On "On Writing"

Welcome back, gentle, faithful, reader. Welcome back to my little rant page, where you and I shall once again plumb the depths of whatever the fuck I'm talking about. I'm excited about today's entry. I want to discuss what everyone else says about writing.

As you may have noticed by the fact that you're reading this, I am a writer; a writer who has yet to publish anything and who will likely stave to death promptly following his college graduation, but a writer none the less. I have read a few books on writing and I must say that that is a perilous endeavor. Each book I have read offers differing advice with only a few similarities among them. I propose to save you some time, gentle reader, by compiling the similarities here, within the safe confines of my blog, that you will not be forced to venture out into the perilous land of advice-books.

Firstly, one should keep in mind why all these books offer different advice: because there is no “trick” or “secret” to writing. Every writer has his or her own way of going about it. Some writers compose work in their minds before putting it to page, others sit at a blank screen and start typing to see what comes out. This is actually the first similarity among most books on writing: figure out your own style. This is typically found at the beginning of the book (which seems foolish since it begs the question “so why should I bother reading the rest of this book?”). Since there is no set way to write, each writer must figure out what makes him or her comfortable and productive. If working out stimulates your creative mind, then have a work-out before writing, or keep a pad and pen nearby to jot down ideas. If you feel that your writing comes from a place deeper in your psyche, then do some meditations or prayer before writing. If you feel like increased blood-flow to the brain will help, then suspend yourself upside down while you write. Whatever works.

The second thing that nearly all writers advise is to write daily. The amount of time writing differs. I understand that Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and the Sandman series of comic-books, aims for 400 words every day. Other writers try to write for a certain period of time. Steven King in his On Writing says that if you don't have time to write daily, you don't have time to be a writer. There is a lot of truth to that; after all, one cannot be a writer if one does not write.

The final common piece of advice is to read. Almost every writer advises novice writers to read extensively. One should find a writer that one likes, and read in order to understand his or her style so that what one likes about it can be emulated. For my blog entries, I really like the way Tycho of Penny Arcade writes. I also like Yatzee of Zero Punctuation. I read most of Tycho's posts and I watch Zero Puncuation every week when the new episode comes out. I take what I like about each and mix it with my own style to create what is (I hope) a different style all my own.

For my part, I find that it helps to never look at a blank page until I know exactly the words I want to start out with. I don't need to start at the beginning, or have anything particularly voluminous composed in my head, but I need a sentence at least as a starting point so that I'm not staring at a blank page. A page with a line of text at the top is infinitely less intimidating than a completely blank page. From that point, I might just go from there and progress the scene or I might work my way back to find out where that bit of text came from by asking questions like “who is this person I'm talking about” or “how did this person get here”. These questions start vague, but they become more specific as I ask more questions and then I have a place to write from.

I have never finished even a short story in one sitting. If I don't have anything to start, I tweak older works that I haven't finished in my mind yet. I may spend days or weeks just playing with older works while an idea ferments in my head, and when it comes to fruition, I then concentrate on it for several days until I have finished writing it. I will then play with it for a while, editing mechanical things like grammar and punctuation, and changing words to make sure they carry the context I'm looking for. I often delete entire sentences and paragraphs and re-write them or move them, or I start adding bits to the middle of it to flesh an idea out more clearly. Using this type of editing, it would take me hours to fill 400 words, so that type of writing doesn't work for me. I try to write for one hour a day, unless I'm really busy with the semester, and even then I go for half an hour. I also stop after I reach a stopping point. When I finish a short story, I stop and get up from my computer. I leave the editing process for the next day or even a few weeks later, once I've gotten some distance from the work.

For what it's worth, I hope that this helps with your writing (assuming that you would like to write), but keep in mind that I'm not yet published, so as far as you know, this entire post could be rubbish.

That about rounds up my hour for the day,
Zac