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Miscellany
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Sep
17
I lived in Houston for large, non-consecutive portions of my life. I’ve got lots of friends and loved ones there right now. I’m exceedingly thankful that they all made it through the storm unharmed, with their homes (mostly) intact.
Unfortuantly, not everyone was so lucky.
I’ve been following the news closely, and augmenting what I hear from the folks who can get calls out. It’s no cakewalk down there. But to the credit of the people of Houston and it’s surrounding areas, they really are coming together to help one another.
I hope that you all can do the same, even if as neighbors you may be a little further away.
Donate to the Red Cross or Houston Food Bank if you can. It will make an impact on someone’s life.
You can take my word for it: these folks are good people who will leverage whatever you give to help the most possible and make the best of a bad situation.
Not many people read this blog, as it is in it’s infancy. But if I can implore one of you to help, it will be worth it.
As always, thanks for reading.
Sep
5
Keeping a writer’s notebook
Filed Under On writing, Writing advice | 3 Comments
A notebook is a writer's best friend
I have a poet friend who was told me once that ideas are ours only for so long. If we don’t use them, our muse takes them to someone else. Then we forget about them until we read them in another writer’s words.
Fortunately, we don’t need to lose our ideas to the aether. We just need to write them down, and preserve their freshness until we are ready to dash them onto the page.
Any aspiring writer should keep an idea file. Most can use a small notebook kept on hand at all times. For those moments of random beauty, irony or curiosity, you need to be able to jot them down for later exploration.
Keeping a long record of good ideas, interesting sightings or sayings that were overhead not only gives you material for when you can’t seem to come up with anything, but it builds your understanding of the world around you. The more nuanced your view, the more layered and original you’re writing will be.
Here are notes that I find in my notebook:
- Premises: I have ideas that seem like they would make great short stories all the time. Whether or not they can, that’s debatable. Doesn’t matter though, they’re lost if they don’t get written down so anything that seems interesting goes in here.
- What ifs? Sometimes conversations can raise interesting questions that are worth exploring in prose. Those “What Ifs?” make a lot of great stories. You probably have these conversations all the time (what if Aliens invaded earth just for our Boston creme pie? What if we elected a president that was nine feet tall and mostly made of steel?) so why not get some writing fodder out of it.
- Observations: Funny/interesting/ironic things creep up on us whether we’re eating or sitting at home watching the animals chase things that don’t need to be chased. Mundane, everyday observations get life through exploration. Writing is about giving life to a point of view, so seeing something worth infusing with meaning is always good for the notebook.
- Strange speaking conventions:People have unique ways of speaking -rhythms and cadences that sound so particular they resonate in your ear and brain. When you notice this, it’s great to note them for when you are writing dialog for your characters. Creating a unique voice for them is hard, but borrowing it from a real person isn’t!
- Imagery: You’ll know it when you’ll see it, and it will be incredible. Those glimmers of images will help you through tough sines or lack of inspiration.
Even if these notes don’t amount to work in and of themselves, they might fit nicely into another piece I’ve been working on, so it helps to review the notebook pretty often. In fact, an interesting idea file can be the greatest cure for a case of writer’s block.
I like using Moleskine notebooks because they are the right size and they look the part. Using such a stylized and traditional writer’s notebook makes me look the part so it’s sort of validating of my choices.
Of course it doesn’t need to be that fancy or historically pertinent. Any easily-carted notebook will do.
And of course the pen. You can never forget the pen.
Sep
2
Just do it.
Filed Under On writing, Struggles of the Writing Process | 2 Comments
I’ve been giving some thought to the struggles a writer faces throughout the process of writing. The frustration of the blank page, writer’s block, ideas with a beginning and no end, unrealistic dialogue…these can serve as a real downer, bruising a writer’s already fragile sense of confidence. A really determined writer will brush the dust off and work through these problems. However, I find there is one problem writers face that is toughest to work through: starting the writing process.
I have found this to be my biggest obstacle. An idea really doesn’t count for much until it hits the paper. I can blame my hesitation on a lack of available time, incomplete ideas, my inner editor, a lack of exigency or deadlines…but really, maybe it’s just a lack of will.
So I’ve decided to turn to the old 90’s NIKE slogan, “Just do it.” When I hear that phrase I think of a conference room with a long shiny expensive wooden table surrounded by the CEO, CFO, secretaries, and really nervous marketing types trying to come up with a slogan that will make people want to hop into overpriced shoes, work out, and change their lives. And I picture an intern in the back holding two steaming cups of coffee waiting for a break in the intense discussion about the company slogan so he can hand the cups to their owners. And as the debate builds and his hands continue to burn, his sweaty face yells out, “JUST DO IT!” There is a complete silence, which makes the intern forget about the burning coffee. And in that classic Hollywood moment, the CEO breaks the silence with one word: “Brilliant!”
But back to my point…there is no fix for a writer’s inability to begin writing. It’s all in our heads. Maybe we shouldn’t start writing until we have something we have to say, something that can’t go unwritten. And I’m sure we all have something we really want to say.
If we don’t, then we have bigger problems than struggling to start the writing process.