Quick Grammar Joke

The English professor explained that a double negative forms a positive. John asked if that meant a double positive formed a negative.

"No," the professor explained. "Two positives can never form a negative."

John answered, "Yeah, right."

Do's and Dont's

DO: Know exactly what your protagonist wants

DON'T: Let your protagonist have it right away.

DO: Eliminate all distractions before you write.

DON'T: Literally eliminate the distractions, especially if they are your loved ones.

DO: Read your story aloud to see if it sounds right.

DON'T: Read your story aloud while you eat to see if it sounds right. (It never will.)

DO: When you think you're not a good writer, imagine yourself as a good writer and just do what that person would do.

DON'T: When you think you're not a good writer, imagine yourself as a good writer and just write what that person already wrote.

DO: Remember that E.L. Doctorow said, "Writing is like driving at night in the fog."

DON'T: Forget that E.L. Doctorow was using this as a simile.

Finding Time to Write

Who has time to write?

By the look of my local Barnes and Noble, hundreds of people. No... thousands. What's their secret? Beats me. It's a secret.

I've found two things that work for me though.  The first is to set aside a time to write. But if I blogged about that today, this entry would already be over. What's the second method?

I blogged a few months back about Finding the Cracks. When you have spare time, use it to write. And I don't mean spare time, like when you have an unexpected three hours because the cable went out (even though that's an opportunity.) I mean ten minutes. Twenty. I'm talking about the cracks in your schedule.

The difficulty is in recognizing these opportunities.  That's where this list comes in. Here are times you might not otherwise think about as opportunities to write:

1. Do you have children? Do they play organized sports? Are they any good? If the answers to these questions are (Yes, Yes and No) then you have a built in time for writing. Take your notebook or laptop with you to the sidelines and get to work. If anyone gets upset at you for this, that just helps you create more believable conflict.
   
   
2. Work meetings. You've probably been in The Meeting That Would Not Die. Most of us have.  Here's a tip. Always take a writing pad with you. You should do this anyway, so you can take notes. And note taking is a built in excuse for plotting your next novel.  Oh, and here's another tip. Do you make weird faces when you're trying to write your characters' reactions? Then keep your facial expressions at a minimum during your manager's big presentation. I figured that one out the hard way.
   
   
3. Repetitive arguments are a fantastic time to get more writing in.  I'm talking about that disagreement, probably (but not necessarily with a significant other) that never goes anywhere. She says "You're always distracted." You say, "Always is an absolute statement. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say I'm sometimes distracted?" And she says, "What are you doing? Writing?" Hmm. Come to think of it, try to arrange for the argument to take place over the phone. Otherwise, you're more likely to lose.

See? Right there are three quick and easy ways to squeeze in more writing. As a bonus, if they leave single, with estranged children and no job, you'll have even MORE time to write!

My ideas are not only good. They're exponentially good. 

See? Even though this post was time consuming, it's totally worth it. You can thank me later.

Random quotes on writing

Here are some random quotes from people who have successfully walked the path of writing. I started to
categorize them, but then realized they would no longer be random.

• Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.
  (Ray Bradbury)
  
• You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.
  (Jack London)
  
• If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster.
  (Issac Asimov)
  
• The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.
  (Vladimir Nabokov)
  
• If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
  (Stephen King)
  

• Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
  (Lloyd Alexander)
  
• You can fix anything but a blank page.”
  (Nora Roberts)
  
• A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
  (E.B. White)
  
• "You can make anything by writing."
  (C.S. Lewis)
  
• I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.
  (Erica Jong)
  
• If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.-
  (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
  
• "Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."
  (Robert Heinlein)
  
• There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.
  (Terry Pratchett))

The Danger of My Obsession

You know the one thing I love more than writing fiction? Well, truth be told, there's more than one. But do you know the particular thing I'm thinking about right now, that I love more than writing fiction?

No you don't. Otherwise, you'd probably be reading something else about now.

Even more than writing, I love thinking about writing. Like several writers with a day job, I imagine what it will be like to have writing be the only work, but that's not what I mean.

I love thinking about the craft.  You know, imagining the characters I want to create, the feelings I want to bring out, the types of stories I want to tell.

Used to be I'd by every Writer's Digest magazine when it came out, along with the occasional Writer Magazine based on the content. And I'd devour them, learning more and more along the way.

If there's one thing I'm good at, it's trivial geek references.  If there's two things I'm good at, you can add obsessing about interests to the list.  Somewhere on the list, if you add enough things that I'm good at, you get to writing.

I adore it. Which means I obsess about it. And there's the danger.

All the things listed that I enjoy doing, from reading the magazines to daydreaming about the craft, they're all good things. The catch is, when I'm thinking about writing, it feels like I'm actually going through the process.  But if all I'm doing is thinking, reading, or talking about it, then no new words actually make it to the page.

Every single day, I have to remind myself to sit down in the seat and do the real work.  This is true whether it's the day after writing 2000 words, or a week after writing 100.

Obsessing about the craft will ultimately benefit me, but only if I turn it into the right kind of action.  Otherwise it becomes a hindrance and a danger to the writing.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

(That last line was one of those geeky references I mentioned. Just so you know that I know that I didn't come up with the line.)

Checking in

Hello.

I'm still alive, and still writing. The blog has been neglected though. Soon, I'll post some more about the writing life.  Or just about the writing.

For now, I'm focusing on my goals and finding ways to achieve them.  Back to writing...