The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 12 August 2009

riters' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Be the writer who stays in the chair. When you struggle to find the answers to the tricky questions posed by your story, when you push through the feeling that the piece is no longer as inspired or wonderful as it seemed at first blush, you push your project to its next level. And you push yourself forward as a writer." Jack Heffron

Interesting advice. Especially given the tendency to try to provide "idiot proof" guidance for almost everything, it's refreshing to be reminded that everything isn't always exciting or simple. Sometimes you have to struggle to figure things out. Sometimes you have to keep going even when the project doesn't feel cool or fun -- that commitment to keep going is part of the process.

I wonder if this isn't part of what divides the hobbyists from the professionals? I mean, hobbyists tend to want to do the fun stuff, but don't really have a reason to do the boring stuff. Professionals take a slightly longer view and do the whole job, including the tedious and boring parts.

Struggle, push, keep going -- it sounds like the advice we give our protagonists when they face that dark alley on the way to the goal, doesn't it? Still, it's the way we get things done. Step-by-step, stumbling, struggling, working our way through things.

It sort of makes the achievement worthwhile, doesn't it? If it was easy, would it be worth it?

Original Posting 23 June 2009

Writer's Digest, February 2008, pages 32 to 35, have an article by Bill O'Hanlon with the title, "baby steps." The subtitle is "Stop obsessing about writing a book. Instead, spend 15 minutes writing one page, five times a week for a year."

The key is small steps. O'Hanlon refers to a Chinese proverb: enough shovels of earth -- a mountain. Enough pails of water -- a river. So how do you do it?

1. Small assignments. Instead of focusing on the whole task, look at the smallest piece of the task. A page a week, a chapter a week, set yourself some small assignments. O'Hanlon suggests starting with a simple outline, then elaborating that with ideas for anecdotes, quotations, exercises, scenes, plot points, which characters are in which scene and where it takes place. You may only be able to do one scene or one chapter in detail, but that's OK. Put the detailed points on index cards or some other portable form, and write that part. Then do it again.

2. Small increments. A lot of us prefer a big chunk of time, but it's a lot easier to commit a small piece. Try five or 10 or 15 minutes. Commit yourself to spending at least that much time in each session. First thing in the morning, lunchtime, fit it into your schedule and do it. Write for five minutes and you'll probably have about a page of words. Write a page every day for a year -- that's a book! A page every day for the next week? Or maybe three times a week for the next month? Give yourself small assignments with small chunks of time committed. You might be surprised at how fast it adds up.

3. Break the mental barrier. Big projects are often mentally and emotionally scary. But when you do it a little bit at a time, you can eat the elephant. Look at where you're blocking yourself -- why is that the focus of your attention? Try shifting your focus to something else. Maybe you're fretting about finding a publisher -- don't worry about that until you write the book! Write for the pleasure of it, just to get a bunch of words down. Instead of trying to be the great American writer, do it better than that writer you didn't like did.

O'Hanlon suggests the psychotherapy technique of externalizing. Identify the inner voices or ideas that are stopping you from writing. Then consider them as external. Take that voice or idea and think about it as something that somebody outside of you is saying.

Some people find it useful to do some physical externalization. Writing the ideas that block you down on a piece of paper, and then burning them up. Or carry a rock around as a representation of your fears. When you get tired of the extra weight, get rid of it. Incidentally, O'Hanlon suggests that a search for "narrative therapy" will provide more information about this.

4. Develop your identity as a writer. What do you identify yourself as? Are you a plumber who occasionally writes, or are you a writer? Thinking of yourself as a writer, and doing things that you think a writer should do, helps.

That's O'Hanlon's article. Part of it is the notion of focusing on small assignments in small chunks of time, instead of trying to conquer the mountain in one enormous burst of effort. The other part is taking a look at our own mental blocks and identity.

Exercise: for the next week, take the work in progress and consider the smallest piece that you could do? Can you break it into one page pieces? Commit yourself to writing for five minutes. Take a look at how it adds up.

Write.

Original posting 15 May 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"I see a lot of people who want to be writers, but they spend their time doing everything but writing. They take classes, conferences, do outlines and character sketches, read books about writing -- they do everything but write. My best advice is to write and realize it's a trial-and-error process." Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Hum. You mean that the trick, the secret, the way to be a writer is to write? But... that's like work. Sit down and write? Then write some more? And ...

