…or Confessions of a Writing Book Junkie
It seems that whenever I struggle with the writing…no, rewind and correct…when I struggle more than usual with the writing, one of my solutions is to buy and read another book for writers, whether it be something motivational or more craft-oriented. The funny thing is they do usually help. They either reassure me that my struggles are normal and I am not clueless and the best give me ideas of new things to try. Sometimes just the act of changing something helps to clear a logjam.
So now I’m going to tell you about some of my personal favorites. 
Debra Dixon, GOAL, MOTIVATION, AND CONFLICT: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction, Gryphon Books for Writers, 1996, ISBN: 0965437108. I usually do GMC charts a la Debra Dixon for at least the hero and heroine when I’m starting a book, and revisit them when troubleshooting weak spots. Sometimes I find the GMC model a bit static–I like combining it with principles from THE WRITER’S JOURNEY.
Christopher Vogler, THE WRITER’S JOURNEY: Mythic Structure for Writers, Wiese, Michael Productions, 1998, ISBN: 0941188701. Vogler takes inspiration from THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, by Joseph Campbell (which I have not read but plan to) and shows how principles of the mythic hero’s journey can be applied to screenplays, novels, etc… When I read this, I had already completed 6 books and could see that I’d already included many of these elements in my writing. However, the questions posed in each chapter have been useful in helping to brainstorm my current work-in-progress. I think it would also help in pinpointing weaknesses in a draft. I like the way it parallels the writer’s journey with the story hero’s.
Donald Maass, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL Workbook, Writer’s Digest Books, 2004, ISBN: 158297263X. WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL contains this top agent’s advice for writing the breakout novel, defined as one that brings its author a “dramatic leap in sales over her peers or even ahead of her own previous work.” While the book is useful, I find the accompanying workbook more so. There are exercises for character development, plotting and other aspects of storytelling that are geared to helping one think out of the box. One caveat: one does NOT have to slavishly include results from all the exercises in the final work. I have sometimes seen that result in characters who go beyond edgy to distorted and/or unsympathetic. Maass’s style is very authoritative, but as in all things, artistic judgment is crucial.
Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Penguin Group, 2002 (10th anniversary edition), ISBN: 1585421464. Cameron combines spirituality with creativity in a way that bothers some religious persons. Personally I find it odd that they doubt the connection. Anyway, it’s a 12 week program with chapters on various aspects of unblocking, each with exercises designed to identify blocks to creativity and encourage the participant to explore his/her creativity. There are also two aspects of the program which are ongoing and I find helpful.
One is the Morning Pages. Basically, you fill 3 pages with free writing about whatever is on your mind. I find that venting emotions harmlessly onto the page helps me deal with life. I also discovered through this process that brainstorming on paper works better for me than just mulling things in my head. I’m a writer. Go figure. 🙂
The other concept is the Artist Date. Where the Morning Pages are intended to clear blockages, Artist Dates are for refilling the well. An Artist Date is an activity that pleases the muse: going to a movie or concert, baking, dancing, painting. Experiencing or practicing some form of art different from one’s current project or career. Last April I blogged about an artist date at the Corning Museum of Glass.
Steven Pressfield, THE WAR OF ART: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Warner Books, 2003, ISBN: 0446691437.
Tough love for writers and a nice complement to THE ARTIST’S WAY. Where Cameron has you try to pinpoint and heal creative wounds, Pressfield reminds you that the work itself will heal you. Here’s a quote from the end: “Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”
For those who are interested, I have some short descriptions of these and my other writing books on my website (click on Writing). As with everything else, your mileage may vary.
I’ll leave you with a question and a warning. What are your favorite writing and/or motivational books? And the warning: Reading books on writing can be a very clever way to avoid the real butt-in-chair work of writing. Don’t ask me how I know that. 🙂
Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice, Best Regency Romance of 2005
www.elenagreene.com
What are your favorite writing and/or motivational books?
Novels that I adore.
