Time Markers

I wish this were a post about a fantastic set of felt-tip markers that, when used, could manipulate the fabric of space and time.  Sounds like a great children's independent reader series, actually.  However, when devotees of art say that great art is transporting, I don't think that's what they mean.

I'm writing, of course, about the little signals that show us the passage of time in a film, TV show, or piece of writing.  People talking about back-to-school shopping indicate that summer is ending (no!) and that autumn is on its way.  Jack o' lanterns, cornucopias, lawn Santas, Christmas trees, and pink doily cupids give away similar clues about the time of year in which a story takes place.

When you write, and your story takes place over the course of several months (or years), how do you convey that information?  Do you use the holidays?  Do you simply state the day of week or time of year?  Do you describe your characters' (hopefully weather-appropriate) clothing or mention the meal they are eating?  If the time of day or year isn't important, do you forgo time markers completely?  Human life is so inextricably linked to the passage of time that we often use time markers without even noticing or thinking about it.

Time is important to the characters of The Fracture of a Dream.  It takes place mostly across a timespan of one year, so descriptions of the seasons were my method of marking the time.  Dek is a character with a strong affinity for nature, so this also followed quite logically.  I also wanted to avoid the assumption that my characters might celebrate any religiously linked holiday.  Dek and his friends are solidly American, but they may not share all aspects of the culture that the majority of Americans consider to be a given.  Trust me.  With what Dek's going through in his life, remembering holidays is not high on his list of priorities.

And on that note, I wish you a happy new year, fellow readers and writers.  May your 2013 be everything you dream it will be.

Ren D.

What's in a Place?

Where do you go to work?  Specifically, where do you go to write?

Every writer has his or her own process, and the writing environment is part of it.  Reportedly, Maya Angelou owns three homes but maintains a hotel room where she goes daily to do her writing.  Leo Tolstoy was rumored to lock himself away in his study while working and not come out for days or more.  Zadie Smith has been heard to say that one's writing computer should not have access to the Internet (I agree! Look up words later!), which can certainly be an unseen, mental component of one's environment.

On the other hand, some research studies have suggested that a little bit of ambient noise actually fosters creativity (particularly for people who are already highly creative), so I imagine there are many writers (J.K. Rowling comes to mind as a famous example) who may do much of their writing in cafes.  If you're interested in reading about that research, a shorter description is here, and a longer one is here.

Personally, I need complete silence to write.  It's hard enough immersing my mind into the fictional world I am creating, especially if my environment doesn't match what I'm writing at the time (such as writing about a bitter winter in the middle of a breezeless summer), blocking out extraneous noises would require too much mental effort.  At least I can comfort myself with the tidbit that Virginia Woolf herself was constantly getting distracted by the noises in her environment!  I always write on my computer (longhand would be far too slow for me), and an uncluttered, unadorned space is best for my concentration.  I find sitting becomes uncomfortable after several hours, so I also try changing positions when I can.

If I can dream, I believe that a secluded spot outdoors, perhaps in the forest, would probably be my dream location for writing (perhaps I'm channeling Emerson or Thoreau! I wish, right?), but having no access to such a working space, I have to content myself with writing late at night at home, when the world is (relatively) silent.  I'm sure my electric company just loves the energy I burn night after night!

For fun, take a look at some images of famous writers' writing sanctuaries: here, here, and for some more contemporary writers, here.  Are you jealous of those beautiful book-filled wooden studies or what?  There are some other great examples here.

Ren D.

My NaNoWriMo Metrics

Testing these widgets out.  Hopefully they'll be a good motivator for me to press on with my daily writing!

Hope I'll be a "winner" this year. ;)


My month shown via widget.  You can see if I've been good or not.

Writer Up!

Out of curiosity, is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this November?

I set out to do it last year (the first year in which I had no work or school obligations eating up my time), but I planned poorly and wasn't able to get anything meaningful written at all.  I'm quite disappointed with that subpar level of performance, so I truly want to "writer up" this year and get some solid pieces written, polished, and finished.

