On writing. We likes to talk, yes we does.

[caddyman]

I see that at least three people on my friends list are at some point in the process of writing a novel, be it stuck on the first draft, partial re-write or editing and polishing.

There’s a part of me that would like to write a novel, but I’m not sure, despite the received wisdom that everybody has one novel in them, that I have one in me.

On those rare occasions when I am actually stirred to write anything more substantial than an LJ entry, I find that I end up after a paragraph or so, just staring off into the middle distance while tumbleweed chase the dust bunnies through my head. The problem is, you see, that quite apart from any question of the necessary self discipline to undertake any such task, I do not have a plot line in my head. Not even, at this moment, for a Dimpler Towers shaggy dog story – although I could fake that with pages of meandering and dust-encrusted description masquerading as atmosphere.

I find it hard, if not impossible, to start writing if I don’t have a clear view of the destination I am aiming for, whether or not I eventually get there, or divert off the main road for an interesting ramble down into the back woods of imagination, where the trivial becomes more engaging than the crucial, and where the irrelevant takes centre stage (not unlike this sentence, really).

At base, I am not a natural writer. I am more of a romancer; I like to talk and let my imagination wander off where it will, making connections as and where and when. When I’m in the right mood, and in full flow, I am told that this can be quite entertaining (though whether this means people are laughing at me or with me, I have never been clear...). The thing is that when this happens, my brain is like a processor, picking up random ideas and fitting them together, before pushing them out. Sadly, memory is rarely involved, other than as a source of information. Certainly none of the connections I make stick long enough to stay in my memory, so I couldn’t write them down afterwards. The torture of it all is, that I can remember that I had some good ideas, but I only remember the having, not the ideas themselves.

I guess that’s why I write so often on LJ. Apart from anything else, it is essentially just nattering with a keyboard. I just happen to type instead of speak.

But I’m not one of nature’s writers.

Comments

You're not the only one

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I agree. Except that I don't really have the imagination to be a romancer either.

[pax-draconis.livejournal.com]

But I’m not one of nature’s writers.

Allegedly.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Well, there isn't a great body of work to suggest otherwise. Some people just sit and write - I suspect you're one of them, judging by your output - and see where it takes them, but I'm not one of them.

I quite often sit and intend to write, but nothing comes out.

I can write when I have somewhere to take the words, but I can't just write from scratch and watch the work develop. I have to have the structure first, even if it evolves and mutates later on.

[pax-draconis.livejournal.com]

Not so. The only way I managed to get this done was to sit down beforehand and plan out a structure, chapter by chapter. It filled a side and a half of A4 and, to be fair, by halfway through I was using it folded up as a coaster, but I would never have got through the first ten thousand words without it.

Always have a plan. Never be afraid to change or abandon it, as long as it's in favour of a better plan.

Paul profoundly disagrees with me on this - he really is a sit and see where it goes chap. The other thing that spurs me - and more than a few of the writing team, I think - is peer review and collaboration. I picked a handful of people as reviewers and copied them in on each draft as I went. The feedback was useful, always constructive and mostly positive which was exactly what I needed to hear while writing it. Now it's done I've opened things out to a more critical group of reviewers and have put my tin hat on. I expect to be made to cry in the next week or two.

Find an idea. Build a story aroudn it. Plot out the story. You of all people are then more than capable of putting flesh on the bones.

You don't fool me, I've read your writing.

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

I think I tend to sit and just write, with a vague idea. Then I tell myself the rest of the story as a series of film scenes in my head. Then when I come to try and write the rest I find stringing all the scenes together really tedious and I generally give up. Sometimes a short story sneaks up on me and I manage to write it before The Doubt sets in.

I was wondering if I should figure out some kind of film based style, to compensate. Or maybe I should just write screenplays.

I admire your discipline, I think I could use some.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of a 'romancer'. I think that I'm probably one of those too.

[spasmsproject.livejournal.com]

Being a romancer is probably more interesting than being a writer. I write because if I don't, I get sort of mentally constipated. Also, writing is kind of a solitary pursuit, which doesn't really jive with the romancer thing.

