![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lomonaaerenI got an anonymous request in the last one-shot I posted to talk about my writing process and where I get my ideas. And so, because God knows I can never shut up about writing if given half a chance, here’s some random babble.
(Note that none of this is necessarily a good idea to imitate. But it’s how I write).
First of all, I hate revising. Fiction, anyway. I can revise essays just fine, because you don’t drag yourself through two degrees in English literature without learning that. But when I try to revise stories—beyond correcting typos and inconsistencies—I’m just as likely to wind up with something worse than the original, because I’m not certain what the best replacement for a non-working scene is, or where a scene needs to be added. (Also, I’m no judge of my work. I’ve written things that I thought were brilliant and which came across as stilted to other people, and I’ve written stories when I was sobbing with weariness that should, by rights, have had a shitload of typos and generally wooden dialogue and which readers loved).
So, since I started writing fiction fifteen years ago, I would write a story, become dissatisfied with it or realize it didn’t quite work, and, instead of going over it with a fine-toothed comb, I would—go off and write something else. Because I thought the next thing was certain to be better, you see.
And quite often it wasn’t. But over time, usually when I’d repeated a mistake two or three times in a row, I slowly learned what things did and didn’t work for me. Among the things I learned this way: how to write characters who believed quite different things from me (I think I’m near now to writing convincing religious characters, though I’m an atheist who has never been religious), how to describe action scenes, how to get rid of silly dialogue tags like “ejaculated” and “grated,” how to cut down on use of adverbs and adjectives, how to notice repetitive word use, and so on.
What I post now is the product of many, many times leaping off the cliff and being certain I could fly. Then I’d crash and figure out why I crashed. Then I’d climb back up the cliff and build another pair of wings. Finally, the wings started working more often than they failed. (At least, I think so, but as I told you, I’m no judge).
Second, I work at it as often as I can. That is, nearly every day. There are days I’m too tired or too sick to write, and so I don’t. But I usually wind up feeling better when I do. Writing makes me happier than anything else in the world.
If you can write every day, even if it’s only a hundred words or so, you too can beaddicted fixated obsessed productive.
Third, I learned to type. Seriously, this is some of the most basic advice I can offer, and also the best. If you don’t know how to type, it’s easy to get frustrated and give up on writing altogether. I spent a lot of time throughout the first story I ever finished hissing at myself for making mistakes every few seconds or hunting frantically for the N key. When I became a skilled ten-fingered typist, it became easier to organize my thoughts, and much easier to feel like I was accomplishing something.
I didn’t have instruction in typing; I figured it out on my own, through that experimentation I mentioned above. (Autodidact, that’s me). So it’s not necessary to take a class if you don’t want to or can’t afford one. But it is necessary to give yourself the time and patience to get good at it. It took me months. But I wanted to write, damn it.
Fourth, I hear the next words in my head. This is very hard to describe. Bear with me as I become confusing.
Basically, the times I have to pause and feel about for the words I want are few and far between. I’m typing along; I don’t know what comes next, unless this is one of those rare scenes I had to outline in advance because of a mass of detail, but I’ll know when I get to that sentence or that phrase. It’s like observing the scene happening in front of me and having the ability to record it as fast as it happens.
I am not sure how to recommend imitating this if you want to, because I am not sure how I learned it. However, it helps that I hear words in my head as I read. This is like hearing someone reading me my own story.
Fifth, I go really fast. Unless I’m just starting out on a story, when I have to feel my way carefully, or tired or sick, I can type about 1000 words in 15 minutes. Since my chapters are usually around 4000 words, it takes me around an hour to wrap them up. But I usually work on them for 15 minutes at a time, then take a break and do something else for half-an-hour, so they take longer to get edited and posted.
This is a combination of points three and four: I know how to type, and I hear the story. That lends itself to speed.
As for where I get ideas, there’s three places: reading, the game I’ve trained my mind to play, and empathy. I read an awful lot, usually around 200 to 300 pages a day, and I’m always noting different ways the story could have gone, or, if it’s nonfiction, things the writer didn’t have enough space to cover, points that can be twisted, or places I disagree. That spins out a lot of stories. “What about writing a story where the woman and man didn’t get married instead of one where they did?” “How would I write a friendship that complex but base it on two characters with different personalities?” “What about a Victorian England where women were allowed to practice science?”
The game I’ve trained my mind to play is a variation of something I think everybody does when they people-watch and make up interesting backstories for them. I watch people, buildings, animals—I don’t drive, which is an advantage here—weather, signs, seasons, things that happen around me, reactions to things that happen around me, Internet kerfuffles, puddles, cars, etc. They don’t always give me story ideas by themselves, but they cause my mind to react and add to my constant running internal commentary. And a reactive, aware, awake mind is a lot more likely to produce story ideas.
The one disadvantage of having trained my mind to play this game is that I cannot shut it up. Hence waking up in the middle of the night because my mind has something it wants to tell me.
