Book Review

So, I've been reading a book called The Writer's Book of Hope. It's a mix between a feel good book and a smack in the face, "Just get over if you big wimp."

So far I've really enjoyed this book, and it's been a useful book for me as a writer. One of the biggest concerns I've had in writing recently is some crushing defeatism about how I'll never make it. A lot of negative feelings come from writing, rejection, and soul bearing. My most recent novel was, I thought, complete. I felt very strongly emotional ties to the events and the characters in certain scenes, and overall it was a very fulfilling story. (On a side note, the idea of story is subtly different than plot and it surpasses, in my opinion, any other aspect of writing that makes a book sell. Interesting characters, sharp dialogue, meaningful theme, great descriptions, poetic words, engaging plot, all of these capture certain niches in the reader market, but if a story is strong enough it will pull us through failures in any of those. I'm don't know if I can back this up rhetorically yet, and I think that this is what I meant when talking about plot a few posts back, but I am convinced that a strong story is what most people who read fiction are looking for. I've got a lot of exploring to do as a writer before I can pinpoint what a story is exactly, but it's something that surpasses any of the individual technical elements that we usually associate with writing. More on that another time.)

So I was pretty happy with my novel, and then it was torn apart. My writing group chewed it up and spit it out. The general idea from one of my readers was that the book was so flawed internally that I wouldn't be able to fix it immediately and I needed to move on to another book (at least for now). They might be right. That's neither here nor there, except that it really put me into a downward spiral as far as my writing goes.

This book, The Writer's Book of Hope, presents the idea of writing so clearly as a real process that I find myself ready to approach the proverbial saddle with real intent of "getting back in". The basic idea of this self help book is that, writing is hard. Writing takes energy, time, and often rips the creator through various emotions without pride or pity. Writers are often equal part excited and terrified about their own work. But the successful writers keep writing. There's not a lot of incentive to keep a writer moving forward. There are dreams of success (like J.K. Rowling enjoyed), the joy of actually writing (when it is joyful), and the vague idea that someone might like your work. But these are all fleeting and often wrought with the equally powerful knowledge that J.K. Rowling's success is not the norm, the agony of starting to write, and the knowledge that no matter how good your work is it will always fail is some way.

Success is much more often achieved by those who have the tenacity to practice rather than those who have some innate natural ability. It's true in sports. It's true in business. It's true in music. It's true in love. And it's true in writing.

The Writer's Book of Hope, written by Ralph Keyes, basically says, "Just keep writing." It doesn't talk about specific writing techniques (which can be helpful), but focuses on, well....Hope. Keeping yourself motivated as a writer to keep writing, especially when it's hard. Because writing is hard work. Writing well is agony. But we know that it is possible, because people do it. But people rarely focus on the agony of the process (Apparently Rowling drew on her agony to create dementors).

The Writer's Book of Hope might not be a book for everyone. But it has definitely helped me. It's not sappy and full of saccharine promises of glory and fame. It's a hard look at what I've been living, and the hope that I needed (and ostensibly many writers need) to just keep writing.

So, just keep writing. It's sure not easy. But we can do it, you and me. We'll get there. Hopefully sooner than later, but either way we'll get there. We won't destroy our lives in the process, but we'll keep pushing even when it feels like there's no point. Because in the end, isn't that the point? To do something that we thought we couldn't.

See you there.

Hope

I grew up as the son of an attorney. I don't know exactly what that did to me, but one thing I knew for sure as I came out of high school was this: Love doesn't pay the bills.

Romanticism of any sort requires some sort of belief or hope that there are good things out there. I'm a romantic if ever there was one. So my father, though he never discouraged me (quite the opposite in fact), just by who he was led me to believe that real jobs were the kind that had letters after them. M.D., P.H.D., J.A.G., Etc.

Perhaps it was less my father's job, and more the mix of personality I got from my mother and father, my birth order, my upbringing, or something else. But even though I loved, LOVED, theatre and good stories, I never thought of writing as a real job.

