Reality Bypass

Friday Flashback: What I’ve learned August 27, 2010

Flashback from April 28, 2008!

I’ve learned a lot about the writing process since starting on Whispers from the Grave. A good deal of what I’ve learned is due to my co-author, and for that I thank her a great deal. If you haven’t tried writing with someone else, it’s definitely worth it! You learn your own personal pitfalls and quirks pretty quickly. But I thought I’d list some of the things I’ve learned, that have helped me, I hope, become a better writer.

• Stop worrying just write! I used to be a ‘first draft’ perfectionist, and I’d get so caught up worrying about where things are going and whether everything is conjugated correctly that I’d lose the journey. Jena was always reminding me at the beginning to stop worrying about the details, and it’s made me a lot better at writing.
• Get rid of adverbs! I never would have realized this if it hadn’t been for reading Stephen King’s On Writing. And looking at my prose, it’s really funny how unnecesary adverbs are!
• Start “in medias res”, ie… right into the action. Hook people immediately. I learned this from my creative writing teacher in high school, and have been following it ever since. He wasn’t a great teacher, in fact… he was pretty bad, however this was one of the things that stuck with me.
• Use dialogue for characterization. I can’t recall where this came from, but it’s a great thing to know.
• Put your characters into great conflict. I’ve learned to pay attention to which books bore me and which catch my interest, and it all comes from the conflict. It seems obvious, but it does have to be put down here.
• The process of getting published, where to look to do so, and how to find an agent. This sort of thing had never even crossed my mind until Jena taught me about it. I think I probably would have looked at all of the hurdles to jump and freaked out, but she’s showed me how to wade through the process.
• Treat it like a job… I’m the first to admit to being lazy and a little ADD. But making myself treat it like a job has been an amazing awakening in actually completing stories. I love to rush to ‘get to the good parts’ but I’ve learned to slow down and enjoy the process.
• If you are feeling blocked, just sit down and write. The movie Finding Forester taught me this, and once I tried it… it really worked! Sure you may throw out half of what you wrote, but you’ve learned something so it’s never a loss!

So, I’m sure there’s more to add to the list, but I thought it good to list my own journey. And, of course, to put some kudos out to the authors who have inspired me, the authors I’ve learned from, and to my co-author. I think I would have certainly been just writing stories to my computer, and never really thought being published was possible if it hadn’t been for her.

~Kristen