A Writer's Mind - Exploration and Lessons

I recently finished reading entries about the writing life from Virginia Woolf's diary. Her husband, Leonard Woolf, published these extracts called "A Writer's Diary" - to give the glimpse of the writer, as oppose to her whole life which her complete diaries include.

It was fascinating, and I think it held more than a few lessons for new writers. To save you the reading (though I highly recommend it), I will share a few things that left a deep impression in my mind.

Reviews

Virginia Woolf was always affected by the reviews. With every book, she told herself she didn't care. She had heard it all, and she was going to keep being an individual. Yet, when the reviews came, they always affected her, and negative reviews had more affect on her than positive ones.

Lesson

consider how badly negative reviews are going to impact you. Yes, you can't know for sure until it happens to you, but you can guess. How do you handle criticism in life? How do you feel when people don't like you, or say horrible things about you, or call you an idiot? Okay, so maybe no one calls you an idiot, but what if someone did?

Experiment

Try writing a really horrible review of your book. Now write a fantastic review of your book. If you have time, write several of each. Put them all away together in an envelope. A month or two later, read them. How do you feel? Which ones affect you the most? This is something to keep in mind for later. There are quite a few authors who never read reviews. You might want to be one of them.

Rewrites

Virginia Woolf wrote her book in long hand. Then typed it all up. Then she revised it. Typed it all up. She also sent chapters to friends, and her husband read them all - I am not sure how many typings went in there, but as you can imagine, it was much harder than our computer days.

Lesson

Rewrites are what shapes words into a story. Perhaps you are the kind of writer who spends tons of time making the first draft as close to perfect as possible - then your first draft is full of rewrites as you search for the perfect word or phrase. But for many of us, who write the first draft in a creative frenzy and then edit and revise, it doesn't mean we aren't any good. It means that a good story comes out of a collaboration of both right and left brain. Creativity and reason combined. Creativity comes in a frenzy, but we need to reason with calm and collectedness. So don't let the rewrites get you down.

James Scott Bell described it best. He said, think of editing as the chance to take a final exam over and over again, and each time you get a better grade. Now if I had that chance in school or college, I would have loved that.

Be True to Yourself

Despite her depression with reviews, despite her attempts to prove that she was no worse than any male novelist, and not limited to women's fiction, Virginia Woolf kept writing the stories she wanted to write. She wrote some things for money like reviews and articles, but her books - her stories - came from her. Despite her fear of them being failure to appeal to the public, she wrote stories for a purpose - to explore her own mind, to explore a technique, to try a new technique, to challenge herself.

Lesson

Commercial books are perfectly good. And if we are planning to write full time, it is only right and reasonable to want to make a decent living from it. But strive for success while staying true to yourself. You can either be successful because you conform to generic standards, or you can be successful because you create stories that are so uniquely your own and so appealing to the public that they embrace them. Which one would you rather have?

Look Beyond the Surface - Connecting with Creativity

This is a post more about the creative process rather than a technique so bear with me.

As you are aware, I am in the process of editing and revising my book. On positive side, I am happy with the story. I can see the potential. I love the characters, and the world.

But it's a gem that needs a damn good polish.

Initially, as I was going over the revised first scene, I knew something wasn't right. It was bit discouraging knowing something isn't right, but not knowing quite what it is. It's not a question of good dialogue or wrong spelling. All that is fine. And yet something was missing.

But while I was worrying about that last week, my muse insisted on playing. I had a non-fiction project brewing in my mind for over a year, and suddenly the ideas started pouring out so I decided to let the Muse be in-charge, and made notes. I say, made notes, because I barely had to think. It was fabulous, and gave me such a high that no amount of caffeine or chocolate has ever done.

I could have forced myself to stick to my WIP, keep trolling through the editing. A part of me did feel guilty for not making as much progress with editing as I had scheduled, but a greater part of me was happy and content, and knew this was the right thing. So muse and I played, and then we took some time to read a new book on journaling, which inspired us to dig deeper into our journal, and now we are both refreshed, and know that we are ready to talk to our main character.

