Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories

The shape of Storytelling told by a wonderful writer
(I'm such a visual person)

The Secret to Writing in the Internet Age

This is some of the best advice to a struggling writer.
Every writer's conference I have gone to, someone brings up the problem they have with avoiding distractions.

The Head-trip

In Dorothea Brande's "Becoming a Writer," the next two chapters "Duplicity" and "Taking advice" talk about the head trip you have to play on yourself.

Duplicity is about the Conscious side, the side that keeps everything in order, feeds the kids, cleans the house, is also the editing and judgmental side.  The other side, the unconscious side, the side that sees the flowers in your mind, the dreaming side that is still active when you just wake up, is the creative freewriting side.  The real writer.

Brande says these two sides should not be fighting each other.  Instead they should be working together. The conscious side should be protecting and making conditions right for the Unconscious side -- or like Julia Cameron calls it, the Artist-child.  With the conscious side providing interference and making conditions right, they are working together.  She said when they are fighting each other that's when a writer gets stuck.

The next chapter is about the imagination seeing you ahead of the game.  You see yourself completing the task before you start.  She has the reader do a little experiment showing how your eyes lead your actions.  It is a very interesting experiment, but it is also a very revealing experiment.  At this point don't look at the difficulties you will face.  That will come up later in the book.  Have that "L. Ron Hubbard" attitude... a positive outlook.  See yourself in a positive way. 

I've always thought of myself as a realist...planning for the attack.  She says see yourself actually sitting down and writing, and then it is easier to do it.

It's ahead trip, but maybe that's what I need... A head trip right now...

Going back to an old friend for help

Since I was having trouble getting back to my writing, I thought I would look through a book I bought a long time ago. Dorothea Brande's book "Becoming a Writer."

It was very helpful when I read it many years ago.  So I thought I would review what it says.  The first chapter is inspiring. She talks about how instructors start off saying:  "You must have talent first.  The genius in writing cannot be taught."  Dorothea says that is a big lie.

I loved it when she compared that theory to other artists.  Do we tell painters and sketchers that great artist that they have to have the "genius first" and great artist cannot be taught? Wonder what Picasso would have to say about that.  Remember he studied other artists, always reaching and growing into a better artist.  (I just love his early sketches in a San Francisco museum.) 

Well Dorothea talks about these obstacles that stop writers from being successful.  She calls it "Difficulties."

1. If you want to be a writer you must be an exhibitionist, something is wrong with you.  You don't have any talent or judgment or special ability to be a good writer.
2. If you have a hard time at writing then you really don't have the "gift" to be a writer.
3. If you were fortunate to get something published, and now you can't there is something wrong with you.-- and the finally one
4. This one is a combination of feeling you are good enough and finding writing hard to do.  You get started and then something happens and you can't finish: it's not good enough, it's too hard, it's all wrong.  And you stop.

Dorothea wrote her book back in 1937, yet she did the very same thing we all do: take classes and read books with very little benefit.  Why?

She covers that in Chapter two…

The kids have completed their classes

I started this Blog to help my kids while they were away in college.  Now my daughter has master writing and Jesse isn't taking English classes any more, they don't need me to post things on this blog. 

But I am stuck as a writer.  I have jumped thought so many hoops for the family, I forgot to protect my "muse."  And I think it has left me.  Maybe I should just use this blog as a tool to get me to write more. 

I have found that just writing for ten minutes -- just 10 mins -- and it does help me get back to actually writing something.  But with journaling, you don't want to feel you have an editor.  So true Freewriting type journaling shouldn't be for publication.

Just writing this much has helped me at least to get the juices flowing.

Perfect Tense

The perfect tenses generally indicate action completed before another specific time or action.  The present perfect tense also indicates action begun in the past and continued into he present.  The perfect tenses consist of a form of have plus the verb's past participle.

Present perfect

The dancer has performed here only once. [The action is completed at the time of the statement.]

Present perfect

Critics have written about the performance ever since. [The action began in the past and continues now.]

Past perfect

The dancer had trained  in Asia before his performance. [The action was completed before another past action.]

Future perfect

He will have performed here again by next month. [The action begins now or in the future and will be completed by a specified time in the future.]

With the present perfect tense, the words since and for are followed by different information. 

After since, give a specific point in time: 

The United States has been a member of the United Nations since 1945. 

After for, give a span of time:

The United States has been a member of the United Nationsfor over half a century.

Subjects and Verbs

Readers feel they understand what you wrote when you do 2 things:
1.  You use subjects to name your central character.
2.  You express their most important action as a verb.

Federalist --> argued
They --> believe
Little Red Riding Hood --> walked

NOT
The argument --> was based

INSTEAD
They --> argued

Don't make your most important ACTION a Noun.  Use them as VERBS!

Confusing sentence

Our lack of data prevented evaluation of state actions in targeting fund to areas in need of assistance.
What?  .

Fix with -->
We lacked data.  We could not evaluate.that  the state had targeted funds to areas that needed assistance.

Try to keep the same character as your subject....in this example "We" is the consistent subject.

Pat Conroy Talks About His New Book, "My Reading Life"