Category Archives: Writing

How I Wrote my Way out of Trouble with Missed Landing.

Recently, I completed the first draft of Missed Landing. But it did not always look so certain that I would get there. I knew that Missed Landing was a different type of book. So it was a higher bar to overcome.

Several months back, I was approaching my draft success metric of ten thousand words. The results were far from good. I was experiencing a new form of the writer’s shanks. The writing was okay but it was missing something. Some other writer may had kept going. But I stopped, reflected, and knew that drastic changes needed to be made. So what did I do?

Brainstorming. I thought of what I wanted to include in the story. This included seven different aspects that were all used eventually.
Writing from scratch. I kept the existing chapters and started to write them over completely. Once done, I took the best of the old and new content which made a stronger story.
Change the time frame. Doing the work as historical fiction was hampering progress. Making it in the science fiction genre gave more flexibility and made plot possibilities unlimited and more likely to happen.
Make it more emotional. Capturing more what the characters were feeling instead of only experiencing made it a more powerful and memorable book.
Kept going and never lost faith in the process and myself. I never stopped believing that there was good story to tell and just kept pushing myself and the writing.

As a result of the above, I came out with a stronger more satisfactory book. Never give up expressing yourself. Inspiration is just around the corner.

5 Ways your Children Can Help you Become a Better Writer.

Introduction
Though the many eons of the written word, there are many examples of authors writing stories for children they knew. This often included their own children and relatives. The world is indebted with some great literature as a result.

But there is a question that ends up as part of my “mental traffic” from time to time. That is does being a parent help make you a better writer? If so, is this is still true if you do not write children’s stories?

Based on my experience, I would say an emphatic YES!

Five Ways How Children Positively Impact your Writing.

Some of the reasons for saying this include the following.

1.You have a ready test audience. Reading stories out loud is a tremendous laboratory. Children’s reactions will let you know if a story is on target on not. Obviously, don’t inflict on them the first drafts , very adult stories, and other faux pas or they may never forgive you.

2. They want to hear new and some old stories. This is a great opportunity to push the creative juices to the fullest. It may initiate a chain of brainstorms that may result in something completely different.

3. You have to explain things simply and clearly. This means use of examples, humor, strong mental images, and more. Explaining things in many different ways helped tremendously in thinking how to describe a scene to my reader.

4. They can help characters come alive. Children are great in exploring situations in stories. Asking questions such as What if this character did … They also have a strong sense whether words spoken are true to a character or not.

5. You can determine quickly the needed images to create for a work. The scenes that get the greatest reaction likely need an illustration to go with the text.

All of the above helped in putting down in writing an always changing special bedtime story/meditation called “The Floating Bed” that is part of In Small Doses 2. It was a culmination of multiple night time renditions each a little longer and a little more detailed.

I would be interested I hearing how your “little reviewer(s)” helped your writing.

My Favorite Chapter

As an author, here is a quick test to see how well that you identify with your own books. List what is your favorite chapter of each tome and why.

Like the rest of humankind, authors are judgmental and partial in their opinions. This includes being far from neutral on their own work. So one or more parts are liked better than others. This may be determined while writing, in the edit phase, or from a careful read after publication.

There may be various reasons for a chapter being a favorite. These include:

A self-contained part that shows the real mettle of the character overcoming a challenge. In the Olivia Plymouth Series this includes when she ran the Boston Marathon
and her family had supportive signs throughout the run. There is also when she coordinates a fashion show in Africa and meets her favorite singer.

The techniques used in that collection of words. The story “Going Down with the Ship” in Small Doses 3 uses receipts as a key plot element.

The satisfaction of having something written down that matches closely to your original vision. In Missing Employees, the introduction to Inscrutable Consulting achieves this.

The thrill of completing the most challenging part of the book to write. In Transitions, “Gain and Loss” was a short but difficult part detailing how to achieve a vague goal.

