I C Summer Blog Tour – “Navigating the Writing Path: From Start to Finish”

I want to give a shout out to the person that invited me onto this tour, Demi Hungerford, who I know through Scribophile.com and is a fellow blogger. You can check out her blog - http://windr0se.wordpress.com/. She doesn't use humor as much as me and, compared to me, she's a very experienced writer who actually knows what she's writing about. Thank you, Demi, for passing this my way. I had a blast answering these questions. 

1. Share how you start your writing project(s). For example, where do you find inspiration? Do you outline? Do you jump right into the writing? Do you do all of your research first?

Honestly, my inspiration could come from anywhere. It could come from an image that just pops into my head, a dream, something that someone says, a small adventure somewhere, a certain feeling I get. But when I get these inspirations, it's kind of like a storm rushing around in your head. Most of the time, I'm not really sure how to organize it. I don't necessarily outline it. I jump into the writing head first and apply first aid after I'm done. But then again, it depends what I plan on writing. I adventure into a lot of genres, some of which I don't get very far into before moving on. If it's romance writing or supernatural writing then I might jump into it but with mystery, I tend to do more outlining before I start writing my first chapter or story. 

2. How do you continue your writing project? i.e. How do you find motivation to write on the non-creative days? Do you keep to a schedule? How do you find the time to write?

Every writer that I know (which, let's be honest, isn't a lot) have time they put aside each day to write, that's why I'm in awe of them and their writings while I'm over here struggling to put together a simple compound sentence. I have a lot of time to write in the summer and no time at all when school starts back up (college is getting in the way of my passions!) but no matter what, I'll always find time to procrastinate. I don't really have a strict schedule because my schedule is sort of everywhere. But I know that as soon as I sit down and force myself to start doing simple writing exercises to warm up, my motivation will kick in and I can start working on the projects that matter. 

3. How do you finish your project? i.e. When do you know the project is complete? Do you have a hard time letting go? Do you tend to start a new project before you finish the last one? 

My personal opinion on finished projects is "A project is never really finished." I know a lot of fellow writers will agree with me when I say that I feel like any project I do can be better or it's not at it's full potential towards the end. It's rather frustrating and enough to drive a sane writer like me into a strait jacket, though if I was insane then maybe I could create masterpieces and actually publish instead of worrying about how the story will come out before I even start it.

4. Include one challenge or additional tip that our collective communities could help with or benefit from. 
The challenge is always getting past the beginning of the story. Because the ball starts rolling and then you realize you have no idea what happens next... or how it'll end. My advice (and it's very common) know the ending of your story and work backwards from there. Don't worry to much on the details until after you write out your story. If you're writing a novel, then don't go back. Keep pushing towards the end and then go back and make all the corrections and changes you want.

Unfortunately, I have no one to pass the torch onto with these questions because I don't know many bloggers or writers. I guess you could say that my network is very small and MIGHT grow in the future. 

Organization (or lack thereof)

I apologize for not posting for the past few weeks, but between drama, injuries, and lack of time, I haven't really had time to write. But I'm back and you can all rest assured that I am not in a mental institution somewhere, driven mad from trying to write.

But this huge gap between articles gave me a very good segway into this article's topic... Organization. I italicized it, underlined it, and put it in bold because it is ON.

Obviously, I don't have it. Or do I?

See, when I say the word 'organization', I don't necessarily mean neat, clean, alphabetical, or whatever. I mean that you have a system that you use to keep YOURSELF organized. It could be in binders in a drawer by your desk, or it could be in notebooks spread out across the room, or it could even be a lot of post it notes covering a lot of wall in that office which, let's face it, definitely DOES NOT go with the rest of the decor anyways.

Point is, we all have a system we feel comfortable using. But that doesn't mean it's the best system to use. I'm the perfect example of it. My organization extends to numerous notebooks that are scattered in and around my desk (which I rarely sit at) or across the room by my bed. I ALWAYS forget which notebook I recently wrote in with my story ideas or mental notes and it's becoming a problem.

