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Posted: February 12th, 2008 at 1:01am By: Janet Conner
Writing about Writing, Part 7
People who don't write think writers love to write. I imagine non-writers walk around with this little fantasy playing in their heads: There she is — the happy writer. Look at her carrying her fresh cup of steaming coffee into her office. Oooh, now she's sitting down at her computer, staring for a moment at the clean white screen, and then ... . Oh look, she's typing the story in her head. Gosh, what a wonderful life she has.
I hope this doesn't disappoint you, but that's not how it works. Perhaps there are a few writers who enjoy spewing out that first draft; for the rest of us, it's a slow form of torture. Most of us try to follow Anne Lamott's advice in "Bird by Bird" and just get it out there. "Sh—y first drafts," Anne calls them. The point is to get that draft out of you and onto the screen without a whole lot of thought. When I start to write, I can feel Anne on my right shoulder squinting at my work and poking her bony finger in my neck whenever I pause. "Stop it with all that thinking," I can hear her bark, "just get it out there. Clean it up later. For now, just keep writing!"
Even though I've worked my entire adult life to silence the obedient Irish Catholic girl inside me (you know, the one in the scratchy navy blue wool uniform and short-sleeved white blouse with oh-so-disgustingly-cute Peter Pan collar), I pop to attention and start typing as fast as I can. Yessiree, Anne, one sh—y first draft comin' right up!
Eventually my story is out of me and on the computer. Usually, I'm grotesquely disappointed. Somehow it has a boring open and a flat close, and the title doesn't begin to convey what I want to say. I'm appalled by the bland sentences, the mismatched nouns and pronouns, and the pathetic clichés. (Come on, Janet, don't you have anything original to say?) And the verb tenses! Ye gods! They're all over the place. And, of course, I've said the same thing three times. It ain't pretty, but it's out there.
But that's OK. I stretch my back (gotta keep that writers hump at bay), grab a glass of water and settle down to do what every writer loves to do: Edit. Yeah! Oh, how we love to edit. I thought it was just me. I thought I was a little weird, sitting for hours, moving paragraphs around and playing with the thesaurus.
Oops, time for a confession. "Hours" isn't exactly accurate. If I'm going to give you a window into the world of writing, I need to tell the truth. I can happily sit for days, even weeks, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Whatever I'm working on, somehow it's never finished. Even after the thing is in print, I'll read it and my eyes will zoom in on all the things I want to change, and my hands will itch to retype it.
The craziest part is the "night editing." I'm asleep, or think I am, but my editor-brain apparently doesn't require much rest. She keeps reading the manuscript or column or speech or whatever it is I'm working on, and wakes me when she finds something she doesn't like. When I wrote my first book, I was shocked the first time I woke at 3 a.m., knowing there was an extra space on the third line of the second paragraph on Page 63. I ran into the office, flipped on the computer and, sure enough, there was the offending space. The first few times this happened, I thought it was pretty cool. I thought it was a sign of my dedication. I thought it was some sort of initiation into "writerhood." It took me a while to realize that this was not a sign of my writerliness; it was a sign that my inner editor was a complete wack.
Now, don't read that and think, OK, Janet's a nut; surely this doesn't apply to other writers. The truth is, all writers are really editors at heart. Nothing makes us happier than to give our inner editor full reign of the sandbox. I can prove it. Chris Bohjalian, a famous author ("Midwives," "The Buffalo Soldier," "The Double Bind") was interviewed on PBS. As he showed the reporter around his studio, he pointed to his computer and said, "I write the first draft here." But then, he said with a conspiratorial gloat in his voice, "I print it out and sit at this window and edit. That's my favorite thing to do." I stared at the TV. Yes! Me, too! Edit! Move those sentences, draw those arrows, scratch out those words, slash those punctuation marks. Find better, richer, stronger words. YES! I love to edit, too!
If you want to explore the world of writing, it's time to get in touch with your inner editor. He or she doesn't have to wake you in the middle of the night, but your inner editor does want to get out that red pencil and have at it. So, give him or her some tools.
Tool One: Print out what you've written. I'm not quite certain why this is true, but editing on paper is always more effective than editing on the screen.
