For today’s Friday Fun, we have a collection of interviews with writers about the process, the craft, the joys, the hardships, the….reality….of writing.
Eric Idle (of Monty Python)
Ray Bradbury
Neil Gaiman
Paul Theroux
Under normal circumstances, I’m a highly energetic, ferociously physical guy. This affects my writing, both in terms of voice and in terms of what I choose to write about.
These past two days, I’ve been alternating between periods of aching recovery, frustration with how slowly I have to move, and hazy drifts through pain-medicated fog. Overall, this is not the most pleasant experience I’ve had this year.
But…
It helps with point of view. Joe R. Lansdale, a martial artist speaking of writing bad fight scenes, once said “You can tell when a virgin is writing a sex scene.” This feeling of helplessness, of low energy, of weakness, will help me write better characters in my fiction and write more effectively for some audiences of my nonfiction.
A lot of the best authors suffered throughout their lives, giving them the empathy to truly understand each and every one of the challenges and conflicts affecting their characters. I’m not comparing my routine hernia operation to the lives of those giants, but it’s a small piece of the same page.
As writers, we have the advantage that every hardship we suffer now is fuel for your creativity later. Even if it never makes it into a particular story, simply knowing this can help us better handle the situation as it happens.
Thanks for listening.
This week will consist of a bunch of short posts. I’m in recovery from a minor surgery and, although everything went well, the pain meds are making my attention span shorter than it usually is.
You know what job I want? I want to be the Google front page guy. More days than not, Google replaces their standard front-page logo with a stylized logo that celebrates a birthday or anniversary…first cosmonaut, Montgomery Bus Boycott, famous artists, the fall of the Berlin Wall…all manner of cool people and happenings. It would be fun to get paid to choose and research who makes that list.
Of course, at Google, it probably isn’t a job. Google uses the concept of “20 percent time,” under which employees are free to work on whatever they want (so long as it’s for the company) one day per week. Google Docs and Google Maps are two of the products to come out of 20 percent time, and it seems likely that the front page celebration is, too.
Of course if I’m wrong, Google, please give me a call. We’ll talk.
Thanks for listening.
Here’s a brief interview with Jeff Lindsay, author of the popular Dexter series…also the inspiration for the hit Showtime series. It’s a good example of how character, plot and setting can lead to a story.
Hope it entertains, or at least amuses.
Thanks for listening.
As a writer, I find templates to be one of my most powerful tools. When working with tools, a template is a metal or plastic form that lets you cut out the outline of an object. When working with words, it’s an organizational form that lets your rough out the outline of a work. In the context of web content, I have about a dozen templates — rough structures for articles — that I apply detail and personality to when I receive an assignment. This saves me hours every week, since I’ve gotten pretty quick at matching the right template with the right subject. Templates do not stifle creativity or voice any more than a standardized rhyme scheme stifles creativity in poetry. It actually encourages creativity and voice by allowing me to put all my focus on the unique part of the article. I no longer have to think about the frame of the house, meaning I can focus on what’s living there and how it’s decorated. Some authors use a template for their novels, producing entire series in which each book follows basically the same outline. Done poorly, they can be disappointing and formulaic. The best take that same outline and make each one a unique story by changing the characters, the dialog, the details. You can also make life easier by building “time templates” into your day. This is a way of organizing your time and your writing. I work best from about 6 to about 9. AM vs PM don’t matter, so I schedule the rest of my day around writing during that block. Weekly and monthly templates can help you arrange less frequent tasks — for example, committing to posting certain kinds of posts to your blog on certain days. Think about the writing you’ve done. If it helps, you can pencil a rough outline for a few representative samples. Chances are you also use templates, but may not know it. Once you realize you have such a powerful tool, you’ll be better able to use it to your advantage. Thanks for listening.