Writing Partners

Writing partners are lovely to have in your life. They spur you on and encourage you just by them being around and writing. That shared understanding of living a writer's life and struggling and still pursuing this passion sure helps during those doldrums and dry spells. And it takes away my excuses not to write. How can I justify not writing when my friend has three times the workload but is still finishing novels and networking and meeting agents and submitting to contests and all that?

I can't. Seeing all that get done turns my "I can'ts" into "I can and I will and I already haves"--without a single Hallmark card exchange. It's a marvelous thing.

Brainstorming for Two

I'm in the brainstorming process right now, and I'll be doing this with a partner. This doesn't usually go so well.

One person will usually have "control" of the idea process, which leaves the other person to develop an idea that doesn't feel "owned" by that person. Then every time "no" is said to a further addition or subtraction from the original idea will just feel like a power play to keep the idea from being equally both people's.

This leads to resentment and bitterness, blah, blah, blah.

So...I guess trust should be there from the beginning. Also, taking elements from both partners lists and putting them together would probably be beneficial, and create better ideas.

Anyways, I've just started, but I'm already nervous. I hope this goes well.

Need to Write Something

I haven't wrote anything in three days. I've been busy. Busy, busy, busy.

I don't regret it, though. I wouldn't have been able to write anything worthwhile if the things I needed to take care of still nagged at me. Yet I want to get back into the groove and wonder when that's going to happen. Tomorrow should be a thing, but I can't be too sure.

A Case of the Not-Good-Enoughs

Sometimes it's difficult for me to write, not because of writer's block. I could write if I ever started, I just get...insecure and discouraged. I feel that even if I hone my talents to the best that they could be that no one would want to read/view my work. There's always the possibility that I'm just not good enough.

Then there's the more horrible possibility that I'm decent enough, but life says I'm doomed to be ignored anyway and that my time to shine will be long after I'm dead.

That's a terrible thing for me because I write for people who live today and their current experiences. I'm not writing for my legacy or for future people. This is blasphemy, but I don't care if my work doesn't live on if people right now get as much enjoyment as they can out of it.

This has nothing to do with how 'intelligent' my work is. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the ability of my work to resonate with contemporary people. Those who live and dream and cry and work and fight and love and laugh today. That's who I want to reach.

Yet what if I can't.

Learning from My Peers

I'm trying to give feedback as much as I can. It helps me to see mistakes that I make in my own writing, but from a more distant perspective. I feel the effects of those hits and misses instead of just assuming that a particular attempt works.

Today I learned the importance of having a full story, one that isn't too thin. I guess this is where subplots and plot layers come in to give a story some heft, and also help to turn things in new directions. If everything hurtles toward the end in a straightforward path, there's nothing much to engage me.

So, I'll keep that in mind when I'm thinking that the plot I have is "enough."

When Plans Change

So I start typing out my story, just winging it, trying to get a feel for what I'm doing, where I'm going, and whom I'm I'm writing about when it hits me.

I'm writing about the wrong characters.

What do I do now? I close the document and write down about these new people and their issues and what they want. And it's totally different than what I'm doing. I can't just keep writing and plug in these characters; it's going to take some rethinking.

Or is it? Maybe these are just secondary characters, or the ones I started out with are the secondary characters. Whichever the case, I might not have to start completely over.

But I'm not afraid to, if I have to.

Reacting to Others' Writing

...When what's written is one mere step above baby gibberish...

I don't know...Should I ignore it? Should I be helpful and comment? But then I know I wouldn't be able to keep the snark out of my feedback so I'd hesitate to say anything.

The best thing I know to do is to look the other way. Yet being in the same social sphere as the writer can be daunting. There will be times when simple communication becomes daunting because this message has been garbled and I don't know if I'm supposed to be insulted and angry or sympathetic and pitying.

I'm being random.

National Poetry Month 2014

What to wear--what to wear?

I hope to write, write, write in April. I don't know...this will be kind of crazy. Will I really be writing a screenplay, a novel, and 30 poems? Sounds kind of ridiculous.

Oh, well. Away I go.

I've Made It To the Beginning

I've wrote the end of the screenplay. Yikes. That was extremely difficult. Which, I guess, was the point. I don't like writing the endings and usually give up or just write them halfheartedly.

Now I've got the beginning (and the rest of the story) ahead of me. Ugh. I might have to do this a bit differently next time. Maybe alternate scenes. One scene from the end, one scene from the beginning, then one scene from the middle. That seems way more complicated, but maybe much more rewarding.

