Peer Pressure or Motivation?

When I first started writing, I was a little reluctant to tell people I had plans for a novel. Perhaps I had some odd opinion of people who boast about their literary endeavors, or maybe I didn't want people to wonder when the hell the thing would be ready. If I may reference a show that does nothing but reference other things, there is a very telling scene in an episode of Family Guy that explains such a fear. In the scene, Brian says he could really use some time off for vacation. Stewey then mocks him by bringing up the "novel" he's been working on, proceeding to go on a diatribe of sarcasm and bring up all the things a writer SHOULD be doing, which Brian obviously has not.

To cite a somewhat classier example, there is a short one-act play by Tennesse Williams (I forget the name, "Lady of the Something Something Lotion") that details a Blanche DuBois-like character living in her own fantasy world and she is visited by her neighbor, a writer who has a breakdown when he confesses that the "700 page masterpiece" he has stored away is nothing more than a handful of notes he left at the bottom of a trunk years ago and hasn't touched since.

That's what I, and many writers I assume, fear becoming. We're reluctant to reveal our ambitions to people for fear of looking foolish when they never come to fruition. Fear and doubt like this plays a big part in my outlook on writing since I have told many of my friends and family members it's my intention to publish a book at some point. Recently I've been told that my friend Neesha has recommneded my blog to her students, so that's even more people who know about my plans.

The point of this leads to an important question. Do you want the pressure of expectation? Further more, is expecation really pressure, or is it a form of motivation? In the end, if something causes you to write more and write quickly, thus creating the product you wanted all along, is that a bad thing? Whether expectations of your friends and family be peer pressure or a form of motivation, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that you reach closer to that goal of creating and sharing something that is original and that could only have existed because of your actions. Whatever may have been pushing you along all the time is of no consequence to a reader.

Don't Let Them Die! (Or Maybe Do...)

I realized today that, after getting back to novel work after some time off, that the way I saw my characters had completely changed. I saw their motivations differently, I wanted them saying something in a whole new way. So in essence, the characters I had spent some serious time building weeks ago are now gone. Dead. Deceased. No more.

I've heard of this happening with writers. Many say it's important to work on your story every single day. They say to not ignore your characters, otherwise they begin to slip and you forget who they were. Since your characters only have you to represent them, if you don't try, then they're gone from the world of readers eyes. Make sense?

What didn't make sense about that theory is that I realized the new way I wrote my characters was actually better that what I was doing before. Each action a person takes leading up to plot points makes more sense now and doesn't come off as contrived because I've changed the way they act. So in reality, NOT writing for several weeks was the saving grace of this story. I like what they're all doing now. I'm excited to write this tale again! Good God, I should slack off more sometime. I'll have a best seller on my hands!

Just a Little Something...

My life has been a damn non-stop marathon lately. I wake up at 4 am for working, then on bad days work nearly twelve hours only to then continue with a play rehearsal. Now I WANT to do both those things, so I have no room to complain about that.

What this has meant for writing is a change of habit as to how I get to the art of the thing. See, before I'd want to sit down at a desk, get comfy with things quiet or go to a coffee shop and let the crowd noise calm me a bit. Neither one of those are an option when I basically go from one type of work to the other. So now, I have to be able to write while in a few minutes of break time dispersed throughout the day. There's no more "getting into the mindset" for me. Now, it's "okay, I'm sitting down, look at the notebook. What did I write last? Okay, how am I continuing this? Right, here we go..." Then writing for about five minutes takes place.

The other tough part about writing during something like play rehearsal is knowing when it's OKAY to direct your attention on something other than your cast mates. You have to be prepared to be able to look up from writing, chat for a second, then be able to jump right back in without loosing your train of thought. I'm chating with someone else on FaceBook as I write this blog entry.

In the end, writing in these little spaces may only amount to a page a day, or even less, but that "little something" is still something that you didn't have before. And that's something very special.

