Writers and Other Madmen

I am currently working on “Waking Up,” in which a young girl fights against the forces of radical Christianity that have literally taken over the country. The novel is a combination of “1984″ and “V for Vendetta.” The weird part is that much of what I’ve included in the book is literally conceivable by today’s technology. A small group of well-trained and determined individuals could actually take over the country by simply terrifying government officials into doing whatever they are told.

Into this mix, however, rises a small rebellion of artists, poets, writers, atheists, homosexuals, and other disenfranchised individuals who realize that if they do not act quickly, the Point of No Return might be reached.

Right now, I’m attempting to get Kickstarter to help me with funding for the project, since I want to release both a novel version of the concept, as well as a possible motion picture. I’ll keep you all posted on how things are going with it.

As writers, there are two attributes we have in our favor that others sorely lack. These two characteristics can help us weather just about any storm that gets thrown in our faces, and yet, we seldom take the time to acknowledge the importance of them in our writing lives.

The first wonderful character trait that we writers have in our favor is our beautiful, glorious, magnificent stupidity. That’s right, folks — we are amazingly and terminally stupid.

While there are some who might think that’s an insult, I think that being stupid is one of the best characteristics of being a writer. You see, if we were smart and thoughtful and intelligent, we would look at the odds against any of us being writers and we would choose to go into a different line of work — something that has more respectability and potential for financial gain…something along the lines of being streetwalkers.

But, instead, we look at the odds and we tell ourselves, “Who cares? Those are incredibly daunting odds, but we don’t care. We’re writers and that’s what we’ve always wanted to do with our lives. Sure, it’s not logical and it’s not the smartest path to follow and we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment, but we don’t care. We’re writers, damn it — and we’re too stupid to be anything other than writers.”

The other attribute that we’ve got in our favor is our incredible stubbornness.

I mean, let’s face it, people — we are the Wile E. Coyotes of the world, aren’t we? We’re the Charlie Browns racing at that football that Lucy is holding. We get up every morning and we face a world that is bound and determine to suck every last bit of love and joy out of us in our writing lives — and we park ourselves behind our desks and we keep on writing.

We get pounded down. We get smashed. We get rejected. And, through it all, we somehow find something deep inside us that says, “Okay, ninety-nine times before, I’ve been slammed down by rejections. But, today’s a new day, and this is the hundredth time — and this time, things are going to be different.”

The most incredible part is that even when things aren’t different, we’re too stubborn to concede defeat and we charge at that damned elusive windmill one more time.

So, as this new year looms ahead of us, I’d like all of us to take a minute to acknowledge our wonderful stupidity and our glorious stubbornness.

May we all continue to be stupid and stubborn in 2012 — and far beyond.

Also, let’s keep Don Bolen and his family in our thoughts and prayers. Don’s fighting some kind of nasty bug, and I’m sure that he’s too stupid and too stubborn to let it get the upper hand.

The new year is fast approaching, and that means that it’s time for me to trot out my writing resolutions — again. Admit it, people — you’re the same way that I am. Every year, we all start off hopeful and filled with good intentions, promising that this is the year that we’re really going to buckle down and get some serious writing done.

If you’re like me, those resolutions usually last a couple of weeks…sometimes, even a month. But then, life somehow seems to come along and get in the way. Before I know it, all those great promises that I made to myself have fallen by the wayside, and I find myself wondering why in the world I’m not actually getting where I want to be.

So, this is the year that I am making a firm commitment to seeing things through. I fully intend to make time each day for writing — even if it’s only for a page or two. Whenever I find myself sitting in front of the television set, watching some mindless program, I’m going to force myself to park my butt in front of the monitor and get work done on my various projects.

Right now, we are — all of us — living in one of the most exciting times ever for being a writer. There are more avenues than ever opening up for talented writers, and that should give you hope. The once-mighty Guardians of the Publishing Gates are discovering they are losing power, and that can only mean good things for the rest of us.

Of course, there are going to be challenges ahead. There always are. But, those challenges aren’t going to stop those of us who are truly committed from succeeding. If anything, those challenges are simply going to make us stronger.

So, for all of you out there reading this, I hope you realize that you are literally standing on the brink of what might be the greatest year ever — and it’s going to be up to you to make it happen.

I’m not sure where I heard this, but someone once told me that it takes 21 days of doing something consistently for it to become a habit. This might be something totally spouted off the top of a head, of course, but I do think there’s some truth to this. I know that when I’ve begun to do the same thing over and over again, it does seem to become a habit with me — and writing is no exception.

