Do you write what you know? Do you write what you do? How do you fully flesh out something on the page when you don't have any experience in the topic? We're writers so we do our research...google, reading topical articles, talking to people in the know...but it can sometimes come out flatter than the page it's written on.
Nothing comes close to first hand experience. After all how would you describe chocolate if you've never smelled it's aroma, tasted it on your tongue, or felt the way it melts against your cheek. If you have only seen pictures of it there's no way you can get it right.
I was pondering this the other day when I remembered a drama class I took in high school where we covered the topic of method acting. The basic idea is: if you were playing the part of a homeless man, you would live that way for a few days or weeks, if you were playing the part of a nanny, you would borrow some kids to look after for a good period of time, if you were playing a sleep deprived mad man, you would forgo your pillow for a night or two...you get the point. In order to portray a role as purely as possible, they would experience their character's world on an intimate level.
This same concept can be applied to our writing. Immerse yourself in a hobby or dabble in an interest of one of your characters. This may not always be affordable, legal, or sane. In those cases, google might be the best that you can get. But if for example, your MC likes to sew her own clothes, by all means, take a sewing class. It will give you a better understanding of why your MC might like sewing so much and at the same time it will help you broaden your horizons. Never a bad thing.
How would this method be best applied to your characters and story? Feel free to share your ideas below!
Yesterday morning, I finally had the opportunity to test out my little theory on
taking a hike to make headway in my writing. And I'm happy to say that as one of the commenters on the original post put it "Walking definitely helps."
Before I began my walk, I only had about a third of the story outlined for one of my two possible NaNoWriMo plots. By the end of the walk I had envisioned at least another third of the story line. In between, while walking along the White Oak Bayou trail with my dogs and fiancee, I had a wonderful time and soaked up some much needed vitamin D. I found that ideas for the story line came to me in snippets. An "ah-ha" spark would flash in my head, then my mind would wander off somewhere...back to the ongoing conversation...the on coming herd of bikers we had to get off the trail to avoid...why is my dog sniffing that. Then, another "ah-ha" spark would happen. All in all it was a very productive cycle without putting forth much effort. Like they say...work smarter, not harder.
After jotting down my ideas gleaned yesterday, I'm already looking forward to the next walking opportunity. Hopefully I'll have the plot finished after jaunt part deux.
So, have you had an opportunity to move forward through your WIP while strolling through your story line? Or have you used going for a walk to work through another genre of quandary?
I know many of you have ye ol' 9 to 5 job just like me. And when there's a deadline crunch at the office, the time available for writing quickly dwindles under the oppression of my 50+ hour week.
In order to forge on and not loose ground on progress, I've started scheduling 2 to 3 writing sprint windows into my day. The process is simple:
1. Set timer for 15 or 20 minutes
2. Write like a crazy monkey driving a speed boat
3. Stop when the timer buzzes
The lunch hour is a great place to squeeze in a sprint and so is TV time. Pause DVR...write...keep watching. I then have more word count and a backlog of recorded show so I don't have to watch commercials. It's a total win-win. Unfortunately I don't have the discipline to wake up 20 min early and sprint before leaving for work. I loathe mornings too much.
Don't let the man keep you down! Keep on writing!!!
Writing is not a sprint, it's a sojourn through your story. It's a long expedition, so if you're stuck, or things get slow just remember to keep moving. Sometimes that's easier said than done. However, I ran across a brilliant idea one morning when I was doing my morning news crawl on the interwebs. There on MSN was an intriguing link on their scrolling "main news" thingy...a compilation of 25 off-the-beaten-path college courses, one of which was called
The Art of WalkingIt hit me like a ton of bricks. Here was another excellent tool I could adapt and use to pry myself out of a prose sticky spot. I've heard about methods to talk it out, narrating the story to yourself to navigate your story out of the doldrums. I'm also familiar with the method of just keep writing, write anything, even if it's crap, just to keep your momentum (you can always go back and change it later). But sometimes, you need might need something a little more moving to get your momentum back. Sometimes, you might literally need to put one foot in front of the other to get to you to your destination.
The whole idea of walking to work through a writing wall evoked images of my favorite movie (and book), Pride and Prejudice. This walking method must have worked for the author as well. From what I have read about Jane Austin, she was very fond of walking as well. For myself in this modern day and age, getting out of the house and walking the trail along the bayou will get me away from the TV and any housework hanging over my head that I often use as an excuse to not write.
