Writing Secrets

[Liar]

EDIT: OH! PS. One TRICK taught by Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver), "Write stoned and revise sober."

I never revise. I guess that means I can be stoned all the time? Yay!

 

[sr71plt]

Another thing I have discovered, is that "write what you know" has nothing on "know what you write".

I think that's nifty guidance that is a secret to far too many writers.

 

[Liar]

I think that's nifty guidance that is a secret to far too many writers.

I learned this from reading a lot of fantasy growing up. The differnce between good and bad fantasy is three things.

#1. Good storytelling. A boring story with elves is a boring story, plus elves.

#2. Quality text. Wit, eloquence and flow is the grease of prose.

#3. (and this is the "know what you write part") Your story is yours. A text is a sealed room. As long as you're consistent, you can make up any shit you want to serve #1 and #2.

The more I've read and the more I've written, the more I've realized that #3 is universal.

 

[mikey2much]

It's like cooking soup

Writing is like making soup, you assemble all your ingredients throw them in a pot with a bit of water and then cook off everything that you don’t need.

I write a story and then go back over it trying to reduce each sentence to its tightest size. Sometimes this means changing words or re-structuring the sentence.

The goal is to reduce the number of words, much like reducing a fraction to its simplest form. Often I will reduce by twenty to thirty percent as I polish and re-read the story.

Hope that this is the kind of thing you are looking for.
Mikey

 

[sr71plt]

Writing is like making soup, you assemble all your ingredients throw them in a pot with a bit of water and then cook off everything that you don’t need.

I write a story and then go back over it trying to reduce each sentence to its tightest size. Sometimes this means changing words or re-structuring the sentence.

The goal is to reduce the number of words, much like reducing a fraction to its simplest form. Often I will reduce by twenty to thirty percent as I polish and re-read the story.

Hope that this is the kind of thing you are looking for.
Mikey

Ummm, no, not for me I'm afraid (but it's fine with me for others to use what works for them).

First, a lot of my ingredients show up on their own while I'm still cooking--and that's a major part of what I enjoy in writing.

Second, I don't have any such goals as wringing the story dry after I've written it (which sounds deadly to me--like beating all of the life and sparkle out of it). Mind you I was trained in Chinese brush painting, which is minimalist art, and that seems to have transferred over into my writing naturally.

And contrary to what you do (and Stephen King in On Writing says he does too), I am not subtracting when I do my review--I'm usually subtracting a bit and adding quite a bit.

And I write it, quick review it, put it aside for a bit, and close review it--and then get it on the road. That's me, and the more polishing I do of a story, the more dead it gets. I find that the words I subsequently change are not ones that jump out at me in the review--they jump out at me from my sleep in the night after I've written it, and I'm padding back to the computer to fix that word.

 

[mikey2much]

I sometimes live up to my name

I tend to talk too much and it seems to bleed over into my writing. I also have to watch out about starting my sentences with ‘he’ or ‘she’. M. L. hammered me on this, on another thread this week. I tend to over explain on things.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Ummm, no, not for me I'm afraid (but it's fine with me for others to use what works for them).

First, a lot of my ingredients show up on their own while I'm still cooking--and that's a major part of what I enjoy in writing.

Second, I don't have any such goals as wringing the story dry after I've written it (which sounds deadly to me--like beating all of the life and sparkle out of it). Mind you I was trained in Chinese brush painting, which is minimalist art, and that seems to have transferred over into my writing naturally.

And contrary to what you do (and Stephen King in On Writing says he does too), I am not subtracting when I do my review--I'm usually subtracting a bit and adding quite a bit.

And I write it, quick review it, put it aside for a bit, and close review it--and then get it on the road. That's me, and the more polishing I do of a story, the more dead it gets. I find that the words I subsequently change are not ones that jump out at me in the review--they jump out at me from my sleep in the night after I've written it, and I'm padding back to the computer to fix that word.

Too much polish wears the paint away.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

No on the first. Yes on the second.

Meaning, I've got tricks. And I'll tell anyone about them that wants to listen.

The only problem is that I'll have to think very hard how to explain many of those tricks so that it makes sense to anyone but me. Since I discovered them by myself, they are more instinctual than intellectual.

Much have to do with how to hadle tempo and information density in a story. How I can vary the prosody of the language and the level of the imagery in certain key passages of a story, to ram otherwise hard-to-digest concepts through the reader's defenses.

Another thing I have discovered, is that "write what you know" has nothing on "know what you write".

Not that I claim that I'm the first to discover any of this. Just that it wasn't anything that I have been taught, nor anything that I have seen being taught since.

