For those who don’t know, I live in Minnesota. The weather here is a perennial topic; the news reports the temperature every hour on the hour, and every fifteen minutes (it seems like) when it’s particularly unusual. People talk about the weather constantly. Yesterday, I overheard at least five sets of people have the exact same conversation: “Boy, it’s cold.” “The weather report says it’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow.” I had that conversation myself at least twice (it would have been four times, but once was with three people listening in).
The thing is, what do you really need to know about the weather and why? You need to know what it is doing out there when you are getting ready to go out, which you can find out by looking out the window (“Yup, there’s three feet of snow out there.” “Hey, it’s raining, better take an umbrella.”) If you are trying to plan ahead, you might need to know what it is likely to be doing in a day or two (but if you are planning farther out than that, forget it. The Weather Service does its best, but its best is seldom reliable enough that one can confidently leave the umbrella at home when preparing for something five days out, much less weeks or months. Though if all you need to know is “Will I need snow boots or sunscreen?” there are at least six to eight months out of the year where that’s an easy question to answer, as long as you know what latitude you’re going to be at.)
Writing can be a lot like weather. Writers can get so bogged down in the minutia of phrases and sentences and micro effects that they lose track of the overall impact they’re trying to achieve. When the temperature is 7 degrees Fahrenheit, a couple of degrees up or down doesn’t make much difference except in conversation – the really important thing is that you need a coat and gloves if you’re going out.
With writing, though, the overall impact is composed of hundreds and hundreds of things happening on the micro level – the cumulative effect of three hundred or more pages of words and phrases and sentences. Every writer I know is all too aware that an infelicitous phrase in the wrong spot can spoil an emotional impact that’s been carefully built up over many chapters. But is it really necessary to spend hours agonizing over whether to call one’s villain a megalomaniacal idiotic psychopath, an idiotic psychopathic megalomaniac, or a psychopathic, megalomaniacal idiot?
Well, sometimes, maybe. The trouble is that writers seldom face a situation in which every single word, phrase, and sentence in a 100,000-word novel is worth that kind of conscious attention. Convincing writers of this is difficult, though, especially when the majority of critique groups are set up to focus on micro-level writing problems…and when a lot of writers have so many micro-level problems that fixing even a quarter of them often makes a perceptible difference in the quality of the finished product.
Yet I’ve also seen writers who are trying to make certain that each phrase is so polished and perfect that they neglect the macro level completely. They’re like someone trying to make a mosaic out of precious stones, who polishes each individual stone to perfection but forgets to place them in an order that actually creates a picture, or even a pleasing design. And then they wonder why Mary B. Author not only outsells them, but produces four or five novels in the time it takes them to finish one first draft. They fail to notice that Mary’s characters are engaging and her plots intriguing in spite of her slightly clunky prose.
Of course, it is entirely possible that Mary’s books would be improved – perhaps even significantly improved – by a bit of attention to word choice and phrasing. What the folks who sneer at Mary’s work nearly always fail to recognize, though, is that their work could be significantly improved by more attention to the macro level stuff, like structure, pacing, overall plot and character development…which are Mary’s strengths.
Which is not to say the writers should ignore the micro level in favor of the macro level, or vice versa. Every writer has personal preferences, both in terms of what they like to do and in terms of which aspect they think is most important or deserves the most attention. A writer who is unhappy with his or her work is unlikely to get much done, which makes it difficult to practice or improve. The trick is in persuading oneself to work on both aspects – the one one likes and thinks important, and the one that’s no fun and minor.
That said – I’m currently soliciting blog topics for future posts. So if you have particular questions, ideas, things you’d like to see me ramble on about, please mention them in the comments. Or if you want me to revisit or expand on something I’ve said before. I don’t promise to get to everything soon, but I’ll try to get to everything eventually. And if you’re too shy to comment, email me, pcwrede@pcwrede.com.
Suggested Topic – Writing with Depression (or Bi-polar disorder)
The main catch 22 of writing with a Depressive disorder is that A) writing can help with bad moods but not full-fledged depressive attacks and B) the medications most effective for depression often suppress all creative energies. Any helpful basic advice? Or is this just too individual for a generic blog topic?
I’ve experienced the problem with an antidepressant. I cop to not being able to write creatively for about 7 years due to depression and the medication after getting diagnosed.
My solution was to write other kinds of stuff, journal type writing on Live Journal, in a notebook, letters to myself, whatever, in order to at least keep some kind of words flowing. When it got bad, I took up a new hobby (knitting, in this case) to divert the need to create-and also produced something practical with it (blankets, hats, etc). It helped!
And honestly, what really helped was my husband *finally* getting medicated for his own high anxiety and depression. Don’t discount immediate influences in your vicinity which might also be dragging you down in addition to your own diagnoses.
Since you’re soliciting, I’ll put in a request for a post on methods and techniques for getting un-stuck. Or maybe on how to give yourself permission to write crap (so that you’ll at least have something written down; it can be fixed later). Which is, among other things, one possible way to get unstuck.
So, right now I’m in the query trenches. Again. Yay? I guess my question would be similar to the question above. How do you stay positive when all the rejections (or bad reviews, or bad sales, or whatever bad thing is going on) are working together to get you down? I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs, but now I feel like I’m particularly in a bad slump. I’ve been *so close* so often, and my emotions can only take so much. I feel like I keep coming in fourth at the Olympics. Still doing really awesome, but not awesome enough for a medal (or an agent). I keep missing by .00001 of a second. I’m trying to get over the hump, persevere and all that, but sometimes I really do feel like giving up. Which is scary and sad. Writing used to bring me such joy. How do you keep the joy?
