So You Want to be a Writer?

In many years of writing, I have heard over and over again how hard it is to write, how much a writer must sacrifice for his or her art, how we must bleed upon the page if we hope to call ourselves writers. Of course, I’ve heard, too, of that most-lamentable condition called writer’s block. It’s one more of the perils that face those who dare to pick up paper and pencil and express their thoughts.

Whenever I hear complaints such as these, one thought quickly comes into my head. If it’s so hard for you, why do you do it?

Let’s look at geometry for a moment. In school, I made good grades in geometry, but I hated the subject. It involved so much tedious measurement! Today, in art work, I still don’t like geometry, so I avoid drawings that rely heavily on architectural perspectives and those dreaded angles. In other words, geometry is a useful skill for many, but one I use only if I must.

Why should it be different for writing? Just as I would never want a job that required me to use geometry on a daily basis, why would anyone who finds writing difficult ever want to be a writer? Now, please, don’t tell me that I don’t understand what writing is all about. Trust me, I do.

If you really want to suffer for your art, go right ahead. But just remember, it doesn’t have to be that way. Writing can be — and in my opinion, should be — a lot of fun. Especially with Sim-Lit. After all, this is a genre based upon playing a game. If that’s not a recipe for fun, I don’t know what is!

The trouble a lot of struggling writers have comes from taking themselves too seriously, and from worrying too much about getting the words right. If there’s one simple secret to writing, it’s this: the more words you write, the easier it becomes, and the more words you write, the greater the likelihood that you’ll find the right ones.

Don’t ever be afraid of writing badly. Why not? Because bad writing can be improved. You can’t do anything with a blank page, however, except stare at it. The problems you face in writing can usually be corrected by writing more.

Huh?

Sure. Practice does lead to improvement, especially if you’re truly passionate about what you’re doing and are willing to learn from your mistakes.

But what should I write about? Where do I start? How do I know what to say?

Anything.

Anywhere.

You don’t have to know what to say when you start.

The point is, if you want to write, sit down and do it. Don’t worry about choosing the right word, just write every word that comes to mind. Put down a dozen different thoughts. You can sort them out later, once they’re on the page. Forget about spelling, and for the moment, don’t even think about grammar. Spelling can be checked; bad grammar can be corrected. Unnecessary words can be removed, and jumbled thoughts can be put in order.

I know, you’re not convinced. You’re still shaking your head, mumbling that I just don’t “get it”. It’s not easy to write, you have to be inspired, you have to have some ethereal muse hovering about, tormenting your soul…or whatever it is that people think muses do.

Hate to burst your bubble, but writing is easy, you don’t have to be inspired to do it, and if you want to be a writer, you have to become your own muse. Tormenting your soul, by the way, is not part of the job description.

A writer’s job is to write. Oh, sure, there’s a little more to it than just writing, but that’s where it begins. You sit down and you write. About what? About anything. You write, you explore your thoughts, and you put your imagination to work.

You write silly things. You write bad things. You write the most outlandish, ridiculous things you can think of. Sometimes you even do it deliberately…because it’s so much fun. You write fast, you write furiously. You wander off on tangents and fall into gaping plot holes. Oh, well. It happens. You just keep writing.

Don’t know where to go next? No plot? No problem. Grab a dictionary, open it at random, and take the first word you see. Find a way to use it. Got a book of story starters or writing prompts? Take an idea and make it work for your story. Indulge yourself in a bit of stream of consciousness writing — just sitting down and writing whatever comes to mind.

Play with words. Play with writing. Make up creative exercises, such as describing twenty ways a character might walk: he ambled, he sauntered, he limped… Or try listing as many “dialogue tags” as you can: she postulated, she opined, she posited. Note: Once you’ve come up with these awful tags, throw them away. The best dialogue tag is still “said.”

Write from different points of view. Write in present tense. Write from your memories or write from your dreams. Just write, and keep on writing until you can’t write any longer. Stop, take a break, and then come back and do it all over again.

Here’s a little challenge for you. Sit down today and take a look at the time. Write down the time, in fact. Then start writing about anything and everything that comes to mind. Just ramble on for as long as you want. Stop, look at the time, and write it down. How long did you spend writing before you ran out of words? Five minutes? Fifteen? Two hours? It doesn’t matter how long you wrote. This is only the starting point. Just make note of the length of time you spent.

Tomorrow, sit down again and repeat the exercise. This time, however, add five minutes to the previous day’s writing session. Set a timer so you’ll know when to quit.

