Talking about stuff!
I have written before about the writing process of my first two books. If you are looking for a professional published writer’s viewpoint, then don’t waste your time reading this. However, if you are interested in a personal journey of an amateur writer discovering his inner-talent, or lack of it, then you’re in the right place.
I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about writing, and I am about to continue spending another significant portion of my time while I take a nice long walk in a few minutes, specifically, figuring out the method that best suits me. I have written with and without an outline and personally experienced the pros and cons of both methods. Nevertheless, so far I realized that both are important for a good piece of literature – in comparison to my own personal standards.
What worked best for me was the preparation of detailed outlines in terms of characters (dramatis personae) and preparing a loose outline for the events of the story. I also started preparing my outlines in modules consisting of five chapters each and found that it provides enough cohesion and minimizes the boxing-in phenomenon known as writer’s block.
During my personal voyage I have discovered something wonderful that continues to amaze me to this day. I noticed that if you write without any preorganization, you tend to open a portal in your words that lead directly to your innermost self. To simplify this, during the revision process of my first book, I realized how my surroundings and desires affected various elements of the book, including characters, plots and ideas.
I suggest that you try to write a story, even a short one, without any preparation at least once to get to know your inner-writer on a more personal level. It might not be your best work though, but it will sure enlighten you about yourself.
Here is the link to the post I published a while ago about my method of preparing a dramatis personae for a fantasy book. Some elements were ignored though because they were unnecessary.
http://thinkinglazy.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/on-writing-sample-character-concept/
I just finished the first draft of my second book today.
Unlike the first book which had been written as two separate stories and combined, the second one was planned in a more detailed manner. Before writing this one, I did an adequate amount of research to develop my characters properly and wrote a summarized biography on each one of them – this ended being around 5,500 words and took two days worth of work.
I then prepared a simple outline for the first chapter and started working. This book is three parts and, unfortunately, the process changed significantly during the writing. For the first two parts, I wrote the chapter outline for each chapter separately then finished off the chapter. Going with this method for 10 chapters, 5 for each part, I managed to keep myself interested in writing the story as well as have its events flow smoothly, relatively.
By the time I reached the 65,000 words, I began getting really bored by the story and found that I was pushing through the writing process as if it was a chore. As a result the quality of writing deteriorated in the middle of the story, and it took a rather depressing turn away from the light one I intended it to have, but the sequence of events seemed to be flowing as I intended.
For the first two parts, the outline reached 6,500 words (about 1:10 ratio to the content) and was explaining key events appropriately. As for the third and final part, I decided to tackle it with a different way, one inspired by what I learnt from writing short stories. I spent around a week preparing two outlines. The first was a general outline which included the following elements for the part: (1) Goal, (2) Requirements, (3) Methods, (4) Conditions, (5) Issues/Problems, and (6) Key Explanations. The outline had all the elements I wanted to cover summarized in 1,600 words. This general outline was then expanded to a detailed outline which included all of these elements for each chapter with an exception of (6) Key Explanations which was saved for the final wrap-up chapter. For every chapter a brief summary was written and then expanded into individual sub-chapters for it. I attempted to include a moral concept or an interesting idea in each chapter while linking it to the main plot. An attempt to make each chapter stand-alone was made, but with little success. The detailed outline ended up being 8,500 words.
Overall, I found that the best method for me two write is not to tackle the book as a free-writing discovery type of literature, but to slowly move in short outlined modules. This way enables me to plan a decent outline while keeping the creativity factor alive, hence preventing me from being bored with the project. For me, the trick is to outline a maximum of five chapters ahead and deviate from it with limitations. Most importantly, I found that the quality of writing and interest factor for the author and reader increases the more the content stimulates the thinking process – as long as it does not make either process exhausting.
Starting from tomorrow, I will be proofreading and editing the first draft of the first part to make sure the story remains consistent with the end. Unlike the first book, I will be starting on my second draft immediately and delay the one-month-break process to the third draft, if I decide to continue with it.
I read somewhere that writers start producing high-quality work after their millionth word, and that is the goal I intend to reach within the next two years. So far I have written slightly over 250,000 words of unedited story content.
I just came back from traveling yesterday and found myself filled with motivation this morning. It seems that taking a break every once in a while from your normal lifestyle is definitely one of the best ways to motivate yourself and get back on track.
However, I did notice that the major spike in my “wanting to do something”ness came as I took a nice long walk (7 hours long) in a natural forest that had been made into a park. The is something about the singing of birds and the breezing of air that soothes the soul, not that I usually believe in that.
Due to the nature of our societal lives, I believe that the humans of future generations might not be capable of experiencing nature as we can, what a pity.
I guess all I wanted to say is that the best way to deal with writer’s block, returning to exercising, or any other motivation-caused disruptance, is to take a nice long walk amidst nature. This really works, but I have no idea how long the effect will last yet.
I have not been able to write my min 1,000 words a day for the past 4 days due to my laptop’s decision to breakdown. It is natural to expect such inconveniences in life once in a while. This, along with a streak of other inconveniences, made me remember a saying one of my professors used to say: ‘When it goes wrong, it goes wrong.’
