Smith's Monthly #27 Read online

  Writing into the dark also takes a complete awareness that uncertainty is part of the process, a normal part, not something to be feared.

  Remember, if you start focusing on the uncertainty too much, you allow the critical voice to come in and stop you cold.

  So you have to know uncertainty is part of the process, but not focus on it or care about it.

  So now to some hints about major areas we all run into while writing into the dark.

  PLOT TIME JUMPS

  First off, when dealing with time jumps in a plot you don’t know, remember that it is fine to write extra words. You should have no fear of writing extra words. Writing extra words is often part of the process.

  So in the book I talked about in the last chapter, I ended up having three major time jumps in it.

  Of course, when writing the book I didn’t know that. But as I was writing, working my two characters in alternating chapters through their journey, it became clear from what I had set up that there needed to be a section break and a time jump. The characters basically had nothing to do that was interesting for an entire year.

  But where to jump to? When to jump to?

  Without some sort of idea where the story was even heading, I had no idea.

  So I kind of sat there and looked at what I had written and went, “It seems logical they would jump to this point in time.”

  So I jumped there, put them back into a rich, thick setting with depth, and started typing. About two thousand words in I discovered the point where I should have jumped the characters.

  I shrugged, cut off the extra words I had written, and just kept on going.

  I was not afraid to write extra and just explore.

  Back to the exploring a cave analogy. When exploring into the dark, we are often faced with two possible paths: one cave goes to the right, one to the left. We have no idea what is ahead, so we pick one and explore.

  If it’s the wrong path, we back up and go the other way.

  Part of the process.

  Have a belief in the process, and jumping ahead in a story will never be a problem.

  BOGGING DOWN

  Every writer I know bogs down in a story at one point or another. For me, and for most writers, it means we have done one of two things.

  First, we have written past an ending of a chapter or scene, and the creative voice is just going to make us stop typing.

  Second, we are on a wrong path with the plot. (Wrong branch of the cave.)

  The subconscious, when it realizes you have taken a bad path, will just bog you down and stop you from typing.

  What I do when this happens is simple. I look back at what I have written in the last three or four pages.

  Writing past an ending on a scene or chapter is usually very, very clear. The ending almost always just pops off the page.

  So I cut off the extra typing, do the scene or chapter break, and head forward with the characters.

  When I am on a wrong path, I go back searching for the branch in the cave, keeping that analogy going.

  When I find the one spot where I could have gone another direction, I cut off the extra words and go off in the new direction. I’ll know I’m going in the right direction because suddenly the story is flowing again faster than I can type.

  So bogging down is part of the process as well.

  Expect it and don’t be afraid to write extra words or cut words to get back on track.

  END OF BOOK

  When you bog down near the end of a book or a story, it often means you have written past your ending.

  I do that all the time on short stories. I’ll be typing along with the sense that the ending should be coming up soon and then I’ll just bog down. Usually I’ll sit there trying to figure out the end before I have the realization to look back a little bit at what I have already typed.

  Often, more times than not, the great ending is back a hundred words or so. I wrote it and then just kept typing.

  THE ONE-THIRD POINT OF A NOVEL

  On novels, almost every writer I know hits a stopping point about one third of the way into writing the book. It does not matter if you are writing into the dark or outlining—this one-third point is a deadly spot for all novelists.

  And most beginning writers working at their first novel never make it past this spot. This one-third point stopped me on all my first attempts. On every novel, I still have troubles with it.

  The reason I want to mention it in a book on writing into the dark is because this one-third point stop is often blamed on writing into the dark. Blamed on not having an outline.

  It has nothing to do with it.

  Nothing.

  Here is basically what happens:

  As writers, we are all excited as we get started into a novel. The characters are fun and new, the promise of the novel is like a shining star, the words are all golden, the story flowing like a perfect stream, everything is just powering along.

  Then you hit that one-third spot.

  Suddenly, your critical voice comes roaring in. And it’s loud. Damn loud.

  Everything you have written, all those golden words, suddenly look like crap. The middle boring part of the book is ahead, or if you are writing into the dark, the fear of not knowing what is next rears up and becomes a monster.

  And then the critical voice hits you with the thought, “This book is so bad, so much work to finish, what’s the point?”

  That’s the end of the book. It goes into the unfinished file with a promise to yourself you’ll come back to it, but of course you never do.

  Critical voice has killed the book dead.

  Critical voice: 1. Writer: 0.

  There have been some amazing articles written by professional writers about this spot in a novel. It really is a deadly spot.

  So how do you get through it?

