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I need to ramble. I need to put words down that aren't a story, or a tweet, or other nonsense. I just need to ramble a bit.
I had an interesting thought tonight. Sometimes I think Writing is like an Enigma Machine. It's what sits between the ideas and characters in your head, and the prose that appears on the page. The machine is the collective of my writing skills and techniques. When used correctly, I put out readable prose. Used not so correctly, and you get an unintelligible mess. Or worse, a misunderstood or misinterpreted one.
And of course there's a good chance that I'm completely full of it. The thought occurred to me and I thought it was kind of neat. Now that's a word that doesn't get used much in that context anymore. Hmmm. I am getting old.
Sometimes I find that the most frightening thing in the world is the blank page. The cursor blinking it's silent demand to move, to reveal the words that are waiting at your fingertips. I don't know if anyone else ever feels that way, but I do. I think that's why I never wrote until I could on a computer. Holding the notebook pen in hand, or putting the damning blank page into the typewriter and to just stare at it, waiting. Usually, I have enough ideas running around in the cobwebbed cavern of my head that I have the enthusiasm of that latest idea to just go. Jump in. No, it's the times when something is due. When there's a specific call or demand to be creative about this in that situation. That's really when I find the blank page scares the hell out of me.
I find it hard to come back to a story that I haven't worked on in a long time. I'm not the same person who put that down then. I don't have quite the same point of view. Often that is a good thing. You get the perspective looking at that work you didn't have before. You look at it and say something to yourself along the lines of, "Dear god what a piece of shit!" Or, you look at it and remember with pride how it felt when you finished it. You re-read it and realize besides a word choice or two, you wouldn't change anything. Those moments are fun, if only all too few.
Back in my past, I've played a variety of musical instruments (I know, what the hell does that have to do with writing, I'm getting there) and I've played quite a few percussion instruments. Rhythm. There is a cadence, a rhythm to words. It's how patter dialogue sequences work. For my own taste it's how poetry works for the most part. I love a poem that has a good rhythm. A writing teacher once told me that if you get good at playing with cadences and rhythms, add in a few differences in word choice and you can easily have a dialogue only scene with three or four characters and most readers will be able to keep track of who is saying what. My favorite poem is probably Eldorado by Poe.
And the length of that sentence reminds me of what another teacher once told me. Most people don't read sentences that are longer than twelve words. There's a variety of reasons that I won't go into because I won't do it justice here. I find things like that fascinating. As some of you know, I'm using an old Dell netbook as a comp these days. I've managed to convince it that it's a Mac, even though the little Dell logo still lights up when I'm using it. Heh. I shouldn't laugh at my own jokes, but what the hell.
I honestly don't know that sparked this little stream of consciousness rant of mine, but there it is. And you're welcome to it.
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The mechanics of writing
I began writing long-hand, since those were the days when there was nothing better for a teenager with no money. Later, I bought myself a typewriter and used that extensively.
My circumstances changed and I became involved in what is now known as IT. The first keyboards were on those big IBM punch-card machines, which were mechanical, plus Teletype-33s which bounced across the floor when they did a carriage-return. So far, so much the same.
Enter progress and VDUs. The electronic keyboards didn't have the same kind of travel and bounce so I became adapted to them; I regretfully gave my typewriter away since I couldn't switch between mechanical and electronic that easily.
Personal computers changed everything. Word-processing programs, even simple editors, made a complete change in the way that I worked, since it was possible to go back and change things before anything was committed. Gone was the waste of expensive paper, gone was the dismay at reading a sheet and discovering a change that needed to be made at the top, gone was most of the noise that disturbed the neighbours. I could make backups! I could re-read the whole thing and make changes further up when I discovered inconvenient problems further down!
That's why the blank screen doesn't intimidate me, not the same way a blank page did when I used a typewriter. There's no longer the sense of committing myself to using up yet another sheet of paper; it's only electrons in a file and I can always change it or dump it if I don't like it. It permits me to let my imagination flow freely and save ideas, even if they have to be modified or taken out to be used later somewhere else. I can also type a hell of a lot faster, before those ideas fade away or I lose focus.
Penny
I tried typewriters in the past.
