Le Friday Funny

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer

A writer and nothing else; alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right. ~ John K. Hutchens

Recently it occurred to me that I’d been neglecting my blog, letting it get moldy, cobwebs in the corners. It’s not that I don’t love this space, I do. And I love that people want to read my words, things I write and think about. The ability to write, it’s a gift; but it gets lonely. When we stare into that blank abyss and the cursor demands action, there are no proxies, it’s only us and our thoughts. How lonely is that?

This is the profession we’ve chosen; to write, and to create. Sometimes it’s a burden, sometimes we just don’t feel like it, sometimes we’re out of sync with those creative synapses, sometimes we feel pressured (and like a child who is told to do something, we balk) and sometimes we plain don’t give a shit. It’s just writing, who cares? I can wait another day or three to start that chapter or novel or whatever. I think sometimes we forget that time is finite. It takes time to write a novel, years even, so wouldn’t it be prudent to get the old ass in gear as soon as possible? So why don’t we feel the fire as often as we should? I’ve talked to dozens of writers who really got a flame lit under their butts and manage to produce astonishing word counts daily, and sometimes I feel shame when I realize what an amazing opportunity I have in this era of 24/7 internet blogging traffic – where I can reach hundreds or thousands of people with one tweet or update; Instant feedback and gratification not afforded a Hemingway or a Steinbeck. And yet we squander it as though it were an infinite resource, like drops of water in the ocean.

The reason for this line of thought is partly because a writer-friend of mine named Wendy (AKA @quillfeather on Twitter) playfully asked me why I was mucking about on twitter and not working on something, like my book, or updating my blog, or something. And another part of it is Donnell Epperson, a follower of mine on Twitter. You see, she wanted to be a writer, really worked at it, even when she was having chemotherapy treatment for her cancer. She was blogging, writing, using her gift, because she realized that if you want to be a writer, you have to write, even if you have the big C, even when time is of the essence. Even when you suspect you may never live long enough to finish. Sadly, she disappeared from Twitter sometime last November, and I found out through a third party that she had passed away in February.

Now and then I sit and stare at her blog, how every day it gets older, like a yellowing newspaper, knowing it will never be updated. Knowing that I’m alive and kicking and that I waste time like it’s meaningless. There’s still blood coursing through these veins; my eyes still see, my mind still thinks, and conjures; images and stories and endless varieties of characters. I am able-bodied, and isn’t it a shame? Poor Donnell, who was fighting the good fight, and lost, was taking up her precious time to work on a book. It shouldn’t come to that, but sometimes it’s the kick in the ass we need. If Donnell left us nothing else but this lesson, we should thank her.

Yeah, writing is a lonely business. It’s just us and the page, hand to brain combat. There’s no one else to turn to; no one’s gonna write the stuff for us; it’s our story, our characters. And time, that fleeting flittering finite bitch, feel it bite your backside. It’s tough, but it’s the business we’ve chosen. If nothing else, do it because you can.

~ David Hunter

~ This post is dedicated to Donnell Epperson AKA ~ @donnellepperson

Wednesday Funny

Courtesy of Johnny Ancich from his blog Past Expiry

The Write Space

Note: That is NOT my writing space. Just thought I'd put that out there ------->


When I moved into this charming little apartment in the heart of Toronto, I had visions of a great literary outburst; after all, the streets here are filled with artists, writers, college kids, artsy types – a real SoHo/Village kinda place. I can see downtown Toronto from the eight floor of my balcony, which is large and spacious and is shady in the afternoons, and where I expect to spend the long summer days writing. It’s nice, I must tell you, very writerly.

How important is a writing space?

For most of the winter months I had a small desk tucked away in one corner of the apartment; it was cozy, and I was very productive there, but you know how artists are - never satisfied. I thought I would move over near the large window where the sun would shine through in the mornings. It LOOKED nice, at least. It turned out to be a mistake. Writing became a rather laborious affair, and I wish I could tell you why. It was probably the television always distracting me, or the dearth of sensory input – too much to look at! Whenever my mind would go blank and that empty page stared back at me I’d naturally avert my eyes; I’d see the TV, maybe turn it on. I’d see the kitchen; start getting the tummy-grumbles. Not good! Once the ass is off the seat, problems arise.

A writing space may be more about the meta-physical then the actual physical though; if you find a good productive spot, lord, don’t change it unless you have to! This particular spot did me no good; I went more than a month without any significant writing progress – it was time to move. Anything to get me writing again! Even if it meant eliminating that toxic writing environment; Dante’s, or David’s, eighth circle of bad writing spaces had to go.

It is interesting how and where famous authors managed to write. Stephen King wrote in the basement of his rented place, beside a boiler. Lord knows how he managed that. John Cheever used to put on his only suit to go to his studio to write, and then he’d promptly take it off and write in his underwear. Ernest Hemingway, while living in Key West, would awake at dawn and walk to his pool house where he kept to a strict writing regimen; 500 words a day, sitting at an old wooden desk, and in the afternoon he’d set off to Sloppy Joe’s Bar to meet his friends. Stan Lee, famed Marvel Comics founder and creator of Spider-Man, would place his typewriter on top of a high table near his pool and type standing up. Whatever works, right? Chuck Jones, while not technically a “writer”, had a workspace kinda like mine; jammed into a corner, packed with books and shelves and pens. Pens, although no longer used in the “composition” phase for me, are still a vital optic; they look rather cool sitting in bunches on top of my desk. Old habits.


I finally tired of sitting near the window; the spot was just not working for me. I promptly took my little desk and brought it into my bedroom beside my bookshelf. It felt right, mostly because I’m slightly isolated from the rest of the apartment. Is isolation the key? I guess it works for me. I suppose it worked for Edward Abbey too, that desert anarchist and brilliant writer that I love so much.