I'm all about my comforts. Because this right here...this was punishing.

Gender Equality in Writing

When I think of gender equality in writing, I'm not thinking about sex politics. Or how many characters of each gender should be in a story. Or power dynamics relating to gender in a relationship. I'm simply referring to how I approach characters of a gender in my writing. Too often when I read stories or scripts, one group or another gets the short stick.

I don't like seeing agendas. Oh, this is feminist. This is rhetoric about transgender and on and on. I didn't come to your fictional piece to be preached at. Write an essay (or blog post) for that.

Having one group of people in a story be uniformly negative is usually a giveaway of a prejudice for me--whether sexist, racist, nationalist, ageist, or whatever. Just don't do it. Make each character an individual that stands by his or her own merits, not by the inclusion or exclusion of a group or social status.

You have a character who is a woman? Will she automatically be the one is hurt or rescued? The victim? Will she be the least developed character? Oh, I'm a guy--I don't know so much about girls so I'm not going to bother...blah, blah, blah.

I've seen the same thing with male characters. All the guys are all negative or barely developed. Hey, let's make all the men abusers! Psychopaths... Mindless killing machines who are driven by sex and money. Well, I know plenty of guys like that. This one time, this guy blah, blah, blah...

Yeesh.

What if you don't know you're doing this? Take a piece of current writing--any piece--and change every single character's gender identity. Do the character choices become strange now? Do you find some characters to be bland or weak now? Do you think some characters are detestable now?

Becoming aware of biases is a nice first step. Yet we'll all have this in our writing to some degree even if we are aware of it. It's just a matter of being in control of it and knowing how to subvert it and use it to maybe connect to people surprising ways.

Want to Write, But Got Stuff to Do

Do I stop what I'm doing and write, or do I go ahead and finish what I need to do? Well, in this instance I have to finish my to-do list. I thought today would be a push-through-and-write day, but I was wrong. I hate being wrong. It feels like the opposite of the delicious taste of chocolate.

I have to make some progress or I'll never get any momentum, though. Why can't I write in the mornings anymore? That sure would help me out.

Thinking More Than Writing

Sometimes I find myself having spent an entire day without writing a thing. Yet I don't really feel that it was time wasted. I have to work out these little kinks in certain scenes in my mind that niggle at me.

And if they don't have anything to do with the current scene I'm writing?

I just feel like those problems can cause problems all over the story. There have been plenty of times where I've found solutions somewhere else and that's led me to change what I'm about to write in a seemingly unrelated scene or sequence.

All the scenes further the same plot. The thing is to not get carried away or let 'thinking' be an excuse for not putting my pen to paper or my hands to the keyboard. Writing is a way to solve those issues and untie those kinks, too, along with actually getting the story completed. It's just that on some occasions I have to visualize the problem first.

Action Scenes

I don't really like action scenes. They feel so impersonal. I like the closer, more emotional stuff. Not melodrama. Just when people are revealing things without meaning to. I like writing those dynamics and having the characters negotiate and struggle to conceal what they really want while, at the same time, strive to get that want.

However, action scenes are so blunt. It's all about grabbing what you want. Wham. Bam. Got it. Not a lot of room for nuance. Yet I'm trying for subtlety anyway. The action is really about something else, so they can do all these activities so openly and baldly and it still mean something deeper down. Theme...blah, blah, blah. Symbolizes da da da dah.

How to Tell When a Scene Isn't Working

Back to my screenplay... I've begun writing the scenes. The first scene was pretty easy--suspiciously so. I even enjoyed it. Hmm...

I wrapped it up and prepared myself for the next one. All right, what's this scene about. Got it. Goal? Uh... No, you know this. Goal. Mmm. She wants her life to be better? Nuh uh. That's not a goal. What's she going after in this scene? Well, she's just going home. Oh...

But it's important because when she gets home and is thinking about stuff... Oh... But, wait. She comes across something that changes everything. That's when she decides her new goal. She's between goals, you see.

Yuh. No. I had to nix the scene. My character needs to be after something, needs to have purpose in every scene. I couldn't really visualize the scene because nothing was happening. The solution is to shorthand all this. The audience will know she got new goals by her actions, not by watching her clean up at home (is that really what she was going to do).

And that's why I ask these kinds of questions (along with ones about motivations, stakes, and conflict) before I start writing even one word of a scene. I would have wrote a meandering, wandering, boring mess here. Maybe later something might pop into my head, but for right now, the scene is D.O.A.