  There is only one way.

  Suck it up and write the next sentence.

  And then the next.

  You must be aware that this stopping point in a book is part of the process and you can’t let the critical voice in the door to kill it.

  There are no easy solutions.

  And sucking it up is not an easy solution.

  Just keep writing, shove the critical voice down into the corner again, believe there will be value in your work, and stay inside the character’s heads and keep writing.

  Do not let yourself make any stupid promises to yourself. You are still writing the book, period.

  Don’t get sloppy because the writing suddenly got difficult.

  Just stay with the characters and stay in their heads and write the next sentence.

  Trust your process.

  Eventually, the excitement will return and you’ll find the end and be very glad you kept going.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  UNSTUCK IN TIME

  There is one critical element in learning how to be a creative writer and writing into the dark with larger projects. And this one element sounds simple, but is extremely difficult to take in and learn for almost all early writers.

  That’s right. You are going to think you know this, but you won’t apply it.

  You must learn how to be unstuck in time in your book.

  Let me see if I can explain this critical element to learning how to write into the dark.

  And in all creative fiction writing, for that matter.

  And then in the next chapter, I’ll use this very idea to show you how to drive your writing forward.

  READERS READ FROM FRONT TO BACK

  That’s an obvious point, isn’t it?

  We readers all pick up a book, start on page one, and read to the end of the book and put the book down because the story is over.

  There is a straight line through the book. Front to back.

  Reading is a very lineal process.

  And we are all readers.

  So when we come to writing, we have the experience as readers. After all, we’ve read thousands and thousands of books, have
n’t we? We believe that from front to back must also be the experience of the writing process.

  We believe, without ever questioning, that we must write the book just as the readers will read it.

  So as beginning writers—and I was no exception to this rule early on—we try to write novels from the first word to the last word.

  We believe, and are taught by people who don’t know any better, that the writing process is a lineal process from word one to the last word.

  This false thinking is what leads to the driving need for outlining.

  This false thinking is what leads to the driving need for rewriting by beginning writers. Their critical voice cannot let them believe it is possible to write a book from word one to the end without mistakes.

  Why is that belief there?

  Because, as readers, when we picked up a book we loved, we read from word one, and we all thought the author was so smart as to put all that nifty stuff in, and clues, and foreshadowing, and no character got lost, and wow it all came together in this nifty climax at the end.

  Wow, that writer was really smart.

  So as early writers, we think, “I’m not that smart. I don’t know story that well, or plot, or any of that other stuff English teachers teach, so I have to rewrite to put all that in.”

  Then, of course, to rewrite, we go back to the beginning and start through the book again like a reader.

  Front to back.

  The reading process is a lineal process.

  The truth is that the creative process is far, far, far from lineal.

  In fact, when looked at in a hard light, the creative process is a jumbled mess.

  REMEMBER YOU ARE WRITING YOUR ONLY DRAFT OF THE BOOK

  That is critical to remember and keep firmly in mind before I go any farther. More than likely you dismissed that in an early chapter, but right now is when this becomes a critical point.

  You must fix everything as you go because there will be no second chance, no second draft, no rewrite.

  So with that firmly in mind, you are typing along and you realize you forgot some important detail, or forgot to dress a character, or forgot to plant a gun.

  If there will be no rewrite, what do you do?

  You fix it right at the moment you think of it.

  You go up out of the lineal line of your book, float over that lineal line like a creative ghost. And then go back in the lineal timeline of your book and fix the problem.

  Then fix the problem all the way through to where you left off and go from there again.

  All problems your creative voice thinks of MUST BE FIXED AT ONCE. You are writing in creative voice. Stay in creative voice and fix the issues the creative voice comes up with instantly.

  If you write some dumb note to fix it later, or think it will be fixed in second draft, you undermine all the wonderful stuff your creative voice is doing.

  Your creative voice, at that moment, thought of that need to fix a problem.

  Fix it. Honor your creative voice.

  If you don’t you almost kill the creative voice right there and you let in the critical voice.

  When the creative voice knows the critical voice will mess up something, it’s like a little kid. It will just say “What’s the point?”

  And stop.

  So get unstuck in the timeline of your book and be willing to jump around at will to do what the creative voice wants you to do.

  WRITE AHEAD, WRITE IN PIECES, CONSTANTLY LOOP

  There are so many ways that long-term professional writers do this unstuck-in-time creative process.

  Some, such as my wife, often write a project in pieces. She’s writing into the dark, no idea where she is going, and she listens to her creative voice.

