The Writing Fraternity - Published January 2008
Last week I wrote a humbly short review on Thrity Umrigar's novel 'The Space Between Us'. After reading that amazing gift of a book I was highly motivated to re-edit a lot of my own work and try to kick things up a notch. Where before I used to settle for the average in terms of my own expectations for my writing, I now feel that I can set the bar higher in terms of identifying a better personal caliber.
Writing is a true joy for me. Something that has introduced a sense of verve, drive and direction into a life that used to be fuzzy, grey and mediocre at best. It gives me focus and I have broadened my reading spectrum immensely, digesting anything from fiction novels flung at me by highly supportive friends, to financial magazines that previously used to induce a catatonic state of unfeigned boredom bordering on a vegetative state of mind - and which I now find fascinating simply because I am paying attention to the style of writing. To be able to notice the small things, like the color of yesterday's sunset for example, wondering to myself how I am going to later describe it all as accurately as I can in my frenzied scribblings. As Siobhan Adcock, my tutor at Gotham repeated almost mantra-like: Read. Read as much as you can. Read everything.
I was fortunate enough to take part in three writers workshops with the Gotham Writer's Workshop. Some seriously cultivated authors in the market today are faculty at this private writing school and are represented by quite a few international publishing house giants. While the facility is based in New York I was able to sign up for their online classes. So effective are these classes that Gotham was voted 'Best Of The Web' in 2002 by Forbes Magazine. The core of Gotham is that it is workshops for writers by writers. Who better to school you and clue you, the bumbling lay-person, in to the intricacies of the written word, than someone who has done it before. While I was participating in the workshops, I was able to communicate and interact with fellow writers from other parts of the world. A varied crowd to say the least : from a retired homemaker in Wales to a chef who worked in the Caribbean. I still have fond memories of the guy who dropped out of his pre-med degree at Columbia because he wanted to write. That's passion, that.
A weekly assignment, on top of preparing a 500 word piece related to what the instructor required, was to critique work from peers. That in itself gave me some serious insight into how other people read and thought and felt. Priceless. And while I can sit here and say with a grin that a lot of my work was enjoyed, I am also very aware of how difficult it is to bend and twist and write for a group. However in such a supportive and encouraging environment, it was easy to shake off a negative mindset and to flex my writing muscles which had been lying very dormant while I spent the better part of my twenties pursuing a career in another field entirely.
And of course there is comfort in the knowledge that one can write. Write well. And finish what was started.
The first valuable bit of information that we were told is to 'write what you know'. Makes perfect sense doesn't it? Why decide to write about something you are so far removed from that the research alone could seriously maim and discourage you? Writing about things that you are very familiar with allows you to inject your own flavor into it, to give it your personal spin, which is something every writer craves for. Individuality and the ability to stand out from the crowd.
The second thing we were taught is to be aware of an old saying when it comes to writing. A rule of thumb, if you will permit me a small bon mot by way of Aristotle :
Get your hero up in a tree.
Throw rocks at him.
Get him down.
This is another way of referring to the basic rule of three. There has to be a beginning, a middle and an end. Common sense isn't it? But you would be surprised at how difficult it is to direct the flow of writing in an intelligent format to capture the reader, to just let the story make sense. It sounds simple enough but it's a method that has worked for thousands of years and I don't know about you, but I certainly am not going to mess with it. This is what it is; you have to tell the story.
I wanted the aim of today's article to focus on any of you out there who would like to just put pen to paper (or as in my case, finger to keyboard) and write. It could be a story of your life, a memoir of sorts. It could be something that's been ticking away in the back of your mind, a little tale. From the profound to the sweet, it could be about anything. Kahlil Gibran once wrote that "Work is love made visible." I adore that sentiment and find it appropriately fitting.
Writing, or writing well, is a lonely job with a lot of quiet time required. Then there are the spells of walking around the house talking to yourself because you need to hear how the dialogue will project. Sounds a little kooky I know, but believe me when I say I've done it myself.