If you remember one of those ideas, let me know. I haven't written a SPASM in a while...

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

Buy a dictaphone. You could be like one of those pretentious people on films, but at least you would remember stuff.

Nor me.

[westernind.livejournal.com]

Writers tend to be more visible on LJ. They're naturally the alphas - in this medium. ;-)

Some thoughts

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

From your lj entries, I cannot quite agree on your judgement. Hope this won't appear presumptuous, but to my admittedly easily boggled mind, you clearly are 'A natural'. However, the columnist, the short story writer, and the novelist use very different skills within the same craft, and they are all valid.

When an editor commisions something specific from me, I plan, because it's all about giving them what they want the way they want it.

But when I write something for myself, I very seldom know where it is going. Only through re-shaping it after everything has spilt out do I make any sense at all. If I'm lucky!

I think it was Michelangelo who claimed that every sculpture is inherent within the material. scary_lady says something similar about dress-making; she can simply touch a given fabric and feel the garment it should be.

In a similar way, perhaps some ideas want to be novels, others want to be flash fiction, others just want to be reviews and still others want to be punchy little lj kickers. Perhaps the key is to keep going until the shape begins to develop. Nothing stymies me more than thinking; God I really have to make this a story now!

If I just ramble on, eventually something will turn up ( a bit like this comment) and then I will go back and parse it down into sense (not at all like this comment!)

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Nope, I don't have a novel in me either ... but then my written prose isn't quite as accomplished as yours so it doesn't gall quite so much.

[immerwahr.livejournal.com]

Without wishing to be all contentious, I don't believe that it matters a stuff whether you are a "natural" writer or not. Some people piss it out, others bleed it out - the end result is the same quality, it's just the levels of pain it takes to get there. Wondering whether you are a "natural" writer or not is the equivalent of tidying up, playing computer games, watching French New Wave movies or getting hopelessly drunk - it is stuff to do other than writing. I am an expert on such stuff, so listen to me good.

I never struggle for things to write about, or plot. I struggle with the writing bit. You and I should meld and thus rise above those parts of us that prevent. Both flaws are equally valid, both are equally monstrous in their crushing intent, and both must be kneecapped. Sadly, hopelessly, just as well, you are the only one who can do it for yourself.

Other than LJ I have only read character sheets (and, an age ago, Mortish fiction as well) and yes, they are just silly character sheets. Secretly you agree with me though, that they are sometimes slightly more than that. Lack of output (or output only in such insular directions) does not negate talent. It just means that you haven't found the right arrow to notch into your bow. I have wanted to write a fictional account of my life (a liar's autobiography) but have failed because it is not in me. I'm not honest or chatty or interesting or engaging enough. I suspect that such a thing is probably in you. When you post things here I always want to read them, and I know that I'm not alone. Either I'm easily pleased (feel the weight of sarcasm) or you have a voice that written down carries the weight of your spoken one.

When HST gobbled the muzzle you responded to my overwrought wails of whose words I would rip off now with the comment: write like yourself. Swallow some of that good medicine yourself. Everybody does have a novel in them, it's just that 99.9% of them suck. Most of the suckiest ones think themselves "natural" writers. Undergo the torture, there are enough people out here to hold your hand while you are on the rack.

[pax-draconis.livejournal.com]

Undergo the torture, there are enough people out here to hold your hand while you are on the rack.

What he said.

Sorry, needed to add a bit on.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Most of the suckiest ones think themselves "natural" writers.

If by a natural writer you mean the L.Ron Hubbard type, spewing out claptrap with ease, I couldn’t agree more.

If you mean someone who feels that writing is a medium which comes naturally to them, in a way that painting or dress-making comes naturally to others, I do not agree with you. Some people cook and some people cook very well. But among all who cook superlatively will be found a passion for what they do, and a sense of it being part of who they are. I feel the same is true of any art form. Wanting/needing to do it and expressing that desire implies neither hubris nor lack of quality, though it might imply the need for fine tuning.

I agree that how one regards oneself, in these terms, is pretty irrelevent. What matters is the writing.