How do you sum up your life?

Another question with no answer...just one to ask yourself. How do you sum up your life? I have been in a few situations recently where I need to write a short biography about myself. I know that it shouldn't really be that big of a deal, but I have found it difficult to do. What would people want to know? Should it be factual or entertaining? Can I really summarize my life in a brief space? Should it concern me at all? I like to think that I can find a way to say things that I want to say. I work with words every day as a teacher and play with words whenever I can as an amateur writer. For some reason, a bio leaves me struggling for words. I know that my life isn't very interesting by any celebrity standards, but I think I have seen and done a few things. Why can't I think of what they are? When I read my own bio, I put myself to sleep!

Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this. I guess that I should solve this conundrum the way that I do so many others: wait until my wife gets home and see what she has to say!

Featured image via granitegrok.com

Editors notes and critiques...they're all out to get me!

Everyone who likes to be criticized, shout it out! (crickets chirp) Everyone wants to feel that they are doing something right. Even the most self-deprecating individuals (and I count myself among them) hope that they can receive a little praise for their efforts. So, as a writer, writer-hopeful, student, etc., how should we deal with criticisms from people whose opinions we value? First, I want to paraphrase from a blog that I read recently at bbnest.wordpress.com: the most important thing in writing is your voice. You need to retain your individual approach to what you do. If you fail to do that, then you are no longer the writer. You are, in fact, the ventriloquist dummy. No one in their right mind signs up for that job. That having been said, I do believe that it is important to put your ego aside when dealing with appropriate criticism and critiques from people who have knowledge and experience on their side. While you want to always retain your voice, you still want to try to grow. There is no perfect author out there, so growth is always an option.

It was not long after I found out that Pup was going to get published when I received a message from the publisher that I would receive a copy of the manuscript with editors notes on it. I was incredibly nervous. I knew that there were places that the book could use improvements, but now I was going to find out what those improvements would need to be from a professional! I pictured ink factories going into overdrive to produce enough red ink for what I was going to see. I will also admit that even though I was anxious to improve my writing, a tiny voice in my head cried out in a shrill little voice that I shouldn't change anything. It's your book! Don't let someone tell you how to write it! It was kind of funny, really. The voice sounded like a whiny little child. In the end, I treated it as such. The editorial notes that I received were very useful and honest. They mentioned things that I had never noticed from my point of view while writing and revising. Once I read these notes, I could see things from a different perspective and realized that most of those things did indeed need to be changed. I was very thankful in the end for the insights provided and feel that my story improved because of it.

That brings me to the next necessity: getting opinions that you can trust. If you receive a critique from someone who is entirely negative, look for things mentioned that are actionable, then ignore the rest. Chances are that whoever wrote the critique or provided the notes was looking for problems. I am not saying that they are mean or cruel people. I am saying that they do not know how to write notes or a critique. Some people think that if someone asks them to critique their work, then they are supposed to find all of the problems. Not so. A good critique should not only point out things that are in need of work, but also point out the positive and strong aspects of the writing so that the author can exploit those strengths to correct the weaknesses. Of course, nothing but glowing praise teaches you nothing about your writing either. Remember this if ever you are called on to critique someone's work.

So, in summary, choose those that criticize your work wisely, keep your voice, but put your ego aside. Oh, and forgive the featured image. It was a dare.

Can you teach someone how to write?

Everyone appreciates talent. The problem with talent is that those with a talent cannot understand why others can't do the same things that they can do. Why can't I walk on my hands? (Probably because I can barely walk on my feet!) Why aren't I a good basketball player? (Probably because I have a total lack of coordination) Why can't you draw? (See previous excuse) So if a talent is something that not everyone is capable of, can we teach people how to write?

Many schools have courses or clubs that center around creative writing. I myself have run a club of that nature before and I am currently working with students daily on the same subject. Does that mean that writing is a talent different from other talents? Can the talent of writing be taught? If so, then is there hope for me at basketball, drawing, and maybe even walking on my hands? (I could also use lessons in social skills, but that is a subject for an entirely different post.) To answer that, we need to look at what is taught in creative writing.