As I’m fond of re-telling, Edward Abbey was a Fire-Look out at Numa Ridge for years, isolated for months at a time (occasionally he’d sneak his wife up there with him..) and in the absence of a telephone, or internet (hadn’t been invented yet, and I’m sure Edward had no inkling of this technology way back in 1975) and yet, sitting isolated with his Underwood typewriter, he’d pound out his work. I guess he had no choice; we writers often have no choice. I’m sure he had a writing space somewhere, one that he called his own in a place he occasionally called Wolfe Hole Arizona, but from what I gathered he wrote in Bars a lot (Especially Nelson’s Marine Bar in Hoboken, although that may have been in jest) and since he was a writer of the mostly “Nature” and “Outdoors” variety, I gather he wrote in the great outdoors a lot, in tents late at night, or under the stars sitting by a river, that sort of thing.

I’ve tried the “wandering writer” bit; coffee shops, libraries, parks; it all sounds very bohemian and very artsy, but here’s the trouble; I’m a natural observer. If there’s motion and activity anywhere, I get distracted. I’m not one of those people who can easily zone out in public; I guess it’s the old gun-fighter in me; I always sit with my back to the wall so I can see everything. It is part of the writer mythos to want to carry around a note book and a pen and be able to write anywhere at any time, but the reality is, most of the time, I can’t do it! I have to be crammed into my cozy little nook, with my books and references and pens close at hand. Truth be told, I’d be lost without my laptop and all my papers. I’ve become a slave to my writing space. It’s my “office” and my “secret place”, and here, I’m in control, even if sometimes it seems I’m out of control. Take me away from it, and I’m dead in the water.

Given the circumstances though, I could probably manage to write whilst being isolated for months atop a fire-lookout. But if my penchant for Internet and Microsoft Word is any indication, it would be tough. I needs my technology! I’m plugged in; can’t help it. I’d need to unplug and de-compress for a long while if I were to ever be a wandering writer and sit at a park bench beside a homeless guy and scribble sweet somethings.


So here I am, sitting in my new writing space, happy as a clam. And as I said, I haven’t yet figured out why this space works better than the other, but it may be more meta-physical then physical; the spot just feels right, the writing spirits, and yes, the writing aura, are optimal here. Sure I’m crammed in; I’m surrounded by book shelves, and I have my art desk just beside me, almost bumping my elbows. The radio is tuned to a jazz station. It’s nice. The dreaded brain-eating TV is off, and will stay off as long as I’m in here writing. Which could be a while, ‘cause I like it in here.

-David Hunter – Keep scribbling!

Related Posts:

Out Of Office: More Writing Space Debate by Mina Zaher at Journey of a Screenwriter

Write Now...a Mother's Musings: Space of my Own

Addendum:
I’d be interested to know what your writing space looks like, and did you ever have a bad writing space? If so, why? ; leave a comment and let me know.


Edward Abbey pecking away at his typewriter atop the Numa Ridge Fire-Lookout, circa 1975

Op-Ed in the Head: The Dark Side of Blogging ...

"Blogging is a necessary evil..."

























Lately I have been experiencing a catharsis (Which, according to psychoanalysis, pertains to the purging of the body by the use of a cathartic to stimulate evacuation of the bowels, which is not the catharsis I am speaking of), more accurately, it's the purging of emotional tensions; or still more accurately, a purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience. I don't know what Aristotle was on about, but pity and fear have been dogging me the past few months like June bugs on a porch light; it's the book I fear won't get written, and the pity I feel about it. I've narrowed the problem down some: too much concentration focused on blogging, and not enough on the book.

I've been long neglecting the prose writing process, and haven't been giving it it's proper respect. Writing is a profession, a job, an art form, and that has to be respected, and that means putting in the time and work to get the words down, and to get things finished. I'm afraid I stretched myself a little thin by blogging too much, a sentiment that is rapidly going viral among the many writers I know.

Blogging is still a vital tool; it limbers up the mind, the fingers, the imagination and the creativity, but I've encountered "Prose Re-Lapse", the switching of gears between Op-Ed writing, which is in essence "free-style" composition, and "Prose" writing. As anyone knows, writing a blog post is relatively easy, you pick a topic and riff on it, like throwing your fate to the wind.

Try that with a novel! Unless you're Jack Kerouac, that's not happening.

There are indeed two sides to the writing brain; the journalistic side, and the authorial side, and never the twain shall meet. Writing a novel requires a different level of discipline; characters must be fleshed out, story arcs developed; prose must be considerably less journalistic and clipped. In other words, it takes practice, and the whole time you're blogging you are practicing the wrong thing.

I've found it to be a difficult transition, but maybe that's just me.

Some of you may find the swing between blogging and prose writing easy. Just don't fall into the trap; after blogging for a while you may feel that writing a book is just as easy; it's not.

There is also a time factor involved; while I love blogging, I should be writing chapters for my book instead, and blogging too much just stops that flow. Ultimately, finishing the book will benefit me more in the long run. Priorities.

Blogging is a necessary evil; it's still an integral part of a writer's skill-set. It should not be abolished completely. Balance is the key; if you have a good flow of words happening on your manuscript and time isn't an issue, blog till your heart's content. Remember though, the book is the master, it may deliver you from obscurity, from poverty, from a creative abyss, or from having the title "blogger" permanently tattooed on your ass.

That said, I still love my blog. I love all my readers, and I love the interaction with them. I don't plan on abandoning this site anytime soon; it's just a shift in perspective. Please don't think I've become anti-blog or anything!

Addendum:
So, what's new? I have chosen to whittle down the bunch of blogs I have accumulated, and concentrate on the Writer's Den. New features include a poetry page called Den Poetica, where you can find an assortment of poetry (requests are welcome), and a page called "Lit Bits" which features historical bits of info on literature and famous writers. This week spotlights Jack Kerouac, that reluctant Canadian cum Beatnik, and a story about the Poe Toaster, the mysterious person who leaves a bottle of Cognac and a rose on the grave of Edgar Allen Poe every year on the anniversary of his death.

Keep scribbling!