Despite growing up in the generation(s) when PCs were becoming something every home had, for the longest time we, well, didn't. I think it was 2001 or so when we got our first PC for home use, and it was a hand-me-down running Windows 3.1! I'd been using PCs a lot even before then, though. Anyway, back before we got that hand-me-down we had a couple of old typewriters and a Brother word processor (one of those with the little LCD where if you were fast you could correct mistakes in your last 30 words or so.) I just could never get the hang of them! They would constantly bind up, aligning the paper was a pain, and just... ugh.
For the longest time my preferred way of writing was with a notebook. Despite my love of electronics and computers it wasn't until I was out of college I really started to get a decent typing speed; heck, my first chapters of Echoes and my one abandoned piece on Crystal's were written at barely more than two-finger-typing pace.* On the other hand, I've always had fairly speedy cursive, and one thing I miss now that I spend so much of my time writing digitally is the ability to emote with the way you write when you do so by hand. Sure, you can change typefaces or use italics and the like with a keyboard, but there's just something more, I don't know, artistic I guess, about expression when writing by hand.
I still write by hand sometimes, though not as much as I'd like to. I've gotten to the point where I can type about three times as fast as I can write by hand, so that makes sitting down with a notebook a much slower affair when the ideas are flowing and I just want to get them down. My writing when done by hand definitely has a different vibe than my stuff that's all-digital, though. I can see it when I look at my hand-written stuff. The first five or so chapters of Boys of Summer, or the first three parts of Princess for Hire, heck, even stories like The Tree and Oh, Cheers, to me, all read drastically different from a lot of my other work, even within the same series, and it's largely due to being hand-written first, typed second. I dunno, I just write more, I guess, technically? When typing, and much more emotively by hand.
Erica: I totally agree with everything you've said when it comes to things like rhythm and meter. I can deal with stories with the occasional misspelling or wrong word a lot better than I can with writing that feels stilted or janky meter-wise. Perhaps this is due to my history with instruments as well (I also play several, including percussion,) but rhythm and pacing are incredibly important to making a story work for me, and there are a lot o people, even professionals, who, for all their technical prowess, simply can't get a good bounce to their words. Then again, for all I know people think the same of mine: just because it reads with a good meter to me doesn't necessarily mean anything I guess.
As for the blank page? Tell me about it! A blank screen can often feel even worse, because for me it takes a lot more work to get it to feel like a real commitment to the idea than with paper. With a notebook or a sheet of loose leaf there's a sense of permanence when you put something down, even in pencil, that text on a screen just never manages for me.
Melanie E.
*For those who are in need of improved typing skills, The Typing of the Dead games are GREAT training. I probably doubled or more my typing speed just playing the first one, and the second one is just as great, albeit with a much more Tarantino vibe.
Writing the old-fashioned way, the way your grandmother did it.
Lee Rourke has a lovely article on this topic in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/03/creative-writing-better-pen-longhand
It turns out that quite a few authors (the sort whose books one can find in your local bookshop) feel the same.
Quentin Tarantino writes in longhand using a little ritual: he buys a new notebook for each project and starts writing until he fills it up. At that point he may need to buy another.
Jhumpa Lahiri writes in longhand.
George Clooney writes in longhand, and has his writing partner transcribe his work.
Tom Wolfe, used to use a typewriter, but now writes in longhand, because he has difficulty finding supplies and repair services for manual typewriters these days.
Joyce Carol Oates writes in longhand.
Amy Tan writes in longhand, although she later transcribes her text to computer files.
Neil Gaiman writes in longhand, relishing the act of ‘making paper dirty.’
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Longhand
I couldn't write in longhand, for two reasons.
The first, I write by hand so little these days that I get cramped up very easily. Not to mention that my handwriting is almost illegible. I know that by persisting I could overcome this, but it would take six months of my life I could spend better by writing stories.
Second, I can get words down much faster using a keyboard than I could ever do by hand. This afternoon I wote ~3,000 words: I doubt anyone could do that by hand in the time. If I hand-wrote the story that is crushing the inside of my head like high-pressure steam, I'd soon give up.
Sorry, in my case technology is the way.
Penny
Unh-unh
I'm with Penny on this one. Hand cramps are more than enough to get me saying No to this method. I've got some arthritis in my hands as well. So... Not gonna happen.