  If her creative voice wants her to write a scene, she writes it. And often she’ll have parts of a book, all written out of order, and when her creative voice tells her, she prints them all out and puts it all together on the floor.

  Some writers I know have a scene appear to them, they write it, then loop back and write toward the scene.

  I constantly loop back every 500 words or so, and I’ll talk more about that process, called cycling, next chapter.

  Remember, the key is that you (as a writer) are unstuck in the timeline of your book.

  That’s right. Let me free you up right here.

  There is no rule that says you must write your book like a reader is going to read it.

  None.

  Get unstuck in time.

  BUT SOMETIMES STRAIGHT THROUGH IS THE BEST WAY

  I tend to build most of my books from front to back. But if you diagramed out how my eye actually works, what I actually typed, as I write a book that feels like it is lineal, you will discover my writing is far, far from lineal.

  I will write a few hundred words, loop back, fill in some other stuff, take out some other words, write forward from the place where I lifted out of the timeline, then loop around again and do it all again.

  It feels to me at times like I am starting at the beginning and moving toward the end. But in all honesty, it’s more like digging a tunnel through a mountain.

  I dig for a little bit, go back, take out the dirt, shape the tunnel a little, dig a little farther, go back, take out the dirt, shape some more, dig some more, and so on.

  Eventually I find the end of the tunnel and when I look back I have created a wonderful, smooth-sided tunnel. And that’s what the readers think when they walk through the tunnel from one end to the other.

  But sure not what the process was.

  The belief that we MUST write a book straight through is what grinds writers down.

  And what makes many writers believe in all the people who say we must outline.

  Logical, actually.

  If you believe, deep down, that the only real way to write a book is from word one to the end, then outlining is more than likely something you are going to have to do.

  And plan for a short career.

  For all of us, the reader must experience our book in a lineal fashion. And we are all readers. So this drive to write from front to back is strong.

  But even if you start with word one on a novel and write lineal forward, kill your fear of jumping out of the book and be like a floating god over the characters and the path of the book and let your subconscious have that freedom.

  When you can write in any fashion you want, you are not roped into traveling from word one to the last word in the writing process.

  And that gives your creative voice the freedom to build that lineal process for the reader in any way it wants.

  WRITE THE NEXT SENTENCE

  That’s advice I gave to help you through the rough points, the stuck points.

  A key point to remember is that “next sentence” does not have to be the very next sentence the READER is going to read. It just needs to be the next sentence you are going to type.

  The next sentence could be the start of the next chapter.

  Or you could cycle back and write some extra description at the start of chapter two as the next sentence.

  It all makes your book longer, it all pushes the book forward.

  Sometimes the next sentence when you are stuck will be the next sentence the reader will read.

  But often it won’t be.

  And it sure doesn’t have to be to help you keep going.

  UNSTUCK IN THE TIMELINE OF YOUR STORY

  Again, this is the most critical point about writing into the dark, or even becoming a full-time professional storyteller.

  You must realize you are the writer of your book, not the reader of your book.

  You are unstuck in time in your own book.

  In other words, you can jump around in your manuscript at will.

  Creative minds do not tend to work in a straight line.

  And as a writer, you don’t need to.

  All that matters is that the reader experiences your story in a straight line from word one to the end.

>   But no one cares if you write it that way.

  And chances are, you won’t.

  Or shouldn’t.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THE HINT OF CYCLING

  Very little that is created is created lineally.

  But in writing, our audience experiences a very clear order to a book. And if that order isn’t clear, they leave the book.

  So it is logical that new writers come at writing thinking they must create the book just as a reader experiences the work.

  But thankfully, it doesn’t work that way, as I talked about in the last chapter.

  Or, at least, it doesn’t have to.

  MODERN COMPUTER AGE

  The modern computer age has been both a blessing and a curse for writers. In the days of typewriters, or writing by hand, rewriting was a chore, to say the least, so professional writers quickly learned to not do much rewriting. Especially the top storytellers who were working for a certain amount per word.

  They didn’t get paid for rewriting. Only finished product.

  The focus was to get it correct the first time through.

  That should still be your focus, even though rewriting is easy in this new computer world, and myths of modern publishing expect it.

  But back before the computers of the last 25-plus years, making a mistake and fixing it on a typed page was a pain. I know I personally went through bottles of Wite-Out because of my spelling and bad typing.

  And the rule of thumb when submitting a manuscript to an editor was no more than ten corrections on a page. If you had more than ten, you had to retype it. And trust me, ten fixed mistakes on a manuscript page looked awful, so I retyped at five mistakes.