Bootcamp Progress
I thought I'd post an update on how things are going so far (and thereby jinx any further progress).
The plan of doing timed writing AND untimed writing every night was a little ambitious. Apparently. What I've been managing to do every night is the timed freewriting. Because it's so very non-threatening. I know that all I have to do is sit down for x number of minutes and whatever verbiage I spew out in that amount of time is fine. No pressure to have pretty sentences or plots that make sense or any other traits of good writing. Just sit and spew, and when the timer goes off, I can call it a day. That I usually end up writing beyond the timed limits is a bonus.
I did a week of setting the timer for twenty minutes. I didn't have any prompts to start with, and I ended up spending four nights writing the continuation of a single "story." And while words were coming out, and I was having fun writing, there was a very meandering, stalling quality to the story. Lots of time-filling waste of prose. I had the feeling that I could keep it up indefinitely and end up with the world's longest plotless novel. (There are a lot of contenders for that title, though; some of them award-winning.)
Feeling vaguely dissatisfied, I did a look around for articles and books with freewriting exercises, and came across this book called Fast Fiction. I'd seen the book on Amazon before but never felt compelled to look into it further. The basic concept (as gleaned from Amazon reviews and elsewhere) is to set the timer for five minutes and then to write a complete story in that time. The key point that I was missing earlier, though, is to have a writing prompt before you start and the intention to wrap up the story in five minutes. I'm sure there are other tidbits I'm missing, but since I still haven't bought the book, I will continue to miss them. Holly Lisle's workshop on timed writing also recommends having a topic.
I should mention that I've always been very resistant to the idea of doing writing exercises, the thought being that by doing exercises I was taking time and energy away from doing my "real" writing. Since I wasn't doing my "real" writing however, I finally figured that I should at least be doing practice writing. (David Gerrold's Worlds of Wonder is my favorite writing book because of a one-page chapter about how, until you've written one million words, it's all just practice. You practice writing short stories and novels, practice sending them out, practice getting them published, and hell, practice accepting awards if it comes to that. But until you've reached that million word mark, practice is all it is. I wanted to have that page enlarged to hang on my wall, but since my copy of the book is now lost forever, I don't think that will ever happen. Would make a lovely Christmas gift from someone though...)
I've done a week of "five-minute" timed writings now with random topic prompts. What I've found is that I still end up writing for about twenty minutes--I can't seem to wrap up a story in less time. The timer goes off and I still keep writing. I'm averaging about 700 words a day, which isn't bad considering I am only writing for twenty minutes. The prompted writing has produced what I consider to be interesting sketches for stories. They'd need to be thought out a bit more and revised (another new concept that the Muse will be learning at some point soon), but I expect that the revisions will be somewhat less painful than they had been, since a.) I have a more-or-less complete story arc that I know in advance, and thus, an outline [my apologies for mentioning the dreaded "O" word--the afrighted know who they are], and b.) I haven't invested a lot of blood and tears into the drafts so far. Fewer darlings to kill.
So, I'm happy with things thus far. One of the main things I've gotten out of this exercise is dispensing with this notion I'd somehow acquired that each story awaits in its perfect form out in the ether and the writer's job, like Michelangelo's idea of releasing a sculpture from stone, was to somehow capture that story. I don't know that I'd consciously thought of stories like that, but I was aware of judging whether aspects of the story were "right" or not. Is that the right structure for this story, the right tone, the right theme? The timed writings, where I'm making things up as I go, has reaffirmed writing as an act of creation. I'm not simply the means of transmitting a story, some sort of messenger for the story muse, whose job is to deliver the message correctly, but the person in charge of how the story goes. Instead of discovering the proper form for the story, I'm deciding it. I don't worry about what the story wants to be, only about choosing what to write. It's good not to be worrying about writing something "right," especially for a born perfectionist.
The second thing I've gotten out of this is that I'm having fun writing again. I've relearned how much I love making up stories and writing them down. And that, of course, is the most important lesson of all.
Do I have a new story yet? Well, no. This is a very one step forward, two steps back approach. I'm basically reinventing my whole writing process. One thing at a time.