Looks like I need an..... (pause for dramatic effect) ORGANIZATION MAKEOVER! Of course, I can't be the only one out in this great big world of ours looking for a better way to keep track of all the insane ideas and stories we put down. So here are a few:

1) Notecards: May seem kinda strange when I just told you everything in my room is scattered and notecards will, more than likely, find a way to play hide-n-seek, but there's a way to organize that as well. I'm not sure of the proper name because I haven't used one in quite a while but I'll call them "Notecard Boxes" and the general purpose of these boxes is to hold all your notecards. These can be found on the same aisle, probably, as the notecards.

I, sometimes, like to get color coded notecards to go a little deeper into how efficient I work. I'd use green as a poem ideal or, if it's a story, the plot. Red as characters. Purple as setting.And so on. May seem like a lot of work keeping track of all these colors but I keep them all together when I have them all filled out.

2) Binders. They're a great way to hold all the stories or poems you've written over the years and allow you to go back and take a look at where you've been and how far you've come. I use them. The only problem is that I use too many! I have multiple binders! So to help MYSELF organize, I'll try to use just two. One for holding my stories. One for holding my poems. And maybe a third to use for working on stories or poems in the making.

3) Simple is better. I got this after I realized that I consider using 3 binders to be "organized". Simple can be any number of things. What do you need to cut down on? The amount of 'organizers' you use? Whatever it is that you think you have too much of, work on it. If there isn't a way to make it simple, try to make it more efficient for you.

4) Back up your back ups. Nothing says unorganized like a caffeine induced writing frenzie ONLY to have your only copy get lost, or accidentally deleted because your computer decided it would be a GREAT time to restart itself (I swear, computers plan these things on purpose). But outsmart those machines by saving it constantly and onto something like an external hard drive or USB drive, along with on your computer. Now you have two copies. Now god forbid you lose your USB drive on the same day your computer restarted itself, then you might just have bad luck. I, personally, use a USB drive and I've set up folders on that drive so that when I save what I'm working on, I know right where to go. One folder is titled 'Poems'. The other 'Novels' and it has its own sub-folders of plot, story, character, and so on. I would do the same on my computer but I think my computer has joined a Computer Activist group and refuses to let me be the Administrative User.

5) Do what works for you. They say it takes 5 weeks to learn a new habit, so in that time it takes some forcing and constantly forgetting to do something that will help you. But it gets easier. Hopefully. I'm still in that '5 week learning' stage and I have to say, I've screwed it up multiple times. But I remember and go back and try again. That's the point. But don't do something that destroys your entire system. You're simply adding or improving a part of your system, not blowing it up with dynamite and putting a nice little apartment complex on it.

If you thought this was unhelpful, just remember that there will be more articles with actual "helpful" information on it in the future.

Abort mission. ABORT MISSION!!

We always do that don't we? We get outside of our comfort zone and we quit. Inside of this "comfort zone", we'll talk and smile about all the thing le you're not afraid to do only to blink when we step one foot out of our bubble of "comfiness". 

Not like it matters to other people because a lot of them smile when we blink and cower away. Not like their opinions carry much weight to you anyways, right? So why let their words of discouragement down? Why be "comfortable" when you know that all great people stepped up and said, "It hurts. I don't know anything in this area. This is too hard... I love it". See, it's the challenge that makes human beings able to discover things like electricity, internet, medicine to help people grow older. It's the challenges that have helped us come from inventing the wheel to looking into the cure for cancer. 

So why did you give up when you were just slightly uncomfortable in the unknown? A new genre you're trying to expand into, teaching yourself a new language with no real support, learning a new skill like cooking, starting to go to the gym for that body you so desperately want. Whatever it is that you're trying to do. Do it. Because when all the doubters ask how you're doing with that twisted, judgemental grins on their face, you can respond, "Tres Bon. Et toi?"

It's on you. Your failures reflect you, not them. Then again, it's failure if you give up. So don't give up. Keep moving forward. Keep your chin up and walk with that smile, knowing that you're giving it everything you have to discover what you're capable of even when everyone else thinks they've figured it out.

So what are you waiting for? Time to get to work.

