Showing posts with label Writing Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Tips. Show all posts
Office supplies
Well, it's that time of year again. When I go to Wal Mart and walk out with fifty to a hundred spiral bound notebooks at a time. Yes, school is about to start and Wal Mart has 70 page spiral bound notebooks in stock for ten cents apiece. These just happen to be the same notebooks that are the perfect size for writing a article or short story draft in. Or outlining chapters in novels. I got me some wide ruled notebooks as well as college ruled ones, usually I just get college ruled, but I want to use the wide ruled ones to start outlining on a chapter by chapter basis what I want to happen in my next novel after I finish with Heir, and I have about 10 chapters to go in Heir as well.
Writing Tips of James A. Michener
I picked up a book on writing at the library called "James A. Michener's Writer's Handbook" and have been reading through it. One of my favorite bits of advice he gives is on writing. He says that he follows two rules: "Search for the right name till you find it. And write as if you knew everything in the world."
Those are rules that I think every writer could benefit from learning and learning well. Names make the character. Who could imagine Tom Sawyer's best friend being named Leroy Finn? Leroy just don't have the same free spirit sound to it for me as Huckleberry has. How about if Scarlet O'Hara was named Rose Alistair? To me names are something that makes a character's actions and personality fit them.
And writing as if you knew everything? Well, that's simple mathematics of not stopping to check the almanac to make sure that you have something right. Assume it's right and keep right on moving with the story. You can fix it all later. That's why we have revisions. And trust me, as writers, we have plenty of revisions. There is no need to get it right the first time through the novel.
Those are rules that I think every writer could benefit from learning and learning well. Names make the character. Who could imagine Tom Sawyer's best friend being named Leroy Finn? Leroy just don't have the same free spirit sound to it for me as Huckleberry has. How about if Scarlet O'Hara was named Rose Alistair? To me names are something that makes a character's actions and personality fit them.
And writing as if you knew everything? Well, that's simple mathematics of not stopping to check the almanac to make sure that you have something right. Assume it's right and keep right on moving with the story. You can fix it all later. That's why we have revisions. And trust me, as writers, we have plenty of revisions. There is no need to get it right the first time through the novel.
