I recently read a business article about the fear of failure and how it stops us from being successful. The idea is that the single best way to improve is to try and fail, then take what you’ve learned and try again. Unfortunately, for most of us, we hate to fail at anything, for any reason. We want our words to come out perfect.

If you think about it, failure is what the glaring blank page represents, isn’t it? I mean, if we get right down to it, in most cases that’s what holds us back – this pesky fear of failure. We get so mired by the perfect way to say something that we end up not saying anything at all.

That’s why I like NaNoWriMo. Not because it gets us in the chair to write (which is great). Not because we at least can get close to finishing something if we never have (which is better). Not because it connects us to other writers who are all in this race to the finish with us (which is pretty nifty too). It’s that the experience teaches us to let go of the pressures we place on ourselves. It gives us permission to write anything-no pressure to make it spit-polish shiny, no looming expectation that it could be published one day. NaNoWriMo gives us a license to play. It gives us a permission to fail, which is amazingly freeing. The only goal is that 50,000 words.

Just write.

That’s it.

Writing the perfect book isn’t the point. The point is to be productive, and the only way to be truly productive is to set aside the need to get it right the first time. Editing can come later, after you’ve let the story sit for a little. I recently reread a NaNo book I wrote a few years ago, and realized it wasn’t half bad. Best of all, it’s a complete novel-something I probably wouldn’t have accomplished without letting go of the need to revise as I went.

Take it as a foregone conclusion that what we’re writing is imperfect. By knowing that, we can free ourselves from the fear of it. We allow ourselves to put our thoughts onto the page without judgement getting in the way.

Get it wrong. Make mistakes. Toss in that ridiculous action sequence. Ramble about backstory. Wax rhapsodic with a detailed description of how the living room reminds your grandma’s dollhouse collection. Don’t know the first thing about bazookas except that they are essential to your hero getting the girl of his dreams? Go for it! You’ll be amazed what comes out, and you’ll have plenty of time to fix it later.

Just write.

That’s it.

Get to it.

Book Review: Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder

November 5, 2012

Eric Edstrom

Reviews The Writing Life 3 Comments

The subtitle of Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder is The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need. So why, in the midst of NaNoWriMo, am I recommending a book on screenwriting?

It’s because this is the book I wish I’d read when I was writing my first novel, which I did during NaNo in 2011. Why? Because Save the Cat! provides a story structure template that is both more specific than the three act structure and not so comprehensive that one feels overwhelmed by the model itself. This makes it the perfect story craft entry point for newbies and a great reference for veterans.

Based on Snyder’s experience as a pro screenwriter and his analysis of hit movies, STC details a sequence of 15 beats that every good screenplay must have. These beats overlays the three act structure and work as a sort of connect-the-dots framework. You can download the Save the Cat beat sheet for free from: http://www.blakesnyder.com/tools/

Snyder would insist you not start writing until you figure out all 15 beats. If you do, you’ll end up with a high level outline for your story. This is a great start for outliners.

If you’re a pantser, the STC model can still be of great use for analyzing your finished first draft and troubleshooting story problems. Alternatively, if you get mired down and can’t figure out how to get unstuck, the template may give you some ideas.

An important part of the STC methodology is creating what Snyder calls “the board.” The board is a layout of index cards (no more than 40) that lets you see how your story fits together. When I used this method on my most recent novel, I was shocked to find I had an overloaded second act and a very thin third act. With this insight, I identified an alternative Midpoint (one of the 15 beats) that had better dramatic effect than what I’d originally planned. This allowed me to shift some things to act three and unlocked the story for me. I was off to the races.

NaNoWriMo is a big challenge, and if you’re like most, getting your daily word count is a hard enough without having to also read about story craft. But if your up for it, go Save the Cat!

Buy Save the Cat at Amazon,Barnes and Noble, and other fine bookstores.

The Year-Round Professional

November 1, 2012

Evan Braun

Evan Braun 4 Comments

As I set out to write this post, I have been awake for about thirty-six hours straight. The reason? I’m in Toronto, enjoying the first day of World Fantasy Convention, where hundreds of other writers like me, each at various stages in their careers, have converged along with some of the very brightest luminaries in genre fiction. Why do they come together? Because success attracts success. Events like WFC allow writers the opportunity to rub elbows with people whose careers are worth emulating. The old saying is true: If you want to be a success, hang around with other successful people; their success might rub off on you.

This seems a fitting note on which to begin our blog’s November coverage of one of the most prevalent writing institutions of the past ten years: National Novel Writing Month, usually shortened to NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo gives us the opportunity to emulate some of the best habits of successful authors all over the world. For this one month, we reprioritize our lives to extreme degrees, all in the name of meeting a daunting (but achievable) challenge-to write a novel in a month.

As I said, this is a daunting challenge, and yet writers of all ages, of all genres, and of all nationalities manage it every year. They do it through discipline, focus, and sheer determination. Over the course of the coming days and weeks, the Fictorians are going to serve up a regular dose of content designed to encourage you and keep your productive during the darkest days of November. The success stories and productivity tips we’ve accumulated may be just what the doctor ordered at this unusually active time in so many writers’ lives.