Achieving the desired outcome of eliciting a certain emotion or reaction from a reader.

Those that open or close a book. In Saving Eddie, the short ending brings the whole book together like the poems of its subject Edgar Allan Poe.

Not every chapter can become a favorite. Those not making the grade typically are chapters that are:

a recap
setting up an action but not the action itself
side plots
characters doing something ordinary

You get the idea.

It is perfectly fine to have two or free favorite chapters per book. Sometimes decisions cannot be made.

So the next time, you create a book, think which part that you like best and what says about you, your characters, and your work.

Writing Where You Can

To many, the lone writer performing his craft on the road is a romantic image. One can visualize them being the sole inhabitant in a smoke-filled room during the early morning hours. There the would-be author is typing furiously and asking frequently for more coffee or alcohol. When the sun finally rises, they nod in appreciation at the large pile of paper produced.

But the reality in the digital age and being on a budget is far different. Space in the coach area on the plane is limited and very tight. The result may be unwanted disruptions or harsh commentary from your neighbors. And there are the challenges of keeping your presence of mind during a period of high turbulence. Trains are about the same. The good news is that you can plug in your computer as the wires dangle across your row occupant’s legs. The trains sway back and forth also making it an obstacle to type reasonably as well as keeping your lunch down. Having a table in first class or the café car is the closest one will get to an ideal environment to compose.

The experience would be pretty much the same whether a laptop or tablet. Wireless connections used to access references may be unreliable or slow.

I wrote an unpublished technical book for two years on the road in every spare moment I had between flights/trains. This included the always crowded airport charging stations, Amtrak first class lounges, and sitting on the carpet next to the rare outlet which loosely held a plug.

It was all an adventure that resulted in dead computers, fragmented writing at times, and a constant sense of fighting the clock.

With fiction writing, I am having more success going old school. A stenographer’s notebook and a pen take up little space regardless of the location. One can started right away at any altitude. There is no need to wait for a computer to boot up. There is no worry about disk failures. There is a stronger sense of accomplishment as the words fly and the pages get filled. Just bring a supply of fresh pens and make sure the notebook doesn’t get harmed or stolen. And the process of digitizing at a later date typically results in a stronger work.

Some of the recent works done this way include “Illuminations of a Lighthouse Keeper” found in In Small Doses 2, part of the “Landing in Nippon” chapter in Olivia Plymouth #4 (Encounter at Tokaido Road) and a yet to be published story.

In the end, we all have to choose a writing approach that works for each of us wherever we are. But sometimes the locality forces the choice on it. In any case, enjoy the process and make friends with your neighbor. After all, they could be a writer too.

Conscious Failure: Using an Experimental Outlook with Writing.

Introduction

You can see from the accompanying image that failure is viewed traditionally as being unsuccessful, unfulfilling, and a lack of completion. It is time of emotional sorrow, of darkness, and of uncertainty. While it can be all that, it doesn’t have to be.

Changing Your Outlook
Instead of the above, have periods in your writing career that it is okay to “fail” on purpose. The focus should be as one childrens’ show once put it — “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy.” The mindset during this timeframe should be one or more of the following:

No expectations –What you create is fine. Just focus on generating output. There is lots of time later to let your mind enjoy the opportunity to judge. 🙂
No timeframes — Work from a mindset of just writing with no deadlines. Enjoy the ride and do not impose the shackles of scarcity on yourself.
No rules — Follow only minimum rules and guidelines. Encourage the mind to wander into flights of the imagination.
Take breaks when needed — Periodic breaks can provide insights that may otherwise be overlooked.
Put it aside — When it is done, put the writing aside. Revisit it after a period of time when you can truly look at it with fresh eyes and an open mind.
Try something different — Purposely try something different this time with your writing. Perhaps working in a park, creating in another language, and having a character very unlike those you typically do. etc.
Enjoy the “time off” — Periods like this are rare. So enjoy the dance of those moments.