WRITE!

Original posting 1 May 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"You write the book you're driven to write, and you really can't do more than that. It's a leap of faith, the entire book is a leap of faith, and not everybody is going to take it with me." Alice Sebold

How do you know what people want to read? Actually, you don't. You write the best book you can, the story that grips you, the poem that is singing in your heart -- and then you find out. Of course, every day when you wake up and get out of bed, you make that same leap of faith -- driven into it by the passage of time, no doubt, but still -- we always do things and then find out how the rest of the world will react. It would be a very strange world indeed if the world reacted and then we did things, wouldn't it? Life is a risky business, but it's the only game around, so go ahead and play it!

Oh, and write.

Original posting: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:30:57 JST

Hi, Ipatia

I'll keep this short.

1. Outline. Then fit bits into the outline. Repeat. Each attack on the outline may be only a few words, but in a very short time you'll have a long outline. Then expand a little bit at a time again. Just like blowing up a balloon, you don't have to do it in one big whoosh, you can do it with little puffs and when you finish, no one but you will know the difference.

2. Scribble sheet. Write the extra thoughts and side issues on another sheet of paper (I keep a clipboard by the computer). Then make yourself go back to the part you promised yourself you would work on.

3. Reward yourself AFTER doing a bit. Then set your goals a little longer/higher and don't reward yourself until you hit them. That snack is a reward for not writing - which isn't what you want to do, right?

Try those three.
tink

original posting: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 09:24:01 EST

From Organize Yourself by Ronni Eisenberg...
(p. 6) "Some of the reasons people procrastinate are the following:

• They feel overwhelmed. This usually happens when there is an overload of information or too many details
• They overestimate the time needed. They think the task is too time-consuming, that it will take _forever_. A variation of this is thinking that they have forever to finish something.
• They'd rather be doing something else. Anything seems better than what awaits them.
• They think that if they wait long enough, it will go away. The project will be cancelled; the appointment postponed, and so forth.
• They want to do it perfectly. People often fear turning in a report or finishing a project because they worry about failing on 'judgment day.' They delay until the last minute, and then if it doesn't measure up, they say, "Oh, I would have done better if I'd had more time."
• They don't want to assume responsibility. After all, if they never complete the project, no one will hold them responsible.
• They fear success. If they complete something and succeed, whill they be able to continue to life up to that standard? How will others relate to them once they are successful?
• They say they enjoy the last-minute adrenaline rush. Often people feel that they do their best work 'under pressure.' What they fail to remember are the times when they had a terrible cold or there was a family emergency during the time they had intended to devote to the project."

Eisenburg goes on to suggest that you identify your reasons for procrastinating.

1. Which situations generally cause you to procrastinate? What types of situations? What price do you pay for the delay? When you finally do the work, what gets you going (deadline? reward? outside pressure?)
2. When you find yourself procrastinating about something specific, consider: What about this causes conflict for you? What are you avoiding? If you delay, what will happen? If the question really is _when_ to do it, ask yourself if it is worth paying the price of the delay?

(whoops, that wasn't the right one...let's try this one...)

How to be organized: in spite of yourself by Sunny Schlenger and Roberta Roesch

(this might be the one?) They list ten (10!) operational styles, five time, five space:

Time: hopper, perfectionist plus, allergic to detail, fence sitter, cliff hanger
Space: everything out, nothing out, right angler, pack rat, total slob

(darn, that's a reasonably good one too, but it isn't the one I was thinking of...I don't think I'm going to find it right now, so let's just yackity-yack about it, okay?)

Somewhere, someone had the notion that various people work best with various kinds of goal setting. Some folks thrive with deadlines...keep their feet to the fire and they love it! (not me, but I have known people who really did work best that way) Others prefer the slow steady drop of water, timing the minutes, hours, and days of their appointed rounds...i.e., give them a time-based schedule to keep, and they are steady workers putting in their hours. Yet others prefer piece-work thumping: setting a quota (words, pages, scenes, etc.) per (day|week|month) works well for them.

There may have been more variations, but those are the ones I remember: deadline, scheduled time each day, production quota per day.

I recommend contemplating your navel (being honest with yourself, maybe experimenting a bit--oh, and get the fuzz out, too) as a way to decide which one works for you. Don't dive into it, just consider which one you think works best, and try it for a while...if it doesn't seem to be working, switch!