The Sin of Being Uncomfy

Something I noticed myself going through quite often, and this may be true of other writers, was the constant distracting from writing due to the thought "man, I'm just not comfortable right now." Then it becomes a matter of finding a better spot. You think "the coffee shop will be better," so you wait until you can go there and stop writing. Or maybe you're originally feeling antsy while at the coffee house and decide to write at home, but then spend an hour drinking coffee or roaming the net with handy coffee-house WiFi.

What I realized after several instances of this odd feeling, that if I were only more cozy in an environment that the words would flow, was what a ridiculous notion it was. The only thing making me or any other writer uncomfortable while sitting on the couch or in a nice chair and table is the fear of writing something lousy. To combat this fear, we make up excuses for not writing. It's as if we're at an amusement park, and we see the roller coasters. We know we need to ride them, why else would we be at an amusement park full of the things? But instead of hopping in line, maybe we say to ourselves "Eh, I'm feeling queesy right now," or "it looks like a long wait, so I better wait until later." They're just excuses not to be brave. If we don't get over them, we'll never know the thrill of the loop-dee-loop or the joy of finishing a novel.

I Love a Boring Story To Spice Up

Something I realized today while trying to rewrite my novel's synopsis was that there were some seriously boring parts of the story. The characters had nothing to do for a while until they arrived at a date later on in the story where I plan exciting things to happen. At the same time, it didn't feel right to introduce characters and then flash forward to events weeks or months later. You need to get to know these guys. Dwelling on it, I suddenly remembered what makes writing so great. In real life, things are going to be boring. We wake up, do our thing that's planned that day, which is normally mundane except for special occasions and then go to bed. In the fictional world, you get to refuse that. If my main character is having a slow week, guess what? It's party time! Oh no, maybe he'll kiss the wrong girl at the party by mistake. Maybe he'll like it too much? Maybe not, but whatever happens, I don't have to be bored by it. That's the power of fiction, to re-imagine life and the world absent of anything that bogs us down.

Inspiration Vs Job

I've always felt that for good writing to happen you have to look at what you do as if it's a second job. There's your day job, and then there's writing. Admittedly, I haven't put in many hours on that second job lately. Instead, I realized today that I've been writing under a very different and much worse platform: inspiration writing.

It isn't that there's something wrong with feeling inspired. Sometimes an idea might hit you in the middle of the night, you leap out of bed and scribble it down on whatever scrap of paper you reach first because it's just that damn good of an idea!!! The thing is, this doesn't happen whenever you want. You know what does happen anytime you so choose? Just plain out writing. It's like what I said in my first post, the idea of writing professional is attractive to me because of the freedom it provides, you work when you please. The thing is, you still have to work, you have to write. Inspiration doesn't sit down to a table, pick up the pen and put down some story. You have to make the writing happen, whether it's inspired or not. Something I strongly believe is that the key to writing is to not be afraid to write worthless material. You can fix up worthless material into something worthwhile. There's no second draft to be made from a blank page.

The reason this is suddenly so important to me is because of a book I've been reading lately, called “Novelist's Boot Camp” by Todd A. Stone. The whole thing is very good, but there's one section that stands out to me. Drill 10 (because it's 'boot camp') describes how it's a bad idea to write whatever's “trendy” at the current time. The reason being is that is takes a long time to get something published. Stone explains the ideal situation to write a book: you have no other job, you spend 12 hours each day on the thing, you're accepted by the first publisher you mail, they push your book out as quickly as they can.

“Total elapsed time from concept to store shelf – in a theoretical best-of-all-possible-worlds scenario – would be about eighteen to nineteen months.”

I've got a day job, I've got friends, I've got community theatre, I've got organizations I belong to, and I've got times when I just like to chill out. If I'm able to squeeze in three hours of writing per day, I'd be lucky to have the novel published within three years. Three hours a day would be a very small second job. Writing on inspiration alone won't get me a novel published until retirement.

You just have to want it bad enough.