- David Hunter


Related Posts -

The Art of Not Doing: By Jessica Maybury at her wonderful blog Perfect Fourth

The wonderful Samantha Hunter, her blog "Life's a Beach", and her post "The New Acronym: JOTF"

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

At page two of the Writer's Den I posted this great article, it's stuffed with interesting tips on writing by legendary authors like Elmore Leonard:

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

Courtesy of The guardian.co.UK




Also, you might want to check out this post:

10 Reasons Why People Aren't Commenting on Your Blog ~ Writing and Illustrating

The Pic as a Prompt

This morning something dramatic happened.

I’d been in the throes of a writer’s block of some kind, although I generally refuse to acknowledge the term “writer’s block”, I can find no other way to describe it except that I’ve been unproductive.

Then the dawn arose.

I took a photo of an imminent sunrise.

This got me thinking about the possibilities of photo-prompts.

Can pictures yield good writing?

I’d never tried it before, or even thought about it. I’m sure someone , somewhere, has thought of this. I suppose it’s natural; a photo is visual, physical, aesthetically stimulating, and any other adjective you can think of. Sometimes we even READ for inspiration. So why not photos?

However, if you follow the Marshall McLuhan school of thought, a photo could be called “Hot Media”…


The hot media are those which have a large influence on humans and their sense perception. According to McLuhan, these media even possess a "destructive strength". The pioneer of the media ranks writing, the phonetic alphabet, the book, the photograph and also the radio among this kind of medium. These objects of communication place much data and detailed information at the users disposal, which mainly concentrate on one sense of the recipient.

It is affected by this, but remains rather passive in the behavior. The cold media have a small influential strength on humans. The reason for this is that they offer little details and information, and are not optically delightful for humans.

After watching television my brain turns to mush: too much thinking is done for me, and when it gets time to start creating in that highly cognitive endeavor called writing I find the functions are a tad off-center. This is an extreme example of course; and an obvious one; we all know that Television turns our brains to mush. But what about the photograph? Can a photograph have the same effect?

Doubtful.

When we write we are essentially putting into words the pictures in our heads anyway, aren’t we? But have you noticed that after a brisk walk when ideas start floating around in the old transom and creativity starts to peak that you race back home to put these things down and…

That blank page just stares back, doesn’t it?

Stephen King bought a radio station years ago because he loves music, and because he loves radio. He grew up on it, listening to music, and Radio Theater. He attempted to write a play to be performed on air a few years ago, but he found that what he’d written just sounded like people talking. He said that the art of Radio theater relied on creating certain visual cues in people’s heads as a means of communicating, an art form which has since been lost to the advent of Television. We have all become very visual, which does not bode well for writers in particular. We can still get by, for the most part, but have you ever noticed how great the pre-television authors were? The pictures they painted, the images they put in our heads?

But I digress.

Take a camera, go out and take photos. See where it leads you. I just started a photo site called Photo Genesis that I hope will prompt me to write new things, in new ways.

After all, I’ll try anything, if it’s creative!

David Hunter, over and out.

The Photo in Question: Photo Genesis

I’d like to thank Denise Robins AKA @dkrobbins on Twitter for starting the discussion about writing prompts ~ Visit her site, Denise Robbins Blog http://deniserobbins.blogspot.com/

Note: Anyone noticing errors in this post, feel free to let me know! Catch me on Twitter too, and don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts.

The Magic Box

There’s always a lot of talk about writer’s block when the creativity dries up. For me personally, it’s not about creativity, or even subject matter, its “what the hell do I work on?” which can be just as debilitating.

I gotta clarify this, of course; I have millions of ideas, and they all just want my attention. For instance, as of this writing I have about 6 blog post ideas that I’ve wanted to work on, and wouldn’t you know it, this Magic Box post wasn’t of them?

The Magic Box? Yeah, sounds kinda loopy. It’s a small cardboard file box that I found at work. I brought it home and started putting all my notes in it.

What a treasure trove it’s turned into!

At my job, my mind tries to work off the tedium by coming up with cool ideas and characters, scenes, short stories, novel titles, blog posts, and anything that happens to skip through my transom. I don’t carry a Blackberry or anything like that, so I take pieces of paper and fold them up so they fit in my pocket. I write all kinds of things on them, because I know I’ll forget them as soon as humanly possible.

Case in point: A lost novel Idea.

I had this fabulous character; a rich kid who is pulled out of Harvard because his father dies. He has to come home and deal with the family, the funeral, all that. This character is unimpressed by his family’s wealth and the way they put on airs; he’s humble, easy going, rather un-ambitious, except for his love of art and writing, and he’s likable. He’s obviously the black sheep of the family. He decides to take off in his father’s favorite car, to parts unknown, so he can sort things out. I immediately loved this character.

I forgot his name!

And it was integral to the story. His name was great; it instantly conjured up his demeanor and personality. Also, I had a great title for the book, which was part of an old poem I had read. I had quickly jotted it down, and have never seen that bit of paper since.

Soon after, I found this box. The Magic Box.

No, it didn’t have the kids name in it (To my chagrin).

But since then I have made it a habit of dropping all my notes in this box.
It’s a great writing prompt; I just search through the pieces of paper when I’m stuck and voila! If I had something in mind and forgot it, it’s always there in the box. And If I’m feeling “blocked” I just reach inside it and pull out some idea I had jotted down.

Not all ideas are usable, mind you. Some of these things are written at odd hours, or when I’m busy with something else. Some don’t even make sense, and some remain a mystery; I found an entire 800 word blog post on Perez Hilton stuffed at the bottom; I must have been pissed at him for something. Why I wrote it is baffling.
Searching through the Magic Box, I find notes on the Beatles, Generational Differences, Paper Airplanes, something called Edi-Writing, and a few pages of notes about my days as a high school reporter at the old Johnson Journal (which is now prompting me to finish it!)

My point is, Ideas are hard to come by, and when you get them, write them down, throw them in a box (You can name yours Pandora if you like...) unless you have a photographic memory. In the latter case, forget the whole thing! I bet if you wrote down some of the things you think about during the average day you’d never be stuck for ideas. That’s halfway to beating that Basterd Writer’s Block.

