“I do not rewrite unless I am absolutely sure that I can express the material better if I do rewrite it.”
—William Faulkner
Tag Archives: writer
Writers on writing
Filed under William Faulkner, Writers on writing
Writing Tip Wednesday: Writing as a Transformational Tool
WRITING AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL TOOL
by BRUCE HALE
source: http://www.brucehalewritingtips.com/
When we tell stories, we hope we are touching the lives of our readers, making them laugh, cry, wonder, or ponder. But what if, by your writing, you could also touch your own life, help your own emotional or psychological growth?
To some extent, this happens organically. We’re drawn to subjects that have a certain resonance for us, after all. And if you write about topics that touch on your own traumas and past challenges, you’ll sometimes find that you feel better. But if you want to take it further, here are a couple of ways to go about this process more deliberately.
PROBING PAST PAIN
Ever had a sore tooth that you just couldn’t leave alone, even though it hurt when you touched it? Same principle here. Look back at your life, at those incidents that make you cringe even now — the time you embarrassed yourself in front of the classroom, the death of a friend, your first painful breakup. That’s your raw material for story.
Now spend some time writing about the memory that has the biggest charge on it. See if you can recall specific sensory details that make the experience come alive. After setting it aside for awhile, rewrite the incident from a fictional perspective, changing or inventing details to suit your story.
Voila — you’ve just created the seed for a powerful scene (or at least some potent backstory for your character). Now, this incident may not even directly appear in your story — you may use just the emotional tone — but you’ve managed to come to grips with something from your past while adding emotional depth to your tale.
Want an example? Growing up, I had a frequently challenging relationship with my stepdad; we rarely saw eye to eye. In my new book, SCHOOL FOR S.P.I.E.S.: Playing With Fire, I gave the hero, Max, a difficult relationship with his dad. Did I borrow actual incidents from my own life? No. But I used the feeling tone, that love-hate vibe, to deepen my story, and in some ways it has helped me feel more peaceful about my past relationship with my dad.
THE PENNEBAKER METHOD
If you want to get more directly therapeutic, you can also write in a directed way about what’s bugging you today.
For nearly 20 years, Dr. James Pennebaker has been asking people to write down their deepest feelings about an emotional upheaval in their lives for 15-20 minutes a day, four days running. In his book, WRITING TO HEAL, he states that many who have followed his instructions have had their immune systems strengthened, grades improved, or even lives changed.
The 4-day writing process, he says, helps us translate an experience into language, and in doing so, we essentially make that experience graspable. “Emotional upheavals touch every part of our lives,” Pennebaker explains. “These things affect all aspects of who we are, and writing helps us focus and organize the experience. When people are given the opportunity to write about emotional upheavals, they often experience improved health.”
Sound intriguing? Give it a try. You may find it improves your life as well. Or at least your stories.
Filed under Bruce Hale, writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday
cARtOONSDAY rEDUX: tHE gREAT eSCAPE
Sometimes, plot happens.
[Editor’s note: Apparently, in addition to needing talent, I can also use an editor. I had an extra “y” dangling in the earlier version, which I only caught a little while ago. Possibly the best letter to have dangling at the end of a word considering the subject. Above is a slightly updated version, sans extra “y.”]
Filed under cartoon by author, CarToonsday
cARtOONSDAY: jUST A gIGOLO pOET, take 2
Sometimes it’s hard to do a good cartoon.
Thought I would try this version. You can decide which one you prefer, if either. The earlier one appeared on Tuesday, July 17, 2012. You can also click on CarToonsday in the links below and it will bring up that CarToonsday cartoon as well as others.
Filed under cartoon by author, CarToonsday, writing
Writing tip Wednesday: writerly thinking
How a writer thinks—elementary my dear
by DON WILLIAMS
During a holiday sometime back, the Williams clan, including in-laws, outlaws and assorted friends, gathered to play Trivial Pursuit.
A competitive lot, we turn such games into raucous entertainment. Lots of praise, derision and laughter pertain, not necessarily in that order.
The games were close and the questions difficult, prompting snorts and catcalls, and three of the teams had flamed out by the time my friend the writer’s turn came to answer a question.