Writing must become a habit if you are to become successful at it.

Oh, sure, I suppose that it’s possible there are some potentially successful writers out there who don’t spend a lot of time getting into the writing habit, but the writers that I know who make money on a regular basis have made writing into a habit. More than that, though, they’ve made writing into an obsessive habit.

If you’re determined to make it as a writer (and I suspect that you are), you’re going to need to really start developing the writing habit. There are a number of ways that you can do this, but the method that I’ve found that works for me is making sure that I write every day. No matter what, without fail, I make sure that I write at least 250 words.

Most times, I write a lot more than 250 words, however, and that’s because the writing habit has become so deeply ingrained in me that if I find myself shirking my writing responsibilities, I start to get really antsy inside. I can’t sit still, I can’t concentrate on whatever it is that I’m doing, and before I know it, I’m back at my desk, fingers flying over the keyboard.

Now, some writers simply make sure they write a certain amount of time every day. I find that I’m much more comfortable when I actually keep track of the amount of words produced. In fact, I keep a sheet of paper by my desk when I’m working. At the beginning of the day, I write the number “50” down on the page. Then, when I write (at least) 50 words, I add another 50 to whatever the word count of the day is. So, I’ll start at 50…then I’ll hit 129…199…309…371…etc. By breaking things down into my magical “50” number, I can always force myself to write a little bit more.

“Come on, Richard,” I’ll tell myself, “you can do another 50 words, right? Just do 50 more words and you can call it a night.”

The next thing I know, there’s another couple of thousand words I did for the day.

So, I want you to just go ahead and begin your writing habit (if you haven’t already started it) today. Set your goal — either words or minutes — and go for it.

Before you know it, it’ll be second nature to you — and you’ll be well on the road to becoming a professional writer.

***

When I first decided to be a writer, I thought that my calling would be in prose fiction. I assumed that my strong suit would be in writing long, descriptive passages that would evoke a world in the reader’s mind. However, as I grew older, I discovered that my true strength (according to people whose opinions I valued) was in dialogue.

This led to a natural progression from writing prose to writing plays and screenplays. When producers began to pay me for my original screenplays and used me to “script doctor” the screenplays of other writers, I knew that I’d found my calling.

But, my first love is still writing prose.

Right now, an agent friend is getting interest in my latest prose work — “A Change of Heart.” It’s a vampire novel, but one with a twist that I had never seen done before. What made this special for me, however, was the entire project was written as a screenplay and converted into a novel.

For anyone who doesn’t understand the difference between a novel and a screenplay, I can explain it really simply — screenplays do not contain thoughts. In other words, a screenplay literally is designed to show only what the audience sees. So, if your protagonist has a fear of spiders due to a childhood prank being played on her, a screenplay can show the fear of spiders and can explain that fear through the use of a flashback. In a novel, however, the writer can literally write something like “The moment Suzanne saw the spider on her blanket, she found herself back in summer camp, when stupid Wendy Williams played that damned practical joke on her.”

For me, writing screenplays has proven to be really rewarding because it actually makes me focus on the entire visual aspect of a novel — and it also helps me focus on creating crisp dialogue and short action scenes.

If you’re ever stuck in a project, you might try to write for a little while in screenplay (or stage play) format. You’ll find that it forces you to view your project in a whole new way and it might even give you a new perspective on how the reader might see that character.

For me, it also makes a great rough draft of a novel, since I can literally write the entire novel down in about two weeks — and then convert it after it is completed.

What about your writing process? What writing style are you most comfortable with — and what writing style that you’re not comfortable with would you like to fool around with?

***

If you ever want to get a bunch of writers to get into a fight, just start talking about whether or not you should outline before you write. Some writers will swear that the only way to be a real writer is to simply fly by the seat of your pants, and others will claim that outlining a novel is the only way to make sure that you have constructed the best novel possible.

I fall somewhere in between.

Look, I’m impatient. When an idea hits me, I want to immediately run with it, and that means that I don’t want to spend hours at a time outlining my idea. On the other hand, I’ve written at least one screenplay that slammed into a brick wall in the third act because I had no idea of how to get out of the corner that I’d written myself — showing me that if I had outlined it, I would have saved myself an awful lot of rewrite work.

In some ways, the outline is the road map to your story. Now, some people need very detailed maps to reach their destination, while others are perfectly content with the vaguest of directions. In most cases, though, I think that writers need some sense of where they are going to wind up when they start writing their story.

