Writerly Advice #3: Write What You Know

Raise your hand if you've ever heard this piece of advice.

Raise your hand if you've ever been bludgeoned by this piece of advice.

I have.

I write fantasy, right, which pretty much means I don't write about stuff I've experienced. All my worldbuilding, my characters, my magic systems... It's all created out of my head.

But how can you write it if you haven't experienced it? I don't know about you, but I've certainly never been to another world, or disarmed someone by magic (or by non-magical means, come to think about it), or ridden a unicorn, or been a secret assassin.

So how do I write about these things?

I used to resent my creative writing professor at university for saying this about my shorts. I didn't want to write what I knew. If I knew it already, why would I want to write it? Writing is about discovery and invention, after all.

But here's the thing: the teacher was actually right. (shock, horror) He just didn't articulate it in a way that I could understand at the time. There's a challenge implicit in the phrase 'Write what you know", and we'll get to that, but even more simply, my work at the time wasn't what I knew and so it was melodramatic and unreal. I think this also has a bit to do with my 'life stage' at the time; teenagers do tend towards the melodramatic, after all ;)

Anyway, this is what he meant to say:

"It isn't about writing only in the here-and-now, because that's all you've experienced; it isn't about never writing about a married character if you're single, or only writing about your own gender, or never writing fantasy and science fiction (heaven forbid!!!); it's about letting your experiences form the basis of what you write, of writing from your own pain, your own suffering, extrapolating from things you've actually felt and translating them into similar situations, even if the characters are inhuman or the setting isn't Earth.

It's what you know, stretched further, deeper, broader, applied to the whole range of human experience. It's about knowing which bits of what you've experienced are part of the human condition, which bits resonate; it's about making sure your work rings true."

It's honesty.

And that implicit challenge? Well, this is how the phrase really ought to go:

Write what you know - and know more.

My Journey Through the World of Writing

First off, sorry for the missed post on Friday. I do my best to post regularly, but sometimes uni just leaps up to bite, and I miss one :( Hope you all still love me ;) Still feeling the after-effects of the uni-bite, today's post is slightly rambly - but somewhere, if you look hard enough, there is a point. I promise :o)

My brain regularly takes random sidetrips in terms of its thinking process, and this weekend has been no different. It's something the Muse has always done - but the difference is now I find myself couching these sidetrips in the language of blog posts. I think I'm addicted* O:)

Somewhat happily for you, this week's random sidetrip was actually relevant to this blog, and also to something I've stumbled across in a couple of places recently.

Novels. How did you get into writing them? What have you learned from each attempt? When did you start thinking seriously about writing? How have you grown since then?

It's a pretty all-encompassing topic that my Muse stumbled upon, but it got me thinking (odd, that - a thought process got me thinking, my, my...).

My first 'serious' attempt at writing was back in year ten. A friend of mine was also interested in writing, and together we began planning a fantasy story. This was in the days before I'd heard of urban fantasy, so when I finally drafted some actual writing for this story (rather than the months and months of playing and planning), the beginning included not one but two prologues. Oh my.

It was a lot of fun, though. It hooked me for the first time on worldbuilding and character development, and there are three characters in particular from that first attempt that I'm not giving up on: they'll get their own story one day, by hook or by crook.

But high school ended, the friend and I went our separate ways, and aside from a creative writing class in college (years 11 and 12 for the foreigners among you) nothing much happened on the writing front.

I started uni (university, since it's come to my attention that US of Aians have no clue what 'uni' means ;)), and life went on.

Until said friend returned from a year overseas, and began classes at the same uni. All of a sudden we had an excuse to be in the same place at the same time, and the topic of conversation turned naturally to writing.

It turned out that both of us had kept our first story in the back of our minds all those years, and had somehow and subtley added to it, growing it, until we ended up with two very different versions. In talking, however, we realised that the two could be enmeshed and make a very pretty trilogy (yes, this was still pre-urban fantasy days O:)). And thus began my second serious attempt.

This time, we actually got around to thinking about some plot. There were no prologues, although there was a Prophecy and a Chosen One, and not-one-but-several invented languages that all used shiny (and random) punctuation marks to Make Them Look Pretty.

We even wrote a couple of scenes for it.