Why Do You Write? (A Personal Account)

   Sorry for my late blog, everybody, but I decided that this week was a good week to procrastinate... I mean, I was too busy. Yeah, that's it. This week's blog I figured I would open up to you a little bit.       Understand who I am as a person and help myself get past my low mood level that is keeping me from writing. So I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane and remind myself WHY I started writing to begin with and, with your permission, I'd like to take you with me down this lane.

    So sit back, relax, and enjoy a story of a story teller. Maybe if (or when) you're down and can't write, you'll recap to your own reasons to why you write.

   "I was 13 years old and the summer sun started to fade away, leaving behind it's unforgivable southern heat in the month of August. I had just returned from visiting my favorite relatives in New Hampshire and returned to my life as a good son to a single, alcoholic father and straight A student in my Middle School where I was a minority in a violent school.

   Up until that point, I only wrote every now and then. My 7^th grade English Honors teacher from the previous year had made a thing called 'Free Write Friday' where everyone would spend 10 minutes just writing. Anything. Everything. I suppose that was the first time I really put pen to paper and made something come out. Every Friday I would expand on what I wrote the previous week and turn that in. My writing wasn't the best but I received praise for my use of dialogue (when in reality, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was just assuming it was right) and encouraged to continue to write, which I didn't until the following year.

   Anyways, as August dragged on I began to find out that thing's were different from before I went away for the week. My Dad was always the short tempered type but I found that it was getting worse. Not in the sense of him, but in the sense that I took more of a stance against his temper which, in turn, made arguments and a very hostile trailer to live in. At the time, I began to feel like no one really cared about what was going on so I didn't really talk much about it, but I needed an outlet so I started to write again. I didn't focus on short stories until I was in Junior year of High School, but I did write poems. Countless poems. Unrequited love and 'sorrowful' poems that helped me vent the complex emotions that I couldn't really verbally express.

 

  I started writing my short stories when I realized that poems were not really doing it for me, anymore. I wanted to expand and become better as a writer. I didn't really care before then, I just wrote for the expression and not for the images or metaphor or how it read, as long as it was out there. But now I wanted to grow as a writer so that readers would read my stories or poems and enjoy it instead of suffering and dragging their way through my writings. So I started to write and I started to revise and edit. I wanted to tell my story but in a way that made it readable. It would help me express all my emotions and pain while becoming a decent enough writer to the point where I might be able to publish and get my story out there in the world.

   I still work and strive to become a better writer and I have a very long road to go before I feel my writings are considered great."

   So that's my writing story. It's why I started writing and why I continue to write. So what's your story? Why did you start writing? What keeps driving you to write that next sentence or paragraph? Let me know! Or simply write it down for yourself so that you can keep yourself motivated and know why you keep doing what you do!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out my blog out every Tuesday for a new blog on writing tips, advice, stories, and so on!!!

Title To Be Determined (Procrastination)

pro·cras·ti·na·tion [proh-kras-tuh-ney-shuhn, pruh‐]

noun

the act or habit of procrastinating,or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention: She was smart, but her constant procrastination led her to be late with almost every assignment. (Dictionary.com)

My History teacher always use to say “Procrastination is the Assassination of the Proclamation of Motivation.” In his defense, we were also talking about Abraham Lincoln and his assassination at the time he said it so his confusion is understandable. But the point is he was right... maybe. Procrastination is such as pain in the ass but it's the kind we can't get enough of. Don't deny it. Right now, you're reading a blog about procrastination because you're procrastinating on that thing you need to do.

So why are you procrastinating? Don't know how to start your piece of writing? Is it your project so big that you have no idea where to start so you decide a nap or reading an amateur’s blog would be easier? Or is it simply because you have no desire whatsoever to do the thing that needs to be done? Well let me tell you something, good sir/madam: Stop it! Ok, think about stopping it. Actually, don't stop at all. Just keep procrastinating.

This may sound very insane, but stay with me, some of us are actually very good at the whole “last minute, time crunching, night before its due, caffeine rampage” thing. We do our best work when we have a deadline and that deadline is up in an hour or so. You need to reach your 10,000 word mark by tomorrow to get it into a contest for publication? Pff, no problem. There are levels of procrastination that you should be aware of. Know where you are and embrace it. And if you're a super slacker, I applaud your bravery to dive into all your assignments the night before it's due. ROCK ON SUPER SLACKER and shame on your master procrastinator! I, too, have been guilty of smooth talking into an extension for many assignments in High School, only to procrastinate on it.