If you take every work as a teacher and the outcome as a lesson to learn then no matter what happens, it cannot be viewed as a failure. By deliberately choosing times of no ground underneath, then you and your writing will both benefit from the experiences.

From the Grave: Please Don’t Publish Until I’m Gone 100 Years.

Mark’s Twain Autobiography was published after a wait of 100 years. By doing this, he could freely speak his mind and strike vengeance as he saw fit “from the grave.”

A fiction writer may also create but not consciously publish various works during their lifetime for the following reasons:

A fear of criticism on release.
The work is incomplete or not satisfactory.
The work covers a controversial subject.
A promise to keep family members happy.
The work is an indictment of a real situation and real names are mentioned or are very thinly veiled.

So a growing “post-bucket” collection may result. But this is accompanied by a set of risks. If this is a digital set, then there is the ongoing concern over a malicious hacker retrieving and publishing it. Or if it is a physical work, there is a need to hide it in a secure or an unobvious place. However, every time that you use the surreptitious repository, there is a good possibility of your “literary stash” being detected.

To relieve the tension, some authors may release a few of these works under pseudonyms. But there is a high risk of doing this in the information age because eventually the truth will come out.

And as a last resort, perhaps never write these stories down. Instead, keep it part of your “mental inventory.” And when you emit your breath, the secret will die quietly with you.

How will you choose to handle this need? The choices are yours alone and need to be made carefully. Good luck with this effort!

Build a Writer’s Journey Roadmap

Whether you a writer that started young or later in life, you need a way to track your progress.

One way of doing this is a Writer’s Journey’s Roadmap. This can be listed in a table of placed in a graphical format.

Items that you want to include are:

* Writing inspirations and influences (Authors, works, personal and news events)

* Lessons learned from each work (What worked well. What were experiments? What were the challenges? What would you do differently now based on hindsight?)

* Techniques used (Style, genres, words, characters, plots, locations, etc.)

* Future challenges (What do you really want to be good at ? What would be a fun work to write?

By doing this, you can see your writing career or ant-career at a glance on one paper.

I would be interested in hearing how doing this worked for you.

Making Writing Choices: Multiple Genres and Forms

Somewhere in your writing career, whether conscious or not, choices are made about the type of writer that you will be. This article talks about writing multiple genres/forms. (Cross-genres writing would also support some of the same reasons.)

Multiple Genres

There are many reasons to publish in multiple genres. These include the following:

You are the brand. Your marketing can focus on your capabilities as an author rather than selling being a “niche player.” These capabilities include trust in the quality, consistency, vision, and daring nature of the work.
There are more possibilities to write about. And in the process, the writing is likely to become less stale. You can explore a theme, technique, viewpoints in different way across genres. This can result in a more comprehensive look at a topic over time and building up your craft with more tools. You are less likely to run out of writing topics.
You are in good company. Some of the best writers that lived wrote in multiple genres. H.G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov among others. So you are not alone and you can learn from their experiences.
It refreshes you. Once the mind gets going on what to create, it can be quite thrilling to think about different mindsets, worldviews, characters, and timeframes. If you do not let yourself get overwhelmed, you are in for an enjoyable ride

Multiple Forms

Novels/Novellas, Short Stories, Poems, and Essays are just some of the writing formats. What are the benefits for writing in multiple genres.

It makes you a better writer. Novels/Novellas are good for developing character, themes, places over different times, locations, and situations. Short stories require a fast “ramp up/down” in the telling of your tale. And they also allow covering interesting topics not worthy of a full book. Poems are wonderful for watching the unfolding of feelings, description, rhymes, colors, and ambiguity.
Others have done this.Roald Dahl, Samuel Clemens, E.B. White, and William Shakespeare are just some of the names on a very long list that wrote in different format over their career.
It supports an experimental mindset. You can use the particular framework of a format to dabble and dabble again in your “writing laboratory.”