As for empathy, I want to know why people act and believe differently than I do. The inside of my head makes sense to me; the inside of other people’s heads don’t, necessarily. So I try to learn about them, and read their words, and dig out more questions, and read some more (or listen, if I get the chance). And then I try my very best to get inside their heads when I write characters like that. If it works, then I can understand why, say, someone on the opposite side of a political point from me believes and behaves that way, without thinking they’re just stupid.
I’m not sure if that’s clear. Sorry if it’s not.
(Note that none of this is necessarily a good idea to imitate. But it’s how I write).
First of all, I hate revising. Fiction, anyway. I can revise essays just fine, because you don’t drag yourself through two degrees in English literature without learning that. But when I try to revise stories—beyond correcting typos and inconsistencies—I’m just as likely to wind up with something worse than the original, because I’m not certain what the best replacement for a non-working scene is, or where a scene needs to be added. (Also, I’m no judge of my work. I’ve written things that I thought were brilliant and which came across as stilted to other people, and I’ve written stories when I was sobbing with weariness that should, by rights, have had a shitload of typos and generally wooden dialogue and which readers loved).
So, since I started writing fiction fifteen years ago, I would write a story, become dissatisfied with it or realize it didn’t quite work, and, instead of going over it with a fine-toothed comb, I would—go off and write something else. Because I thought the next thing was certain to be better, you see.
And quite often it wasn’t. But over time, usually when I’d repeated a mistake two or three times in a row, I slowly learned what things did and didn’t work for me. Among the things I learned this way: how to write characters who believed quite different things from me (I think I’m near now to writing convincing religious characters, though I’m an atheist who has never been religious), how to describe action scenes, how to get rid of silly dialogue tags like “ejaculated” and “grated,” how to cut down on use of adverbs and adjectives, how to notice repetitive word use, and so on.
What I post now is the product of many, many times leaping off the cliff and being certain I could fly. Then I’d crash and figure out why I crashed. Then I’d climb back up the cliff and build another pair of wings. Finally, the wings started working more often than they failed. (At least, I think so, but as I told you, I’m no judge).
Second, I work at it as often as I can. That is, nearly every day. There are days I’m too tired or too sick to write, and so I don’t. But I usually wind up feeling better when I do. Writing makes me happier than anything else in the world.
If you can write every day, even if it’s only a hundred words or so, you too can be
Third, I learned to type. Seriously, this is some of the most basic advice I can offer, and also the best. If you don’t know how to type, it’s easy to get frustrated and give up on writing altogether. I spent a lot of time throughout the first story I ever finished hissing at myself for making mistakes every few seconds or hunting frantically for the N key. When I became a skilled ten-fingered typist, it became easier to organize my thoughts, and much easier to feel like I was accomplishing something.
I didn’t have instruction in typing; I figured it out on my own, through that experimentation I mentioned above. (Autodidact, that’s me). So it’s not necessary to take a class if you don’t want to or can’t afford one. But it is necessary to give yourself the time and patience to get good at it. It took me months. But I wanted to write, damn it.
Fourth, I hear the next words in my head. This is very hard to describe. Bear with me as I become confusing.
Basically, the times I have to pause and feel about for the words I want are few and far between. I’m typing along; I don’t know what comes next, unless this is one of those rare scenes I had to outline in advance because of a mass of detail, but I’ll know when I get to that sentence or that phrase. It’s like observing the scene happening in front of me and having the ability to record it as fast as it happens.
I am not sure how to recommend imitating this if you want to, because I am not sure how I learned it. However, it helps that I hear words in my head as I read. This is like hearing someone reading me my own story.
Fifth, I go really fast. Unless I’m just starting out on a story, when I have to feel my way carefully, or tired or sick, I can type about 1000 words in 15 minutes. Since my chapters are usually around 4000 words, it takes me around an hour to wrap them up. But I usually work on them for 15 minutes at a time, then take a break and do something else for half-an-hour, so they take longer to get edited and posted.
This is a combination of points three and four: I know how to type, and I hear the story. That lends itself to speed.
As for where I get ideas, there’s three places: reading, the game I’ve trained my mind to play, and empathy. I read an awful lot, usually around 200 to 300 pages a day, and I’m always noting different ways the story could have gone, or, if it’s nonfiction, things the writer didn’t have enough space to cover, points that can be twisted, or places I disagree. That spins out a lot of stories. “What about writing a story where the woman and man didn’t get married instead of one where they did?” “How would I write a friendship that complex but base it on two characters with different personalities?” “What about a Victorian England where women were allowed to practice science?”
The game I’ve trained my mind to play is a variation of something I think everybody does when they people-watch and make up interesting backstories for them. I watch people, buildings, animals—I don’t drive, which is an advantage here—weather, signs, seasons, things that happen around me, reactions to things that happen around me, Internet kerfuffles, puddles, cars, etc. They don’t always give me story ideas by themselves, but they cause my mind to react and add to my constant running internal commentary. And a reactive, aware, awake mind is a lot more likely to produce story ideas.
The one disadvantage of having trained my mind to play this game is that I cannot shut it up. Hence waking up in the middle of the night because my mind has something it wants to tell me.