This may not work for you. Sometimes it doesn’t work for ME! But we need to keep trying; we need to keep positive.

And a Magic Box is never a bad thing, is it?

David Hunter, over and out.

David Hunter Interviewed

Natasha Hollerup of Twitter fame (@FrayedMuse) interviewed me recently. Check it out at her site, The Melting Pot

Here's to a new year; may all your writing be happy writing.

- David

Letters Home

Huzzah, finally I have internet!

Been in Calgary for a few days now and have gotten online at last. Don’t know what it is with Calgarian Internet service but I wasn’t able to log on until late last night…after countless attempts…

I hate flying.

After eating Christmas dinner with family on Christmas day, my folks drove me to Pearson International for my 8:30 flight. It had started raining; not a good sign when you’re about to take to the skies, or if you’re a bad flyer like me. I kept remembering “Nightmare at 20,000 feet”, that old Twilight Zone episode…

I hate flying, but I hate takeoffs even more. I always feel the plane and its tonnage struggling to get up there. But once we were sky-bound I was fine; it was a smooth flight. My travel buddy, Alex, had his laptop on, watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, and offered to let me partake, but I begged off. I was busy studying every bump and change in the plane’s path. Through the nearest port hole I watched a bright star for a while; its fixed position rising and falling due to the plane’s movements. Half the time the Airbus’s turns would have gone unnoticed if not for that bright star’s vigil and unmoving essence…It made me feel a whole lot better for some reason. I fell asleep watching it.

When I woke up I was startled to see that the star was gone, but the flight attendant had goodies! Ginger Ale, Apple Juice (ugh to apple juice) and assorted free cookies and snacks. Normally my frugal nature (hah!) would demand I take as much free loot as possible, but this time I demurred; one pack of cookies and a Ginger Ale was enough for me.

Oh yeah, the girl.

She was a real Chatty Cathy (a reference so old, it voted for Lincoln) but extremely nice. Alex had chided me about her, telling me to go talk to her, so I did. We talked for hours, it seemed. She was on her way to Vancouver and parts unknown. Nothing like engaging in a conversation with a stranger on a Christmas Day flight…especially a cute one; she was utterly engaging and unfettered, and she had a great laugh; I imagine we entertained some people on board with our lively chatter. Ships in the night, though. We were heading in different paths, but she gave me her number anyway. Ah potential love, it comes in all shapes and sizes, doesn’t it?

Currently I’m looking out the window at a clear blue sky. Deceptive; I know it’s cold enough to freeze my socks off out there. The cat, Jinxie, a stray that my friend Clair brought in from the cold a few days ago, is quietly mewing, looking for food or something. She is so malnourished that I can feel her bones, but she’s convalescing nicely (Must buy her some food later) Anyway, I’m fine as wine here; the others are asleep, and I felt words calling me, so here I am.

Don’t know what we got planned, but we got a car, we got our friendship, and we got time. The mountains, I want to see the mountains! Them old Rocky Mountains that I’ve only ever seen from 40,000 feet on a flight to Frisco…the land…the sights…

Day’s just beginning.

(More later…)

Love, David

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, and thanks for following the Writer's Den...I wish you all a great 2010!

Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge: Roles and the Writing Process

by Betty S. Flowers


(Here's an interesting article on writing that I came across while leafing through the Harbrace College Handbook for Canadian Writers, and I thought I'd share it with you all - hope you like it.)


"What's the hardest part of writing?" I ask on the first day of class.

"Getting started," someone offers, groaning.

"No, it's not getting started," a voice in the back of the room corrects. "It's keeping on once you do get started. I can always write a sentence or two-but then I get stuck."

"Why?" I ask.

"I don't know. I am writing along, and all of a sudden I realize how awful it is, and I tear it up. Then I start over again, and after two sentences, the same thing happens."

"Let me suggest something which might help," I say. Turning to the board, I write four words: "madman," "architect," "carpenter," "judge."

Then I explain:

"What happens when you get stuck is that two competing energies are locked horn to horn, pushing against each other. One is the energy of what I'll call your 'madman.' He is full of ideas, writes crazily and perhaps rather sloppily, gets carried away by enthusiasm or anger, and if really let loose, could turn out ten pages an hour.

"The second is a kind of critical energy-what I'll call the 'judge.' He's been educated and knows a sentence fragment when he sees one. He peers over your shoulder and says, 'That's trash!' with such
authority that the madman loses his crazy confidence and shrivels up. You know the judge is right-after all, he speaks with the voice of your most imperious English teacher. But for all his sharpness of eye, he can't create anything.

"So you're stuck. Every time your madman starts to write, your judge pounces on him.

"Of course this is to over-dramatize the writing process-but not entirely. Writing is so complex, involves so many skills of heart, mind and eye, that sitting down to a fresh sheet of paper can sometime seem
like 'the hardest work among those not impossible,' as Yeats put it.

Whatever joy there is in the writing process can come only when the energies are flowing freely-when you're not stuck.

"And the trick to not getting stuck involves separating the energies. If you let the judge with his intimidating carping come too close to the madman and his playful, creative energies, the ideas which
form the basis for your writing will never have a chance to surface. But you can't simply throw out the judge. The subjective personal outpourings of your madman must be balanced by the objective, impersonal vision of the educated critic within you. Writing is not just self-expression; it is communication as well.

"So start by promising your judge that you'll get around to asking his opinion, but not now. And then let the madman energy flow. Find what interests you in the topic, the question or emotion that it raises in you, and respond as you might to a friend-or an enemy. Talk on paper, page after page, and don't stop to judge or correct sentences. Then, after a set amount of time, perhaps, stop and gather the paper up and wait a day.

"The next morning, ask your 'architect' to enter. She will read the wild scribblings saved from the night before and pick out maybe a tenth of the jottings as relevant or interesting. (You can see immediately
that the architect is not sentimental about what the madman wrote; she is not going to save every crumb for posterity.) Her job is simply to select large chunks of material and to arrange them in a pattern that might form an argument. The thinking here is large, organizational, paragraph level thinking-the architect doesn't worry about sentence structure.

