Juggling for Writers

At the beginning of the summer I read an interview of a writer, and he was asked how he could write so many plots at the same time without getting confused. Apparently he wrote a lot of books. Anyways, he answered that he hardly ever got confused and that by working on so many stories he had little trouble with writer's block. This is because if he was having trouble with one story he could just work on a different one for a while and come back to the other one later. I took this to heart and changed my writing strategy, as an experiment for the summer. I am happy with the results.

I had three writing projects I chose to work on, four if you count this  blog. The three were all at different stages. One was just an idea that needed a solid plot, another had a plot and need the first draft finished, and another was in the edit/rewrite stage. I thought diversity would be best. So I juggled these three stories.

Summer isn't even over and I've gotten more writing done ever in a span of three months. Writing consistently makes writing easier in general, words and ideas just come more smoothly. It's like exercise, if you exercise regularly you don't get so sore, but you get stronger. So far juggling projects has a thumbs up from me.

By Hand vs. by Key Board

Every writer has a unique system in which they create and write. Many factors contribute to it such as your personality, what your writing for, and what you're writing about. Now there are two main categories, that I've figured, that divide up how people rough draft their work. By hand or by keyboard. Personally, I was keyboarder to begin with, but recently I've taken up doing it by hand (this is mainly because I got some cool journals for Christmas). Now I can see the values of each.


By Hand:
+You can choose a nifty and expressive journal to do it on
+You can work on it anywhere, not needing a computer
+It offers a lot of freedom (you can doodle on the page)
+When forming a final draft, corrections are more thorough since you have to transfer all the words into the computer

-If you have bad handwriting, it could be difficult to re-read.
-You can't make multiple copies, except with a copy machine which is inconvenient
-If you loose that journal you lost all of your work.


By Computer:
+It's very neat and presentable
+Mistakes are fixed easily, and you got spell check.
+You can e-mail it to test readers
+It can be saved in multiple places, preventing loss of work
+While you're working you got instant access to the Internet so you can research on the spot

-You need a computer to work on it
-If you aren't a talented typist, slow typing could mess up your train of thought.
-May be you can't afford a computer or printer, and have to got to a public library.

Of course if you're a little smarter than me you might consider doing a little of both. This way you can get the best of both methods.

Vacation from Writer's Block

Your eyes strain at the computer screen, hoping that an idea might just pop out. Instead the cursor just blinks at you, and your mind remains drawing blanks. To be honest you feel like curling up on the couch and sleeping, but your too irritated at yourself to relax. Any minute now an idea just might come and rescue you. <- That right there, or some sort of variation of it, is what having a writer's block is like. Almost anyone who writes has gone through this aggravating feeling. The best cure is probably having some R&R.

Writer's block is extremely irritating; it makes me want to scream and yank my hair out like a mad person. Inevitably it causes stress, and stress leads to sleep deprivation. This all comes around to kick you in the butt, because when you don't get enough sleep your brain doesn't function at top speed, and your creativity is housed in the brain. Think of it like quicksand. First you get writer's block then it makes you all stressed out so you can't get out of it. Now that I think about it, a disease would be a better metaphor, but I could sit here all day thinking of nasty metaphors for writer's block.
What this all does to your health, mentally and physically. It begins with your mental health and works it's way down. You get stressed out and can't stop thinking about it. If you have a bunch of free time it's even worse because that free time is time to think. Like a bird trapped in a building, bashing into a window. You keep hitting the block over and over and over. After a while your head hurts. This constant thinking that leads to dead ends begins encroaching on your health when you are tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep. When you are able to get to sleep it's a restless one. Then in the morning you're all grouchy and grumpy. Then when you sit down to write, not only are you tired you're two times grumpier than before! This cycle can continue until you nearly go crazy and give up on writing. Even quitting isn't a sure cure. It'll still bug you from the back of your head.
There have been millions of suggested remedies. My cure is a simple vacation. Not only do you need to mentally relax, but also you need to keep your physical health in mind. During this "vacation" all you do live life and make sure you get a good night sleep and eat healthily. If you have a second hobby take it up (unless it's going to add stress). What you never want to do is have yourself sitting around doing nothing-or in front of a blank screen- and letting it gnaw on you. Don't sit down to write unless you have gotten pass your block. You don't forget about the task at hand, just think about it in the back of your mind. The goal is to not get aggravated, because it accomplishes nothing and even discourages you.
So if you catch yourself feeling sleep deprived or depressed from writer's block I'd give this a try.

Music

It's a commonly asked question: does music help you concentrate?
I haven't been able to find any scientific studies, just study helpers. From what I've read, if you're doing mental work, music inhibits you from using your brain to it's full capacity, but it can keep you from getting distracted from outside noises. I agree, normally I wouldn't listen to music, but writing is another story (ha-ha lame joke). Sometimes when I just sit down to write I'm unsure where to begin. Music lets my mind wander so it gives me some leverage to start with. Then I get into "the zone" where everything but what I'm writing is blocked out by my mind.

