Write Now Edit Later

That sounds like simple advice.  Write your story now, worry about editing it later.

Write the story now ... edit it later.

Write now.  Edit later.

Write.  Edit.

Edit.  Just edit.

That's where most of you have probably found yourselves.  If not, then you're probably lost in the bog of eternal stench (sucks to be you!). What happened? You knew you should've been writing it out.  How else are you going to spot those inconsistencies, mishaps, plot holes, balrog, and boogers in your story if it's not written out?

Don't worry about editing.  Your story may not sound good to you now.  Screw having a perfect story!  Don't worry about it.  Make a note somewhere (somehow) in your manuscript that such & such needs fixing.  If your using Word, then use the "review" tab at the top.  Otherwise, just leave some kind of note in your text that you'll recognize during your edit and rewrite.

 Do it, or perish!

Get that story out of your head.  Vomit the whole thing out.  Then you can pick it up, chew on it (gross!), and make it into the nugget of genius you always knew it was (terrible metaphor, I know).  Forget the editing until it's time to edit.  If you get bogged down editing as you go(remember the bog of eternal stench?), you may find that your story never gets written.  That's a problem for someone who wants to make a living from their craft.

Focus, young padawan.  One step at a time.  Get it written.

So how about you?  Have you gotten stuck editing when you should be writing?  Did you ever get out of those stinky mires, or are you still sinking, head first?  Tell us about it in the comments below!  Remember to share, like and follow.  Social media makes the world go round.

Writers Fatigue & The Cure

Writer's Fatigue

It is the demonic shadow of the dreaded phenomena that plagues all of us word-smitten creative types.  I'm talking about writer's block and it's nagging companion, fatigue.  Fatigue is a lot like writer's block, and if it's left unmanaged may create the perfect door for writer's block to step right through.  Just like a holy man preparing himself for epic combat with malevolent spirits, we as courageous writers must take precautions to keep the demon at bay.  By the way, I'm totally thinking of John Constantine while I write this.  Gimme some Enochian symbols and I'll brand them (not really) on my forearms (back satan!).
So, what is writer's fatigue?  Basically, it's the same thing as burnout.  You've invested so much time and energy in writing this project.  Your heart and soul have been ground up and mashed into the essence of every laboriously chosen word.  But you've given too much too quick.  Next thing you know, you're not so excited about getting up early in the morning and sitting at that desk.  You try because hey, you know it's not going to be fun all the time.  You've even read elsewhere that it's going to fill a lot like work.  But beware!  Sometimes the right thing might be to brutally master your mind and body, push right through and get that word count in.  And maybe not.

"Why maybe not?" you ask.  Another great question.  Jeez, you guys are really on point.  Maybe, just maybe you'll start to produce less than that high quality work that you know you're capable of.  Perhaps you inner eye begins to haze, and suddenly the clarity of direction is muddied by the work of it all.  Does that sound about right?  If so, you're in the choppy waters of writer's fatigue.  Beware!  There, just beyond the dark clouds is a place of emptiness (the "nothing" from The Never Ending Story has been there), lukewarm waters and (whispered in echoes) writer's block.  God forbid you get to that place.  You've gotta go through hell to get back where you want to be.  And you want those words to flow like milk and honey.

The Cure

Ah, but in my vast amounts of timeless wisdom, gathered and harnessed by the incredible rabbi called "experience", I have learned of a remedy.  Not like the pricey snake oil stuff that Crazy Eddie sales with ol' One Eye's moonshine (what a name for a moonshiner, right?), but the real deal.  So here we go.  I think this next bit of wisdom is so epic it deserves it's own line.

The cure to writer's fatigue is to write more stuff ... just different ... stuff.

Yup, that's it.  The trick is to write something other than the large project you're working on.  Take a break from that novel, but not too long.  You still want to make progress on that thing, so I wouldn't suggest abandoning it for more than a day (if that).  I chose to do a blog which was similarly related to my novel (subterfuge!), and to help edit fellow writers and their monstrous projects.

 I had a professor in college that gave me a bit of advice when it came to studying and writing theological papers.  He told me that your brain needs a break from doing the same thing over and over again, and it helps for the old noggin to reboot if it's located in a different space.

This means that it is good for you head to change gears for a while, and sometimes you need to get up and get out of your local writing haunt to help it out.  Let me simplify:

Change your mental location, and you physical location.