I also strongly recommend giving yourself room--you need to slow down sometimes. You need to leave yourself the "breathing" times when you put the current piece on the back shelf and let the umbilicus that ties you to it fade away...so that you can look at it afresh and clean up those embarrassing blotches, confusions, and tangles that slipped in when you were too close to see them. You need to allow for Murphy--you thought you were going to work on this over the last weekend before you needed it? And your favorite relative just flew into town...

(interjectively, while contemplating the umbilical knotting, the omphalos around which the generations churn, consider this--time can be considered in many ways, including the notions of being late, procrastinating, etc., but also including the notion that you can neither gain time nor lose it--you are always at the present, not one second sooner or later. I.e., you have 24 hours every day at your disposal--but you can't squeeze one extra second out of that allotment nor can you force one extra iota of time into it to do something extra. So use the now well, but accept that you can only do so much...and don't forget to watch the clouds sometimes, as they dance for you! consider the metaphors of time, and which ones you choose to honor and obey.)

Or, of course, you could try something like this...

Delay of the Land

Procrastination is the game,
Dilatory takes the blame,
But speed kills,
haste makes waste, and
Time fled when you were
n't
having fun.

Don't kill time,
embrace it.

[well, that's helped me avoid doing whatever I was supposed to be doing for a while... hope it helps you, too :]

Original posting: Fri, 29 Jan 1993 16:41:41 JST

Peter, jbutcher, and Karen Lowe (at least),

First for Peter and jbutcher...

- To be honest, I was hoping for that as well as information about
- potential occupational opportunites, the writing market, etc. Is this
- kind of thing normally discussed on here?
-
- I'm interested in the writing market and how to go about getting something
- published, or what the best approach to take is with publishers/magazines/
- newspapers...I don't think I've seen anything on this list yet that addresses

Jane said...
- All you need to do is ask, and I guarantee SOMEONE will
- respond (whether it's what you want to hear or not).

I guess I qualify as SOMEONE, so let me bend your eyes for awhile:-)

I'm fairly sure the serious folks have gotten back to you. I hope so, because I certainly am interested in these questions, and am (possibly) more out of touch with the markets than you are.

You may know all this, but I can suggest you visit your library or bookstore (cripes, you have easy access to both of those with LOTS of English language books *envy*) and look carefully at Writer's Digest books - there's a big hardcover each year (Writer's Market), plus recently a stack of paperbacks for specialties. Despite drawbacks that someone will likely point out, that's probably the best general reference. They also put out a monthly magazine "Writer's Digest", and there's "The Writer" and at least one more whose name I cannot recall which you can usually find in Walden's or B. Dalton's magazine racks.

If the serious folks have something they send by email in answer to questions like this and are on bitnet, could you send me a copy, too?

This next part isn't really answers, more a series of questions I've wrestled with in regard to my writing. I hope they might help you think about "the market".

Now, I'm going to start with a funny question - are you just interested in being published, or do you want money too? I think it makes a significant difference in the markets you're looking at as to how you answer that.

Let me add one more odd question - do you insist on your article (story, poem, etc.) being published exactly the way you wrote it or can the editor change the title, rewrite the lead-in paragraph, and otherwise fit your work to their needs? How you answer that question also affects your markets.

Let me give you an example - (blatant self-plug follows) - if you look at the January 1993 issue of IEEE Software in the book reviews, you'll find a piece with my name on it. I get "paid" with two copies and the book I review (actually, with computer book prices what they are, that's not bad pay:-). But - the editor wrote the lead-in using something I had in mine, and she's never used any of my titles. She also hacked it again, even after I'd seen the approval copy. Not that I'm objecting - we've done this before, and she knows I'm not a stickler about it. In fact, her headlines are much better than my proposals, and she's trying to juggle text, ads, and noisier writers into a product against a deadline, so I don't argue when she makes last-minute changes. In fact, she's told me that's one reason she likes to use my pieces - because I do understand the kind of work she's doing, and let her do it.

The editor also enjoyed that piece because I used an extended metaphor - I said the author reviewed the field of email, and then I talked about him showing us the flowers, cow patties, and other things. Not your ordinary boring technical review, and in the cover I carefully made sure she understood that if she didn't like it, I would redo the piece.

You might say - that's non-fiction, just a book review, that's different. You should read "Grumbles From the Grave" by Robert Heinlein. This is the collected history of an "established writer" trying to get fiction published - a fascinating insight.

