Shut UP!

That’s right, I said, “Shut UP!” Yes, I know, I may have damaged some holding-on-by-a-hair-self-esteems out there by saying that. But sometimes it needs to be said.

Specifically, it needs to be said to that nasty little gremlin that sits on your shoulder telling you that you can’t do it. That little guy who wheezes in your ear, sharing not-so-sweet nothings like, “That’s an adverb, followed by too many adjectives, you twobit writer.” and “That makes no sense. Do you even know who this character is? You must SHOW their motivation.” and “That paragraph is too long.” and “A comma doesn’t go there.” and “Spelled that wrong.” and “Get a thesaurus, you’ve used that word three time. Who do you think you are. Trying to write? Ha! Ha! You don’t even have a good, polysyllabic vocabulary. Any ESL person could walk off the street with a better story and better writing. Just give up already, you are wasting your time.”

Whew! That’s some nasty stuff.

So, what do you do? What can you do? And you have to do something because that nasty little gremlin will smother your muse in vile tar in five seconds flat, leaving you sobbing on your keyboard.

First, you have to write. You have to show that gremlin who’s boss–and that would be you, the writer.

Second, if it is a long list of ‘rules’ you need to remember in order to be a ‘good’ writer that is getting you down, then the solution is easy. Write. Write, write, write, until it all becomes second nature. (Maybe focus on one thing at a time though–we don’t want any heads to explode as brains are very hard to clean off the upholstery.)

Third, write. Yeah, I’m kind of serious about this one. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Even if you have to type ‘This sucks. I know it sucks, but I’m going to keep writing until something good comes up. I’m going to sit here and keep typing even if my internal editor won’t SHUT UP! I won’t let anything distract me. I won’t get up until I have ten pages down. Even if they suck and it is the same sentence repeated 243 times. All I know is that there is this girl who has a problem with the Elm tree in her front yard and she ends up falling in love with the man across the street while trying to deal with the Elm.’ And just keep going until something happens. It will. Your brain will get tired, your gremlin will get lulled to sleep and things will take a turn and begin to happen. Be aware that it might not happen on day one or page one. Know and be okay with the fact that some of it is going to be garbage, but if you keep writing eventually you will run out of garbage. Sometimes it is by paragraph 3, sometimes it is page 56. Just write it down. You can always edit it later, recycling items, landfilling others, polishing hidden gems, etc, but if you don’t have it down… what have you got?

“It says here, “Calvin and Hobbes shows bad influences to little ones. No one can be that bad.”

Fourth, if your gremlin doesn’t have a day job, is a bit of an insomniac, and is always on snoopervision no matter what you do, distract him. Turn on music–new stuff might keep him busy. Talk radio so he isn’t lonely. Or the TV so he picks up useful tidbits he can feed to your subconscious to be placed here and there in your story.

Fifth, if your gremlin is really harping on one thing, let him out on someone else’s work. Now, be careful! You don’t want to rip someone else apart and leave them crying on their keyboard. Be kind! But if you are working on sensory details and your internal editor/gremlin is going nutso on you, read someone else’s work and make notes. What works? What doesn’t? How can you use what works in your own writing? Give yourself a challenge and ONLY focus on improving that one thing.

Sixth, don’t be afraid to play. Really. And let your Gremlin play, too. He’s bored. He’s there, use him. Turn him into your internal drive to always improve. But remember, when he gets to be too much, tell him to, “Shut UP!” And be firm. Spank him if necessary. (I won’t call social services, I promise.)

Seventh, if ALL else fails, get him a little bit tipsy–unless he’s a nasty drunk, in which case, bribe him with chocolate, ice cream, coffee, or whatever floats his sensory boat.

There will always be something to learn or work on when it comes to writing, that’s what’s so amazing about it. Go forth and play and don’t forget those two golden words: SHUT UP!

Good luck young grasshoppers. And whatever you do, keep your gremlin dry.

P.S. If you have handy gremlin elimination tips, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Writing That’s Loveable, Yet Flawed

Flaws. A story can have major flaws and still make the best seller list. A story can have stylistic or technical writing elements that bother the reader, yet if the storytelling and world building is amazing, readers will still love the book.

On the other side of the coin…

Flaws can kill your story. The wrong word, the wrong character reaction to an event, unbelievable conflict, too many adverbs, too much telling; the list is long. The readers can end up hating a decent book.

The other night, our book club was discussing Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. The varied group  enjoyed the story and went as far as to seek out See’s other books. (We don’t always do that.) Yet, there were parts of this story’s structure and style that bothered us as readers. So why did we enjoy it so much? How did it become a best seller?

A little background about the story: The story is set in rural China in the 1800s when foot binding was still performed. The story is relayed to the reader through the now aged main character (Lily) as she looks back over her years.

In the first few chapters, there are quite a few ‘authorial intrusions’ where the writer reminds us that Lily is the one telling us the story by adding sentences similar to this: But the worst was yet to come. Or: This wouldn’t be my only mistake. As we get deeper into the story, the reminders are fewer, but they still exist. In the beginning, it worked as it let us know what type of story we were going to read as well as forewarn us about conflicts to come. Yet, after the first few chapters, I found that these reminders brought me out of the story and in some cases, ruined what could have been a big reveal within the story. By chapter two, I knew how the two friends would break up–the main story question already answered for me.

So, what kept me intrigued? What kept me flipping those pages? The world and culture building was simply amazing. As a reader, I learned a lot about China and Chinese culture from a woman’s perspective. It was incredible to learn that much in such an enjoyable way and the flaws melted away. Just like that.

For aspiring writers, something minute as overdone foreshadowing in an authorial intrusion sort of way could be fatal. It could get that story rejected. But in this best seller, because the world building was so strong, it could be overlooked and forgiven. Even the fact that the major conflict ended up being a slight misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a short conversation–something of which us aspiring writers (romance in particular) have been told to never do, became forgivable.

As a writer, this book intrigued me. I strive so very hard to make my stories as perfect as I can and to see a story with flaws do so well inspired me. Strengths in one area may be able to pull you through your weaker areas. How cool is that?

So now, I have to figure out what my big strength is and what my big weakness is and how can I use my big strength to lessen the impact of my big weakness. Whew!

How about you? Do you know what yours are?

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Plateau

I’ve got it!

I’ve plateaued! Sort of.

After writing the last blog entry and replying to a comment another writer made on a post on AgentConnect.com, I came to the realization that I am comfortably sitting on a writing plateau.

Different from writer’s block and actually a good place to be. Why? Because it means that I have been learning, growing and developing! Yes!

I was wondering why this week I can’t seem to spell or write a coherent sentence. Now I’ve got it!

It was like back in my days of teaching skiing. You grow, grow, grow, learn, learn, learn and then poof. For a bit, you can’t seem to move past where you are in your skills. It’s a plateau. You need time to let all your new skills settle and gel before you can move up some more on your skill level.

So, with that in mind…I am not writing anything new other than blogs at the moment. Instead, I am working on my writing muscle by trying out my new skills on an old manuscript and taking a slight breather. I’m not going too far though, I don’t want this plateau to develop into a block or an excuse to not keep developing.

So, there we have it. My week in a nutshell.

P.S. Gee whiz. It’s only 10 A.M. and I have three blog entries for today already. Maybe I should go do something else….