Minimal Writing

I haven't tried this writing technique but, even if taken as a jest, I admit it sounds intriguing.  Soon maybe I will post the result.  Happy Halloween, everyone!

"I asked Ring Lardner (a blacklisted U.S. journalist and author) the other day how he writes his short stories, and he said he wrote a few widely separated words or phrases on a piece of paper and then went back and filled in the spaces."  --Harold Ross (1892-1951), founding editor of The New Yorker. 

Writing Every Day

Since starting to write last January, this has been my biggest challenge. There are so many reasons not to write in a day, excuses leap to the tip of my tongue. Some days it's to spend time with the family, or because I had yard work, or felt too tired. Maybe the house was too noisy, or I had to take a phone call. Perhaps I blamed it on the easy target, the so-called "writer's block."

Such excuses and their endless siblings may have validity but the block honest habits from forming. There may be a day when writing won't or shouldn't happen at all, or must be cut short. As a new writer I feel that such excuses crop up all too frequently. Yet Stephen King wrote that fantasy writers should aim for 1,000 words a day, six days a week. So, I have to start making a habit from writing and I'm looking for the best way to do it. One tip I picked up was to end each writing session in the middle of the action, making sure no following session starts with a blank mind. Another idea is to figure out which part of the day (you need to do some experimenting here) your mind works best in and set aside some time then to write. Also, having a notebook (paper or electronic) handy for ideas will help when you sit down to write at length. A journal can even create the impetus to write each day, and lengthier projects can go from there.

My idea so far is keeping up a regular blog (I have two). I haven't written each day but I'm getting better. What ideas does anyone else have to help them write regularly?

Quote For Today

“Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

Remember this, whether you're feeling the full-throttle of your craft or doing molasses-slow editing, how powerful you can all be!

Pratchett: Wonderfully Absurd

Recently I've been reading some of the Discworld books, by Terry Pratchett, with my family. The series in question starts with Wee Free Men and follows the adventures of Tiffany, a 9 year girl who may or may not be a witch. What I've found in Pratchett is a writer with a strong sense of the absurd. There is a similarity between his writing style and that of Douglas Adams. Humor that surprises laces nearly every page of the novel, stitched into the fabric of the story seamlessly.

Humor aside, the heroine is brave, resourceful and nearly fearless. There are plenty of fantasy creatures in a setting that is comfortable in its unfamiliarity.  I admire his ability to tell a story that is enjoyable and deeper than it first appears, with a great sense of humor amid the seriousness. I would love to be able to tell a story as simply and enjoyably.

Building a story

Several time since I started writing again I have found myself stumped in the middle of a seemingly great idea.Rather than eagerly typing away I would be tensely poised over the keyboard, motionless. The vigor of the story was lost, it's life drained away. Some times I have forced myself to keep going and other times the story has been left alone. Cut off, the file dwindles its way down my list of recently updated files.

This has been a challenge for me to overcome, or even to figure out what was happening. In some cases the fault was with the story but I realized just the other day that a major problem was in the characters themselves. I was so caught in the story and anxious to give release to the creative pressure, I had not fleshed out in my head who the story was about in enough detail to fuel the writing.

Once upon a time I never started a new story until after sitting down with a friend to hash out characters. We uncovered through our conversations some of their background, strengths and weaknesses, and motives. In doing so we also laid out general lines where the story would go. Even the breadth of geography for the start of the story would be uncovered. Which isn't to say that nothing ever changed after that first meeting or two (or three), but a beginning was formed.

And so, I am beginning a new story, one with characters and depth I've already fleshed out. They are shadows, and they will change in the telling. But I hope this is a breakthrough for me.

What do you you need to get started with a story? How do you get ready? Any thoughts out there?