"No, the sentence structure is left for the 'carpenter' who enters after the essay has been hewn into large chunks of related ideas. The carpenter nails these ideas together in a logical sequence, making sure each sentence is clearly written, contributes to the argument of the paragraph, and leads logically and gracefully to the next sentence. When the carpenter finishes, the essay should be smooth and watertight.

"And then the judge comes around to inspect. Punctuation, spelling, grammar, tone-all the details which result in a polished essay become important only in this last stage. These details are not the concern of the madman who's come up with them, or the architect who's organized them, or the carpenter who's nailed the ideas together, sentence by sentence. Save details for the judge.

Christmas!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I'm opening up the Campfire Pages for Christmas Stories. You can reach me on Twitter, at @TheWritersDen of course, and I'll get back to you.

This is my very favorite time of year and I hope we can have lots of holiday cheer. I won't put a word limit on submissions, because most of you know not to send 10,000 word dissertations!

So if you want to participate, let me know! Cheers!

Moving! Follow the New Page..

To all my followers: We have moved to a new page. You'll still get all the articles published on the new site, but I encourage you to re-follow...Thank you so much!

Merry Christmas!

Ten Editing Tips, for Your Fiction Mss.

As Posted by Margaret Atwood, at her wonderful site: The Year of the Flood

Speaking of writing, which we did a lot in Tofino: I put these together for a friend, but maybe someone out there could also use them…

TEN EDITING TIPS: FOR NOVELS, NON-“EXPERIMENTAL”

1.The beginning. This is the key signature of the book. Sets the tone, introduces the leitmotifs. Are the people in it main characters? If not, how much do the readers need to know about them?

2. Charles Dickens said, “Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait.” He put “wait” at the end because it was crucial. (In any series of three, the third is the most important.) In terms I’ve picked up by playing with the boys: Drop the hankie early, but make ‘em wait for the opening of the kimono. Are you telling too much too soon? (Suspense: a good thing, if not done too obviously. Who is this guy? What happens next? Don’t signal too much, too far ahead.)

3. Verbs shall agree with subjects (singular, plural). That is, unless it’s dialogue or third-person inside-the-character point of view, and the author wishes to indicate that the character has a weak grasp of this principle.

4. Verb tenses. This is tricky. But in general: if something is always true, use the present tense. If it was always true once, use the past, or “would” plus past tense to indicate continuous action in the past. (“Every day, he’d go to the laundromat.”) . If it’s something happening before the time we’re in, use the past perfect (“He’d gone.”) Only the author knows the time flow – an editor can query, but the author must decide. If tenses are disjunct, there should be a very good reason. (Maybe the character is having a breakdown.) See also the use of the historical present. (“So, he goes, “What’re you doing?” and I go, “Butt out,” and he … etc.) Elmore Leonard is an expert at this kind of thing, and at informal dialogue in general.

5. The gerund mistake. A common one. “Walking along the beach, a pair of boots was seen.” Means that the boots were doing the walking, not the observer. Correct: “Walking along the beach, he saw a pair of boots.”

6. Readers are readers. They are good at reading. They are also post-film, and are used to swift cuts. They will fill in quite a lot. At any point, are you telling/filling in too much? The author needs to walk through the moves in his/her head – like practicing a dance or a military exercise – so that no actual tactical mistakes are made – the character doesn’t go out the door before he’s put his pants on, unless intended — but then the planning steps, the connect-the-dots steps, are pruned out so that what the reader gets is a graceful, fluid execution. We hope.

7. Dialogue. How do people actually talk? Too much for prose fiction, as it turns out. Dialogue in a novel should: give the illusion of real speech; indicate character; not tell us stuff we can assume or don’t need to know, unless the point is that the character is boring; advance the plot; be funny if intended; not sound too wooden. Look at contractions: it’s, he’s, shouldn’t. Look at use of “that”—in speech, we rarely put it in. ‘The tree I saw,” not “The tree that I saw.”

8. Point of view. Whose eyes are we looking through? A character’s? The author’s? Is the author intruding too much on the character? Does it sound like Character Bob, or like Author Phil/Phyllis? We know characters in the following ways: What they say. What they think. What third-person narration says about them. What other characters say/think about them. What they do. What they say they do. What they see when they look in the mirror. The tone of the prose about/surrounding them.

9. The second person problem. Applies to letters and journals, for instance when one character is communicating to another or writing a diary or journal. If a letter, A shouldn’t tell B something we already know B knows. If a journal –who is it for? Is it to be found after the character’s death – “Look what a clever boy I was”? Or is it for her to enjoy in private in a gloating or meditative or My Secret Life sort of way? For a sampling of diaries/journals, see the excellent anthology, The Assassin’s Cloak.

10. The ending. Open or closed. Fitting in tone. Makes us say Wow, or I want more. Or it sums things up, or provides a coda. It is, in any case, the last word. For now. Ask: is this how you want to sign off?

Changes: A Winter’s Monologue

Up here in the Great White North it’s been anything but Great, or White. We’ve seen nary a breath of snow this season; a record for us Canucks who are used to being buried in the stuff by mid October. But as I sit here, the wind is blustering outside my 8th floor apartment...More at the New Writer's Den...

Critical Mass

Months ago I wrote a post called How To Lose Friends and Alienate People on Twitter, which was wildly popular, one of my most read pieces. It detailed the common annoyances Twitter followers had with each other. I thought I was being clever, and somewhere in the murky depths of my brain I knew I would piss someone off, even though I slapped disclaimers everywhere, and even the article itself is completely tongue-in-cheek in tone.

But I found out that some people not only DON’T have a sense of humor, but they’ll take direct aim at you and verbally spank you!

One such person did this, and un-followed me to boot.

