Yep, one of those.

You need a little ‘getaway.’

In the midst of this month, I keep thinking “I really need to be writing something. I really do.”

Add 1 cup guilt, a large bag of ‘Should’, a box of ‘Desire’ and mix. Read a few inspiring posts (Matt Sinclair) or messages from other writer friends (Cat Woods). Fold in one long nap by baby and a lack of motivation to do laundry, toss in the oven for two hours at 450F. Pull it out of the oven and it turns out that little recipe was for getting some writing done.

Or at least it seems to be taking a few minutes to look over what you’ve got and planning your next move, and letting inspiration sort you out, smooth your feathers, and make you feel whole again. Either way, it’s more than you’ve done in over a month.

Nice, eh?

So, the next time the going gets tough, sit down. Write. It’ll make you feel good.

To quote the Comedy Network: It’s time well wasted.

Does writing soothe your soul?

Usually I have little pieces of my day or life that seep into a story. Things like this: …baby who can only scoot forwards traps you in the shower by scooting up to the shower door. Yes, the little hand prints on the shower door are adorable, but how the hell are you going to get out without toppling and bashing the little guy with the door? Followed by “Did I put honey in my tea already? Better add more just in case… And I think an Oreo would go lovely with that.” Let’s go for a cross-country ski using the new baby sled I so desperately wanted for Christmas! Oh, look at that… it falls over ALL the time. Grrr. Better have another Oreo.

This is Jean.
This is real life: blurry and unstaged.

But really, those are just a few little things that might flesh out a scene.

What I’m really talking about are those tough times when I write out everything that is going on to help me deal with it. Like the premature birth of my first child. I kept a journal as I dealt with 42 days of her being in the hospital, being a mother, the panic, the immediate love, the worries, etc., etc. It really helped. And right now I am doing the Sandwich Generation thing where I am raising my own family and spending every weekend with my parents as my mother is ill.

And one day I could see some of these things becoming the core of a women’s fiction piece because I know I am not the only one dealing with these sorts of things and they are something others can relate to. These things are very real and I have enough detail and true emotion recorded to really bring it alive. With a good dose of humour, of course. The only issue would be making it ‘new’ enough that I wouldn’t get bored or bogged down by ‘reliving it’ all again.

How about you? Does real life ever make its way into your work?

Okay, let me back up a bit.

If you are a writer or know a writer, you may have noticed that they have a heck of a time letting go of old stories. Particularly their first story. They work on it and work on it and work on it and can’t figure out why the heck the world doesn’t find this lovely story of daring and darlings as wonderful as they do. So… what’s up with that?

Well, according to Dan Ariely in July’s WIRED magazine, he says this is due to the IKEA Effect. The IKEA Effect is the idea that something becomes incredibly more valuable to us if we’ve spent a lot of time creating something. (IKEA because we think that our simple shelf is da bomb after we’ve gone through hair loss and divorce tying to put the damn thing together straight and strong. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise–that shelf is fab, darling. <smile and nod, smile and nod>)

Back to writing. The poor, struggling writer has learned so much while writing The 15 Date Rule, er, um, I mean their story. They have spent years… er, lots and lots of time writing, tweaking, rearranging, and editing this fine feast for the mind. Naturally, they are now quite heavily invested in this creation. It’s difficult, if not near impossible, to let go of something that has been given so much time out of one’s life. The effort put into this project is huge making it very hard to say, “Okay. This is as far as this one can go. I can’t do anymore. It will never quite get ‘there’ and thus, it must go in this musty old bottom drawer and stay there forever more.”

Now… if it is someone else’s story… that’s different. We aren’t nearly as invested are we?

And I guess this is why if you’ve ever watched Dragon’s Den (Shark Tank is the US equivalent), this is why you’ve seen some inventors/entrepreneurs who have spent more than the GNP of a small country on an invention that will never fly. It’s because they are suffering from the IKEA Effect and don’t even know it.

So, if you have a story that has popped in mind while reading this, and feel you might be suffering from the IKEA Effect… let go. Start something new. Or, go build a shelf.

Note: You may not be familiar with the names of these personality/behaviour issues as they often go undiagnosed, and therefore unheard, however, their descriptions may ring some bells–particularly if you are a writer or live with a writer.

This photo has very little to do with these editing “illnesses,” but it’s cute, and well, the cat’s expression kind of goes with how I feel when thinking of these issues.

TooCheapitis: Characterized by a cheapness that will inhibit the effectiveness of the writer’s editing efforts and often will cost them an inordinate amount of time in order to save a pittance, or to create less waste. You may notice this ‘illness’ most when a writer comes to the editing stages and needs to print their manuscript in order to see the numerous flaws than are ‘hidden’ on the screen. Basically, this is characterized by an unwillingness to print off hundreds of pages of a story that they know they will quickly read, then immediately shred since the quick read-through will highlight the multitude of issues/errors/omissions within the story that need changing/fixing/removing and/or improving (as is the quick read-through’s purpose). So, while the benefit to printing off all these pages is immensely valuable, the writer is unable to overcome TooCheapitis in order to edit in a manner that is the most effective.

