Writing and Editing at the Same Time

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authors, craft of writing, edit, editing, editor, edits, novelists, the writing process, writers, writing, writing a book, writing a novel, Writing tips

Some say when you write a novel, you should write first and save the editing for later. After all, if you do both, you’ll become distracted from the real goal of finishing the story’s first draft.

Well, I happen to be one of those people who edits as she writes. Meaning, I don’t save the editing for after I am through with the first draft; it is my priority alongside my writing.

Image by Nic McPhee via Flickr

Usually what I do before I write is that I read over the previous scene or two. Often I do this in order to get a feel for what is going on, so I could get into the ‘mode’, if you will. As I read over the scene, or scenes, I notice grammar or spelling errors. I also notice wordy paragraphs, redundant sentences, and things not well explained. So I edit these parts instead of saving them for later. I believe it is best to polish your work while you are creating it.

To best illustrate this, think of a sculptor. As the sculptor chips or carves away, some leftover pieces of the clay or stone remain on the artwork. This could be dust or pieces not yet brushed away. A sculptor has to brush away those pieces in order to continue with its work.

In other words, when I write, I edit in order to move on. The previous step – in this case, a previous scene – needs to be sharpened as much as possible before I move on. Of course, the actual sharpening comes much later, but I am all for sharpening all the way. It is a way of perfecting your work, and possibly making the editing easier in the end. It is also a good warm-up for the writing you are about to do.

How about you? What is your take on editing as a novelist writes? Do you support it or believe it hinders a writer rather than helps? What is your method of writing and editing?

Fire away!

Writing the Theme of Your Story

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art of writing, authors, character arc, character development, craft of writing, creative writing, story arc, story development, story theme, theme, themes, writers, writing, writing a book, writing a novel, writing a story

Themes are a big part of a story, any story – especially the good ones. They’re as important as, say, character arcs, plot development and so on. They’re the heart and soul of the story.

As author K.M. Weiland explained on her website:

Why are you writing this story? Why are you writing about these characters? What is it about their journey that has drawn your heart? What is the core of the tale? Justice, mercy, love, revenge, self-discovery? Whatever it is that’s moving the characters is what’s also moving your story. That’s your theme.

Supposedly, theme cannot be planned or forced, but instead come naturally. Theme appears in the story as you write your arcs and developments. It blossoms on its own, an echo of your subconscious. It is the fuel for your story. It is the reason why a writer writes in the first place.

Anne Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire to explore death, mortality and losing God. The Kite Runner is look at the complicated relationship between fathers and sons. Love in the Time of Cholera‘s theme is love in all its variations.

So, why did I write The Dark Proposal? And why am I writing its sequel?

The reason why I wrote my first book is because I wanted to explore abusive relationships. Having been in difficult ones – though no where near as Claire did with Daniel – I felt like I needed a release. I also wanted to write a vampire story where the vampires were once again evil and deadly – the exact opposite of what was popular four years ago.

But did I succeed with theme? What was the theme of my story?

Chuck Wendig describes theme on his blog as:

Every story’s trying to say something. It’s trying to beam an idea, a message, into the minds of the readers. In this way, every story is an argument. It’s the writer making a case. It’s the writer saying, “All of life is suffering.” Or, “Man will be undone by his prideful reach.” Or “Love blows.” Or, “If you dance with the Devil Wombat, you get cornholed by the Devil Wombat.” This argument is the story’s theme.

A friend of mine says the central idea of The Dark Proposal was “be careful what you wish for”. He explains that Claire so wanted to have a rich lifestyle, that she was blind to Daniel’s abusive ways, and then later, used it as escapism for the vampire life she was about to enter. That’s one way to look at the argument.

Image via Pixabay

I have grown so much as a writer during the four years since I wrote my first book. Today, I am focused on going deep with my stories and being more honest with myself when I write. I don’t think I was very honest as a writer when I wrote The Dark Proposal. Part of me cringes when I admit that. But as one musician friend told me, if you do that, then it means you are growing as an artist.

Writing from the heart is not easy. You are literally exposing yourself as a human to hundreds, thousands and maybe even more to judge and tear apart. It is scary enough to produce a book that you poured your heart and soul into. And by that, I don’t mean every part of your mind. The best artworks come from the very essence of the person, their heart.

So as I seek to be more honest as a writer, what theme do I hope will come out of The Dark Proposal’s sequel? I know I cannot force it, but I really hope redemption and healing would be one or both. Actually, I hope it will be the theme for the whole trilogy (yes, my book was meant to be the first of three). I also like the whole “be careful what you wish for” theme will come into play. I’m sure there’s always more than one theme in a story, or different ways to figure out the theme.

Or rather, what kind of redemption and healing do my characters need in order to fuel that theme?

Claire needs to heal and be redeemed from her mistakes and naivete. Daniel needs to be redeemed from being so evil. There is room for redemption and healing for Hilde, the Five Brothers and even The Black Roses. Even Samantha and Monica need to heal. There’s a lot of pain in The Dark Proposal, and everyone has a lot of coming to terms to do.

Which raises another question: what kind of writer do I intend to be? Sure, I want to be one that goes deep with questions and the human experience. But will be the regular theme in my stories? Will there always be a re-occurring one? Who knows? But since themes come from the heart of the writer, maybe the themes of my stories will be similar, just written differently. Or not. It also depends on the perspective of the reader.

The key here is to keep on writing, and get more to the heart of what I’m trying to say, or express. But I obviously cannot force myself to expose my heart in a story, just like a theme cannot be forced.

I’ll let Chuck Wendig finish off the meaning of theme:

A writer can engineer the theme — building it into the work. Or a writer can unearth it — discovering its tendrils after the work is written.

