Writing

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My bad writing day #1

This post is about 250 words. Note the #1 in the title. I expect many posts in this theme.

Yesterday was an all-around bad writing day: both at the office and in my personal life. My energy level was low. My creativity was non-existent. In fact, this post contains the uninspired remnants of the day. Fortunately, it’s short.

  • I needed to write some marketing copy. Nope.
  • I needed to work on my manuscript. Nope.
  • I needed to write a recommendation for someone. Nope.
  • I went to a go-to remedy for days like this: blogging. Big nope.

Most of what I wrote is garbage. Seriously. Here’s what it was like re-reading some of it this morning.

near vomit

Fortunately, years of writing have allowed me to jettison my ego when it comes to days like that. I’m willing to throw away every single word and start over. I’ve often found it takes more effort to fix uninspired writing than it does to simply begin again.

As such, the day was not a complete waste. As many have said before me, a person learns more from the failures than the successes. I learned (again) that days like this still occur regardless of how many thousands of hours I’ve spent on the craft.

Here are three helpful things to remember when you have a writing day like this:

  1. Bad writing does not equal a bad idea – go back to the heart of the idea
  2. Start fresh – don’t try to re-work garbage
  3. It always gets better – because it certainly can’t get worse!

Good luck and good writing!

–Michael

Enjoy what you just read? Leave a comment or like the post and we’ll ensure that you see more like this from Michael!

© Michael Wallevand, August 2016

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My awful query email

I’m currently researching literary agents, somewhat dreading the query emails I’ll need to write because of the perfection they require. Yes, yes, I know agents are people, too. But the query needs to be perfect because I’m trying to sell these people my baby.

Wait…that came our wrong.

Anyways, here is how my mind exaggerates my queries into weirdly desperate cries for help. Something like this:

beggingTo Whom It May Concern:

Thank you for taking the time to read this query. I found your listing while searching for an agent to represent my fantasy novel, The Princess and the To-Be-Named Important Event.

This is going to be painful. My apologies in advance. This submission represents my first attempt to gain agent representation, as well as my first attempt to become a published author. I have no idea how to write a query email. I’ve written thousands of business letters and scores of cover letters, so you can expect this email to be well-written and typo-free. But when it comes to begging for your service, I’m lost. Continue reading →

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Blogging takes away from writing time?

This post is about 350 words.

You want to be a writer. You think you’ve got a brilliant author inside you, struggling to break free. The only way you’re going to become that person is devote all possible time to that endeavor, right? Maybe.

typing

But perhaps you’ll go crazy if that’s your only outlet.

Like food, drinking, and hobbies, it’s all about moderation. Indulging too much will make you – where is this analogy going? – a fat, drunk, hoarder of words? Well, you’ll burn out, at any rate.

There will be times where you can’t look at your manuscript for one more keystroke. Other times, you’ve got nothing left in the tank. Or worse, you can do nothing but question your desire and ability to write the Great American Novel.

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Continue reading →

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Tighten up your writing #2

This post is approximately 450 words. Many of them rewritten.

There are as many analogies about writing as there are fish in the sea. Today’s thalassic comparison will liken writing to lacing up a shoe.

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This is a simile I’ve been thinking about as I’m taking the first draft of my manuscript and tightening up the writing.

No, let’s try that again.

As I’ve been editing the writing in my first draft, I’ve felt like I’m tightening up loose shoelaces.

Better, but room for improvement.

As I’m editing my first draft, I often feel like I’m tightening loose shoelaces.

Ahhh, much better.

Writing a post like this is great because it allows me to show the evolution of the writing, literally as I’m writing it. Well, not exactly literally, but you get the point. And I digress.

I’m currently working on the second draft, which means I’m reading a lot of bad writing. That’s fine and was expected. Sometimes that first draft text is just stream-of-consciousness stuff or the channeling-of-the-muse-that-conveys-information-faster-than-I-can-type stuff. It’s loose, much like a shoe that first time your feed laces through the eyelets.

