Write Away

The week before last (couldn’t post last week due to other writing projects taking precedence) I went on a bit about needing a muse, or rather, not needing a muse.

That’s what this whole blog is about, after all.

In my personal life, I’ve been stressed out to my limits. I won’t get into why, but things have been looking pretty bad for my immediate family, and we’ve had some ups and downs. But I can’t let that interfere with my ability to write. No matter what, I have to get up, pick up my laptop, and work. Whether it’s for my personal projects or a client project, it has to be done and it has to be done well.

The way it used to be was, I didn’t think I could just sit down and write. I thought I had to be inspired by something special. I had to have one of those ‘aha’ moments and write a manuscript or an article in a flurry of abandon to produce a masterpiece that would be lauded long after I died.

Yeah. That worked out about as well as putting your hand through a mangler.

My writing stank. It was putrid. Forced, false, and stilted, full of cliches and overusing words. Blah. (There are a couple of reasons for this, actually, but I’ll go into that some other time.)

It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties when I realized that the lessons I’d gotten during a Shingon Esoteric Buddhist retreat that I could apply it to my writing.

During that retreat, one of the things we did was calligraphy — meditative calligraphy. Our Sensei taught us to write in Japanese kanji, and we were practicing one character throughout the week. Well, if you know me, you know I can’t draw to save my life. I can do a mean stick figure, but that’s about it. So, the elegance of the kanji calligraphy was way out of my league. But, an assignment is an assignment, so I sat there on my mat, ink brush in one hand, paper on the floor, tongue sticking out to one side as I attempted to imitate the strokes of the brush as our Sensei had done so effortlessly.

It looked like a little kid’s drawing...well, actually worse. It was bad.

Sensei looked over my shoulder. “Practice more,” he told me. I shook my head, discouraged.

“I just don’t have the talent,” I told him. He smiled at me.

“This looks like my first drawing when I was a child,” he said. “You can practice, and you can become good.”

So, all week long, I practiced. I brought my materials home, and I kept practicing. Page after crappy page. But I was encouraged and determined to show improvement. 

At the end of the week, we were sitting for meditative calligraphy again, for the same character.

Once again, Sensei came over and looked at my work.

“Much better,” he commented. “You’ve practiced.”

I nodded. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was a slight improvement over the chicken scratch I’d produced before. “Hope I get even better.”

“Practice ten-thousand times and you will be a master.”

That stayed with me. If you practice anything ten-thousand times, then, yes, you can achieve mastery over something.

So it is with writing. Practice, practice, and practice some more, and eventually you will master the craft. You don’t need to wait for inspiration, because inspiration will come to you when you practice. The more you open your mind to the possibilities of your stories, the more you’ll gain insight to your own words.

On the days you don’t feel like writing, promise yourself you’ll write just 500 words (that’s one page, come on already) about anything. I mean anything. Here are some prompts to get you started:

• A man walks into a bar and realizes he has a drinking problem.
• A dog decides to take up ice skating.
• A small group of people face having to eat one of their own to survive.
• Gorillas figure out how to shoot people.
• One beauty contest goes horribly wrong.

Pick one of these and do just 500 words about it. See if it turns into something, and go from there. That’s exactly what I do when I don’t feel like writing.

Now, I’m off to write a short story about a road trip. Let’s see where this road takes me. Write away.

This post is dedicated to Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman, authors of How Not to Write a Novel. Once they’ve inspired you, follow them on Twitter. But don’t leave me hanging! You can follow me on Twitter (@Spellvira), where you can read absurdities on an infrequent basis. You can also learn more and read excerpts of my work on my tumblr page.

Writing for Food - Writing for Fun

I once told a good friend of mine that I write to put food on the table.

That was true, but it’s not exactly the whole story.

There’s a difference between being a Freelance Writer, and being an Author. I wear both hats. Allow me to explain the functions of each one.

The Freelance Writer Hat
This is the practical baseball cap that I put on and wear when I’m writing for other people. It is the custom-tailored hat that is probably worn on a couple of edges, but it still looks okay. It serves its function.

There are deadlines, demanding clients, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords and phrases, revisions, more revisions, ratings, tailor-made posts that don’t sound like anyone else, client’s clients and their sub-clients, and on and on ad nauseam. It’s the type of writing where if you don’t write, you don’t get to eat.

