Tuesday's Inspiration - Quote from John Gardner

When I read this bit in On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner, I chuckled for it seemed to nail many of the writers I know."No novelist is hurt by a natural inclination to go to extremes, driving himself too hard, dissatisfied with himself and the world around him and driven to improve on both if he can."

For me, this means that in the worlds I create there is the chance to make things work out for the characters I write about. Also I hope the reader will see in the happy and even sad endings the hope things will be brighter for them. Like many novelists I began in short stories and then graduated to novels. Sometimes I still write shorter things but mostly when I do, there is some connection between the stories.

Take Amber Chronicles, There is a connection between the tales in the stories. They're about finding love and learning to want for the other a happy ending. The main character appears to be young and selfish but she strives for love. Her journey toward the end teaches her lessons. Does she succeed? Hopefully, her happy ending will be the one she wants.

When writing short stories I was taking a small slice from the life of the characters. These stories pointed to the possibility but often did not give more than that satisfactory ending.

What about you? What are you trying to improve in your reach for the ending of the novel you're working on?

Tuesday's Inspiration ala On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner

There are so many nuggets to find in this book of essays. Today's inspiration takes the writer beyond the desire for language. I thought about the days I spent reading the dictionary and the Thesarus flowing from word to word. But there are more things to being a writer than words. Words are the foundation. Without words one couldn't be a writer. There is more to writing than the words,

Are you fascinated by characters? The people in the story need to be seen and lived with. There are times when I immerse myself so much in the character, I almost become them. Being startled to find that Joe or Mary are mind children rather than the people I interact with.

Action is another part of becoming a writer. An event happens to a mind child and seeing how they will react and act can be fun. There are also actions outside the character. Floods, fire, other disasters will cause a character to some kind of action. One of the first stories I ever wrote was a short one and was triggered by an experience I had when training to be a nurse. The thought of facing sick people seemed to me to be a serious one. I was very new to the process. A patient asked me why I didn't smile. That moment became the seed for a story written years later, called A Small Smile.

Now we come to a third element. Setting. This was for me a problem. Perhaps because I'm not a visual person. When others see scenes I see words. An editor told me my characters existed in a vacuum. Took my years to learn how to feed the setting into a story to make this seem real. I still struggle with this element.

How about you, does one of the elements of story-telling come hard when the others come easy?

Tuesday's Inspiration triggered by On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner

When I read the sentences I came upon last night, I had one of those aha moments. "Shakespeare fits language to the speaker and the occasion as the best writers always do." Just think what every writer could do if they had this ability. I know I try and do not always succeed. Each character created is different from the other characters. I know I've read stories, especially when I'm looking at those from new writers and I think all the characters regardless of sex, age, and other factors sound the same as every other character in the scene. I've even written passages where the speakers could be interchanged.

A lesson well learned is to look at where the characters are coming from, their background, education and all those other bits that make them unique and different from the other people in your story. I've learned over the years to try to pull the skin of the characters I'm creating over my body, figuratively, but I then try to speak and act as they would in various situations. This may make the people around you, family and friends, think you have really gone off your rocker. This happens when you have this great insight into a character in the middle of dinner or somewhere public and what your imagination is showing you that you will need when you revise that last scene.

It's all right and hopefully they won't be embarrassed or tell others that she just hears voices. That part is true. So try to emulate Shakespeare and remember, "However splendid it may be, Shakespeare's language is finally subservient to character and plot."

Tuesday's Inspiration inspired by John Gardner

While reading On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner, I came across this short passage. "Two things can keep the common reader going, argument or story." Had to think for a bit about what this meant. Engaging a reader is a must if the reader is going to continue writing and being read.

Recently I was reading a story that was well-written. Nothing wrong with the way the sentences were going and the story was a good one. But much of the story bored me and that was because of the repetitive nature of the internal dialogue. The characters thought the same things about each other through about two thirds or three quarters of the book and I found myself skipping those parts. Not a good way to keep the reader interested.

I've also read stories where there's been a lot of plot and good plot but the story has been too light to keep me reading. What do I mean by too light? There are only so many plots and it's what the writer makes of the story, the twists and turns that are unexpected that make at least me want to read on. Sometimes the story is so contrived a reader will shake their head.

So the moral of this to me was that the story must keep moving forward and if there is conflict between the characters there must be solutions to each argument or the story keeps rolling on the treadmill. So if your characters have the same argument or conflict and this doesn't change look for ways to change something, Or if the story lacks a forward movement toward the climax find ways to change an element.

Tuesday's Inspiration taken from a book of essays by John Gardner

Every few years when I start feeling stressed by the writing projects I'm working on, I pull out this book of essays by John Gardner published in 1983. When I was at a low point in my writing career, having returned to work as a nurse and being unable to write, I picked up a copy of On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner. This wasn't the usual book on writing that talked about methods and ways to write but about the spirit and soul of a writer.

The opening essay was titled The Writer's Nature. This spoke of the question a beginning writer asks and sometimes a writer who has stopped writing for some reason. "Do I have what it takes to be a writer?"

The one thing in the opening to the essay that struck me was stubbornness or persistence. That was definitely one of my traits. So while I worked as a nurse I garnered other things, experiences and people that I would use when I returned to writing.

What I had wasn't exactly a writer's block but more a dormant period where I rested and waited. So the first thing a writer needs is that persistence that allows him or her to get up after being slapped down and moving on. A dormant period is what gives us the material to go on in the future. So hold onto the dream and and know one day the dormant seeds will bloom again.