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SURVIVAL KIT FOR WRITERS WHO DON'T WRITE 'RIGHT'
A Summary of Pat McLinn’s Presentation at the RWA® Conference in New York
By Janet HunterI’m the sort of writer who starts every book not knowing if my hero wears boxers or briefs until he takes them off, so this workshop sounded very attractive to me. Pat McLinn, a self proclaimed ‘frequent flyer on Seat-of-the-Pants Air’, began by saying that when she polled an online network of writers, 27 multi-published authors responded within 36 hours to admit that they too don’t write right.
Reality Check.
Pat advises that if you are able to write the outline/first three chapters then do it because the business is set up to run on proposals and that puts the ‘wrongies’ [my word] at a definite disadvantage.
But if you just can’t write without writing the ending first, here are Pat’s hard won tips to ‘surviving in the business if you don’t outline, if you go AWOL from character interviews, if you are colour blind to colour-keyed plot charts, and if you would rather clean a sewer than write a synopsis’:
1. Know that you are not alone.
2. Take heart. The benefit of working without a plan is that what comes out is pure magic as the story is discovered.
3. Have courage to learn your own process. Where do you work best? When do you work best? When are you happiest writing? When do you produce the best writing (surprisingly this might not be when you’re happiest).
4. All the things you hear at workshops, read in articles; all the advice you are offered by other writers—it’s a buffet. You are free to pick and choose in order to find what works for you. You don’t have to put a piece of everything on your plate and you don’t have to eat it if it doesn’t taste good.
5. Trust your process. And know that it might not be the same every time.
6. You do not have as many supporting elements as the people who work with charts and outlines; therefore, you have to be protective of your muse. You must protect your work because outside elements like the day job, business responsibilities, family and friends and a myriad of outside elements can encroach more easily when you don’t have outlines to help you track where you left off and where you’re going next.
7. If you reach a point where you just don’t know how to get back into the story, Pat suggests you list three things you can do that give you some control in your other life and you will find it feeds back into your work. This should be something quick and simple—it doesn’t have to be world changing.
8. The bad news is you do need to have structure; however, the good news is you don’t need to have it before you start writing. Pat recommends the book Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger. While designed for scriptwriters who want to ‘tweak’ a finished script, it also works well for fiction writers who need to make sure the character arcs, turning points etc. are all in place.
9. Brainstorming with other writers can be a powerful tool. Be careful to ask for input on specific problems e.g. how can I show my hero’s poverty stricken childhood – not how can I make this book better or you run the risk of losing your own story or voice under a plethora of ‘good’ advice.
10. Characters will often supply answers if you talk to them or, better still, argue with them. This works best when you’re not at the computer. Confront your character while you’re working in the garden or cooking and he will tell you what you need to know. You can then go back and flesh out the character now that you know what buried trauma makes him act the way he does.
11. Be careful of charts - they can be a source of procrastination for the seat of the pants writer.
12. Running lists help you keep track. Keep a cast list. It only needs to contain minimal information such as names and character tags. Keep a timeline. This is essential if you write scenes out of order.
13. The main thing to survival when you don’t write right is to WRITE. The mere physical act of writing can start the story flowing. And write anything – the writing will produce more writing.
14. Take heart, if you are truly this type of writer you won’t get your answers and then write. You will get your answers by writing.
15. Thinking can be a form of procrastination for us ‘wrongies’. Write your way back into focus instead of trying to reason out the problem. It can be a scene, a fragment of dialogue– anything. Just write it. List a series of actions a character needs to take in order to show growth or list the places where a clue needs to be seeded or an emotion layered in several different places. Put it down in black and white and before you know it you’ll be adding to your page count.
16. Facing a blank screen? Use mind games when you don’t know where to start. Ask yourself what you want to write about not what you should write about. If you have an idea for a love scene or an argument that’s just burning to be written then do it. The excitement will come through better than if you wait until you get to the place in the book where that scene fits in.
17. Write what you are most afraid of writing. This is something that will push you, challenge you, and will probably result in good work.
18. If you are stuck as to how to handle a specific scene, the first kiss for example, pull 20 books off the shelf and read just the first kiss—no more. You will often be able to identify what wouldn’t work for your characters and that will lead you to what will.
19. Do the chipping away chores. Start filling in between the scenes you already have. Write the transitions and if a writing binge starts go with it.
20. Leave yourself notes when you have to break off writing. You won’t remember that great idea in the morning, but a few words from the night before will jar your memory and get you rolling.
21. If you’re on a roll and something occurs to you about another scene, don’t stop and go back, make a note and keep writing.
22. Instead of stopping to find the right word, make a notation such as [wd] and go on.
23. Trade off with a second project. Have one story on the back burner and let the ideas percolate while you’re working on a second. Warning: you can’t keep starting new project after new project or this gets out of hand. You have to cycle back and finish each one in a reasonable length of time.
24. Try to remember how great it feels when you’ve had a good writing day.
25. Guilt. Use it. Self imposed deadlines are not as good as somebody else’s deadlines. Try writers’ groups (e.g. book in a week, online loops where you have to set a goal and report in.)
26. You have a gift and you are wasting it if you are not writing. If you are not pursuing your dream you are a bad example to your daughters, sisters, the kid next door, etc.
27. Respect your muse. She’s one tough broad and you are accountable to her. She won’t let you forget the commitments you’ve made.
28. And the greatest guilt of all. How dare you, the author, leave those characters you’ve created unfulfilled? Get moving.
A few final reminders:
• If you write out of sequence, you must do lots of smoothing–make sure you’ve picked up all the threads, honed the product, and checked the plot points and character arcs. Check that all the transition scenes are in place.
• Remember, what works on one book might not work on the next. Every new story requires a slightly different process. Be prepared to be flexible.
• It’s easy to fall into the trap of doing just dialogue. You must add the action, even if you simply note ‘action required’ and go back to fill in later.
• Use a calendar to keep track of where you’re at, particularly if you have multiple stories on the go. Set deadlines when a book should be finished. The date doesn’t have to be set in stone, it can be as tenuous as ‘end of June’ for example, but bear in mind that having a dated goal will help you keep track and spur you to achieve that goal.
Pat wound up the session by sharing the information that the 27 people who responded to her poll have published 804 books between them. Not bad for a bunch of writers who don’t write right.
©Janet Hunter 2003