Keep writing everyday.  Write something, they say (I don't know who they are, but they say a lot of things).  Keep your craft like you would keep a hunting knife; sharp and prepared for the work at hand.  Once you've done a little work on another project, perhaps one less meaningful, you need to refocus on your first love.  You'll be surprised at how rejuvenated you feel.  It's like getting a breath of fresh air after being stuck inside a smouldering, ventless attic for hours.  Try it out the next time you feel a little less enthusiastic about your novel (don't go to a stuffy attic, though.  You could die.  I don't want this blog to be the reason for death).

How about you?  Have you had a time when you feel like you're just too burnt out to write anything good?  How did you fix it (did you fix it)?  Do you have any secret chunks of wisdom for us to learn from?  Let us know in the comments below.

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Dialogue Tags and Your First Novel

When you first started to write your book (look at you, on the ball!) you found the word "said" to be incredibly boring.  In a decent chain of dialogue, that word can get repeated a million times.  As you wrote your story, I'm sure you ended up going back over the parts you just read, and when you do, you see; no, you feel how repetitive "said" is.  It begins to really dig at you, and so you start to come up with some more exciting modifiers to use instead of the mayonnaise-like "said".  

Let's clarify what a dialogue tag is:

"Hello," Joe said
"What's it to ya?" muttered Henry.

There are two camps on the subject of dialogue tags.  One group of writers will say that dialogue tags should stay simple like "said" or the occasional "asked".  In their opinions (and this is mostly true) the word "said" ends up getting shoved to the back of our reading experience and almost disappears altogether.  Subconsciously it keeps the reader aware of who is speaking, but for the most part they skip right over it.  Think back to the last book you read (assuming it had dialogue); do you remember really reading all of the name tags the writer put in there?  Probably not, and that's why you should keep it simple.  Dialogue tags other than the basics will draw attention to themselves, slowing down the pace (which could kill your story), and may cause the reader to stumble over them.  Remember, you don't even need dialogue tags but every so often.  Look at it like this:

"Okay Joe," mumbled Larry, "it's time to get going."

"But why?" cried Joe.

"Because," grumbled Larry, "work is work and it's time you get to it!"

"Oh man.  Can't I just sleep in for once?" said Joe.

"Dad's gonna kill you if you do it again.  Let's go!" spat Larry.


See how I used "mumbled", "cried", and "grumbled" instead of "said"?  If you want fast dialogue, avoid the use of such tags.  Take a look at this example, this time with the tags cleaned up:


"Okay Joe," said Larry, "it's time to get going."

"But why?" asked Joe.

"Because work is work and it's time you get to it!"

"Oh man.  Can't I just sleep in for once?"

"Dad's gonna kill you if you do it again.  Let's go!"


This second time I only used enough dialogue tags so the reader can identify who is speaking.  Then I remove them altogether so that the conversation can happen quickly.  Notice how much quicker the conversation can occur when you keep it simple and use them sparingly? In an urgent scene, it will help the reader feel a sense of urgency.

The other camp will use the heck out of them when they need to.  If you open a book by Patrick Rothfuss or Joe Abercrombie, you'll see pretty quick they don't belong to any camp exclusively.  In one chapter, you may encounter a slew of intricate dialogue tags/modifiers, and the next it may be quick paced, action-talk.   That's because the use of dialogue tags and modifiers can be genre specific.  Do you know what that means?  Well, my dear friend, it means that fantasy novels and modern day thrillers are written differently.  They adhere to different rules, and don't always have to play the "quick and hard" game for the reader.  Fantasy novels are just as much about the minute details as is they are about the progression of the story via dialogue.  This is not so of modern day thrillers.

Think about your novel.  Think about what genre you are writing.  What specifics do you notice one author using that seems to contradict another?  Trust me, you'll find out a lot about stinkin' "rules" and who gets published (and subsequently who doesn't).

Don't overuse, don't under-use, and let your story dictate what it needs for it to be told.

Be weary of people that say you must stick with camp number 1.  That is poor advice, and will get it written in a corner you won't know how to get out of.  Pay attention to the authors that you enjoy, and why you enjoy them.  And for God's sake, look at how they use dialogue tags!

So how about you?  What's your novel about?  Are you locked into a genre, and if so, do you have a specific camp you feel you have to adhere to?  Let us know about it in the comments below.  As always, like it, love it, share it, follow it.