However, some of us can't deal with doing all that so last minute but we don't feel like doing it anyways. It's either too big of a project, too long term to the point where you you don't see the need to, or you just don't have the motivation. So here are 2, I repeat TWO, Faraway Tips that are fairly easy to understand:

1. Do it. I HATE doing homework, or starting a new story that I have no idea how I'm going to write, waking up, showering, socializing, and so on. But I do it. Why? I think about how it's similar to me and working out. I don't want to run 5 miles or do those insane amounts of bicep curls or pull ups, but after I force myself to do it, I think about how great it feels to accomplish it. So even though I have no desire to do absolutely anything, I do it and as soon as I do, it's easy to find a rhythm and keep to it so I can get everything done. So if you don't feel like doing whatever it is that needs to get done, force yourself to. Once you start, it's not that bad.

2. Schedule it. If it's one of those long term projects where you want to do, say, 10000 words before a certain date, make sure to stretch out over time. For example, if you need to do that many words over the course of a month, aim for a certain amount of words each week. So each week, write 2500 words. Then break it down from there. How are you going to do that 2500 words in the week? Are you going to do it over the weekend? Or do a few words every other day? Then when you schedule when you'll do what, resort back to the 1^st tip; DO IT! This kind of thing doesn't just apply to writing. Obviously it goes for homework, projects, essays, business stuff where business needs to get done.

I know you're probably thinking to yourself, “Ian! Surely there's more to it than that!” No. That's cutting past all the bull crap and getting right down to the point. I could probably come up with 5 or 10 reasons but it'll all come down to the two points I mentioned above. Besides, I don't really feel like coming up with more reasons than that!  

WRITE ON!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out my blog out every Tuesday for a new blog on writing tips, advice, stories, and so on!!!

WWMCD? What would my character do?

Conflicted, yet very driven main character? Check.

A taste of his past? Check.

A taste of personality? Check. 

Well now what? That's enough for the reader and a story, but is it enough for you as a writer trying to make the best story you can?

Character development is always hard and very tricky. Everything needs to make sense. Take me, for example. I am who I am because of events throughout my life. Pieces of

experiences have formed me to be who I am. So why is your character any different? That's why it's tricky. Creating a back story and whole history that the reader probably won't even know may sound like busy work but it's for your benefit, not theirs. Knowing your character on a personal level and not just something your writing, will help you write your story. If you know your character, you'll know the kinds of decisions they'll make with the different situations you'll put them in; otherwise, it'll be all over the place and won't make much sense to the reader.

1) Write a short story. I know a lot of people who want to write an amazing short story or novel and want expert advice (which I am certainly not certified to give) but writing a short story about just your character will help you understand. For your eyes only, if you will. Write about something that happened to them as kids that helped form who they are. Or a challenge they overcame to get where they are. Anything to give you a slight insight into the mind of the person you're creating. What's the harm? I'm attempting it and all I need is an idea for a novel to put him in. 

I said I was attempting it and I meant it. I don't want to give advice and not follow it. I'm writing a fantasy story about a young magician who gets caught in a war between good and evil. Anyways, I wrote a short story about when he was a kid and a traumatic event happened to him. I looked at how he felt, how it changed him, if it was the one thing that motivated him to do better. I was forced to get into the mind of my character. 

2) Of course, this isn't the only way to form your character. I've encountered many 'character sheets' that ask IN-DEPTH questions about your character. By 'In-Depth' I mean I had trouble answering or even improvising answers on the spot. The link I'm going to post is going to lead you to the National Novel Month Writing website forum's. It's not the forum I'm directing you to, it's the first response under the initial post. The response is a Character Sheet that someone posted and it asks a ridiculous amounts of questions about your character and, honestly, you won't even add most of it to your story. It's for you. The more you know and understand about your character, or characters, the better your story will be (depending on plot, but that's for another day).

