Results are in….

I’ve been trying out both Blogspot and WordPress, but I’m afraid the results are now final. Blogspot has won. It’s so much easier to maneuver in Blogspot/Blogger and it also has some very nifty features. So, from now on I’ll be posting at http://writingalchemy.blogspot.com.

I’m really sorry for any confusion but I would love for you to join me there.

Thanks for your patience.

Nothing New Under the Sun

Okay, so I’m digressing a little here, but humor me for the moment. I did a little search on Google today using “writers rooms” just out of curiosity. I wanted to see how other writers work. The messiness of some of them did surprise me, but a few other things left a big impression.

The picture above (photograph by Eamonn McCabe), showing the writing room of author Hanif Kureishi (The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) is pretty typical. If you want to see several in one place, check out this website that the Guardian did in 2009 on the subject. When you look at these websites, one constant is readily apparent: they read, and they read A LOT!

Several discussions I’ve heard lately (online and otherwise) have been on the issue of authors using material from other authors. Yet if someone reads a lot, as most all successful authors do, some things must bury themselves in the psyche, only to reappear in his or her own work. It could be a particular description, or perhaps a quote, or perhaps a particular style of writing, which has become so ingrained that it’s impossible to tell where it came from.

Obviously, this is different than plucking a complete paragraph (or worse) and using it as one’s own. Or even a theme. Just in today’s paper, an article reported that J. K. Rowling had won a case brought against her by the author of a book about Willy the Wizard. Apparently the book had found its way into the hands of Rowling’s agent but it may have been after she’d already hit gold dust with her Harry. I also remember a writing student of mine who had copied (or just blatantly presented a ‘”friend’s” paper) on some subject for a technical writing manual. The problem was that he forgot to change the dates (as in something will happen on a date that had already passed)!

Of course, as writers we do have to guard against our own inadvertent use of someone’s work. I don’t have any magic formulas for that, except to be conscious of our word choices at all times.

Yet another post!

When I started this blog I was determined to write an entry at least every other day. Hmmm. It’s not quite happening but I’ve busier than… well, I’ll avoid cliches and Texas-isms (my own word) so let’s just say ‘unusually busy’ this week. Isn’t that always the way? But let me just rant about blogs in general for a moment or two.

I’ve just joined a couple forums for writers and several people have their blog URLs in their signature line. Great, I thought. I’ve been looking for some writing blogs, so off I go: “blopping” (blog+hopping) as they call it. Honestly, what a surprise. I’ve found half a dozen blog addresses that don’t even work! The blogs have been removed or never existed in the first place. Now why would someone do that? One man who is very active on several forums, and who says he’s a published writer, lists both his blog address and his email. Neither of them work! Which leads one to seriously consider his credibility as a writer.

Tonight I was reading the December 2010 issue of “Writing Magazine”, a UK publication. In one article about how writers can gain publicity, the author mentions her own blog – but it hasn’t been updated since January 2009! Whoa! How are readers supposed to find her article credible?

This isn’t, of course, limited to writing or writer blogs. I also follow a lot of art journaling, scrapbooking, political, and just general blogs. Sad, but true – i just love reading blogs, but coming across a stale one is just plain jarring.

So, yes, it’s been a couple days since I posted, I admit. But it won’t ever go for over a year. If it does, I’ll delete it! That’s a promise. I can’t always promise the content will be exciting but it will definitely be fairly fresh.

Good Beginnings

I’ve finally started the story that’s been burning a hole in my brain for a few weeks. That’s the way it works for me, actually. I get an idea, then let it ferment for a week or two (or so!). I’ll usually think about it, make notes about it, change my mind several times about it, then, once it truly does “burn a hole”, I’ll finally sit down and start writing. The problem is that I have had lots of “starts” in my writing life, but few “ends” or even middles. They seem to lose steam, especially if I do as I usually suggest to other writers (we’re talking students and writers in my writing group): write it, then leave it alone for a good period, then go back to it when you have fresh eyes. There is always a danger of putting it away too early, of course, while it’s still too green. Or the other danger of leaving it ferment too long before you go back to it. Your eyes may be fresh when you’ve left it too long, but you may also have lost the plot (literally).

I just finished Elizabeth George’s book on writing, Write Away: one novelist’s approach to fiction and the writing life. This book was very helpful on several levels. First, she has a lot of encouragement for beginning writers. While that’s not exactly unique for a book on writing, she manages to bring it to a personal level and I found myself saying “Yes, that’s me!” many times. Second, she offers some very concrete suggestions for how to organize your writing in general and story in particular. One of her suggestions was to work up a very complete and detailed character sketch. This, too, is not exactly new. I’ve heard it at my writing groups and creative writing classes I’ve taken, but I don’t think I ever actually DID it  — at least not to any serious level — until yesterday.