So it is with that firmly in mind that I'd like to present the following for the aspiring writer by none other than Thrity Umrigar herself entitled 'Words To The Wise. Would-Be Writer : Fifteen Tips'. I was very taken with Umrigar's dossier on writing. Simple, honest and unaffected. Even the uninitiated would be able to relate.
1)Ask yourself why you want to write.
These days it seems like more people want to write books than read them. Are you just doing it because it's a trendy, intellectual pursuit? Because all your friends seem to be working on their own books? Are you wanting to write because of peer pressure? Remember, it is possible to have a perfectly happy and balanced life without ever writing a book, short story, or even a poem. You can take up less dangerous pursuits such as snowboarding or sky diving, instead. In other words, give yourself permission not to write.
2) If you are a true writer, you will find what I just said laughable.
Because for you, writing is a way of surviving in the world, the medium through which you can make sense of your life. Besides, you can't think of a more fun way to spend your time. If you feel this deep desire, this aching need to write, then read on :
3) Ask yourself what you want to write.
The problem writers often have is that they have too many stories to tell. But there is usually one story that haunts you, that feels like a fever occupying your body. If the doctor gave you six months to live, which is the story that you would most want to tell? Write that story first.
4) Get away from what I call "the tyranny of the blank screen".
There is nothing more intimidating that sitting in front of the computer with nothing to say. Many people think that when they turn on the computer, they're also jump-starting their brains. But that's not the way the subconscious works. You have to tap into it more frequently than that. That means thinking about your story all the time, living with it, never letting it wander too far away from you. So write dialogue in the shower. Go for long, solitary walks and try different lines out loud. Think about plot when you're in your car. The story you're writing should feel more real to you than the life you are living.
5) Make time for yourself.
Find out what time of the day your writing flows best and keep that time for yourself. But writing is also preparing the subconscious to be ready. So you need to find more alone time for yourself even when you're not actually writing. Solitude is really important for a writer.
6) Most of us don't have the luxury of finding large blocks of time to write.
That's why God made flash drives. Carry that flash drive with you at all times. Use every minute of every day that you can find for your work.
7) Saying that you don't have time to write is an excuse.
The fact is that nobody has time to write, other than the minuscule number of writers who make their living from writing full-time. Most writers make the time to write. The difference between writers and non-writers is just that writers write. Non-writers talk about wanting to write.
8) Read extensively.
Read everything, from the New York Times, to billboards, to cereal boxes. Read the classics and read new books. Not only will this make you a better writer but a great book can serve as an inspiration. Every time I read a great book, it makes me want to drop everything I'm doing and work on my own stuff.
9) Believe in your work.
Remember that every person on this sweet, blue earth has a story to tell. The sad truth is that most of us will never write like Shakespeare. We will never be Toni Morrison or Leo Tolstoy or Charles Dickens. All I can try to do is be the best Thrity Umrigar that I can be. And that will have to be enough.
10) Turn off the soft, sinister voice that's forever telling you, "No one will ever want to read this."
That is the voice of self-doubt and you must think of it as the voice of the devil. Turn that voice off. There will be plenty of time to heed that critical voice later and even make it work for you.
11) After you're done with the first draft, you can re-read your work in a loving but critical way.
That's what a second and third and fourth draft are all about. But that criticism should be constructive and come later in the process.
12) Live a large and active life.
Meet different kinds of people. Put yourself in unfamiliar situations. Expose yourself to diverse experiences that challenge you. All of this will make your writing more interesting.
13) Love someone deeply and intensely.
You will learn more about yourself - your flaws and your strengths, your limits and your expansiveness - through this experience than any other. And the self-knowledge that you gain will come through in your writing.
14) Be gentle with yourself.
Great writing is always compassionate. The same compassion that you bring to your observations about the foibles of humanity, you must grant to yourself. So don't judge yourself too harshly if the writing is truly terrible on a given day or you decided to go for a walk with your daughter instead of working on your manuscript. Just get back to it the next day.
