[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
original posting 22 March 2010

Excerpted from the Tao of Writing by Ralph L. Walhstrom

Put your pen and paper away. Find a tape recorder and, in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed or feel self-conscious, talk about your essay, story, proposal or whatever writing task you've set for yourself. Record this monologue. Speak freely without concern for structure or correctness. Talk it out. Talk it over. Talk it through. Later you may wish to go back to listen for ideas or transcribe part or all of what you've said, or you may simply set it aside and begin writing.

###

That's the suggestion. Sometimes putting things in conversation, talking to yourself on a tape recorder, is easier than writing it out on paper or keyboard. You may be surprised, listening to yourself talk, and that's good. Think about which parts make you excited. Imagine that you're telling a friend -- I hope you feel friendly with yourself -- anyway, imagine that you're telling a friend what you're doing, and get excited about it. Go ahead and dream a little, stretch, tell them why you think it's important, and what you'd like to have happen.

Then take that glow with you and go back and attack the writing.
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original Posting 8 June 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:
"Don't be afraid to share the specific details of whatever compelled you to head for the keyboard. Bring that experience to life for your readers -- make them feel what you felt, as powerfully as you felt it." David A. Fryxell
There are a couple of points about this quote. The first one is that you should feel inspired -- compelled to write. Get excited about it. You need to feel things, to be moved deeply, to laugh, to cry, to be enthused by your own ideas. And then you show that to your readers. All the craft tricks -- the characters, the dialogue, the plot structure, all of that -- are ways to help the reader get excited. Ways to bring your inspiration, your excitement, your enthusiasm to the reader. Sure, some of them won't feel it quite the same way that you did. But that's OK. Because some of them will feel it powerfully. And sharing experience is what it's all about.

So feel. And write.
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original posting 10 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:
"Stay in touch with the first impulses that made you start writing -- the pleasure of it and the interest of the story, and not so much the professional side of things. Remain close to that -- when you began writing and were intoxicated with it. If you do, the rest will come, as difficult as that may be." Jeffrey Eugenides
What makes you excited about writing? What makes you want to sit down and bash out a bunch of words? There's the craft and professional side of things, but there's also the fire, the thrill, the push. Flame wars... yes, they're bad. But at the same time, there's something there that makes you keep on pushing at it. Watch for those points of irritation, those excitement spots that make you want to rush into words -- and do something about them!

Write!

Come on, baby, light my fire...
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Writing with Gusto

"Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer's makeup, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto."

Skip a little

"What has all this to do with writing a short story in our times?"

"Only this: if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.... the first thing a writer should be is -- excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms...."

"How long has it been since you wrote a story where your real love or your real hatred somehow got onto the paper? When was the last time you dared release a cherished prejudice so it slammed the page like a lightning bolt? What are the best things and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to whispering or shouting them?"

"So, simply then, here is my formula."

"What do you want more than anything else in the world? What do you love, or what do you hate?"

"Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with all his heart. Give him running orders. Shoot him off. Then follow as fast as you can...."

"... on the way, in your work, why not carry those two inflated pig-bladders labeled Zest and Gusto. With them, traveling to the grave, I intend to slap some dummox's behind, pat a pretty girl's coiffure, wave to a tad up a persimmon tree."

Ray Bradbury, The Joy of Writing in Zen in the Art of Writing

tink
Write! Get excited again!

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