Write What You Know - or Don't Know by Lorrie Orr

 

Advice given to writers is often "write what you know." How dull that seems when taken at face value. Life seems so ordinary. Who would want to read about the day to day life of a teacher, or a carpenter or a plumber? 

I'm currently reading a memoir What Comes Next and How to Like It a book by Abigail Thomas. When faced with a roadblock in writing a friend told her, "It seems to me," he emailed me later, "that you start out with what you know or what you think you know and you work within those 'truthful' boundaries until you reach some sort of wilderness of not knowing, and then you find a way through until you see an end, or you find a way through until you find the end that you've already seen." 

That paragraph inspired me to search for what other writers say about the advice "Write what you know." 

Nathan Englander says that it's about emotion. "Why do we love (those books) we love, why do they change us, why do they touch our hearts, why do they hold so much meaning? Because they are truer than truth; because there is a great knowing within them...Like, have you known happiness? Have you ever been truly sad? Have you ever longed for something?...That's the idea: if you've known longing you can write longing. And that's the knowing behind 'write what you know.'

Kazuo Ishiguro is more blunt: " "Write what you know" is the most stupid thing I've heard. It encourages people to write a dull biography. It's the reverse of firing the imagination and potential of writers."

Paula Fox says, "Now, I was very careful not to tell my students to only write about what you know, because I couldn't define what they knew. That's where the question really begins. How to define what you know."

Dan Brown counters with 'write what you want to know.' "I feel like, it is so difficult to stay intellectually engaged for a year or two in a subject. You should write something that you need to go and learn about." 

P.D. James counters with "You absolutely should write about what you know. There are all sorts of small things you should store up and use, nothing is lost to a writer. You have to learn to stand outside yourself. All experience, whether it is painful or whether it is happy is somehow stored up and sooner or later it's used." 

To sum up:

Write what you know.

Write what you feel.

Write what you want to know.

Mine your life.

Lorrie Orr writes from Vancouver Island. 

Said - T. L. Wiens

Recently, there’s been a movement to strike all other words that describe a spoken word in written form and only use “said.” The reasoning I’ve heard for this movement are:

1. People don’t notice “said.”
2. Other words are “telling” words.

I don’t know who decided that “said” is an invisible word but they are wrong! It’s also a telling word.

I had the pleasure, and I say this tongue in cheek, of revising a manuscript in which the author only used “said.” It was horrible! The piece read like a Dick and Jane story without pictures. I’ll admit there are other issues with this author’s writing skills but every dialogue was “he said,” “she said,” covering pages of writing. It was boring and unimaginative. Readers need to see the picture and that takes more than using “said” as a dialogue tag.

I see parallels with my Christian walk and my writing ministry. I can say I’m a Christian and quote scripture but at some point there has to be a picture—my life has to show the meaning of the words. I have to live my faith.

So whether it’s in a manuscript or in living, “said” may not always do the job and is definitely not invisible.

Writing Resources - Lynn Dove

As a writer, "seasoned" or otherwise, we are always on the look out for great resources.  I compiled a list on my blog Word Salt to some very helpful websites that offer a variety of information from marketing, promotion to how to write better.


Here are a few of the helpful links to websites, blogs etc.  For the complete list I invite you to go to the Word Salt blog. 

Agent Query - great resource for finding an agent, writing query letters etc.

Authors on the Net—online community of authors with resources and information on promotion

The Book Club Network Inc. – finding Hope in reading groups

Christian Authors Network – marketing strategies etc.

Coffee Break for Writers—monthly newsletter offering news, markets, interviews, and more

Doing It Write—weekly e-zine for writers from writer, editor, and book consultant Helen Ginger

Faithwriters.com – opportunities to post your own articles and get articles for your blog or website

John 3:16 Marketing Network – promote book launches and encouragement for writers and authors

Michael Hyatt.com – Informative blog by Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers

Rachelle Gardner.com – blog about books, marketing, etc.

The Vessel Project - web design, book reviews, marketing, promotion

The Word Guild – connecting, developing and promoting Canadian writers and editors who are Christian

Word Salt – author interviews, writer’s tips, book reviews – for those called by God to write, and for those who love to read the Word.

Writer’s Write—information about books, writing, and publishing

Writer’s Write Journal – writing life stories for the inspirational or religious markets

When Life Throws a Curve -- T. L. Wiens

This last month has gone by in a blur filled with filling out police reports and talking to school officials. I was assaulted in the school by a teacher and everything in my life changed.
Funny how one thing can change so much. I found myself re-evaluating many things including my writing. I remember watching an interview of the author of "The Perfect Storm." He'd gone into a war zone and came back feeling he no longer had the right to write about horror--he didn't feel he had adequate experience. I found myself asking the same question.

