Charlotte Rains Dixon

Book Writing: The Tyranny of Chronology

2012-01-27T10:44:03-08:00

Are you a Write in Order Writer, or an Anything, Anytime Writer?

The Write in Order Writer insists on writing scenes in strict chronology.

The Anything, Anytime Writer writes whatever part of the novel she feels like without regard to order.

All my life, I've been a Write in Order Writer. And this is not necessarily a good thing. Because hewing to a strict chronology as you write can become tyrannical. (For the record, that's a great word.)

As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm working on a new novel. The path to get here has been fraught with false starts and stories that petered out, but finally I have a main character I love and a story that has legs.

But, here's the deal: every novel that you write comes out differently. I've had to come to grips with this. My last novel, Emma Jean's Bad Behavior (the one I'm currently shopping), came all in a glorious rush. Emma Jean was unstoppable. It was amazing and wonderful and thrilling. I wrote the first draft from beginning to end in a couple of months.

Now comes this novel (it doesn't have a name yet). I've been saying to myself and anyone who would listen this: it is coming slowly. And it has been. I've been saying that with gratitude that it is coming at all, but I also have realized that since the mind directs everything I need to change those statements. My new one is: my novel is coming fast.

And one of the reasons that it is going to start coming faster is because I'm turning into an Anything, Anytime Writer. In order to make forward progress and let this novel flow the way it wants to (those being the operative words here) I've had to let go of chronology.

As we say in my family, cary, cary. (Translation: scary, scary.)

Just yesterday I wrote the end of Chapter Three before I finished a scene in the middle. That may not sound like much to those of Anything, Anytime Writers, but to me, a dedicated Write in Order Writer, it was huge.

Cary, cary. And also liberating. I hope I can do more of it.

So let's look at advantages and disadvantages of each.

Advantages to working in chronology.

You can keep track of the flow of the story.
It is easier to consider cause and effect.
Character arcs are more easily seen.
You won't get confused

Disadvantages to working in chronology.

Writing whatever scene catches your fancy is freeing as all hell.
By allowing yourself to write what you want, you won't get blocked.
You may get a deeper understanding of character.
The writing may flow more easily.
You'll get the momentum rolling.

Okay, so the Anything, Anytime Writers win, at least in the above breakdown. I'm probably missing a few points, so feel free to fill them in.

And, do tell: what about you? What kind of writer are you? What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages?

CREATE A SUCCESSFUL, INSPIRED WRITING LIFE: Try something different. If you are a Write in Order Writer, try writing a scene out of chronology. If you are a Anything, Anytime Writer, try writing a few scenes in order. Which works best?

Photo by a2gemma.

The Delicate Tension of Being a Writer

2012-01-25T17:02:12-08:00

When you're a writer, you are always pulled to write.

If you're like me, and I fancy that you are, because we writers share odd (yet wonderful) traits, you're constantly thinking, I should be writing. Or, I wish I was writing. Or, why aren't I writing?

The pull of the story is always with us. And that creates a constant tension in our lives.

Do you remember what it is like to live without this tension? I don't.

Because the desire to find time to write colors every day.

I think this same tension is present in the lives of other creatives--artists and musicians and dancers. It is the urge to create, the pull to make something from nothing, the yearning to put something of ourselves into the world.

My favorite line from The Artist's Way is something to the effect that we are most in God's image when we are creating, seeing as how He created the world.

And so even though I live my days with a constant undercurrent of tension, and somedays I think that life would be easier without it, I welcome it, because that tension causes the compulsion to create.

And without it, my life would be pretty damn dull.

PS--Please note the snappy new tagline. Cool, huh? I feel it is more in line with what this blog actually covers. Also please note below my new effort to help you take the ideas discussed here and pull them into your own life. I'd love to hear what you think of all this.

*Create a successful, inspired writing life: Sit in silence for a few minutes. (Doesn't even have to be that long, trust me.) What's the tension in your creative life? What is it calling you to create?

**Comments are welcome: do you feel a creative tension in your life? How does it compel you to create? Or is it a hindrance in any way?

***Don't forget to sign up for my free newsletter and Ebook! Just fill out the form to the right.

Photo by _gee_.

The Writing Process: Letting Go

2012-01-23T10:52:57-08:00

There comes a time in every writer's life when she or he must let go. Most likely, it will be letting go of the work, sending it out into the world to find its own way. But it might also involve letting go of something such as a preconceived notion, a story idea, or the way you think your plot should go.

But we'll talk about those in a minute. First, let me tell you a couple stories.

When you have an experience of deeply, truly, and spontaneously letting go, it is incredibly profound. This has happened to me twice. The first time I was a tubby, relatively new mother worried about my weight. I worried and obsessed and thought about it constantly. Until one day when I was standing in the kitchen, having just taken on a huge volunteer position, and I realized that indeed, I might be a bit overweight, but at the moment I simply didn't have time to worry about it any more.

And so I didn't. And of course, you know what happened. I lost weight effortlessly. Believe me, I've been trying to reproduce this moment ever since.

The second time it happened, I'd been worrying and obsessing and thinking about a relationship with a friend. Until finally I had a phone conversation with said friend and upon hanging up the phone, I literally sensed a gaggle of crows lifting my cares about the relationship away. The relationship changed for the better after that.

Once you've experienced such moments of letting go, you really want to reproduce them. Because they are magical. And suddenly when you don't worry or obsess any more, life is easier. It flows.

But here's the catch: grasping and being desperate to let go simply doesn't work.

It is one of the great paradoxes in life. The more you seek to let go of something, the more it hangs around.

