Somehow sitting down to plot a story always feel like an intellectual exercise. It’s a logical timeline of things that happen and the resultant consequences. But the trick to telling a good story does not come from the head—it comes from the heart.
It’s all about story—or it should be. When books and movies fall apart it’s often because the story gets pushed to the background. It becomes secondary to other concerns, like action sequences, special effects, pushing an agenda, or…insert reason here.
Last week we talked about what being previously published means. This week we’re looking at options for work that falls into that category and your options for moving forward.
You want to get your work out there. You want to gain an audience. You want to build a platform. And so you post. It’s so easy. There are countless platforms and opportunities from personal blogs and websites to sharing sites, like Wattpad, not to mention digital media outlets. The problem is reckless posting can undermine your ultimate goal.
I’ve written before about not believing Writer’s Block exists. I still don’t. It’s the Sasquatch of our industry. What I do believe in is not having ideas or motivation and not being in the zone, but those aren’t blocks, they are obstacles. Every career has them. And they can be overcome.
There are days when writing is a painful process of flinging words on the page without passion or a clue. We’ve all been there. Flailing about for an idea, any idea. But that’s different than having writer’s block.
If you’re like me, you are probably setting goals for the new year—promises to exercise daily or eat right. It’s the season for starting over and re-committing to good habits. There’s nothing quite like feeling like you have a clean slate and move forward freely into a new and improved you. But while you’re picking good habits, don’t forget your writing.
Writing is a habit like any other. It takes discipline to stick to it, especially when the self-doubt creeps in or the rejections start piling up. The more you can do to create a habit of writing, the better you will be able to handle the vagaries of the craft.
There are so many articles and blogs out there telling writers how to be writers and offering advice and tips; I should know because I write one. But my New Year’s wish to all of you is to step away from that stuff for a moment and offer something else: Trust.
This year, I hope you learn to trust your own counsel, your inner ear and your ideas.
The holiday season is a time for joy and forgiveness, which includes forgiving yourself for all those creative projects languishing in the back of your closet or in forgotten files on your computer. All those stories awaiting an ending. All those tiny scraps of paper sporting lines of dialogue. All those frustrated characters without an ending.
I love the end of the year: the holidays, the decorations, the end of year reviews. It’s the perfect culmination of a year well spent. It’s also when I bury myself in holiday classics and stories. Somehow the dark nights and colder temps make reading better. I mean who can argue with reading a book before the fire, a cup of tea in hand and a cat curled up in your lap?
I remember the first time I performed a monologue in drama class and got some of my fellow students to cry. It was a heady thing. Such power. Such exhilaration making someone else feel the way I wanted them to feel.
Getting to those feelings are the goal of every writer. We want our readers to feel the thrill of the chase, the fear of a killer, and the joy of falling in love.
Being a writer requires a strong foundation in many things. It’s more than banging out a few lines and hitting post. Like any profession, there are basics every writer needs to master. Grammar is your foundation, but there’s so much more.
Story doesn’t rely on how to use a semicolon or the definition of a dangling participial phrase. It needs understanding and ideas that come from a broader education and perspective.
‘Tis the season for school assignments asking students what they are thankful for in their life. My son came home with just such an assignment and it made me think about what I was thankful for this year. It wasn’t hard to come up with an answer. It’s been a good year.