This can only be a starting place on this interesting area. For me, I have always been interesting in many different subject areas which bleeds over into my writing. This includes writing about history, art, science, writing itself, fashion, IT, business, sociology, computers, marketing, sports, spirituality, and a lot more. It can get daunting on how to classify these works. Is the Corporate Intent Series business fiction, dystopian sci-fi, a thriller, a mystery, computer-oriented or a feminist-oriented work? I have enjoyed writing the three short story collections because they permitted covering some topics that would never get covered. And in Musings, I released for the first time just a few of the poems that I created.

I am having a lot of fun in the process. I wish you the best on your writing journey and hope that you make some insightful self-discoveries.

Creating Blogs on Two Different Topics in One Day

Sometimes I write two blogs in one day. One is technically inclined and the other one is on writing. If you are doing this as well, here are some strategies and guidelines you can follow.

Do the hardest one first. For most people that would be the technical blog . This may be due to the research or planning involved in creating the blog. After completion, you should have a sense of accomplishment that will drive you to write the other one.
Do the one that will energize you first. For me, doing a technical blog on best practices and encouraging people to be proactive is invigorating. After completing it, I ride easily on the wave of energy to complete the second non-technical one.
Do two topics that complement each other. This may take some creative effort. But writing two related topics allows you to cover the whole spectrum of a subject and build off each other.
Do the easiest one first. You can get this out of the way quickly and dedicate all of your focus on writing the harder blog.

If you are doing this as well, let me know what works for you. Happy Blogging!!!

Assessing the In-Progress Health and Productivity of a Written Work

Introduction

In the modern world, there are immediate feedback mechanisms telling us how healthy something is while actively using an object. This includes “dummy lights” and gauges in various moving vehicles, dashboards for computer applications, and more.

But what can the poor writer do to assess the health and productivity of the piece that they are writing? Some of the challenges of doing this are discussed below.

Project Management

The discipline of project management can answer thoroughly these questions:

Are all the tasks needed to publish a written work completed?
Were they completed on time?

This is useful if you have external publishing commitments to meet rather than self-imposed deadlines. But it may limited in judging the health of the work itself.

Personal Health

Checking your blood pressure, weight, and frequency to raid the medicine cabinet may give useful guidance on your personal well-being. Health factors could contribute to the quality of your writing. But at best, it is an indirect measure.

Those Darn Metrics

Many writers measure progress in words written per day. There are millions of articles on this topic. This may be a good measure of productivity depending on your writing style and consistency. I find that I average 1500-3000 words a day and have gone faster depending on the book and topic. Ghosts vs. Robots was written at 4000-5000 words a day due to the energetic nature of the subject. A more emotional work like Saving Eddie may just be 500-1000 words a day.

What I am beginning to find more useful is analyzing the scenes written per day. I try to write one scene in a book in one sitting. (A scene would be something like taking a trip in a time machine. If may be part or the whole chapter.) Writing it this way in “one take” makes things become self-contained, consistent, and continuous. If I can get one-two scenes done a day, that is considered successful.

Yes But What About Quality/Health?

So far I have talked more about productivity than quality. As noted, quality/work health is a hard thing to measure in any endeavor.

Many have proposed some key objective measures. This could be such factors such as number of grammar mistakes, vocabulary level, readability level, number of mechanical problems, consistency and type of style, compliance to writing formulas and techniques, genre rule compliance, character development and uniqueness, use of surprise elements, number of overworked clichés, freshness of approach etc. But while some of these measures can be objective, others would require sophisticated computer rules to detect and weigh.

A simple test may be to read aloud to five prospective customers and see their reactions. Alternatively, let them read it on their own and evaluate it. Lacking an audience, a periodic self-evaluation after putting a work aside may help.

In the End

When all is said in done, metrics will get you only so far. Metrics may not look at a work holistically, review its subtlety, or analyze it at multiple levels simultaneously. Trust yourself. Trust your writing process. And don’t stop creating.