The following day, add another five minutes. Repeat this every day until you’ve doubled your original time. In other words, if you wrote for one hour on the first day, continue until your session reaches two hours.

You might also want to check out Stream of Consciousness Saturday, a blogging challenge which provides participants with a weekly prompt. No rules, no word length minimums, just writing purely for the joy of it.

Yes, writing should be joyful. It should be fun. So, if you really want to be a writer, learn now how to make writing the most enjoyable thing you do each day.

 

 

Characters: Sara Evans

Sara Foster Evans considers herself one of the luckiest women in the world. Her life couldn’t be more perfect, in her opinion. She met the love of her life was she was a young woman of 22, married him two years later, and together they raised two sons who have gone on to be successful, responsible young men.

From the start, Sara aspired to be a good wife to Edgar. She loves cooking and housekeeping — she’s very neat — and she’s always welcomed friends to their home.

After their first child, Michael, was born, Sara made up little stories to entertain him. Soon she was writing them down, gathering them into a book of children’s tales, and sharing them with others. Encouraged by the positive response her stories received, she continued writing. When their second son, Jonathan, came along, Sara’s book of stories grew larger still. She wrote of the boys’ adventures, their dreams for the future, and the love their family shared.

A popular woman’s magazine discovered Sara’s writings and offered her a position as a monthly feature writer. It was an ideal career for her. She was able to work at home, provide insights and inspiration to other families, and feel that she was making a valuable contribution to the world without having to sacrifice the time she spent with her family.

As her husband’s career with the NSSA advanced, Sara listened attentively to his accounts of rocket launches and space travel. She wrote Edgar’s official biography and also penned numerous articles about the special challenges they shared — the constant worries for his safety, the loneliness they endured while he was away on missions, and the difficulties he faced when it came time to retire from active flight duty.

Meanwhile, her imagination was creating new worlds based upon Edgar’s experiences in space. Sara turned her attention to the science fiction genre and was thrilled when her first novel — a young-adult story called The Alien from Toomootoo — became a best-seller. She now writes adult science fiction and has been nominated for several “Jupiter” awards.

Sara once dreamed of being rich and famous. She aspired to live in a large, luxurious home. In looking back, she now laughs at those dreams. In her opinion, she is rich, indeed. Even though they don’t have much money, Sara and Edgar have a good life, a strong marriage, and a love that never ends. As for that big house? No, thanks. The Evans could afford a bigger home, but Sara has no intention of ever leaving their house. It’s where they raised their family and where they now entertain the grandchildren Michael and his wife have given them. With Jonathan getting married soon, there will be more grandchildren to come.

It’s been a good life, and it’s only going to get better.

Aspiration: Mansion Baron

Traits: Active, Family-Oriented, Neat

Sara and Edgar Evans — as an adult couple– are available for download from the Gallery.

 

 

Born Yesterday

As an author, I’m often invited to participate in roundtables or critique groups where writers discuss a particular story and offer constructive, helpful comments. Over the years, I’ve seen — and made — about every writing mistake that can happen when we sit down and attempt to translate the ideas in our heads into words on paper — or onto a computer screen.

Your sims might have been “born yesterday”, but make sure your story characters aren’t.

One of the worst mishaps in fiction-writing is what I call the “born yesterday” syndrome. This is where a character comes into a story with virtually no connections to any past events, Things are suddenly happening to him or her, but why? Without any past history to inform a reader, the story events fall flat.

Here’s a quick example from a story an aspiring writer submitted to one critique group. The main character — let’s call her Naomi — is engaged at the start of the story. She runs a little business with a good friend, and her parents are getting older.

In the opening chapter, Naomi’s world is thrown into a tailspin when her fiancé breaks off their two-year relationship because of her commitment to her aging parents. That sounds plausible, I know, but big decisions like this rarely happen out of the blue, and they should never happen that way in good fiction. Naomi, you see, was totally oblivious to her fiancé’s feelings, had no idea whatsoever that he was unhappy with any aspect of their relationship.

Later, still reeling from this break-up, Naomi goes to her shop, only to have her partner/best friend announce that she’s leaving to start a business of her own, again out of the blue. It seems this partner possessed a great deal of talent in jewelry-making — or some such avocation — and had been offered financial help to get started on her own. Naomi is floored. How could this be happening?

Next, her parents take her completely by surprise when they tell her that because of dementia they’re no longer able to care for themselves and they need her to move in with them. Again, this hits Naomi like one of those bolts out of the blue. She never saw it coming.

Really? Naomi, how could you be so dumb? Were you born yesterday?

