Yep, that captures it.
(At long last, I’ll return this week from my latest Italian adventure, in time for my latest adult-ed short-story class. Every group I teach is different, yet the problems of beginning writers are nearly universal. Here’s a taste of how we get started, in a piece that first appeared here at 317am in January 2010.)
On the first night of class, many of my writing students tell me that they have never finished a short story—adding, of course, that it’s not because they didn’t try. It’s just that things petered out.
So, why is that?
A lot of possible reasons come to mind: one crying baby too many, a sister who’s on the phone with boyfriend issues, a gnawing sense of existential despair caused by having to go to work tomorrow, or by having to look for work tomorrow, or maybe just the conviction that you’re writing dreck. I understand them all.
But there’s a common thread here, right? Something—whatever it was—managed to overwhelm your resolve to finish your story. And if you think about it, maybe you didn’t really fight as hard to maintain that resolve as you might have. You did, you say? Really?
My theory is that if you were working on the right story in the first place, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. Writing the right story requires that you know why you’re writing at all. Explicitly, actively, right up front. So I ask my students, as Step 1, to explain why they’ve even taken up this blessed/accursed practice. Ask yourself first, I say: “Why am I doing this?”
They have so many answers. To express themselves. To better understand themselves. To entertain their grandchildren. To make sense of their lives. To win the approval of the crowd. To show the crowd what to do with its approval. To draw laughter or evoke fear or just to know that someone, somewhere, is paying attention.
You need to invest yourself only in stories that you want badly to write. Think of what made you want to tell stories in the first place. Do you really want to tell this one? If you tug at the thread of this idea, can you feel the pull in your heart? If it’s an idea that can stand up to some tough cross-examination, then maybe it’s the one you’ll finally stick with till you’ve got an actual product. Your sister’s boyfriend problems will not stop you.
I’ve got very few rules in my class, but here’s a big one: no stories about serial killers. First-time writers rarely want badly enough to write a story about a serial killer that they’ll stick with it till it’s finished. That’s because serial killers are almost never what made them want to be writers.
Here is where I tell you what—I think—makes me write. Meanwhile, what makes you?
Ted the Cat (1994-present) is a domestic shorthair blogger and vers libre poet. He also enjoys sleeping, eating, and lurking. Ted the Cat co-habits with Kaze,
also a blogger at 317am.net.
Maybe this is stating your basic point in a different way, but don't you think that failure to complete a story stems from poor planning? The first rule of writing that I learned was ‘write to express not to impress’, so I think that the ultimate motive of a writer should be to express him or herself. I find that I write (express) better when I know where I want to go, which typically means that I have a basic written outline. You don't know the actual outcome or how it will play out ahead of time but it helps to have a direction. Is that too formulaic? Does too much a priori structure stifle creativity? I also find that the first 3-5 paragraphs are the most important paragraphs of any story. A good outline and a good opening make it possible to come back to writing even if you need to take a break.
To outline or not to outline…an age-old problem. My own feeling is that it's far more important to begin a story with a sympathetic character who's in an unresolved situation. A barrier or barrier stands in the way. Now go.
And I agree completely that if what you're writing is a short story, you haven't much time to establish the characters and set up the situation. My rule of thumb is two pages.
But any rule is just a rule, and there is none that applies to every story or every writer. Whatever allows you to succeed–and by succeed, I mean simply to finish the damn story so you can sit back, consider it, and then rewrite as needed–whatever allows you to do that, go do it.
Thanks for the thoughts, Wheels. Do you write stories?
Well…I guess it depends on what you mean by "story." Fiction? I'd like to write fiction but am not nearly creative enough. But I do tell a story in my writing. The characters in my stories are variables and data, but I have to figure out the story or narrative that threads everything together. In fact, the people who are most successful in my field are the best at telling a story with their research.
If I were to ever write a fictional story, I'd be partial to historical fiction where the arc of the story is set by actual events. I always marvel at guys like Shaara or Pressfield who can create the story within pre-set parameters. Maybe in a way that is easier because they don't have that extra layer to define…but I always feel like their fiction isn't fiction at all. The suspension of disbelief is greater for me in their novels.
I spent my formative years in a Jesuit high school in DC, so they drilled us a lot. I still adhere to my senior year HS english teacher's "10 Rules of Writing," which I only learned last year were kind of ripped off from Orwell's "Politics and the English language." I find it difficult to engage in any kind of free form writing because those rules have become part of my DNA. That's why I wonder about structure inhibiting creativity. I have trained myself to be too deliberate.
There are all kinds of stories, Wheels, although fiction doesn't follow a line of reasoning the way your data do when you've done your job. I've spent years teaching people how to write reports, and I always talk, as you do, about "getting the story right." But fiction has another thing going on, which is harder to pin down. It partly has to do with what the reader adds to the story when he or she reads it.
Did you ever read "The Killer Angels," by Shaara's father, Michael? The best historical novel I ever read. By Gad, sir, it lives and breathes.
You're right. I had story ideas that died the minute I found a computer to try to type them on. My April attempt died in June, but I have outlines and such.
Enter NaNoWriMo, using a cute little story that was born from a conversation 6 years ago. This main character was more like me, as opposed to the one in the April Attempt. "This November" became MY story, and that's why I ended up a 96K word draft in 60 days. Because my story needed to be told.
. . . and because, SCSilk, you have a whole lot more energy than I have. That's about 400 pages, isn't it?
Have I read ‘Killer Angels’? Does Kaze write on his own blog? Of course! A couple of friends of mine and I have a raging debate about Gettysburg because of Killer Angels (more decisive moment in US history, Little Round Top or Pickett's Charge?). I think Shaara's son has come into his own. I thought 'Last Full Measure' was fantastic, but I really think he found his own voice in the Revolutionary War novels. I just finished reading his latest in the WW2 trilogy, and I really enjoyed it. He can build tension better than any author I can think of right now. He's a super nice guy, too. I sent him an email a while back, to which he responded. Imagine that…a NYT Best Selling author who responds to email. I probably should frame it!
