Shut Up & Write!
Page 3
A manuscript is like bread dough: it needs to rest and rise. Give it some time after the heat of writing the first drafts before processing the feedback and re-keying. If you can, wait until you forget exact phrases—a day, a week, a month. Wait until you can read a passage and see what you left out, what was in your mind that didn’t make it onto paper. Wait until you have had time to think about the feedback. Then go on to the next step.
Rewrite More
A while ago, I saw a television interview with a curmudgeonly guy whose book had just been released. When asked about his writing process and revisions, he pointed to a stack of paper taller than his desk. “That’s the draft.” There were more pages, but he’d trashed them. We rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until we’re sick of it, or hit the deadline, or decide it’s really, really, good.
Edit
I know one writer who sold her first story with a handwritten, poorly edited manuscript. For her sake, I wish the magazine hadn’t taken it, because from then on, the writer thought that was the way to go. “It’s the editor’s job to fix things.” She never sold another story.
Pay attention to the niceties. Grammar. Spelling. Usage. If you are not good at editing—and a surprising number of authors are not—get help from a pro.
It’s your job to get a copy of the agent/editor/publisher guidelines and prepare your manuscript to the exact specifications. You can get imperious after you’re famous. Until then, it’s best to play by the rules.
Get Published
Not everyone is anxious to be published. One excellent writer, when asked if she planned to submit a particular piece, said, “But what if they take it?” She felt as if it would no longer be hers, that she’d be giving up something very precious. However, for most people, getting published is the point.
When you make the first, fifth, or fiftieth sale or you win an award, you can let go of the rejections that upset you. You papered the bathroom walls with those, stabbed them onto your grandfather’s memo spindle, burned them over black candles. Now it’s Happy Time. What a thrill! A little disconcerting, too, if too much is edited or you don’t like the artwork. Still, you are published—right there in black and white or colored pixels. Call everyone you know. Put the news on your blog or on Facebook. Send emails to those you barely know or rarely see. Revel in the glory. You deserve it.
Go Spend the Big Bucks
Here is the hierarchy of earnings. With some exceptions, poetry earns the least. The next steps up on the fiscal ladder are: short stories, story collections, novels, technical writing, reporting, public relations, speeches, and higher level corporate work. Authors of best sellers are on a different ladder entirely. You can tell who they are by looking at the book cover. Their names are on top, over the titles.
Now let’s talk status. To see who gets the most respect in the field, you can pretty much flip the ladder. Novelists are on top. Poets and short fiction writers are slightly below, and the corporate writers, especially tech writers, are near the bottom. Tech writers tend to apologize, “I just write manuals.” They should not apologize. They should count how many big-time writers started out doing technical writing. That’s where they learned to communicate, to pull the threads together, to meet the deadline.
Do It All Over Again
Few things are as exciting as knowing that the thing you created—the painting, the play, the lullaby—gives pleasure to people. When you sit in an audience and hear actors reading your lines, when you see your book on the shelf, when you go back and read what you’ve written and truly, truly like it, you are hooked.
No question about it. You will face that blank page and do it all over again.
CHAPTER THREE
CHARACTERS
Real and Imagined
The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the other.
—Mark Twain, humorist
I took a clean white piece of paper—like a sheet freshly ironed for making love—and rolled it into the carriage. I wrote my name, and immediately the words began to flow, one thing linked to another and another. Characters stepped from the shadows, each with a face, a voice, passions and obsessions.
—Isabel Allende, novelist
Characters are at the heart of writing. Whether people or parrots, real or imagined, alive or dead, principals in novels or case histories in how-to books, characters are the prime drivers of the written word. They make readers want to read your work to find out what happened.
We tend to think of “characters” in the fictional sense, made-up people like Scarlett O’Hara or Harry Potter. But we also write about nonfiction characters—people who exist, or did exist, somewhere in this world, living and breathing pretty much as they seem on paper. Bob Dylan, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the relatives in your memoir are all nonfiction characters.
Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you get to know your characters before you begin to write. Take your basic ideas or memories and flesh them out to the point where the characters seem fully alive to you, so you know how they look, sound, feel, taste, and smell. When you can imagine them sitting across the table or dancing in the moonlight, you are ready to write.
The Character Wheel
My favorite tool for fleshing out real or imaginary characters is the Character Wheel. It grew out of workshops in which I struggled to find a simple, creative way to use sensual details to help writers develop characters and bring them to life (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Character Wheel
In using a Character Wheel, you work with the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. You can use a sheet of blank paper or a wall-sized whiteboard. Within minutes, you have your character clear enough in your mind to begin writing. If you create the wheel on paper, you can hang it on the wall next to your computer where you can see at a glance whether your character’s eyes are blue or brown, whether it’s the right or left leg that’s shorter than the other one, whether those fingernails are sequined or painted green.