I seriously dislike all those “how-to” writing books. They make me crazy. One of the reasons I quit my last critique group is that one of the writers was OBSESSED with those books. She was constantly making me diagrams and such to explain my characters’ journey, GMC, or whatever. Blech! It either works or it doesn’t, and all the GMC charts in the world won’t fix stale writing, bad characterization, etc.
I never picked up any writing books. . . motivational, I think they’d just depress me too much. LOL 🙂
Lois
I’m basically with Kalen. I do like the hero’s journey structure as explained in THE WRITER’S JOURNEY, but I don’t use it when I’m making my rough draft. Instead, I re-read it before I start editing, because it helps me see where I’ve naturally included those classic storytelling elements and gives me ideas of what I need to bring forward more and highlight as I edit.
I can see how GMC could be a useful framework for many writers, but I’ve taken to calling RWA the Cult of GMC because it seems like there’s this large set of writers who think you just can’t write a book unless you’ve done your GMC charts, and it drives me crazy, because GMC as I’ve seen it taught just doesn’t click for me, somehow.
I wonder if these kinds of books are more for the plotters than the pantsers?
I think all of the writing books are good. I love to collect them, but I’ve not read any of them all the way through. I’ve skimmed them, though.
When I first started writing, I bought all the Writers Digest books on writing – a whole series of them. I particularly liked Character & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card, which did help me “get” Viewpoint. Then it helped to read about writing. I also listened to tapes of RWA workshops and I absorbed what the writers said about plot and character and pacing, etc.
I love the GMC concept but only in a global way, to help me clarify in my mind more about my characters and what is at stake for my hero and heroine in the story. I am really lousy at writing them out, though. They always sound lame.
I, too, hate charts, Kalen. Because I’m so lousy at them. I usually write out a narrative about my hero and heroine, and other important characters, or I just keep it in my head.
One concept that helps me is thinking about having a “Black Moment” that moment when it seems that everything is lost. But I don’t read about it.
I think our use of writing books is as varied as everything else about us! It helps some of us and for others it doesn’t. There’s not any one way to do it.
I wonder if these kinds of books are more for the plotters than the pantsers?
Possibly. I know my aversion to GMC and similar schemes is that it feels like I’m constructing the story rather than discovering it.
(And yes, I know it’s all my own imagination and therefore I am constructing it, but I want to feel like it’s discovery.)
I wonder if these kinds of books are more for the plotters than the pantsers?
Could be. Unfortunately, some of these concepts have indeed become an RWA cult thing. I also left a critique group where there was pressure for all to use the same process.
I do actually prefer to let things develop naturally. If I’m in the zone my characters are strongly motivated and the plot flows. It’s during initial brainstorming or when I hit a snag that I will turn to these tools and I rarely use them to their full extent. What I’ve found is that doing some of the exercises raises questions in my mind. Then the next morning in the shower I have answers.
It’s like an interplay between the right and left sides of the brain. But if your creative side is functioning well without help from the analytical side, I say go for it!
Then the next morning in the shower I have answers.
What is it about showers and finding answers? When I was in agent-ordered rewrite hell, after the third time I figured a way out of a jam while in the shower, my CP’s just ordered me to the showers whenever I wailed about being stuck!
I think I may have once had the same cp, Kalen! 🙂 She was always trying to get me to rewrite my stuff according to the “correct” way to construct a book, and that just didn’t work for me. I sometimes do get inspiration from myths and legends, but that’s not really a “writer’s book” I guess.
LOL, Susan! I have a friend who takes “thinking showers”. I tend toward “thinking walks” myself. They also help counteract some of the side effects of butt-in-chair.
and it drives me crazy, because GMC as I’ve seen it taught just doesn’t click for me, somehow.
Or me either, Susan! I know it works great for some people, but I’ve never been able to really use that or any other of the plot framework guidelines (I don’t do turning points, or dark moments, or hero’s journey, or anything! Not that I have anything against those — they just don’t work for me.)