And yet another question to help point your self-searching - do you insist on writing fiction or non-fiction? Do you have a specific genre or specialization that you just have to be published in, or is your drive more generous with you? Again, the answer affects how you look at and attack the market.

Oh, one other very off-beat question - do you insist on having your name on your writing? Suppose the editor puts your name on some things, but leaves it off some? Or suppose the editor puts someone else's name on pieces you've written? These are critical questions, especially if you get into some of the newspaper markets.

If you don't mind doing non-fiction (you shouldn't, it's a good field and helps pay the way for many other pursuits), here are some entryways I know that used to be fairly generous - book reviews in many professional magazines (it helps if you work in that field - and then they give you books to read!), small newspapers (weeklies, etc.), your local political office/church/other social group... During grad school, I also wrote a stack of press releases which the PR people happily distributed for me. No name, no pay, and the newspapers tended to rewrite or cut like crazy, but sometimes I could tell where my words had gone. Note that these are largely zero or negative in terms of pay, but they give you practice and help build your clip book. They are also almost entirely non-fiction.

OK, Karen. I've been following the other pieces, but I wanted to comment on this...

- I'm interested in the "Rinky-Dink" Society. Personally, I usually get a
- decent response from my poetry, but am unable to compete with current
- popular forms of poetry. You may have noticed my "Victorian Poetry". I've
- decided to go the Emily Dickinson route, write tons of stuff, publish a few
- and tell the "official" critics to take a flying leap, their grandchildren
- will love my stuff. ;-) Karen Lowe.

whoa! wait a minute. "unable to compete with current forms of poetry"? Karen, I'm the bloody fool around here, you certainly beat my doggerel hands down. You even know what Randy's caesurus are, apparently.

I suppose you mean you don't think you'll make Redbook, or whatever the main mass market pub's are now? I doubt very much if my stuff (poetry, story, or non-fiction) will ever hit that kind of market, but is it important?

I'm afraid I take a little different approach to writing. I don't think there are "winners" per se, in the sense that there is one champ, with everyone else ranked below them. As in certain martial arts and other fields, the question is whether you executed your art as well as you could or not, no matter how other people look at it. Do you really think that the vast majority of marathon racers compete to win? Or do they run against themselves, whether alone or in the midst of others?

Here, do me a favor, would you? Write yourself a poem on the theme of the runner (swimmer, writer, whatever you like) whose only purpose is their own pleasure, and the feelings they have when one day someone stops them and says "You came in first". The unconscious, surprised winner, shall we say? Then, if you like, I'd enjoy reading it.

Karen, I think poets perhaps more than any other branch of writing need to forget about the normal measures for societal accomplishment. You know the plot, at least for artists - starve in a garret, beg, borrow, and steal to let themselves produce their own art in their own way. The rare comedy goes that they are discovered in the nick of time and become rich and famous. The far more common tragedy is that discovery comes too late. And the even more common reality is that (a) they manage to support themselves relatively well, usually doing something else and (b) they make the time and do what they like and (c) they make their own "discovery".

Heck - take several of your poems, and make some copies of them. Go down to your supermarket and find the manager. Point out to him (or her) that bulk natural food cereals don't have a box for the customers to read in the morning, so you'd like to help him offer them a treat - poetry to eat by. Talk him (or her) into putting up a little box, and the explanation of what this is, right beside the bulk cereal. This first set of poems is free for the store. And you have now "been published." But be patient, it gets better.

Watch - those poems will be picked up. And when the stack is nearly gone, you can talk to the store owner about paying you for the next ones (let them suggest a payment, if possible. keep the charge low, but make sure you get paid.) Figure out whether you want to do the copying yourself (to control paper quality) or let them do it. If you want to, talk them into reproducing it themselves but pay you a larger fee (since they can now make as many copies as they want, they may consider it a bargain).

You think I'm kidding, don't you? I just recently (here in Japan) saw something about a guy who's printing his short stories on T-shirts. Apparently they are selling, too.

Maybe that's not the kind of publication and market you're looking for, but please don't tell me you can't compete. You can. Get out there and go for it!

Jane also said

- Please don't be. The majority of us (let me know if I'm wrong) are,
- as yet, unpublished, so have no proof that we are better or worse
- than you (and even then, it's not really proof!) - regardless of what
- certain egotists might think. Do be prepared for some criticism
- and/or some praise, however.
-
- ENJOY!!!!!

