It seems that September is well underway. After an incredibly busy week, I’m finally able to announce this month’s newsletter giveaway. I think that you will find this prize to be a bit different from the last two giveaways: a free pen with The Writer’s Scrap Bin logo.
In August, I posted an image of some business cards and a pen which I designed and had produced via Vistaprint on The Writer’s Scrap Bin Facebook page. I decided it would be appropriate to spread word of Vistaprint’s excellent work and rewarding my loyal newsletter readers at the same time by offering my readers a chance to get one of the pens for free.
By “free” I mean that my readers will not pay anything. Instead, I will pay Vistaprint full price to make the pens and have them sent to winners of the giveaway. My readers will be charged nothing and no information will be used inappropriately.
Would you like a Writer’s Scrap Bin pen produced by Vistaprint? Sign up for my newsletter, The Scrapbook, using the link provided in the blog’s menu and you will receive instructions for the giveaway in the September issue.
Want to design and buy cool pens, business cards, and other products like the ones I’ve shown you? Follow this link to Vistaprint and be sure to follow @Vistaprint on Twitter.
Have suggestions for the next monthly giveaway? Leave your thoughts in the comments or contact me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
Good day, my fellow writers! It’s Friday once again. You know, in October we’ll be having a Friday the 13th. I don’t know why people fear that day (I know historically why but it’s just a silly superstition to me). Still, I love the name for the irrational fear of Friday the 13th: triskaidekaphobia. Quite the mouthful, isn’t it?
Speaking of fear, today’s writing prompt deals with exactly that: our fears. We all have our unique fears, from things which only send a shiver down our spines to phobias which render us catatonic. Take a look at the Wikipedia list of phobias; there’s a clinical term for the fear of almost everything. I’m personally arachnophobic (very afraid of spiders), ophidiophobic (very afraid of snakes), and somewhat sociophobic. (I’m nowhere near the worst when it comes to any of these but my fears are definitely not within the normal range.)
With all of these phobias, fear seems to be a rich vein of writing material. After all, most readers love a good thriller or Gothic horror story; that’s why Poe sold out in the first place. This prompt will encourage you to mine this vein and go deep into your own psyche.
I’ve done a fear-based prompt with “A Box-Shaped Mystery” before. However, this time I want you dig deeper down beyond the superficial definition of your fear and your reaction to it; I want you look for the source of this phobia.
First, write down your worst fear. I’m not talking about any mild fear you have. What would render you beyond words and actions if you encountered it? Try and make it as close to a phobia as you get, something you know is irrational but you’re afraid of it anyway. Then take a few minutes and meditate on your fear. How do you react when you encounter it? Why do you react that way? Is there something from your past which could explain your fear, or do you not have a clue as to why you’re so scared of it? Spend about five to ten minutes jotting down answers to these questions and then walk away for a few minutes.
When you come back from your short break, look over your notes. Now, use your notes and your continued reaction to the thought of your fear to write a scene, short story, poem, short personal essay, whatever. Really dive into your emotions, tap into that fear and let it flow out of your pen/pencil/finger tips as they hit the keys. Don’t worry about any stylistic aspects or even character/plot/setting development; allow your stream of consciousness to flow onto your paper or monitor.
I know that this prompt may be difficult for people. I have a hard time tapping into things like my fears, and I imagine that others will have a hard time as well. Exploring the source of it will be even more difficult. Nevertheless, such exploration will both help us grow as people and allow us to access a new level of emotional connection in our work.
What did you discover in this exercise, either about your writing or yourself? Did you gain any insight from this prompt that you didn’t get from “A Box-Shaped Mystery”? Write anything worth sharing? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
If you search for writing advice on the Internet, a few common pieces of advice appear in almost every list. Read a lot and write a lot are two, and those are both wise and self-explanatory. Another one, however, can be debated: write what you know. You can interpret this advice in many ways, some more practical and useful than others. But, overall, should you write what you know?
On the one hand, if you write what you know, you minimize the amount of inaccuracies spotted in your work. Of course, there will always be people who try and argue with how your writing represents certain things; it’s more a matter of perspective and personal experience at that point. However, some facts–such as how long it would take to drive from Point A to Point B or where the sun rises and sets–aren’t disputable and you have to make sure your depictions are accurate. In that way, it makes sense to just write what you know.
Writers of pedestrian and other “literary” fiction would probably agree with this advice. After all, they shape the seemingly-mundane into tension and heart-wrenching emotion, and they often draw upon their own lives for authenticity. (Some may still cast characters and experiences that they don’t have first-hand knowledge of, so even that opinion isn’t guaranteed.)
Fantasy, science fiction, and other speculative fiction writers would beg to differ. None of them have been in space or fought dragons or the like, and yet many speculative fiction works are just as well-written as fiction based on personal experience. These genres prove that imagination and passion fuel writing.
What, then, should writers do? Write what we know, or write what we dream?
Many, if not most, of us can’t write interesting stories or poems straight from our lives (although they could make for interesting personal essays). Sometimes we can’t write about the compelling parts of our lives for litigious or emotional self-preservation reasons. I come from a small town in Northern California, typical backwoods, rural America where it can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. I’m bored living here, can’t imagine anyone would want to read about my experiences unless I add some imagination to it. The parts I think would interest people are either too personal or too close to libel for me to write about until I’m long gone from the area.
