Thoughts on Writing

I love the scenes in old movies which depict writers writing. Most of these romantic old movies are set in the typewriter days.

If I were to amalgamate the various scenes to the best of my recall, the Writer is usually shown frustrated and grasping for the Next Big Idea. Something Occurs in his life that sparks an idea, or breaks a creative logjam. The writerly person scurries to his trusty Remington (typewriter, not rifle) and plays those keys like Mozart composing, usually with a look of noble and fierce concentration and terrible speed – those fingers fly!

If anyone or anything interrupts the movie Writer, it is only to show him/her firmly pushing said Interruptor out of the picture and returning intently to the work at hand.

It is difficult to envision writers like this thinking through Concept, Plot and Structure, ensuring their Scenes have the proper rhythm, development, and flow. For them, it all seems to pour out in a rush of creative inspiration.

We writers know that there is actually nothing duller than the actual visual of a writer writing. It consists of one of us staring at a computer screen and tapping things out on a keyboard with (depending on our levels of self-discipline) breaks for coffee, Internet browsing, daydreaming – and, of course, attending to the earnest practical matters that keep that handy roof over head and three squares on the table.

Inspiration does indeed play a part in writing. But, with few exceptions, successful writers need to master Technique to produce novels that sing. The exceptions aren’t really exceptions: some writers have an intuitive grasp of Technique. This is because they have mastered and internalized the way Story works to a degree that they may not consciously need to think about how to build a story.

For all writers who aren’t sure whether they have this kind of mastery: When in doubt, Plan it out.

Just for fun: Someone actually compiled a list of most of the Movies about Writers and Writing! (Click on link at left to view.)

Happy Writing!

Image: Foxtongue via Flickr CC

Skip this post if you are tech averse – but, if you can tolerate mild techitude, read on and you may be able to create a neat tool that will serve you as a handy “map” on your novel writing jouney.

There are many ways to track how you progress on your novel. In my opinion, creating a Gannt chart to plan and track the evolution of your work in progress, is one of the best ways to provide yourself with helpful metrics.

Here is a sample Milestone Gannt chart schedule I created:

Click on the image for the larger font version.

Software purpose-built to create Gannt charts is pricey. If you have the budget, go for it. However, good old Microsoft Excel allows a great workaround that creates perfectly serviceable Gannt charts. And, thanks to online YouTube tutorials, within an hour or less, you can create your Novel Writing Schedule in nifty Gannt format.

The tutorials I use are created by Eugene O’Loughlin at the National College of Ireland. Here is his tutorial on How to Create a Gannt Chart with Excel 2003. Here is his tutorial on How to Create a Gannt Chart with Excel 2010.

Once you have inputted your milestones and target dates, Excel also allows you to print out a simple Columns-and-Rows Schedule with the same information.

Click on the image for the larger font version.

Here is how the data you need to input looks when it is inputted into Excel.

Click on the image for the larger font version.

You’ll notice that my milestones include “Create Scrivener Index Cards.” For non-Scrivener users, that means, transfer your Beat Sheet action bullet points to where you can begin to expand each bullet point into a Scene. Non-Scrivener users can skip this step – but, Novelists, I highly recommend that if you are not using Scrivener, you make a beeline to the Scrivener Website and try it out. It is superb writing software.

Note: Tweak the milestones on the chart you create to best reflect your writing process. You may add milestones or delete them.  The same goes for the target dates. Each of us writes at a certain pace. The sample writing schedule may seem snail’s pace to some writers, and overly aggressive to others. Again, apply your own preferences in creating your milestones.

The advantage of the Gannt Chart schedule is that it gives you a visual grasp of the time you will need to invest in your work. In addition, it allows you to track your progress and to be honest with yourself.

Also, if you are thrown off track – life does sometimes intrude on our writing schedules – being able to refer to the Gannt Chart makes it easier to pick up where you left off.

Anthony Trollope, "Novel Machine"

One author writing about Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope – one of the most successful writers of his day – called him a “Novel Machine.” 

Trollope’s first novel was published in 1847 while he held a full-time job as a post office civil servant. For the next 20 years, while remaining in his full-time job, he was able to produce at least a book a year and sometimes three. During his lifetime, he penned 47 novels and 16 additional books.

Trollope woke up every day up at 5:30 am and had a cup of coffee. he would then read what he had written previously for half an hour, then he would write for the next two and a half hours. His output was 1000 words per hour. In two and a half hours, he produced – about 10 modern manuscript pages a day. This, Trollope wrote, in his autobiography, “allowed me to produce  over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if kept up through  ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three  volumes each in the year.”

Today, most of us admire these workmanlike habits. What is fascinating, however, is that when Trollope’s Autobiography was published posthumously, after his death in 1882, his reputation took a nosedive. Why? Because Victorian literary sensibilities were taken aback by an author whose means of producing work were apparently so mechanical. Victorian critics felt true poets and authors produced work in the throes of “inspiration.”

The Victorian sentiment is often subtly promulgated by Hollywood – how many scenes have we seen where a writer writing is clearly rapturously transported by his/her work? Okay, it happens. But waiting for “transport” can be like waiting for Godot.

Stephen King was once asked what was the secret of writing success. His answer: “Bum glue.” (Bum here being the British word for the part of your anatomy that needs to be parked in front of a word processor for a good chunk of time in order to produce a manuscript.) Hmm, why does it not surprise me that Stephen King has been prolific too?