The Author Hat
I like this fit better, of course. This is my sexy, wide-brimmed hat that shields my eyes from the searing pain of the sun and lends an air of je ne sais quoi to my appearance. It’s the hat I wear when I write for pleasure. If it sells on the shelves, great! If it doesn’t, well, damn, but it won’t stop me from writing and enjoying myself.

There are some deadlines when working with a publisher, edits and revisions, more revisions, helping to market your work, and moving on to your next story. It’s the type of writing where you write, sometimes get paid for it, and hopefully just have a great time doing it.

Both hats are valuable, and they’ve taught me a great deal about the writing process. Not only are you creating art with words, you’re crafting them, too. You’re building a structure that will hopefully stand for a good long while. You might not build the Sphinx or The Great Wall of China, but hopefully you’ve built something that will house a few generations of readers.

I have also said that it is not necessary to have a muse in order to write. I still stand by it, that it’s 100% true if you’re dedicated to your craft. That doesn’t mean you’re not inspired or uninspired on some days, but I’ll write more about that later. I’ve been accused of having a Puritan streak for it (thanks, Frank!), but that’s not true, either. The Puritanical work ethic can play into it for some, but I prefer to think of it as a dedication to producing art. I am not a machine nor a beast of burden. I am my own muse.

I used to think that I needed a muse in order to produce a story. As such, I wound up not writing very often, just waiting for the “right idea” to come along. Then, I got into Freelance Writing to help pay my bills. There was no room for waiting with this. There were articles to write and deadlines to meet, but each article had to be original and unique, and not look like the generic crap that a bot can crank out in minutes. If you want to stand out in the world of freelance writing, you MUST produce work that has a twist to it. Infused with humor, excitement, and quality. Considering my consistent rating is five of five stars, I think I’ve got that part under control.

Doing it day in and day out gave me the idea that I could do the same thing with creative writing, if only I would sit down and write...anything. Start with a dream I had last night and see where it went. Take a character from one of my games and tailor them to become original. Use my imagination. BECOME MY OWN MUSE.

That isn’t to say there aren’t ideas, dreams, and other people who inspire me. There are plenty of people I admire and things people say that wend their way into my head and sometimes wind up in my manuscripts. But there isn’t an intangible thing out there that controls me and what I write. I draw inspiration from elsewhere, but I am the creator. If I had to depend on something or someone else, I’d never get any project finished. But I’ll write more about that next week. This week it’s all about author hats.

No matter which hat you choose, one or the other, or both, try to approach them in the same way, especially if you’re feeling uninspired, ill, or otherwise ‘just not in the mood.’ Put yourself in the mood. Think it’s impossible? I’m writing this very moment with a migraine. I created this piece and I’m pretty pleased with it. If I can do it under these circumstances, then you can, too.

Follow me on Twitter (@Spellvira) where you can read absurdities on an infrequent basis. You can also learn more and read excerpts of my work on my tumblr page.

In The End...

So I'm working on a short story right now.

It's going to run around 12,000 words when it's finished, and right at the moment, I'm working towards the ending. Those aren't easy for me, but they're something I've improved upon over the years with a lot of practice.

I have some choices to make.

I'm not really a big fan of happy endings. They can be a little too trite, sappy, or obvious. I'm a fan of fantastically disastrous endings, of gritty endings. Endings that rip your heart out and make you want to hide in your closet and eat comfort food.

Yeah, that kind.

I also enjoy ending stories with realistic and ambiguous conclusions. But happy endings? Yuck.

One of my favorite stories of Stephen King's is Thinner, and the reason it's one of my top ten King books is because of the ending.

Not the book.

Image courtesy MorgueFile.

If you haven't read it (which likely means you're not a horror fan or younger than 25 years), here comes a SPOILER alert -- they die at the end. They all eat the pie that contains the curse. The whole ending backfires so spectacularly it's beautiful. Of course, the whole story is just one cruel irony after another, but that ending...it's the icing on the cake. Or rather, the top crust on the pie.

Anyway, it stuck with me since the first time I read it (nine or ten years old), and my father asked me what I thought. I said "a happy ending."

He looked at me puzzled. "You think so?"

"For the Gypsies," I told him. He laughed. I had originally just been sarcastic, but it kind of evolved from there.

But it stayed with me. The ending was a calamity for the main character and his family. Just desserts, all over, and I found that to be much more satisfying than a happy ending where the main character gets away with all his or her bullshit.