In other words, sometimes things got wrong and there is nothing you can do about it, and no contingency plan would save you regardless of how meticulous and flawless it had been prepared.
Anyway, I managed to personally disassemble my laptop and look into the situation more thoroughly, something which I enjoy doing a great deal, and located the issue which was easily addressed thereafter.
This experience made me realize a few things about myself, and the path which I chose for my life so far. However, one thing stood out above all others: how productive it is for one to start working/producing immediately after waking up.
Being free from time constraints set by others, I slowly allowed my day to start later and later, until it started at two in the afternoon. Nevertheless, although it seems like a nice way to live, it is a rather unfavorable one which dramatically reduces the amount of things you can accomplish per day.
I still don’t understand why I, and most other people, am more productive when I start my day early, in spite of being awake for the same number of hours, but this seems to be the case.
It has been some time since I returned to reviewing my first written work, and I realize how drastically different it is to the one I am currently working on – the second volume.
As I was deciding how to address this issue, I came up with two alternatives: (1) editing it or (2) rewriting it. I have just decided to go with the latter.
The first thing I need to do is complete the second volume and make myself well acquainted with its events so that it would not contradict with that of the first – about 2/3 into it. Then I will decide on which chapters to include in the second written version of the first story. Once the chapters have been decided on, I will be drafting a general outline which would gradually develop its complicity until it becomes the book itself – a technique which I thought of and grown curious about.
Although I find myself swarmed with a new demanding and unpaying task, I cannot help but smile whenever my mind dwells on the struggles which await me.
If every person was to be asked how many different types of people existed, an infinite exponentially increasing number of responses would be derived. Even if this process was given to a select few, it would continue to yield different results in time due to the ever-changing nature of the human mind. Be that the case, there would never be one true way of splitting people into types which could be attributed to conclusive and specific non-physical features. In other words, one can easily differentiate between the color of skin or shape of eyes, but if you take all the slightest differences present within one specific feature, an endless spectrum of possibilities would be derived.
To simplify matters, there is no one perfect and absolute way of categorizing people down to the most basic details, due to the ever-increasing complexity of this already complex structure scientifically known as Homo-Sapien-Sapien.
Within a coffee shop, two men conversed, while having a cup of coffee. One of the men was a political science professor in a university. The other was a philosopher, who wrote books and essays for a living. A conversation about the current political state of affairs, and corruption, stemmed.
“Tell me, if a man/woman was to come and start an organization to selectively assassinate corrupt political figures, would you support him/her?”
“No, it is wrong to do so. Matters should be resolved peacefully”
“How?”
“Through protests and non-violent demonstrations”
“What if the current government has violent tendencies, and supports the killing of members belonging to any opposition?”
“Still, this does not justify their killing?”
“Would you defend yourself if you were attacked by a burglar in the streets?”
“Yes”
“And how is this different? You are still being robbed from your rights, and when you defend yourself or demonstrate objection, you are killed”
“Because a civilized society does not act as such”
“But a civilized society, usually, is composed of civilized individuals. And if civility stops people from defending themselves, then how did we come to evolve as such? Perhaps civility is a new and mutated characteristic, which is not meant to be passed on”
“But things don’t really matter if you attain them using the wrong means”
“Let me give you a little scenario, and then you can judge it. An idealist decides to start a small group of assassins, targeting corrupt political figures. They subjectively determine the motives of whoever is in charge, and if they find them harmful to the people, they kill him/her. However, if a politician truly attempts to improve the state of the country, and its people, they let him/her be. Let us assume that this particular group was very successful, and they grew to be a significant force. Now, during their existence, the country improves significantly. If after enough time passes, for their actions to have a significant positive impact on the country, and you are to judge this idealist. Would you consider him/her guilty – of actively improving the country – or innocent – for killing its leaders?”
“Well, this person did the right thing with the wrong methods. I cannot say that he/she is innocent. Regardless of his/her motives, he/she killed. Killing is wrong”
“By your logic, people like you will be extinct by the hands of people like the corrupt rulers. A prey cannot will its predator into submission, just as a pacifist cannot object a violent government into resignation”
By the time this conversation was over, the two finished their coffee and each one headed to start his day. It was a rather beautiful day.
Ever since I took up writing as a hobby, reading has become a much more interesting activity. Naturally, the more you read good quality work, the more your writing improves – somewhat. However, it does not substitute practicing the hobby itself.
One of my earliest attempts to actively improve my writing skills was by reading a certain type of written material and attempting to incorporate elements from it within my designated piece for the day. For example, I practiced by reading Beowulf and attempted to write using a similar modified style immediately afterwards. Eventually, I forgot about actively seeking to develop and discover my writing style and just enjoyed the material I read.
While going through some of my older work, I noticed how dramatically my style had changed. Slowly, but steadily, my writing style changed into a combination of different techniques, elements, and my own personal – genetically ascribed if you will – style.
To simply put it, I observed that the more you read and write, the less your writing gets affected by the most recent content you read.