I took another writing class, this time at uni... And I was hammered. Sure, I could string words together into pretty sentences, but I had absolutely no concept of structure, of plot or pacing - or, to the teacher's chagrin, how to write a short story.

But I was learning - and as people often find when they're doing collaborative work, my friend and I were learning at different rates. She had other priorities, other distractions... And it got to the point where, awful though it feels to write this (friend-who-happens-to-read-this-blog, forgive, forgive!), I outgrew our work together.

That is what I like to think of as my 'Act 1': the setting up of my interest in writing, where the conflict and character are introduced, and where we end by raising the stakes: if I was to continue writing seriously, it would now have to be alone.

Luckily for me, it was about that time (now the beginning of 2007) that I stumbled upon Holly Lisle's site, and devoured everything she had to say about the writing life. Not long after I found Critique Circle, and fell into a lovely group of friends, though not the friendship group I've ultimately formed. And on top of this, my Dad, whom I regard as conservative and sensible above all else, told me that I ought to "take it from a disillusioned forty-something year old": life is too short to waste doing something we only like. If I wanted to write, then by frollygop, I ought to get out there and write.

And so began Act 2: I started a novel of my own. It suffered from a host of diseases, most pertinent of which was the habit of skipping from one point of action to the next without down time, or explanation, or worldbuilding. I'd been duly warned about the infamous info-dump, and avoided it well - only to swing too far in the opposite direction.

But it was encouraging to know that I could write chapters, in the plural; previously my highest word count for anything, academia included, was about 3,000. And the crits were encouraging, if firm.

I took a second creative writing course at uni. This enforced a break from the novel, as I found I couldn't work on it and stories for class as well, but this was probably for the best: there were too many problems I needed to sort out before I continued with the novel draft.

I acquired some vague notions of structure from the class, though ended up with the same final grade as last time.

And then the Big Thing happened. It was November; it was NaNoWriMo.

It was a week before, in fact, and I was lamenting on Critique Circle both my lack of an outline, and my lack of time to outline - and, I suspect, my lack of ability to outline.
You've
And my hero stepped in. At that time, dear Merc, you were one of the 'big names', of Critique Circle in my eyes, and to have you not only encourage me to do NaNoWriMo, but also offer to write and in fact write an entire synopsis for me... Words fail me. Absolutely.

And so, armed with a plot and mountains of encouragement cookies, I attempted NaNo. I discovered the horrors of first drafts - but I also discovered that I was writing something that people liked. People enjoyed my story, and wanted more. And so I kept writing. I fell majorly behind, but somehow, someway, in a manner that is still a mystery to me, at the end of the month I pasted in my story, and up came the magic words: Congratulations! You've won NaNoWriMo!

The novel wasn't finished, and it took two more months to push through the final third of the book, but I did it: I finished a novel. Me. Little old me, with one novel down and under the belt. It had a mess of holes and needed serious revising, but as I read over it I realised - I can fix this. And I set about to do so.

I started a new novel at the same time, excited to be starting it with an outline, and I got to 10 chapters - and I stopped. I hit a wall, and realised that my first ten chapters were fluff, and that the story actually started at chapter 11. Man, was that depressing.

It was around this time, lamenting my inability to write story stories (they always turned novel on me), another dear friend took me under her wing. I was going to write a short story - one per week, in fact, no less, barring death, illness, or an overdose of Life. And lo, behold, I did - and I learned Structure. I could write a short story.

One of them turned novel on me... And I ended up with my second project: The Project. It became an exercise in plot, learning how to race from one cliffhanger to the next... And it worked. People read it; people liked it.

And I realised that I could do it.

And this is where I am now: still in Act 2, but happy to be here. I'm editing The Project, and I'm remembering how much I love editing right now. I'm preparing for NaNo, rather terrified once again to have no plot - but I know I can do it. I can do it because I have awesome friends to cheer me on; but I could do it alone, if I had to.

I'm growing, I'm learning - and today, for the first time in two weeks, I'm writing.


* Evidenced by the fact that two weeks ago, a particularly stressful time at uni, saw my lying awake all night one night worrying about blog posts. Argh! Why?!