 

Book Review: “On Writing” by Stephen King

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books, craft of writing, fiction, fiction writing, how to write a novel, Stephen King, writing, writing a novel

At long last, I finally read and completed Stephen King’s “On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft”, his part autobiography, part how-to-write book which has been widely received. I had heard many great things about this book, and earlier this year, felt it was time for me to finally learn from The Master.

Click here to check out the book on Amazon!

This is a great book, even though many have said so. But I want to re-echo it, this is a great book if you want to learn the craft of writing. Here are a few things that stood out for me:

“You must not come lightly to the blank page”:
I like how Stephen King talks about we writers must approach the blank page like we’re “ready to kick ass and take down names”. Or even, “with nervousness, excitement, hopeful, or even despair”. He’s, of course, very passionate about writing, and he’s the kind of writer who was born to write. People like that would see flakey writers as insulting to the craft of writing. That is why he says, “its writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner.” True, very true.

Reading King’s tough words made me wonder how exactly do I approach the blank page. I certainly do not take lightly. But I am one of those who does with the “nervousness, excitement, hopeful, or even despair”. I am not the kind looking to kick ass, though I could imagine it would be fun to do so!

“The best form of dialogue attribution is said”:
Yeah, I’m one of those writers who feels – and even likes – to use attributions like asked, shouted, whispered, etc. I just feel like it gets rid of the repetitiveness of said. Sure, it might be OK to do that, but I also get what King means. We as writers are supposed to allow our readers to decide for themselves what is going on. In this case, our readers are to figure out what tone or level of voice characters are speaking in. Using other attributions would be like holding a reader’s hand, or rather, telling rather than showing. We all know the main rule for writing fiction: show, don’t tell.

“I don’t believe any novelist…has too many thematic concerns”:
This is interesting because for anyone who’s ever sat in an English Lit class, themes are one of the biggest topics when discussing a novel. King brings this up, but makes it clear that it not important, or as he puts it: “no big deal”. The themes in his novels are simply “interests which have grown out of my life and thought, out of my experience” as a human being. He also adds that “good fiction always begins with story and progresses into a theme”, and not vice versa. I found this to be a relief because whenever I write, I worry about themes. I remember that issue being drilled into my head in high school and college, and at one point, it scared me away from any fiction writing.

Its unfortunate that many English teachers are forgetting the important thing about fiction: it is sometimes just a story.

But only sometimes. Even King, when he ends off this part, says, “once your basic story is on paper, you need to think about what it means”. Themes are inevitable, but they are not the point of writing a story.

“Paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing”:
I like this because this is something I’ve noticed when I write. I put a lot of thought into where a paragraph starts and where it ends. Sentences, particularly their content and length, don’t worry me as much. Paragraphs on the other hand, kind of stress me out in a way! I always worry if they’re too short or too long, or if one short paragraph should really be on its own or be part of a larger one. I even worry if I have too many short paragraphs going on.

But I worry because I realize how important a paragraph is. As King puts it, “it is a marvellous and flexible instrument…you have to learn the beat”. Yep, paragraphs are the rhythm to a novel.

Anyway, I highly recommend Stephen King’s classic book on the craft of writing. Please do read this you haven’t already. You’ll learn a lot and you’ll be relieved a lot. Either way, it is the book all writers need to have on their shelves, with many pages dog-earred.

 

 

 

Why Do I Write?

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art of writing, authors, books, craft of writing, inspiration, writers

Sometimes I ask myself this question: why do I write? Why do I feel the need to get out a paper and pen, or sit in front of my Mac, writing out whatever comes to mind? Why do I feel the need to create people, places, events and moments in the lives in the people who only exist in my mind? Why must I tell stories?

Is it because I haven’t outgrown a childhood stage where one lives in an imaginary world? Is it because I am addicted to daydreaming?

Or is it because I’m looking for an identity in this world? As in: I write, therefore I am.

Is it because elementary school teachers encouraged me to write, create my little worlds and tell stories about them? Did that praise at such an early age stay with me as I navigated through the hellish world of adolescence, where the need for self-esteem is so desperate? I mean, did I cling to my writing ability because it was the one identity that I had while growing up?

Perhaps yes, perhaps not. Now that I am (almost) 30 years old, I’m no longer a child who has a need to play make believe because its fun. I also am happier with my life now, and happier with myself than I was as a teenager (can you believe it was almost half a lifetime ago?) that I don’t need to call myself a writer for the sake of my self-esteem. I have other qualities that matter, thankfully.

But yet, I still feel the need to escape into a fantasy world and wonder what would it be like if XYZ happened. I also still feel the need to use words and play with them in order to communicate. I have no other way to express myself but through words. I can’t dance very well, I have a lousy singing voice, and I am not a natural painter. So writing is it for me.

Maybe its because my brain can only function with words. I mean, ever since elementary school, I was horrible at math – just plain horrible! I flunked every math test I ever took, and only passed math class out the mercy of my teachers. You should’ve seen my SAT scores in that subject; I think 90 percent of American high school juniors in 1999 did better than me.

So, maybe because my brain could not figure out numbers at all, it made up for that poor ability with language arts. In other words, with math out of the way, I had more space in my head to write and create worlds.

That’s a theory, in the biological sense. Maybe there are other biological reasons as to why I get a high when I am working on a story that had finally come together, or feel so happy just by writing alone. Even blogging as I am now, I feel so at home and can’t imagine doing anything else.

Maybe that’s the answer to the question: I can’t imagine doing anything else. Really, for whatever reason, I can’t stop writing and don’t want to.

Some writers like to answer “Why do I write?” by simply saying: “Because I can’t NOT write.”

Yeah, that just about sums it up for me. 🙂