This is the piece and the comment afterward:



How To Lose Friends and Alienate People On Twitter

There’s been a million blogs written about “Twitter Etiquette,” but I thought I would throw my three cents in on this topic as well. Disclaimer: This is all in fun, I may be completely wrong and you may be doing the opposite of everything in this list and STILL have twelve thousand followers; more power to you, friend. Here we go…


The Point Of Social Networking

The point of social networking is to be SOCIAL. If you’re going to tweet in a vacuum, Twitter is probably not the best place for you. Some people don’t really enjoy constant internal dialogue in their Tweet Stream; unless you’re Ashton Kutcher and can get away with tweeting what you had for breakfast, or have a very lively mind, you’d better start interacting with others.


The F-Bomb

Now I’m no prude by any stretch, but using the lovely F word in your tweets constantly might just offend someone. Not the word itself, but what it says about you. This is a very public place, and you reflect who you follow, and vice-versa. If I vouch for you and then you start dropping those F-Bombs in your tweets like a New York dock worker, then you need a bar of soap. (Mind you, I didn’t say NEVER curse, but the English language has billions of words to express yourself with, not just the word F__K! As fun and cathartic as that verbiage is.


Shameless Self-Promotion

I’m all for self-promoting and capitalism and all that jazz, but when you don’t even say hello and try to sell me something, you’re going down in a hail of un-follows! I even felt guilty when I started flogging my blog (Ah, see? Subversive and rude language, hidden in euphemistic terms…) The Writers Den by tweeting “Read my blog!” because it’s a rather crass method; and Auto DM’s? Ugh. You are treading on very dangerous follower toes by doing that. First, it’s impersonal, and second, it’s ANNOYING! Please stop this activity immediately. Also, if you have a book to sell, you’d do better to actually form RELATIONSHIPS with people, rather than constantly tweeting about your book, because not only is that NOT effective, it makes me want to go to the book store and walk right PAST your book without buying it, on purpose! Perhaps you should follow other self-promoters instead, and you can all sell things to each other and live happily ever after. Happy capitalism!


Erratic and Bizarre Behavior

I’m not saying I’m the sanest guy around, or that my head is screwed on any tighter then the next person, but again we are dealing with a public place here. When you emote and rant constantly, we may sympathize a little at first, but then our twitchy hand reaches for that block icon, reluctantly. I have problems too, so do the people who follow me. The only people who don’t have problems are dead people (although THAT may be construed as a problem too, in some circles.) This just isn’t the place for those kinds of discussions, unless you’re part of a Twitter Therapy group (insensitive of me I know, but a solution may be to use DM’s to express those feelings instead of tweeting stuff like “I’m losing followers! What did I say? I hate you all!!!) In the beginning I was guilty of this as well, but it can be cured!


Picking Fights and Being a Bully

I know from getting my ass kicked and being abused in grade school that bullies are very unpleasant. In the adult world it exists too, in the workplace and online. On Twitter it takes on a more subtle form; okay, you disagree with me once, twice, but all the time?? Come on! Or someone is making it clear that they don’t like something about my tweets, or my quotes, or my advice; why are you following me then?? F__K off! Some of these comments take on a very nasty tone, meant to embarrass people in public. If you want to embarrass me, do it in a DM, or else: BLOCK! I can take a tongue lashing, but not in public. You deserve a spanking for that.


If You Have 40 thousand Followers, but Confine Your Tweets to Three People

I don’t care who you talk to, or what you talk about, but you should acknowledge the existence of more than 3 people in your tweet stream. I have followers who still don’t know I exist. Why follow me then? Lord knows. But when it comes time to clean house, out they go…


Useless tweets

Recently some bonehead wrote that “40% of Tweets are useless” although I don’t know where he got those statistics. How can you qualify a useless tweet? If someone tweets about eating Bananas in their Corn Flakes, I may or may not find it interesting (or it may make me hungry) but I agree that there is such a thing as “Useless tweets”, I mean we all can’t orate like Norman Vincent Peale every second of the day, but something of value should be attached to the majority of your tweets. Entertain, enlighten, anger, incite; do any of these things. Don’t bore! (I’m one to talk; I’m surprised I’m not a mascot for Insomniacs Anonymous) One thing that will make me want to un-follow (not really, it’s just an annoyance): Too many one sided conversations; Like this:


@TheWritersDen ~ That’s great! I can’t believe it!


This will force me to go and hop back and forth to the other person to eavesdrop and get the rest of the story! (Although this is a weak argument) Once in a while it’s okay. Some do it constantly, (The theme of this post seems to be “do what you like, just don’t annoy me and do it too much…)


Indecipherable Tweeting

I consider myself well read and somewhat educated, but I don’t work for the NSA and I don’t do code-breaking. I’ve received tweets that are completely undecipherable, like this:


@The WritersDen ~ You Feel the Same? You me too HAHAAAA! U funny n can we talk? Prolly can Thx


Here’s a tip, try to be a little clearer in what you’re trying to say. I’m a very nice guy, and I’m quite tolerant, but tweets written in reverse Sanskrit or Zodiac code drive me batty. If I weren’t such a nice guy I would “UnFllow get it HAHA!”


Learn How to Spell

Okay, so I’m a grammatical stickler. Bt when you start usng lead speak 2 tweet, it gets annying! Come on! You can edit without omitting vowels! It’s easy, give it a try.


So that’s it for now. Remember, this is all in fun. Like I said, you may be doing the opposite of all the above and manage to have 3 billion followers, in which case I may eat my hat. Take care now.


Anonymous said...
Your post shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Twitter.

It isn't a "social networking" site. It's a communications tool, for people to communicate, or not, as they wish, in their absolute discretion.

Procedure:

1. You attach yourself like a limpet to the twitterers whose feed you want to receive.

2. You avoid - either by the BLOCK button or by Unfollowing - those twitterers whose feed you don't want to receive.

Simple.

Your post suggests there's a specific way other people should be twittering (the way you'd like, naturally) whereas the opposite is the case: everyone can do precisely as they like.

You don't like someone's twitters? Well have the brains to unfollow or block them, then. End of problem. Don't start ranting here about how other people choose to use the tool. No one is forcing their twitters upon you. Get it?
September 1, 2009 8:50 AM


Wow.