I do know that Stephen Donaldson writes long hand. Or at least did while working on the first book of the last Thomas Covenant series.
I never really had a lot of creative respect for George Clooney, not for a long time. I think it was due to him being in one of the Schumacher Bat-bombs (Don't even get me started on just how bad those films were and why). I gained a ton of creative respect for Clooney due to the film Good Night and Good Luck. Phenomenally good piece of work. That also made me a David Strathairn fan.
George R. R. Martin writes on an old Dos machine running Wordstar 4.
The one that mystifies me is Shelby Foote. Very famous (in certain circles) historical writer who specialized in the Civil War. He wrote these 800 page monster books. Using a dip pen. Yes, a dip pen. Not a ballpoint. Not even a fountain pen. That's insane but awesome at the same time.
~And so it goes...
About rhythm....
I understand completely your comments about rhythm. It's something I've always been aware of in my own writing. Although I've heard it said that one should use not use two or three words when one would do, sometimes I find that those additional words fit the cadence of the sentence, and eliminating one or two would throw off the rhythm.
In school, whenever I had to write a short story for a class, I'd be penalized for using sentence fragments. While full sentences are certainly preferable, if a sentence fragment is necessary to get the right rhythm and timing (and put dramatic pauses in the right place), I use it.
I do some composing myself, and while writing I'll often find myself counting out the rhythm in my head to make sure the meter isn't off. It made doing those 500-word flash fiction stories painful at times, as I sometimes ruined the rhythm of a sentence in order to make it fit within the guidelines.
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
Love that rhythm
One of the oldest methods for testing prose and especially dialogue will help with rhythm. Read your work out loud. If you stumble while reading it out loud, assume your reader will stumble there reading it to themselves. I've been told that by at least a half dozen writing teachers. Most of them either award-winning or NYT bestsellers.
~And so it goes...
Hodge Podge
I use a combination of hand printing and computer word processor. In the past I was writing the entire story down in notebooks creating an outline. When I would transcribed the written pages changing passages as my muse bid me to. Now I use the notebook to record basic plotting, and different possible approaches to how I want things to flow. I also use my note book to record fragments of dialog or edits in the present texts. I love the fact my pen does not need batteries or turn off in the middle of a hot creative session.
I have found that I can write faster with my word processor and you can not argue with the cut and paste features, and yes and the much denounced spell check. In the past I went so far as to cut my written pages apart and move sentences or paragraphs around then tape them or rubber cement them in place. And my war with American spelling hampers my use of a dictionary, as you need to know how the spell a word before you look it up.
My brain functions differently than most so my technique and mechanics are very different as well. So I do what works for me and follow the saying that Mark Twain promoted in which he said.
“My habits protect me but they would probably assassinate you.”
Nuff said.
Ben Grim
Huggles
Michele
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
That reminds me
One of my writing teachers, is an over-the-top true-believer diehard fan of Post-It Notes.
She uses them to plot her stories and novels. She has her writing spot in her house. There's a big blank wall next to the desk. She'll assign each character a color of Post-It Note. Scenes where multiple characters interact will be in different colored Post-Its and she'll use these to map out the outline of the story or novel.
She uses this system to make sure each character's arcs make sense, as well as the overall timeline of the story. If something needs to move, she moves the Post-It Note. She'll keep working on this Map, adding paragraphs, bits of dialogue, pictures from the internet as to who would play that character to reinforce the visual.
Once all that is done, she goes on these binge writing sessions that can last up to a month and puts the whole thing out in one draft. No first draft, add more material, flesh things out. All in one. Then revise.
Personally, I think it's more than a little manic, but it works for her. She's won awards.
~And so it goes...
I totaly love
Hearing how others work through there creative process. I am presently learning mind mapping and using paper grocery sacks that I cut open and write on. This allows me the physical room to creatively organize plot lines. At this time it looks like a computer flow chart, I use the same graphics meaning roughly the same things.
I will try the blank wall post-it trick that may also help to keep tract of my organizational information. I really wish I could find an old fashion school chalk board on a stand.
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Don't forget...
Whiteboards are pretty cheap. :)
You can combine the two. Post It Notes on the whiteboard and then you can draw connections between your Post Its with markers.
~And so it goes...