Taking a Rest from Writing

Breaks are important. They keep me from stabbing things.

Protagonist Flaw

I'm back to working on my novel, and the characters for that story. This round of development is their flaws. And it's important for me to get right because it determines not just the character arc, but the story itself.

Also, the protagonist's flaw dictates all of the other characters' flaws because the other characters will be viewpoints on the protag flaw and reveal different worldviews on it.

So the flaw covers how a character might heal from two possible angles: serving others or seeing the self honestly. This can be in any combination or order. The protag might have to see the self first clearly to help others, or might have to help others before she can see herself. Or the story might just be all about internal reflections or just all about external actions. Then again, the protag might not quite learn anything at all. But I think that's advanced writing techniques not meant for us mere mortals...

The protagonist has a need that she doesn't know about but needs to fulfill. The flaw blocks that need. Over the course of the story, the protagonist's actions and decisions will either strengthen the flaw and/or make it more dominant or weaken the flaw and/or make it less dominant. Near the end of the story the protagonist demonstrates that she has overwhelmed the flaw and conquered it or has been overwhelmed by the flaw and been consumed by it.

The flaw may be hidden to the protagonist at first because her life has allowed her to work around her flaw, or at least live with the flaw unchallenged. She might even see her flaw as a strength. However, the impending story comes along and shows her flaw for what it is--a weakness. It holds her back, forcing her to try new strategies and learn different methods/ways of thinking for dealing with problems. She can no longer strive for what she wants with the flaw in her life as it is. Something's got to give.

Will it be her?

Writing the First Scene

I'm starting on the first scene of my screenplay--so scary. I'm starting with the resolution. Why, no one asked?

Because that's where all the fun starts dying down, but everyone insists on hanging around--like at an amusement park. You know, when all the big rides are closed and yet all the paying customers are still milling about, trying to milk every last penny out of the experience though it's clear no one can have any more fun? Yeah, that's how I feel about resolutions.

Let me write the most exciting scene of the story and then go straight to the 'clean-up' scenes. Why?

This is the reason I find myself giving up on story after story with only four or five scenes to go. For this script, I'm writing those awkward last scenes first. Haha! I'm getting the boringness out of the way, an then I'll only have to revise or edit the scenes, not write them whole cloth. I'll end on a high! Why haven't I tried this before?

We'll soon find out.

Character Descriptions

I've been wondering what to do about describing my characters' physical appearances. Because I'm totally uninterested in how they look. I know that it matters (but not to me) yet it will come off inconsistent or distracting if I just throw something down. I could make them look like silly messes for my amusement, or I could waste my time researching clothing that fit their personalities or whatever. Figuring out hairstyles. Wondering about eye shapes.

That all sounds ridiculous to me. Clothing might be a matter of expression. But physical appearance is kind of a nature thing, beyond how well you take care of yourself hygiene- and nutrition-wise.

I'll figure it all out, I suppose.

Imagine a Witty and Punny Title Here

I love naming things (not characters and definitely not the story itself) in my stories. This broadens the characters' world and gives their settings flavor. Stores and restaurants and TV shows and organizations--all these and more are fair game.

It's especially fun to name  them in thematic or symbolic ways that reveal the character's changing viewpoints or state of mind throughout the story.

Puns are my favorite and a weakness of mind, and I can't help using them. I try to only use them rarely, but sometimes a liberal sprinkling is fun in a first draft.

Organizing My Papers

When I'm stuck, I inevitably turn to writing by hand. I just need the stimulation of the movement and feel of real paper and a real pen in my hands to get ideas flowing.

Unfortunately, this leads me with piles of loose papers scattered about. Today I decided to organize this mess. The task is breathtakingly difficult. I'm unable to throw away anything, and my writings are so diverse that it's hard to group them. If I did a breakdown of a comedy sitcom pilot, built a magic system, researched psychopathy, etc., etc. How do I group these? Are they all research? They don't seem to go together. I think I'd be confused if I found them in the same box or bin together.

Then how do I keep the details straight of a story that I've developed. I don't just want to lump the whole deal together. I want to quickly reference the characters of a particular story. I can't do that if they're in one big pile. Yet if I separate them, there's a big chance that I'll forget that they even went together in the first place.

Oh, the boxes. I have so many boxes. Where will I put them all? Should I be estimating this to take a week?