For a long time after this I was gun-shy, worried about putting words to page in fear of reprisal from some demanding reader, but then I realized that I did nothing wrong. Writers are apt to piss people off from time to time. But It got me thinking about the power of words, and the effect they may have on certain readers.

I mean, we shouldn’t walk on egg-shells when we write, or placate, or try to remain neutral, harmless, safe, bland! What good is that? I know it also flies in the face of the entire article above, where I wrote about the annoying things people on Twitter do. Aren’t Tweeters allowed to do pretty much as they want? It is a free country after all (Countries. I’m Canadian, you may be American) however, As I mentioned above, the entire article is laced with tongue - in- cheek references and self-deprecation. I KNEW that a lot of that stuff I listed was just plain funny, and not at all serious. I guess it didn’t come across that way to "Anonymous". Perhaps my wacky sense of humor and satire needed to be a little clearer.

So, take heart; when someone hammers you about a post you wrote, or verbally abuses you in the comment section of your blog, remember, it’s your role as a writer to provoke, anger, enlighten, educate, learn and just plain have fun while composing. And don’t wait for months before you get over a bad review like I did. Staring at that comment for the past while was like an itch just waiting to be scratched, and I guess I finally scratched it.

And boy it feels good!

Huzzah! ~ David Hunter

This Post Has Been Mentioned by Writery, at the blog From the Desk of a Writer : "Literature reviews, publishing links, writing rants, and soap box commentary." ~ Check it out!

Here's a related post on "acidgalore": The Things You Do on Twitter That I Hate

Writer’s Block: The Basterd Returns ...

" ... Mostly I’m writing this because I need to get my head out of my ass and write ..."




Writer’s Block.

I want to deny its existence.

The sad fact is, an inordinate amount of people complain and curse about it, so there is grounds for its standing in reality. Writer’s Block, the Basterd, or whatever we want to call it, rears its ugly head at the worst of times, for me;

When I’m tired.

When I’ve had a great run of words and stories and blog posts.

When I’m sick of hearing (or reading) my own voice.

When I start feeling like nobody gives a shit.

When I start thinking I’m Ernest Fucking Hemingway.

I suppose my recent lack of writing activity could be attributed to this affliction. I suppose I want to blame SOMETHING, so why not WB? (Henceforth known as the Basterd.) Today I had enough of this and literally (yes LITERALLY!) hauled my brain out of neutral and grabbed a pen/paper and began scribbling things; notes, sentences, phrases, inarticulate doodles, letters! Anything.

Immediately I had ideas for twelve posts.

Beside me on my desk are piles of crumpled post-it notes and folded bits of bond paper that I used to jot down various thoughts and ideas during my workday. Occasionally, I would root through these and make more notes. I discovered that shuffling through that sheaf of paper made me excited again; ink, pen, and the goddess of creativity were upon me. Huzzah!

I find that I don’t actually lack for ideas. My problem is when I stop writing for any length of time; I get rusty. The old finger/brain symbiosis dries up. I get afraid to put words down. I start feeling like I never wrote before.

Is this the Basterd at work?

Stephen King, that insanely prolific and crazy author we all know and love, wondered at various times in his career whether he had anything left to say. And after his horrific car accident he, for obvious reasons, could not write for a long time, months actually. Upon returning to his desk and writing again he also felt like he'd never written before; he was terrified.

Stephen King? Afraid to write? It’s true.

My little lesson learned: I may allow myself a break to re-charge once in a while, but I will not allow it to continue. The Basterd must not win. And if we imbue Writer’s Block with human traits and refer to him as the Basterd, perhaps it’ll help us hate him, and fight him off. Anthropomorphize the sonnuva bitch so we can kill him where he stands. Scratch that: hangin’s too good for him. He deserves a good vaporizing.

The Basterd of course comes in many different forms; musicians get it, so do artists and actors; even world class athletes are prone, but they call it a “slump” and it is just as crippling. So what causes this? If I knew I’d be a millionaire. How do you cure it? If I knew THAT I’d be a billionaire. Many have tried to decode the Basterds DNA; Philosophers, scientists, even Tony Robbins tried to help a hockey team get out of its horrendous slump (L.A. Kings?) and failed. Most come up empty. I’m coming up empty right now.

I guess we’ll have to live with it. And fight on.

Last night I had a revelation though; I started reading Edward Abbey’s the Journey Home. Besides the excitement I had about getting my grubby hands on such a rare out-of-print book, I marveled at the fact that he wrote that manuscript on a low-tech typewriter while sitting atop a Fire Lookout (Numa Ridge) in Glacier Park Montana, completely isolated; no phone, no internet (1975, hadn’t been invented), no ANYTHING! (Except bears, which he called G-bears, or more affectionately, GRIZ.) His sole companion was a citizens band radio and his own thoughts.

Imagine that? With all the technology and information and communication we have at our disposal…

It made me think. I have NO excuses for not writing. NONE. I imagine myself up there where Ed sat for three months, 3000 feet above sea level, isolated and alone with only a typewriter and nothing but the sound of his own brain knocking away! My hands get sweaty just thinking about it! No computer! No Information! I think I’d go starkers, and not in a good naked kind of way. Stark raving MAD.

Back to the point.

Mostly I’m writing this because I need to get my head out of my ass and write. And I suppose the best way to fight the Basterd is to write about it; get the fingers moving, get the blood pumping, circulating, and boiling. Get the old mind-cylinders a-firing. It’s the only way. There IS no other way. You only beat the Basterd by writing. You only beat the Basterd by writing.

You only beat the Basterd by writing.

And If I repeat that to myself, I'll probably start believing it, too.



David Hunter, The Writers Den ~

The Light and Dark With New Eyes

A guest post by Stella Darkely

In this largely isolated world that we live in -- in the lonely crevices of our mind, we search out the little things throughout our days and nights that catch our attentions and keep us from blinking. We look for, and anticipate, the hues of a rainbow as much as the wet, glistening rain. We hope that things will remain constant, even as they change with the seasons, and we search our surroundings for signs that "things are looking up".