We can’t delve too far into imaginative journeys, though. To err is to human, and readers are hardly divine when it comes to forgiving mistakes. For that reason, we have to put research into our works as well. We shouldn’t be writing a story about an alien invasion in Russia without researching the climate and socio-political dynamics of the region first.
Most importantly, we should channel what we know into everything we write. Our individual walks through life contribute something to our writing which readers will not find in other works. No matter what we write, there’s always something we can connect to and enhance because some experiences are universal (although not experienced the same way by everybody). Emotions read the same no matter what the genre; familial relationships and friendships have similar dynamics no matter the characters’ backgrounds; we all have our unique histories, personalities, and reactions which can add depth to our characters, whether they’re on a mission to Mars or moving to a new apartment.
What do you think? Should you write what you know or what you dream? Should writers strive for a balance of the two? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Because I apparently don’t already have enough to do, I submitted two more book reviews to the OnlineBookClub.org, which were published within the past week. I can’t copy the reviews here for exclusivity reasons, but I will provided a couple sentences for each book to give you an idea about what they are as well as the links to OBC reviews. Today’s OBC reviews are for Edge of Infinity by Larry Don Garcia and Who Told You That You Were Naked? by William E. Combs.
Edge of Infinity is a first-encounter story unlike most science fiction novels. Unlike The Origin of F.O.R.C.E., which I reviewed on this blog, Edge of Infinity places the first official encounter between humans and aliens not in the past but centuries in the future. Not only does the “first encounter” not take place until the year 8515, but the typical invasion has been replaced by an invitation to join an intergalactic organization called the Order of the Enlightened. But what does membership mean for Earth? And what further alien encounters will the Order cause?
Who Told You That You Were Naked?: A Refreshing Reexamination of the Garden of Eden is, as the title states, a new look at the age-old tale of Adam and Eve’s fall from Grace and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. A book full of textual analysis and personal anecdotes, Combs’s work will appeal to Christians and those who have an intellectual curiosity for religion.
One of the books is highly cerebral and the other is highly religious, so not every reader will take to Edge of Infinity and Who Told You That Your Were Naked. Still, I suggest giving each a look if you’re curious about theories of our origins and possible interpretations of religious texts.
If you haven’t done so already, I also suggested signing up for the OnlineBookClub.org, either as a reader/reviewer or as a writer looking to have your works reviewed (you can’t review but you can still read the books in the latter case).
A writer needs to write to be a writer, right? The obvious answer is “yes” but, as I’ve pointed out in a previous post, we don’t all have endless hours each day to dedicate to writing. Unfortunately, the average writer’s life involves much more than the pursuit of word counts, and yet we encounter all of these success stories in which writers claim to produce 20+ pages each day. Who can keep up with that sort of volume? More importantly, should all writers aim that high?
I read an interesting article on this matter on the website for Author magazine. In it, James Thayer outlines different examples of successful writers, some of whom compose(d) ridiculous amounts of pages each work day, others who are/were about as slow as a tortoise, and still others who fall/fell somewhere in between. Thayer points out that Ezra Pound produced eight books and a hundred magazine articles in just six years, Stephen King writes about 2,000 words a day, and that it took J.R.R. Tolkien eleven years to write The Lord of the Rings trilogy (which, at the time, was one long book).
Clearly, every writer works at his/her own pace. But how do you decide your own pace? Slow and steady like Tolkien, frenzied and frightening like Pound, or some middle ground like King?
Image retrieved from Dreams of QaiMajIn truth, no one can solve that riddle for you. Ask a hundred writers and you’ll get a hundred different answers. Ask people who don’t write? You can forget about that right now; they aren’t familiar enough with the process and certainly aren’t familiar enough with your process to help you make a decision.
For some writers, it may be best to not set a word or page goal at all. Some people don’t operate well under pressure while others need it to thrive. If you don’t do well with pressure–think back to timed tests in compulsory school–then you shouldn’t even bother setting that sort of goal. It may sound counterproductive and lazy, but sometimes a deadline or threshold isn’t needed.
If you do work better under some pressure and want to set yourself a goal, pay attention to how quickly you write. How many words or pages can you crank out in an hour? Two? An entire afternoon? Once you’ve figured out your pace, match it with the average amount of free time you can make in your schedule each day. Your rate multiplied by that time will get you your ideal goal.
You can even change your goal depending on the day of the week or the season. New commitments pop up all the time, making it unrealistic to try and maintain a constant writing schedule 365 days a year. Most people say a consistent schedule forms a habit, which in turn makes it easier for you to ensure you write each day. We all know that life doesn’t let much go as planned, so you have to be flexible.
While swimming through the sea of word counts and deadlines, don’t lose track of why you started this process: for the love of writing. Writing, like life, is full of trial-and-error. You can’t be too upset if you don’t make your goal a few days or you don’t write that bestseller in three months. It takes a while to learn your process; I’m still learning the best methods for my writing. Be patient and, while you shouldn’t let yourself get away with too much, cut yourself some slack every now and then.