So this ending coming up in my new short story...I'm having a hell of a time deciding what kind of ending I want to develop. I've grown attached to the two characters, but I've killed off characters I've loved before, so do I want to do it again? Possibly.

When I have a dilemma like this, I typically write three different endings, then find the ones that just don't work, and toss them aside. If it turns out that two, or all three of them work (which doesn't usually happen, but sometimes it does by a freak accident), I'll keep them all and let the publisher/editor decide which one to use. In my short story that's coming out in October, I chose just one ending and sent it in. Luckily for me, the editor liked it.

If you have trouble with endings, write those first. I used to have a lot of trouble rushing to the end or getting stuck and not writing one at all. It's something I still have to work on, but it's much improved than it used to be.

Practice. That's the craft of writing. The art is in the words themselves, but piecing the story together is the craft.

Picking Up The Pieces & Making It into Something Worth Reading

It's April, and that means it's time for Camp NaNoWriMo, where you can write novels, short stories, screenplays, and just about anything creative with words. That also means this post is going to be brief (or somewhat brief, you know how I get), because I'm working on a short story for this month.

Funny -- it's a short story I had scrapped about three months ago, thinking it wasn't going to go anywhere. The beginning was kind of slow, and I was beginning to wonder just where in the heck I was going with the damn thing. Sure, I had plotted it out and had an outline, and planned on where I wanted the characters to be, but something about it was just...fizzling.

I just couldn't seem to get it to work.

I was crestfallen about this particular story, because I really wanted it to work. But no matter what I tried, I couldn't get that story flowing. So, I gave up.

Now, I've scrapped a book or two when it hasn't worked, and that's okay. Just as long as it's not happening with every single venture you start. That's part of the writing process -- knowing when to let go and put the story away like the proverbial lame duck. Time to find a successor and work on that, instead.

But this one was just something I couldn't let go. The main character was too vivid to me. But, I put her away, too.

Then I just forgot about it and moved onto my other project -- an editing of one of my current books. I typically (split my infinitives) go through a few revisions before I have anyone else look at my work in order to get it to where I'm at least partially satisfied with it, and then have someone else take a look. A couple of beta readers, in fact. They copy edit me and make sure the story keeps continuity. Then, I revise it once more and make them go through it with a machete and tell me what parts need to stay, what needs to be elaborated upon, and what needs to be cut.

So, while doing my edits of this novel, and my normal work as a freelance writer and editor, I'd forgotten all about my horror adventure short story.

Until one night my main character decided to tell me her story in a different way as I was drifting off to sleep.

No, I don't get up and spring to my laptop or a notebook by the bed, because I follow the Stephen King rule of writing. If the idea is good, it'll still be there later on when you're sitting down to write. I've wound up scrapping too many works BECAUSE of the "holy gods I have to write that down RIGHT NOW" method, and it's only ever left me with a bunch of ideas that never pan out. A few of my friends can vouch for this.

I let my character tell me her story in a new way as I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I went to work. I did my normal freelance work, and then turned to my personal writing.

I trotted out the writing project and fished out the short story, and lo and behold, the idea was still there. So I reworked the beginning.

It's not finished yet -- still about 8,000 words away from completion. But I know that when it's finished, it'll be a good story. Certainly not the epic tales of Martin, Tolkien, Rowling, King, or Lovecraft, but it'll be a fun story that I loved writing. Hopefully you'll even love reading it.

For me, that's the point of writing and storytelling -- to have fun doing what I love most, and to be honest, if that's not why you're writing, then you're going to be miserable. Why be a suffering artist when you can just enjoy the hell out of it, instead? (Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration of both sides, but we can work on that later.)

Okay, so this wasn't a brief post at all. The point is, essentially, that if you have a work that's fizzling out, go ahead and leave it alone. Ignore it. Feed your other projects that are  working. Eventually, you might come across a way to revive your dead or dying work and give it new life and purpose.

How To Write When You Don't Feel Like Writing

Okay.

So, by now, you've noticed that the title of this blog is about writing without a muse. Sitting at your computer, laptop, etc., you are looking at these words and thinking, 'now what?'

Yes, there are days when you just don't feel like writing. You're tired, you're sick, you've been up all night playing on your PS4 or whatever, or watching a Game of Thrones marathon. But now you've got to write. You MUST.

What do you do?

You have three options:

• Be crushed under the weight of your silent muse.
• Play games or waste some time on your favored social media.
• Throw your muse out the window, put your fingers to the keyboard, and start typing.

