3 Circles of Writer Doubt

Fear runs circles around every writer. I think there are three basic categories of doubt that attacks writers: fears about yourself, fears about your idea, and fears about others.

• Fear can lead to doubt. You might doubt yourself as a writer. You might doubt the worth of your idea. You might doubt how others will receive you or your work. Breaking out of any of these circles of fear requires courage. You need to accept and deal with your fear or...
• Doubt can lead to excuses. You could find yourself making excuses to remain as you are. You could find yourself making excuses for idea's “flaws”. You could find yourself making excuses not to show others your work. Breaking out of any of these circles of fear requires work. You need to put in the work to overcome or compensate for any perceived shortcomings. When you don't...
• Excuses can lead to avoidance. You find yourself avoiding the part of you that is a writer. You avoid the idea that once got you so excited. You avoid talking about it to other people. Breaking out of avoidance takes some serious will-power.

Avoiding writing can lead to frustration, guilt, and a whole host of other negative emotions and negative beliefs. Decide which circle your fear runs in: self, idea, others. Then break the cycle. Get help from others if necessary.

“You can live with me in this house I've built out of writers blocks.”

“You can live with me in this house I've built out of writers blocks.”
― Pete Wentz

Writer's Block or Burn-Out?

Amsterdam blue - back-to-back (Photo credit: CharlesFred)

         You stare at a blank screen. It happens to us all. But when should you power through and when should you take a break? Use the excuse of writer's block and you risk slowing or halting your progress. Force yourself to write through burn-out and you prolong the pain. When you can't write, how can you tell the difference?
        People with writer's block want to write but can't. You become frustrated with yourself, doubt yourself, doubt your work. Regardless of how you define and explain writer's block, it can be gotten around with patience and understanding.
        People with burn-out have a different set of symptoms. You have no interest in writing. It might even make your head hurt and it only gets worse the harder you try. Burn-out plays havoc with your emotions. You become moody -- even when not writing. When someone asks about your writing you get irritable, angry, or defensive (reactions directed at other people rather than yourself or your work). The only way to get past burn-out is to rest and recharge.
        Recognize the difference between writer's block and burn-out. Know when to keep trying and when to call it quits. Your WIP, your emotions, and your relationships will thank you.

5 Ways to Free Your Writing

Dancers at the annual Cinco de Mayo Festival in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cinco de Mayo is (in part) a day that celebrates freedom. As a writer, fight for freedom from cliches, stagnation, and writer block! Just as the Mexicans turned back an invading force, you can fight against these enemies of writers everywhere and everywhen.

• Brainstorm: Avoid cliches by listing multiple scenarios. I find that my best ideas come after the brainstorming becomes difficult because I'm really stretching myself. Another benefit of brainstorming is that you can combine ideas, adding complexity – even if you go with your original plan.
• Want: Write what you want, not what you think you should write. You are writing for people who like what you like. So write for yourself and you will be writing for them. Also, when you write what you want you will be more enthusiastic, creative, and persistent.
• Carry: Keep a voice recorder, a notebook, or note cards to record ideas as they come. Then they'll be available when you want them. As an added benefit, the act of recording them can generate additional ideas.
• Ask: Other people love to share ideas for characters or settings. This gives them a chance to be part of the process and gives you a new perspective.
• Rewrite: When a scene doesn't work, rewrite it regardless of your time constraints. Better to do it now rather than later. A bad scene or line – or one that just doesn't “fit” – can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection during the submission process.

Revision Step 1: Delete!

I'm doing some major revisions of a manuscript. I recommend beginning the revision process by looking for things to remove. Many times deleting content will improve clarity, voice, logic, and flow. As an added bonus, by deleting content in your first step of revision you won't waste time polishing material you will only remove your labor of love later on. And if deleting content leaves holes, you can brainstorm and fill the gaps with something even better.

This is the start of a five-part series of articles that looks at deleting to improve Style, Events, Summary and Description, Characters, and Dialogue.

• Style assumes that you know the basics of grammar – that you know a noun from a verb but may or may not remember an adverb from a adjective. Whether you have found your writing voice or are still flailing around, there are still ways to make your narrative more clear to the reader. The blog does NOT intend to place greater value on any particular type of voice (wordy, terse, slang, etc.) or to influence you in a particular direction. If I did, then it wouldn't be your voice, would it?
• Events assumes that you know the basic flow of a scene. If you struggle with this, you can still use these strategies and tips. This blog looks at relevance on the macro and micro levels, as well as the qualities mentioned earlier. The blog does NOT delve into different types of conflict, a break-down of what a scene is and is not, or types of transitions. Again, each of those would need its own post.
• Summary and Descriptions assumes that these will be where your voice shines through most clearly. If you aren't sure what your voice is, here is a great place to look. Regardless of genre, there are guidelines for good summary and description. I attempt to touch on these. This area is one that can help define the genre you are writing and every genre comes with its own expectations. The blog does NOT break down different genre expectations for summary and description. Instead, it tries to provide guidelines in terms that are relevant across genre.
• Characters assumes that you have developed the people in your story or have plans to do so. The blog looks at staying true to your characters and your reader. Always, in my book, the reader comes first, the main character(s) comes second, and so on. The blog does NOT deal directly with character development but the tips and strategies will probably help you in this area, too.
• Dialogue is an area I struggle with but many other people love. I assume the reader can keep straight who is talking to who. The blog looks at streamlining dialogue, tags, and non-conversational prose. The blog does NOT address increasing conflict, tension, foreshadowing, back-story, or world-building through dialogue. That would be adding and this blog is about subtracting.

Use Avoidance to Heighten Conflict

As I rewrite an early chapter, it would be convenient to have the main character prefer to avoid conflict. My first reaction was: no way I can do that. It will reduce my chances for conflict. But then I started thinking…

1. The stakes in any given chapter or scene won’t let her avoid conflict. So she will have an inner conflict (the wish to avoid conflict warring with the need to reach her scene goal) as well as an external conflict.
2. If the main character was argumentative by nature, any conflict with another person would mean less because she’d be following her nature rather than fighting it. More tension there.
3. When I change POV and the scene goal pits two other characters against one another, it will be natural for her to play peace-maker. Which makes for three-way tension because the strength of the scene goal and opposition won’t let them make peace without first resolving the dispute.
4. If she avoids conflict when the stakes don’t matter, then she isn’t communicating truthfully and it can lead to misunderstandings and isolation from other characters. This presents problems she will be reluctant to address – much less solve.

Three guesses as to what I decided. Come on, surely you can come up with at least three possible paths forward…

Writing Through Fear

Okay, so I’m scared to write. I’m certain that whatever I write will be worthless. But it needs to be done and I can’t edit a blank page. Editing is my salvation. I can add or change things for the better once I have written those first words. And I like cutting words, scenes, and chapters. I get rid of the chaff for a better over-all book.What is left when you remove chaff? Bare seeds I think… Wheat, rye, whatever. Seeds that can be eaten, thrown, or grown. For the reader, books and their ideas can be used in all three ways. But please apologize to the book later if you throw it…