I Write

(This post was written by Greenwood writer John Rose, author of The Monster Grrls.)

So here's the thing: I was asked to come to a Writers' Guild meeting because I had done a book called The MonsterGrrls, which had some success. We all met at Webster's, which is a sort of public house-type restaurant, and someone raised the question, "How do you keep track of ideas?" Or words to that effect.

Well, for me personally, I tend to keep a lot of my ideas on file in my head, and I kind of do a lot of writing in my head, so when it all finally gets down on paper it kind of ends up how I want it to start with. But I can get away with something like that because I have a weird ability to intensely focus on a project, which isn't something a lot of people have. So one thing I did do when I was writing MonsterGrrls was keep a work journal, called "The How I Did It Files" (after Frederick's dad's journal in Young Frankenstein, which made sense).

MonsterGrrls ended up being a pretty dense story: four monster leads, three auxilary human leads, a large cast of supporting characters (allies, villains, and general nuisances) and two worlds; one pretty much like our own and another being this haunted place where monsters lived. There was also a huge amount of folklore, fable, legend and cryptozoological information about monsters to begin with, so by writing in the journal, I sort of organized a road map of these paths that many others before me had walked and decided what bits I wanted to use. At the end of the day, such a novel required a work journal to help keep everything straight.

When I was done with what I'd written for that day, I'd make notes in The How I Did It Files to finalize the progress I'd made. Sometimes I'd write about where I wanted to go next, other times it would be something like "Finished scene. Dead tired. Going to bed." As the story grew and I came to know the characters, sometimes the writing would be notes on motivation, history, back story and so on. For instance, the entire back story of how Bethany was Turned as a vampire is in the HIDIF, which was retold through her point of view in the final act. This kind of thing is necessary for good character development in writing. It may seem like extra work, but it really wasn't; it was just part and parcel of everything that I did.

When I found something that I thought would fit with a character, I'd make notes. Example: it came to me one day that Frankie's personal hero was Thomas Edison, so a note was made. Eventually, in one scene it was revealed that Frankie has a picture of Edison in her locker at school. It's a small thing, but small things help to make characters come alive and seem like people you know, or want to know.

I did not write a lot of personal stuff in the HIDIF; I felt that it should concentrate only on the book, and though I sometimes did talk to myself about how I felt about something, most of the stuff in the HIDIF was straight notes. Eventually MonsterGrrls began to birth other ideas, which also wound up there, so I have this handy back catalog of stuff I can draw from.

Something else I think is important to how we write: reading. I read as much as possible, and most of what I read has influenced my writing because reading was really how I learned to write. I don't think there's a certain number of books one should have read or a certain kind of book you are supposed to read before you can start writing, but I think that you should read often because it keeps your vocabulary strong and shows you things you can use. One of the reasons I like reading Stephen King so much is because he has a way of getting into his characters' heads and capturing their internal dialogue, which was something I knew I wanted to do with my own characters. By the same turn, I like reading Mark Twain's short stories because they're all pure storytelling; no pretensions and no affectations, just a simple voice and a great sense of humor. And conversely, there are things I didn't read when I wrote MonsterGrrls because I didn't want that influence creeping in--for instance, I stopped reading Harry Potter back then. I didn't want people to say that I'd taken anything from J.K. Rowling, because there was a lot of magic use in her stuff and in mine. I felt it was important that I find my own thing and learn how to do it.

Anyway, that's what I do. The HIDIF is still in my computer, and I still write in it even now. So if this idea helps anybody, feel free to start your own, because some day, maybe there'll be another Mad Scientist who'll find it hidden in the ancestral castle, and read it, and suddenly be stricken with a desire to create his own Creature and send it up to catch the lightning. Which, as I can personally attest, is a lot of fun.

Applause!

A few weeks ago, I participated in an event called Applause! at the Eudora Welty Library in Jackson. Maybe I told you about it? Six writers were on a panel and we answered questions about writing. That was a first for me and I enjoyed it. At times like that I realize that, Hey! I do know some stuff that other people may be interested in learning.

Several of the executive board of the MWG drove up from Meridian and I also met members from Jackson. It's always fun meeting these fellow writers who heretofore had been email addresses.

On Thursday, February 22nd, many members of the MWG will travel back to the library in Jackson to participate in Applause! again when they honor historic Mississippi writers. Read the brief article that was in The Clarion-Ledger today to see the great publicty the guild is getting.

For the Do-It-Yourselfer

If you're interested in self-publishing, this is a good article.