Yep. I was just listening to several versions of Buxtehude's Preludium in F sharo minor BuxWV146, and none of them sound alike. Some organists are ham-fisted, some are timid, some are too slow, and its a composition that sux if it isnt performed perfectly. But how do you transfer such a skill?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWr20-w8gGU
In this recording the organist has fairy-fingers with the Introduction, its pretty good, but his feet need guide dogs to find the right pedals.

 

[Liar]

Yep. I was just listening to several versions of Buxtehude's Preludium in F sharo minor BuxWV146, and none of them sound alike. Some organists are ham-fisted, some are timid, some are too slow, and its a composition that sux if it isnt performed perfectly. But how do you transfer such a skill?

Dunno. Comedic timing is one of those things that is truly an enigma to me. I know it when I read it, and I feel it when I occasinoally I get it just right.

Some live and breathe it, while others can spend their life missing the mark. And yet others do an ok job emulating it, without ever really grasping the core.

Can it be transferred at all? Can wit be taught?

 

[sr71plt]

Can it be transferred at all? Can wit be taught?

I'm pretty sure that half of it can be taught.

 

[DeeZire]

Do you have writing tricks you wont reveal or share with anyone?

Yes, I do.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Dunno. Comedic timing is one of those things that is truly an enigma to me. I know it when I read it, and I feel it when I occasinoally I get it just right.

Some live and breathe it, while others can spend their life missing the mark. And yet others do an ok job emulating it, without ever really grasping the core.

Can it be transferred at all? Can wit be taught?

I think you have to be schizophrenic to be a comic or humorist, because it requires you to explore and recognize all kinds of wild shit that scares the crap out of most folks. Comics are simply funny crazy people.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Do you have writing tricks you wont reveal or share with anyone? Stuff you discovered thats not in any how-to-write manual?

No. I don't think I've discovered any tricks that are pure technique, that anyone could take and apply and have work for them. About the closest I've come to that is the rather obvious discovery that you write a mystery from the end forward, starting with the crime and working your way back to the innocent beginning. I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me to figure that out.

Writing is a pretty much automatic and subconscious process for me, so it's devoid of any conscious techniques or tricks. There are things I tend to do when I write that I'm aware of, but I wouldn't call them tricks.

I do have things I might call mottoes, or guidelines. First one is, "Tell The truth." It's so tempting to bullshit when we write and give our characters false emotions and motivations and turn them into cartoon characters. There's nothing more important in fiction than telling the truth as it presents itself; nothing more searing and powerful.

The second one is, "Story, story, story." Story takes primacy over everything, over flowery language and beautiful description, over character analysis and moral and symbolic meaning. The most important thing in a story is always "what happens next?" And if you're stuck, you can usually get unstuck by asking yourself just that.

 

[Dragonlipz]

Comics are simply funny crazy people.

With a deadly sense of humor....and honesty that 'that scares the crap out of most folks.'

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

DOC

I find that lotsa writing has to start at the end, or outcome, and work back. The process is called lateral thinking because the process isnt apparently logical.

 

[mynameisben]

Writing is so damned hard to do well. I don't think sharing a trick or a secret would undermine any writer's success, no matter who they were. So, then, why the hell not share anything you know? Isn't that the whole point of writing, anyway?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I find that if you have a real story it will almost write itself because a real story breeds scenes like rabbits.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Writing is easy. Snort on this for a while and the bullshit pours out like rain.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/Jenny_Jackson/ScreenShot444.jpg

It's what I do

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Writing is easy. Snort on this for a while and the bullshit pours out like rain.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/Jenny_Jackson/ScreenShot444.jpg

It's what I do

I have natural brain chemicals that make alcohol & drugs seem like Kool-Aid. A blood donation from me will make you walk into walls and salivate at Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter pix.

 

[Liar]

Writing is easy. Snort on this for a while and the bullshit pours out like rain.

Oh yes it does. But I miss the keys when I try to save it for posterity.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I read voraciously and I take notes; I jot down anything that looks interesting....even cliches...and I re-work the material into something different. Like this old saw: 'Theyre always the last to know." I changed to THE GUNSHOT WAS LOUD AND HEARD BY EVERYONE BUT TODD.

 

[Thequiet]

As a 'wannabe' writer I've picked up a few things to try after rreading all this, thank you.

 

[DearEmma]

One trick for editing: Change the font so that the text becomes unfamiliar.

Og

Oooh. I like that one.

But my real trick is . . . to read everything I've written back in my head in a sultry female voice with a New Zealand accent. I find my writing greatly improves when I do this.

 

[mikey2much]

Reading your stories out loud is a good way to proof read your work. Forcing yourself to speak the words will show you places where an ‘A’ or a ‘to’ might be missing.

 

[Dragonlipz]

Writing is easy. Snort on this for a while and the bullshit pours out like rain.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/Jenny_Jackson/ScreenShot444.jpg

It's what I do

I prefer Wild Turkey 101.................