I’ve taken to calling RWA the Cult of GMC
LOL! I know what you mean. I think I got that more often from the less experienced writers, though… And back in the day, far too many contest judges would just gouge me for not following what THEY thought were the universal rules of life (i.e. their narrow-minded interpretation of GMC).
I particularly liked Character & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Oh, I like that book too, Diane. (Though now that I’m more into POV, I find I don’t agree 100 percent with what he says about it…) Card’s also very entertaining to read, on top of everything!
I wonder if these kinds of books are more for the plotters than the pantsers?
Well, I’m just one data point, Kalen, but I’m more of a plotter, and the books don’t work for me. So I think it may be more complicated than that! But there may still be a correlation… 🙂
It’s during initial brainstorming or when I hit a snag that I will turn to these tools
You know, Elena, that’s very similar to something I started thinking long ago. For a while as an unpub I used to be a regular contest strumpet, and so I was forever evolving theories on what made a good contest judge, or a bad one.
One thing I hated was judges with rule-books, who would complain that my hero & heroine’s internal & external goals, motivations, and conflicts should all be stated by the end of page five (AS IF!) Or they’d tell me my brief use of omniscient POV right at the beginning of my traditional Regency was “A No-No” (that’s a direct quote).
Anyway, my theory was that the judges should just read the ms like they would read a book — for story, or to be entertained. And if it worked, it WORKED, no matter what “rules” it did or didn’t follow. But only IF it didn’t work — if it was confusing or boring or the protagonist was unlikable, ONLY THEN should the judge turn to tools like GMC etc to help her/him diagnose what the problem might be…
So your idea there is similar, but just for the author! And it sounds good to me.
(BTW, speaking of overdone, am I the only one who thinks far too many novels overdo the whole scene & sequel thing? For every fun or exciting or dramatic scene, we then have to have five pages of the protag thinking about what we all know just happened???)
Cara
Since I’m fairly new to writing, I’ve only read a few books. One I read years ago and still treasure is “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg. She got me to first think of just getting stuff on paper for the sake of writing (Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo helped me understand this in his No Plot! No Problem! book, but I wouldn’t consider that a “writing” book per se).
I am currently reading “Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies” by Leslie Wainger. I am loving it so far. Her examples really help illustrate her points and I am learning so much about the genre I’ve loved to read for so long.
I have already put the OSC book on POV on my wishlist at Amazon. I love his writing and would love to read his takes on writing. (Plus, he’s a Firefly fan, too, so he’s got the golden touch. 😉 Goal, Motivation and Conflict is on there, too, as I know I need to learn a lot about motivating characters.
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Elena, yes, I have been very guilty of buying and reading books and blogs about writing and about writers to avoid the actual work.
Elizabeth George calls it “Butt Glue,” and that is probably the best advice I’ve ever received.
Mina, I really like Writing Down the Bones and have read it many times. It helps when I have problem with the above, as in I’d rather clean the bathroom than write.
Diane, would you please expand on… One concept that helps me is thinking about having a “Black Moment” that moment when it seems that everything is lost. But I don’t read about it.
Is it one of your own black moments or a what-if for one of your central characters?
Elena, it seems your showers and walks work for you the way gingerlily perfume and Early Grey tea works for Cara. 🙂
For every fun or exciting or dramatic scene, we then have to have five pages of the protag thinking about what we all know just happened?
Cara, this is like the voice over that Hollywood does for its movies whenever it thinks that the viewers are far too dumb to get the “deep moment.”
I have a couple shelves of writing books I’ve collected over the years — from how-to’s, to research help, to motivational ideas. For me, I like having that focus on writing when I’m waiting for a son to come out of school or we’re on a road trip and it’s not quiet enough in the car to work on a plot line. I’m not tied to any one premise — just find lots of possible tidbits in them all.
The Artist’s Way is one I mentioned in an earlier comment and I like the whole co-creator concept. The Morning Pages have helped me focus on my writing and my job and I’m faithful about taking an Artist’s Date every week. (I’m looking for a movie this week but so far, no good ones in our town.)