This is a bit of personal superstition, I suppose. But the ability to write is a gift, a special grace. It should not be abused for cynical purposes. Resist the temptation to write according to a formula or to imitate what is currently commercially successful. Write what's in your heart. Write the stories that make you proud of yourself, not embarrassed. And never lose the ability to know the difference.
Writing is a true joy for me. Something that has introduced a sense of verve, drive and direction into a life that used to be fuzzy, grey and mediocre at best. It gives me focus and I have broadened my reading spectrum immensely, digesting anything from fiction novels flung at me by highly supportive friends, to financial magazines that previously used to induce a catatonic state of unfeigned boredom bordering on a vegetative state of mind - and which I now find fascinating simply because I am paying attention to the style of writing. To be able to notice the small things, like the color of yesterday's sunset for example, wondering to myself how I am going to later describe it all as accurately as I can in my frenzied scribblings. As Siobhan Adcock, my tutor at Gotham repeated almost mantra-like: Read. Read as much as you can. Read everything.
I was fortunate enough to take part in three writers workshops with the Gotham Writer's Workshop. Some seriously cultivated authors in the market today are faculty at this private writing school and are represented by quite a few international publishing house giants. While the facility is based in New York I was able to sign up for their online classes. So effective are these classes that Gotham was voted 'Best Of The Web' in 2002 by Forbes Magazine. The core of Gotham is that it is workshops for writers by writers. Who better to school you and clue you, the bumbling lay-person, in to the intricacies of the written word, than someone who has done it before. While I was participating in the workshops, I was able to communicate and interact with fellow writers from other parts of the world. A varied crowd to say the least : from a retired homemaker in Wales to a chef who worked in the Caribbean. I still have fond memories of the guy who dropped out of his pre-med degree at Columbia because he wanted to write. That's passion, that.
A weekly assignment, on top of preparing a 500 word piece related to what the instructor required, was to critique work from peers. That in itself gave me some serious insight into how other people read and thought and felt. Priceless. And while I can sit here and say with a grin that a lot of my work was enjoyed, I am also very aware of how difficult it is to bend and twist and write for a group. However in such a supportive and encouraging environment, it was easy to shake off a negative mindset and to flex my writing muscles which had been lying very dormant while I spent the better part of my twenties pursuing a career in another field entirely.
And of course there is comfort in the knowledge that one can write. Write well. And finish what was started.
The first valuable bit of information that we were told is to 'write what you know'. Makes perfect sense doesn't it? Why decide to write about something you are so far removed from that the research alone could seriously maim and discourage you? Writing about things that you are very familiar with allows you to inject your own flavor into it, to give it your personal spin, which is something every writer craves for. Individuality and the ability to stand out from the crowd.
The second thing we were taught is to be aware of an old saying when it comes to writing. A rule of thumb, if you will permit me a small bon mot by way of Aristotle :
Get your hero up in a tree.
Throw rocks at him.
Get him down.
This is another way of referring to the basic rule of three. There has to be a beginning, a middle and an end. Common sense isn't it? But you would be surprised at how difficult it is to direct the flow of writing in an intelligent format to capture the reader, to just let the story make sense. It sounds simple enough but it's a method that has worked for thousands of years and I don't know about you, but I certainly am not going to mess with it. This is what it is; you have to tell the story.
I wanted the aim of today's article to focus on any of you out there who would like to just put pen to paper (or as in my case, finger to keyboard) and write. It could be a story of your life, a memoir of sorts. It could be something that's been ticking away in the back of your mind, a little tale. From the profound to the sweet, it could be about anything. Kahlil Gibran once wrote that "Work is love made visible." I adore that sentiment and find it appropriately fitting.
Writing, or writing well, is a lonely job with a lot of quiet time required. Then there are the spells of walking around the house talking to yourself because you need to hear how the dialogue will project. Sounds a little kooky I know, but believe me when I say I've done it myself.
So it is with that firmly in mind that I'd like to present the following for the aspiring writer by none other than Thrity Umrigar herself entitled 'Words To The Wise. Would-Be Writer : Fifteen Tips'. I was very taken with Umrigar's dossier on writing. Simple, honest and unaffected. Even the uninitiated would be able to relate.