Try again.

It’s loose, much like a shoe as you feed the laces through the eyelets the first time.

Satisfied?

It’s loose, much like a new shoe receiving its first lace.

OK, I could do this all day, but I don’t want to lose your interest. You could wear the shoe like that – laces untied and flopping about – and to be honest, I often did as a kid. But slack laces are no good for running and other shoe-related activities. The same is true for a loose manuscript. Right now, I’m tripping on things all over the place. I also have to move at a slow pace. If I tried to share this with a reader – even my forgiving wife – the story would fall flat on its face because I didn’t take the time to properly edit and rewrite it. Continue reading →

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Writing Update: July 16, 2016

This post is about 500 words. 

Fingertip sketchIt’s been a few weeks since my last writing update, and in that time, I’ve passed 92,000 words, done some painting, and added a few other posts to the site. I also added a new page – a placeholder for illustrators because I’m looking to partner with one or more people to bring some additional life to the website.

That might seem like a full schedule, but I did have two major events in there:

  1. Fourth of July weekend – with distractions abound. Some were the exploding kind, but many were the kind that required feeding.
  2. Bought a new truck – which necessitated a lot of time for research. And a bit of joyriding. OK, a lot of joyriding.

Neither of those was unwelcome, of course, but they left less time for writing.

Perhaps more importantly in that time period, the novel has officially reached Second Draft status! To be honest, it took longer to get here than originally anticipated, but now that I’m here, it doesn’t seem like I wasted too much time along the way.

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What does this milestone mean? For one, I’ve hit all the primary beats of the story. All the things I wanted to convey are down on the page. Additionally, I don’t want to add any more subplots or characters into the mix because I’m happy with the balance I currently have. And finally, it means the real work begins.

Oh yeah, if it took an effort to get to this point, I expect even more challenges as I try to bring the words to life. The story has direction. A beginning, middle, and end. Character development and scenery.

On WritingBut there are holes. Flat characters and scenes. I expect there’s a bunch of garbage to purge, as well as scenes that contradict each other. That’s fine and was anticipated. Unlike that foolish youth I used to be, I understand that your first draft is not your only draft. Stephen King’s rule of thumb is to cut 10% of your first draft here. For those of you who like math, that’s a 9,200-word removal, or 2-3 chapters.

If you’re expecting perfection at the end of the first draft, I think you’ll be surprised to discover you have a poorly-written document that doesn’t accurately convey the brilliance of the full story floating about your head. And that’s not something that does anyone any good, especially the readers you hope to engage. For a little context, most of my blog posts are second or third draft. Some are fourth.

So, it’s time to add some layers, some color, some real personality, and some real emotion into my story. It’s in my head, even if I can’t articulate it yet. Here’s to the Second Draft.

Cheers!

Enjoy what you just read? Leave a comment or like the post and we’ll ensure that you see more like this from Michael!

© Michael Wallevand, July 2016

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Bring Your Character To Life…Literally

This post is approximately 350 words.

In April, my colleagues Christi and Michael were discussing Hero Forge, a website that allows you to design your own gaming miniature and have it 3D-printed. Being a Warhammer fan, the conversation put me into nerd overdrive. Design my own character and play with hold it in my hand? Gaming nirvana, my friends.

Hero Forge.png

To be honest, I enjoy gluing, painting, and basing Warhammer miniatures more than the game itself. In some future post, I’ll write about the similarities between the painting and writing processes. But I digress.

As I spent hours designing fun figures, it occurred to me that I could bring my novel’s main character, Tildy, to life. Imagine having your own character sitting on your desk, thought-made-real. But not just one! Oh man, the possibilities are nearly endless. I wrote briefly about it here.  Continue reading →

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Writing Exercise #1: Be Uninspired

This post is about 500 words and was originally posted on LinkedIn.

