Category: Journal

I spent the morning writing a scene that had to be thrown out in the end. It wasn’t that the it was all bad, but ultimately I decided it just wasn’t how things needed to happen. It simply didn’t work. I had been debating the rationale for this scene for a couple of days and finally decided just to give it a go.

Throwing out work is generally something I try to avoid by careful forethought, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Sometimes it is only in the process of writing a scene that you figure out if you’re on the right track or not. Writing that scene certainly settled my debate about it in a way that allows me to continue with confidence.

Nevertheless, it’s hard not to feel like I wasted a half a day of work. It’s always such a great feeling to finish a scene that is so clearly right on, and I guess it’s equally discouraging to throw out a scene that isn’t. Of course there is no real cure for such discouragement other than writing some stuff that does work.

There are all kinds of stories about writers having to throw out whole sections of a project either because they didn’t work or because they needed to be edited out for one reason or another. Such losses can be heartbreaking, but in the end, hopefully it’s a sacrifice for the greater good.

In the film industry the idea of going on location is common. Likewise, in painting and other visual arts as well the artist frequently will go on location to create a work or otherwise directly reference real world locales. The advantages of this are a level of detail and depth that doesn’t often evolve from a purely fabricated set.

Writers often go on location as well although people don’t usually think about it in these terms. Many of my stories have settings that are based on specific locales, and although I don’t actually write the stories in those places, I will sometimes make a trip there to get a sense of the place before writing descriptive scenes. Usually I am looking for specific sensations or images that speak to me as evoking the setting I am trying to create. Often I discover unexpected things that find their way into a story.

My story “Crawlspace” is about a man who is obsessed with the idea that something is in the crawlspace underneath his house. At some point while writing this story I put some grubby clothes on, grabbed a flashlight and descended into the dark hole underneath my own house for some descriptive, atmospheric fuel. It wasn’t nearly as scary as it is in the story but while down there I tried to imagine the kind of dread that the story’s character Michael feels. One interesting detail I used was that although there were cobwebs everywhere, I saw no spiders. In the story this small detail takes on an ominous tone.

I based the descriptions of University Hall in “The Menace of Dupere” on Science Hall at the University of Wisconsin. I made several trips into old growth forests in Oregon for my story “Old Growth,” and studied some Japanese gardens for “A Thing Worth Dying For.”

Even if I have a good idea of how I imagine a particular setting, going on location can often add valuable insight to those ideas. Just as in film, the place doesn’t have to be exactly what you are going to portray. Depending on what angle you shoot it from, how you light it, and what details you highlight, you can create an entirely original and atmospheric setting. You can even take bits and pieces from different locations. It’s a great way to add new depth to your settings.

I will be attending the Santa Barbara Writers Conference this June. Last year I had a chance to see Ray Bradbury give the key note speech and this year I decided to check out the rest of the conference and attend some of the workshops. To be completely honest, I have never considered myself a writer’s group/workshop kind of guy although I have been to a few. It’s not that they aren’t interesting or helpful, but I’ve just always felt any spare time I had was better spent writing. I seem to prefer being down in the mine alone, in the dark, without a light, scraping away at the dirt with my hands where no mortal soul will bear witness to my labor.

However, there really are some great things about groups, workshops and conferences. For one, being around other writers can really inspire your efforts. Part of the reason I’m attending this year is how inspired I was by Ray Bradbury’s key note speech last year. That experience alone really got me fired up about my work and was part of the reason I started this blog. Second, a workshop or a conference provides the opportunity to make a concentrated study of craft. Finally, conferences are the perfect place to network and make contacts in a business where you do spend long hours alone.

Recently I’ve been meeting occasionally with a friend who is also working on a novel and have really enjoyed discussing our work, so maybe things are changing. I’m very excited about the conference and would love to hear your opinions on groups and workshops.

What is Writer’s Block?

Almost every writer has suffered some form of block at some point in their career for one reason or another. Some have been known to be afflicted for months or even years. Everyone dreads the famous malady, but what exactly is it, and what causes it?

Most assume that writer’s block is a lack of inspiration, or nightmarish state of emptiness in which no words will come. Okay, it is a little like that…but seriously, my experience with block usually has nothing to do with a lack of ideas, or even inspiration.

My most common experience with block is as a loss of momentum, a stoppage of work that could have resulted from any number of reasons. Some reasons have to do with the project itself, some problem that has come up or something that needs to be worked out, and others just have to do with life. Either way, it’s simple Newtonian mechanics: an object at rest tends to stay at rest.

Why is this so true in writing? After all, it’s not like we’re trying to move a mountain, although it sometimes feels that way. It’s a simple thing to sit down and write some sentences. What prevents the blocked writer from doing so? I believe it is fear. When a person is scared a common response is to freeze up and stop breathing. In extreme cases it can be very difficult to restore breathing and movement, even when it is essential for survival. Writers block is like a mental stoppage of breath and movement.

So what are writers so afraid of? Fear that the project suddenly seems hopeless, or dull. Fear that the work will never live up to the idea. Fear that the end won’t live up to the beginning. Fear of getting it wrong. Overall fear of failure. Any honest writer can give you a list of fears, some longer than others. These fears prevent further work and keep the writer in a non-writing state. Sometimes they strike like lightning, and sometimes they creep up on you like a slow poison.

