Spark a Fire
Posted by Matt Uhrich
Photo by Austin KleonFor a while now, I've used two Moleskine notebooks—one is a full-size lined notebook for any notes relating to my work in progress, the other a pocket-size lined notebook for anything else. My favorite things to write in that notebook are what I call sparks. Sparks can be anything that tickles my brain and give me a story idea or character idea or setting idea or anything else really. It's quite enjoyable and it happens at the oddest times—usually when my mind is occupied with something else—probably not all that abnormal.
Here are a few examples of some recent sparks: an Irish folk song sung by a Boston punk band; a creepy coffe-shop guy's tattoo; an article title about Iran's Achilles heel; a song lyric about the end of winter; and using a piece of rebar to make holes in the soil for corn seeds. See the connection between those things? Me either. Which makes me even more paranoid about being away from my notebooks for any amount of time.
Will any of these sparks lead to anything of substance? Maybe not, but it gets me closer to the mode I want to be in where my mind is creating every waking moment. It's not easy because life conspires against it. I've got a full-time job that is not related to writing and requires a significant amount of brain power to do successfully. And I've got a family that wants to spend time with me for some reason. One big step in the right direction is getting used to ignoring people's reactions when I stop whatever I am doing and start furiously writing in a notebook. When I used to take a lot of pictures I was never able to develop the photographer's absence of embarrassment. Since I made the decision that I am a writer—and not just trying to write on the side—I feel no shame, no embarrassment, nothing. I consider that progress.
—I just thought of something. Where's my notebook?
Notebook + Pen = Good Times
Posted by Matt Uhrich
Photo by Amir K.I never know when an idea will strike—whether the idea is for a new story, an interesting setting or character, something I want to add or change in my WIP—you get the idea. For this reason, I try to have a notebook and pen with me at all times. I have Evernote on my iPod Touch, and I'll use that in a pinch, but I find I'm able to get the idea to flow more freely from a pen—and typing on a small keyboard like an iPod Touch gives me an itch in the back of my brain that I can't scratch.
The other day my thinking turned to a field where a battle takes place in the novel I'm revising. It's a mowed field with a large gathering of boulders in the middle. I started to think about why a field might be that way. Thankfully, I had my notebook with me. Before I knew it I had written the back-story of the field and its owner. It's something that will never show up in the story, but having the background information will allow me to tell a better, richer story—at least I think it will.
Even if it has no effect on the quality or content of the novel, I had fun coming up with the story. I wrote as fast as I could and still had trouble keeping up with my brain. I found myself in a writing zone I love to get in and wish I could make happen on command. It occurred while I sat quietly, having nothing with me other than my notebook and pen. I had no place to be and nothing to accomplish. Perhaps my mind was forced to fill the void and do something useful. Further experiments to follow.
Do you have a reliable method to get yourself into the zone?
The Semicolon Humbled by the Mighty
Posted by Matt Uhrich
![[addio] Kurt](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/215/456540226_de8d049e5f_m.jpg)
Photo by [noone]I’m reading Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a strange book, but I'm finding it funny and interesting and absolutely worth anyone's time. I love reading just about anything he writes. He is so entertaining and so readable—which can't be said for most luminaries of literary fiction. It really doesn’t matter what he is writing about. He is deservedly considered one of the greatest American writers ever.
He gives his opinion of semicolons towards the end of the Timequake.
Let me note that Kilgore Trout and I have never used semicolons. They don’t do anything, don’t suggest anything. They are transvestite hermaphrodites.
Ponder that for a while.
Semicolon!
Posted by Matt Uhrich
Have you ever been reading a novel and part way through noticed a quirk in the author’s style of writing? And then you can’t help but notice it every time it happens. It can be distracting, can’t it?
I’ve started reading novels with the Kindle application for the iPod Touch. I discovered it’s a surprisingly good platform for reading. Since the iPod Touch is back-lit, it is especially useful for reading in the dark. Amazon has also been giving away quite a few Kindle books—often the first book of a series.