I am not certified to teach creative writing. I don't teach a credit course on the subject. What I do try to pass on to those in the club or in spare time at school are a few skills and ideas that can help improve writing. I try to get hopeful writers to spend more time working on their characters and less time working on plot lines and twists in their stories. I show them how to create deeper and more believable characters. I talk with them about how to critique someone's work and how to work with a critique of their own work. All of this is intended to help the perspective writers grow. I do believe that a lot of people reading this can learn how to write. It is a matter of skills, and skills can come from instruction and practice. There are lots of resources. Speak to the people around you. I would bet good money that you know someone who considers themselves an amateur writer. Look around on the internet. There are all kinds of sites that are made to assist writers. It is out there.

So, if I believe that lots of people can be writers, why aren't we inundated with amazing writers all day, every day. Please note my careful wording. I said that a lot of people can be writers. I didn't say that everyone can be an amazing writer. Most people who consider themselves writers do so because they enjoy writing and find pleasure in it. They would love to write a best-selling novel, but whether they do or not, they will continue writing for the joy of it. They have learned some skills and they make use of them. These are the writers I'm talking about. I count myself among them. The amazing writers do have a talent that probably cannot be taught.

OK, even with that distinction, why don't we have a lot more writers. For the same reason I'm not a good basketball player: drive and determination. A writer wants to write. They do it for joy. They do it as their outlet. They do it for their readers, however small the number. Without that drive, you never put pen to paper, just as I never put on tennis shoes and work on my lay-up (which is a moment of epic slapstick comedy). So, to answer the question of whether you can teach someone to write, I say: You can lead someone to the keyboard, but you can't make them type.

The accidental author

I'm still having difficulty considering myself a writer for the simple reason that I don't have an agent and simply won a contest. Nevertheless, I thought that I might chronicle the process of being published so others can see some of the process and so that I can figure it out myself. To that end, I should start at the beginning.The beginning is, of course, the book. I had self-published a book a few years back, but I never learned how to do the publicity side of things, so I didn't have a lot of luck with it. Despite that, I wanted to give it another go because I do enjoy writing. I brainstormed on several ideas, and by the time I had thought everything through I had a rough outline for a story. The story can sometimes be the easiest part. It is the characters that can be a pain. I spent a lot of time thinking about that main character. Should he be lovable, comical, grumpy? Should he stand out in a crowd for a good reason or a bad reason? What does he want out of life? Can he achieve that? I answered a lot of questions that would never make it into the story, but they made the character seem more real to me. I wrote in my spare time during the Spring Semester and over the summer. There isn't much spare time in the life of a teacher, husband, and father, but I scratched some out and my wife was always very generous at making sure that I could find some time. It took a few months, but I finally completed my rough draft. Then I read through it myself. If there is one thing that I have discovered it is that I forget half of what I write and can actually surprise myself with my own writing. I know, it's weird. I'm considering getting help. My wife and a friend beta read it for me. I highly recommend finding beta readers for your stories. A good beta reader can be an invaluable resource. Once they were finish, I contemplated what to do with my new novel.

I was seriously considering self-publishing again. It can be a great tool and some writers have had tremendous success with it. While I was contemplating it I stumbled across mention of a writing contest. I've never bothered entering one because they either have a steep cost or an ridiculous set of requirements, but I decided to check it out anyways. The contest was on the website www.authorsfirst.com (a great resource for writers. Everyone should check it out!) and as soon as I arrived I found the contest rules. I read through me multiple times before deciding that the generous requirements and lack of entry fee made for a good fit. I had a friend proofread the book (thanks Mrs. G!) and sent it end a little before the deadline. the next thing that came was the part that I understand every author has to go through: waiting. The contest entry deadline was September I believe, but the winners wouldn't be announced until December. I understand that this kind of waiting is typical for many authors when trying to get an agent or submitting manuscripts to publishers. It is agonizing. I haven't always been known for my patience. As the time for the announcement of winners approached, I started making preparations to self-publish my novel. My wife and I spent some time trying to put together some cover art (thanks for working with me on that sweetie! I know it wasn't easy) and I started thinking of what I could do differently to promote my book that I didn't do last time. The email from Lou Aronica at The Story Plant didn't come as a complete surprise. I figured it was a polite form email thanking me for entering the contest but that they had chosen someone else, etc. When I read the words "Congratulations, you are the inaugural winner of..." My brain kind of froze. Mrs. G asked what was wrong and I handed her my phone with the email on it. She shouted and gave me a hug and handed it to Mrs. Edwards who did the same thing. It took a long while to set in. I contacted Mr. Aronica to make certain that the email was genuine. He assured me that it was and tolerated my nervous joking as I asked him what I needed to do. He explained to me what would be happening over the next few days and what would be happening in the longer term. I don't know if he has a lot of experience dealing with nervous, naive amateur writers but he does it quite well. The obligatory call to my wife, mother, and friends out of the way, I started down the path of becoming a published writer. So what were the things that Mr. Aronica described to me as part of the process? That will be described later. This is still an ongoing process, and I am still overwhelmed. Maybe some of you wonder why I am bothering to write about is when so many people have been published, but if you are an amateur writer like me, you have no idea how this works. I know that I haven't gone through the process of getting an agent or writing submissions. I'm an accidental author, and I know that I will be going through those difficulties eventually, but for now I'd like to share the light at the end of the tunnel.

