The Writing Life Archives - Page 36 of 62

Writing Longhand: A generational divide?

April 9, 2015 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

Last week, I talked about changing my writing process because my current process wasn’t working well anymore. One of the changes I made was returning to longhand for some of my writing. I outlined the reasons for this last week, but the two main reasons are:

1) Longhand writing engages my creativity in a different way than typing.

2) I do not get hung up on the typed words on the page.

It’s been shown that writing longhand does engage different parts of your brain than typing on a screen. I know that the writing I produce is significantly different writing longhand vs. on screen. For me, there is something soothing about the feel of smooth paper under my hand as I write. I love the feel of the pen sinking into the paper. Watching my words appear on the page when handwriting is a creative thrill that I do not get when typing. Perhaps it is akin to artists seeing their drawing or painting come to life from their fingertips.

I know that once I type something, my brain has trouble revising it with sufficient depth. I get stuck on the words on the page. I grew up in a time prior to computers (we got our first PC when I was in high school), so I remember vividly that when you typed up your final paper on a typewriter that was it. NO CHANGES. And all of my life, those black words on a white page have signified a final printed product—a newspaper, a magazine, a book. So I wonder if I have subconsciously equated the black-on-white Times New Roman of my computer screen as somehow a “finished” product. I do not have this revision paralysis problem with longhand pages—crossouts, arrows, and numbered citations abound. It’s very freeing.

What surprised me last week was that a number of writers mentioned to me that they, too, were considering a return to longhand writing as part of their process. All of us were my age or older—in other words, we teethed our writing on pen and paper. Perhaps this indicates that our brains are wired to be more artistic when returning to our creative roots. Or that we’re all technologically exhausted and crave something simpler. Or something else—what do you think?

It also got me wondering about younger writers these days—writers who grew up on computer screens and keyboards. Would this impulse to go longhand ever arise in them? So I am asking the younger generation out there: Have you ever tried to write longhand? Did you find a difference in how and what you wrote? Would you ever consider mixing longhand writing into part of your process?

Revising My Writing Process

Revising My Writing Process

April 2, 2015 By Kerry Gans 6 Comments

Every writer has a personal writing process. It is not one size fits all. And many writers change and refine their writing process over time.

Sometimes the change is forced on you, such as when my writing partner died or when my daughter was born and my writing time got slashed to minutes a day rather than hours. Sometimes technology makes you change, like when I stopped writing longhand and began writing on the computer to save time in grad school. And sometimes you change because you realize something isn’t working and you need to tweak the process.

I used to think my writing process was pretty solid. But lately, it’s just not working the way it used to. My writing is good, but tends to stay on a superficial level, not diving deep like I want and need it to. Then when I try to revise to get the depth, I find it hard to get past the words already on the page.

So I’ve been revising my writing process. I once read about an author who writes the whole book, and then when she revises it, she rewrites the whole thing from scratch. I thought that writer was crazy.

Except that now I’m doing the same thing.

My early drafts tend to be too “telling.” They get the story down, but the depth of character and world-building is missing. But I struggle to go back into the words already there and add the layers. I get stuck on the words on the screen.

I realized that I have done the “rewrite from scratch” thing in a limited way already. When revising The Witch of Zal, my developmental editor pointed out several chapters that she didn’t think I had made “mine.” I tried to revise what was there, but it still fell flat. So I rewrote those chapters completely. And it worked—it freed me from the tyranny of the words on the screen, yet allowed me to incorporate the phrases, images, and dialogue I liked from my original scene.

To add another layer of change to my process, I am experimenting with a return to writing longhand. Yes, with actual pen and paper. I had noticed in writing workshops that first-draft writings I write manually sound and feel much different than what I write on the computer. They feel deeper, richer, to me. So I decided to completely re-write, in longhand, a chapter from the WIP I am currently revising.

It worked. The chapter is almost 300 words longer, with more detail, richer imagery, and better world-building and character development. At least, I think it is—my critique partners haven’t read it yet. But it feels like a step in the right direction. As an added bonus, I do not have the block against changing hand-written words that I seem to have with words on the screen. My one little chapter is rife with crossing out, arrows moving words around, and little numbers referring me to longer insertions jotted in the margins.

So, for now, I am going with the hand-written, rewrite-the-whole-chapter-from scratch second-draft approach, and will see where it takes me. Because I am not a detailed outliner, I likely will still start with a typed, “telling,” first draft just to get the story and characters out, because I find so much out about both as I write—much like Martina Boone’s “discovery draft.” Then I will take that draft and do the Donald Maass Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook exercises, and incorporate all of that into the second draft, which I will write longhand as described above.

What about you? Have you ever had to revise your process? How did you find the right one that works for you?

Empathy: Curse or Blessing?

