Writers, Please Reply
I would love to know the toils writers face during the process of developing their works and beyond. Please! Enlighten me with your methods, inspirations, and disasters. The creative process, nightmarish stress, and incredible self-doubt threaten to consume all creative types. So for the sake of camaraderie among writers and writer wannabes, divulge your secrets. Help us feel united under one driving need to spill our guts out on a page, to divulge our darkest secret emotions, to create the most outrageous characters. Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you like & be honest!
1. Tell me about your current book in a few sentences.
2. What qualities do you need to be a successful writer?
3. What is your working method?
4. What is the single biggest mistake made by beginners to writing?
5. How did you come to write this particular book?
6. If you have a favourite character in your novel, why that particular one?
7. How can people buy your book(s)?
8. What strategies are you using to promote yourself?
9. How much revision of your MS do you do before you send it off?
10. Where and when is your novel set and why did you make these specific choices?
11. What are your writing habits?
12. What do you do to combat writer’s block?
13. Is presentation of the MS as important as most agents and publishers suggest?
14. How long does it normally take you to write a novel?
15. Where do you find inspiration?
16. Do you think writing is a natural gift or an acquired skill?
17. Do you have a website or a blog that readers can visit?
18. Given unlimited resources, what would be your ideal writing environment?
19. What is your biggest writing disaster EVER?
Matt Ruff talks about his writing process.
What a great idea, Heather. I will have to get back to you with answers to these questions. I just met with my critique group yesterday, and we decided that a large part of our purpose in getting together is to encourage one another, because often we are tempted to give up. Maybe we can do this on our blogs as well. I’ve been blogging for three months now and am still trying to figure out if I should write about my personal writing experience (dah, the blog is about my journey to publication after all), or if I should be offering writer’s tips, etc. I’ve written four novels and will be submitting my first at the request of a New York agent in November. I will earmark your page and get back to you. My website is http://www.enterthebetween.blogspot.com. I am becoming a follower of your blog as of now. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Heather. As promised, I’m back to answer some of your questions. 1. My current book is BETWEEN NOW AND FOREVER about a middle school substitute teacher who’s asked to take on a class of Indigos with psychic powers. 2. A successful writer needs talent, of course, but also persistence and willingness to learn. 3. My working method: Mondays and Tuesdays are devoted entirely to writing and my novel in progress, two Fridays each month to my critique groups, evenings to blogging, and every chance I get to reading in my genre and books on craft. 4. Single biggest mistake of beginning writers is submitting too early. 5. This particular book is the fourth in a series. 6. My favorite character is my protagonist. It’s her journey after all and she has taught me a lot. 7. My books are not yet published. 8. Promotion stragedy: Business cards, entering contests, and blogging. 9. I revise over and over, but less as I learn more. My current novel has been revised four time, my first, at leaste twelve times. 10. My novel takes place in the present and deals with the contemporary (metaphysical) issue of Indigo children/adults. It takes place in Menlo Park because it is located close to sites important to the novel. 11. Writing habits? Morning journals, long walks, naps (see my blog on Monday, Sept. 27). 12. I combat writer’s block by reading books in my genre, works of inspiration, and books on craft. My critique partners also keep me in line. 13. Yes, presentation is very important. Agents are extremely busy and overworked. Don’t give them an excuse to throw your work into the slush pile! 14. It takes me three months to write a novel and at least a year to revise it. 15. I find inspiration by reading and paying attention to everday details, especially sensory ones. 16. Natural, acquired? I think both. 17. My blog is at http://www.enterthebetween.blogspot.com. 18. My ideal writing environment would be in a cabin in a forest or near the ocean. Ha! 19. My biggest writing disaster is loosing the revisions on two of my novels because of a computer crash. Now I have a back up system set up with an outside source (Caronite)through my phone company. Wow, this was a long one. Thanks, Heather for asking.
Thank you for answering, Margaret!!! It’s incredibly interesting to see how differently everyone works.
Hi Margaret, I’m now following your blog now as well. Please share your writing journey with the rest of us. It’s a great source of encourgement, especially since it’s such a struggle to keep our chins up at times.
Here are my answers (A storyteller’s view):
1)Current work in progress is “The Bloodlines of the Magi” – genre: epic fantasy and first in a planned series of 5, covering a period of over a thousand years. storyline is more magic than prophecy based, involving people who inherit powers and life memories from their parents, but also involves main characters experiencing influence from future descendants.
2)i: A creative imagination, and an ability to have inspired ideas, together with the knack of making more of the not so inspired ones ii:determination and commitment to stay with a project & to see it through to the end.
3)Long walks for inspiration; take time out with no distractions to get the work done; develop other ideas into short stories when feeling uninspired, but in the main: Live the idea, make it a part of your life.
4)Giving up because of their lack of technical ability. The craft of writing can be learned, whereas the art of writing can’t. We can all ‘fix’ our writing for grammar, syntax, etc., but an original and enjoyable story needs to come from the heart.