Her companion book, The Right to Write, has a quote I keep taped to my computer: “Okay, Universe, You take care of the quality. I’ll take care of the quantity.” Keeps my fanny in the chair.
Has anyone read The Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron? Thoughts?
Well, as a non-writer I am hesitant to express an opinion…but now I will do so anyway. 🙂 My favorite book on writing is The Art of Fiction by John Gardner. First, because I really admire him as a writer, and I like his (comparative) open-mindedness: he wrote “literary fiction,” but held up many writers of genre fiction as good examples (including some of my favorite authors). Second, because I enjoyed his writing exercises in the back. 🙂
Cara, this is like the voice over that Hollywood does for its movies whenever it thinks that the viewers are far too dumb to get the “deep moment.”
I soooo hate it when directors (or writers!) think the audience is too stupid to get the point! In the film version of The Remains of the Day–which is based on one of my very favorite books–there is one scene which, in the book, perfectly illustrates the essence of the protagonist’s character (which he doesn’t really understand himself, not being very introspective), while in the film, they make Anthony Hopkins explain the whole thing out loud! Give us some credit, please!
(It wasn’t actually a bad movie, but nowhere near as good as the book.)
Todd-who-will-go-do-a-few-exercises-to-calm-down-now
I think I got that more often from the less experienced writers, though…
That’s been my experience too, Cara. Such people seem to need to have their process validated by everyone around them rather than the results. They forget that these writing methodologies are tools, not silver bullets.
Anyway, my theory was that the judges should just read the ms like they would read a book
Cara, this is how I always do my first pass while critiquing or contest judging. Usually I make very few notes at this point, just marking spots if something throws me out of the story or if I feel my attention start to wander. Then I usually let it sit a day, then reread, do the analytical stuff if necessary and write up comments.
It is a parallel to what my writing process should be. It’s just harder not to be too analytical of my own work!
Keira
Diane, would you please expand on… One concept that helps me is thinking about having a “Black Moment” that moment when it seems that everything is lost. But I don’t read about it.
Is it one of your own black moments or a what-if for one of your central characters?
Ha ha I do have several “black moments” writing the book, as in, “All is lost, this is dredk.” But Black Moment or Dark Moment is that point in the story when it seems that all is lost. For the romantic black moment, it seems as if the hero and heroine can never overcome their basic conflict, they will never be together. The external black moment would be when whatever that plot is, when the events in the story seem to be preventing the h/h from being together. Usually happens right before the climax, when all those problems are overcome.
I’m sure this concept has other names; I’m sure there’s a term for it in the Writer’s Journey. I’m also sure I got it from RWA workshop tapes, which I used to listen to when I commuted to work.
I went to look for a good article and found this one by Alicia Raseley. http://groups.msn.com/RomanceWritingTips/elements1.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=1646&LastModified=4675592372801434181
Even that one is a little over-analytical for me.
Cara said:
(BTW, speaking of overdone, am I the only one who thinks far too many novels overdo the whole scene & sequel thing? For every fun or exciting or dramatic scene, we then have to have five pages of the protag thinking about what we all know just happened???)
I heard Jennifer Crusie do a very detailed and intelligent lecture/class on this concept of scene and sequel, which she advocated as an analytical tool after writing your draft. It was a very learned lecture and I left it feeling, “I can’t do that!”
For me, I think all the reading I’ve done in my life (way less than all of you, I bet) has given me an internal sense of story. I just need a couple of concepts, like GMC, turning points (meaning something in the story changes dramatically in the middle of the book), and black moment and that’s the extent of my analysis.
And, Todd, I dislike “explanations” too.
Diane
I’m sure this concept has other names; I’m sure there’s a term for it in the Writer’s Journey.
Some romance writers say the Black Moment is the “Ordeal” which is a big crisis/test in the middle of the Hero’s Journey. They say romances just skip the next 3 stages and go right to the happy ending.
But I think the real Black Moment is the implied death (of a character, a cause, a relationship) in the second to last stage: “Resurrection”.