If you like to write (or like the idea of writing but hate the difficulty of it), I have an exercise for you to try. I used it to create this article.

Many of us have had those glorious days where the words are flowing to your fingertips faster than you can type. It’s effortless. It’s a wondrous feeling that re-establishes your faith in your abilities and confirms that The Great American Novel is just a few sessions like this from being completed.

Upon your return to the computer, the black reality sets in. There’s nothing. No inspiration at all. In fact, there are days where I’ve been certain that banging my head against the keyboard would produce better prose than the barely-coordinated tapping of my fingers.

This is where my exercise comes in. Trust me, it works. Continue reading →

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Leap outside your comfort zone

This post is about 400 words.

Two summers ago, I posted a selfie from a marina on Lake Michigan. Accompanying the image was this statement: “When life gives you the opportunity to go Great Lakes salmon fishing, you jump into that adventure, even when you have a fear of drowning.”

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It’s true. I’m deathly afraid of being underwater without enough air. Floating on it is fine, but sometimes, staring down into my distorted reflection, it’s hard to keep at bay the black thoughts of my watery demise. Now imagine the crushing embrace of all the water of the third largest lake in North America. Perhaps you begin to understand my trepidation.

That might be enough to keep a rational person off the boat. But let’s add to it my fish allergy. Yes, eating fish turns me into an exploding biological disaster. As such…I haven’t taken an interest in fishing.

So why in the world was I on this expedition?

On the other side of the coin, I’ve always considered myself an agent of chaos. It’s probably the scientist in me. I like to disassemble things to see how they work. I like to push the limits of software to see what breaks. I love chasing the worst-case scenario to discover where things ultimately land. I love dumb luck, jumping in with blind faith, and rolling the dice to see what happens.

Here’s why I took the trip: This chance invite was an opportunity to do something I never would have pursued on my own. When it came down to it, I really wanted to see how I’d face this challenge.

I had faith that I could handle it.

Continue reading →

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Writing update: June 21, 2016

This post is about 450 words. But the word ‘the’ appears 31 times.

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Life in the asphalt stars

In my last writing update, I spoke briefly about my morning walking routine. It’s a way to clear the mind – really focus – on portions of the book that need more concentration or thought.

I’m pretty happy with this morning’s session. I got closer to a resolution on a pretty challenging portion of the book (more on that in a second), but I also conceived a nice bit of conflict for the protagonist of the next book.

I know, I know. That writing update specifically mentioned the importance of sticking to the book at hand. But what can I say? Like a swift river, sometimes the story carries you along. If it didn’t interweave three important characters within the Prince’s storyline, I might have let the thought pass me by. But since all three characters will appear in his first and last books, it seemed worth the extra attention this morning.

So, a little more information about this morning’s session: Continue reading →

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Writing update: June 18, 2016

This post is about 350 words.

Doctor Who 1

This morning, it came to me. And I love when that happens.

Recently, I’ve started taking longer walks with the dogs. I prefer mornings for the relative quiet, which allows me to work on my novel in my head as we go. Every day, I have between 30 and 60 minutes of concentration time, not factoring in doggie clean-ups, where I can work through segments of the book. I’ve seen incredible productivity improvements from this new routine and I’d recommend it if you’re looking to expand your own writing process.

Anything is game, though some days I have specific sections on which I want to focus. This morning, my mind was wide open, wandering aimlessly, while my feet followed a specific path in the park. Then the title for a future book came out of nowhere, putting me into a quandary.

For a series planned to span thirteen books, I generally force myself to stay on the book at hand. If I don’t, there are just too many possibilities to consider at once. You’ve probably experienced something similar if you’ve been to a restaurant with an enormous menu: there’s too much to chose from, making the decision that much harder. I refer to this as ‘paralysis of choice’, and for writers, I believe it’s a significant factor in story abandonment, something that’s plagued my previous attempts at fiction.

When anything is possible, nothing is possible. Continue reading →