The Honeymoon Phase
There’s this sweet spot while I’m writing where it’s all good. And then it passes.
how I do
Scenes From A Novel(ist)
I’m 60 pages into the novel I’ve finally decided to write. Over 21,000 words. And I am utterly and completely lost.
Writing a short story is like taking a direct path while writing a novel feels as if I’m wandering all over the place. I’m not even fully writing it in order. I’ve written scenes in the middle and toward the end. There is a beginning. I did start there. Except it was right at the end. There’s a cliffhanger and even I don’t know how it ends yet. But it’s a story about becoming, and my word for the year is “stretch,” so I’m stretching to become a novelist.
I wrote one once, one kid and two dogs ago. It is not good (nor should it be). I tried to rewrite it, but my heart wasn’t in it. The book was written prove to myself that I could do it. A Month of Sundays was written so that I could have a published work. Accomplishment for accomplishment’s sake. But this? Finishing this, and I mean finishing it in a way that it might actually be ready to be a book, means that I am fully committing to this writing thing. That I am going to put myself out there for rejection, rejection of something that feels at the moment like it’s actually being extracted from me. That’s some scary shit.
Scary is good. I’m not in mortal danger, simply in danger of taking death blows to my ego, which only feels like you’re going to die. At least that’s what I’m counting on. But this is the stuff of life, isn’t it? Doing what scares you? I’m sure someone told me that once, although I suspect that whoever decided it was a thing was simply trying to reassure themselves. Fear was designed to keep us safe. But not from a politely worded rejection letter from Doubleday.
I’m preparing for failure. It’s not that intend to fail, but if I allow that it could actually happen, I hope to let go enough to make something really good. Right now it feels like it sucks (no, I haven’t read any of it yet) and that there is no there, there and there might never be (how many theres can you write in a row and still have a coherent sentence?).
That’s what first drafts are for, right?
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Scenes From A Workshop
It’s hard to imagine any more uncomfortable position to be in than at a table where several other people are openly discussing your work while you have to sit, mute, and just listen. But there is also no better place to learn a bit about yourself and your work.
I’m doing a community writing workshop at a local university. There’s a small group of individuals of varying ages, professions, and experiences. I got my first critique the other night.
Now I’ve done this before, so the experience wasn’t new, but it is always interesting to hear people talk about something you’ve written. Everyone has different perspective, a different opinion, and sometimes you get a mass of contradiction to wade through to find things that ring true to you and what you are trying to put forward.
And then there is the urge to say your piece. To explain. To argue. But you can’t. And that’s a good thing. It’s good because then you can’t spend time thinking about what you want to say, how this person or that is all wrong or exactly right. All you can do is listen and absorb.
You won’t take every morsel of advice, but some will land in the pit of your stomach and take hold. They will change your piece or how you think about it, what the possibilities are. It’s an exercise I highly recommend if you can come at it from the right place. If you can manage not to take anything personally and divorce yourself from what you’ve written and look at it like a reader, not a parent. At the very least it will thicken your skin.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some revisions to get to.
And Then I Thought…
So I had this book all planned out. I even started writing it. But somewhere along the line… well, it’s on hold for now. But I am writing, just not what I’d planned to. It bothers me while at the same time it doesn’t. This is not the first time it’s happened; it will likely not be the last. Writing is like that for me. I want to go one way, but there are stories that want to be told that pull me in another direction. It makes me feel like I have writing ADD or something. But I think it’s just part of my process. I write through an idea before I know if it’s working or not. And then new ideas take its place.
The reason I choose, for now, to write short stories is that eventually I lose the feel for it. I chalk it up to simply not having the right idea for a novel yet, one that really excites me, but perhaps it’s just what I am meant to do: Tell small stories. Taking a glimpse into a life can sometimes be far more interesting than knowing all you need to know by the time you close the back cover. In short stories, questions remain. Outcomes are uncertain. Just like life. Short stories are the now. Interesting, no? I just thought of that. Short stories as some type of Zen meditation? That might be pushing it.
Okay, I’ve pivoted in another direction. I’m not sure where it will take me, but I have to trust the journey. That’s what I am in this for.
Keeping It Real
For me, writing short stories gives me the freedom to wing my characters a bit. A novel requires planning and creating a character sketch so that you stay true to who that person is as the story takes its course. But with a short story, you are giving a glimpse into who a person is, a small piece of the puzzle. You could even say that a short story is a sort of character sketch, at least the way I write them.
One of the things that helps me make my characters feel like real people (I hope) is to give them little quirks or interesting background tidbits, most of which are stolen from real life. It could be a phrase that my mother uses, a family pet name, or some quirky behavior. I think it feels more real when it is real. Of course they say that truth is stranger than fiction, so it’s possible these things seem as if I made them up.
Paring down things to their bare minimums helps me keep things authentic as well. I try not to get too much into a story; that’s for longer works. Short stories, for me, are like peeking into someone’s window at a critical moment in their lives. It’s a heartbeat, a deep breath, an exhale. Who they are plays into how they got there and their reactions, but it’s not the full picture. It’s a person at a pivotal point in their day or their life. It may or may not be an accurate portrait of who they are, but it should be spot on for the person they inhabit in that moment. I try to achieve that by not bringing too much background into the story’s space, otherwise things get crowded.
I’ve heard from readers who’ve said that my stories are different from others that they’ve read, and I take that as a point of pride. I write what’s in me, without thought to what other people are doing, no matter how much I admire it.
What makes a story or character feel real to you?
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