In which I finally disagree with Stephen King

He seems to be handling it well.

As I have likely mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Stephen King's On Writing. It's a fun read, it shares some fascinating personal history, and I think he's spot-on about the use of language, about how one should write first drafts "with the door closed," and about how art and writing support life, not the other way around.

Furthermore, I don't think you need to love his stuff or write like him to appreciate his insights. First of all, any time an author as successful as King talks about why writing is important to him, how he got started, and what his inspirations and motivations are, it's probably worth a read. Second, his recommendations are fungible across a wide variety of genres and styles -- I don't write horror, and I tend to underwrite rather than overwrite. If someone who struggled to get her novel over 60K words thinks she's getting good advice from a man who averages 2K words a day* and consistently puts out novels that are in the 300K-plus range, his suggestions are probably pretty darn universal.

But, as part of my November Big Think Project (which is increasingly replacing my NaNoWriMo efforts), I'm starting to realize that I must depart from King's advice about something very fundamental, at least as far as my own writing is concerned.

King says that writers should always start with story first, then progress to theme. That theme is something that can -- and should! -- be enhanced during the editing process, but that starting with these questions and thematic concerns is a recipe for bad fiction.

I disagree.

I'm not a plotter. Nor am I someone who starts with a nice, clear "what if?" story question like King does. I started my first novel with a character and a life-changing event. That's it.

Now, this indeed could have made for some very crappy fiction. There are plenty of life-changing events happening every day in the world (marriage, birth, death) that do not in any way support a 200+ page story arc. But, underlying this fictional life-changing event is what King himself would probably call one of my "deep interests." It's what got me started writing the story, it's what first breathed life into my main character, and it ended up being the basis of an entire book that, damn it all, I think is really good. That is because, for me, theme IS enough to power a novel:

I don't believe any novelist, even one who's written forty-plus books, has too many thematic concerns; I have many interests, but only a few that are deep enough to power novels. These deep interests (I won't quite call them obsessions) include how difficult it is - perhaps impossible! - to close Pandora's technobox once it's open (The Stand, The Tommyknockers, Firestarter); the question of why, if there is a god, such terrible things happen (The Stand, Desperation, The Green Mile); the thin line between reality and fantasy (The Dark Half, Bag of Bones, The Drawing of the Three); and most of all, the terrible attraction violence sometimes has for fundamentally good people (The Shining, The Dark Half).

-On Writing (emphasis mine)

Obviously, such novels also need a story/plot/action, because otherwise we're not really writing fiction at all, we're writing thinly-veiled diatribes. But at this moment in my not-yet-really-begun writing career, I need to start from theme, and let the story build from the things that fascinate me. Because otherwise, why would I care enough about the damn story to bother writing it in the first place? And if I don't care enough about the story (and its underlying themes) to put not merely my time but also my heart into drafting and editing, I can pretty much guarantee that no one else will care enough to want to read it, even if I do manage to craft some technically proficient language on the surface.

Right now, theme is my engine, but that doesn't mean that story and language need to be passively riding in the novel's back seat. Story and language are the novel-car's frame and body, the beautiful lines and shape that make you want to get in and go. But theme is what drives the car, what determines how far and how fast the story can go.

So, Mr. King, I'm sorry, but I disagree. I think that for some writers, thematic concerns can and should be front and center during the first draft of a novel. Because that's what I care about, and ultimately, that may be what makes my writing worth reading.

I hope this doesn't change things between us -- I love your novels, and your short stories, and I own every audiobook you've personally narrated, plus Ron McLarty's reading of Salem's Lot and Jeffrey DeMunn's reading of Dreamcatcher... did you know that Jeff and I were in a movie together? I'm so glad you and/or your associated casting agents keep hiring him for your movies -- The Mist, Green Mile, Storm of the Century -- because he is just a spectacular talent and all-around nice guy, and he deserves far more fame and fortune than he's ever going to get... but I digress.

In short, I'm still your #1,429,517 fan. Next time you're in town for a Red Sox game, come on over, and I'll buy you a coffee.