5)It developed from what has turned out to be book 3 of 5 in the series. I had so much back story that needed to be told, that I considered the idea of a ‘prequel’ – Before I knew where I was, I was writing the relevant history of the world my book was set in.
6)My favourite character in my book is Vynchek, my villain, though he only appears in this story as a disruptive and dangerous influence on one of the protagonists. He is though, the main villain throughout the series, and the main character in the 2nd book of the series.
7)They can’t, as yet. I want to share my stories, but whether that be with the world through publication, or only with friends or family, doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things. It’s more important that I get my ideas down ‘on paper’ and out of my head. Publication would be nice, but mainly since it means sharing with more people.
8)Self-promoting is a thing for the future. I’m such a long way short of having anything ‘marketable’ as yet. I include ‘peripheral’ stories from the world my books are set in on my blog from time to time, just to whet people’s appetites.
9)That’s something that remains to be seen, but I tend to write first draft without too much care, as though I were narrating vocally, then do loads of stages of read throughs and edits of each chapter/scene/passage before I even consider it to be anywhere near presentable.
10)My series are set in the mythical land of Yvoronay, a peninsula nation set to the north west of the Empire of Ar. (Hey! it’s fantasy, ok?) The world it’s set in is never mentioned but is assumed to be an ‘alternative’ to the Earth. Early parts of book 3 and a little of book 4 are set in England. There’s need for certain characters to be exiled, and here seemed as good a place as any.
11)I do my best to stay focussed, but I’m often distracted as new ideas occur to me. I tend to break off from w.i.p. to produce short stories of various styles and genres, often as exercises on various techniques, but more often because it seems like a good idea at the time, (Like nibbling snacks when you’re on a diet!)
12)Initially, I go for a long walk, North of my home; once away from the city and amongst the trees and horses, inspiration often returns; failing that, I deliberately break off and work on other projects, usually short stories.
13)It is, in as much as they make the rules. I’m sure they have an awful lot of dross to get through in order to find the real gems, and it must help to have submissions in a standardised regular format, if only to provide one less distraction.
14)How long have you got? I never know until it’s finished. My stories tend to have a habit of expanding as I go along, so I can easily go from 40% complete back to 15% complete in the space of a few days. On the other hand, a novellette I wrote went from inception to complete first draught in less than two weeks. But thinking back to that, I’ve had more ideas for that story now and I could probably expand that into a full size novel if I put my mind to it.
15.An unusual idea will occur to me, which I’ll first file away mentally for future reference. From time to time, I’ll manage to relate a few of these ideas together in a way that seems both original and relevant, and hopefully clever. From that point on, the story develops. Once I’ve given life to main characters, I sit down and write about them, maybe notes, maybe passages, but not necessarily in the context of the story. That helps me develop their personalities and suddenly they seem to take life upon themselves and take control of the story. Now and again, I’ll pitch in with a few more ideas to see if my characters like them. I don’t write the stories – I just hold the pen.
16.I think I mentioned earlier. The ART of storytelling is a natural art; there are very few aspects of it that can be learned. The CRAFT of writing however, is a skill that’s mostly acquired. We’re all learning, all the time. The technical side of writing can be refined with hard work and determination; hell, it could probably be handled by a good computer programme. A bit of blatant self-quoting here: “A writer becomes certain he’s a writer when the uninspired expectation becomes unexpected inspiration” – If you just keep on waiting for and expecting inspiration, then you’re probably never going to be a writer or at least you’re never going to be able to write from the heart anyway.
17.My personal blog is http://bartie-blog.blogspot.com but I’m also involved from time to time in various other group or guest blogs, as well as having other blogs of my own that don’t particular feature writing in the main.
18.I’ve already chosen the house. There’s a five bedroomed house to the east of Lake Windermere, that’s been on the market for ages (£1.1 million if there are any generous sponsers out there!)It would be my ideal environment (not least due to the environment – The Cumbrian lakes and fells are the true home of my soul) It has room for me to breath and plenty of room for my family to spread out while still allowing me the privacy I need. Since I’m actually a lottery millionaire in waiting, it’s only a matter of time before I get there.
19.My biggest writing disaster ever is my biggest writing mistake, which was on a disastrous level.
I’ve spent all the years of my life until about three years ago, keeping my ideas to myself, always wanting to write, never brave enough to share or to even speak out, because of doubts in my ability, fear of peer opinion, pressure of other concerns. I wrote a little as a teenager and into my early twenties, but then for years I neglected what has and always will be my place in life: not to be a famous writer, not to write for profit, but just to write because it’s natural for me to do it.
20.Oh! I thought there’d be twenty questions. That’s fine: nineteen is good! Thanks Heather for giving me the opportunity to spout like this. Apologies if I’ve gone on a little. I look forward to reading any response you might have to this (It’s ok – “On yer bike” and “what a pile of crap” are acceptable responses.) Perhaps I’ll see you on my blog some time. If you do visit, try to leave a comment or two. I crave feedback.