Here's my thing with writing fiction, and this has to do with me and is likely the reason why I can't write fiction. I can't develop characters because I can't empathize with them. I only know me…and barely at that…so I can't do justice to another character. I wouldn't be able to make the character ring true, and I think that is what really makes a writer of fiction outstanding. I can do the mechanics of writing, the structure, the who-what-when-how-why stuff; but I have a hard time, as Carl Spangler in Caddyshack put it, crawling around in some dude’s pelt. That’s why I envy novelists…they have insights into the human experience that I just don’t have…at least not yet.
Wheels – From your earlier comments I know you have some DC roots. Too bad you're not here now or we'd get you in among others folks who don't yet know what they can really do because they're afraid that writing fiction requires magic powers. I'm afraid it's mostly craft. Jeff Shaara is utter proof of that. By the way, he was 44 when "Gods and Generals" came out, so you've got some time, right?
His father Michael poses a more difficult problem for me, because he wrote several books and nothing came close to his masterpiece, "The Killer Angels." This one appears to be a case in which magic powers were brought to bear. His career, by the way, was effectively ended by one of those rare excuses I'll call legitimate…brain damage from a motorcycle accident.
Sorry to interrupt the thread but I am going to try to respond to the question of why I want to write. My response to this first question is pure stream of consciousness; about all I can manage at 10 PM on a work night. I don't know why I want to try to write. Seems like some kind of calling that has been nagging as long as I can remember but other priorities nagged more. I had it as a young girl. I have listened to it from time to time but I never saw it as a way to make a living so I pursued more guaranteed sources of income. I've been very successful with those pursuits. I don't know if I will be successful as a writer but I have nothing to lose. It seems much more difficult than what I do on a daily basis but then people taught me the skills I use in my work so perhaps writing is the same; a combination of interest, some basic talent, motivation, discipline, and learned technical skill. Recently it has been suggested to me that I work too hard, too long, too much and that I need balance in the form of leisure time and other pursuits. I try to listen and trust those close to me. So for some time I've been pondering what to do with myself, besides work 24/7. Perhaps all of these forces are coming together at this particular time. I've always had a vivid imagination (not always a good thing). Story lines have intruded into my consciousness for as long as I can remember. I'll be driving down the street and some story will start to evolve in my mind. Something will happen at work and next thing I know some story will jump into my head. Sometimes I have written these ideas down and thrown them in a manila file folder I keep in a metal filing cabinet with my life and car insurance. Once I tried carrying a tape recorder but forgot I had it after about an hour and then lost the tape. Sometimes I forget them. People interest me. Behavior interests me. I have disconnected parts of stories and characters in my little file and the recesses of my unreliable memory (and on the lost tape). I want to do see what happens if I learn some techniques for organizing all of whatever this is. I regret my reason for writing is not very clear at this time; perhaps a hobby now, perhaps a way to make money in retirement that looms ahead in the not so distant future. I once read the diaries of May Sarton and found her description of life as a writer and poet idyllic. I am sure I have this romanticized but it is nice to think about getting up in the morning and sitting at a desk typing stories while drinking coffee with a fire blazing away on a cold winter day. Oh, and I like words and language.
LDR, I spend most of my weekends, believe it or not, at a table in a cabin, with my coffee and a fire, writing stuff. And I must tell you, in about a minute you forget about the cabin and the coffee and the fire and it's all about the work. It's pleasurable work, but it is work.
I had a student last spring who said he "just wanted to make some lunch money" writing stories. But his problem wasn't just that there's hardly any lunch money to be made doing this–most literary mags pay nothing–but that he didn't know what kind of story would really mean anything to him. He hadn't figured out why it would be more satisfying to make some lunch money writing stories than, say, working in a movie theatre. Certainly, it's easier to work in a movie theatre, and the pay's more predictable. So I coaxed him and coaxed him to keep examining his motives in writing. Then he would know if it would be worth doing for free, and if what he was staring at on the page someday would bring him frustration or joy. So I offer you the same advice, LDR. By all means, write. We all have stories in us. But try this question: If you were writing a story, what story would be the most important you could think of…the one you felt you had to write? That may help answer the bigger question of why you want to write in the first place.
I write because I have to. I think about it all the time-when something happens, my brain kicks in and suddenly I am consumed by how it will look on paper, how I will get across the hilarity of it, the anger of it or just the downright absurdness. And some of them are pretty good and some just ok, but I don't know what to do with them once they're there. People want me to write books, but of what? I am so all over the place I the thought terrifies me. I don't know who to carry thru with a character past one small short story.
But I have to write. I have to breath.
IL: Serious business, this gottawrite syndrome. I understand your need. If you can't get going on your own, find a meet-up near you, a workshop, a good teacher, any situation where you're in among others with the same need to write. Nothing like a dose of companionship and some gentle urging to get you going. Tell us if you find something!
I'm one of those 'can not not write' have tried; dumpsterized piles of journals. back to writing anew. Now I have several near books to finish. Ugh. Although my work has been translated into 5 languages and my credits impress even me; the financial rewards have been slim/non existant. I have a weekly group that is the highlight of each of our weeks as we read, listen, critique. Now how to finish a book?
A tough question, anonymous. I have a 300-page draft of a novel that needs another 200 pages and then a major rewrite, and it just sits there looking at me. Basically, I believe this: we do what we want to do. If you (or I) want it enough, we'll get it done. Who's stopping you (or me), anyway? And don't let fear stop you. Of all the things to fear, fearing what you write should be really low on the list.
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