AUTHORS, BLOGGERS... WHAT DRIVES YOUR WRITING?

* That's right, he lives every day like it's NaNoWriMo.

Reminder: make NaNoWriMo work for YOU

This morning I see that some of the bloggers I follow are dropping out of NaNoWriMo... some are doing rewrites instead, and some are finding that the high word count obligation is reducing the fun of writing, and they're either quitting NaNoWriMo entirely or simply giving up on the 50K word count goal.

I'm here to say: THIS IS FINE. Rock on with your bad selves.

The goals of NaNoWriMo, to my mind, are as follows:

• Write fast enough that your inner editor can't catch you.

If writing too fast means that your quality drops to the point where NEW inner editors start popping up to block the path ahead, then it's no good! F*ck the 50K goal. Write at a speed that works for you. And, if you have a project that needs editing, then by all means avoid NaNoWriMo like the swine flu. Inner editors aren't always evil, they just need to learn their place and only show up when invited.

• Write more than usual. Lots more.

If writing too many words in a day just ends up burning you out, you're not going to end up writing more, are you? Slow down. If writing too many words in a day starts to feel like work, then you're going to start seeing it as a dreaded chore, and will end up writing less. Slow down. If writing too many words in a day takes away the fun in any way... well, then, seriously, what's the point? Slow down. It's cool, I promise.

• Write in a like-minded community.

You can enjoy the NaNoWriMo forums even if you never write a single word. When else will you have access to more than one hundred thousand writers who are willing to answer each other's questions? Someone on the forums taught me how to make paper. Several people on the forums answered my recent question about what it's like to get a first tattoo. Someone out there may very well have lived the exact experience you are trying to imagine for a character. Go ask 'em about it. It's a research resource that may be greater than Google, and it's available one month a year, and it doesn't require a word count of any size to get in.

• Put up or shut up.

It's all about getting your priorities in order. On the surface, joining NaNoWriMo means shutting off that rerun of The Simpsons and writing something of your own. But in a broader sense, it means no regrets. NaNo assumes that you will regret not trying to write a novel. But if anything about NaNoWriMo is making the writing process less effective or fun for you... well, then, that's going to give you a different set of priorities, isn't it? Maybe you DO need to watch that rerun, if it's the best chance for you to bond with your spouse/partner/kids. Maybe you need to rewrite something old instead of drafting something new. Maybe you need to write slower to fully enjoy the experience and get a "bad first draft" of a high enough quality that you will actually be interested in editing it later.

I burn out if I write much more than 1,000 words a day for an extended period of time. I would not have known that 1K was my upper limit if I hadn't TRIED for 2K/day during NaNoWriMo 2005... but guess what? Now I know. So I will never try to force myself to write more than 1,000 words in a day, even if it is November. If I've got genuine inspiration or a clear sense of story to carry me on, maybe I'll go for it, but I'm not going to push. And so, I joined NaNoWriMo this year knowing that I would not win. At least, not from a word count perspective.

But if I have a clear sense of what my next novel is about in December? Then I will have won the challenge that matters to me.

Don't get worked up about this. Do it your way.

Frank Sinatra, My Way (Royal Festival Hall 1971)

Being Yourself as a Writer Pt. 2

Let's talk about another side of "being yourself" in writing... the aspirational side. Yeah, yeah, we're not Shakespeare. So what?

There are no new ideas, and maybe only seven plot structures. So what?

We know these things, and yet we write. I assume that this is because we each have a story to tell, something important to each of us that we want to put out there into the world. Which means that -- even if we're writing fiction instead of writing memoir or a personal blog -- we are trying to show a certain facet of ourselves to others.

I also imagine that we're trying to show our best selves. (Yes, even if we're writing about human flaws, we are ultimately trying to be our best as we present these stories.)

Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck.
-- Joss Whedon

What do you hope to show about yourself through your writing? Perhaps simply that you are a creative storyteller. Perhaps something deeper. What do you aspire to?