I'm not sure if Jane will let me talk (I've got a 20 year old clipbook of newspaper articles and there are other odd bits and pieces around that have my name on them - but they're almost all non-fiction, Jane, and I sure never got paid much:-) To tell you the truth, though, I'm usually looking at my next piece - and so far, that's unpublished.

I can also state categorically from the pieces I've seen printed (and done) that publication has relatively little to do with value - a lot to do with timing, blank empty pages around paid-for ads that the editor has to fill, and other oddities. Let you in on a secret, though. If you don't write it, and don't send it out, the odds of being published are very, very low. If you follow the reverse strategy (write, submit, and keep submitting), the odds increase dramatically! Which reminds me, now I've got to get back to writing.

Heinlein's "recipe" (abridged from memory, 'cause I can't find the book)

1. write
2. finish what you write
3. don't rewrite unless an editor tells you to
4. put it on the market
5. keep it on the market until it sells

(sorry, this isn't very well organized. I got excited, and wanted to get it out this week. I managed to find hideyholes for all my files here, too.)

hope this helps,
mike

Original Posting: January, 1995

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First Nut, 1995!

(Hey, glad you could join us here this year. Keep writing!!!!)

Once upon a time...

The page just sort of sits there, waiting for words. Or (since this is the year of our electronic savor 1995) the screen sits there, blank and dark, with the little blobby cursor blinking, winking, waiting for you to tap at the keys, except...

You don't know where to start.

Or perhaps you scribble, secretly, around the crack of midnight or over the yawns of sunrise? Five minutes every day in the bathroom, twenty minutes every noon, and now you've got boxes and boxes of words that no one has ever seen?

Make this your year on your list.

Write here. Write now. And...

(pardon me while I slip into something metaphorical?)

Plant an acorn.

Take that apple core out of the trash and plant a seed for Johnny.

(we'll ignore the fertilizer--there's usually plenty around, no need to hunt for it:-)

Add water, sunshine, and just a touch of exposure--then stand back!

Because you are about to plant a tree, that may grow into a copse, or even a grove, which could turn into a thicket of wildwords, and--in time--a veritable forest of giant red words leaping out of the icy tundra of cyberspace into the glistening future!

(with Firewords at midnight! and light zephyrs of poetic musing in the morn!)

But new beginnings can be worrisome. You may wonder about your plot.

"When should I plow?"
"Should I till it or turn it or what?"
"Does dancing in the light of the full moon with a neighbor really ensure a good harvest, or just a good fence?"
"Is dancing with beagles or butterflies or some other friendly animus necessary for happiness?"

And this is a great place to get some advice on your own little garden.

I know, I know, sometimes we get noisy and seem too wrapped up in patting each other on the back and confused about who's leading the band.

(hah! got you fooled! there isn't a conductor. Some of the folk are playing jazz while others prefer classical rhythm and boos. And the drummers all beat to different marches, ides, and rittles. Really! So sit down and add your own odd notes, grace tones and melodies as the band plays on...)

But when the keyboard hits the end of the cable or the mouse runs off the edge of its cute little pad or even when quill-dipped ink slips slickly across smooth pressed bond paper...

It's words, writing, putting together fiction and poetry--that craft of dreams and art of the blackest inkspots, that mystery of bemused inspiration, that wonder of the storytellers' way which ties these humble (and some not so humble:-) practitioners together. That's why...

When the lightning of fairy poems crackles and the hairs on the back of your neck prickle...

When the explosive crash of ice snapping resounds across ponds and lakes of frozen talents caught by an unreasonable thaw...

When wordy flows remind us of the slow grandeur of the avalanche, the glacier, and the iceberg advancing implacable and awful in all their white glory...

When the dry slither of sunbaked air draws mirages, dustdevils, and Englishmen out in the daylight...

We'll know that you've been here!

Look forward to reading you on the list!

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[Please feel free to print this FAQ and keep a copy for when you have questions! In fact, the author would be pleased if you did that.]

The meat in this sandwich - v. 13, Jan. 1, 1995

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Should old plot engines be forgot...
And never poetry rhyme...
We'll make the words to ring again...
And sing of old plot lines!

Happy First Nut, 1995!

And look forward to many more words from you!
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