Unfortunately, all of this we do with eyes that are predisposed to only seeing that which fits our schema of experience. We trick our minds into "shoulding, woulding, and coulding," while we never actually do that which we want. We wait for tomorrow in order to begin attaining the things we wanted yesterday, let alone today. We wait for the perfect moment to splurge on a vacation, a meal, a bottle of wine -- for the right mood and opportunity to tell someone we love them, even if we know they won't say it back. What we fail to see, over and over again, with our shielded eyes, is that tomorrow will never arrive for us because we are living all of our tomorrows, today, yet, never fully cognizant of the opportunities always lingering in full view.

Tonight, I am seeing with new eyes -- fully appreciative of the full scope of the worldview that I choose to adopt. Tonight, I am no longer gazing out at the world behind the restrictive glare of my eyeglasses. ... I allowed a surgeon to cut into my eyes recently -- entrusting him to reshape the defective cornea that were the cause of the hazy, milky, indecipherable "out there," that shaped my perception of my environment. Now I can see, unaided by any artificial prosthesis -- I see and hear, and feel my surroundings like never before -- appreciative of every hurdle and happiness in plain sight.

***

So, tonight, I probably "should have," finished reading an article that I need to have read in order to write a long overdue essay. Earlier today, I probably "should have," started my homework sooner, so that I would have time to do other things. I always tell myself: 'do the things that you must now so that you can do the things that you want to do later' but, as I near my 30s, my eyes increasingly widen to the fact that my idea of a perfect, uncluttered, responsibility-free "later," does not exist. I must create my future in the present.

If I want to be a writer...
if I want to be a filmmaker...
if I want to find a love...
if I want to make money...
if I want a better future...
a happy future...

I must do these things NOW, not later.

While I have no clear answers as to how I will navigate my way through school, work, and other responsibilities while, simultaneously, living in my newly created present, I can promise myself that: I will not put down my pen when inspired, just so that I can finish my overdue assignments; I will not ignore the occasional palpitations of my heart, signaling to me my loneliness; I will not put off for tomorrow the things that I could have done today to make me feel that I am one step closer to the happy future that I can now see clearly, on the horizon, with my freshly healed, eager, eyes.

The Writer’s Life: A Bohemian Manifesto

You wouldn’t believe how I’ve been living lately; food has been a low priority. So has housekeeping; there are articles, magazines, newspaper clippings and related dementia strewn across my work area. Seems my books have been multiplying like rabbits too (although I have twelve thousand books, I still felt compelled to buy Stephen King’s Detective novel The Colorado Kid for two bucks at a yard sale) When I do eat I take impatient spoon-full’s of food, chew hastily and return to my computer; I’ve been subsisting on PB & J sandwiches and tea. The writing has taken over. I feel like a true bohemian lately.

It’s the book of course, isn’t it always? And the blogs, like this one. I think about them all day, then I come home and think about them some more, then whenever the synapses are firing correctly I dive in and try to get something down on the page before my famously wiggy short-term memory kicks in and wipes the slate clean. Sometimes I stew over an idea (usually at 5 AM or thereabouts) and get all excited and start wandering in circles, coffee in hand, searching for a pen or something to scribble a note on. Sometimes I get home and I have all these tiny slips of paper in my nap-sack, usually yellow post-it notes, filled with insane and inspired ideas. Some are good, some are shit. Most are shit. By the time I get home only the best notions are left in my head, but being on the move all day working, I fall victim to the usual human foibles; I need time for sleep, food, clothing (laundry) and to clean the apartment. Need to pay bills, run errands (Shopping! Haven’t done shopping all week!) and so the little amount of time I have, I dedicate to writing, but lately the time-balance has been skewed slightly; seems writing has taken up more and more of my time. I haven’t even watched TV since I got cable a month ago. And me, a movie buff, I have not once watched a film since I’ve moved in to this new place. This is definitely strange behavior for Senor Hunter, let me tell you.

A lot of the reason stems from this particular blog, The National Affairs Desk, and my two partners in literary crime, Joseph Lane and Matt Byron. Two more dedicated guys I could never have met. We’ve formed a kind of un-spoken (ironic?) and un-holy bond with each other. I’m trying to do my part, because I love to do it. And now I’ve gone and started another blog which will require more attention, and more maintenance, and yes, more writing.

It’s been fun, though. Every day I search through the papers and news reports for interesting angles, and I find I have a lot to say about nearly everything. But If I write down everything I think about the universe it’d dwarf a phone book, so instead you get snippets. I’m also in search of my voice; when you’re part of a repertory company like the NAD, you need to discover your own voice. Joseph Lane is the sane one (for the most part) Matt is the crazy Dean Moriarty of Kerouac’s fabled beat generation, and both are Hunter S. Thompson lovers. So where do I fit in? I don’t know. I love Edward Abbey, an elitist nature writer who had a foul mouth and a penchant for burning bill-boards along America’s highways because he thought they ruined the landscape and it’s aesthetic, plus he wanted to be buried in the desert (“...Disregard all state burial laws”, he states in his will). I love music, jazz in particular. I love writing. Simple when put in those easy terms, but I have complexities too. I couldn’t tell you about my voice; either I haven’t discovered it yet, or I have laryngitis.

So where was I? Oh yes; the writing. I am completely immersed in it. Although I am not a prolific author (I am too perfectionist for that) I have written more in the past three months then I ever have. I’ve beaten back that bastard known as Writer’s Block a few times now, and I’m getting the hang of writing every day, although sometimes the words come hard, and slow. The long and short of it is this; I’m a fucking writer, and I love it, and this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. Hang the 9 to 5 job; I deny that’s the only way to live. Not for me anyway. This new dedication is a little scary to me; and friends, co-workers, they don’t understand. The term “Writer” is an abstraction to them. They probably envision a guy in a straight-jacket sitting behind an Underwood type-writer, ranting and drooling, but mostly they see the reality; bare cupboards and bare pockets. To this end they may be correct on both counts.

But GOD I love it so.


David Hunter, Over and Out.