Archive for category Writing
Strange Ways to Prepare for a Writer’s Conference
Posted by annaldavis in Cyberculture, Writing on May 16, 2012
This weekend I’ll be attending the DFW Writer’s Conference, and while I’ve been to several local writer’s meetings and workshops, this will be my first full-weekend conference. Coincidentally, this is also the first spring in our new house since moving out to the country. Put these together, and you get three strange ways to prepare for a writer’s conference:
CORRAL THE GOATS. My husband recently bought two young female goats. We let them out to graze in the day, but in the evening we lock them into a pen because they would make a tasty dinner for a stealthy bobcat or two. Now if you don’t happen to live in the country, feel free to take this advice metaphorically. Words are like goats. There’s a time to let them graze, and a time to bring them in. Do what it takes to finalize any remaining details on your work-in-progress. Don’t let grazing word-goats stay in the pasture overnight. It’s dangerous out there – run them into the pen before the sun falls below the horizon.
PULL SOME WEEDS. Spring has done good things for our flowerbeds. Most of them, anyway. Yesterday evening I spent about an hour pulling weeds from one trouble spot because were so many weeds popping up that the flowers couldn’t grow. Writing can be the same way. As you prepare for the conference, take time to review your query, pitch, and synopsis for common literary weeds like unnecessary adjectives and formatting errors. Don’t forget to weed out your thoughts, as well. Writers are notorious for invasive, creeping weeds like self-doubt and negativity. Let’s face it: we’re going to deal with rejection. That’s just part of the writing business, so don’t compound the problem with your own negativity. Get rid of the weeds and let God handle the rest.
PRACTICE YOUR PITCH WITH STRANGERS. The mailperson. Random road workers. Just kidding, I actually prefer unsuspecting Starbucks patrons. Take your 300-page hardcopy manuscript and plop it down on the table beside your laptop. Over time, people will invariably glance at the document, bleeding with edits, and ask if you’re a teacher. Smile mysteriously and say no, you’re a writer. Oh yeah, they will say, what do you write? And that’s when you tell them, in a casual way, just like you plan to do with the agent. (Note: if a young man comes into Starbucks carrying a bottle of red soda and a package of Long John Silver’s fried fish, sits down beside you and says that he’s a comedian, tell him that YES, you are indeed a TEACHER. Then look sternly back down at your laptop and don’t look up again. Trust me on this.)
And there you have it. If all else fails, come find me on Twitter. I tweet when I write – it helps to remind me that I actually live in this century.
Stephen King and The Gospel
Posted by annaldavis in Writing on April 26, 2012
I’ve said before that I started reading Stephen King in seventh grade. What I didn’t say is that I stopped reading his books later in high school because my own spiritual transformation changed my reading tastes. That and the fact that my private Christian school wouldn’t grant class credit for Stephen King or any other secular authors writing about the darker side of spirituality. After testing the limits for a while (like using an e.e. cummings poem for a school project), I finally put down the dark stuff. Then I discovered Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness (more about that here), which dramatically shaped my view of the Kingdom.
But Stephen King’s words still motivate me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tweeted quotes from his book “On Writing” and it occurred to me that many of these quotes inspire me because of truth inherent in them. So to satisfy my own spiritual bent, I’ve taken some Stephen King quotes from my Twitter page, and pasted them here along with the corresponding Bible verses. Maybe this counts as a form of delayed rebellion against high school rules. But I’d like to think it goes a bit deeper than that.
MONEY. “Do you do it for the money, honey? The answer is no. Don’t now and never did” Stephen King; “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” Hebrews 13:5.
INTERRUPTIONS. “I’ve found that any day’s routine interruptions and distractions don’t much hurt a work in progress and may actually help it in some ways” Stephen King; “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” Hebrews 13:2.
POWER. “You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you” Stephen King; “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:5.
WRITTEN WORD. “Books are uniquely portable magic” Stephen King; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” John 1:1.
DILIGENCE. “Only God gets it right the first time, and only a slob says ‘oh well… That’s what copyeditors are for’” Stephen King; “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” Colossians 3:23.
CREATIVE PROCESS. “We are talking about tools and carpentry, words and style… but you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic” Stephen King; “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” 2 Corinthians 5:1.
PUBLIC LIFE. “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open” Stephen King; “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” Matthew 10:27.
I’ve chosen to focus solely on the writing process here. But for those so inclined, a Christian study of Stephen King’s writings about good, evil, and humanity might fill multiple volumes. After all, we authors and readers alike reach out for something that nails it, something that resonates with the struggle around and within us. Sometimes we find it in the strangest of places…
(For the literalists out there, please know that I’m not equating Stephen King to God. I’m merely pointing out that this successful author, while known for horror and, at times, profanity, is still a creation of God and therefore his writings often reflect the truth found in Scripture. We could do this exercise with any number of authors, including C.S. Lewis, Tolkein, Rowling, Suzanne Collins, etc.)
Spring Cleaning the First Draft
Posted by annaldavis in Tips and Ideas, Writing on April 23, 2012
Alright, so you’ve written a first draft. Now what? Here are some tips. (Disclaimer: This post is autobiographical and DOES bear resemblance to actual people and places.)
Don’t look at it. Put your first draft aside for a while. If you’re really lucky, your loved ones will do this for you in some roundabout way that will fuel future writing ideas for quite some time. But usually you’ll have to exercise some serious willpower. Lock it up. Bury it for as long as humanly possible. You need space.
Read through the entire thing once, and make notes. Don’t skim. But don’t take forever, either. The main goal is to see the forest, not the trees. Where is your writing the strongest? Where does the plot fall apart?
Quick-fix any major plot issues. I’m not talking about a massive overhaul. This is when you insert brackets in the text and say, for example: [main character needs to encounter resistance here, or antagonist needs to kill someone else here, or there needs to be a massive wildfire here]. Not the time for nuts and bolts, just get the revision framework in place. You can go back and write later.
Focus on the beginning. Now that you’ve reviewed the whole manuscript, go back to the beginning – specifically the first 50 pages. Jeff Gerke says that the first 50 pages are the most important part of the book. Done well, those 50 pages will hook your reader (plus the agent, editor, publisher, critic, and God knows who else). Read books that explain what needs to happen at the beginning. I highly recommend The First 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke, and The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.
Find someone to review it. If you plan to pitch your novel to an agent, you absolutely must find someone you trust to read through it. An agent should not be the first reader. In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott said it this way, “What works for me may not work for you. But feedback from someone I’m close to gives me confidence, or at least gives me time to improve.”
Take breaks to work on your query letter. It’s difficult for me to sustain interest in one thing for long periods of time. I like to have several windows open at once (both metaphorically and virtually). Working on my query letter is a good way to be productive when I need a break from the far more complicated fictional world in my mind.
Stay away from the candy jar. Oh wait, that’s just me. But I think it’s safe to say that you should avoid unhealthy vices and lean into what inspires. Grab an actual orange, instead of those orange-flavored jellybeans. Real and nutritious, versus artificial and empty. It takes willpower and resolve. But there’s not much value in vice. Not lasting value, anyway.
Before you know it, that first draft will become the second.
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