Being a lazy sort, I went onto Google, as we do, and found a comprehensive list of character traits to use when building a character study. This list included everything from physical descriptions to type of car, to feelings towards animals to political views. (There are lots of these lists online so just do a little poking on your own to find one that suits  you.)

So, I started fleshing out my main character and soon had about four pages of character information for just my main character. What a revelation for me! Obviously not all of this will find its way into the book, nor should it, but it gives me a much clearer understanding of my character and a more consistent picture of her. I can refer back to the study as often as needed during the course of writing the novel to be sure I’m not throwing in something that won’t fit.

I also did a study on the other major characters, though not to such a thorough degree. By doing this on the others, I not only came up with much richer and multi-dimensional characters, but also some very intriguing possibilities for sub-plots. Plus all that, it was just plain fun to do. I didn’t worry about plot, about language, about grammar, or anything but writing in a stream-of-consciousness style. It worked for me and it just might work for you, too. If you’re having trouble moving your story forward, do this for your characters and see if you don’t get some real inspiration. Thank you, Elizabeth George!!! Of course, she also has some very concrete recommendations for organizing your plot, story line, etc. but we’ll save that for another day.

Tip for today: I just would like to recommend a few other books I’ve bought recently. What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers (Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter) is a quirky little book with chapters as diverse as ‘”Adding Texture”, “Taking Risks”, and “Borrowing Characters” – to name a few. For each chapter, the authors explain the problem, then provide an exercise to help the writer-reader to overcome it. Brilliant!  Second is a similar tool for writers, The Writer’s Idea Book: How to develop great ideas for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and screenplays by Jack Heffron. This book begins with the line “Writing is an act of hope.” I love it! Heffron also provides some advice based on common problems or quandries faced by all writers, then offers some “prompts” or exercises to help us understand and overcome them. He writes with humor and great empathy for new writers.

Some thoughts….

Hello and welcome to Writing Alchemy. I actually started this blog on Blogger (same name just replace wordpress with blogspot, if you want to see it), but am considering changing it to WordPress, here, as I really like the WordPress format. I’ve only done two posts over there, so no problem to change it. I hope <fingers crossed>!

I’ve just finished reading Lisa Lenard-Cook’s excellent book, The Mind of Your Story. Just before that, I read Write Away by Elizabeth George. So you see, I read more than I write… at least so far. I’ve joined a local writers’ group with the hope that it will make me start actually writing. And that’s what I want to talk about today: writers’ groups and beginning writers.

If you are a beginning writer, do consider joining a writers’ group. Ideally this would be a local group of writers (usually a mix of published and unpublished writers) who meet regularly. Why? Well, writing is by nature a fairly solitary activity anyway, but there are benefits to breaking that solitude occasionally:

Critiques: sharing work and getting feedback is one of the primary purposes of a writers’ group. If the only person to read your work is you, or even you and your friends and family, you will never know if and how you might improve it. By having experienced (even unpublished writers can help here) writers give you feedback, you’ll soon learn where you need to concentrate your efforts next. However, remember that all feedback is just that… it’s not necessarily authority.

Inspiration: by reading/hearing what others are writing, you cannot help but learn. In fact, unless you’re deaf, you’ll learn a lot just by listening to the chatter! Honestly!

Action: most writer groups at least occasionally if not at every meeting, will have short exercises, writer prompts, and contests. You’ll be encouraged to share your work, so it will force you to produce something… even if it’s something short.

Networking: if you’re ever serious about getting published, you will need to know the best places to submit your work. You’ll want to hear about contests and courses and writing festivals. You’ll want to know about agents who are open to new talent. You should want to know all the news in the publishing world, period.

So, how do you find a writers’ group? You can start by searching online for a local group.You can simply type “writers groups” in a search engine, or add your local area (for example, “London”) to be more specific. Ask your local librarian if there are any groups. You could even start one yourself by advertising, although that would be a whole other subject (go to the search engines and type “Starting a writes group” to see what I mean.

There are also online writer groups so if you can’t find one locally, consider joining an online one, although I do have some misgivings about sharing much of your work with people online. Not everyone is honest, unfortunately, and wouldn’t you hate to see your novel suddenly hit the big-time with another author’s name?! This option should be considered only if you’re unable to find one or start one locally.

So, hook up with other writers and boost up your writing. Good luck and if you have any tips or hints, please do leave them as comments. Thanks.