The problem, of course, wasn’t Naomi’s problem alone. Actually, the real problem was the way in which the writer handled these situations. In truth — and fiction must reflect truth to be successful — none of these situations should have come as a huge surprise to Naomi.

• In the course of a two-year romantic relationship in which both parties plan to spend the rest of their lives together, conversations would naturally occur about important issues such as the care of aging parents. If a problem occurred, it would be discussed, there would likely be arguments, there would be many emotions involved.
• Best friends know each other well. They know one another’s interests and they share news about their lives. When one gets a big opportunity, they can’t wait to tell the other about it. That’s what being “best friends” is all about. And when best friends go into business together, they become jointly responsible for the business. There are legal considerations involved. It’s unrealistic that despite the author’s claim that Naomi and her best friend had been all but inseparable for the last twenty years, Naomi not only was shocked by her friend’s decision to quit the business but also had no knowledge of her interest in jewelry-making (or whatever it was) or her recent success. Best friends? Doesn’t sound like it to me.
• Parents or other relatives don’t “suddenly” require care unless something of consequence has happened. In a situation with a loving, devoted child who cares for aging parents, there are obvious signs and obvious worries about what the future will bring. Dementia doesn’t happen in a day — barring any traumatic head injury or viral cause. It’s a long, slow, agonizing process. Watching someone’s mental state deteriorate is a painful thing.

Taken together, these situations create an unrealistic storyline that makes the main character — poor Naomi — appear not to have a brain in her head. The problems, however, were not all Naomi’s.

How could she not know of her fiancé’s unhappiness? How could she not know that her relationship was only one problem away from disintegrating? (The break-up was precipitated by Naomi’s announcement that she would have to break their date that night to spend time with her parents.) In the break-up, the long-suffering fiancé ranted and raved about how unfair it was that she spent all her time with her parents or her best-friend and gave him so little, but apparently he’d never bothered to share any of these feelings before. He could rattle off a long list of previous incidents, but it seems not once had he raised the issue with his wife-to-be.

How could Naomi not know that her friend was looking for other opportunities? It turns out that this best friend had been unhappy for a long time, that she felt Naomi was taking advantage of her — again because of the time Naomi spent with her parents. The friend was even resentful of having to work while Naomi went out with her fiancé. Did no one ever discuss any of these issues?

How could Naomi not see that her parents would soon need additional help? The writer went on at great length to tell the reader how close they were, how much time Naomi spent with her parents, how she felt obliged to be involved with every aspect of their medical care. Yet she was caught off-guard when her parents asked her to move in with them? We’re left to wonder why no one mentioned that possibility until the moment when this poorly-planned story began.

The problem, you see, was that not only Naomi, but all of the characters suffered the malady known as “Born Yesterday syndrome.” These characters did not exist prior to the day the story began. We’re told that they did. We’re told that they had friends, families, romantic and business relationships, but telling a reader about the past means nothing unless the characters’ actions are based upon them.

In the proverbial nutshell, none of the events taking place in the story could have happened without some prior knowledge. The aspiring author created a lot of drama, but it was both meaningless and senseless because she created characters who appeared to have been born yesterday. Their actions made no sense in the context of the relationships and events described.

All of this is a lengthy way of saying that good characters in stories need to be real.  That means they were born long before they walked into the story. They had a childhood. They grew up in a specific place, went to school, had all the normal human experiences — assuming you’re writing about human beings — and learned a lot about the world around them.

Mind-shattering and life-altering events can happen out of the blue, but only when they’re external events. Internal events — those momentous decisions and natural progressions in life — don’t occur suddenly or spontaneously. There are signs along the way, pointing to what’s going to happen.

Don’t let your characters be clueless. Build your stories with a sense of realism and fill them with people whose lives and relationships can be traced back in time. In truth, our characters may have only come to life in our minds yesterday, but when we place them into a story, we owe it to the reader to give them more than a name. We need to give them a life, as well.

 

 

 

Role Play

The Sims is not an RPG (Role-Playing Game), but good storytellers know the importance of getting inside a character’s head — and heart. In writing, it’s referred to as viewpoint or point of view because the author is truly seeing the world through that particular character’s eyes.

Of course, good writing and storytelling involves all the senses, so when we “get into character” we should also be aware of what that character hears, tastes, feels, and even what the character smells.

Becoming aware of the environment through the physical senses also involves light, weather and temperature — is it a sunny summer day or a gloomy, dark, and stormy night?

