Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Writing Life
Mon, Jan 02 2012
2012 is the year for breaking rules
I've taken a break from blogging the last few months in order to finish up some other projects and consider some new ones. Writing is in full swing once again, so it's time to stop in here for sharing a few notes.
All my life I've soaked up tips, tricks, how-to articles and other pieces of advice from writers on writing. I've come to the conclusion that no one piece of advice is one-size-fits-all for writers. If the only time you can produce writing is by working in longhand in the bed of a pick-up truck on top of a windy hill on Tuesdays, then you're ahead of the game. All this talk about writing only first thing in the morning or about never revising while doing a first draft is just someone else's opinion if it doesn't work for you. What works is what works.
posted at: 12:24 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I've taken a break from blogging the last few months in order to finish up some other projects and consider some new ones. Writing is in full swing once again, so it's time to stop in here for sharing a few notes.
All my life I've soaked up tips, tricks, how-to articles and other pieces of advice from writers on writing. I've come to the conclusion that no one piece of advice is one-size-fits-all for writers. If the only time you can produce writing is by working in longhand in the bed of a pick-up truck on top of a windy hill on Tuesdays, then you're ahead of the game. All this talk about writing only first thing in the morning or about never revising while doing a first draft is just someone else's opinion if it doesn't work for you. What works is what works.
posted at: 12:24 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Mon, May 16 2011
Characters-in-waiting
Good fictional characters are both progressive and instantaneous in nature. They are a twinkle in a muse's eye, a surging of a writer's heart. Actors have to surmise a lot about the characters they portray, but writers have a chance to develop characters as sinew and spirit. It's a powerful, yet humbling, place to be in life.
posted at: 09:51 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Good fictional characters are both progressive and instantaneous in nature. They are a twinkle in a muse's eye, a surging of a writer's heart. Actors have to surmise a lot about the characters they portray, but writers have a chance to develop characters as sinew and spirit. It's a powerful, yet humbling, place to be in life.
posted at: 09:51 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Wed, Mar 16 2011
Word counts
At the end of the day we've sometimes written less than we intended to write. It's always best to remember that the word count is not the primary task. It's not even the secondary task. But we chisel away at a manuscript the way an artist might work at a piece of stone, lifting bits and pieces to reveal curves and hard edges in the hope that what's left is the material that will make the story give readers a few moments that nothing else can give them. If we happen to reach a word count target along the way we can enjoy achieving an extra goal.
posted at: 22:25 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
At the end of the day we've sometimes written less than we intended to write. It's always best to remember that the word count is not the primary task. It's not even the secondary task. But we chisel away at a manuscript the way an artist might work at a piece of stone, lifting bits and pieces to reveal curves and hard edges in the hope that what's left is the material that will make the story give readers a few moments that nothing else can give them. If we happen to reach a word count target along the way we can enjoy achieving an extra goal.
posted at: 22:25 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Tue, Mar 01 2011
Home Alone
I've been holding down the home front for a few days while my husband is in his first home state attending a memorial and seeing family. I've been blessed with so many people checking on my welfare that I've had much less time to write than I thought I'd have. May each of you who write be blessed that way in such a circumstance.
posted at: 16:11 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I've been holding down the home front for a few days while my husband is in his first home state attending a memorial and seeing family. I've been blessed with so many people checking on my welfare that I've had much less time to write than I thought I'd have. May each of you who write be blessed that way in such a circumstance.
posted at: 16:11 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Wed, Feb 09 2011
Continuum
I've been looking for the right word to describe what's been going on with my writing lately. I finally chose the word "continuum". I was very surprised to find out that the word is most often used in mathematics, because I'm notoriously bad at math. It remains, however, that continuum is the best way to tell you that my fiction writing has been just as sparse as it was last year, though what goes down has been more mature.
When I wrote as a young person I had a tendency to moralize in fiction. I still believe that fiction can contain a moral message, but now I know that the story is the main thing. I've learned that too much moralizing in fiction makes your plot broken and artificial. Moralizing becomes a rusty hinge that squeaks eery time the door swings. No amount of lubrication will fix it. You have to start over and tell the story without holding a moral position. That might sound counterintuitive for those of us who claim to write with spirituality. Christians in particular seem prone to moralize in fiction. The story we tell can be moral without moralizing. That's a lot harder to do. But it's also the only way to do it well.