Writerly Advice #2: Show, Don't Tell - or, Passive Writing

So, this is what I get when a) I'm no good at sticking to a rigorous blogging schedule, b) my schedule is interrupted by exams, and c) I try to write more than one series of articles at a time: there ends up being a looooong gap between articles in the series. Hopefully this doesn't drive anyone other than myself insane, and since I'm pretty much used to being insane, All Shall Be Well. B-)

If, like me, you're just a little bit compulsive and would like to recollect what I had to say in the first Writerly Advice article, click here. If not, keep reading. Of course, the third alternative is 'run away and do something Productive', but let's ignore that one for now...

'Show, don't tell.'

I don't know about you, but this has to just about top the charts for Most Common Piece of Advice Spouted Without Ever Being Defined. I'm going to work on that today - in a bit. Bear with me while I meander my way to my point ;)

So, I see this advice given to beginner writers more than just about anything else. Does this make it the most common mistake, if people feel such an overwhelming need to point it out? I have no evidence either way, but honestly - at least in the early stages of a writer's career -
I suspect so. Why is that?

Quite randomly, and without recalling how I managed to do it, I've been subscribed to this cheery little newsletter for some months now. Every now and than it pops up in my inbox, I skim it, and delete it without too much ado. It's called Seven Steps (...), and it's basically advertising for a program by the same name that's sold as a resource for teachers teaching creative writing to primary school students.

Why am I telling you this? Because it highlights one important factor for me: Telling is what beginner writers (of all ages, but especially young children) do. The newsletter focusses on ways to get children to move beyond simple telling, and move into the realms of showing - the realms of storytelling.

Let's take a look at my own first stories, which I posted yesterday for your amusement :) Aside from the myriad other problems with this story, the main thing to notice is its brevity - and it's brief because it's 99% tell.

Here's a little secret, and I believe from personal experience that it's why most children tell their stories rather than showing them: showing takes longer.

And here's another little secret, based on personal experience: people are lazy.

At 2am, when you're struggling with that awful little story that you swore black and blue you'd finish tonight before you went to bed, when you sense that the end is very nearly in sight and you just want it to be over and finished and have the satisfaction of slamming shut the notebook or throwing down the keyboard and screaming 'It's done!', it can get very tempting to resort to telling. Because it's quicker, remember? You get to the same destination in far less words, and therefore less time. (It's also tempting to do this at less extreme times than 2am, but for now I'll fantasise that we're all Good Little Writers who only resort to extreme measures like telling in the most dire of circumstances.)

So why is this such a bad thing? It gets the draft done, right?

Right. So long as you remember in editing that telling is often the kiss of death for the reader's attention span. Telliness can kill an otherwise excellent story and make it die a long and boring death while the reader writhes on the ground in pain.... Er, no, whoops. That's zombies O:)

(By the way, if you're beginning to get the impression from my posts that a lot of things can kill stories - sorry, you're absolutely correct. Why else do you think everyone who ever dreamed of writing a book - and every book that was ever written - haven't succeeded?)

Okay, we know telling is Evil and is to be Avoided At All Costs. We know it's okay in first drafts, because let's face it, it gets the dang thing done, but that it must be Hunted Down and Destroyed in edits. But... uh, what is it?

What does showing look like, if it isn't telling? Merc has a great article on this exact topic right here, but I'm going to treat you all with my own explanation ;) Oh stop groaning, I can hear you from here \:|

Let's take this fabulous little paragraph from my Elnac story:

At last they were off and travelling to the falls. They had to go around the Beaver’s pond, then to the big pond which the waterfall ran into. There, under the waterfall in the cavern were their friends.

This paragraph is almost entirely tell, because instead of letting us as the reader experience the events of the story, it just summarises them for us. It reads like an outline, not like a story. That's characteristic of telling: if it feels like the story is just skimming over things and not letting you actually envisage them, it's a pretty big clue that it might be telling. So, let's try a quick rewrite, keeping it short for the sake of space and trying to preserve the childlike tone.

At last William was ready.
"Finally," said Danny.
William ignored him and strode outside. Danny grabbed his scarf and raced to keep up - William's legs were a lot longer than his and he had to practically run.
The path sloped gently up to the pond made by the Beaver's dam, and Danny didn't mind too much that he had to run. The air was fresh and clean, just like after rain, and the sun shone warm and bright. Birds twittered in the trees, and before long his nose was twitching at the smell of woodsmoke.