How do we know we're capturing truth if we never experience any of the things we write about or at least done a bit of living? And suddenly being assaulted is a gift in a strange way although I wouldn't ever want to experience something like this again.

See you at the top! - Violet Nesdoly

Mount Baker - driving east on the No. 1 toward Abbotsford, B.C.

Mountain Climbing

Story idea is like Mount Baker
tantalizing in all lights
glowing in the distance

Conferences, other writers, books
reveal that I will need
plot, characters, complications
climax, resolution–
the pack, boots, ice axe
screws and ropes of my ascent.

Nearing the mountain
obstacles enlarge and clarify.
In the shadow of its flanks
and face to face, I face
the need to breathe life into characters
create sub-plots, plant red herrings
write true-talk dialogue
then tie all neatly …
I all but lose
my nerve to begin.

The ascent displays
the writer-stuff I’m made of
as day after challenging day
I do what it takes
to make some progress to the top
get up early, stay up late
retrace steps in desperate rewrites
belay into plot ravines
scramble over boulders and up ice fields
toward epiphany and resolution.

And then one day I write the final word
plant first-draft flag
with grateful calloused hands
upon the pinnacle.


I wrote the above in February of 2009, even before I started writing the book I will soon be holding in my hands. (It appears I was rehearsing, in my mind, what the process would feel like.)

But, like any book-writer has discovered, what felt like a pinnacle flag-plant when I had completed my first draft, turned out to be only my arrival at Camp 2. For the ascent has since then continued with many more rock faces scaled, crevices avoided, and nights spent questioning 'what am I doing here?'

I have tried to prepare for the next leg of climbing that faces me now—the publicizing, marketing, and selling of my book. I have read how-to books and articles, watched fellow-climbers, and listened to their advice. Still, I feel nervous, apprehensive, and excited all at once as I anticipate the weeks ahead. Stories of mishaps on Mount Everest, that remind me of how many things can go wrong on a climb, don't help.

More than ever I need a personal Sherpa—a guide who knows the way and will accompany me, no, lead me to my goal. (Personally my goal now is to sell the copies which I contracted to buy. Doesn't sound terribly spiritual, does it? But God and I wrestled out the spiritual aspects of this project ages ago. Now we're down to the physical /monetary realities of the business.)

 As I review the verses handwritten on file cards and tucked into a little folder called "Writing Career"  my faith in God's ability to direct, guide, and give me a hand-up when I need it grows strong.

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days" - Ecclesiastes 11:1 (NKJV).

"A man's heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps" - Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV).  

"Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say" -  Exodus 4:12 (NIV).

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight" - Proverbs 3:5,6 (NIV).

"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left" - Isaiah 30:21 (NKJV). 

"And let the beauty and delightfulness and favour of the Lord our God be upon us: confirm and establish the work of our hands, yes the work of our hands, confirm and establish it" - Psalm 90:17 (Amp).

Again I feel like an adventurer. Courage fellow writers. Keep climbing.  See you all at the top!

*************

Find out about my soon-to-be-released novel here.

"Like" my Author Violet Nesdoly page on Facebook to keep up with my latest writing news. 

From Chaos To Clarity -- Sharon Espeseth

A bundle of excitement, overactive nerves, and questions about postcard stories, I slid into class on Monday morning. Our first exercise involved choosing a word or phrase from the cards in front of us. I chose the word “finally” to introduce myself.

After a nine-year hiatus from Women’s Words, I finally made it back to this writing program offered by the Extension Department of the University of Alberta. For several years back when, the courses I took in this program had been valuable to my writing development and good for my soul. Life gets complicated, and I omitted this option from my already-full retirement agenda.

Looking at Jannie Edward’s course, “Crafting the Postcard Story,” I first questioned how it would help me in my devotional and other Christian writing I like to do. A few months back I met Jannie when she, in the role of Writer-in-Residence for Alberta Authors, visited us at a Women Word Weaver’s meeting. I accepted her offer to critique a sample of my work. Her comments were to the point, encouraging, and supportive—something I needed for motivation.

Impressed with Ms. Edward’s teaching, I wanted to take her course and learn more. Then it dawned on me that devotionals are compressed writing that require a wide range of writing techniques. I registered.

I stayed with my niece. Keeping pace with this 39-year-old single working mother and her seven-year-old daughter was no small feat. Billie is also caregiver and only child to her single mother who has recently moved into a care facility. Joan, Billie’s mother, is my sister. Together Billie-Jo and I did final cleaning in Joan’s condo. We moved furniture and fed the moving crew with goodies I had brought from home. We watched Soraya swim and heard friends play flute at a concert.