March 26, 2015 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

English: Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I suspect most creative types are highly empathetic. I sometimes think I feel other people’s emotions more strongly than my own. While I do feel things deeply, I can usually control my emotions and focus on what I need to do.

However, when someone else’s emotions overflow, it is hard for me to control myself. At a friend’s mother’s funeral, my tears didn’t flow until my friend’s did. When I hear of a crime, I feel the terror of the victim. During mass tragedy such as 9/11 or Sandy Hook, I go numb with the overload of grief. The reason I have never seen Schindler’s List is because the images and emotions would stick with me far longer than with most people. I become haunted.

Cover of A Swiftly Tilting Planet

I find it hard to explain how vividly I can feel other people’s emotions. In Madeleine L’Engle’s book A Swiftly Tilting Planet, main character Charles Wallace goes “Within” other people. His soul enters other people’s consciousnesses, so he can experience what they experience—physically and emotionally. This is a good way of explaining how I sometimes feel—as if I am inside the other person, feeling what they feel.

Sometimes I think this intense empathy is a curse. It aggravates my anxiety. It makes me wary of social interaction. It makes me want to hold people at arm’s length—although even that precaution is not enough, since even the stories of strangers can bring me to tears.

On the other hand, this sort of empathy is a blessing. It helps me create characters with feeling. It allows me to help people with the kind of help they most need. It helps me relate to people different than me, because I can feel what we have in common. It makes me more compassionate.

In the final analysis, I have to consider this empathy a blessing—because I would rather feel too much than nothing at all.

What about you? Do you find yourself overloaded with empathy?

How to Measure Growth As A Writer

March 19, 2015 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

Writing is art and craft. As such, many areas of writing have an unnerving subjectivity to them. Anyone who has tried to submit a manuscript to agents will confirm this—some will like it, some will not. So how do you know if you’re getting any better as a writer?

Really, the only true yardstick you can use is seeing if your writing today is stronger than your writing last year, last month, last week. Comparing yourself to others is a recipe for angst, frustration, and despair. But even you comparing yourself to yourself can be subjective—we are often blind to our own faults and judge ourselves more harshly than a stranger.

Another way is to find people you trust to give you honest feedback. Hopefully, they will be able to point out where you have grown as a writer, and where you still need work. If these are people well-schooled in craft, you can be somewhat reassured that you are moving in the right direction.

I found one other way to measure my journey. Donald Maass’ Writing The Breakout Novel Workbook. This book, for those who don’t know, walks you through exercises to deepen character, enhance plot, polish themes, and many more aspects of craft to improve your book.

I have used the Workbook in my process for my last 3 manuscripts, and I am currently using it to improve my WIP. The first time I used this book, I remember that every exercise made me gasp, “Why didn’t I think of that?” or “Why didn’t I do that? It seems so obvious!” So the revisions that I came away with were extensive—but much needed.

This time through, however, I am finding that some of the exercises are already complete, in that I did it in this manuscript already, without prompting. There’s still a lot I need to do to up my game with this manuscript, but finding those parts I already did made me happy. It means I am incorporating the lessons from Maass (and others) into my subconscious process. Hopefully this will mean stronger first drafts, which will mean fewer revisions, which will mean faster completion times—without sacrificing quality.

So that is one objective way you can measure if you are improving your craft—if you find that the writing books you use are telling you things that you have already done.

How do you measure growth as a writer?

The Truth About Your Productivy

March 12, 2015 By Kerry Gans 2 Comments

Memory is a funny thing. If you had asked me, I would have told you that in my daughter’s first two years, I didn’t write anything new—that all I did was edit works that I had completed before she was born.

I looked back through Facebook statuses from those two years, and I found a very different productivity story.

I was, in fact, amazingly prolific in the first two years of my daughter’s life. I took three extended workshops: Revise & Sell (also called Advanced Novel), Act Like A Writer, and the YA Novel In Nine Months. I revised a middle grade novel. And I wrote the first draft of a new novel. I found posts detailing word counts of between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Not to mention I wrote several blog posts a week and was a member of a critique group.

I wrote quite a lot!

Of course, the anxiety-ridden part of me suddenly thought: What happened? I’m not possibly that prolific now. So I stepped back and looked. I write two blog posts a week–one here, one for the Author Chronicles–usually totaling about 1,500 words. In the last 12 months, I have completed the first draft of a new work, as well as done two rounds of edits for my book that comes out this year. I have also done networking and social media work and I continue to attend the Writer’s Coffeehouse every month—and the occasional writing workshop. I’m now editing the first draft I completed earlier this year, and finished editing a short story that I hope to submit next month.

So I am still writing quite a bit! Of course, now my child no longer naps—back when my daughter was an infant, she slept for close to 5 hours a day. Now she is in school for only 2 hours a day, so I actually have less time to work than I did back then.