My current project, The Fracture of a Dream, is already nearing initial completion (if I write diligently this month), so I hope to finish in time to set it aside and then start a new project I have in mind during November.  I also have three short stories that need to be completed.  (Yes, my attention span is short and often scattered all over the place.  The words, you know.  They just come, and sometimes they come from different stories...)

My admiration goes to the truly devoted individuals who write outside of their full-time careers, especially if they are also parents of younger children.  You are amazing, and I could never manage anything like it.  I wouldn't have the energy.

Well, I better get back to writing myself.  Let me know how all of you are doing on your own projects!

Keep writing,
Ren D.

Conversational Glitter, Lack Of

I'd never tell writers or other artists to associate with more creative types in order to discover ideas, though it's true that some of my best ideas and best conversations came from spending time with others who were high in creativity.  With these friends, ideas flew, possibilities hung amply ready for plucking, and our minds worked together in overdrive.  They almost felt fertile.

I had a good friend in college who was my conversational glitter.  He was both a writer and an artist, and we had fabulous discussions about utterly ridiculous, offbeat situations.  Conversations with him could go anywhere.  Picnics could happen at midnight.  Chocolate syrup could be blood, in the right lighting.

As often happens, friends grow apart.  A few years later, I entered a doctoral program, and we slowly lost touch.  I was surrounded by a very different type of person in my graduate program -- it wasn't that everyone was serious and dull (they really weren't!) -- it was just that there was no room for the absurd.  Ideas were concrete; they needed to be quantifiable.  Anything out of the realm of the ordinary was regarded as strange and frightening.

I thrived in the intellectual environment, but my chances to be delighted by the whimsical and thought-provoking simply shriveled up.  I no longer had my conversational glitter.  It's a loss I still feel; no one has come close to matching the likes of my imaginative (not imaginary!) and very intelligent friend.

Though some of the flights of fancy described in The Fracture of a Dream were definitely inspired by silly conversations with friends and my own late-night solitary musings, I can't help but feel like I would be more fruitful, more interesting, if I were surrounded by other creative types who have a sense of humor for reinventing the mundane.

Not every writer (or artist) needs a friend to help recharge one's creativity, but I've realized that, for me, it's practically required.

Ren D.

To Mix Some Metaphors

It can take me a long time to get something written down, even when I'm excited about the idea and already have thoughts on how I'll handle the topic.

I've found that when I wait like this, though, almost as if I'm letting the idea steep in my brain, so that the flavors can unfurl and mix so that they don't feel forced or incongruous, the scene manages to play itself out, leading naturally to the next event I want to introduce.  The other details trickle in slowly, infusing their little quirks into the spaces that are left, until the idea seems heavy and full, ready to be spilled out onto paper.

Once the idea begins to percolate (ha!), that's when I sit down at the computer and type the scene out madly.  Naturally, I may add or rewrite parts later, but after the steeping process, the idea has generally found its own solid footing, whatever meaning it brings to the story, and the other necessary details have fallen into place.  At that point, I often feel as though the scene could never have happened any other way.

R.D.

On the Precipice

There is often a serious lack of resolution, of closure, in dramatic works.  Can you imagine if someone asked you an important question, and you simply stared back at them and then turned around and walked away?  (Happens on TV and in the movies all the time!)  Or if you were only aware of the beginnings or endings of some of your conversations?  (Books leave out parts of conversations all the time...it'd be boring otherwise!)  What if something quite important was about to happen, but (as always!) a phone call or unexpected visitor derailed the action?  (I have to admit this has happened to me far more often in real life than I would have predicted.)

Could we live with so much uncertainty in real life?

I think not.  When we ask questions, we want answers.  We don't want to be left hanging for the information to be revealed at the best dramatic moment, whether it be several days later or several decades later.  We'd run after the person leaving.  We'd insist until we got an answer.

When we miss part of a conversation, we want to know what was said while we were gone.  When we are interrupted, we try (often unsuccessfully) to recapture the moment that was lost.