Because after giving myself time to just be creative without worrying about the end product, I also realised what bothered me about my WIP. The overall tone of the story is not yet as I want it to be. The main character's voice seems to casual for the story, or for his own depth.

After taking the time to be creative through my journal, just enjoying the fun, I can move forward. Editing on schedule is all very well, and I am not against discipline. Discipline is a key to succeed if one wants to have a long-term writing career, but we also have to remember that this isn't a regular, logical job. This is a creative process - and it has its own schedule, and sometimes it knows far better than we do, when we are ready to move forward.

So this evening, I plan to have a good chat with my MC and see what he has to tell me. Meanwhile, I shall continue to analyse my WIP rather than be fixated with making it perfect immediately. I need to understand the problems before I can fix them. I need to look below the surface - listen to what the story and the characters have to say. And sometimes, I just need to throw the schedule out of the window, and listen to the Muse.

Stage Two of the Writing Process: Writing

This is it. The moment I've been waiting for since an idea appeared in my head. This is the time to tell the story. To write. To let the creativity pour out of me. Without restraint. Without worrying about the final result. This is the time to immerse in the world where my characters and I are the only people in existence. Ironically, this is also the shortest of the three stages. I finished the first draft of my current WIP in November for NaNo. Entire draft in a month. Of course that was a bit extreme case, but say even if I were to do it on a more slower basis, in terms of overall hours, it wouldn't take much longer. Having an outline definitely makes it easier, because I don't have to stop to worry about how I am going to move forward. To avoid internal editor from switching on, I open a new document for each of my outline point. I copy a point in the new document, so I can see it as I write, and make sure I don't miss anything. Of course sometimes I may add things that are not included in the outline point, but that's okay. When I am done with that scene, I delete the outline bit, close the document and open a new one for the next point. I find this works better than writing it all in one big document, because then the temptation to go up a page and check/change something is too great. As a rule, I don't change anything as I am writing, even if I know it's wrong. For example, in my NaNo novel, I realised half-way through the book that one of my supportive character's name changed after a few chapters. Instead of going back to all the scenes that he was in, I left it there. When I started editing, it was one of the first things to be corrected. Of course there are exceptions. If I have written/changed something about the scene I am writing or the scene right before, and if it's a small thing, then I might go and change it then and there. The point is not to get bogged down by editing. Writing process must flow fast and smooth. I have found that this works for me. The purpose of the first draft is to get the whole story out. Once it's there on the page, it can be revised and made better. But it needs to be there first. I tried using yWriter and Liquid Story Binder, but in the end, I found MS Word works best for me. For any kind of lists I need, like a list of characters, I use Excel. MS Office covers all I need, and I suppose because I have been using it for years, I am comfortable and familiar with it. I have occassionally written first draft by hand too, but that was mostly because of flexiblity issue. Now that I have Finn (netbook for those of you who haven't been introduced), typing straight on the computer is definitely more practical. So there it is - the writing. I just sit down, follow my outline, and right as fast as I can, or sometimes as fast as the words would flow.

