Ten Things the 'Gift of Writing' Will Never Do

"You! You have a gift, my friend! Yes, you do. You do."

It could be others have noticed you have a gift, a natural talent, for writing. You may know that's true. (What a pleasant thought!) What you may not know, realize, or care to admit is that your gift, your natural talent, will never:

1. Automatically make you a good writer.
2. Make writing a breeze.
3. Eliminate the need for you to pay attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Or self-edit. Or rewrite. Or just toss the whole stupid thing out and start over.
4. Guarantee you'll get published or paid for your writing.
5. Make writing a less solitary -- less lonely -- endeavor.
6. Take the place of a good editor or trusted friend who will give you an honest  -- and very helpful -- opinion.
7. Let that nagging little inner voice ("You should be writing!") shut up . . . when you should be writing.
8. Make you creative enough to come up with a valid excuse for not using this gift.
9. Tell you why this gift was freely given to you.
10. Be a substitute for wisdom or virtue or grace.

 

The truth is every human has multiple gifts. It's just that some of those gifts are more visible to the public.(The ones having to do with the arts, entertainment, or sports, for example.) Just as there are unsung heroes, there are a lot of unsung virtuosos in parenting, teaching, plumbing, counseling, health care, car repair, family caregiving, and on and on. Thank God for their skills and the time and effort they put into developing and using their amazing -- and much-needed -- gifts.

'Ooh, baby, I like your . . . writing . . . style!'



No one has ever looked at how I'm dressed and said, "Ooh, Bill, I like your style!" (I write this wearing blue jeans; a short-sleeved, button-down dress shirt (with a pocket for pen and scratch paper); and a zip-up sweatshirt purchased in 1989. (Time flies.) The sweatshirt may be back in fashion. Or it was back but it's gone once more.)

But . . .

Folks do say "I like your writing style." (God bless them. Such discriminating taste.) I wrote about tone and voice -- about style -- in How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks (Week Two, Day 5):

One big reason there’s an annual Hemingway write-alike contest is that Hemingway wrote like Hemingway. He didn’t start out that way. If he submitted some of his very early attempts as contest entries, the judges would say, “Not even close! Well, okay, a little close but not close enough.”

Hemingway became Hemingway by writing. Ditto with Chaucer, Emily Bronte, Dr. Seuss and every other writer who has a “voice.” Whose writing has a certain “tone.” Yours may already have that. And it may not. The only way I know to develop that voice and tone is to write, write, write. You can read a lot of writers, you can read a lot of books about writing, but . . . . there’s no substitute.

Over time, your own style will emerge. Choices of words. Sentence structure. Punctuation. Yes, all within the rules—more or less—but with your particular spin. (In other areas, it’s what makes “your” golf swing your golf swing or “your” home-baked chocolate chip cookies “your” home-baked chocolate chip cookies.)

The good news in today’s message is you don’t have to do anything to develop your voice (or strengthen your voice) except write and that’s what you’re already doing. Yes, writing is always hard but, I suspect, by the time you finish the novel that your writing now, it will be a little easier because it will be easier for you to use your voice to say what you want to say in the way that you want to say it.

Easier more often. Not always. Never always.

In the first twenty years of my full-time freelancing, I had about two dozen books published. Some fiction, some non-fiction. Some for kids, some for adults. Some serious, some humorous. Some prose, some poetry. And the occasional play. (Apparently, I have trouble focusing, eh?) By then my voice was my voice. In a serious book, there likely was some humor. In a humor book, there were a few serious points.

This may sound like bragging and that’s not my goal here. (I take great pride in my humility.) I like my writing voice but it wouldn’t have happened without those very early books. The ones I did long before I had anything published. (Not to discourage you, but I wrote ten books before I had one published. You probably won’t need that many. I know that if I had quit after number nine, I wouldn’t have published any. And to encourage you: One of those first ten was later published and sold well.)

Consciously (“Ooh, I like the way that sentence sounds.”) and subconsciously (“I wrote that? Huh. That’s good.”), you’re developing your voice and like that golf swing or those cookies, it’s a lovely thing to have.