Yet, there is something to be said for the excitement of uncertainty.  Perhaps, then, to avoid boring ourselves and others, we should consider removing ourselves from conversations and situations before they've fully played out to their logical end.  Always leave them wanting more, right?

I'm going on my dream vacation.  Bye! :)

Ren D.

Let It Grab You...Then Use It

There are certainly moments when I just don't feel like writing, or when I don't feel like writing a particular chapter or scene.

I let my mood grab me and work on the scene I'm the most excited about at the time or the scene where the atmosphere or tension most fits what I am experiencing in real life.  There's always editing later.  I'd rather have the words, the thoughts, the feelings flowing because I'm in that place or in that mindset at the moment than have my fingers stuttering, trying to squeeze incongruent words out on the computer keyboard.

This doesn't mean what I do doesn't require imagination.  It always does -- and I enjoy making things up rather than drawing from my personal experiences.  It's not interesting to write strictly about myself or the people I know.  However, using my current environment or feelings helps make the writing meaningful to me.  Just in case no one else enjoys my work, at least I know I do.

Ren D.

Musings Before Bedtime

If they don't pay me in royalties, my friends, I think I might be willing to accept payment in the form of homemade butter or cheese.  A well-fed writer is less likely to spend pages describing food, I think.

Perhaps aside from the "no grocery shopping while hungry" rule, there needs to be a "no writing while hungry" rule!  Abraham Maslow did place the need for food at the bottom of his hierarchy for needs (where the most basic physiological needs were grouped).  How can you strive for higher purposes if you're sleepless, thirsty, hungry, and so on?

I write (and work) better when I'm a little hungry, though.  Maybe it was conditioning from all those years in graduate school.  I suppose you'll have to live with my fixation on describing food in my work.  :)

Ren "Hungry" D.

Do I Really Have to Do Research?

Why wouldn't you?  Research enriches your story.  The details provide color.  I don't want my characters to sound exactly like me.  I don't want their whole world to be composed of the limited extent of my own existence.

I like to learn.  I like to fill my head with interesting tidbits and research factoids.

I don't write to educate, really.  The Fracture of a Dream, for instance, is not a textbook or a science book, even though the characters' motivations and behavior are often based on existing empirical research.  No, I don't feel like I became a lecturer at any point.  However, I do want information in the book to be based on facts when possible.

There were some parts of the book that I didn't want to research in depth, particularly the medical and legal aspects.  I knew there were too many ways to get it wrong, and as I said before, I wasn't writing a textbook.

Aside from that, those details were not the focus of the book, and I didn't want to detract from the characters and their relationships in an attempt to be completely factually accurate.  Thus, I left things unsaid -- they may happen behind the scenes and are only referenced in conversations with other characters -- or vague.  Dek Sundowner is not a doctor, psychologist, or lawyer, for example, so his understanding of matters from those professions is very basic anyway.

Not researching those areas deeply is not a problem, in my opinion.  Other details, however -- technology of historical time periods, the sensation or taste of a particular dish, the names of types of flowers or animals -- those can be important.  I think they take the story to a new level of reality.

This is why you'll probably never see one of my characters drinking coffee.  I refuse to do any research on that beverage.  ;)

That's my two cents.  What about you, fellow writers?  How do you approach research for your works of fiction?

Rendy "Research" Diller

Waiting For You in Dimlos Park

I can't count how many love stories use the dramatic plot point of lovers planning to meet at X location, only for unexpected problems to occur.  One of the pair might be late, or perhaps they both arrive but miss each other.  Or one of them arrives, breathless and starry-eyed, but at the wrong location.  Perhaps, for some reason, one of the pair did not receive the message about their dramatic meeting.  Perhaps it was intercepted; perhaps it was lost.  Other times, the one of the pair, or both, may have second thoughts about the meeting, and as the seconds tick down, we agonize, with the couple, over whether there will be a happy ending.

These moments happen in real life as well (you laugh, perhaps, but they do!), though when they occur, they tend to be quiet, private.  Unobtrusive.