Aye, and there’s the rub. The determination we demonstrate during the month of November should be parlayed into December, January, and the long months beyond. Why is it that we make such stunning resolutions in November, but give in to our slovenly, procrastinatory impulses the rest of the year? I believe every writer should take on the NaNoWriMo challenge at least once, if for no other reason than to get a foretaste of what being a professional, deadline-oriented author is really all about. This year, let’s take a cue from the pros and emulate their zeal all year long. Let’s learn to be prolific.

The writing that results from NaNoWriMo isn’t always perfect, but it’s highly rewarding because it allows you the opportunity to demonstrate what you’re really capable of. When I last took on the challenge, I produced the second half of the manuscript which later became my first published novel.

By emulating success, we actually make ourselves successful. At some point, you’ll realize that you’re not just copying the pros; you’re becoming one of them.

Finding the Strength. . . .

October 29, 2012

Nancy

Nancy Greene The Writing Life 8 Comments

Back over the summer I wrote a post on my blog about how I’d never run out of inspiration because I had children. You can find the post >here<. The summer had my children (and I include my husband in this designation) building a boat in our pool (see, the photo). It also had the children playing putt-putt golf in a thunderstorm. Needless to say, at the first sign of lightning, my boys abandoned my husband, holding all the golf clubs, and bolted for our room. For more details, please check out my post on my blog. Anyway, I have a somewhat colorful life. But sometimes even that’s not enough to get the words on the page.

Hopefully, you’ve read James A Owen’s fabulous post on this site. He might call it inspiration, but what he’s done in his life takes a whole heck of a lot of courage. He awes me.

A deep dark secret is I tend to lean toward the depressive side. It’s often hard to find the reason to get out of bed, or not crawl back into it, pull up the covers and hide in the dark once I’ve gotten out the first time. How strong the urge to hide is depends on what’s going on. My last three months have been chaotic. The law firm I was part of split up months before it was projected to and left me scrambling in the busiest month I had to make agreement for a new practice, whether it was solo, with most of the original partners but as an employee rather than a partner myself, or a new firm where I would likely be a partner by the end of the year. The woman I consider my second mother is dying of cancer. It was caught late, and she opted not to undergo chemo. She’s getting hospice care now. My father has Lewey Body Dementia. It’s a nasty disease where, essentially your brain forgets how to talk to your body. He’s having more bad days than good. My folks are trying to take a Disney cruise for their 51st anniversary this week, but now there’s a hurricane threatening. Thanks Sandy. I have a crazy neighbor, and that’s a whole ‘nother story. And that’s just a list of the big issues. There were, of course, other challenges. As a result, earlier this month, I learned what it took to break me. Not an experience I recommend to anyone or wish to repeat. So, lately, my reason to get out of bed was solely that I had no choice.

Well, not solely. There were those pesky kids again. And the peskier husband. And James and his Superman ring.

Those pesky kids that spent all summer sailing that boat from one side of our very small pool to another. If we’d actually had a breeze, the boat probably would have broken the pool. But they loved it. My husband and I kept promising we’d get the boat out of the pool and into the nearby lake. Didn’t happen. And the kids didn’t care.

We have fabulous kids even if they have no common sense. Even as I write this they are fighting over who has to change the “input’ for the TV so they get cable rather than snow. This fight become more ridiculous when you consider that the TV has to be turned on manually – we’ve lost the original remote and no universal one works with this TV- so my oldest was next to the button he needed to push to fix the problem had he waited 5 second instead of walking back to the sofa. Instead. I had to get up, go down stairs, yell/laugh at them for the lack of common sense and hit the input button. Sadly, this wasn’t their most asinine fight.

Here’s the thing, for me at least. I’ve lived through some terrible things, and I’ll live through more as long as I keep seeing the sun rise. Although this last thought is a good argument for becoming a creature of the night. There are always going to be terrible things happening in life. Sometimes all those terrible things will happen at once.

And then there’s the Superman ring. For a very sick child, Superman became a symbol of hope. We still have James A. Owen because of it. Because of hope, James has found the strength to say “no” and the strength to go on through some really terrible things.

What’s my Superman?

My family.

My husband does fairly outrageous things to make me laugh. I can’t tell you what he just did without losing our “clean” rating, but I laughed so much I had tears streaming down my cheeks. Where was I again?

Oh, yes, finding the strength to chase the life you want. Not the dream. Staying something is a dream means it’s not, and can’t be, real. You fight toward The Goal, the straight line James talks about. Life’s about finding the will to keep walking that thin line, even when you stumble, even whn you have to resist the urge to lie down and give up, it’s about moving forward when you have to crawl and your knees and hands are bloody from the effort.

You have to believe.

I believe in my sons’ laughs. I believe in fighting through one more day that brings me closer to The Goal. I believe that standing for what I want most makes me a better person for my family, makes me a better writer, makes me a better lawyer. Time in the crucible stinks, but it reforges us stronger.

What do I want most?

I want to spend more time with my family, continue as a professional writer (to put the right words for the story on the page), and have the freedom to take the law cases I want, not that I have to to pay the bills. I want to see my epic fantasy in print, to hold that book in my hands regardless of how long that takes. If I keep The Goal in mind, the choices I need to make are obvious, even though they are often not easy. So, I get out of bed, throw the curtains open wide and get down to the job of life.

What do you want? What inspires you to keep pressing forward to that goal?