Just keep writing.

Widowhood and Writing

It was a tough morning. I had to go get a head shot (mug shot) taken for the national column I write. Several months ago an editor there had told me they were updating all the columnists' photos but I kept putting it off. He recently sent me a reminder.

First, I'm not a fan of having my photo taken in a studio. ("Lean this way, look that way, put your chin up, sit up straighter, big smile, come on, big one!")

And, second and much harder, I would be alone in this picture. For more than 20 years it was my wife, Monica, and I who were the coauthors. She died of uterine cancer in January. The photo that had featured both of us was being replaced.

Crud.

As a widower, I know more about dying, death and grieving than I ever wanted to know.

As a novelist, I know that knowledge may very well help me better develop a character facing those powerful experiences.

In a similar way, your good times and your hard times can help make you a better novelist. They can enable you to add a tone or voice that rings true because, on such a personal level, you know that truth.

Just keep writing.

Q & A on Writing and Such

Thanks so much to CatholicFiction.net  for running an interview of me yapping away about writing and The World's Funniest Atheist.

It was interesting for me to answer their questions. Made me think about my influences, habits and such. I notice that my answers tended to be brief. Just like my novels.

They didn't ask and so I remained mum on The Role of Chocolate in an Author's Life.

Probably just as well.

Just keep writing.

When You're Hit by a Brick

Yesterday I was reading Betty Rollin's "Here's the Bright Side," which is subtitled "Of Failure, Fear, Cancer, Divorce and Other Bum Raps." (I chose it because my personal "bum rap" is my wife Monica died of uterine cancer in early January.) One of the many stories Rollin shares is about a friend who was hired to be in a Woody Allen play and then was canned during rehearsal. She says:

"But Annabelle is a writer as well as an actress and knew instinctively that certain brick blows to the head might give you emotional concussions but that emotional concussions, to a writer, are Material."

A while later, Annabelle wrote a book about folks who have been fired and what that was like for them.

It can help you as a writer to remember that a subcategory of "write what you know" is "write what you never wanted to know, but you do."

Just keep writing.

It Ain't Learnin' vs. Livin'

I came across this article in The Atlantic magazine (when I was trolling the Internet looking for places to plug my books) titled "Live First, Write Later: The Case for Less Creative-Writing Schooling." The author's argument is a published-writer-to-be can spend too much time in school and would be better off getting out there in the world and living! And then writing from the knowledge gained there.

Well . . . yes and no. We don't learn to write on our own. (Or read, either.) At the very least, we pick it up from books. I had a handful of teachers in grade school, high school, and college that helped me tremendously. I can still think of some specific rules, tips, and advice they gave me that I use today. (Including "it's okay to break a rule if you know you're breaking a rule.")

Most of the commenters on the Atlantic article blast the author and point out all humans, you know, live and when they sit down to write they have a ton of experiences. (And one commenter said "buy my book." Tacky little salesman.)

A writing class, a writing group, a tutor or a mentor may help you tremendously. I remember reading a quote from one graduate of Iowa's writing program that said eventually he could have learned all of it by hit or miss but going to school there made that happen much, much faster. (I had a mentor, a publisher, who really helped me learn how to write humor books. He was great.)

Keep an eye out for how you can learn more about writing, but remember it's not a substitute for writing.

Just keep writing.

Speechless . . . uh . . . Wordless

I was filling out a question-and-answer form yesterday for an upcoming book review and article when I realized I'm not a very good choice for some of the questions. I had no answers.

What was the process you used to write your novel? What shaped it? What did you learn about yourself from writing it?

Um...

I did learn, or was reminded, from the Q & A that I'm not very introspective. I don't want to go to a cabin by myself and think deep thoughts. (I want my cabin to have a PlayStation and some good shoot-'em-up games.)

I say this, confess this, because you may be hesitating to attempt writing your novel or feeling you can't complete your novel because you aren't a great thinker, philosopher, or analyzer.

No worries, mate.

Just write the bloomin' story.

Trust me.

Just keep writing.