Some forms of outlining are highly organized, with total descriptions of every scene and every bit of character interaction set in place. However, a friend of mine outlines with the broadest strokes possible:
Writer finds himself fighting demons
Writer discovers father was a demon hunter
Writer joins up with corrupt policeman to hunt demons
Writer and cop discover Master Demon is actually the mayor
Writer and cop take down the mayor — and in the process, cop redeems himself

Now, I would never be able to write using such broad strokes, but Ed is quite capable of taking those five sentences and creating an entire novel with them. One thing that I’ve learned from him is that there is no one “right” way to outline a novel. Ed’s way works for Ed, my way works for me, and there’s a very good chance that your way works for you.

So, for those of you interested in sharing your process, how does your outlining actually work?

If you ask the average writer what is the one thing he or she had more of, I’m pretty sure that many of them would say, “Time.”

Let’s face it — writing takes time. Unfortunately, dealing with the rest of the world also takes time. I don’t know about you, but it seems that every time that I sit down to actually get some writing done, the world comes along and decides to interrupt me. Either the phone will ring and someone will absolutely insist upon telling me details about something that I don’t have the slightest interest in hearing about or the wife will come up an errand that needs to be done “Now!” or a client will need an emergency rewrite because he didn’t give me clear instructions when he gave me the initial job.

It’s enough to make a writer want to simply scream at the top of his lungs.

There was a time when I really stressed about being able to write. I would tell myself that I was going to spend four hours a weekend working on my novel and when the world came along and interrupted me, preventing me from getting in my allotted time, I would freak out and get frustrated.

Then, a friend of mine gave me her secret.

Julianna is a gifted screenwriter and I’ve always admired the way that she’s able to get so much accomplished in her writing career, despite raising a family and taking care of a sick mother.

“It’s simple,” she told me. “When I think about my time, I don’t think about it in huge chunks. I know those chunks are not for me. Instead, I’ve got little chunks, here and there, scattered throughout my day. I’ll be going along, doing my regular routine, and I’ll suddenly notice that I’ve got a quick break of time that I can use.

“I’ll sit down and just do what I can in that time. It might only be fifteen minutes or so, but you’d be amazed at what you can do in fifteen minutes, when you know that all you’re getting for the entire morning.”

I decided to put Julianna’s plans into action, and to my total shock, I found that she was absolutely right. When I grab the precious little time that I’ve got and use it in a small chunk, I don’t have time to waste getting my head in the right groove or dealing with figuring out the right backstory or making sure that my dialogue rings true.

Instead, I just rip into the project, do what I can, and move on. Later on, when the actual editing process comes along, I can deal with it — but the most important part is getting it down in the first place.

So, I suggest that when you decide that you’re not getting enough time to write, you find a way to grab whatever precious few minutes are around and see what you can do with them.

You might be surprised at how much you can accomplish.

***

There’s something inside the writers that I know that borders on obsession.  Even the writers who are currently experiencing writer’s block (which is a state that I don’t believe exists) have something within them that they cannot ignore.

There’s a need to write.

A couple of years back, I went to visit a friend and he had a huge sign in his office that simply read:  WRITERS WRITE.

It’s true.

Writers write.  It’s what we do.  When we’re not writing, we’re thinking about writing.

You’ve been there.  You’re sitting somewhere, minding your own business, and an idea comes and hits you.  You shove the damned thing away, telling yourself that you don’t have time to work on it, but that doesn’t really keep it from coming back, does it?

Nope — it returns.  Again and again and again.

Sometimes, it’s not an idea.  Sometimes, it’s a character who shows up out of nowhere, and before you know it, you find yourself wanting to know more and more about the character — the background, the current situation, the future.

That’s what being a writer is all about.

When it comes to writing, there’s only one thing that you need to remember — and I don’t care who you talk to or what degrees in advanced writing they hold.

No one has the answers.

Oh, there are folks out there who have a method that works for them, and that’s fine.  What works for them, however, might not work for you.  So, if something that I say doesn’t work for you, just disregard whatever it is that I told you.  (This little trick has worked for my wife with sterling results — she simply ignores whatever I tell her.)

Anyway, I’m going to wrap up the post now.  I like to keep my posts short, due to the tremendous time constraints that all of us have going on in our lives.

Thanks for stopping by and I’m looking forward to whatever it is that we’re going to be doing here.

***