Barnes and Noble Writing Workshop - Follow Up and Writing Tips

Great workshop - thanks to all who attended and the great input, comments, advice, questions, grumbles and gripes as well as joys and fun moments in regard to writing. I will just do this as free association and just do a quick draft in order to get the thoughts out there - and worry about editing another day - which was one of the great topics of discussion.

G. hit one of the big challenges of creative writing on the head when he said "I want to just get the story out and I want to make it the best story it can be." That was it in a nutshell.


I suggested that both of those goals are achievable but possibly (probably) not at the same writing moments. So one goal and the goal of a first draft is to "get the story out". A second goal and the goal of re-writing and editing is "to make it the best story it can be". Approaching the writing based on which of the two is the goal for that writing time. If it's "getting the story out" then go - write and write and don't edit yourself. Just get it out there. Then when some time has passed, whatever time that is that you need to see the work clearly and somewhat objectively go back and edit. But both at the same time? One will counteract the other.

Some other great thoughts/tips/tools:

* Automatic writing exercises - just write. No right write just write.

* Word prompts. M said that she's been using that as a writing exercise. She picks a word and just writes about it.

* Getting into the, dare we call it, "hypnotic" state necessary to write. Going to the place of your story. I was describing the sensation of being deeply involved in a book or even going to the movies. With a book, you pick it up and you enter the world that the author has created for you - when writing the story you have to create the world and atmosphere and self-generate the feelings, emotions, descriptions - much harder to do. At the movies you are put into a somewhat sensory deprivation for the few moments before the movie starts. It's dark, silent there's a transition until you enter the world of the film which of course has the advantage of being larger than life and engaging your senses.

* Getting rid of those internal editors whether they're the nasty friend from high school or the college English professor who was so obsessed with grammar she didn't even read for content, or your favorite author whose work you know you can never match. Ask them to please leave the building while you're writing. Gone. Out. Away.

* Setting the stage - B. described how at one point she would have a glass of wine and a cigarette in order to get ready for the muse. I talked about sitting for hours and avoiding the blank screen by being on the internet only to have the perfect phrase/thought/concept enter my head on the train. I also talked about how I was teaching first grade while in graduate school for writing and how for me it was an adjustment when my work circumstances changed. Hmmmm now where can I get me 26 6 year olds and a classroom with a leafy view in order to prompt the muse? And the funny feeling when recently at the doctor's and the waiting room view resembled that classroom so suddenly I felt like whipping out my writing and just sitting there and writing. Go know.

* G. talked about taping dreams and thoughts first thing in the morning.

* R. described asking her patients to keep journals to work through some things and that that works for her as well.

* C. described wanting to write but finding that the idea of a long project made her focus on smaller ones - I suggested smaller projects for her to begin with.

* M. talked about turning chaos into writing and chaotic writing into coherent writing.

*D and B talked about the book by Julia Cameron that is assisting them chapter by chapter to do the writing without feeling pressured.

* Beginning to write what you want to be working on and finding that the page has gotten away from you - the work is something different than you thought it would be. Which will you follow? Which is really the story you want to tell/can best tell/need to tell?

* The difference between writing fiction and screenplays and how learning how to do one can make it difficult, but not impossible to switch and do the other.

Some good writing books were discussed like Norman Mailer's "The Spooky Art" which has an amazing section on the unconscious and how sometimes it's just not ready to write what you think you want to write.

Believe it or not there was more. I don't know how we covered all of that in a bit over an hour but it was great.

Thanks all for a wonderful workshop - I can't wait until the next one.