They aren't always meetings in front of glowing fountains, at the top of skyscrapers, or in the middle of street as rain pours down and the lovebirds ignore on-coming traffic.  In fact, the moments aren't always between lovers.

It can be a broken promise between friends, a cruel act of betrayal between parent and child.  It can be one person reading more meaning into another's words than that person intended.  It can be an unlikely dream that shatters in one moment of clarity.  That moment of "coming true"...simply wasn't.

I'm really talking more about expectations, rather than the actual act of waiting.  One person has expectations, dreams, or hopes, and for some variety of reasons, they are not realized.  The message is lost or misunderstood.  The people you are depending on don't come through for you.  Perhaps a person you trusted didn't feel the same way about you, and you find out too late.

When we wait, we are, of course, expecting something.  We don't wait in lines without the intention of doing something or receiving something when we reach the front.  We don't sit down to people-watch without expecting people to come along.  We don't listen to music over the telephone without wanting to speak to someone at the other end.

In The Fracture of a Dream, Dek Sundowner is waiting under the willow tree in Dimlos Park.  What is it?  Does he find it?

Ren D.

But Those Distractions Are So...Shiny...

Focus, focus, focus!

While writing, it's so easy to pop open your web browser to "look up a word" or "do some fact-checking" and then, hours later, you find yourself still reading your Twitter feed, 'Like'ing things on Facebook, or lost in an endless maze of Wikipedia entries (darn them for linking to so many other enticing entries!)...where did the time go?

I'm not even going to get into the research on distraction.

Okay, fine, I will.  Just one article -- read this study on how checking Facebook even just once within a 15-minute period was enough to derail student productivity.

I'm easily distracted.  Even Microsoft Word is too distracting for me!  All those things to click on across the top?  Writing with my text surrounded by those huge margins, or trying to read anything that's double-spaced?  I can't do it!  Something about the empty space makes me lose my focus.

I used to do all my writing in Notepad, but it came with the added danger of no auto-save feature.  I could lose whatever I was working on if the power went out or if my computer froze.

All the advances of the modern world, and I can't even control my Internet-checking impulses, right?  (It's called addiction.)  Finally, I looked into distraction-free writing tools and tested out a few.  I wanted one that I could carry around on my USB drive to move from computer to computer, and I wanted it to be plain and easy on the eyes.  Naturally, as a starving writer, I also wanted it to be free.

There are many similar applications out there, so be sure to research on your own.  FocusWriter is the one I currently use.  It allows for some formatting (like bold and italics), so that I don't have to search through my text later to add it in.  It also auto-saves as long as I've saved the file under a name already.  I can even set it to make clacky typewriter sounds for writing days when I feel particularly old-fashioned.

Got suggestions for me or other writers?  Let me know in the Comments field!

Ren D.

Productivity, The Elusive

Oh, productivity.  You are as elusive as the ice cream man when I am craving an artificially colored, novelty-shaped popsicle.  Sometimes I can hear you, but I can't see you -- and that's as helpful to me as subscribing to weather reports for cities in which I don't live.

I heard that people do this.  I'm not talking about myself or anything.

I was trying oh-so-hard to work on The Fracture of a Dream while I was out of town last month, but I have to confess it really didn't work.  Every day, there were other things I had to do.  E-mails to answer, errands to run, people to see, requests for other urgent work to be completed...

I'm sure you know what I mean.

Even when I'm trying to write in the comfort of my own home, I struggle with the other tasks that come up.  Many people don't understand that I am working (and that I do not answer phone calls or reply to e-mails during that time) and make demands on me to complete some unnecessary task or another.  They perceive their work to take priority over my own.

I'm even guilty of abusing my e-mail's vacation auto-responder to pretend I am away on delightful trips when I'm actually not.  ("Just leave me alone" is a little rude, you see.)  I do still want to have friends, family, and colleagues once I am done with my current writing project.

