Saturday, May 21, 2011

How 2 Write

Aloha, Friend!


  "Father of modern surfing."
was the REAL deal!

"Just take your time - wave comes.
Let the other guys go, catch another one."

Duke


Nice looking scoot-




"Good artists borrow,
great artists steal."

Picasso





 -Things are not always
what they appear to be.


"Mirrors should think longer 
before they reflect."

Jean Cocteau


 ><}}(°>
Once I asked my psychology professor:
"Where do hypotheses come from."
How do scientists decide 
what to try to prove/disprove? 
She was wise and admitted to me
that such 'inspirations'
remain a wonderful unknown.
There are lots of people
who will tell you
'how to write.'
Some of them,
in his worthy 
give excellent, 
very useful advice. 
 But where do ideas come from?
What is worth writing about?
Why should a reader care?
It is said that Robert Louis Stevenson,
 when he needed money, 
would ask his 'Brownies'
for a new story plot
which they always supplied to him
while he slept.
  "And for the Little People, what shall I say
they are but just my Brownies, God bless them!
who do one-half my work for me while I am fast asleep,
and in all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well,
when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do it for myself."

Robert Louis Stevenson


Now I'm going to share MY method.
I do not sit before a blank screen.
By the time I sit down to 'write'
I have an idea and notes;
I know what I am going to write about
even though it often takes me on a journey,
a path,
I knew not of
beforehand.
If you came to my desk
you would see stacks of magazines
full of highlighting and folded-over pages.

You would also see lots of notes on paper.

When I walk, when I meditate, 
when I watch TV,
I always keep paper and a writing tool
near.

The best ideas arise
"out of the blue."
So I capture those wild ideas.

When it is time to write a blog post,
(if there is no topic on my mind)
I sit with all my notes,
and quotes looking for an idea
that is ripe & ready;
an idea that speaks to me.


The thing that interests me
is ready to play that day.

A two-sentence idea
will be 'dead' one day
and birth a great post the next!

Then you learn to write,
by writing.
And by reading.

And by reading books like Charles' .

It can take years to develop a voice.
Don't make the rookie mistake of trying to 
'sound smart'
or to write like someone else.

(Actually, copying writers who speak to you
is a useful exercise - but your work
will ultimately be
your own,
or it will be something less than
Writing.)
"You do not really understand something
unless you can explain it to your grandmother."
 
 Albert Einstein

My novel was an idea that wouldn't leave me alone.
I HAD to write it!
But HOW??!!

I thought about it for a long, long time.
Something would come into my mind and I'd think:
"This will be in the book."
And I'd write it in a notebook.

One day, looking at those notebooks
I read a piece that seemed to be a place to start.
I wrote a chapter from that rich raw material.



Then it seemed that the second chapter should
'flash back'
to how the protagonist got to that place.

I had no outline of chapters;
I confess that I wrote them one at a time.

Only reading the manuscript afterwards
did I see the logic 
of the narrative thread.
I also saw that I had a manuscript,
not a book.
That is where the real work begins:
removing, revamping; praying.

The next book will arise
and force me to write it.
Or not.

This time
I WILL have an outline,
some structure, a narrative arc.

Or maybe I won't.

You can learn how to write clearly,
and you SHOULD
(if you want to be any sort of writer)

But to be a Writer
you will need magical Ideas.

You can ask the Brownies,
you can pray,
you can decide what the market wants.

But creating a story that breathes,
that lives,
that strangers will care about,
remains a tough task
requiring some luck
in the end.

At least it is to me.

Thanks for being a part
of that magic!

           Please leave your comment!  cloudia

24 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Thanks for the plug. I do a LOT of meditating before I write as well, and do a lot of that while I'm walking. I tend to keep most of my "notes" in my head during the early stages so I'm not quite so organized as you in that way.

21 Wits said...

As always....you leave me wanting more words of wisdom....my writing often comes after reading things that touch me emotionally...if we are what we eat...then I write what I am in the middle of....life and it's so many journies....I might post something I saw last week that really touched my soul...it was a funny sight at first but the longer I looked into the entire picture...it was a priceless moment in one's life....his and someone else lucky enough to be a part of him.....and I too for getting a brief glimpse into their life! Have a great weekend in the sunshine...you know it's Saturday here...because it's raining!

Feisty Crone said...

I've started carrying small notebooks with me wherever I go, because I think of things all the time, then sometimes forget them if they're not written down.

KrippledWarrior said...

I'm not a writer. I'm just a knucklehead with a blog. But you go girl. I enjoy these trips you take me on.

Pietro Brosio said...

Nice writing in this post indeed, and Jean Cocteau's quote is funny!

christopher said...

Thanks for sharing those excellent points.

I compile a lot of notes too. Haven't been able to get a novel going yet though...hopefully one day.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for teaching.

Turned out that most thoughts 'arrive' while riding a bus, leaving me notes sometimes in funny strange form from all that movement.

Please have a wonderful Sunday you all.

daily athens

Elephant's Child said...

Thanks. Megaheaps. Love the Jean Cocteau quote too.

SandyCarlson said...

I think ideas come out of the blue, but that the blue is not a vast nothing but a miraculous everything.

Thanks for this great post and recommending Gramlich's book.

Teresa said...

And I am just forced to wonder: What was the secret ingredient for RLS's brownies?

Thanks for sharing your writing methods, Cloudi.

Full-On-Forward said...

Cloudia- Help!! I have the Magical Ideas, but I can't nail them down into precise sentences or concepts--I just ramble on--an unconscious stream of thought that isn't anchored or held on course! I chase down every rabbit!

What do you do??

HFTEC,

J

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your writing process with us. I love the way each writer has a process unique to her or him...

Marguerite said...

Great post! My muse is decidedly absent today! Love that Einstein quote!

Myrna R. said...

I guess I do more thinking than writing, that's why I haven't really finished anything, other than blog posts. Thanks for your thoughts.

Windsmoke. said...

I agree with "The best ideas arise out of the blue" this happens me now and then and have always wondered whether this happens to anybody else, you have answered my question, thank you :-).

Kay said...

Art is always suggesting things for me to write about. It's really helpful, but a lot of times, it just doesn't work for me. The idea won't take root and flower. Other times it does. You're right about keeping a notebook around to remember though because my mind is live a sieve these days.

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

Love this tiny quote almost over shadowed by the bold words ~ "You do not really understand something
unless you can explain it to your grandmother." ~ Albert Einstein. tQ ~;).

Commander Zaius said...

The best ideas arise"out of the blue.

My best moments are on weekend morning right before the sun comes up and everyone else in my family are still asleep and I'm on that borderland of waking.

Reanaclaire said...

You are a great writer, Cloudia!

BALLET NEWS said...

I'd be lost without my notebooks !

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Cloudia said...

I'd be lost without YOU folks
(as we learned during the Great Blogger Shutdown last week :)