As for empathy, I want to know why people act and believe differently than I do. The inside of my head makes sense to me; the inside of other people’s heads don’t, necessarily. So I try to learn about them, and read their words, and dig out more questions, and read some more (or listen, if I get the chance). And then I try my very best to get inside their heads when I write characters like that. If it works, then I can understand why, say, someone on the opposite side of a political point from me believes and behaves that way, without thinking they’re just stupid.
I’m not sure if that’s clear. Sorry if it’s not.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-10 02:32 am (UTC)I'm writing some original fiction. At this point, though, I'm trying to shift from what I usually write to a bunch of new subjects, so I'm not trying to sell anything (and it'll take me a while to get good enough to sell anything, anyway).
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 03:38 am (UTC)I completely understand what you mean about knowing the next scene that is coming. When you can see everything clearly, watching as it unfolds in your mind's eye, it makes it all the more powerful when it hits the page.
I'm always intrigued by the processes that other writers use. And yes, not driving would give you some interesting things to look at, I'd imagine. I spent a lot of time walking everywhere in my teens. I did a lot of observing of people, houses, etc. during that time. I think I stored it all away for future use. LOL
In my last job, I worked with kids, so you learn a lot of things when around them. When I went to a pub here, I spent a lot of time watching people. I haven't really played the "what if" game in my head before, but I think that's because I am generally not an organised person. I have to train myself to be that way. hehe
Thanks so much for sharing this. :) It's insightful.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-10 02:33 am (UTC)It did take me a while to get used to "seeing" scenes. I used to write horrible action scenes because I would lose track of everybody. :)
I haven't spent as much time as I should around kids. (Haven't lived near anybody who has them for years). That's one reason I hesitate to write stories about them.
THANK YOU!!!
Date: 2007-12-03 05:41 am (UTC)Re: THANK YOU!!!
Date: 2007-12-10 02:34 am (UTC)I've known a lot of people who let the planning overtake the writing, so you're not alone. The most I can say is to decide on a certain goal you're going to meet come hell or high water, and then meet it.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-10 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-10 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 01:28 am (UTC)oh, and I know exactly what you mean about words just coming out and you're trying to type as fast as the characters speak dialogue in your head...I'm currently in a playwriting course and it's very frustrating sometimes when I'm forced to scribe instead of type, because damnit, my hands just aren't fast enough, and once the thought occurs to me and the words are formed, they better be put down immediately or that exact permutation is lost forever.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-10 02:37 am (UTC)If you're aiming for graduate school, the best advice I can give you is to love both research and teaching, and to integrate them. I'm working on an assistantship, which means the university pays me to teach a certain number of classes while I do research and work on my dissertation. There's not a whole lot of extra money- though it helps that I have no car and no kids- and there's always, always things to do. It's very easy to burn out if you're doing it out of sincere love.
I keep having beautiful sentences in my head at four o clock in the morning. And then they're gone.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 01:43 am (UTC)Now that I think about it more, I don't know exactly how I write. I just have the main facts in my mind, and a few scenes (never connected) that I've played in my head, and I work towards the point they happen, but not like a "goal" way, but in a "the way is the goal" way. If I'm making sense. I'm not sure I am.
I actually see what I'm going to write in my head, but not in pictures.
And I do that with the stories, too. I love looking out of the window so I can daydream, and I often do "people watching", only without the people and without consciously doing it - most times without even noticing it. There are stories everywhere around me, things that remind me of stories, or things that cause stories. I'm not sure I'm describing the normal process of thinking right now, though...
I don't do that with other people's stories or books, though. I take them as they are; only if they annoy me because I can't stand a character's reaction because it's totally stupid in my opinion, but then I usually rant about them instead of thinking about what would happen if they were somebody else. It's an interesting thought, though.
And now that I talked about the two points I feel most close to, I can talk about the others as well.
Revising - I don't do it either. I write and when the storie is either finished or I am finished, I close the document and do something else (most times, read). When my mind is totally clear again, I reread it, change a word here or a typo there, sometimes add or change a sentence, but I go with feelings, not with logic. When I feel that it's not perfect, then I won't do anything with it.
I also write daily, but in phases. There are times I don't write at all because I simply don't feel like it, and then there are times I do nothing but. Though I read that one should write everyday, even if you really don't feel like it and only get a few sentences done, or you will lose motivation. (Stephenie Meyer wrote that on her homepage, in case you were wondering.)
Typing. I learned it around eight years ago (I was eleven then, I think); my mother made my sister and me attend a class because at the time, we discovered computers and she thought we should. I simply don't know what typing without ten fingers is like. (Though I can imagine it must be horribly frustrating.)
And fast - I'm not. I have my own pace, and that pace is nonexistent. I work on the story I like best at the moment, and I open the document, read the last sentence, write as much as I feel like, and sometimes I'm fast (I can be pretty fast; very rarely, though, and I don't keep track of how much I write then), sometimes I'm not (mostly because I go and do something else in the middle of writing without even noticing). I think I don't have enough focus :/ (and determination and stubborness and everything else you need to actually stick to something.)
...actually, I think I have more of a child's mind. I'm random. :<
...I'm done ranting now. Sorry! xD;
no subject
Date: 2008-08-26 10:37 am (UTC)