Tool Two: Read what you've written out loud. Do not skip this tool because you feel stupid talking to yourself. I hate to break it to you, but all writers talk to themselves. When my son came home for winter break, he stuck his face in my office and asked if I was all right. Until then, I hadn't realized how much I talk to myself. As you read out loud, you'll catch your mistakes. You'll hear all the repetitions, missing antecedents, and confusing transitions. And — this is important — you'll find your unique writer's voice. If it sounds good to you out loud, it's authentically you.
Tool Three: Become best friends with your thesaurus. Start with your word processing software to see what it triggers, then play with the totally fun online www.visualthesaurus.com. Be sure you own and look at a high-quality print thesaurus as well. Ditto for dictionaries. Nothing is more fun than looking up words in the Oxford English Dictionary. (Trust me on this — if you haven't become a word nut, take the plunge.)
Tool Four: Invest in a writer's style manual. I use "The Chicago Manual of Style." Journalists prefer the "Associated Press Stylebook." If those investments are daunting (plan on spending 50 bucks), get the slender paperback "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. Refer to it every day.
Tool Five: Play. Yes, play. Editing is play. Don't strive for perfect, just play. Move those sentences around, strike out whole paragraphs, inject some humor, delete the humor, redo, rewrite, reframe. Have fun. THIS is what we writers live for. It's the editing that turns words into our story, our idea, our column, our message, our book.
So edit to your heart's content. And if your inner editor wakes you at 3 a.m., don't get mad; say thank you. I think it means you're in the club.
— — —
Marilyn Shannon, founder of ReEnchant Planet Earth, has invited me to lead a national conversation on writing on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 8 pm EST. Go to the ReEnchant Planet Earth website and scroll down to my picture and "Writing about Writing" to get the phone number. It'll be so much fun to talk with people around the country about their experiences with writing. See you next Tuesday!
— — —
Janet Conner teaches people how to connect directly to Spirit to receive the guidance and direction they need to create the life they want. Her new book, "Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within," comes out this fall from Conari Press. Janet is also the creator of Spiritual Geography, a comprehensive spiritual-healing system that has been called "the first true innovation in healing the broken heart." "Spiritual Geography" workbooks are available through Amazon or Spiritual Geography. Contact Janet at {email janetconner@tampabay.rr.com}janetconner@tampabay.rr.com{/email}.© Copyright 2008 by Janet Conner.
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Writing about Writing, Part 7
People who don't write think writers love to write. I imagine non-writers walk around with this little fantasy playing in their heads: There she is — the happy writer. Look at her carrying her fresh cup of steaming coffee into her office. Oooh, now she's sitting down at her computer, staring for a moment at the clean white screen, and then ... . Oh look, she's typing the story in her head. Gosh, what a wonderful life she has.
I hope this doesn't disappoint you, but that's not how it works. Perhaps there are a few writers who enjoy spewing out that first draft; for the rest of us, it's a slow form of torture. Most of us try to follow Anne Lamott's advice in "Bird by Bird" and just get it out there. "Sh—y first drafts," Anne calls them. The point is to get that draft out of you and onto the screen without a whole lot of thought. When I start to write, I can feel Anne on my right shoulder squinting at my work and poking her bony finger in my neck whenever I pause. "Stop it with all that thinking," I can hear her bark, "just get it out there. Clean it up later. For now, just keep writing!"
Even though I've worked my entire adult life to silence the obedient Irish Catholic girl inside me (you know, the one in the scratchy navy blue wool uniform and short-sleeved white blouse with oh-so-disgustingly-cute Peter Pan collar), I pop to attention and start typing as fast as I can. Yessiree, Anne, one sh—y first draft comin' right up!
Eventually my story is out of me and on the computer. Usually, I'm grotesquely disappointed. Somehow it has a boring open and a flat close, and the title doesn't begin to convey what I want to say. I'm appalled by the bland sentences, the mismatched nouns and pronouns, and the pathetic clichés. (Come on, Janet, don't you have anything original to say?) And the verb tenses! Ye gods! They're all over the place. And, of course, I've said the same thing three times. It ain't pretty, but it's out there.
But that's OK. I stretch my back (gotta keep that writers hump at bay), grab a glass of water and settle down to do what every writer loves to do: Edit. Yeah! Oh, how we love to edit. I thought it was just me. I thought I was a little weird, sitting for hours, moving paragraphs around and playing with the thesaurus.