The "based-on" character conundrum...

Maybe you have done it yourself or had it done to you. You have based a character on someone you know or someone has based one on you. This habit of basing characters on people never occurs without a pronouncement to the person the character is based on. I'm not sure if I have ever heard of a person reading a story or book and then going to the author and asking "Was that character based on me?" The question becomes whether basing characters on people you know is a good idea or a problem. When discussing characters with students, I always tell them that you character needs to be a real person in your mind. Sometimes that can be a hard concept to truly grasp. That is where the habit of basing characters off of people that we know comes from. I would bet that many of the writers reading this blog have a lot of themselves in the main character of at least one of their stories. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It is certainly information that is easy for us to access and it makes the character very real to us because it is...well, us. Of course, you can't be every character in your story, and so you decide to look at the people in your lives and use your knowledge of them in order to create a new character. Just like putting some of yourself in your main character, there is nothing wrong with that. So what am I on about?

The problem occurs when the writer tells their friend that they are basing a character on them. This is done because we all want to make our friends feel good, and what more can a writer do for a person immortalize them on paper? Unfortunately, we hobble ourselves by doing this. If a writer tells someone that they are basing a character on them, they have just guaranteed that this same character will do all good things. If the person you are basing the character on knows who that character is, they certainly do not want to read about that character doing anything bad or being snarky or any of a million other things that might help move the story along but are considered negative. Those things could even be a true reflection of that friend, but that doesn't mean that they want to read it! So, in order to keep turmoil out of their real lives, writers will alter the actions in their written lives. That means that you just compromised your writing. I don't mean to make that sound like some kind of artistic and somewhat vague comment. It means that you just prevented your story from happening the way that you wanted it to for the sake of another. One compromise makes for a slippery slope to others. To top it off, your character is less believable than before because it is so perfect. Whoops.

So, if you do feel that you need to base your characters off of people you know, which is just fine, shut your mouth about it. If the people who you are basing characters off of don't know what you are doing, you can have those characters react and respond in a much more honest and realistic way. Sure, you might have to be a little more honest with yourself about some of your friends' negative tendencies, but that is ok. They aren't perfect, and that is why you like them. Your characters won't be perfect either, and that is why your readers will like them.

So what's the point (of view)?

I love fads. They are the most human thing to ever experience. People suddenly turn into herd animals and abandon all common sense to follow the same fashion trend or food fad or television show. I love having a student tell me that they don't even know what a fad is and then walk away wearing the current fashion trend and using the current trendy language. And fads happen everywhere. I have watched them happen in popular literature a lot. Plenty of people like to point out and complain about the trends dealing with subjects for books. I have noticed a different trend. It is a trend of point-of-view.

I'm sure that most of you remember from your grammar classes the different points-of-view. Well, up until recently most books and stories were written from a third person point-of-view. All that you ever saw were the words he, she, they, etc. However, once an author or two wrote best sellers from first person point-of-view, the new fad began. Now there are first person books everywhere. Does it really matter?

I honestly do believe that point-of-view matters. It truly impacts the reader's interaction with the characters and the stories. So which one is better? Who am I to answer that? I think it depends on the story, the characters, and the writer's ability to connect with their audience. Third person opens up a huge world of possibilities. You are telling your story from a god's-eye view. Everything that happens at any place or any time can be detailed for the reader. You can choose that you share and what you hide. You can give excellent, detailed descriptions of people, objects, places, and anything else that you feel is relevant to the story. However, it doesn't give readers that up-close, intimate relationship with a character. It has also been done to death!