If this is true than overcoming writer’s block is not a matter of finding your lost muse, but a matter of overcoming your fear. Acknowledging this is the first step in getting back to work. Just like dealing with physical fear, it is essential to breath, get things moving, build your confidence. Of course it’s not always easy, but if you are determined, soon the wall of writer’s block will surely crumble and fall.

My last post may have given distractions a bad name, but I should note more clearly that sometimes these “distractions” become the raw material for our art. For where do the ideas come from if not from the many layers of life’s experience whether or not those times seem productive in the moment?

It happens sometimes that distractions are a necessary part of the work that I am doing. When faced with a perplexing plot problem or some ill defined but vexing issue with a story, often what’s needed is simply time away from the work to process both consciously and subconsciously. A sudden turn to distractions is sometimes just an indication that I need a break. So whether it’s watching a movie, going for a hike, cleaning the house, or just staring out the window, these “distractions” can be highly productive. Too often we don’t give ourselves credit for this kind of quiet productivity.

The creative process is too complex to grasp in its entirety, and its relationship to our everyday lives, to our dreams, and yes, to our distractions, is significant. So go ahead, be distracted from time to time, give your thoughts license to stray, but know that the quality of your distractions impacts the quality of their influence.

The world is filled with distractions. It’s true now more than ever. And when things aren’t going smoothly with your writing or whatever project you’re working on, the distractions are just waiting to take you away from your troubles.

If TV isn’t your poison, there are movie rentals, video games, magazines, books, all manner of things to keep you distracted. And then of course there is the internet, which is like some kind of highly evolved, genetically enhanced super-distraction, a godzilla of potential wasted time spawned in the radioactive ocean of computer technology.

It’s so easy to fall into these traps, spending hours doing..well…whatever, when you could be working hard on the next chapter of your book. Not that these distractions aren’t without some merit. Ideas can come from the strangest places, and sometimes your subconscious just needs time to work out some problem before moving on. But let’s face it, sometimes, and certainly at some point, you just have to tune out all the static and get back to doing what needs to be done.

Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer has a great article on his website discussing various useful “Wordprocessing Tricks.” Sawyer talk about using the search feature to run checks for various problem words, Identifying consecutive paragraphs that start the same, and why your computer’s word count is different than the “printer’s rule.”

What word processor do you use? I’ve used a number of them over the years and have finally realized I’m going to have to write software instead of fiction if I want one that’s just right. I’ve tried a number of programs out there and they all have their pros and cons, starting with MS Word.

MS Word: What’s wrong with Word? Well…to start with it costs a lot of money. I moved away from Word at a certain point because I didn’t see the point if there were viable, free options out there. Additionally, Word did a lot more than I needed it to, so I thought it would be nice to have a more streamlined tool to write with. And I admit there was a sense of adventure in getting away from Microsoft.

Abiword: Abiword is excellent, streamlined, word processor available as a free download. There are no strings attached. It’s a nice little program. It’s small, so it loads and works very quickly. I stopped using it because I found that sadly there were things I couldn’t figure out how to do with it, such as making certain universal formatting changes that I needed to format manuscripts for different markets.

OpenOffice: Open Office seems to have just as many features as Word, and in many ways is a great product. It’s open source, and totally free. However, there were still some things that I wanted to do that were just easier in Word. But the biggest drawback to OpenOffice was it just took too long to load. It was really excessive, at least on my modest laptop.

For a while I was using all three depending on what I needed to do. But I discovered that sometimes I would have problems with a file created in one when I opened it with another. All this was quite frustrating, and as I realized that I kept falling back on Word, I began to long for the good old days when it was all I needed. So I deleted the other programs from my hard drive and now I’m happy to be just using Word again. I still save everything in .rtf format though, unless an editor requests a .doc file.

Art museums can be a rich source of ideas and inspiration. However, it’s easy to get sensory overload and become drained rather than energized by all the art. Over the years I’ve developed a strategy for getting the most out of my visits to art museums.

The secret is actually not looking at too many images too closely. I take a very quick look through a particular gallery and identify two or three pictures that grab my interest immediately. Then I spend my time deeply exploring, contemplating, and admiring those images only.

To follow this strategy it is essential that you simply ignore the majority of images before you. Too many people think they have to look at everything. Instead, treat your attention as if it were a scarce commodity, then you will be able to go deeper, get more out of the experience, and perhaps even come away with something useful.

(Post prompted by a weekend visit to the Portland Museum’s exhibit on Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art.)

Writers are famous for having wildly different methods of composition. Some write in the morning, some at night, some standing up, and some in bed. Most often I imagine writers go for whatever works for them. I’d like to take a look for a moment at just the physical act of getting the words down.

People often ask me if I write on a computer or long-hand. I say “yes.” The truth is I vary my method quite a bit, at any given time taking the path of least resistance. If I feel constricted at the computer, I’ll break out some loose leaf paper and a pen. Sometimes it’s a disposable rollerball, sometimes it’s a fountain pen. If I’m going out, I’ll take a notebook. At times I’ll write on drawing paper with a pencil as if the whole thing were a graphic exercise. Sometimes I work in a simplified script I invented when pain in my right wrist from too much writing forced me to write with my left hand for a while. I even break out the typewriter occasionally.

For me, often a temporary block will be relieved just by simply changing the method and the medium. The main thing is staying light, relaxed, and mentally fluid so the words can flow naturally. Of course whatever method I use initially, it all goes into a computer eventually.

I’d love to hear from other writers out there on your method of composition, and why you work the way the you do.