How do I….

How do I keep with it? I have officially written one story of about 49,000 words. It’s not a bad story and needs to be edited. I look at it as a first step in the process. I can say I’ve written a novel. It’s not a short story (to long according to the Guru’s out there) and though its probably not quite long enough to be a trade paperback I’ll still call it my first novel. So I am officially part of the writer’s world.

Or am I?

Do you have to be published to become part of the Writer’s world? Do you have to have an agent? If someone asks me what I’m working on I tell them I’ve finished one novel and I’m getting ready to do another. This first novel will probably not turn out to be anything more than that novel in the drawer that all authors collect over time. So the trick now is to write a second book.

Or is it?

No really. That’s the goal right. Write one, write two, write three and so on and so forth. So, why can’t I get motivated to write a story and why am I struggling to find that perfect plot, the perfect character. Or better yet utilize that perfect character that’s in my head. I’ve tried writing a western, a sci-fi space opera, a military sci-fi, a fantasy, and finally a murder mystery. Nothing is clicking and the plots I come up with seem over the top and convoluted. So much so that even I’m bored about ten pages in. What gives? The first book went so smoothly. I was on fire and wrote every other day or so. Now I’ve noticed it’s like a week in between sessions.

I’ve visited blogs, I’ve visited Writer’s Digest.com, I’ve started reading some writing books and I’m devouring PI novels from Grafton and Parker because I think that is what I really wanna write. I mean really bad, I’m just having a hard time coming up with something original. So now I’m looking at the K.I.S.S. method, tryin to find a plot that’s easy. An introduction to the character…..and that leads me to the next problem. I wanna write a female main character. I even have one all picked out….but she’s just not working. There’s no flow, no feeling. So I’ve turned to a male character and he’s better but I feel sort of disconnected from him and I’d like to have that change.

So it’s back to drawing board I guess. I’ve picked up some books on developing character, one of them written by Orson Scot Card. Now its time to read them and see if I can breath new life into characters, the way I feel like I did with my first novel. I will say this, it is definitely harder than it sounds or looks. It takes a lot of hard work but I am determined to not be in the; “I had a good story once.” or the “I had this one character once and I was so gonna write.” camps. I wanna make this work, I wanna see my writing in print….even if I have to print it out myself!

Onward and upward and hopefully one foot in front of the other will lead to that perfect combination of character and plot that will then lead to being published! Thanks for listening.

Inspiration Part II:

I just finished reading Stephen King’s book On Writing and I have to say it was pretty good. I noticed as I read it that many of the little sayings you hear from other established authors were repeated. It seems the mantra of the writing world is, “Write, write, and then write some more.” What I found really fascinating was the idea that a writer should, “Read, read and then read some more.” In most books on the art of writing you rarely see this spoken about. Yet, as I surf through author blogs many of them are avid readers as well. They soak up the art form from every angle they can. This idea really struck home for me because I love to read. I tackle book after book and while I may not hit the 70 or 80 books a year that Mr. King does I come pretty close. The logic is so clear that I can’t believe it doesn’t come up more often. How can one pursue the art form if one doesn’t know what the art form is supposed to look like? My boss is a perfect example of this. Her memo’s and emails are horrific. They’re bossy, rude, and lack personality. There is a use of words so far above her regular vocabulary often times the memo/email doesn’t even make sense. Sometimes it’s a struggle just to get through one of them and get any sort of meaning and not be insulted. She doesn’t read. She hates it. It shows. So now I have an excuse for all of my reading (and the money I spend on both new and used books…I’m doing research!)

What I found even more interesting was that I don’t even really like Stephen King’s books but I know he is a sort of god of writing. I mean look at his success. He started out writing for adult magazines and now he’s created some of the most influential books of our time. I’m sure some of his work is even required reading at a few colleges. So as I read On Writing I knew of books like Carrie and The Green Mile but I’ve never read them. In fact the only books of his that I’ve read are The Stand (which was awesome), and The Gunslinger which was not as good as I had hope it would be from the title. I still found myself, however, being inspired by his words. I saw how his tenacity, his knowledge had led him to where he is now. I found similarities between him and me. We both started writing young. He started with original ideas and I did not. He had the support of his mom and shared his work. I did not. I was so absorbed with being cool that I rarely if ever shared any of what I worked on. I had an English teacher that supported me and I just threw away the two notebooks from that class. Both had poorly written Star Trek stuff in them. His success, however, gives me hope that at 36 perhaps I still have a shot. If I stick with what I’m passionate about and keep pushing forward in the face of self-doubt that perhaps I’ll succeed where in the past I’ve failed. I feel empowered to keep pushing forward with my work even when I think it’s not that good.