What’s the takeaway? I want to tell every writer out there that if you are putting in the effort, you are probably much more productive than you think. You feel like you’re not getting anywhere but I bet if you stepped back and looked, you would be surprised.

I sure was.

Are you ever surprised by your productivity?

The Acceptability of Quitting Creative Arts

March 5, 2015 By Kerry Gans 8 Comments

It’s possible to quit virtually anything in life. You can quit a job, quit school, quit smoking, quit drinking. You can even quit a marriage or being a parent. Some things are harder to quit than others. Some things are more socially acceptable to quit than others. Usually, ending a bad habit is good. Walking out on your kids, not so much.

My daughter wants to quit swim class. Because of pool repairs, it’s at a different facility, and she hates it there. The water is colder, the edge of the pool is harder to hold on to, and the locker rooms are chilly. She wants to stop until the pool is fixed. I told her no.

Why? Because sometimes necessary things in life are hard or unpleasant, but still need to be done. Because swimming is a survival skill she needs to learn. Because it is, after all, only 3 more weeks. She needs to stick to it, because she is still not a strong swimmer, still uses a floatation device sometimes. So we will finish this session and sign up for the next.

Then I started wondering, what if she had said she wanted to quit dance instead of swim? Truthfully, I would have told her she had to finish out the session—because she made a commitment and should honor it—but that if she didn’t want to sign up for another session, that was fine.

Then I wondered why the difference in my thinking. I am a creative myself, so you’d think I’d push her hard to stick with dancing, right?

I think several things led to my different conclusions. First, our culture does not value creative arts, and even though I am a creative, I have been influenced by our culture. It is so easy to quit a creative endeavor. In fact, we creatives are often encouraged to quit. To sideline our passion as a hobby. To do something more…worthwhile with our time.

Second, as a creative, I know that the worst thing I can do when the passion is gone is push too hard to get it back. If my daughter wanted to give up dance, I would let her because if she has lost the joy of it, why continue? Creative pursuits need to be followed because we want them and can’t do without them. Very few of us will see monetary gains from these pursuits, so if we find no joy in them, no inspiration, no fulfillment, then what’s the point?

Third, sometimes walking away from a creative art is exactly what you need to find out how much it means to you. We all get burnt out. Sometimes a break is exactly what we need to find the passion again. And if you find you can walk away and never look back, that art was never your true calling to start with.

Despite our cultural stigma that “nobody likes a quitter,” I think it’s more important to examine what you are quitting and why. After all, I’ve quit every job I’ve ever had in order to end up as a write-from-home mom. The key is knowing when quitting is a smart move vs. a lazy move.

So ignore cultural pressures if you can. Dreams are hard to come by. Hold on tight—but if you must quit, quit smart.

What do you think about quitting a creative endeavor? When is it wise to quit, if ever?

Aggravating our Protagonist’s Weaknesses

February 26, 2015 By Kerry Gans 2 Comments

Our house has been The House of Plague since the end of January. My preschooler has had 2 colds and a double ear infection. She shared both the colds with me and one with her father as well. So it’s been a bad month all around, health-wise.

My daughter’s double ear infection severely impacted her hearing. She has profound hearing loss in one ear anyway, and the infection in the normal ear (then another in the bad ear) really hit her hearing hard. Lots of “what?” and simply not reacting to what we’re saying because she doesn’t hear us.

Additionally, I lost my voice, and once I regained it I couldn’t talk loudly without coughing violently. So communication became difficult (thankfully we know some sign language!). I couldn’t talk and she couldn’t hear. It was like some sort of comedy of errors.

Which made me wonder about my characters. Of course, when we create friends and allies for our protagonist, we usually concentrate on providing our protagonist with people who “fill in the gaps”—people who strengthen him by having the skills or knowledge he lacks. Thus, with their help, he can grow into who he needs to be to finish his character arc.

But wouldn’t it be interesting to have a friend or ally who enhances our protagonist’s weaknesses instead? A protagonist who doesn’t hear well can be hampered by a friend who cannot speak, for instance. Or someone who is lazy can be enabled by a friend who is afraid of confrontation. Not every friend or ally could do this, of course, or the protagonist would probably fail the “quest”. But having one or two who hinder even as they try to help can add some tension and conflict to what might otherwise be “chummy” scenes with the protagonist and allies.

So next time I think about the allies I have surrounding my protagonist, I’ll think about having some that bring out the worst in him, as well as the best. Someone who complicates rather than facilitates. It should bring more depth and realism to the story and the relationships.

It will be fun to try.

How about you? Do you add people who aggravate a weakness to your protagonist’s circle of friends?

What is a Book?

February 19, 2015 By Kerry Gans 2 Comments

I don’t have an e-reader. I’ve never listened to an audio book. Not for any deep philosophical reasons, just because in my current lifestyle, print books suit me best. And I like print books.

