Writing is Eternal

Originally posted on 5/2/10 for the Last one!


Charge of the Write Brigade.


The other night I was walking my dogs. I’ve got three. They’re big and strong and one of them seems to suffer from ADHD mixed with Speed. Nevertheless they’re good dogs and mind me pretty well. Being rowdy, I like to walk them at night.


Sometimes I don’t get started until rather late but I like it that way because it’s just us and the night. No pestering pedestrians to gawk at the stranger and his pooches as they pass people’s lawns (don’t worry, I do clean up after them).

During these walks I have an opportunity to clear my head and think on things. One such night I stopped by my wife’s late grandmother’s house and pondered life’s brief stint. Right after as I continued down the path I noticed the beautiful moon and considered when the next group of people would stroll its surface. That’s when something occurred to me.



Think for a moment of some writers of old. Kipling, Twain, Longfellow, Dickens and Stevenson.





Their work still exists. They’re dead but their work is still with us. Every book you pick up, regardless of your feeling for the author, those words were first created by people from long ago. Faces that smiled and cried in the Victorian era. Feet that walked the market places of ancient Greece. Hands that toiled Colonial soil. Minds that were inspired to share stories, ideas, concepts from lives we can no longer fathom, minds long dust, whose children are long dust. Their words are still with us.

Have you looked up at the moon and thought that one day, long after the politics of today have changed a hundred fold, we might step on that ivory surface again? Sure, not us, but people. People with our words tucked in their computer chips. Fun reading while they wait for their lunar test results. Just like those authors of old, will our words last long after everything we know has changed?

Will what you write now, what you edit for the thirty-seventh time, will it be loved by children centuries from now? Will souls thrill, cry or laugh at those very words you wrote today?

Why not? Shelly, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, and the rest are still with us. Sure, they’re all worm food, but their minds still entertain and show us new ways of thinking.






Why wouldn’t yours do the same?

So next time you struggle with that painful critique or review, think on the generations of people who could gain from the finished draft. Those men and women of old had nothing more than you. They had a drive, an idea and the gumption to learn and do what they must to get their words out into the world.

Why can’t we do the same?


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Jack Roberts lives in a small town in the western US. He’s married with four children and six pets. As the scribe of Annabelle and Roland, he chronicles the vampires many adventures through the last three hundred years. Along with their YA fantasy stories, he also has plans for more fantasy and some Sci Fi.Check out Annabelle and Roland, The Site.

Pacing

Originally posted on 4/18/10 for the


Charge of the Write Brigade.


Pacing


I never even realized it was a problem. When I came up with Annabelle, I simply sat down and started to write. The story wrote itself. What that means is that the characters traveled the paths they wanted and as each story idea presented itself, I wrote it. Obstacles were resolved and a conclusion finally happened.

Boy was I green. I feel for those first beta readers. I knew stories needed beginnings, middles and ends but what I didn’t realize is the journey needed to be tighter.

As writers, we get caught up in our worlds. We want to spend all day with our muses. We’d be happy sitting at a kitchen table with them, chatting away. But that’s not interesting to our readers.

People want to read stories that keep them entranced. We as writers want the same things. Recently a professional editor taught me a few things on this subject. I can’t profess to be an expert and when I get my manuscript back, I’m sure they’ll still be pacing issues to work on. Regardless, I did learn some very valuable lessons.

I had a beginning and followed it with the main threat and a turn around event that set the story agenda. But afterwards my story went from event to event. Sure, there were threats and the main characters learned things, but the big bad guy didn’t constantly threaten them. He seemed to be ok with leaving them to stir and stew.

Shouldn’t he have a vested interest in them? Why isn’t he trying to kill them more? Or at the very least, why aren’t his servants doing more to further his goals? It may be fun to see vampire children learn to be bats, but what if there’s a time limit to learn before the big bad returns to kill them?

There were plenty of fun scenes that I originally showed. Things that even helped the characters grow. But these scenes had no bearing in the story I wanted to tell this time. If they don’t add to the general story, cut and paste it into a new file and tuck it away for later. Tell them this story.

Create a Novel Elevator Pitch, create an outline from it, and then sit down with your novel and remove anything that doesn’t contribute to the story goals. Keep in mind that as the story continues, your events should add to your goals.

What is this story about? Where do I want my characters to be by them end? What conflicts will there be and how can they ramp up the story? How can these events or new events keep the readers invested and help my characters to grow?

Take a good look at your story structure and you’ll make a better novel.