I'm very excited to try out this walking to write method this weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.
As a young woman in college I heard encouraging words from my professors telling me "It's a different world now for women in (insert appropriate profession here)" and "There is no such thing as a glass ceiling anymore"
What the college professors didn't prepare us for is how rotten some people in the corporate world can be and that not everyone outside of academia has jumped on the equality band wagon.
To make a long story uber short: Some people really suck. And they can turn your joy ride of a life into one hell of a bumpy ride. (At this point I'll leave you to wonder whether I'm going of first hand experience or a compilation of stories from after work girl talk).
I know some of you might be thinking "You're just figuring this out now?" and rolling your eyes, thinking I might be a bit naive. Don't get me wrong. I've always known that the real world is a rough place. But knowing and actually hearing things over cubicle walls, are very different things. Plus, people never cease to amaze me. Just when you think you've seen and heard it all some wing nut comes up with a new and more offensive way of practicing jerk-ism.
In order to put a positive spin on this dreary enlightenment, I'm making a very pointed effort to turn it into inspiration for my writing. Having people that really "hoover at life" is what can make for excellent conflict in a plot.
Flash back to the 1990s and the TV series Ally McBeal. Scenes from the show would depict what the characters would like to do during moments of pissed-off-edness. Whether it be setting someones pants on fire or standing idly by while the watch a volley of arrows sail into their foe's chest. Visualizing these things happening put a smile on their face.
For me, using prose to eviscerate the not so savory people in my life is extremely cathartic and puts a smile on my face in the very same way.
So, I encourage you to use the "everyday idiots" in your life in the same way. Let them help you enrich your writing and create more disslikeable antagonists. And on the bright side, once you get published, you don't have to cut them in on the royalties. ;-)
On the heels of the post about my day job...Engineering is why I write. I love writing because it's not engineering. The creative process of writing is the yen to the yang of the technical nature of my career. When I'm not at work, writing (among many other things) provides a balance.
During the 9 to 5 my entire focus is on numbers and figures. Take today for example. The two things I split my time between were: first to determine an accurate gallon per day irrigation consumption for a community's water model. I found this data by pouring over historical metered data records and then making some assumptions. And second, run multiple iterations on a model for different sizes of rainstorms until the model results and the real world data matched up almost exactly...ok you get the point. It's not the most free-form, creative occupation in the world.
Like I've said in previous blog posts, I enjoy this kind of work. But I'm 99.999% certain that if this was all that I did, I would go bloody batty.
Writing allows me to escape from "just the facts" and create something more malleable. It's an outlet for me in my world of following state regulations and industry standards. Getting to put a completely different world on paper, one that has endless possibilities, is a release. Creating a story that I enjoy would be wonderful to share with the world. And if I'm being honest, there's a little bit of my ego that would love to have something bigger than myself live on after I'm gone.
And it's fun...
So, why do you write? (Please chime in on this post! I would LOVE to know what motivates my fellow writers out there!)
Written on the plane back from Seattle...
Five days later and not one more productive written word. Writing fail?
...maybe
To be honest (brace yourself for an excuse) there really wasn't much time to think about story lines or plot twists. When we weren't hiking or driving to the next hiking location, we were desperately looking for a gas station, refueling ourselves on salmon and crab, or spending some quality bonding time with our pillows.
After spending a week living the granola crunchy life a point to ponder started brewing in the back of my head. Now on the way home, while thumbing through a backpacker magazine I purchased at the news stand in the SeaTac terminal that pondered point really solidified. Every other page in this periodical had an add for a high tech gadget GPS fire starter whatchamawhoozit, hiking trail maps to download to your iPhone and carbon fiber coffee cups that double as radio booster. (All of a sudden images from City Slickers were flashing through my head of the battery powered coffee grinder and the ensuing mayhem.)
I began to wonder if these outdoor creature comforts were ruining the get-back-to-nature experience. Similarly do iPads, laptops, and other marvels of modern technology rob us of the complete writing experience? And, no, the irony that I'm bloggin' this using a laptop and the interwebs is not totally lost on me. And, no, I'm not advocating the idea that you go into the woods with nothing more than nail clippers and one change of socks to get the full on nature experience. But, why is it that I feel more connected to my writing when the ink glides smoothly onto a piece of paper rather than tippy-tapped onto my laptop?
So, do you prefer your laptop or ink?
P.S. The pic is of Mt. St. Helens from the plane.