The fabulous Moonrat at Editorial Ass(istant) recently posted a link to Alexander Chee's essay about studying with Annie Dillard, and I'm getting very inspired by the whole thing, and thinking more about what I want my writing to do. Here's the part she liked best:

Yes, everything’s been written, but also, the thing you want to write, before you wrote it, was impossible to write. Otherwise it would already exist. You writing it makes it possible.

The question is not, why do you WRITE? It is, why do YOU write? What do you hope to bring to writing, simply by being yourself?

Being Yourself as a Writer Pt.1

Thank you for all the fabulous comments yesterday! If anyone didn't get the chance to answer my questions yesterday, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts, so I won't go too far off topic today...

Let's add a twist for writers. Many industry people believe that it's important to create a brand as a writer: sure, once you're sufficiently well-known for good writing you can start to branch out and write anything you want, but as a beginner it is often recommended that writers (and, I think, bloggers) find a genre or a style or a subject matter for which they can be known, to help build an audience. Let's use retail as an example -- if you have a local store that sells clothes that you like, that flatter you and fit you well and match your style, you would keep going back for more... and you'd probably shop there LESS OFTEN if you couldn't count on seeing those items for sale every day. It would be very disconcerting if one week they sold bicycle tires, another week they sold kids' toys, another week they sold those nice clothes, and then back to tires again, or maybe landscaping equipment... the odds are higher that you will find an appreciative audience for ONE THING than for dozens.

So, how do you "be yourself" as a writer? Writers, are you dying to bust out something that your current audience might not appreciate? Bloggers, do you ever find yourself holding back about something you'd like to discuss, because you know that your blog is a "writing" blog, or a "travel" blog, or a "political" blog, or some other niche? Or perhaps, like me, you just try to find some kind of angle to make the topic work within the confines of your chosen genre?

Or did you chose your writing/blogging topics and style because they are so inherently you that this isn't even an issue for you, because you're already writing about everything you could possibly care about? Why would anyone ever want to sell anything but bicycle tires, right? Those weirdos...

Tell me more. Who are you, and how do you present yourself? And, who are you and how do you present yourself as a writer or blogger?

Being Yourself

I just read a fascinating short blog entry about being yourself in the face of others' expectations. The section that caught my eye was this one:

The ability to just be yourself is a lot harder to come by than we might think. And one of the biggest obstacles can be race. Specifically, racial stereotypes.

I’m not particularly meek, yet at almost every job I’ve held, people have thought of me as a shy and quiet Asian girl. Because of that, I’ve always had to project an exaggerated version of my personality, just to be perceived as normal.

What kinds of racial stereotypes do you find yourself battling on a daily basis? What elements of your authentic self are you suppressing? How is race getting in the way of your self-expression without you even knowing it?

Wow. Think about it... is it more true to yourself to simply be yourself, or to adjust the way you present yourself to the world so that you are correctly interpreted by those around you? It's not just about race. It's about religion or lack thereof, it's about gender and sexuality, it's about family and parenting, it's about our chosen professions (insert lawyer joke here)...

I once worked for a judge who let his clerks wear whatever they wanted in chambers, but not when a criminal case was in his courtroom -- then the clerks had to wear suits. He wanted to make sure that we not only gave the defendant a fair trial, but that we gave the appearance of fairness and professionalism. He knew that his clerks would perform the same considered legal analysis in a t-shirt and shorts as in a jacket and tie, but he also knew that sloppy attire could be misunderstood as a sign that we didn't care about the proceedings. And so he took steps to ensure we never gave out the wrong messages.

What do I try to communicate on a daily basis, without even realizing it? I don't wear makeup, but that doesn't mean I don't care about my appearance. I'm a lawyer, but I'm not an ambulance-chaser. I'm between jobs, but I'm not sitting on the couch all day eating bon-bons. I'm not who you might think I am.

How about you? Do you make adjustments to the way you express yourself to make sure that you are correctly viewed by others? What stereotypes do you think people place on you before they get to know you? Do you adjust your self-presentation to correct for that?