This is a post aimed at writers. Readers may find it
interesting. Hell, anybody who does or makes anything may find it interesting.
I’m often asked by aspiring authors at the beginning of their journey how I do things.
How did you finish your first book?
How do you keep going when life realizes you’ve been
stealing time from it and starts locking it up?
How do you get back into it when the story/muse/characters
aren’t speaking to you?
How do you develop a voice?
How do I know if it’s going to be worth it?
J
How did you finish your first book?
In the glorious frenzy of the ignorant. It was 98,000 words,
a derivative story full all my favorite urban fantasy tropes – the daughter of
a mysterious father who turns out to an exceedingly powerful half-vampire who
falls in love with her protector and has to fight her way through a vampire
power struggle and establish her place in the world. I think the only original
elements were a Funyuns joke and an adorable fight between the heroine and her
bestie in the bathroom.
But I had fun writing it. I didn’t know what a query letter
was or why it was important. I didn’t stare, wide-eyed and fearful, as Twitter
streamed along with news of the glutted marketplace or the “death of publishing”.
I’m pro-education, but I think it’s easy for newer writers to get caught up in
bad news or jealousy over others’ successes. If I were starting now, knowing
what I do now about the state of publishing, I would write more fearfully. But
I would keep writing because I love to read and I know there are a lot of
people like me in the world.
How do you keep going when life realizes you’ve been
stealing time from it and starts locking it up?
This struggle isn’t specific to the writer. A lot of us have
demanding day jobs and/or demanding families and/or other conditions which slow
us down. Nobody ever said you had to write 5,000 words a day every day. Or, if
they did, they weren’t talking to you.
Writing isn’t a race. The best stories aren’t those fastest told.
That being said, I have found that I work best when I write
consistently. I do try to write every day, making exceptions for family illness
and socializing (everybody loses if you don’t engage with other humans in a
focused way at least occasionally). This summer was terrible for my writing
productivity. The weather was fantastic so I was trying to get the family out
as much as possible, and I had a massive amount of additional work dumped on me
at the day job. I was managing a scattered hour of writing time a day, when I
prefer at least two. I like to re-read what I’ve previously written, both to
ease me out of my daylight mindset and get me back into the voice and cadence
of my story.
But an hour is better than nothing, and maintaining the
routine allowed me to slip more quickly into the mindset I needed to write
something, even if it was only a couple hundred words. There are very few days
in which I cannot find or make an hour’s space.
Did I mention that I watch almost no TV? That helps me to
find the time.
How do you get back into it when the story/muse/characters
aren’t speaking to you?
I conspire and scheme in a way that I rarely do in my
regular life. Seriously, it's like I've become a Borgia or a de Medici, or a member of some other powerful Renaissance family. I’ve never been a high drama person. But if I lose my story’s
attention, if I find myself rewriting the same scene for a week with no idea
where to go next, oh – the claws come out.
I leave that document up where it can see me and I slip into
the brightest, sexiest thing I can find – a shiny new idea. Just because you’ve
temporarily misplaced your motivation or direction for a work in progress doesn’t
mean you aren’t ready to be productive. And, often, focusing on the upfront
creativity required to start a new story will jumpstart the creativity required
to get past a plot hole or dead end in your first work.
If that fails, I take a shower or do the dishes. Something
about the water and the mindlessness tends to get the mental juices flowing.
How do you develop a voice?
I think that newer writers are often confused about what
this means. Either they’re trying – whether consciously or not – to write in a
style they enjoy reading, which is actually in conflict with their natural
voice, or they believe that a voice has to beat the reader over the head. Voice
is, in part, your natural style – the rhythm of sentences and the tone in which
the characters experience their world. And, in part, it’s stylistic. Some
writers have tremendous lyrical qualities to their writing, so that their prose
sounds poetic. Others write short, concise sentences and include very little
description but, in that, develop a voice of their own.
My advice to newer writers is, if you’re struggling with
grammar or tense or how to write beyond ten pages or ten thousand words, forget
about voice. Practice the craft. Educate yourself on the fundamentals until
you’re no longer focused on them. Complete writing exercises until you can
stretch your mind out and see a full story or character arc. Then, simply
write. Your individual voice will develop and, with more practice, it will grow
stronger.
Some people have more innate talent for writing than others.
A few are amazing writers from the get-go, requiring little practice or
guidance. The rest of us need to practice.
How do I know if it’s going to be worth it?
Ah. Well, that depends. What, to you, makes it “worth it”?
Is finishing a book a success? Yes, yes it is. For every 30 people who tell me
they’d like to write a book one day, I think I know of person who’s actually
done it.
Is seeing your book for sale online and on bookstore shelves
a success? Yes. But I also think the pile of unsold manuscripts in the closet
or the dusty files on the hard drive are successes, testaments to your
creativity and perseverance, your passion and delight in the process.
So, while your metrics for success may evolve, just as your
process and ability will evolve, there are many aspects to writing that make it
worthwhile.
***
About the Author
Regan Summers lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband
and alien-monkey hybrid of a child. She is a huge fan of the low profile. She
likes books, ottomans with concealed storage, small plate dining, libraries,
Corporal Hicks, some aspects of pre-revolutionary France, most aspects of
current Italy, and books.
Her Night Runner series, including Don’t Bite the Messenger and Running
in the Dark, is available wherever e-books are sold.
No comments:
Post a Comment