Is This Real? A Study in Verisimilitude

Sometimes you wonder whether a story is fiction or whether it really happened. After hearing "The Mappist" by Barry Lopez on NPR's Selected Shorts, I wondered whether the program had detoured from its usual fiction fare to offer an essay. I was uncertain enough to look up a book mentioned in the story, The City of Geraniums, which I couldn't find on the Web. The book may be out there, but the point is that Lopez created such believable characters (main and supporting), setting and dialog because he knew which details to include and how deep to go with them. Both facets are key, especially in this story, which had some philosophical points for readers to consider.

For effective verisimilitude (from veri similis, like the truth) in fiction, it's important to include what John Gardner in The Art of Fiction calls "vivid detail," which really is the "lifeblood of fiction."

To put today's musing into action, see the writing tip at the top of the list and let me know how it goes.

Stuck for Words? Tell Yourself a Story

Stuck for words? Who isn't at some point? One way to surmount this form of writer's block is to tell yourself (in writing) what you think the story should be until the real story comes.

One reason for writer's block is the seemingly endless number of ways to craft a scene. Should Harry and Sally have their hilarious explanatory scene in a bus station or a café? Should the scene end with Sally's exclamation, or should there be one more line? When a finished product works, the countless decisions (many subconscious) behind the scenes are invisible, and the effect is seamless. But when you're in the process of creating the scene or story, each word choice can seem like life or death. Rather than bog down in details or go off on a rabbit trail only to deal with a major rewrite later, explain to yourself — right where you're stuck on the page — what you really want to say, or what you think the scene should be. You'd be surprised, pleasantly, I hope, with the outcome.

Consider this from author and frequent Writer's Digest contributor James Scott Bell: "Your scenes are like the stones in an English wall. I prefer that image to bricks because bricks all look the same. You want your scenes to vary in shape and feel, but when you step back they should all fit together." Planning that stone wall in advance is key to it standing the test of time.

To put today's musing into action, check out the writing tip at the top of the list and let me know how it goes.

Good News: Don’t Edit

I can feel people’s shoulders relax when they see they don’t have to edit. What a change of pace! But when is it acceptable not to edit? When you’re planning a story or working on your first draft. Experienced writers will say they do edit during these phases so as to save themselves work later. But it’s probably more accurate say that at these early stages they’re more careful about how and what they write. This approach can be beneficial because it can save time on later drafts. But for emerging writers, those who are working on a new project and those who are spreading their wings in a new genre or style, it’s still best to take your editing hat off, or more accurately, to shut off the right side of your brain during the early phases of the work. Consider this perspective from renowned editor and literary agent Betsy Lerner in The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers: “Writing demands that you keep at bay the demons insisting that you are not worthy or that your ideas are idiotic or that your command of the language is insufficient.” So, rather than be seized by doubt, seize the day, because time really is short.

The tip today is don’t edit, but do have a happy, healthy, blessed and restful Thanksgiving!

Breakthrough: Writing Past the Doubt

Ever work on a story and know in your gut it’s not working. Of course, everybody feels that way sometime, but what if the feeling won’t go away?

The same happened to me, and will happen again, with the novel I’m writing. Weeks passed, and I couldn’t shake the sense that the story wasn’t working. Then it hit me—my plot was one-dimensional, and for a story to be worthwhile it had to be three-dimensional—the difference between a human being and a paper cutout.

If you’ve experienced the same unease, some will try to console by saying it may not be as bad as you think. But if it is, and feelings like this are visceral, it’s important to understand why the story isn’t working. I love that question of “why.” It’s a great drill-down you can keep asking until you can’t ask anymore. Then you’ve usually arrived at the problem. To fix my one-dimensional plot, I started asking “what if,” what if this or that happened? Once I asked the question, several options arose.

For these situations, Michael Neff of Algonkian Writer Conferences suggests the prose description questionnaire to prompt writers to “imagine the difference between an object [or plot or character] that is foreign to you and one that is familiar.” If you keep in mind the difference and strive for the latter, the writing and the work will improve.

To put today's musing into action, check out the tip at the top of the list, and let me know how it goes.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Precision

Variety is the spice of life, so it’s been said. And it’s true. But when writers set out to laboriously vary word choices, the real meaning of a scene or story can be lost. Consider this from John Gardiner in The Art of Fiction: “Often the search for variety leads to another problem, the overloading of sentences and the loss of focus.”