The plan of doing timed writing AND untimed writing every night was a little ambitious. Apparently. What I've been managing to do every night is the timed freewriting. Because it's so very non-threatening. I know that all I have to do is sit down for x number of minutes and whatever verbiage I spew out in that amount of time is fine. No pressure to have pretty sentences or plots that make sense or any other traits of good writing. Just sit and spew, and when the timer goes off, I can call it a day. That I usually end up writing beyond the timed limits is a bonus.
I did a week of setting the timer for twenty minutes. I didn't have any prompts to start with, and I ended up spending four nights writing the continuation of a single "story." And while words were coming out, and I was having fun writing, there was a very meandering, stalling quality to the story. Lots of time-filling waste of prose. I had the feeling that I could keep it up indefinitely and end up with the world's longest plotless novel. (There are a lot of contenders for that title, though; some of them award-winning.)
Feeling vaguely dissatisfied, I did a look around for articles and books with freewriting exercises, and came across this book called Fast Fiction. I'd seen the book on Amazon before but never felt compelled to look into it further. The basic concept (as gleaned from Amazon reviews and elsewhere) is to set the timer for five minutes and then to write a complete story in that time. The key point that I was missing earlier, though, is to have a writing prompt before you start and the intention to wrap up the story in five minutes. I'm sure there are other tidbits I'm missing, but since I still haven't bought the book, I will continue to miss them. Holly Lisle's workshop on timed writing also recommends having a topic.
I should mention that I've always been very resistant to the idea of doing writing exercises, the thought being that by doing exercises I was taking time and energy away from doing my "real" writing. Since I wasn't doing my "real" writing however, I finally figured that I should at least be doing practice writing. (David Gerrold's Worlds of Wonder is my favorite writing book because of a one-page chapter about how, until you've written one million words, it's all just practice. You practice writing short stories and novels, practice sending them out, practice getting them published, and hell, practice accepting awards if it comes to that. But until you've reached that million word mark, practice is all it is. I wanted to have that page enlarged to hang on my wall, but since my copy of the book is now lost forever, I don't think that will ever happen. Would make a lovely Christmas gift from someone though...)
I've done a week of "five-minute" timed writings now with random topic prompts. What I've found is that I still end up writing for about twenty minutes--I can't seem to wrap up a story in less time. The timer goes off and I still keep writing. I'm averaging about 700 words a day, which isn't bad considering I am only writing for twenty minutes. The prompted writing has produced what I consider to be interesting sketches for stories. They'd need to be thought out a bit more and revised (another new concept that the Muse will be learning at some point soon), but I expect that the revisions will be somewhat less painful than they had been, since a.) I have a more-or-less complete story arc that I know in advance, and thus, an outline [my apologies for mentioning the dreaded "O" word--the afrighted know who they are], and b.) I haven't invested a lot of blood and tears into the drafts so far. Fewer darlings to kill.
So, I'm happy with things thus far. One of the main things I've gotten out of this exercise is dispensing with this notion I'd somehow acquired that each story awaits in its perfect form out in the ether and the writer's job, like Michelangelo's idea of releasing a sculpture from stone, was to somehow capture that story. I don't know that I'd consciously thought of stories like that, but I was aware of judging whether aspects of the story were "right" or not. Is that the right structure for this story, the right tone, the right theme? The timed writings, where I'm making things up as I go, has reaffirmed writing as an act of creation. I'm not simply the means of transmitting a story, some sort of messenger for the story muse, whose job is to deliver the message correctly, but the person in charge of how the story goes. Instead of discovering the proper form for the story, I'm deciding it. I don't worry about what the story wants to be, only about choosing what to write. It's good not to be worrying about writing something "right," especially for a born perfectionist.
The second thing I've gotten out of this is that I'm having fun writing again. I've relearned how much I love making up stories and writing them down. And that, of course, is the most important lesson of all.
Do I have a new story yet? Well, no. This is a very one step forward, two steps back approach. I'm basically reinventing my whole writing process. One thing at a time.
posted by tinatsu at 9:26 PM
2 Comments:
Specificity is good. Although I've also found that it tends to expand the story's length. I'm working on finding the balance, adding just the right details without getting too bogged down in making things real. Also learning the art of when it's okay to tell, instead of always showing.
Yay, productivity!
Ditto yay productivity!
And hey, for the record, I'm not freaked out by the "o" word. If it works for you, that's great, you should do it. I'm increasingly convinced that outlining vs. non-outlining is as genetic as left-handedness or liking cilantro.
Post a Comment
<< Home