I'm going to leave it there, but you see the point. I've just turned one and half sentences into four paragraphs - and I could keep going. Actually, I could keep going, and going, and going, and going...

Which brings up another important point: you can't - and shouldn't - show everything. This relates both to pace and significance. I've covered pace in the last story elements article, but as a quick refresher in faster paced sections you want to be moving quicker, so you can afford to leave out a bit of that description, and by contrast you can slow the pace down by expanding the amount of detail that you show. Significance is about which details need to be told in order for the story to advance and feel real, and which you can leave to the reader's imagination. More on that another time.

As one final note (yes, breath a sigh of relief, we're nearly done), I'll draw your attention back to my first Writerly Advice article. I left you with a promise to discuss passive writing - and in a round about way, I've done just that. 'Was', that poor little auxiliary that cops so much flak, may not always indicate passive voice, but it sure as heck indicates passive writing with a fair degree of accuracy.

Hang on, wait a moment! I hear you cry. We're talking about showing, here, not passive writing!

I smile.

My dears, what is telling if not passive writing, and showing if not active? And here's another little clue about how this all fits together - it's pretty difficult to 'show' and use 'was'.

My First Stories

Today's post is a bit of preparation for tomorrow's post. I want to discuss that old writer's axiom, 'show, don't tell', and needed an example. I didn't want to clog up the main post with the example, so here it is, a whole day early, ready for your perusal ;) :)


I wrote these in year 3, two of them in the ‘series’. Unfortunately I've lost the first 3 pages of the first. William & Danny are a pair of dogs from an illustrated book of short animal stories that was in the school library. No prizes for guessing what the inspiration for the plot is ;)
The exact spelling and idiosyncratic conventions regarding spacing, commas and the like are preserved. I apologise for that in advance ;)


'Book' 1: Danny and William

It had sort of looked like a horse, only it had a horn on it’s forehead and much to it’s tail and mane were much too long.
Here,” replyed the Unicorn.
“Hmmmm…” thought Danny and then added aloud, “I’ve never seen a unicorn before. What’s your name?”
“Sky Dancer,” said the Unicorn.
“That’s a nice name,” said William who hadn’t been involved in the conversation for ages.
“Our names aren’t nearly as nice!” put in Danny.
“What are your names? You know mine and I would like to know yours please,” said Sky Dancer.
“Mine is William and this is Danny,” answered William, “Will and Dan for short.”

As time passed, Danny and William got to know the quite well. In fact, it soon seemed as if they had been in Eldnac since they were born!

Once they came back to our world (by accident in London) and found, that, however long they were in Eldnac for no time had gone passed in London (or the rest of the world too, for that matter).


'Book' 2: Eldnac

Once there was a little dog who lived in Eldnac.His name was Danny and he was a Dachshund.
As you know from the last book, his best friend was William the Great Dane.
By now they had been in Eldnac for a long time andhad made lots of friends.
This particular day they had arranged to go and explore the area above the waterfalls. They were to go with Glenstorm the Centaur, Mr. Tummunus the Faun, Trufflehunter the Badger and quite a number of others. They were to meet each other at the waterfalls.
“Come on William ,” pleaded Danny for the tenth time. “I’m coming, I’m coming,”replied William again for the tenth time.
At last they were off and travelling to the falls. They had to go around the Beaver’s pond, then to the big pond which the waterfall ran into. There, under the waterfall in the cavern were their friends.
Finally they were off exploring above the falls.
First they went through a forest. It was dense and green and there were lots of strange animals, that they had never seen before ( or in Danny’s and William’s case, thought they had never seen before).
Some of the animals included:
Scarlet Mawcaw
Panther
Monkey
Suddenly they were out of the jungle and on a sandy beach. There was a big oat on the beach. Danny climbed on board, followed by the others.
After about 2 hours of sailing, they spotted land. After about 10 minutes, landed on the beach of the land.
They had explored everything on the island except for the middle of the island. Suddenly Danny yelled out, “hey you guys, some and see what I’ve found!” “A meadow!” “It’s beautiful!” someone else yelled.
After that, when they were in Eldnac for a long time after that, they (the two dogs) were known as Danny the Discoverer and William the Adventurous.

THE END

PS If you realised that Eldnac is Candle spelled backwards, congratulations and fifty points for you ;) You can blame my Dad for that one :D