MustEdititis: A very rampant plague that is characterized by the intense compulsion it creates in a majority of professional writers. For example, whenever faced with a subpar sentence, weak word, typo, a truly shoddy paragraph, or screwed-up chapter, the affected writer feels the distinct urge/need/undeniable compulsion to tweak, slash, delete, rewrite, fix, and generally make over whatever they have just read. Every time. Even if it slows them down, is not the read-through’s intended purpose, and their action knowingly throws them off their quick read-through which is being done in order to gain a feel for the story’s flow.

Until recently, there was no known cure for these two illnesses. However, it has been recently discovered that doing read-throughs on ereaders (rather than paper) negates the effects of both TooCheapitis (assuming the writer has managed to overcome TooCheapitis at some point in order to purchase an ereader) as well as MustEdititis.

Doing a quick read-through of a manuscript is a valuable editing step for writers who have concerns about story flow, pacing, as well as to reacquaint themselves with how the story’s plot is progressing. Here is a brief list of some of the beneficial side effects experienced by writers who use an ereader cure for their TooCheapitis and MustEdititis:

• Readeritis: Writers actually read their story like it is a story and therefore, experience it like a reader.
• BigPictureitis: Writers are able to see the big picture stuff as MustEdititis no longer causes them to stop and fix ‘small picture stuff,’ thus allowing their editing brain to get a better feel for pacing, plot progression, etc. Writers are then able to see things they normally wouldn’t be able to.
• HaveGotitis: Writers are less likely to end up utterly despising their story as they are more likely to forgive the small errors/omissions/run on sentences/flatness/excessive telling/poor sentence structure/etc. since they are keeping their their minds on the ‘big’ story. In other words, writers are able to see what they have and not what they don’t have.
• Workimgitis: Writers get a better feel for their characters and what is working in their story.
• KeepGoingitis: Writers are not tempted to stop and change every little thing that isn’t up to snuff.
• TimeSaveritis: It takes less time. (And editing is a slow process, so wherever you can save time–awesome!)
• Friendlinessitis: It’s more reader friendly–reading 400 pages of gook on one’s computer is never that much fun.
• EcoFriendlyitis: The writer is less likely to get paper cuts or worry about destroying five forests in order to get their story perfect.
• Brevititis: The writer is less tempted to make 80 million notes to themselves. (They might be tempted to write 80 quick ones instead.) If the writer does make notes to themselves, they are brief, general notes written on the fly that are less likely to fence them in creativity-wise when it comes to finding a fix-it-solution later on.
• Noticeitis: Writers who make brief notes throughout (rather than succumb to MustEdititis) are more likely to notice if the same ‘issues’ are coming up time and again. throughout.
• Keepitis: Writers making notes are less likely to accidentally change or remove something in an early chapter that they later discover was intrinsically important.
• Consistentitis: Changes made based on notes rather than on a read-through are more likely to be consistent across the whole story as well as with the story’s voice, pacing, and overall tone.

Like running, when you write, you can always use a few tools. However, you don’t have to get the super duper outfit to make you a Writer or a Runner. (Yep, I’m talking posers, here.) The writer who talks about writing, has memberships to all sorts of organizations related to writing, has all the writing books, writing software and more, but rarely spends time putting words to page (because it’s hard work and not as much fun as showing the world that you are a writer) may not necessarily be a ‘real’ writer. In the running world there are the same folks. (That would those folks with the fancy running gear, gps, playlist, t-shirts, talky-talky the talk, but yet, those running shoes are lucky if they make it around the block once every two weeks.)

As with writing, you can start running without knowing what you’re doing. You just slam one foot in front of the other until you begin to figure it out. Of course, it is always nice to know a little bit about what you’re attempting to help you achieve your goals. To grab an example from running, if you pop off the couch one day and try to run 5 km, the chances are you aren’t going to reach your goal. Or, if you do, you are likely to find yourself in a great deal of pain and unable to make that same attempt any time soon. You could also hurt yourself. Wah! In writing, if you plop in front of your computer or notepad and slam word after word down on the page without a clue, chances are you are going to be in for a world of hurt when you go back to edit that puppy into a story that actually works. If you have a training plan/picked up a few tips and skills, it helps no matter if we are talking writing or running. It pays to get a little bit of knowledge under your belt when you are starting out. I’m not saying deluge yourself in it–that can have the opposite effect as helpful–just find a few things to help you improve at the level you are currently hovering at.

When writing, if you slam down word after word with no clue, your story can easily end up in the woods. (Or recycle bin.) When writing, if you slam down foot after foot with no clue, you can easily end up in the woods eighty miles from home. (Or hospital.) In both worlds, there is something to be said for a little bit of planning.