IMHO romances, especially longer ones, benefit from having two climaxes: a major turning point that comes from the “Ordeal” and then the final one in the “Resurrection”. Otherwise one risks the dreaded Sagging Middle.
OK, off my soapbox. 🙂
I tend toward “thinking walks” myself.
Me, too! Taking the dog to the park (the largest dog park in the country is only 15 minutes from house, right on the East-side of San Francisco Bay) lets me unlock some part of my brain that I can’t access while trapped at my desk.
One thing I hated was judges with rule-books, who would complain that my hero & heroine’s internal & external goals, motivations, and conflicts should all be stated by the end of page five (AS IF!)
Me too, and I also hate scoresheets that all but force judges to nitpick and/or major in the minors. I prefer the GH scoring system or contests like the Molly and the Royal Ascot where you score on pacing, conflict, etc., but the scoresheet doesn’t push a single definition of what good pacing or conflict looks like.
I think many of the LONG scoresheets most contests use are out of balance–multiple questions on topics I hardly notice while reading, relatively few on (IMO) critical issues like style and voice, etc.
I think many of the LONG scoresheets most contests use are out of balance–multiple questions on topics I hardly notice while reading, relatively few on (IMO) critical issues like style and voice, etc.
Ooh, I never thought of it in those words, Susan, but I totally agree with you. There were a few contests I judged where I was dismayed that the entries that I thought were really good weren’t scoring any better than some that were just okay… Now that I think of it, it must have been for that reason! (I would always go back and rethink and rescore, until the great ms had a great score!) 🙂
Cara
I agree that rules-based judging doesn’t work terribly well.
OTOH scoring based on style and voice could end up being terribly subjective. Popular authors with distinctive voices polarize readers and the same can happen with judges.
I’m not sure there’s a good answer. More experienced judges would help. One thing I like about the Royal Ascot scoresheet is there’s a score for overall impression. I have sometimes used that to nudge up the score for an entry that was special in some way that the other scoring sections didn’t reflect well.
Oh and about those judges (I’ve heard of them too) who think the first chapter should reveal all of the GMC. I don’t know who invented this “rule” (it’s not Debra Dixon) and it could kill the hook. Some aspect of the GMC should probably be present but leaving questions open so the reader will keep turning the pages!
If judges want to know the whole GMC they should look to the synopsis.
OK, getting off yet another soapbox. 🙂
Diane, I’m really impressed with how systematically you’ve studied the craft. I’ll take tbis discussion offline now with my questions, if I may.
Rule-based scoring is just ridiculous. I really liked Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association’s score sheets: voice, style, characters, scene-setting, plotting, and the there are those subjective things such as growth of characters, etc. There is also a score based on the entire story as a whole.
I almost spit out my coke all over the screen, Keira! I am not sure I do anything systematically. Obsessively, maybe…I was pretty obsessive about listening to the workshop tapes.
Please email me questions! I don’t mind.
For any of you unpublished writers who are entering contests, may I suggest our Washington Romance Writers Marlene contest http://www.wrwdc.com (click on Marlene contest)
If you enter the historical category and win, one of the prizes is a critique by me!! (which is amusing. It seems only yesterday I was entering the contest.) I think we have a sensible scoring form.
OTOH scoring based on style and voice could end up being terribly subjective.
True, and probably “style and voice” is an incomplete description of what I have in mind. I just feel like there should be more emphasis on whether the entry hangs together as a unified whole. Sometimes I get frustrated judging an entry that’s for the most part technically correct, because all I can think is, “But the writing is wooden and lifeless!” or, “But the story concept is completely implausible, and not in a fun, frothy romp way!”
Some aspect of the GMC should probably be present but leaving questions open so the reader will keep turning the pages!
My personal rule for conflict is that there’d better be trouble from the get-go, it has to be plausible within the framework of the story, and it has to be strong enough to sustain the plot. IMO, when writers are too worried over GMC (possibly because they’re writing with the scoresheet in mind), the conflict often doesn’t meet my plausibility standard–it’s like they’re trying so hard that it makes the conflict over-the-top.