Oops, time for a confession. "Hours" isn't exactly accurate. If I'm going to give you a window into the world of writing, I need to tell the truth. I can happily sit for days, even weeks, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Whatever I'm working on, somehow it's never finished. Even after the thing is in print, I'll read it and my eyes will zoom in on all the things I want to change, and my hands will itch to retype it.
The craziest part is the "night editing." I'm asleep, or think I am, but my editor-brain apparently doesn't require much rest. She keeps reading the manuscript or column or speech or whatever it is I'm working on, and wakes me when she finds something she doesn't like. When I wrote my first book, I was shocked the first time I woke at 3 a.m., knowing there was an extra space on the third line of the second paragraph on Page 63. I ran into the office, flipped on the computer and, sure enough, there was the offending space. The first few times this happened, I thought it was pretty cool. I thought it was a sign of my dedication. I thought it was some sort of initiation into "writerhood." It took me a while to realize that this was not a sign of my writerliness; it was a sign that my inner editor was a complete wack.
Now, don't read that and think, OK, Janet's a nut; surely this doesn't apply to other writers. The truth is, all writers are really editors at heart. Nothing makes us happier than to give our inner editor full reign of the sandbox. I can prove it. Chris Bohjalian, a famous author ("Midwives," "The Buffalo Soldier," "The Double Bind") was interviewed on PBS. As he showed the reporter around his studio, he pointed to his computer and said, "I write the first draft here." But then, he said with a conspiratorial gloat in his voice, "I print it out and sit at this window and edit. That's my favorite thing to do." I stared at the TV. Yes! Me, too! Edit! Move those sentences, draw those arrows, scratch out those words, slash those punctuation marks. Find better, richer, stronger words. YES! I love to edit, too!
If you want to explore the world of writing, it's time to get in touch with your inner editor. He or she doesn't have to wake you in the middle of the night, but your inner editor does want to get out that red pencil and have at it. So, give him or her some tools.
Tool One: Print out what you've written. I'm not quite certain why this is true, but editing on paper is always more effective than editing on the screen.
Tool Two: Read what you've written out loud. Do not skip this tool because you feel stupid talking to yourself. I hate to break it to you, but all writers talk to themselves. When my son came home for winter break, he stuck his face in my office and asked if I was all right. Until then, I hadn't realized how much I talk to myself. As you read out loud, you'll catch your mistakes. You'll hear all the repetitions, missing antecedents, and confusing transitions. And — this is important — you'll find your unique writer's voice. If it sounds good to you out loud, it's authentically you.
Tool Three: Become best friends with your thesaurus. Start with your word processing software to see what it triggers, then play with the totally fun online www.visualthesaurus.com. Be sure you own and look at a high-quality print thesaurus as well. Ditto for dictionaries. Nothing is more fun than looking up words in the Oxford English Dictionary. (Trust me on this — if you haven't become a word nut, take the plunge.)
Tool Four: Invest in a writer's style manual. I use "The Chicago Manual of Style." Journalists prefer the "Associated Press Stylebook." If those investments are daunting (plan on spending 50 bucks), get the slender paperback "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. Refer to it every day.
Tool Five: Play. Yes, play. Editing is play. Don't strive for perfect, just play. Move those sentences around, strike out whole paragraphs, inject some humor, delete the humor, redo, rewrite, reframe. Have fun. THIS is what we writers live for. It's the editing that turns words into our story, our idea, our column, our message, our book.
So edit to your heart's content. And if your inner editor wakes you at 3 a.m., don't get mad; say thank you. I think it means you're in the club.
— — —
Marilyn Shannon, founder of ReEnchant Planet Earth, has invited me to lead a national conversation on writing on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 8 pm EST. Go to the ReEnchant Planet Earth website and scroll down to my picture and "Writing about Writing" to get the phone number. It'll be so much fun to talk with people around the country about their experiences with writing. See you next Tuesday!
— — —
Janet Conner teaches people how to connect directly to Spirit to receive the guidance and direction they need to create the life they want. Her new book, "Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within," comes out this fall from Conari Press. Janet is also the creator of Spiritual Geography, a comprehensive spiritual-healing system that has been called "the first true innovation in healing the broken heart." "Spiritual Geography" workbooks are available through Amazon or Spiritual Geography. Contact Janet at {email janetconner@tampabay.rr.com}janetconner@tampabay.rr.com{/email}.© Copyright 2008 by Janet Conner.
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