Writing the Perfect Scene: Show Don't Tell

In my last post I spoke about my first grimy introduction to literary criticism from other writers.  If you didn't read it (shame, shame) then you should probably go back and do that now.  Look, I'll even include a link to it (see how well I treat you?).  In short, criticism sucks, but it will make your writing better.  But that doesn't mean that everything another writer throws your way should be taken like the words of Jesus Himself (remember, there's a lot of unpublished writers who stick to the rules).

I wanted to discuss some of the rules that you're gonna hear in connection to your narrative.  Some of them may be worth paying attention to, or at least keeping in the back of your mind while you are crafting away.  Others might be outright dumb, genre specific, creative writing course style bull crap.  Okay, you're right; I shouldn't call it bull crap ... I insult the feces of the bovine brethren too much. Let's  take a look at one of the "rules" I found most helpful.

Show The Reader, Don't Tell 

This one seems pretty straight forward, right?  I mean, you are writing a novel after all, and the point is for your readers is to see what's inside your head ... right?  This "rule" is somewhat deceitful in it's simplicity, because it is complex to adhere to.  The heart and soul of this rule is to have the dialogue (character interactions) drive the story forward while you show the reader what's going on.  Showing people something is one of the first skills we learn as mortal creatures (like the baby on the right), but it seems to be something we lose the older we get.  Look at this example:

Telling

 John was angry because his wife was leaving him.

Showing

John slammed his fist down on the bare kitchen table.  "Why can't we fix this, Helen?" he said.  "Why won't you just try!"

"Because," Helen said with her back towards him, "you'll never change."


See the difference in the (poor) example above?  Telling the reader simply states a fact.  It's boring, uninteresting, and leaves nothing for the reader to imagine.  Showing the reader changes everything.  You don't have to spell it out for the reader; they are clever creatures, and can get that John is angry with his wife ... if you write it well enough.

 "What about back story?" you may ask.  "How will the reader know what's going on unless I give them three pages of backstory before the opening scene?"

Good question, my dear Watson!  Very astute observation, my friend (I thought about saying "boy" here, and then "girl" ... my androgynous desires won out with "friend").  This is where you will hear the phrase drip feed.  Think of it just as it sounds.  You don't want to dump a butt load of information on the reader all at once like a dense chunk of Leftover casserole (now that's not casserole that was left over from dinner last night.  I mean Leftover Casserole, as in that dish that Mom makes every Friday that includes all the leftovers from the week before).  Rather, give the reader (through context and well planned dialogue) small, delicious, nutrient-packed crumbs as you go along.  This will help add drama to your narratives, and create the page-turning desire you want your reader to have with your work.

Take a look at the example of John and his wife.  I could have said, "John's wife was leaving him because John was stubborn and violent.  After several beatings she was sick of the abuse."  Even though it's one line, there's a lot of information that can be shown to the reader rather than explained, especially if the story's focal point is why she left her husband. In the showing example, information is slowly given to the reader through context and dialogue.  The reader can get that Helen is leaving John, that John is angry about it, and that John is (in Helen's opinion) stubborn.  A clever reader (and they always are) will get that John is violent (i.e. banging the table).  Nothing should be said in your story that isn't important (is this a rule?), and if it's worth mentioning, then it's worth showing (holy Moses!  More rules!  What have I become?!)

Finally, telling your reader what's happening, or has happened in the story, is basically calling them dumb.  You unknowingly believe that the reader will not be able to draw the connections together on their own, and so you must tell them up front.  This is a lie of the adversary, the devil, to get you to write crappy stories!  Alright, the devil might not be responsible for your misstep here, but then again ... maybe (shifty eyes).

This "rule" happens to be one that I think will really elevate your work.  Maybe you're not like me, and you figured this one out pretty early.  If so, then good for you.  We're proud of you!  But for the rest of us, this is going to be something we'll have to really work hard to remember.  And you probably won't catch it the first time through.  This is one of those things you'll catch in the dreaded editing stage of your novel (good luck with that).

So what do you think?  Is this a "rule" of writing good narrative, or are there instances where spoon feeding your reader is exactly what you need to do?  Let us know in the comments below.  If you've found this information useful, like it, love it, share it, and share some more!  Don't forget to follow and subscribe!