1)Ask yourself why you want to write.
These days it seems like more people want to write books than read them. Are you just doing it because it's a trendy, intellectual pursuit? Because all your friends seem to be working on their own books? Are you wanting to write because of peer pressure? Remember, it is possible to have a perfectly happy and balanced life without ever writing a book, short story, or even a poem. You can take up less dangerous pursuits such as snowboarding or sky diving, instead. In other words, give yourself permission not to write.
2) If you are a true writer, you will find what I just said laughable.
Because for you, writing is a way of surviving in the world, the medium through which you can make sense of your life. Besides, you can't think of a more fun way to spend your time. If you feel this deep desire, this aching need to write, then read on :
3) Ask yourself what you want to write.
The problem writers often have is that they have too many stories to tell. But there is usually one story that haunts you, that feels like a fever occupying your body. If the doctor gave you six months to live, which is the story that you would most want to tell? Write that story first.
4) Get away from what I call "the tyranny of the blank screen".
There is nothing more intimidating that sitting in front of the computer with nothing to say. Many people think that when they turn on the computer, they're also jump-starting their brains. But that's not the way the subconscious works. You have to tap into it more frequently than that. That means thinking about your story all the time, living with it, never letting it wander too far away from you. So write dialogue in the shower. Go for long, solitary walks and try different lines out loud. Think about plot when you're in your car. The story you're writing should feel more real to you than the life you are living.
5) Make time for yourself.
Find out what time of the day your writing flows best and keep that time for yourself. But writing is also preparing the subconscious to be ready. So you need to find more alone time for yourself even when you're not actually writing. Solitude is really important for a writer.
6) Most of us don't have the luxury of finding large blocks of time to write.
That's why God made flash drives. Carry that flash drive with you at all times. Use every minute of every day that you can find for your work.
7) Saying that you don't have time to write is an excuse.
The fact is that nobody has time to write, other than the minuscule number of writers who make their living from writing full-time. Most writers make the time to write. The difference between writers and non-writers is just that writers write. Non-writers talk about wanting to write.
8) Read extensively.
Read everything, from the New York Times, to billboards, to cereal boxes. Read the classics and read new books. Not only will this make you a better writer but a great book can serve as an inspiration. Every time I read a great book, it makes me want to drop everything I'm doing and work on my own stuff.
9) Believe in your work.
Remember that every person on this sweet, blue earth has a story to tell. The sad truth is that most of us will never write like Shakespeare. We will never be Toni Morrison or Leo Tolstoy or Charles Dickens. All I can try to do is be the best Thrity Umrigar that I can be. And that will have to be enough.
10) Turn off the soft, sinister voice that's forever telling you, "No one will ever want to read this."
That is the voice of self-doubt and you must think of it as the voice of the devil. Turn that voice off. There will be plenty of time to heed that critical voice later and even make it work for you.
11) After you're done with the first draft, you can re-read your work in a loving but critical way.
That's what a second and third and fourth draft are all about. But that criticism should be constructive and come later in the process.
12) Live a large and active life.
Meet different kinds of people. Put yourself in unfamiliar situations. Expose yourself to diverse experiences that challenge you. All of this will make your writing more interesting.
13) Love someone deeply and intensely.
You will learn more about yourself - your flaws and your strengths, your limits and your expansiveness - through this experience than any other. And the self-knowledge that you gain will come through in your writing.
14) Be gentle with yourself.
Great writing is always compassionate. The same compassion that you bring to your observations about the foibles of humanity, you must grant to yourself. So don't judge yourself too harshly if the writing is truly terrible on a given day or you decided to go for a walk with your daughter instead of working on your manuscript. Just get back to it the next day.
This is a bit of personal superstition, I suppose. But the ability to write is a gift, a special grace. It should not be abused for cynical purposes. Resist the temptation to write according to a formula or to imitate what is currently commercially successful. Write what's in your heart. Write the stories that make you proud of yourself, not embarrassed. And never lose the ability to know the difference.
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