Aside from using productivity software such as RescueTime (I used this while completing my doctoral dissertation) to hold me accountable for my time, I've had trouble sticking to a set-in-concrete writing schedule.  Sometimes, as much as I hate errands and other small jobs, they must be done.

Anyone out there in Internetland have some advice for me?

Ren D.

Uh-Oh, Editing & Rewriting!

Sometimes you're writing and writing and writing, and you realize what you've written previously doesn't work.  Maybe plotholes are blooming all over the page; maybe you've just got a tough inner critic.  (Oh man, what if that picky inner critic is right?!)  You hate the idea of scrapping it all and starting over, or you hate the idea of picking over your words to be sure you said what you meant to say (surely everything you write comes out baby-perfect?).  But it's okay.  Editing and rewriting can and must be done.

In my case, I can't always get the perfect word to come to mind at the "write" time.  (Yeah, dumb pun. You got me...I'm sorry.)  Sometimes I even get the meaning totally wrong.  When I read over older passages, I catch awkward phrasing and and overuse of the same words.  Sometimes a passage is clear to me, but upon re-reading, I realize it wasn't written clearly at all.  On the days when I don't feel like working on something new, I go back to what I've already written and examine it.  It requires my editor's eye to be alert, of course, but editing something that's already written is easier than filling up a blank page.

During my writing process for The Fracture of a Dream, I had to change several scenes because Dek, the protagonist, was not the dynamic character he needed to be.  Too often, he was passive, allowing things to happen to him and finding himself in situations rather than putting himself into them. I would personally hate reading about such a milquetoast character ("Do SOMETHING, man!"), so I knew this wouldn't do for my precious Dek.

I deleted some scenes entirely, changed the way his behavior and reactions were described, and reversed the dialogue for some of the other characters.  The way the final scene plays out changed significantly.

You may not agree with what Dek chooses to do in the end, and your interpretation of who he is as a man may vary, but at least Dek isn't the lost soul being pushed around by fate that he was before.

Back to work, friends!

Ren D.

Where I've Come From on My Writer's Journey

I've been writing fiction since I was a child, inspired by the thousands of wonderful books (and their authors*) that I devoured, flying from cover to cover, book to book.

I never got to take a course in creative writing.  I just knew writing was fun, and I loved to do it.

When I was in middle school (Go Cards!) and high school (Go Vikes!), I was fairly prolific and wrote pages upon pages of adventure stories, starring my friends in quirky situations.  I wrote about calculators, people's shoes, penguins learning to cook, purple monkeys, shrunken apple heads, and much more nonsense that I don't care to admit to these days.

I even won a handful of writing contests.  They don't mean anything to anyone now, but I'll always recall them with a little pride.

It was easier back then.  I remember summer afternoons jamming out pages of dialogue, single-spaced in the smallest font possible, laughing to myself as I got my unsuspecting friends in and out of bizarre situations.  I didn't overthink every word.

My audience consisted of my friends, so I didn't understand the concept of character development.  I didn't need it -- everyone knew the characters in my stories and what they were like.

And, GUILTY, almost all of my stories were left unfinished.  I even titled one of the stories "The Unfinished Story of..." because I knew I'd never finish it, even from the start.  Either I didn't know when (or how) to end a story, or as it often happened, I started writing with enthusiasm, only for that enthusiasm to peter out as I got more involved in schoolwork.

When I began thinking seriously about a writing career, I knew I would have to stop leaving stories unfinished.  As far as I know, most people don't like to be left hanging, wondering if their books are missing the last few pages.  Thus, The Fracture of a Dream started off with an ending, and I planned the major events and timeline clearly before I began writing.

Details changed as I began the actual writing process, of course, but having the structure of a planned plot has allowed me to write the story out of order and leave parts unwritten when the details were not yet clear to me.  It's worked out very well for me, and I completely intend to model future writing projects on this one.

Ren D.

*No authors were harmed in my childhood quest to read the entire library.  Lest you think I'm a cannibal, I didn't actually devour any authors -- just their inspiring ideas!