I feel like I keep coming in fourth at the Olympics.
That sounds a little too familiar! Last year was good for me, I had a couple of significant milestones, and it really seemed like Things Were Starting To Happen. And then this year… nothing. Nada. And not just on the publication front; even the book that was supposed to be the one where I finally knew what I was doing brick-walled in, literally, the third paragraph.
I’m still plugging away, submitting and querying, and working on something else (which is not at all stretchy, but serves as a confidence-booster). I know it’s a slow process. But I’ll admit, the word “fluke” is floating around my brain more than I’d like.
And on the topic of today’s post, this reminds me that I need to make it rain on my main character pretty soon.
I’ve always been a micro-level writer (what I mean when I put “excellent facility with details” on my résumé), and I’ve been aware of this long enough to make significant improvements on the macro level. I took pride in my correct spelling, polished grammar, and well-crafted sentences and paragraphs, but I failed to notice that a series of events without anything to tie them together does not exactly make a pleasing story.
It seems hard to believe in retrospect that anyone could fail to recognize whether they had a story, but I have since seen this in a number of other writers, some of them—sadly—published.
I’ve been following your blog for a few years now. By profession I am an illustrator, but I also write. I love your blog posts. Here are some questions/topics that might be fun to cover (There are a few):
When writing how often do you let your stories SETTLE/FERMENT at different points? (Basically let it take the back-shelf while the story settles and you can attack it with a fresh mind.) I’ve found the more I do this, the more well-rounded my stories become..but the period in between can take weeks, months and sometimes years! Years doesn’t seem too business/income friendly.
Back when you were working a FULL TIME JOB (in finance?) what was your schedule like? Did you have to burn a lot of midnight oil, and come to work exhausted the next day? How did it feel and what tips might you have for those of us that are doing the same thing? (Bruce Wayne during the day and Batman at night).
What in the writing process TERRIFIES you (gives you bouts of anxiety)…and how do you push through it? For example, a blank page is both terrifying and exciting at the same time…
Regarding ARTWORK for your books…was there ever something that clicked and you were like, “wow, that’s my character exactly!” or…”Wow…that is totally off.” And have you ever tried to pull rank and try to get something changed? (I know authors have little/no say in book covers/art…I was just curious). Also, have you ever thought about venturing into the Graphic Novel, or Picture book world? (I personally think the world needs a good picture book with a sassy princess, sarcastic dragon, and foolish evil wizard)
CAREER…do you like what you are doing (type of projects) and where you are going? It would be interesting to hear you talk about your career goals (short, long, lifetime…)
This question is silly/fun…Dreams, daydreams, nightmares…do you have these alot? Do they ever make it into your books?
Could you do a post on choosing names for one’s fantasy characters? I’ve always found that a fascinating topic.
Could you try an entry or two on punching up a sense of ‘there really is a plot here”? I’ve read several that I’ve thought were good but my husband grumbles had no plot. *I* thought there was one, but it’s not getting across to him. And he sees the same in our teen’s fiction.
If you’ve read Graydon’s – remember him from rec.arts.sf.composition? – THE MARCH NORTH, that’s an example.
Oh, I remember him. Is this a book or a website? In either case, link, please?
You can’t get it from Amazon, you have to go to Google Play – here: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Graydon_Saunders_The_March_North?id=MoIOAwAAQBAJ
and once on that link after you’ve clicked the ‘buy this book’ button: You need to put your mouse over the cover of the book ( ijust tried this in firefox – actually pale moon – but anyway..) and click on the three dots that appear when you put your mouse in Just The Right Place on the upper right. Once you click on them you get ‘options’ one of which is download EPUB.
He says in the comment thread under Andrew Plotkins’ review on Goodreads (which is how I found out about it) “(Have you read Amazon’s contract-like-thing? I’d have ancestral ghosts as the foot of my bed saying “tsk” forever if I agreed to something like that.) ” when I and some others pestered for Kindle copies.
I liked it a lot. The husband did not as he could not find a plot. oh, and other writers he says tend to be plotless are Sarah Hoyt and Patricia McKillip. FWIW so if Patricia W does decide to try to tackle the question she has more than one example and won’t have to pick on a particular author.
Oh crud. I clicked, I paid for it, and it said “You don’t have any devices.” Which I certainly don’t. I was sort of hoping that I could read it on my PC, but apparently one has to have some sort of hand-held.
Doesn’t matter, it was only three bucks and a little of that will go to Graydon.
Umm… I don’t want to take over Patricia’s comment section, but if you have a Kindle app or equivalent that reads epub I could send you a copy. Heck Calibre could convert it to text, if that’s what you need. …
my name @ k e t h o m p s o n.org
I observe that nowadays, you probably have to have a workman-like level of prose to sell — but after that, other factors come into play.
I’m sorry if you’ve already covered this, but will you talk more about how you get started in your writing? I.e., you start with an idea, a character, a place, a conversation, etc., but how does it develop into a full-blown novel? How do you follow the trail to the full novel?
And this one might be a little odd, but will you talk about the differences between real life and story?
Something about figuring out our writerly strengths and weaknesses?
Brilliant! Yes! Although, honestly, my own area of strength happens to be clean, polished prose; correct grammar; and well-constructed paragraphs. So I put most of my concentration and effort into improving my storytelling skills, especially writing at depth. My characters are living, breathing, real people in my head, but I have to really work to make sure it all actually makes it out of my head and onto the page.