My sister Rebecca drew a card and read:
Sherlock Holmes turned into the gate at 221 Baker St, stepped inside the door and climbed ___ steps to his second story flat. How many steps did he climb?
There was a collective groan.
“Bury that one,” a brother-in-law said, even as Rebecca was discarding the question. “He’ll never get that.”
“Hold on!” My friend held up his right hand. “I’ve only read one Arthur Conan Doyle book, and it wasn’t Sherlock Holmes, but I’ll take a shot at that.”
“No way. How are you going to guess that one?”
“Elementary my dear Watson,” my friend replied. “In the time-honored Holmes-ian way. Deductive Reasoning.”
“That’ll be the day,” my brother Tim said.
“Listen up,” said my friend. “It has to be at least 10 steps to Sherlock’s apartment, even if the risers are relatively high, say, 10 inches, because they have to clear that first-floor apartment’s ceiling. And the answer likely won’t be more than, say, 20 steps, even if the risers are short, because that would put the esteemed detective’s pad more than ten or twelve feet above street level. See? Already I’ve reduced the universe of possible answers to 10.”
“Yeah, yeah,” my brother Rodney said.
“So,” my friend continued, “the answer lies somewhere between 10 and 20. Let’s take them one by one.”
“Better hurry,” said my sister Kathleen, eyeing the sandglass.
“OK. Ten is a lazy number that would make the author appear lazy too, so a writer like Doyle would never use it. Not here. Nor can it be 11, because that’s a lucky number, mildly distracting and therefore intrusive. More importantly, Sherlock’s a deductive thinker, so the author wouldn’t suggest, even subliminally, that his detective’s success owes anything to a lucky number. Number 12? Again, distracting. Sir Doyle wouldn’t want his readers to be thinking, even subconsciously, about Twelve Apostles or even 12 months. Unlucky thirteen? Similary distracting.”
“Time’s almost up,” said Kathleen.
Step by step deduction led to the right conclusion.
I could see my friend faintly flush, but he continued in a calm if faster voice. “Fourteen? Now there’s a Plain Jane. No writer worth his salt would dull down a book with such tasteless seasoning, even if it is red.”
“Red?”
“See? That could be a subjective thing. And 15? Again, like 10, it’s too pat and pregnant. Makes the author appear lazy.”
“Sixteen?” a brother-in-law asked, eyeing the fleeting sands.
“Like 14, another Plain Jane, even if it is black,” my friend added.
“Seventeen?”
My friend smiled. You could almost hear bells going off. “Seventeen seems random,” he said, savoring the moment, “but it’s actually quite sexy. That unobtrusive 7, peeking from behind the place-holding 1, is subtly mystical, alluring even, hardly rising even to the level of the subliminal, yet there it is.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes. “So, is that your final answer?” she asked in a bored voice, as she glanced at the card, but we knew her attitude was all bluff.
“Yesssss,” my friend whispered aloud, calmly assured. “Seventeen it is. By far the most interesting number between 10 and 20.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re right. How did you do that?” she asked as she flashed the card, answer-side up, on the table.
“Elementary, my dear. I’m a writer.”
8888
Don Williams is a prize-winning columnist, short story writer, sometime TV commentator and the founding editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings, an annual anthology of stories, essays and poems. His awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan, a Golden Presscard Award, the Malcolm Law Journalism Prize and many others. He was recently inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame. He is at work on a novel and a book of journalism..
Need a speaker, panelist, tv commentator or teacher for your group or to lead a writing workshop in your town? E-mail donwilliams7@charter.net, or visit www.NewMillenniumWritings.com. New Millennium Writings is holding a writing contest for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry that you can still enter. Deadline is July 31, 2012.
CarToonsday: Where’d you bury the woman I married?
“Where’d you bury the woman I married?”
Filed under cartoon by author, CarToonsday
Writing a novel…
Writing a novel is …
Simple.
Deceptive.
Seductive.
And an Act of Defiance.
That’s why so many feel they can do it, and why so few do it successfully.
Filed under writing, writing tip
Booker's Blog 