Thoughts on Writing

Writing is rewriting.

I just began reading The History of the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien. It is a fascinating exploration of the genesis and development of J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterwork, The Lord of the Rings. Aspiring writers will find it of interest, among other things, as proof of the often stated truism that “writing is rewriting.”

Few novels spring forth in final format the first go-round. Newbie writers quickly learn that writing a novel truly is not a matter of sitting down, banging at a keyboard, and getting up 10 chapters later with a masterpiece. They may find this frustrating, but in actuality, the need for patience and process in crafting a work of fiction is a blessing in disguise. It means writing is a skill, and a skill is learnable – something that can be exercised, honed and improved. Writers passionate about writing and willing to put in the time and effort will improve.

Which brings me back to The History of the Lord of the Rings. Did you know that in the earliest versions of The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn (a.k.a. Strider), the romantic hero of The Lord of the Rings originally was a hobbit – one of the likable but homely and very small folk (with large hairy feet) who provide as much comedy as they do drama in the novel? Only in later revisions did J.R.R. Tolkien transform Aragorn into one of the tall kingly “men of the West” (a Dúnedain). Oh, and his name as a hobbit? It was Trotter. Strider, I think we’ll all agree, is a much cooler nickname for a romantic hero.

Another book aspiring writers will find of interest is John Curran’s Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks. Culled from 73 of Agatha Christie’s notebooks, the book provides a glimpse of the process by which Christie – one of the best-selling authors of all time – crafted her meticulously plotted novels.  Readers can pretty much see the authorial wheels grinding in these jotted notes – Christie playing with several ideas, then deciding on the one she’ll use. An example: In her “notes to self” as she prepped to write Murder Made Easy, she jots down, “How about this,” “A good idea would be,” and the age-old questions Curran calls “the essence of detective fiction”: “Who? Why? When? How? Where? Which?”

The notebooks also show how she would think through several variations in plot lines and how she would make a list of suspects to decide on who the murderer would be. In planning for Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, for example, she noodled up nine possible murderers coded 1A, 1B up through 5A, 5B, etc. before settling on 1B.

Again: Writing is rewriting.

Screenwriter Hal Croasmun gave some very good advice on the rewriting/revision process in his article, “Take Control of Your Creative Process.” The advice he offers screenwriters – to go through a minimum of six drafts – applies to novelists as well. Draft 1 is where you get it on paper (after, of course, outlining your story – See “How to Write a Pageturner Novel: Step 3 – Write a ‘Beat Sheet’ “). In drafts 2 through 5, you fine tune different aspects of your work. Draft 6 is where you work to make it perfect.

Diamonds in the rough look like rocks, don’t they? It’s the skill of the diamond cutter that brings out the beauty of a polished gem. So too, a writer needs to apply patience and craft to Draft 1, his “diamond in the rough.”

Happy Writing!

Image: photosteve 101 via Flickr

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), one of my favorite painters, struggled mightily to find an audience. He was 29 before he sold his first painting (in 1911) for $250. It would be ten years before he sold his next painting – this time for $100, much less than his first exhilirating sale.

In 1924, at the age of 42, Hopper visited an art dealer who represented a fellow artist. He hoped the dealer would represent his work as well. The dealer turned him down. But, in a one-man show held the same year, Hopper sold all his works.

In 1927, the artist sold a painting for $1,500 (an immense sum at that time and the highest price any painting of his had ever fetched).

By 1931, when he was 49, major museums across the U.S. were paying sums in the thousands for his work, and Hopper achieved financial security. Hopper lived another 35 years – doing the work he loved.

In 2006, one of his paintings, Hotel Window (1925), sold for $26.89 million.

What is the takeaway for artists (both painters and writers)? Simply this: one dealer/critic/client is simply one dealer/critic/client. His/her opinion is simply that. If you are good at what you do, you will find an audience. But to find that audience, you must persist.

Happy writing (and painting)!

Watch Jessica Hatchigan’s video tutorial – “How Bestselling Authors Create Pageturner Novels: Plot & Structure ” instantly on your PC, Mac, compatible TV or device via Amazon.com’s instant video

What can a writer can do to make the most of the time he or she finds to actually write?

The answers to that question are as various as are writers themselves.

Here are some of the things I’ve found work for me:

• Structure/Planning – Having written both as a “pantser” (a writer who chiefly depends on inspiration) and as a “plotter” (a writer who pre-plans story and structure), I’ve found that both ways work, but that pre-planning saves a lot of wheel spinning. Interestingly, plotting also helps counter writer’s block. If you create a one-sentence summary, a one-page summary, a beat sheet, etc. – see previous posts – you’ve created a map with a path marked out on it for yourself. When you’re done with one scene, you don’t need to pause and think a bit about what to do next; you pick up your beat sheet and know what to write next.
• A quiet place – Optimally, a writer should have a room with a door he or she can close. Personally, I’m not one of those extraordinary writers who do their best work surrounded by distractions. Soft background music (see below) is about the only “noise” that I find conducive to writing. The Sennheiser headphones, at right, also are a real lifesaver. My hubby loves movies and watches more of them than the law should allow. With these wireless headphones, he gets better audio than he would without. More spectacularly, our home resounds with the sounds of silence for little ol’ writer person – me! If you want to sell your co-habitor on the virtues of these headphones, let them know that they also can hear the baseball game or their favorite news pundit while mowing the lawn or doing other errands in a certain radius outside the house.
• Support/understanding/respect – Family and friends need to respect a writer’s time. When you close the door to your writing place (room or office), they should not barge in and interrupt your train of thought. Some of my writer friends find that their wise counsel, apparently, is needed on a multitudinous variety of subjects. Even “Do Not Disturb” signs don’t work. In this case, a writer may need to rent a small office (if lucky enough to have the funds to do so), or may need to make a quiet carrel at the nearest library serve that purpose.
• Background music – Some writers like to listen to the sound tracks from suspense movies when composing suspense novels. I’ve heard that Stephen King composed his novels to acid rock. Personally, I know acid rock would never work for me. I’m not a fan of same, and I know I would find strident music and lyrics distracting. Classical music also doesn’t work for me, as it seems to demand too much of my attention. However, for me, New Age music – especially Pandora’s New Age Internet radio station  – is conducive to creative thinking.
• Guilt – I’d like to say, “setting aside certain hours each day to write.” But I don’t like to abide by a rigid schedule. I’m more likely to find two, three or six hours sometime each day to write. It might be mornings or afternoons or evenings, depending on what else is happening in my life. What does compel me to make time to write each day is a feeling. Call it “guilt” or “discomfort,” or what you will. All I know is that, if I don’t work on my writing for a significant chunk of my day, that feeling kicks in – a sense that I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing – that I’m not utilizing the precious gifts I’ve been fortunate enough to receive. Therefore, I make sure to set aside the necessary time as I move through my day.

Well, that’s what works for me. What do you find works for you? Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments section.

Happy Writing!

Image (top): SearchEnginePeopleBlog via Flickr

Writer & His Muse

“Sing through me, Muse, and let me tell the story of that wily man, the wanderer, who endured an age of troubles, after he ravaged Troy’s proud heights.” – Homer’s Invocation to the Muse, The Iliad

“… Whatever kind and sort of book this is, O Muse, let it live for longer than this generation – in fact, eternally.” – Catullus, Carmen

“Muse” – from the Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, moũsai: possibly from a proto Indo-European a root word meaning “think”). In Greek mythology, the Muses are the goddesses of inspiration in literature, art, and science, and were considered the source of knowledge and the arts conveyed orally prior to the invention of writing, including lyrics and myths.

Most writers are familiar with the concept of writer’s block – the experience in which a writer finds creative writing difficult or impossible to do. Fewer writers are perhaps familiar with the concept of the Muse as it relates to writer’s block.

As noted above, the concept of the Muse dates back to ancient times. In Greek mythology, there were nine Muses. Each specialized in a branch of the arts – from tragedy to comedy, from history to epic. Back in Homer’s day, it seems, a writer or a poet with “writer’s block” would have felt his Muse had abandoned him.  I am sure that, like blocked writers today, the Muse-less writer would fritter away his time catching up on the latest news and trivia (in the market square – the Google of its day), drowning his sorrows at the local watering hole, or finding a fellow poet/writer and keeping him from working on his latest. (“If I can’t go to my happy place, no one goes to his/her happy place.”)

But let us set aside the ancient concept of the Muse, and pick up a 20th century concept that has much currency today: that of Flow, the mental state “in which,” per the Wikipedia definition, “a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.”

Flow, clearly, is the opposite of writer’s block. It is the desired state of operation for writers – you sit down at your keyboard and the words and ideas tumble out blissfully and with polished perfection. Ah, flow!

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the researcher who originated the concept of flow, reported that several of the subjects he studied reported that “flow” was like being carried along on water. The idea, in other words, finds you – not vice versa; you are just the conduit. Before Csikszentmihalyi, we used the word “inspiration” to describe this phenomenon.

Here’s what’s useful for writers: Csikszentmihalyi determined that you can create conditions that are conducive to “flow.” Here’s how:

• Set about a task that has direction and structure; have an activity with a clear set of goals.
• Have the inner confidence that you have what it takes to meet the challenges of the goals you have set for yourself with this task.
• Get “clear and immediate” feedback as you work as this enables you to maintain the flow state.

Admittedly, the first two “conducives” are less challenging for writers than the third. (Self-editing, as you go along, needs to be done with a light touch. That’s what second, third and sixth drafts are for.)

Still, Csíkszentmihályi’s insights are useful. At left is a graph he created which illustrates his theories about flow in terms of “challenges set” and “skills mastered.”

Now, with all of the above said, here are my views on the Muse/flow – what I’ve found helpful when bumping up against writer’s block:

Getting the Muse (Flow or Inspiration) to come to you is a bit like being out in the wild woods and hoping a fawn or a deer will approach you. If you sit there anxiously, it’s not gonna happen.

But if you relax and tune in to the stillness and the rhythms of the forest, you change within; you are no longer an intruder – you are part of the scene. The animals sense it; they approach.

Personally, I’ve found that the first five or ten minutes in the “woods” of writing is the most difficult – painful even – but that, if I just start, and then perservere, the wave of flow does come along to carry me into the creative work. (Yes, some days the “wave” is stronger than on others, but it is reliably there.)

Following are two quotes often invoked when starting creative endeavors. Read them with the Muse/flow in mind, and they make all the sense in the world:

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” – Goethe

“Leap… and the net will appear.” – Zen saying

Happy Writing!

Image: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Luigi Cherubini and the Muse of Lyric Poetry. 1842