The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 22 July 2010

Writers Digest, February 2008, pages 36 to 40, has an article by Jon Robertson with the title, "Write From The Ground Up." Basically, Jon suggests thinking about writing a book as being like building a house.

Start with the blueprint -- your outline. "We all work in different ways -- our writing habits, the tools we use to stay on track and how we organize the writing day. An outline can be as simple as a few notes scribbled on a napkin or a single premise filed in the mind. Super brains can keep it all in their heads throughout the duration of the project. For others, the detailed outline is a must."

Pictorial flowchart, visual grid of topics, keywords -- whatever helps you organize the work.

Next, excavation and foundation -- research. Dig around, find out what's out there. Pick the location, check out the surroundings, make sure you know where you're going to build.

Framing -- fill in the outline. Knock together scenes, sketch things out, and start filling in.

Plumbing, heating, electrical? Foreshadowing, flashbacks, and all that stuff that helps to tie the story together. That's transitions, surprises, hooks.

Wallboard plaster and paint -- cover up the rough edges, double check the grammar and the spelling, rewrite polish and refit. Do a final inspection to get rid of redundancies, tighten up the words, and make sure that the sights and sounds and feelings bring your story to life.

It's an interesting example of using an extended metaphor to walk through the process of writing a book. What metaphors do you use to keep yourself on track? If writing a novel is like building a house, what is the short story? Building a doghouse? Or maybe putting together a temporary shelter in the woods? What about poetry? Sharpening a sword? Or just breaking down the walls between our minds?

original posting: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 22:41:04 -0400

Hi, all...

Suppose some of us (yes, you with the lazy fingers and the roving eye) were to go to http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/ (provided gratis by some wonderful folks on another writing list) and there peruse, investigate, and otherwise read one of the articles collected there, and then perhaps discuss the contents here?

Seems like it might make an interesting way of keeping the bits flowing, the words atilt, and otherwise instigating the exchange.

Personally, I found that the first article I could read ("Developing Efficient Work Habits" by Crawford Kilian at http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/#1 had some interesting thoughts.  I mean, the contrast between the routine that feeds the habits and the efficient use of opportunity is an interesting little problem.  And here is Crawford Kilian pointing out that having a writing time and place is important, but we can also do some thinking as we walk the dog or vacuum the fishtank.  Avoid leaning on significant others for editorial advice -- that's unfair.  Be your own editor instead, and use letters to yourself to keep yourself straight.  Keep a log of what you're up to.  Set up a "project bible."  And be careful to avoid tying yourself too hard to all those routines (sometimes known as ruts) because part of being a writer means writing even when you aren't in the writing place or time, and getting the fine detail of the barroom fight down before you've decided who is going to be in the barroom may not work so well...

A bunch of tips and tricks and points, anyway.  Let's see, can I pick out three key points from that article?  How about:

1.  To Thine Own Routine Be True, and Thou Wilt Habitually Writ
2.  Synergize, Fit into Cracks, and otherwise take advantage of every opportunity to stretch those writing synapses and responses and wherever the muse may hide
3.  Learn your own phases and pacing -- some people like to outline before detailing, others really find the straightjacket of the outline far too confining, and then there are those who prefer the wilds of Surrealism (and if that makes sense to you, please explain in 200 words or less how outlines, details, and surreals do unrelate, okay?:-)

What would you pick out as the three points of Crawford's article?  Are there key points about efficient work habits that Crawford missed?  For that matter, do you really think that writing requires efficient work habits or should it be less efficient work and more artistic license?

[by the way, in the phrase "artistic license," is the license issued by the state and if so what kind of a test and bureaucracy arises around the provision of these plastic identifiers?  Or is the license that other form, referring to freedom from state regulation and control?  And why is a driver's license (which shows I know how to obey the rules and have said I will follow them) so different from exercising artistic license, where I gleefully take exception to the rules?]