However, I read a lot of blogs for my duties over at the Author Chronicles, and I have been reading a lot about enhanced ebooks. You can add a soundtrack to your book (music and sound effects). You can add QR codes to both print and ebooks to take your readers to outside material to enhance their experience. You can add hyperlinks and pop-ups as well.

I can see how great a lot of those enhancements would be for non-fiction books. But I’m not sure they work for fiction as well. As authors, we want our readers to stay immersed in our fictitious world—not give them reasons to leave it.

All this got me thinking about what a book really is. For me, I think it is a complete, immersive story told in words. A print book, obviously. An ebook version of the print book, sure. Even an audiobook, which is a different medium but still relies on the power of the words to tell the story. But enhanced ebooks…? I’m not too sure about them. At some point, a multi-media experience stops being about the fictitious dream created by the writing and more about the other media. I think that when that happens, when the words alone are not enough to create the immersive experience, it can’t be called a book anymore.

It’s something else.

Not necessarily something bad, just something new. A new way of storytelling. Will it be the way of the future? I think it likely for non-fiction books. For fiction, I am not so sure. We as humans have been sitting around the fire weaving stories with words for thousands of years. We have packed millions of square feet of shelves with books. We upload and download millions of books a year. We like our stories told to us. We like to be invited in by the author to create the story with her. We like to be so immersed in a story that we forget where we are.

Words are magic. Story is immortal. That is the ancient power of books.

No enhancement is necessary.

What defines “book” for you?

Cover Reveal: Donna Galanti’s JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD

February 13, 2015 By Kerry Gans 1 Comment

Today I am excited to welcome writing pal Donna Galanti with her cover reveal of her middle grade novel, JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD!

M9B-Friday-Reveal

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

Joshua and the Lightning Road by Donna Galanti

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Joshua and The Lightning Road

Stay away from the window, don’t go outside when it’s storming and whatever you do, do not touch the orb.

Twelve-year-old Joshua Cooper’s grandpa has always warned him about the dangers of lightning. But Joshua never put much stock in his grandpa’s rumblings as anything more than the ravings of an old man with a vast imagination. Then one night, when Joshua and his best friend are home alone during a frightful storm, Joshua learns his grandpa was right. A bolt of lightning strikes his house and whisks away his best friend—possibly forever.

To get him back, Joshua must travel the Lightning Road to a dark place that steals children for energy. But getting back home and saving his friend won’t be easy, as Joshua must face the terrifying Child Collector and fend off ferocious and unnatural beasts intent on destroying him.

In this world, Joshua possesses powers he never knew he had, and soon, Joshua’s mission becomes more than a search for his friend. He means to send all the stolen children home—and doing so becomes the battle of his life.

Title: Joshua and the Lightning Road
Publication date: May 19, 2015
Publisher: Tantrum Books/Month9Books
Author: Donna Galanti

Chapter-by-Chapter-header---About-the-Author

Donna Galanti

Donna Galanti writes murder and mystery with a dash of steam as well as middle grade adventure fiction. She is the author of books 1 and 2 in the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy, A Human Element and A Hidden Element, the short story collection The Dark Inside, and Joshua and The Lightning Road (Books 1 and 2, 2015). She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse. It has lots of writing nooks, fireplaces, and stink bugs, but she’s still wishing for a castle again—preferably with ghosts. For more information on Donna and A Human Element, please visit: http://www.ElementTrilogy.com AND http://www.donnagalanti.com

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Chapter-by-Chapter-header---Giveaway

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

(Winners will receive their book on release day)

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Cold, but Warm and Fuzzy

February 12, 2015 By Kerry Gans 2 Comments

Our furnace died Monday night. We’re kind of chilly in our house, but we’re managing. We have one space heater, which is making things manageable. My brain’s a little numb, so no deep thoughts today.

Whenever I want to complain about not having heat, I remember the Little House on the Prairie books. In them, Laura and Mary would sometimes wake up with snow covering their bed inside the house, because the blizzard winds forced it through the cracks in the roof and wall.

Having to wear an extra layer of clothes doesn’t seem that bad when I think about that. Perspective is a wonderful thing. First-world problems!

My 5-year-old daughter is carrying on like a trooper. We had a picnic breakfast in her room this morning, because the space heater could heat up her small room far better than the large kitchen. Her father and I bundled her up so much last night that she was actually hot this morning!

In spite of being cold, I have a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Why?

Because the ARCs of my book The Witch of Zal are finished and out to readers! Getting my very first Advanced Reader Copy takes us another step closer to publication. It makes it feel more real. This is really going to happen!

So happy to be working with the great people at Evil Jester Press, making my dream come true!

What gives you the warm and fuzzies about the writing process?

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