Ganymeder

Since I’ve recently discovered how much I enjoy writing fiction, I’ve been immersing myself in instructional material on the craft. It occurred to me today as I was listening to a podcast I should be writing that this might warrant a new category on my blog. Others might be interested in some of the many resources available for new wanna be authors. In addition to posting links and suggestions, I might occasionally write about some new revelation or lesson I learn. I’m not sure how much I can contribute at this point, so this category might not be that large.

So far I’ve only been practicing two things. From what I’ve gleaned so far, all the authors I’ve listened to agree they are the best things any budding author can do. You’re on the edge of your seat now. Aren’t you? I’ll be merciful and spare you any further ado. Here are the two wonderfully helpful nuggets of practicality of which I speak.

1. Write. Write. Write.

If you want to become a better writer, you have to actually start by practicing. You have to sit down every day and write something. It doesn’t have to be much. It doesn’t have to be great. But practice makes perfect. You’ll never get better if you never get started. Sorry for the string of cliche’s, but they’re cliche’s for a reason. It may seem like obvious advice, but there is a very real fear that the great idea you have in your head will be ruined once you write it down. At least that’s how I feel, and I’ve heard that many writers suffer from the same phobia. So just sit down and start writing something. Every. Single. Day.

2. Give yourself permission to write badly.

Let’s face it. If you’re just starting out like me, you aren’t going to be writing the Great American Novel any time soon. But if you worry too much about getting everything perfect the first time around, you end up stifling your creativity. You can always go back and edit later. And you’ll have to edit. Definitely.

Whether its a short story, novella, or full fledged book – you can pretty much guarantee that the first draft will be awful. Don’t believe me? Even Hemmingway said, “The first draft of anything is sh*t.” There’s something vaguely comforting in knowing that a Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature wrote crappy first drafts too. It kinda takes the pressure off. So why fight it? Let go of your inner editor for the first draft, and then get him out of jail later when you need his (or her) help.

Now that I’ve imparted the wisdom of the ages to you, I’m sure you’re prostrate with gratitude. So go lie down and recover your composure. I will grace you with my presence again at a later date.

Seriously, I’m a newbie myself. So what do I know? But these two simple pieces of advice come from people with much more experience and expertise than myself. They seemed to really help me, so I’m guessing they’ll help you too. Until next time practice writing, and may the force be with you!

Summary: This book talks about the craft of novel writing.

Despite King being one of my least favorite authors, I found this book both entertaining and informative. I loved his novels when I was in high school because they always had such interesting plots. But I’ve always thought of his writing style as crude and juvenile. Honestly, I still wasn’t crazy about his use of the language in parts of this book. The book was highly recommended by so many writing sites and podcasts, I felt I needed to give it a shot. Listening to the audiobook gave me the opportunity to educate myself while doing daily chores. I learned while I cleaned and did the dishes, which is always a plus.

I’m very glad I did. While I still thought he was unnecessarily vulgar in sections of the book, he did give very good advice. The first part of the work concerned some autobiographical information meant to show how one author became a successful novelist. The main lesson I gleaned from his account was that persistence pays. No matter how many rejection slips he received, he just kept trying. He wrote continuously and produced in volume. He learned from his mistakes. He took advice.

The second part talked about the actual craft of creating a novel – the language itself and how to use it. How to tell a story without making it boring with too many adverbs and unnecessary details. The importance of backstory and how to keep it from sidetracking your plot. Plot happens. You should write every day. If you don’t want to write everyday, then you don’t really enjoy it and perhaps you should do something else. Practice makes perfect. This section I enjoyed the most and found the most helpful. It gave me tons of ideas and also confirmed some of the things I’d learned myself from my recent excursion into high speed novelling. It might sound trite, but there’s something profoundly gratifying about having a successful author confirm some of your own discoveries.

The last part of the book talked about an incident that changed his life. It was touching and moved the book full circle by ending on an autobiographical note. I’m not sure what I was meant to learn from this though. Maybe he was just explaining some of the earlier parts of the book where he said something happened that changed his life. I don’t know. That part of the book was very well written, so I suppose it was just a sample of the writing techniques he’d talked about earlier. Show. Don’t tell.

I would recommend this book to people interested in learning about the craft of writing. He gives instruction and suggestion without being too technical. At the very least its entertaining. I don’t know if I would recommend it as highly as it was recommended to me, but I did find it helpful. I had been reading a novel that was a perfect example of what not to do. His editorial advice helped me extract some powerful lessons from that novel about why its necessary to trim words. Frequent reading teaches the budding novelist important lessons. Even a bad book can make you a better author.