Leaving the house at 7:00 a.m., we swooped South Edmonton to drop my great-niece at her day home. We said our morning prayers and I read devotions aloud on the way. We parked on the north side by Billie’s work, and I walked to the LRT. Using Jannie’s technique, I wrote on 4 by 6 cards on the LRT, at Edmonton Centre, in Enterprise Square. Evenings were too busy for much writing, but I now have a trunk full of ideas, starts, energy, and enthusiasm for my writing.

During the last day of class, we compiled a potluck anthology of our writing, titled Summer Sisters of the Pen.  Since none of my writings was finished to my satisfaction, I submitted two ready devotionals. No, this wasn’t a Christian writer’s conference, but many of us are Christian from various backgrounds and we are kindred spirits who write. Three of us belong to the Women Word Weavers, an Inscribe Inspiration Group. We twelve women easily formed a cohesive group.

From a hectic, somewhat chaotic week, I managed to regain my clarity, my focus. This short course again lifted my writing out of the doldrums.

           

5 Ways My Writing Has Benefited From My Piano Lesson Experiences - Ruth L. Snyder

As a child, I dreamed of taking piano lessons for several years. However, I didn't have access to either a piano or a teacher. When I was nine, my three siblings and I traveled five hundred miles away from our missionary parents to attend school in Zimbabwe. I can still hear the cadence of wheels clacking across train tracks as we sped further and further from our home in Botswana. Although it was incredibly difficult for me to be so far away from my parents, one of the benefits was the opportunity to take piano lessons. Because I was a bit older and  was motivated to practice diligently, my piano playing progressed fairly quickly. A year later when my family returned to Canada I was placed in grade 2 piano. Since then I have experienced many more lessons, practice sessions, recitals, and exams. Today I enjoy sharing my knowledge and abilities with piano students of my own.

As I think about writing, there are several benefits I gained from those many years of piano lessons:

1. Focus.
It takes focus to learn how to read music, to listen so that you bring out a melody while also playing harmonies expressively, to create tones that are beautiful. Writing also takes a lot of focus. This is especially true when you have young children. Having the ability to focus makes it possible for me to write at different times of the day, in many environments, and to be more productive in my writing.

2. Discipline.
We all have a multitude of activities competing for our attention. The discipline of daily piano practice taught me how to stick with something, no matter what the distractions were. I learned that discipline paid dividends - the ability to play new pieces, make progress, and achieve an objective. Writing also requires discipline. If I only wrote when I felt inspired or motivated, I wouldn't get much writing done. Although I certainly enjoy the days when the words pour out onto the page, the discipline of writing regularly makes it possible to set goals and achieve them. (If you struggle in this area, sign up as a contributor to this blog!)

3. Effective Practice.
I often warn my students, "Be careful how you practice, because practice makes permanent." Sight reading is one thing, but learning and polishing a piece of music is entirely different. It is tempting to start at the beginning of a piece and play it all the way through, ignoring the mistakes. A skilled pianist tackles the difficult sections of music, is diligent to use consistent fingering, and always works at making her next performance better than the last. Writing a first draft could be compared to sight reading. The main idea of a piece comes across. However, to create something of worth and beauty, further refinement is needed. Effectively practicing piano has prepared me for the rigors of editing. Skillfully using language makes it possible to make writing come alive.

4. Appreciating Variety.
My training under the Royal Conservatory of Music exposed me to a vast array of musical eras and composers. Although I enjoyed some more than others, I came to understand the skill and beauty of a wide variety of music. These lessons have helped me to be less judgmental and more appreciative. In my writing, I have also benefited from exposure to a variety of writing and writers. Although I am more skilled in using some styles, making myself aware of a wider variety serves to improve the palette of tools I have available to express ideas to readers. I am also able to appreciate styles of writing which vary widely from mine.

5. Performance.
I do not consider myself a performer. In fact, musical performances often reduce me to a bundle of nerves. Learning music for my own enjoyment is fine. However, I have come to realize that God has gifted me so that I can encourage and inspire others. One idea that has helped me immensely in performance situations is to focus entirely on the music so that I am not as conscious of others who are listening. When I focus on the enjoyment of playing the piano and making the music come alive, nerves tend to take a back seat. Writing for my own enjoyment is fine. However, I have to be willing to be vulnerable to share my writing with others. No one enjoys receiving rejection letters. Most writers I know get discouraged from time to time. However, if we focus on producing the very best writing we possibly can, eventually we will discover the audience God has appointed for us.

Have you found parallels between other skills and writing? I look forward to hearing about them.

Ruth L. Snyder

Check out Ruth's blogs: www.trusteesnyder.blogspot.com (Education information) www.ruthlsnyder.com (Ruth's writing and family life) and www.earlyyearssuccess.com (Information for caregivers of children ages 0-5)

Follow Ruth on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@wwjdr