There’s more, however, than just the physical senses. As storytellers, we should understand what the character is feeling at an emotional level, too. We need to hear not only external sounds, but that internal voice inside the character’s head. In short, we have to think and feel all that the character is experiencing. Only then can we truly understand the character’s needs, what motivates him or her, and what actions the character chooses to take.

Doing this in The Sims involves a bit of role play.

To write about Jonathan Evans stepping into his new home for the first time, I had to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine that I was Jonathan. I had to allow myself to feel the darkness and loneliness around him, and I had to listen to his thoughts in order to put them into writing.

Here are the opening paragraphs of Jonathan Chronicles:

Jonathan Evans took a deep breath before turning the key in the lock. He drew in another breath – deeper this time – as he leaned forward and pushed open the door. Even then it required several more slow and steady breaths before he could step over the threshold. This was more than simply stepping into a new house; he was stepping into a new life.

 

A cold, unfamiliar darkness surrounded him. Although this was a place he meant to call home, it held nothing of the warmth and cheerfulness usually associated with that word. Of course, maybe he was luckier than most. He’d been born into a loving family, had been raised by parents who supported his dreams and encouraged his efforts.

 

Now, he was alone.

You’ll notice that I also gave a little back story information, that is, information about Jonathan and his life before the opening of the story. Where we come from and the experiences from the past shapes all that we do and is an important part of our thoughts and feelings. The same is true for the characters we create in our stories.

When we’re telling stories about our sims, we have to know their back stories, too.

Just as the past is important, so is the future. To write convincingly about a character, we need to be aware of what he or she wants. Sometimes we’ll express those wants directly. Other times, as in the opening of Jonathan’s story, some of his wants are implied. He wants to build a new life. He wants the warmth and security of the past. He wants to create a successful future for himself.

To bring new dimensions to your stories, take time to see what’s happening through the eyes of your characters. If you’re building stories with your sims, get inside their heads and see the world from their point of view. Pretend to be that sim. Look at what’s happening around you, and listen to your thoughts and feelings.

Jade Empire was released in 2005 and has become one of the all-time top RPGs.

TIP: Role-play games (RPGs) can help you develop your imagination.

Check out this list of all-time great RPGs: Top 100 RPGs of All-Time.

On-line games such as Gemstone IV will give you a chance to hone your skills in staying “in character”, as will live-action groups.

You can find a wealth of helpful information at LARP: Live-Action Role-Play.

Have fun with your stories!

Do It Now

My sims teach me a lot about life, and today I’d like to share an important lesson from a very kind-hearted woman named Beatrice. Recently, Beatrice — a resident of Willow Creek — passed away at the age of 76. Her life was not an especially easy one. She was born Beatrice Oaks, married Silas Caldwell, and then upon his death in a factory accident, found herself raising her son on her own. She worked hard, putting her own dreams aside to provide stability and security for her child.

As an adult, with her son grown and on his own, Beatrice found a good man. She married Don Iverson, a software developer, and at last she was able to enjoy life a bit. What did she want? She wanted to be an author. Her husband and her son both encouraged her, and she sat down at the computer and began practicing. She practiced every writing exercise from every book on fiction-writing she found.

Her son often asked if she’d started writing yet. No, not yet. She needed to practice writing a little more. Her husband suggested she go ahead and give it a try. But Beatrice felt she had more to learn, so she kept right on practicing.

Beatrice’s life took another turn when her second husband passed away. The widow opened her home to a young single father and his infant son, grateful for a little companionship. She enjoyed taking care of little Coleman while his father pursued his dreams of becoming an artist. As for Beatrice and her own dreams, well, she kept practicing as time allowed.

Eventually, Coleman and his father moved on, and Beatrice was fortunate to meet a wonderful man with whom she could share the rest of her life. She met and married Bennett Rizzo, former master violinst with the National Simerian Orchestra.

“Write that book, Beatrice,” he told her again and again. Each time, her reply was the same. She wasn’t good enough yet. She had to practice more. Bennett pointed out to her that she would learn more in the process of writing a novel than she would ever learn from practicing, that the experience itself would teach her all she needed to know. But Beatrice was adamant. Until she finished practicing, she wasn’t going to try writing a novel.

And then, suddenly, her life was over. She went to sleep late one night, realizing that time was running out quickly, and that she would never get around to writing that book. She’d spent too much time practicing.

Beatrice Rizzo passed away with her dream unfulfilled. She leaves behind, however, a legacy of hope and a word of wisdom to those who still have their dreams.

Do it now. Don’t wait until you’ve learned everything. Don’t put it off while you practice. Whatever you dream might be, go for it. Do it now because time passes swiftly.