Well, you actually have more than three options, but for the sake of brevity, let's stick to these three.

Ah, your 'muse' isn't speaking. Oh, well, I guess you're just a mindless drone who doesn't actually have any talent for your craft, then, because 'real' writers WRITE. Write or die. Writing is a habit. (More on this later.) So, accept the fact that you're just a hack and can't write unless you're inspired. Is that really what you want?

Playing games and fooling around with social media is good...for a break. But if you haven't written today, you need to put it the hell away and open your writing tool (I use Scrivener, personally, because it does everything I want and probably things I don't want but like a lot), sit your bum down, and get to work. 

Of course, as you've likely predicted, the third option is best.

Okay, Anne, GOT IT -- but what do I WRITE?

This is the hard part. When you're first developing the habit of writing, you might find you're staring at that blank screen and feeling overwhelmed. Well, I have a few exercises for you that might help.

1. What's your favorite fruit? Write a day in the life of your favorite fruit. Include its death as your nourishment.
2. Write a memory. Start with any memory you have from any age. It could be recalling learning to ride a bike, eating at your favorite restaurant, playing a sport -- anything positive or negative that you recall.
3. Write a sentence. No matter what it is. Keep going. Even if you start off with 'nothing comes to mind,' write that down, then keep going.

Do this every day, and a story will begin to form. You can use these three to get you started, or check out Language Is A Virus or Seventh Sanctum for more prompts (and some complex ones, too).

If you find you're still stuck, use a prompt and make an outline. Create a character and write out their background. Do anything you can to just get writing. That's what matters. That's the craft of writing. You will add the art as you go along with your prose.

Ready? Go!

Nobody's Perfect

Hi. This is my introductory post. I'm going to use this space for my writing, musings, rants, raves, and general commentary on...well, everything.

Mostly, my interest is writing, philosopy, and psychology. But those of you who know me know this to be true.

Naturally, in a blog, the aim is to present the best aspects of the self, or even the worst. To project a personality, to rant aimlessly or almost aimlessly, and other such things. I think I'd like to write about writing, most of all (hence one reason for the name of the blog; the other reasons are forthcoming). 

The written word has been with me as a friend and companion since I first laid eyes on ABC's and 123's and the writings of Dr. Seuss. I have since been enamored with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Steven King, Clive Barker, Chuck Palahniuk, Charles Bukowski, J.K. Rowling, and so on. That's just to name a few. 

I named this blog 'Writing Without A Muse' because I hate the idea that if your muse isn't talking, then you aren't writing. Screw your muse. Writing is a grisly, mind-breaking habit that will suck out your soul until you tell your damn story. I am a writer for a living. A freelance writer. If I don't write every day, it's a day I go without paying the bills. So the 'muse' can go shove it, because if she shuts her yap, then I don't get to eat. I'm of French-Canadian heritage (along with several other things, but I am closest to my FC heritage). I love to eat.

I don't care to allow comments on my blog. I appreciate the opinions of others and enjoy learning from them, but honestly, if something I say sways you so much that you feel the need to comment on it, WRITE IT IN YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST IT. Do it! It'll at least get you writing. Besides, this stuff is just my opinion. You're entitled to your own as well.

Other things I'm hopeful you'll find in this blog include profound wisdom, amazing things I've discovered and love so much that I just have to share them, and the occasional except from an upcoming book or announcements on what's being published and when.

Why do I write if writing is such a 'grisly, mind-breaking habit,' you ask? (You didn't? Well, I'm telling you anyway.) Because it's a must. I get images and stories in my head that just won't go away until I write them out. Sometimes, it's laborious. Sometimes, liberating. Other times? It's just a hell of a lot of fun! Plus, I'll let you in on a little secret: the ones I've had the most fun writing are the ones that get attention. The ones that people enjoy reading.

This blog will attempt to be organized, because I'm not, so the blog will have to do it itself. Above all, I hope you'll have as much fun reading this as I will writing it. I hope to post frequently (every Friday if I can, every other Friday if I remember, monthly if I'm a jackass and keep forgetting...etc.) and amuse you with my macabre sense of humor, my occasional Anglophile angst (I wish I were British), and everything else that's going to go in this blog.

Is your muse calling? Tell her to cram it. You can do it on your own. I'll get into that in a later post.

Have fun. Life is short and you're the one who has to make it sweet.

With love,
Anne L. Hogue-Boucher
The Silly Yet Macabre Writer