Synopsis: Malone, an extremely lucky FBI agent, works to unearth a telepathic spy. The FBI director makes this mission top priority to the security of the nation, authorizing Malone to use any means necessary. Malone takes an unusual entourage, including telepaths from sanatoriums across the nation, to a casino in Las Vegas and finally a secret facility in Yucca Flats.

Sounds like a good story, right?

That’s what I thought. But I found myself skipping sections of the book because the author would go on and on describing things that weren’t particularly interesting or relevant to the story. He kept hitting me over the head with the details. I mean, I get it already. The girl’s beautiful. Malone’s nuts about her. Can we get on with the plot already?

The best I can say about this book is that its not the worst one I’ve ever read. Several of the characters were interesting. The telepathic immortal Queen Elizabeth I provided the most enjoyable parts of the book. Overall I thought he overdid everything. Some of the silly situations were funny, but his writing was just too irksome. Even the Queen, my favorite character, became a little repetative and boring after awhile. I found it difficult to read past the middle of the book. Luckily I had recently listened to an audiobook version of “On Writing” by Stephen King. This allowed me to exploit the the author’s errors to the best of my ability. It perfectly illustrated so many points about bad writing style.

This is the first novel I’ve ever read by this author, so perhaps his style improves in his later work. His interesting premise failed to carry me past his actual writing. Unless you are a budding author in search of an example of what not to do, I would not recommend wasting your time with this book.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the concept, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Every year aspiring authors challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days – specifically from Midnight November 1st to Midnight November 30th. There is even an accompanying website at www.nanowrimo.org which offers support in the form of writing buddies, forums, advice, newsletters, podcasts, and even widgets.In the grand tradition of large goals with short deadlines, every March consequently becomes National Novel Editing Month or NaNoEdMo for short. Prudent editors might want to prepare ahead of time for the rewrite challenge of 50 hours in the month of March. My prepatory work includes listening to Stephen King’s audiobook version of “On Writing”, and acquiring a couple more books on the subject. The next book in my reading cue, Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style,” promises to be very helpful. At least that’s what I’ve been told by King and other authors I’ve heard.

The NaNoEdMo site finally seems to be working for me. A successful log-in eluded me until today, though I was able to read some articles. Now my member access grants me the right to participate in forums, acquire free downloads, and hopefully much more. The website activity wanes at the moment, but as it gets closer to March I’m sure the articles and other support will pick up. In the month of March I will probably be putting up widgets and other lovely tidbits.

So if you’ve participated in NaNoWriMo or simply want to edit another sample of your literary genius, get thee to the NaNoEdMo site! And enjoy!

Synopsis: A group of people from Earth are abandoned on Ragnarok when their spaceship is captured by the Gerns. Out of the 2000 people left on the planet, 200 die the first night from fever and predatory animals. What follows is not the story of any particular character, but rather the history and evolution of a new race of beings that have adapted to the harsh conditions on this 1.5 gravity planet. The ending was not what I expected, but nevertheless was a great way to both conclude the story and pave the way for follow up novels.

I thought this was a pretty good read – Lots of action, suspense, self sacrifice and main characters rapidly dying off. I initially got my ereader copy from www.manybooks.net. It didn’t really have a description so I didn’t know what to expect. There were several places where I had to suspend my disbelief, but I felt the rest of the novel justified the leap. Other scifi fans who enjoy Heinlein, Asimov, and Harry Harrison will probably enjoy this book. I would recommend this to almost anyone (except young children because the intense situations might be too much).

One of the things I love about veganism and Buddhism is that it forces me to think about my connection to the world. I read labels and find out where things came from and the connections that I never even imagined existed. My family says grace before they eat their meals each day, and I try to be mindful of how this bounty came to be on my table. It’s not simply a matter of the food either. How did I get to the point where I have a home to eat in or a table to eat off of? People crafted the materials for those things, which came from the earth and was grown, transported, paid for. I have a job to buy those things because someone founded a company years ago. If you trace everything backwards and worldwide, it took the entire Universe up until the present moment for you to get exactly where you are today. Whether or not you believe in a God, how can you possibly NOT feel immense appreciation for that?

Also, being mindful of the interconnectedness of everyone and everything empowers you. Only by being aware of the consequences of my actions can I make informed choices. And by being informed my choices can be more ethical. No one wants to be the cause of more suffering in the world, and by realizing my connection I can affect change for the better.

Most of all, I cherish that I am able to be informed and have choices. That lays the responsibility for those choices on me. Someone once said that the price of freedom is vigilance. I would also add that the power of choice lies in mindfulness. And the rewards of being mindful are both a profound connection to the world around you and gratitude for everything you have and are.

Note: This is a repost of an article I wrote on my Care2 page that was not transferred to my new website.