2 Things That will Improve Your Writing

Writing does not happen in a vacuum...don't get me wrong, though.  It's our world.  We do what we want in it.  No one can tell us anything different.  How would the literary genre grow if we didn't? (hint:  it wouldn't).  Some more conservative writers may call it bad practice, or poor quality(nay sayers!).  Being a pioneer in writing is a matter of perspective; to some you may be a genius, and to others...your work may not be worthy to grace their hindquarters (butts...I'm talking about butts).  What was I saying? Oh yeah, the vacuum thing:  it takes some outside forces to help mold and shape our abilities into that superhuman thing you've been wanting ever since you became serious about the pen.

Either way, there are 2 things that can really help elevate your writing experience.  They will help shape you into the writer that you want to be, and enlighten your mind so that you may discover the more intricate complexities of narrative formation.  A good writer (that's you) wants all the help they can get, and must never, ever back down from the seemingly overwhelming forces of evil (Sauron) that keeps us from moving on.  Remember:  we can always become better, but it will require hard work, sacrifice, and relationships.  What's that?  Why relationships?  Chill out, I'm getting there.

1.  Read & Take Notes

Reading is obviously part of being a writer (at least it should be).  I couldn't imagine a world where a
writer never read other narratives.  Writer's write, after all, and readers read.  But a writer always reads.  I am willing to wager that you probably became inspired to be a writer because you read someone's work and thought, "man!  I wanna do that!  I wanna tell a story like that one day!"

 The next thing you know, you've sat down in front of your computer, and started working away on that thing.  Of course, you trash the whole project two months later because you realize that it's tit for tat the plot of Lord of the Rings, or 28 Days Later (dark lords to zombies...someone should do it).  I became super inspired after watching Lord of the Rings as a child, sat down to Windows 95, and started pumping out pages.  I was a kid, so that was cool for me.  But as a mature writer (with age comes wisdom...I hope), I understand the necessity of reading for the purpose of writing.

There's the difference.  You have probably read a book for entertainment purposes, but have you picked up a few best sellers in your genre to see what makes them sell so well?  (Also, let's be honest. You're writing to sell your work so that people will read it...and so you can get money).  Look at the mechanics of how they write.  Look at their usage of punctuation, plot development, narrative structure, character usage, the tone of the story...I mean there are literally  thousands of things you can look for that can give you a boost in your writing.

Joe Abercrombie is one of those authors whose books I have picked apart mercilessly.  I love his stories, and the voice he was able to produce in his writing (The Bloody Nine...check him out).  I didn't know the first thing about writing a book (other than it would be epic), and realized that I had shelves full of professionals who could teach me the art of the craft.  Sit back with a few books and pay attention.  Take notes on things that you like, elements that work well, and those that just don't seem to fit.  You will be amazed at how much you will learn from the first five pages.

2.  Be In Relationship With Other Writers

This one might be a little tricky.  I doubt you have a ready-made pub full of writers like Tolkien and Lewis did to help them bounce ideas back and forth (but you might...if you do, I am envious).  But there are other ways to do this, thanks to the magical realm of the interwebs. Forums, groups, databases...a whole slew of sites that offer the kind of relationship you need to make things happen.

For instance, one such place is called My Writer's Circle.  This place is great.  Here, you will get all the encouragement you will ever need.  I recently joined the site (send me a PM if you join after reading this "CodyWright77"), and have found tons of ways improve my writing.  The benefits are innumerable, and I'm not going to get into them right now; I'll just mention the big one.

Critiquing.  You need someone other than Mom (God love her) to look at your work.  Family is great, but you need people who don't  know you from some other Joe.  Be warned:  those people are not there to kiss your butt and make you feel good about yourself.  They will look at your work and be honest...terribly, unashamedly honest.  Which is really a good thing.  Just be ready to take some hard blows.  But they are blows of love (butterflies, sunshine & rainbows)!  And they will teach you what a reader wants when they open your story (first lines are SO important).

Let's recap:  Writing is hard, and you can't do it all alone.  You need to look to people that have done what you want to do to get help (read books, take notes).  You should also think about letting total strangers on the internet look over it, too.  People that, truly, are kindred spirits to yourself.  This will help drive your story to the high places, unleashing your potentiality, and helping you get where you want to be.  Find those relationships, cultivate and reciprocate, and see what happens.

Have you already joined an online community of  other writers, or do you have a few buddies that get together every now and again to discuss your work with?  How about a novel you've read as both entertainment and research?  Tell us about it in the comments below.

If you found this information helpful, please share it on your social media go-to!  Others may find it useful also...but (darkness, thunder and lightening) how are they to find it unless you share!