Drama, acting, art, dancing, painting, writing, singing, these were all nice things, but they weren't real jobs.

I had no hope. I never even considered writing in any form as a job. My plan was to become extremely wealthy as a doctor and then write a great screenplay on the side. Because that's how I viewed the craft. Something that anyone could do...as a hobby.

It wasn't until I flunked out of biology, chemistry, and statistics, that I decided to look somewhere else. I fell in with a community theatre performing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I was immediately hooked again. I wrote a play and it was performed. I changed my major to Theatre and amazing things started to happen. But I was still shackled with my doubt. Art isn't a real job.

There's plenty to support that idea. Countless artists, writers, actors, etc. never make a dime. They put all of their hope in and get a big kick in the face for bearing their soul.

I hedged my bets. I studied theatre with a teaching degree. I still couldn't accept that my passion could be anything but wild oats. A phase.

Then I took a class on writing. A professor named James Arrington taught the course. I studied the craft of writing and I loved it. In that short semester I had a glimpse of writing as a real thing. An endeavor worth pursuing.

But I still hang back. It is now nearly a decade later and I have hundreds of doubts. Is writing a real job? Can I make enough money to support my family? Can I write anything worth reading?

The truth is that the answer is, "YES!" But it's not an easy answer to swallow. Writing takes time. Hours and hours of work that never sees the light of day. Hope is in short supply.

If I could go back and tell my 16 year old self one thing it would be this, "Writing is a real job, and you can do it. Don't be afraid to turn your focus onto something artistic. Don't worry about what other people think, keep working, keep writing, keep drawing. These are skills that will pay off. It will take time, but they will pay off."

If I have any influence upon you as a writer, I want to say this. Keep going. There is a world of published, successful writers, and if you keep working you can be a part of it.

Keep writing. Keep believing. You'll get there. I'll see you when you do.

Specific Advice

Hey, it's been a while since I last posted. I sometimes question the usefulness of blogging. Since I'm blogging to such a small audience it might be more useful to write a journal, or write to a message board. I'm not too worried about it though. I'm not looking to really grow this audience, rather a good place to post my thoughts.

Speaking of thoughts, I'm on a mailing list from a fairly famous author. This author gives plenty of good advice. It is fantasy author Dave Wolverton, or David Farland depending on which of his book you read. He's the author of the Runelord series, which I have not yet read.

What I have read of his has been great though.

As an author giving advice he's got some good stuff. But some of his advice will rub me the wrong way. Not necessarily because it is bad advice, but because it's a specific bit of advice applied too generally.

For example, Dave Wolverton judges a pretty big contest called Writers Of The Future. I can tell that he's been reading a lot of entries recently because his mailing has turned a critical eye on some of his pet peeves.

One of the recent mailings said this,

"For example in this past week I rejected perhaps fifty entries to a major writing contest for using five simple words: “Now, back to the story.” Have you ever done that? It’s a grave mistake."

It's a grave mistake....that sounds like some very specific advice...for those pieces. His general idea is good, but we should be careful when applying something like that too broadly. This is a sign of immaturity. We see something that bothers us in certain pieces and then we say that it's wrong or poorly written.


It's natural, as we learn the craft of writing, to judge what we think is good and bad. But let's be wary of applying our newly learned tricks too broadly. Not every adverb weakens your story. Not every fight scene needs to be written without dialogue. And your characters can look in mirrors and even describe themselves while doing so. Flashbacks are not always a sign of weak plotting.


These are all pieces of advice that I have heard. And they all have their place. But let's not become too finicky. Nearly every rule in writing can be broken in the right situation. And just because a piece of advice works in one situation doesn't mean that it applies to every other situation.


Just be careful. Listen to feedback, but stand up for your story. And maybe, just maybe, you might even write "Now, back tot he story." and you'll be right.