To create a Character Wheel, draw a circle in the center of a blank piece of paper or whiteboard. In this circle, write the name, age, and gender of your character.
Next draw five spokes extending out from the circle: one each at twelve, two, five, seven, and ten o’clock.
Label the spokes Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, and Smell.
Now draw a bunch of short lines off each spoke. On the short lines, you are going to note details about the character, using one or two word phrases—just enough to jog your memory.
Creating Kelly
In workshops, I draw the wheel on a whiteboard. First, I draw the circle and spokes. Then someone comes up with a name: “Kelly.” I ask another person for an age: “23,” and yet another person for the gender: “female.” Sometimes the name and gender match; sometimes they don’t. We take what comes.
From there we go to the senses, moving around the wheel, jotting down ideas related to sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. This is a brainstorming session—all ideas are welcomed, none is questioned. Move quickly. Don’t worry about whether things make sense or fit together; you can fix that later, and who knows, maybe your wild, wacky imagination will come up with just the perfect thing to create an unforgettable character.
I write every idea on the board, one after another, until we make it around the wheel, and, voila, a brand-new character comes to life (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Character Wheel for Kelly
The Hub
Name: KELLY
Age: 23
Gender: female
Spokes on the Wheel
Sight
What do you see when you imagine Kelly?
Tall. Blonde. Blue eyes. Thin. Muscled. Water bottle. Yellow shorts.
What does Kelly like to look at?
Fish. Peonies.
Anything else related to sight or eyes?
S
quints.
Sound
What do you hear when you listen to Kelly?
Stutters.
What does Kelly like the sound of?
Irish tenors. Her parrot Isaac.
Anything else related to sound or ears?
Sirens. Clock chimes.
Touch
What does Kelly feel like? (Note: this is tactile, not emotional.)
Silky blouse. Nubby sweater.
What does Kelly like to touch?
Marbles. Bamboo.
Anything else related to touch or hands?
Hangnails. Missing thumb.
Taste
The last two senses—taste and smell—are often harder for people to imagine. But persevere; it’s worth it for the richness these details will bring to your writing. Think of taste as the power of lemons: juicy, tart, squirts. Can you read that without having your mouth water?
What does Kelly taste like?
Watermelon. Salty. Cherry lipstick.
What does she like the taste of?
Smoked fish. Popcorn.
Anything else related to taste or mouth?
Full lips. Chews nails.
Smell
If taste is the power of lemons, smell is the power of popcorn.
What does Kelly smell like?
Watermelon. Warm bread. Sweat.
What does she like the smell of?
Minnows. Wet wool. Popcorn.
Anything else related to smell or nose?
Nose ring.
Circle the Missing Thumb
On each of the sensory spokes, find and circle at least one characteristic that is unexpected—a detail that doesn’t quite fit with the others. If you don’t see an unexpected detail, invent one. This is how you ensure that your character is fresh and interesting, and not stereotypical.
The character Kelly was pretty stereotypical until one writer said, “She’s missing the thumb on her right hand.” Wow! Think what happens when a character is missing the thumb on her right hand. The missing thumb becomes an element in the story. This new person either sits on her hand or shows it proudly, shakes hands with strangers or holds back, talks about it or keeps the story hidden. The missing thumb adds new dimensions and makes her a more memorable character.
Real characters are also full of surprises. Think about your favorite uncle, or maybe the one you try to avoid. Go around the wheel: Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Smell. What do you notice or try to ignore about him? My great-grandfather had a glass eye. I never knew which one because as a kid, I was afraid to look at him. If I used him as a model for a character, you can bet someone in the story, perhaps a little girl, would do everything she could to avoid looking him square in his not-real eye.
Creating Major Characters
To flesh out a main character for a lengthy piece such as a biography or novel, get as many details down on the page as you can. The wheel will look like chicken scratch and that’s just fine. Make no attempt to be tidy—just write an abundance of one- or two-word clues to the character. When the character walks off the page and starts talking to you, you have enough.
Griffin Peake is the main character in a novel written by workshop participant David Howard. Here is a sampling of David’s first ideas about Griffin, followed by an excerpt from a draft of the novel (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Character Wheel for Griffin
Creating Griffin
The Hub
Name: GRIFFIN
Age: 15
Gender: male
Spokes on the Wheel
Sight
Combat boots. Hemp tam. Fall colors. Thrift store. Fatigues. “Icons of Filth” T-shirt. Blonde dreadlocks.