Sigh. This is why I'm not cut out to be a Buddhist.

However, I have also learned that while the big, sexy, glamorous instances of letting go are the ones we tend to remember, you can also experience smaller moments of release that are no less profound. And these, my friends, you can work toward.

How?

By announcing your intention to let go. And then returning to this intention over and over again, in a nice, gentle way, until one day whatever it is you wanted to release is actually gone.

Let's go back to applying this to writing, specifically, the instances I mentioned a the beginning of this long slog of a post:

Preconceived notion

Sometimes you might have a very set idea of how something is going to work in your story. Only then it doesn't. And if you keep trying to force it, you deaden the work. Or, at the very least, you prevent yourself from finding ways to make something else work. An example might be when a new character walks on. I love when this happens, but it can be disconcerting. How does this new character affect all the other characters? Recasting relationships can create a lot of work. And perhaps you resist it. Don't. Let it go.

Story idea

Perhaps you have a story idea that simply isn't working that you are holding onto. Is it time to let go of it? I had two false starts on novels before I began the one I'm currently working on (and falling more and more in love with as I go.) It took a lot to admit the ideas weren't working. But this weekend I opened the file for one of the novels and could immediately tell how awkward it sounded. If I hadn't let go, I wouldn't be happily working on my current novel.

The way you think your plot should go

Sometimes you want to force your plot to go in one direction and it just doesn't work. Release your grip on the story and be open to something new and different and see what happens.

Sending your work into the world

Heeheehee. I'm laughing because I know how difficult this one is, and I struggle with it too. It's like sending your baby to kindergarten. You want all the conditions to be perfect before you do. But hey, guess what? The conditions are never going to be perfect. This is not to say that you shouldn't polish your work, because you should. But there comes a time when you must let it go out into the world to find its way, just like your children.

*Create a successful, inspired writing life: Look at what you're working on. Do any of these apply to you? Do you have an article, a query, or a proposal that needs to get out of your desk drawer and into the world? Go send it out.

**I'd love to hear how this applies to you. Have you had any experiences of letting go?

***I'd also love to have you on my mailing list! Sign up in the form to the right and get a subscription to my bi-weekly newsletter, The Abundant Writer, and an Ebook on creating a vision board for your book.

Photo by ibm4381.

Writing Inspiration: What Do Your Nerves Tell You?

2012-01-19T14:35:20-08:00

Gazing at me may make you feel calmer.

Yesterday I told you I had a kick-ass (one can only hope) post on letting go ready for you. Then I got distracted by the need to write about the Sopa Strike. And now here you are and you're reading a post on nerves. What gives? It makes more sense to write about nerves first and then letting go.

At least to me.

So, here's the story. On Sunday, I wrote up the notes for Session Two of my Make Money Writing class. I did a dry run. I was happy, I felt ready.

Nerves

Monday morning I awoke with a vague sense of nervousness and when I thought about it, I realized it was around the class. Now, I always get a little nervous when I'm presenting a class. And in this case, a few little nerves are good because they are about me wanting the class to be good, and full of useful information.

But on this day it was more than just pre-class jitters. The more I thought about it, the more I realized something was wrong. So I went back to the notes. Realized I had to rearrange one section. And add another. Did another dry run. This time I felt peace.

And the class was great. (At least, I thought so.)

But this incident got me thinking how often nerves are a signal that something isn't working. There are nerves and then there are nerves. And we need to learn to pay attention to nerves.

The same thing happens in writing. The feeling may not manifest exactly as nerves, but in an emotion closely related. You may have a vague idea that something isn't right, but you don't know what. Or perhaps it manifests as an inability to get to the page.

Pay Attention

And here's the deal: that feeling is always a signal that something is wrong. Always. It may be something as simple as needing to rearrange and add things, as with me. Or it could be that the scene you are writing is taking place in the wrong location. Or with the wrong people. Maybe it is in the wrong order in your chronology.

So the moral of the story is to always, always, always pay attention to the feeling and try your best to identify what might be wrong. (Good ways to do this include the usual suspects of meditation, free writing, playing hooky, flopping about dramatically on the couch--whatever works for you.) You'll save yourself tons of time in the long run if you pay attention to your nerves.

Has anything like this every happened to you?

A couple of points of interest:

1. Jessica Baverstock, of Creativity's Workshop fame, is celebrating her 100th blog post today! She's appeared in these pages regularly, so go pay her a visit to congratulate her.

2. I have an interview over at Melissa Balmer's Womeonsocalbikes.org. Its about "Finding the Female Advocate's Voice," and its pretty cool.

Don't forget to sign up for a subscription to my bi-weekly newsletter, The Abundant Writer. The form is to the right, and you get a free Ebook, too!

Photo by D.C.Atty, from Everystockphoto. And check out the cool new feature on Typepad--captions, yay!

Stop SOPA

2012-01-17T20:16:03-08:00

I have a kick-ass post on letting go and how difficult and necessary it is. But you'll note I'm not posted it today.

That's because I'm participating in the Stop SOPA strike.

I'm not technically advanced enough to figure out how to black out my site, but this way you get the benefit of learning more about it. (And if you find sites blacked out in your travels around the web, this is why.)

Information from the Stop SOPA Strike page:

On Jan 24th, Congress will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. We need to kill the bill - PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House - to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity. We need internet companies to follow Reddit's lead and stand up for the web, as we internet users are doing every day.

Some of the many internet guys joining this strike:

And many more.

Won't you join? Don't you want a free, uncensored internet? I know I do. Visit the SOPA Strike page to find out more.