Rambly

Once I get an idea, I don’t have much trouble writing it. I’m not saying anything about the quality of the writing therein, I’m just saying that if I can just get an idea, a hazy outline in mind, then I’m pretty well good to go. When I am lacking that idea umbrella, I’m pretty well useless.

Case in point: I had what I thought was a brilliant idea sometime last summer or fall for another book, full of witty and pithy and wry commentary on the south, from a girl’s point of view. That was kind of the problem, though. The point of view wasn’t just any southern girl’s, it was mine, and I began wondering why what I had to say and think about the south was that important and any more insightful than what any female in the southeast may have to say. I got stuck right about there and have been there ever since. It’s a terrible thing to have an idea so tissue-thin in its vagueness that upon closer inspection, there is actually not much substance to it. I keep thinking if I could just expand and flesh out this little idea or that one then before I knew it, I’d have a book outline. Not so much.

I gave myself this whole big year 2007 tied up in a shiny baby blue satin bow in which to write the book. Then I’d have a good part of 2008 in which to edit and design it and have fun planning the promotional aspects.

All that is going to be darn hard to do if I don’t have any content. Here it is already February and I haven’t done anything.

You know how there are books full of writing prompts? They suggest you write for five minutes about a view from a classroom window when you were a child, for instance. I get that you could conceivably take one of those prompts and turn it into an actual book, or the seed of a book, anyway.

But what I would like is a book of book ideas. It would be divided into sections for singletons and military folks and highbrow literary and low brow trash. It’d have prompts like, in the military folks section, for instance, “Soviet sympathizers hijack a nuclear submarine and something terrible happens!” In the singleton section, “A few years out of college, Caitlin thought she had it all figured out. Her career was right on track until she appeared on the Reality TV show [insert ridiculous yet funny name of make believe show here] and although she loses her job and makes a fool out of herself in front of national TV, hilarity ensues and she gets the guy,” and…hey…Maybe there’s a book idea for me? Perhaps that’s the book I could write!

Or not. I’m guessing not many writers are as lazy and whiny and ridiculous as I am. And clearly I’d have to do a lot more research (can a submarine be hijacked?) on pretty much every genre except fiction, regional, southern and fiction, women’s contemporary.

So I was at Barnes & Noble because I was looking for Nick Hornby’s book, The Polysyllabic Spree, which neither they nor Lemuria had in stock. I’m going to have to order it, though. That is how much I like his writing, particularly his nonfiction essays. Later in the week, I'll have something here about his fantabulous book, Housekeeping Versus The Dirt: Fourteen Months of Massively Witty Adventures in Reading Chronicled by the National Book Critics Circle Finalist for Criticism, which I read over the weekend and and which had a lot to do with pulling me out of my self-imposed slump. Well, that and some kind friends who indulged me my dark moods and listened.

What I brought home from Barnes & Noble, instead, was Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon (which I think is now one of my Top 20 Books of All Time), The Big Love by Sarah Dunn, The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens, and Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from The New York Times.

After roaming the store for an hour or so, I had over a dozen in my arms this time when I lucked up and got on of those comfy seats near the magazines. I wish I could remember the the titles of all the books I picked up. I know there was The Mysteries of Pennsylvania by Michael Chabon (which I'll be looking for after loving Wonder Boys as I did), Book Lust (another book I dearly wish I had written), Dress Rehearsal (this book seemed cool. It looks like standard issue chic lit but I liked the premise – the owner of an upscale bakery can predict a couple’s viability by the cake that’s ordered. I may well end up getting that one), Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron (this one, really, I wanted. Except that I read a little and I could tell that it was one of those books that would require effort and passive reading. As of late, life is overwhelming me and I know myself well enough not to take on this project. Sure, I could have bought the book and taken it on later except that I know how I am, and I would have felt like I was failing by not diving into the book and its exercises immediately. The book would have mocked me from its shelves.)

I’m that way with all books, really, though. They rarely make it to the bookshelves, instead sitting in clear view and I’m always eager to gobble them up. I read fast, too fast, really, and I always re-read books. If it’s something I like, of course. I don’t think I own many books I haven’t read over and over. Although there are exceptions, such as Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides. (Now that I think of it, I don’t have that book. I must have borrowed it from the library.) Anyway, The Prince of Tides is a beautiful, brutal book. Painful, even. Some of the scenes, good and terrible, stay with me still. Incredibly written, but I’ll never read it again.

What was I talking about? I can’t remember either.

Before I Forget

Our next meeting is Thursday, February 15th at 5:00 at Yianni's in Greenwood. Hope to see you there!