Writing is a funny animal.
There are blogs about it, papers, forewords, and afterwards. Everyone has something to say on the subject. The problem of course is that no has the same thing to say on writing. I remember in 10 (maybe 11th grade) writing was almost ruined for my by Piers Anthony. I had just finished reading one of his Xanth novels (a series I still love) and I decided to read his author's note at the end of the book. In it he said there was no such thing as writer's block, that writer's who say they have writer's block just aren't trying. This almost killed me. "Oh my god I thought. I'm a failure at writing." So I sat down, powered through my writer's block for a few years and wrote some terrible terrible things. Later on I had people telling me writer's block was ok that it happens. Then that I should write everyday. That I should write everyday for an hour. But in the end none of it felt right none of it worked. The thing about writing is that it is yours. truly and entirely yours, so that you have to write when you feel like and what you feel like it. There will be weeks I write everyday for hours, producing some good things and some bad. But then there will be week I don't write at all. It's all in what you feel comfortable with.
In the end you can't listen to any advice. You just have to do what makes you happy with your writing, and what will allow you to produce writing your happy with. If that means waking up an hour early to write for an hour than so be it. If it means taking a week or two off to recharge then do that. Just make sure that it never gets to a point where you want to stop writing.
-Max
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Post the second
National Novel Writing Month, followed quickly by the use of dialogue tags.
Well I said I'd talk about National Novel Writing Month this week, and I will, albeit briefly. NaNoWriMo, is an opportunity for people who have always wanted to write a novel, or have never finished a novel to get a little bit of a push in the right direction. You pledge to finish a 50,000 word novel with in the month of November. Of course there's only one more week so don't forget to sign up next year.
Now on to a a subject that's near and dear to my heart. Dialogue tags. In the year or so I've been working in Fiction writing classes problems with dialogue are probably the number one thing that comes up again and again. (Not to mention dailogue grammar but we'll get there later).
Tags are tricky because you want the reader to know what your character is feeling while they're talking. But as Anne M. Marble points out in her blog it's easy to over use fancy dialogue tags. Most readers will ignore said since they're so use to saying it, but of course thats boring. However if you continually use, hissed, lauged, screamed, ect it will be to distracting. So what now?
An excellent option is instead of using tags like this use narration. For instance you could say:
"I'll kill you!" screamed Charles.
However, this is still rather dry. Instead you could say:
"I'll kill you!" Charles brandished a knife at her.
Using actions instead of Dialogue tags can bring the reader more deeply into the narrative, and are simply more interesting to read then simple dialogue tags.
Well I said I'd talk about National Novel Writing Month this week, and I will, albeit briefly. NaNoWriMo, is an opportunity for people who have always wanted to write a novel, or have never finished a novel to get a little bit of a push in the right direction. You pledge to finish a 50,000 word novel with in the month of November. Of course there's only one more week so don't forget to sign up next year.
Now on to a a subject that's near and dear to my heart. Dialogue tags. In the year or so I've been working in Fiction writing classes problems with dialogue are probably the number one thing that comes up again and again. (Not to mention dailogue grammar but we'll get there later).
Tags are tricky because you want the reader to know what your character is feeling while they're talking. But as Anne M. Marble points out in her blog it's easy to over use fancy dialogue tags. Most readers will ignore said since they're so use to saying it, but of course thats boring. However if you continually use, hissed, lauged, screamed, ect it will be to distracting. So what now?
An excellent option is instead of using tags like this use narration. For instance you could say:
"I'll kill you!" screamed Charles.
However, this is still rather dry. Instead you could say:
"I'll kill you!" Charles brandished a knife at her.
Using actions instead of Dialogue tags can bring the reader more deeply into the narrative, and are simply more interesting to read then simple dialogue tags.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
First Post
The interesting thing about being a writer is getting advice on being a writer. In all the years I've been a writer, I've read books, essays, blurbs, etc about being a writer and no two people agree. Some say you should write every day, other says when you can. Write about what you know, write whatever comes to you. The advice is endless.
So what I'll be doing here is filtering. Going through online "writer's blogs" and presenting the information here as easily as I can.
To begin with (for all the people who want to be published) is an article by Chris Webb Executive Editor for John Wiley and Sons, entitled "Five Ways to get me to quickly reject your book proposal." http://ckwebb.com/publishing/5-ways-to-get-me-to-quickly-reject-your-book-proposal/
Honestly, what it boils down to is be professional. There's nothing better for you to than to be professional. It doesn't matter if your book is about living in the woods and growing pot, the people you are trying to sell your book to are business men (and women).
Next time: National Novel Writing Month (Maybe)
-Max
So what I'll be doing here is filtering. Going through online "writer's blogs" and presenting the information here as easily as I can.
To begin with (for all the people who want to be published) is an article by Chris Webb Executive Editor for John Wiley and Sons, entitled "Five Ways to get me to quickly reject your book proposal." http://ckwebb.com/publishing/5-ways-to-get-me-to-quickly-reject-your-book-proposal/
Honestly, what it boils down to is be professional. There's nothing better for you to than to be professional. It doesn't matter if your book is about living in the woods and growing pot, the people you are trying to sell your book to are business men (and women).
Next time: National Novel Writing Month (Maybe)
-Max
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