That’s why it’s important to know exactly what you want to say, not just what sounds good, and to say it as precisely as possible. For people who recall the story of Goldilocks — a little girl looking for just the right everything — it’s important that the language of a story, especially description, not include too much detail or too little, but just enough. It also needs to be the right detail. Consider these two examples:

• In a couple of weeks she would have another birthday, thirty, emerging from an odd number, twenty-nine, into a roundness, a fullness that seemed an unreachable, unbridgeable distance.
• In two weeks she would be thirty, emerging into the fullness of womanhood, which seemed even now an unbridgeable distance.

To put today's musing into action, the writing tip at the top of the list is a bit more involved, since precision takes work. Take a look, and let me know how it goes.

Journaling: A Lost Art

My journalism teacher used to say, "Keep a journal. It'll get the garbage writing out." That mantra stuck with me because he was right — journaling frees you from the burden of thoughts that might be better left for your eyes only. But journaling is good for other reasons, too. It keeps your mind limber and keeps you in the habit of writing daily, or more often, if trends like Twitter are any example. Journaling also gets you in touch with who you are today, not yesterday or last year or ten years ago.

Maybe no writing is garbage writing — okay, some is — but some thoughts and emotions need a place, just not in your stories. Those are about others, unless yours is an autobiography. Journals give personal musings somewhere safe to go. And maybe they will become fodder for a story — the stuff memoirs are made of.

Journaling, like any discipline, also keeps your writing mind limber through regular use. The more we write, the easier, usually, writing is. Easier to start, easier to keep going and easier to see mistakes, provided we review what we've written.

Another perk of journaling is its ability to stop time, so that we can pause and reflect. Poet and professor John Leax said in his sabbatical journal, "I need to remind myself writing poetry is not a career … It is rather a vocation, a calling and a discipline." There's something about sitting down with whatever you use when you write for yourself — I usually use a pen and a spiral pad — you rediscover your life, who you are. And that's worth writing about.

To put today's musing into action, see the writing tip at the top of the list and let me know how it goes.

Fire Away: Using Anger in Writing

In this day and age, we're afraid to discuss anger, but it's unrealistic to think it never occurs and is never justified. It's when and how to use and convey it that are key. If you're squeamish, think of anger as a passion — a strong emotion that gives depth to your writing, especially your characters. But know that there are two types of anger to deal with — yours and that of your characters. When you're angry, don't wait until you're "over it." Try writing through and with it. When I wrote a piece on Italy for a magazine, I was angry at having to be back in the grind. My anger oozed out in the form of zeal for the country, with all its annoying quirks. People still comment on that story.

As for your characters' anger, consider this from author Brandilyn Collins' Getting Into Character. "When you focus not on the general passion of your character, but on its component parts, its opposite, and its growth, your character will deepen in richness and represent human nature to its fullest." So, the reason to use anger is because it exists and, as Collins says and we all know, "it's with such passions that readers connect." Why do we make this connection? Because a character's response to a situation reflects who she really is. So put your characters in situations rife with conflict, even if it's subdued, and don't be surprised if you can't sharpen the scene until you're one-third through the first draft. That's when you begin to know what and whom you're writing about, regardless of how extensive your plot treatment. When you go back to edit, whether a short story or novel, sharpen the dialog to reflect what's going on within the characters; I like to call them people. You can trim the scene later if you need to, but don't be afraid to let your people get angry; they'll reveal themselves, maybe even to you.

To put today's musing into action, check out the writing tip at the top of the list and let me know how it goes.

A Change of Scenery, a Change of Pace

You've heard it a thousand times — "you just need a change." For creative folk, a change of scenery and a change of pace are essential. I just returned from Italy and it did me a world of good even though I dreaded the trip for the upheaval it would bring to my well-ordered life. But upheaval is essential, like a good yanking away of all that safe stuff we cling to daily like a life raft. Before you get envious, this wasn't a pleasure trip, and I despaired of getting any downtime. Still, progress was made for collaboration with two Italian-based publishers, and there were two days of beach time — yes, it was that warm, even though we're now seeing snow in the alps of Connecticut. Speaking of Alps — I saw the real chain encircling Milan like a setting around this crusty jewel of a northern city.

There's no quote or tip for today, except maybe to get yourself away somewhere, even if only in your dreams, maybe with a movie or a picture book of your favorite place, or a place you'd like to visit, and let your mind wander …