First person gives reader's almost unfettered access to a character's world. They see whatever the character sees. There can be a virtual-reality feel to it if you have truly engaged your reader. It harkens back to travelling bards telling their tales to an audience about their own journeys. Unfortunately, first person means that you have to limit your story to things that the narrating character sees or experiences themselves. This can be a confining situation. Also, if not done well, it can be as exciting as hearing the roll called in class during a famous 80's movie about skipping school (if you do not get this reference, you probably just need to stop reading my blog now).

So which should you use? Try both! Write two different beginnings to your story: one with third person the other with first person. See which one flows best. Ask yourself if either style is going to prevent you from being able to tell your story or possibly make a character less appreciated. Whatever you do, get opinions from other people! You are writing for an audience, not just for yourself. Remember, whether you choose he and she or I, it needs to be because you think it will help your story. Don't do it because it's the current trend. Trends always die. Good writing is forever.

P.S. If you choose first person, remember that the narrator can be more than just a storyteller. You can make them a friend.

P.P.S. If you chose third person, there is still a lot that you can hide from your readers. God's-eye view doesn't mean that you have to reveal everything!

We are all stories in the end...

As I was folding laundry today (does it never end?), I turned on the television to have something to watch. I turned on an episode of Doctor Who and I heard the Doctor say something that I loved. "We are all just stories in the end." That line says so much to me. There are so many things that can be taken from that line that can affect both life and writing. Most people tend to think of stories as fiction that takes us away from life. Looking through a bookstore that appears to be true. However, think of all of the stories that you tell about friends and family. Think of the stories that you tell to friends and family. What about the stories that they tell about you? This is an untapped resource of ideas and revelations for writing about. Obviously, you don't have to tell the full story as non-fiction, but instead use it as a basic idea or premise for something larger. Your source of ideas becomes infinite.

It is in life that I truly find the most wisdom in this saying. We are all just stories in the end. What is your story? My grandparents are gone. I tell many stories of them whenever I get the chance. My grandmother had an obsession with the Wendy's chain of restaurants. She once wrote a thank you letter to Dave Thomas for creating the 99 cent value menu. The story of her eating at the drive through usually leaves people in tears with laughter. My grandfather got run over by a parked car. I'm not kidding! He actually did! The story would be nowhere as meaningful if he hadn't told me about it himself in his matter-of-fact style. Though they have both been gone for over a decade, I know that they remain here whenever I tell one of their stories.

What is the story that you leave? Will it be a drama, tragedy, mystery, thriller, or comedy? Who will tell it? Everyone thinks of their legacy. As you grow older you often do things to try to secure your legacy. I'm less worried about that. Legacies are told by those that know of you, though they do not know you. Stories are told by those that have been there with you and seen you at your best and worst. They are shorter, more memorable, more personal, and more enduring. With each action you make, remember that you are creating your story. It may be told. It may wind up being written by someone with talent you have not yet realized. We can't spend all of our time second guessing ourselves or worrying about other's images of us, but we can still help shape our own stories. We are all just stories in the end.

Does it matter where they come from?

I try to provide the most useful advice that I can to anyone that is interested in writing. I usually do that because I am hoping to get advice in return. I'm certainly no expert, so anyone asking me for help can no doubt help me as well. If there is one piece of advice I find myself giving out often it is that well-developed characters can make the difference between a bad story and an amazing story. The actual story can be a little lukewarm, but great, well-developed characters can make it something that people will remember.

One of my classes has to put up with me trying to teach them some creative writing skills, and the first thing that I do is stress the importance of characters. Part of the multi-day lesson is showing them a character profile that ask questions like the character's name, age, greatest strength, greatest weakness, etc. I tell them that when they write, they should be able to fill out a character profile for all of their major characters in order to make them more three-dimensional and believable. I make them fill out a character profile on themselves as practice. Once we have done that, I show them a few minutes of a movie that most of them are familiar with and have them all do a profile on the same character. We were doing this particular exercise and I noticed a problem- a significant number of my students did not answer (or did not seriously answer) the question in the profile about where the character was from. The movie never said it specifically, but there were hints dropped and characteristics that should have given it away. Those hints and characteristics were not caught by all, and in desperation to complete the assignment several students wrote next to the category "Birthplace" answers like "a hospital," "Planet Earth," and the every puzzling "IDK." I required students to give different answers to these questions. I could hear them mumbling to themselves a question that I asked myself after class was finished. Does it really matter where a character was born?

