Feeling like a writer by reading The Writer

Yesterday's mail brought the new issue of The Writer magazine, and there's a lot to read in it this month. It's a little like reading several writing blogs, only they're all right there in your hands, all you have to do is turn the page instead of click on the links.

"10 tips for getting your novel published" includes some good advice, including a couple of things you've been told and told but really, they mean it. Read other books in your genre to learn what's selling and what readers expect, learn what agents want to you to send them (and the unspoken corollary, don't send them stuff they don't want.) There's a timely article on what writers should know about taxes (and we all hope this becomes a major issue soon.) But my favorite was about a guy who was in New York on 9/11 and the event caused him to re-evaluate his life. He moved to L.A. and, by sheer perseverance and hard work, became a writer on "Law and Order: SVU." It was kind of inspiring.

There was a really good article about writing for the children's market in the previous month's issue, and an article on the values and pitfalls of self-publishing, told by six writers who have gone both routes.

If you want to be a writer, write. But more than that, shape your life to support and reinforce the idea that you're a writer, and never use "support and reinforce." It's redundant. But perhaps you want to belong to a book group. Read writing blogs. Take a class. Things that repeat the mantra in your mind, "I'm a writer."

Over the course of the month I'll read pretty much everything in there. Besides any enjoyment or information I get - and there's plenty - it reinforces that feeling in me that I'm a writer.

On another note: Had a brain storm on Scurvy Dogs! that I'm excited about. I was sitting in a Board of Elections meeting when it hit me. I immediately flipped my note pad over and started jotting ideas down. It'll require reworking the front end to set up, but I already knew I have to do that. It'll help bring the whole thing full circle, and it'll be really cool. Need to do a little research. Gotta find my copy of Empire of Blue Water. Which by the way is the best pirate book I've ever read.

Paradigm Shift

Talking recently to an acquaintance who had just written an article. In the course of the conversation he said something along the lines of: "I always enjoy writing WHILE I'm writing, but later when I look at what I've done it looks stupid. I start second guessing myself hating what I've done, and that spoils everything for me."

Time for a paradigm shift, my friend!

Don't throw down your first draft and think, "Man, this really sucks. I should never write again." No! The aftermath, as you call it, isn't a time for self-loathing. It's a gift! It's a second chance!

The second draft is your opportunity to say, "OK, that's a start (good start, bad, indifferent, doesn't matter. It's a start.) Now what can I do to make this EVEN BETTER?"

It's an unbending, unavoidable fact of life. NOBODY'S first draft is good enough. Even if it's pretty good, it can be better, and that means it isn't good enough. My first draft isn't good enough. Yours isn't. Dave Barry's and Neil Gaiman's aren't. Not even Bill Shakespeare's first draft was good enough. And he didn't have the luxury of a word processor to fix his. It was back to the quill and inkpot for him.

That doesn't mean that no one should ever write. On the contrary, it means writing is one of the more forgiving of the creative arts.

When you cook, if you make a mistake there's no going back. You've blown it. You eat the burned meal or you get out a box of mac and cheese. When you're a sculptor and you slip, there ain't no gluing that chunk of marble back to where the horse's tail was supposed to be. It's gone, baby. Painters can slop more paint over their mistakes, but they can't make them go away in the way hitting the delete key can.

Actors, and singers and dancers can practice and practice and practice, but if they make a mistake in performance the audience sees it in all its gory glory.

But when you make a mistake writing, no problem. First of all, it's private. No one will ever see one word you've written unless you want them to. So that's a start. One of my all-time favorite phrases is "I'll fix that in the rewrite." Aaahhh! God, I LOVE that phrase.

After all, that's what rewrites are for. The chance to make it closer and closer to perfect. Shit, even God didn't get it all right the first time. He needed six days.

Better Living Through Friction

Into each life some rain must fall, or it'll be a pretty dull book.

We writers spend a lot of time creating characters. We try to make them real. We try to give them personalities that will engage readers, make the readers care about them enough to follow their journeys. Then, having created what are almost real people, real friends, we heap abuse on them, subject them to every indignity and danger that occurs to our twisted minds.

At least, that's what we do if we're smart. As a filmmaker/instructor I once read noted, nobody ever paid ten bucks to see a movie titled "Another Happy Day in the Village of Comfortable People."

But occasionally we fall in love with our characters. We like them so much we don't want anything bad to happen to them. So we set up phony problems and trivial obstacles, we stack the deck in their favor. And the result is a snoozefest.

I mention this because I was recently asked to review something, and it was just that – a cure for insomnia. Since I can't recommend it I'm gong to keep my mouth shut about who wrote it or what was written. I don't write negative reviews. Even if I hate something – and I have from time to time - I respect the process. I know how hard writing can be so I'll honor the effort even if the result was ... less than it could have been.

And this writer was clearly in love ith his character. They were facing a problem. No big deal, we'll come up with a plan. They decide on their plan and – No big deal! Here are the steps! We'll follow them! Boy, sure glad that's over!

That was the book in a nutshell. If there had been any difficulty in following the plan, if things had gone wrong or new obstacles had arisen or ANYTHING, it might have been worth reading. Danger or difficulty need to escalate. But there wasn't a real problem to solve, and solving it was easy. There was no heat. And then, just when it looked like they'd achieve their goal, they did, without any stress or ado. They were unstoppable, so I had no fear or worry that they might not make it. And that meant I didn't care.

How do you start a fire? Friction. Two sticks rubbing against each other create heat. Two characters with conflicting goals create a story worth reading, or one character chasing a goal but coming up against more and more difficult obstacles. Write your character into a corner where you're really not at all sure how he or she is going to get out of it. Then watch them struggle until they do.

If I ever get another tattoo, that's what it's gong to say, across my left forearm where I'll see it every time I sit down to write.

Put some friction in your fiction.