The book I’m currently reading on the iPod is His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. I’m about half-way through and I am enjoying it quite a bit. Once done, I’m sure I’ll continue reading the series. So in this case giving me the first taste for free will pay off.
There is one oddity I’ve noticed in this book—semicolons. I have never seen so many semicolons in any other book in my life. In fact, I believe after reading half of this book, that I’ve seen more semicolons in it than in every other book I've ever read combined. I’m sure they are all being used properly, but it is unusual. And I can’t help but notice almost every semicolon and think to myself, “semicolon!” If Novik goes a whole paragraph without one, I find myself thinking about that.
I present you with an example paragraph:
Every feeling protested against the sacrifice of this dream; yet under the circumstances, he was not even sure he could honorably make Edith an offer which she might feel obliged to accept. And there was no question of courting someone else in her place; no woman of sense and character would deliberately engage her affections on an aviator, unless she was of the sort who preferred to have a complacent and absent husband leaving his purse in her hands, and to live apart from him even while he was in England; such an arrangement did not appeal to Laurence in the slightest.
Three in one paragraph. Outstanding!
This has made me realize how developing tendencies as an author can create distractions for the reader. Even something as small as a punctuation mark can cause a distraction as it did in this case. Remembering this is especially important for writers who are not as skilled as Novik: the book is good enough and interesting enough that I don’t mind the distraction.
That leaves me with two choices, become such a good writer that readers are willing to ignore my distracting quirks or avoid the distracting quirks all-together. Long term, I’m hoping for option one; short term, I’ll do my best to go with option two.
Will you look at that? I used a semicolon. And there is a slim probability I used it correctly. I’ve still got a long way to go to become a master semicolonist.
Good day to you and semicolon!
Writing Blogs… er, Blogs about Writing
Posted by Matt Uhrich
When I first made the decision to commit to writing a novel, I looked for web sites or blogs created by other authors. I found several good ones. Those blogs led me to other blogs created by agents, editors, and even sales people from publishing houses. What surprised me was how helpful and genuinely nice these people were. I don’t know why that should surprise me. I suppose when I hear the title "agent," I think of people like Scott Boras, Drew Rosenhaus, and Ari Gold from Entourage. Reading these blogs made my desire to write a novel grow—I want to work with these people!
Every day in Google Reader and Twitter I find dozens of articles or blog posts with priceless information for an aspiring writer. I find myself wondering, what did people do before the Internet? I guess they must have bought books and taken classes. But how did they know which books or classes were the good ones? They didn’t have the Internet to find reviews and ratings.
In the first few first posts I read was a list of books every writer should own. At the top of the list was Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. What an incredible book! If you are a writer and have not read this book you are guilty of malpractice. Stein divulges the secrets and techniques he has developed over decades of writing and editing best sellers.
Photo by SapphireblueOne of the things every writer has been told is, “Show don’t tell.” Most of the time the person telling you that stops there. Great! Thanks for the help! In one of my favorite chapters in the book, Stein explains what this statement means and gives some outstanding examples. My favorite is a quote from a John Updike story. A hack writer like me would write, “Polly loved to dive in her swimming pool.” But a brilliant writer like Updike writes:
With clumsy jubilance, Polly hurtled her body from the rattling board and surfaced grinning through the kelp of her own hair.
Amazing.
Throughout the book Stein states his preference for literary fiction as opposed to what he calls “transient fiction.” Read this book and he will come close to convincing you that literary fiction is the only form of fiction worthy of your efforts. Sadly, I just read a post at Pimp My Novel stating that things are not looking good for literary fiction. The public’s preferences being what they are, big publishing houses aren’t buying much literary fiction. And for the books they are publishing sales are usually dominated by a few titles in the genre. One of the dominating literary fiction books mentioned is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I read it a few years ago and I would recommend it highly.
Stein has written many other books, both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve got How to Grow a Novel sitting on the table next to me ready to be read in the next few days. I’ve also purchased one of his novels, The Best Revenge. Reading excerpts from it throughout Stein on Writing whetted my appetite for it. I’m betting his fiction is as excellent as his non-fiction.
Ciao.