It is remarkably easy when writing to go overboard with the details. Some professional authors are masters at being detailed to such an amazing degree that you can see, hear, and taste everything going on in their books. These detail masters are rare. Most writers that begin going into great detail eventually bore their readers. Is it too much detail to mention the birthplace of all of the major characters? I'm sure that my students think so, and I don't blame them at all. I don't blame them because they are right. If a writer goes into great depth about all of the details of every major character's life, hopes, and dreams, their book would be the size of an encyclopedia set and no one would likely read past the introduction of the first character.

So why did I make these students redo their answers? Because it is still important. I would never expect a story to contain all of the details in the character profile within its writings. The character profile isn't for the reader. The character profile is for the writer. Whenever you are writing a story, your characters need to be as real to you as the people in your life. You don't need to know the details of their lives so that you can write about their lives. You need to know the details of their lives so that your character will have the same actions, reactions, logic, illogic, passion, and apathy of real people. If you don't know and love (or love to hate) your characters, how can you expect your readers to?

Does it matter where a character comes from? I suppose that depends. If you believe that the characters in a story can make the difference between mediocre and exceptional writing as I do, then yes you need to know where the characters are from, as well as a great many other details about them. If you think that the characters are just there as part of the story, then don't worry about where they are from. I'll probably still read your work, but I'll probably only do it once.

5 ways of ending an idea drought

Nothing is more devastating than running into a complete roadblock when you are trying to think of good ideas for a story or book. Humans are storytellers. We love to spin a yarn about all kinds of things. Sometimes we want to be scared, other times amazed, and still others we like to be reminded. Some of us, though, like to do the scaring, the amazing, and the reminding. For some of us, it is almost like a high when you are sure your audience is reacting to your words. It is also an unbelievable low whenever you can't find the words to say. I'm probably not the best person to be creating this short list of place to look for ideas since I'm not a best-selling writer or anything, but I firmly believe that all of these things can work, and work well.

#1 Read, read, and then read some more!

Never steal another writer's ideas. There is nothing more low among writers than the pilfering of another's thoughts. However, reading someone else's work provides you with some great new perspectives. The style of writing may help push you towards a new approach. One of the characters may mention something that you are unfamiliar with, and in researching what it is, you may find something that spurs a storyline. You may find a concept that you think needs more exploration. You may even come up with a completely spontaneous storyline that you had never considered before and may never have thought of if you hadn't taken your mind off of things by writing. In the end, there is very little downside to this suggestion.

#2 Talk, listen, then talk some more!

As I have already mentioned, people are storytellers. We spend all day telling stories of some kind or another. That is the nature of being social animals. If you can't seem to find a story to tell in your writing, it is time to get around some other people and start telling stories. Once again, I am not suggesting that you try to steal some of their ideas. You are looking for inspiration. So many things in our regular interactions can inspire. Just remember that as often as you speak, you also need to listen. Get out of your isolation and interact.

#3 Open your eyes, you fool!

Look at the world around you. I mean really look. There are things that happen all of the time, right under our noses, that are remarkable. Sometimes you don't even need to move in order to see them. Have you ever watched a speck of dust floating in the air? Have you thought about where it came from and how it came to be in the middle of your living room? How does it get where it is going? What has it seen? Is it watching you, too? Just think, you may have found the inspiration for a unique story all because you forgot to buy Pledge at the store. Just think of what you might find if you venture out of your house!

#4 Turn up the radio!

Very little spurs emotions among humans more than music. Why else would the various MP3 players be so remarkably successful? Why not sit down, turn off the computer, and just listen to the radio for a while. Let the songs take you away from the stress of writer's block and everyday life for a few minutes. Come back to your writing quest refreshed, ina different mood, and with a different outlook. Even if you are like me and usually listen to NPR, the stories you hear can really get your mind working and put you back on track to starting, continuing, or completing that story you are looking for.

#5 Write something!

"If I could write something, Slater, I wouldn't be reading this stupid list now would I?" I said something, as in "anything." Write a limerick. Write a short story. Write a blog. Change your Facebook status. Write a chronological list of your day's activities. Whatever it is, just write it down! If you crumble it up and throw it away afterwards, that is still one thing that you have written. You have broken the drought. The only thing that overcomes defeat is success, no matter how minor that success is.

An idea drought can be devastating to anyone that considers themselves a writer. Don't let it wipe out your hopes or plans. There are always methods to dealing with an obstacle. You can go around it. You can go over it. With appropriate application of force, you can go through it! What you can't do is sit down in front of it and declare "You win."