What does any of this have to do with a continuum? It's been a gradual process and not one that changed my fiction writing all at once. While this is good news, it hasn't followed that I've gotten one bit better at math.
posted at: 19:33 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I've been looking for the right word to describe what's been going on with my writing lately. I finally chose the word "continuum". I was very surprised to find out that the word is most often used in mathematics, because I'm notoriously bad at math. It remains, however, that continuum is the best way to tell you that my fiction writing has been just as sparse as it was last year, though what goes down has been more mature.
When I wrote as a young person I had a tendency to moralize in fiction. I still believe that fiction can contain a moral message, but now I know that the story is the main thing. I've learned that too much moralizing in fiction makes your plot broken and artificial. Moralizing becomes a rusty hinge that squeaks eery time the door swings. No amount of lubrication will fix it. You have to start over and tell the story without holding a moral position. That might sound counterintuitive for those of us who claim to write with spirituality. Christians in particular seem prone to moralize in fiction. The story we tell can be moral without moralizing. That's a lot harder to do. But it's also the only way to do it well.
What does any of this have to do with a continuum? It's been a gradual process and not one that changed my fiction writing all at once. While this is good news, it hasn't followed that I've gotten one bit better at math.
posted at: 19:33 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Fri, Jan 21 2011
When you only have time to write the best
I've had time to write only five brief items today, so I made certain they were five very items of importance. It's amazing what happens when we put ourselves fully into an experience. Our focus becomes clear and purposeful without being frantic or forced. I think it's what they called "being in the zone" there for awhile, though that phrase has probablly been left in the dust for some newer, more hip expression. Come to think of it, the word "hip" isn't very up-to-the-minute either. I'll just sign off for the week and encourage you to get hip, be in the zone and go write five important items.
posted at: 14:38 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I've had time to write only five brief items today, so I made certain they were five very items of importance. It's amazing what happens when we put ourselves fully into an experience. Our focus becomes clear and purposeful without being frantic or forced. I think it's what they called "being in the zone" there for awhile, though that phrase has probablly been left in the dust for some newer, more hip expression. Come to think of it, the word "hip" isn't very up-to-the-minute either. I'll just sign off for the week and encourage you to get hip, be in the zone and go write five important items.
posted at: 14:38 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Tue, Jan 18 2011
Stack, sort, repeat.
It's a good thing I didn't make a New Year's Resolution to be more organized and get more done. I can never figure out how to do both of those things. No matter what anyone tells you, organization takes time. Getting things done also takes time. Dealing with one of those takes away time from dealing with the other one. You can argue the point, of course, but I've seen it in action for decades. Very organized people don't get more work done. They just spend more time organizing than the rest of us do.
What I have determined to do this year is spend a portion of each day on organization. It might be a mere 5 minutes and it might involve putting several stacks of items by a chair to be gone through while I view a little TV in the evening. It might involve taking story notes and putting them together into a story board of sorts. It might involve actually cleaning off one shelf of a cabinet instead of vowing to clean out the whole cabinet and never getting that much time to finish the task.
I'm giving it a year as an experiment. After that? We'll see.
posted at: 07:54 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
It's a good thing I didn't make a New Year's Resolution to be more organized and get more done. I can never figure out how to do both of those things. No matter what anyone tells you, organization takes time. Getting things done also takes time. Dealing with one of those takes away time from dealing with the other one. You can argue the point, of course, but I've seen it in action for decades. Very organized people don't get more work done. They just spend more time organizing than the rest of us do.
What I have determined to do this year is spend a portion of each day on organization. It might be a mere 5 minutes and it might involve putting several stacks of items by a chair to be gone through while I view a little TV in the evening. It might involve taking story notes and putting them together into a story board of sorts. It might involve actually cleaning off one shelf of a cabinet instead of vowing to clean out the whole cabinet and never getting that much time to finish the task.
I'm giving it a year as an experiment. After that? We'll see.
posted at: 07:54 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