Here's the link to the Character Questions and Sheets -----> National Novel Writing Month Character Sheet Forum

3) Another great, and a very fun and entertaining, way is to act it out. Walk, talk, and act how you want your character to act like. It makes it look at your character's personality. Is your character shy or one of those people that stands tall and asserts authority?  Act it out! Focus on how you talk and walk as the character and if you're like me, you're going to have a hard time remembering for when you do write it in the story, so take notes... even video yourself doing it. I actually video taped myself escaping from a chair that I was duct taped to to see how much time it took and how I did it so I could help my character do it. Needless to say, I had to keep doing it to make it more difficult.

So, to review, character sheets that ask a lot of questions that'll give you a headache, acting like Tom Cruise (without the crazy) or Jennifer Lawrence (for the ladies), and writing a story about your character FOR your story will help you in your journey to make your character (and, hopefully, your story) better!

Write On!

-Ian Faraway

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out my blog out every Tuesday for a new blog on writing tips, advice, stories, and so on!!!

Oh God, Did I really write that?!

We've all been there. We have the best idea for a story ever and we write it. Then it's the bets thing we've written so far. Unfortunately, a year or so later we go back to read it and just think, "Oh God, why?" I just had that moment tonight while I was reading a fantasy story with Princesses, Castles, Magic, and a secret civil war, a young hero forced to rise to the occasion, and the "impossible romance".

Don't get me wrong, I like the premise still but reading HOW I wrote it just made me want to burn the papers and hide away in my closet until the world has forgotten about its existence, the world meaning me. But there is an upside to this tragic moment in our writing lives. Want to know what it is? You do? Seems weird you'd trust a young, inexperienced writer like myself but OK!It shows us how far we've come as writers. I often question if my poems or short stories are becoming better. I don't see the difference right off the bat.

The story, almost literally, has to collect dust and be forgotten for a while. So you go on with your life making more stories and whatnot then one day, while you're cleaning your room or office or where ever, you come across a dusty little story that you barely remember writing. Then you read it and your memory starts coming back of this ingenious story... wait... did you really write that? Yes, that right there? Was it really necessary? Did you really just spend the last 3 pages explaining things you barely understand before moving on with what was supposed to be going on? Seriously? You misspelled the word 'Princess' and used the wrong 'there'.

Maybe it's just me whose clumsy enough to make every writing mistake in the book with such an incredible story idea, but I'm sure we've all looked at our own writing (at some point in time) with fresh eyes and realized what could be better and what could be taken out then put back in. So go ahead and write that incredibly legendary novel or short story, my fellow writer. Forget about what grammar is. English is complicated anyways. Besides, it's the first draft of a story you probably won't see again until next year when you're wiser, smarter, and more experienced. So their!

I gave you an idea of how to fight off those mixed feelings toward your writing, but just in case you think you don't have enough ammunition, here's another few tips you can do to confront and combat it:

1) Look at it in the eyes of the reader. What things take away from the flow of the story? Do you spend too much time describing what's going on or describing why something is the way it is? The blockage could be coming from how you worded everything else!

2) Again - leave your story on the shelf for a few days. I left mine on the shelf for 4 years (mostly because I have terrible memory and it served as a great paper weight) and upon reviewing it, I realized how I wanted it to be. Of course, it was in a completely different direction, story-line wise, but the characters and some of the events in the story would still be there. The difference would be that I left room for me to continue through the story.

3) If it's character development, then write a completely different short story where your character is younger and the story is something that happened that helped make them who they are in your main story! That way, you'll get an idea into your character and you'll be able to understand the types of decisions your character will make in different situations. Otherwise, it might throw off the reader and make your story confusing.

4) Finally, experiment. Blockage comes in a lot of shapes and forms that I could not possible begin to understand nor explain (though I will try in future Hubs) but sometimes it can be broken by simply experimenting different types of outcomes (outcomes being what comes next). If you don't know what comes next in your story, then experiment with different types of ways to continue the story, maybe you'll find the way out or it'll give you an idea for what to do next.

-------------------------------------------------------

CHECK BACK EVERY TUESDAY FIR A NEW BLOG ON WRITING!!! I swear it'll be better next time, I promise!  ;)