Sound
Earbuds. Punk rock. Creaking. Old house. Thump of schoolbooks. Scrape of metal chairs.
Touch
Parchment. Fingertips. Cold floorboards. Knives. Cool air. October in Wisconsin.
Taste
Peanut butter. Sugar. Energy drinks. Syrup. Pineapple. Mango. Macchiato.
Smell
Perfumed girl. Old books. Musty. Autumn.
David could add enough details to fill a large whiteboard, but this is enough to get started. Notice the amount of sensual detail in this passage, how David uses the cool air on Griffin’s skin and the knots in his shoulder muscles to bring the reader close to his subject.
Griffin awoke from deep, troubled sleep. For a few minutes he lay in bed, feeling the cool air on his skin and staring at the sunlight slanting across the ceiling of his room. Silence lay thick and full upon the house. Then the alarm clicked on, and he stretched to shut it off. He freed his legs from the twisted sheets and pulled himself out of bed, yawning and massaging his cramped arms. God. The nightmares were back. No fun dreams about hot girls. Another night of fear and darkness. He shook it off and got out of bed.
Under the shower, he worked out the knots in his shoulder muscles, toweled off, scowled at his complexion in the mirror, fussed with his teeth and face and all that. He didn’t even worry about his hair; that routine took basically forever. Griffin would have bet that when he washed, dried, twisted and waxed his dreads, he spent more time on his hair than most girls did. But then, he only did it one night a week.
Creating Minor Characters
Jacky Smith is a fictitious character created by Annie Chase, who worked on many of the examples in this book. Jacky is not a main character, so Annie didn’t need to create a comprehensive wheel—just enough to make him come alive in her imagination (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Character Wheel for a Minor Character
Creating a Minor Character—Jacky
The Hub
Name: JACKY
Age: 57
Gender: male
Spokes on the Wheel
Sight
Round shoulders. Wispy gray hair. Duct tape on his shoes. Ill-fitting overcoat.
Sound
Nasal voice. Whiney. Snores while sitting on bus stop bench.
Touch
Fumbles for cigarettes. Twists coat buttons. Hands raw.
Taste
Eats at soup kitchen. Likes 3/$1 gas station hot dogs. Candy.
Smell
Cigarettes. Beer. Body odor. Fruit gum.
After Annie circled the unexpected items—duct tape, whiney, twists buttons, hot dogs, fruit gum—on the chart, Jacky came to life for her. She stopped adding details and started writing.
The November wind was bitter, in spite of the thin sunshine, and it swept into the open side of the bus shelter. Jacky pulled his baggy overcoat tighter around his body. He craned his neck to squint up at the clock tower. It was nearly eleven o’clock, time to head toward St. Ben’s for the free lunch the church handed out. He got up and began to walk, his broken shoe flapping with each step. Maybe there would be a baloney sandwich to go with the soup today, he thought hopefully.
Notice how Annie uses sensual details to show Jacky and his world so intimately that you are there with him, feeling the bitter wind and the rhythm of his flapping shoe. This is natural writing—the kind that happens when you take time to develop a character in a concrete, sense-based, way. After just a few minutes of noting details on the wheel, you know your character so well that when you put him out in the cold at the bus stop, you see and feel it clearly and can share that with your readers.
The wheel works as well for nonfiction characters. Had Jacky been real rather than imagined, Annie would have noticed if she was thin on detail or where she might want to do some checking to fill in the gaps. You don’t have to use every detail you have, but every detail you do not have is a lost opportunity.
When You Write about Real People
The next example involves a nonfiction character, my grandmother, who was the centerpiece in an essay I wrote about older people fighting to stay out of nursing homes. I thought I knew every line in her face until I started creating a Character Wheel and forced myself to move step by step through the senses, remembering details. Bringing specifics to
the surface, both on paper and in my mind, gave me more to work with when I started writing (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Character Wheel for Eva
Remembering Eva
The Hub
Name: EVA
Age: 92
Gender: female
Spokes on the Wheel
Sight
Gray braids. Black brows. Bruise. Flamingo-colored lace slip. Birds. Glare.
Sound
Clear diction. Snappy. Gushing. Chain locks on doors.
Touch
Hair brush. Brocade chair. Lace slip. Trimmed nails.
Taste
Pills. Tea. Mints.
Smell
Soap. Long nose. Puddle.