Stage One of the Writing Process: Brainstorming / Outlining

I have combined brainstorming and outlining in one stage, because even though pantsters might find it difficult to believe, outlining is a creative process. Before you huff and puff in protest, let me explain. Up until NaNo Novel in 2009, I was a pantster, and now I am a firm outliner, so I have been on both sides of the fence. Writing has always been the method of learning and remembering for me, and a way to develop ideas. When I was in school, if I needed to memorize things for exams, instead of just reading it, I would write it down over and over again. Even now, the things I write down become more solid memories even if I never look at them again. So when I am brainstorming a story, I write down those thoughts. Of course, like most people, I have creative flashes in random places at random times. But if I attempt to do conscious brainstorming, I can’t do it just by thinking, because my mind is far too susceptible to distractions. For example, if I decide to brainstorm when say taking a shower or walking somewhere – I start thinking about my story, and then a few moments later, I have moved on to something else. Having pen and a paper at hand, keeps me firmly grounded on my subject. From Scribbles to Skeleton Once I have all the scribbles and I feel that I am familiar enough with the story and the characters, and generally have a feel for the book, it’s time to consolidate the scribbles into a skeleton outline. Skeleton outline is a step up from brainstorming, but it is still very much a provisional document. In my skeleton outline, I write down bullet points of things that happen, in the order that they would happen in the book. The length of this outline depends on how much I know about the story at this stage. For example, currently I am trying to decide which book I will write next. I have two options. For one of them I have a skeleton outline that is 4000 words, and for the other one I have a skeleton outline that is 600 words. I have spent far longer with the former idea so it makes perfect sense that I know more about that story. I prefer to move on to my skeleton outline as soon as I have major facts of the story, because that gives me the foundation, around which I can build my story. For example, say I know about two scenes that will happen. The MC will be run over by heroine’s car The MC will escape from the hospital Those two scenes are the foundation. And here is where the creativity in outline comes in. Now, I get to brainstorm some more and think about where and how MC got hit by the car. Did he already know the heroine? Is this their first meeting? Whose fault was it? Did she stick around to take him to the hospital? Why did he escape? Was he hiding something or did he have to be somewhere? How would the heroine feel about this? You get the idea. So now, I am brainstorming, but in a slightly structured manner. I am brainstorming for specific answers. The more questions I ask, the more answers I get, and my outline becomes all the more deeper for it. Sometimes though, I get endless parade of questions and not many answers. But that’s okay. It just means that I need to spend some time at that stage. From Skeleton to Skin Okay, we have got the skeleton. But that ain’t pretty. So now we need to gloss it up with shiny skin. This is the time to add more details. This is where I make sure that entire plot makes sense, and there are no plot holes. This is where all subplots must be tied up. This, in theory, should be the preliminary version of synopsis that you might one day send to an agent. Every single scene that is supposed to happen in the story is recorded in the correct order. If my story is going to be in two parts, then my outline will be in two parts. This is the pencil sketch, over which you will paint your pretty picture. Once I have this, I revise it. Yup, revise the outline. Make sure it all makes sense. That's not to say that it's perfect. In my NaNo novel, I found I had left one subplot hanging after all. But it's still a damn sight better than any other book I have written without an outline. Skin can be Modified So we have got the revised outline. It's all neat and tidy, probably printed off, and looks so formal and final. Except that it isn't. That outline, despite all the work and thousands of words, is still just a map. It is the provisional sketch of a story I intend to write. It tells me facts. It tells me this will happen, and that will happen. But it doesn't show me how all of that will happen. Nor does it make me feel what my hero is feeling. That's what the writing is for. When I start writing, despite the outline, despite knowing what every single scene is going to be, it is still a creative process. Because now, I am trying to tell a story. Now, I am trying to bring a character to life that I want my readers to love. Now, I am trying to make the world that is my own creation, be the kind of place that other people might want to live in. Now, I am trying to use the power of the words. In doing so, it might happen that something changes; a plot might go off in a different direction that I had planned. And that is okay. When those changes occure, I automatically change the outline. Depending on its significance, I might or might not change the actual physical outline (if I am in the middle of writing, I don't want to step out of that process), but I will be aware of that alteration, and will reflect in all the coming scenes. You may ask, what's the point of wasting time on the outline if you end up with changes anyway? I firmly believe that if I have spent enough time brainstorming and outlining, chances of major plot changes are quite slim. Because by spending considerable time during this first stage, I have already gone through many variations of the story. I have already considered the possibilities and decided what I liked best. By not hastily jumping into the first draft, I have given the story a chance to float in my mind and become more concrete. The Moral of the Story Is... Only you can decide what works for you. You just need to experiment and find out. But for me, a combination of organised outlining with creative brainstorming is the all important first step. I suppose outline is the tunnel through which my creativity can be focused into a coherent storyline. Without that tunnel, the creative juices simply tumble into the sea, all over the place and I have to swim around and gather them together.