For me, I can't just listen to any kind of music while writing. I need the appropriate music for what I'm writing. Like a movie, you can't have a happy, bubbly song while the main character sees their father murdered right before their eyes. I sometimes will pretend my story is a movie and make a playlist of music I would have in my movie and listen to it as I write.

Music might not be the best thing for work that requires a lot of thought but for something that needs less of the latter and more creative intuition it might be helpful.

Dear Diary

Journaling is a well beloved hobby by many. It's a good writing exercise and a great way to keep memories.
Why is it a great writing exercise? For the most part whenever you write you're exercising, but in a journal you write about the way you feel. Learning how phrase an emotion is the essence of writing. Now, the most common excuse I hear from people who don't keep a journal or have one and just don't write in it is they don't have the time. It just so happens that's the exact same excuse I hear from people who don't finish their stories. In turn, if you can keep a journal than you can finish a story.

Autobiographies, most people don't read them for fun, but they are used for research papers and history. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is well known example. Now someday in the faraway future when you're old and decrepit and wanting to write about your life story don't you think that would be a lot easier if you had your journal for reference, instead of having to dig up old family pictures? Even if you don't want to publish your life, it would be nice to have those memories to look back on.

I've completed two journals and I'm on my third, and I'll tell you from experience that journaling has helped me become a better writer in more than one way. So start a journal today, you don't have to write something book-length everyday, just a few paragraphs every other day will be just fine.

Writing Helpers

Every one has different ways or methods they use to help them write. Mine are to help me get inspiration and to help me finish stories.

Everywhere I go I take a small notebook to write down my ideas so I don't forget them. I have multiple notebooks but I'm eccentric, one will do. Every idea that pops into my head I copy down: ideas for whole stories, part of a story, a poem, and good names for characters. I keep them and save them for when I want to start a new story.

To help me finish a story in a reasonably amount of time, I keep a calendar, just a small *monthly calendar with boxes. You can buy a cheap one or print some out, which is what I did. What I do is each day I write something in my story I write down how long I wrote and how many words I wrote. On a day I do write anything I just put a big "X" on it. I make it my goal to never get "X"'s and it not only reminds me to write, it motivates me.

* link to an example
http://www.printable2009calendar.net/samples/2009_03.png



A good friend of mine showed me the Pudewa Stylistic Techniques. I already did most of them, but looking at the list it brought the tiny things that spruce up writing to the front of my mind. It's a nifty list to assist in your writing.

Dress-ups (middle of sentence; follow with the number)
1. who/which clause
2. "ly" word
3. because clause
4. colorful verb
5. quality adjective
6. when, while, where, as , since if, although clause

Openers(first word of sentence; follow with the number in parentheses)
1. subject
2. preposition
3. "ly"
4. when, while, where, as , since if, although clause
5. very short sentence (2-5 words)

The title

We've all heard the saying "don't judge a book by a cover", but not many people abide by this wisdom. When I go to a book store I hardly have the time to read every description of every book, so to narrow my choices I do judge a book by its cover so to say. I'm not the only person who does this. Being an author you have to give your story a relevant, yet witty, and eye catching title that will appeal to your audience. You spent a lot of time writing it, so it at least deserves a good name don't you agree?

Now how to get this stellar title, first it has to be somehow relevant to your story, which doesn't need much explaining. The title how ever needs to tie into the story creatively so when the reader finishes reading the story the title has a new meaning to it. Books like Flowers for Algernon and Fahrenheit 451 are prime examples of titles that are creative, very relevant to the story, and have a hidden meaning. Lastly when it comes to relevancy, and comical story should have a funny title while a serious book needs a serious title i.e. a book about a person diagnosed with cancer should not be titled Pushing up Daisies. Though some people would find the contrast hilarious, a lot of people would find it crude.
Next you need it to be eye catching to your audience. To be eye catching it needs to be different and original. Using colorful vocabulary in a title will help achieve that. Also consider your audience that you're appealing to. Age is the most important; if you’re writing a children's story don't use huge words. If it's some sort of reference book, then you should concentrate more on the title spelling out what it contains, because the people reading a reference book aren't looking for entertainment usually, but a quick way to learn information.
Title is the last thing you should do after you finish writing, because you need to know your story before you can name it. Even though it's the last thing to do, you should put just as much thought into it as you did the story.

Losing ambition for a story

It's the weekend. Thank the heavens. Whether you spend the day lounging in front of a screen of either a TV or computer or out and about, weekends seem to bring an atmosphere of relaxation. Enough said about the weekend.

Say you have this brilliant and magnificent idea for a story, immediately you type or write away. You work like a beaver on a dam till you’re at the middle or so and then something happens. May be you feel the story is going the wrong direction, the dreaded writer's block, you let someone read it and they say it isn't so swell, or it may be you're just having a nasty hand of bad luck in life. Then for whatever reason it is, that brilliant story becomes not so brilliant. All enthusiasm is lost, you loss ambition to continue writing.

There are three ways to handle this. If it's an outside issue to fix the source of the problem, just plow through the story halfheartedly, or take a break and go on living for a bit while keeping the issue in the corner of your head. Whatever you do, do not give up, that enthusiasm will come back eventually. My rule of thumb is: finish every story you start.