On November 29, 2010 Bluekiwii wrote, …I always have the problem of actually starting to write. The story I want to write blanks from my mind, and I freeze before I\u2019ve even begun to write a word. Or I’ll write something–realize it’s rubbish–and cross it out and begin again, and I’ll continue on this way through the story until I give it up halfway. Or I sit in front of the page thinking of ideas\/possibilities and reject each one. Have you ever felt this way and what have you done to get rid of this feeling in order to write? How do you start the process of writing a story? Do you outline what you are doing first, a simple two-liner that will guide the plot? Do you plan each chapter? How do you visualize what you\u2019re trying to write before you do it? Do you make a rough sketch of what your characters are like before fleshing them out in the story?<\/i>
\nI love this quote by Gene Fowler: “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”<\/p>\n
Years ago, before I became a writer, I painted, and my favorite medium was watercolor, which is not forgiving, because you can\u2019t cover your mistakes. Some watercolorists outline in pencil so they know what they\u2019re doing. Some paint so loosely that a mistake just becomes part of the artistry, which I admire the most. I did neither. I just expected myself to get it right, and I disappointed myself again and again. As soon as I started a new painting I\u2019d be all over myself about how I was going to louse it up.<\/p>\n
The quality of my painting became a measurement of my worth, not of my financial worth of course, but of whether I was worthy of respect, of being considered an artist, almost of living. There was much too much riding on the outcome every time I picked up a paintbrush. Eventually I stopped painting and started writing.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t come to writing with the same negativity, and I was lucky in the teachers and the books I found to help me learn. I talk about this in Writing Magic<\/i>, and I\u2019ve written about it on the blog now and then. The most helpful book I read back then, the most helpful in exactly this regard, which I\u2019ve also mentioned before, is Writing on Both Sides of the Brain<\/i> (middle school and up) by Henriette Anne Klauser. Even today, when I\u2019m particularly stuck, that\u2019s the book I go to.<\/p>\n
If I remember right, there\u2019s an approach in another writing book, Bird by Bird<\/i> (also middle school and up, I\u2019d guess) by Anne Lamott, that might be helpful. It\u2019s called \u201cShort Assignments.\u201d In short assignments the writer has to write, but for a limited time. Building on Lamott\u2019s idea, Bluekiwii and anyone who feels like Bluekiwii, I\u2019d recommend that you write for fifteen minutes and stop for a while. Don\u2019t evaluate what you\u2019ve written. Just leave it. Then write for another fifteen minutes, without evaluating your new work or what went before. Your job for now is to write without judgment.<\/p>\n
I love the computer, because it\u2019s the opposite of watercolor; it\u2019s infinitely forgiving. You can make a million mistakes and a million fixes. Here\u2019s something else to try: Write without crossing out. When you don\u2019t like what went before, just hit Enter<\/i> twice and write the sentences better or differently or even worse and keep going.<\/p>\n
Or try this: When you think you wrote something awful, write the judgment and keep going, as in, Maxine and her brother Isaac left the apartment to buy a carton of milk. What tripe. Who cares? The elevator didn\u2019t come for a full five minutes, so they took the stairs. What difference does that make? I should just cut it all. Maxine told her mother she didn\u2019t want to go to the store. The store was boring. This is boring. I should shoot Maxine.<\/i><\/p>\n
Keep going. Maybe it will turn out that the elevator was delayed because Maxine\u2019s upstairs neighbor, the one who gives her piano lessons, had a heart attack, and he was being carried into the elevator on a stretcher. Or maybe there will be a unicorn in the store when Maxine and Isaac finally get there. Or you\u2019ll find other characters that interest you more than the two of them.<\/p>\n
At the end of every post I write, \u201cHave fun, and save what you write!\u201d I don\u2019t mean you should save only the pieces you approve of. I mean, save it all. You may never look at your old efforts again, but someday you may want to. You may be curious about your progress or about what you were thinking in 2011. Your biographer may be interested in every word you ever wrote.<\/p>\n
Recently I bought a book on writing mysteries because I\u2019ve been having so much trouble with my second mystery novel. I hoped that book would give me a formula that I could follow, that I could dress up and disguise, which I would really be happy to do if it made writing easier. I gave up on the book, although some of it was interesting, but it didn\u2019t give me the formula. Probably because there is none for me. My writing process is messy. I muddle along, and some books are harder than others, but eventually I find my way, or so far I have.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have much trouble starting a story. I spend a few weeks thinking about what I may want to do and writing notes, and then I\u2019m off. No outline, but a rough idea of where I\u2019m going, which may be entirely not where I go. I don\u2019t plan each chapter, but I do have an idea of a scene before I write it, and I have an internal alarm that shrills when things are getting dull and I need to shake them up or throw in a surprise. As for my characters, I discover them as I write. When they feel blank I use the character questionnaire you can find in Writing Magic<\/i>. The one thing I do do is visualize. I need to see my characters moving through a scene, to know where they are and what they\u2019re seeing, hearing, touching, smelling.<\/p>\n
This second mystery, which may or may not be called Beloved Elodie<\/i> – I\u2019ve now started it four times. The first time I wrote about 140 pages, but I forgot to put in any suspects. (!!!) So I started over with suspects but the same core mystery, which was too complicated and impossible to solve. I told my husband the story, and his eyes rolled back in his head, and I knew it wasn\u2019t working, but I\u2019d written about 260 pages and I\u2019m not getting any younger. Then I made the mystery something that can be solved, but I was taking too long to get the problem going. Remember I mentioned that I was meeting with my new critique buddy? I\u2019d given her the first thirty pages and she picked up on what was wrong immediately. This time, happily, I\u2019d written only about 45 pages. Now I think I\u2019m on track until I get into trouble again.<\/p>\n
I am not a role model, but I could be someone to wallow with in the writing mud.<\/p>\n
Here are some prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 If you\u2019re too self-critical, try the suggestions above. Write in fifteen-minute stretches. Write without crossing anything out. Include your self put-downs in your writing. Read the chapter in Writing Magic <\/i>called \u201cShut Up!\u201d and read Writing on Both Sides of the Brain<\/i> and Bird by Bird<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Write a list of ten story ideas. Pick the worst, stupidest one and write twenty minutes worth of notes on where you could go with it. If you get inspired, write the story.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Write about Maxine and Isaac and their trip to the store or about their refusal to go to the store. Make something unexpected happen. Then create another surprise. And another.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On November 29, 2010 Bluekiwii wrote, …I always have the problem of actually starting to write. The story I want to write blanks from my mind, and I freeze before I\u2019ve even begun to write a word. Or I’ll write something–realize it’s rubbish–and cross it out and begin again, and I’ll continue on this way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[86,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}