Like running, there is a high. That wonderful feeling you get when you’re in the zone and the sentences flow like fresh honey out of the extractor and the word count blows your mind and you can’t help but smile and think how you could do this forever.

Like running, there are days when everything hurts. Every word comes at a cost and all you want to do is stop, stop, stop. Every word feels wrong. You wonder why the hell you even bother. You suck. This sucks. Why did you bother getting out of bed? Isn’t this supposed to be fun or something?

So, why do we run? And why do we write? It’s for those days. Those days golden days. Those days when you feel like you have accomplished something you can be proud of. Those days when everything flows and the whole universe feels like it is in line with you and all you have to do is aim straight ahead and let yourself soar, empowered. Everything is smooth and beautiful. Everything is groovy. You feel more alive and real than ever and everything is simply wonderful.

That is why.

That is why I write. And one day, that will be why I run. (…but not quite yet.)

I figured, yeah, no sweat.

But it is. It is a sweaty, sweaty endeavor. You have to think about what you are writing in a whole new way. It’s like writing dialogue in terms of adding personality, quirks, etc. Except way more. This piece has to BE that character. It must reflect their voice, tone, brevity (or lack of it), expressions, reactions to what has come before, and still move the story forward and be entertaining. Every tidbit must have a purpose.

I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to make the story and its pieces feel organic. I tend to go in to write the immediate reply, but the problem is that written communication doesn’t always work that way. And written communications tend to stray off topic and introduce new topics, etc. But at the same time, you have to balance all these story balls in the air without losing your reader. If you don’t have all these different communications going on, the story could end up taking place over three years instead of three months and could lose its realistic feel and, quite literally, drag on. Goodbye focus and pacing!

And here I thought it would be so easy after reading Meg Cabot’s Every Boy’s Got One and Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I loved reading both of these books and figured that this format would be well-suited for my story. And I think it does, but wow, it stretches the writing brain and maxes out some of those tricks I know. I hope it works!

Do you have any favourite reads that are done in letters, or other forms of written communication?

Like a real person, characters need layers and history. But like real people, we don’t want to see all of those layers and history the first instant we meet them. However, there are times when we pause, look at our new friend, and realize we need a piece of information to understand where they are coming from or what they are talking about. So, we ask them a question about themselves. They reply, we have that knowledge gap filled, and we continue on.

When we are writing, it is good to do the same thing. If we give our readers too much information and backstory about a character, we are likely to bore them, overload their circuits, and basically kill the flow of our story. When we are determining how much backstory to give our reader, we get to ask ourselves a million (and one) questions as we write and edit our scenes. Some of those questions might look like this:

–Is it essential for the reader to know this right now? If so, why? And how much does the reader need right now? Will they be able to understand this scene and the character’s motivations if I leave it out?–The beauty of this question is that sometimes you reach the end of your story and find that you never needed to put it in! (More on this in tomorrow’s post.) If the reader doesn’t need it, leave it out–even if you think it is beautiful.

Remember: when it comes to backstory, be hard on yourself. Ask those tough questions and don’t rest until you are able to give yourself a specific answer. (This is where a critique partner or blind reader can really help you out–ask them these questions as they read, or leave out the backstory and see if they come back scratching their head.)

–Does it move the story forward? How?

–Has this tidbit been already been touched upon/alluded to in the story? If yes, it can probably be taken out.

For example: The story opens with a girl volunteering at the Humane Society, going out of her way to help people when they come in to look at animals. She takes extra care with any injured animals and as she leaves, she empties her change into the donation jar. She gets home and a girl guide/scout comes to the door selling cookies. She buys ten boxes and gives them to people at work the next day.

In the example above, I have shown that this character is a generous and caring person. I don’t need to stop the story and its events to ‘tell’ the reader about it. So, I probably don’t need a flashback to show why she is so generous. I probably don’t need a lot of backstory to explain her generosity. And I probably don’t need to show her generosity from another character’s POV (unless it is to show that they all think she is a saintly pain in the ass). I’ve got it covered. Give your reader the credit they deserve to put two and two together. If you’ve shown it, 99.8% of the time you don’t need to tell it too.

However, if there is something about her generosity that I want to show and I can’t… then I might need to pull out that backstory arsenal and give the reader more on this saint. For example, maybe I need to show that she was once really poor and it was only the generosity of others that helped her through. But, before I do that, I need to ask: Why MUST the reader know this NOW? Is this to deepen her as a character or is it so they will understand why she panics when she loses her job and her apartment all in one day? In both cases, I might be able to parlay this information/backstory to the reader in one sentence or by dropping references or hints here and there for them to add up.

When it comes to backstory, if you can’t answer the ‘MUST my reader know this NOW’ with a simple YES!, it means it isn’t needed. It’s that simple.

More on character backstory tomorrow!

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.