Good News/Bad News
Well, the good news is I got a job. It isn't at all writing related, but the days of being a broke student are over, as I'll have a steady paycheck coming. The bad news is that if I want to continue to get any writing done, I will have to sacrifice some things. I've written with full-time day jobs in the past, so this is nothing new to me. I know what I can and cannot handle with the spare time available. And since this job will involve a bit more responsibility than in jobs past (see what a college degree can get you?), I know I must become a tyrant when it come to protecting my writing time. One of the things I have to give up is the blog. I wasn't as committed to it as I should have been in the first place. And right now I have too many other places to focus my energy.
So this is the official last post of the short-lived Writing Tips from the Trenches. I hope you found a few of these posts helpful or interesting. Thanks to everyone who came here to read what I had to say. Keep writing. Keep working toward those goals. In my writers group alone we now have two members with agents, one of which snagged a dang good deal for his first book which comes out early next year. It can happen. It does happen.
I'll see you on the bookshelves when it does.
This is just wrong!
A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Create-A-StoryI haven't yet participated. I'm not sure I want to. Enjoy at your own risk.
Lazy Man's Post
Since I haven't posted anything in a while, and I don't have much time at the moment to post anything of much detail (got to write, ya know?), I give you a
link to a very good post on another blog.
Paper in hand, I go forth…
That's right. I have finally walked across the stage. I have crossed that final frontier. I now have a B.A. in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. No more pencils, no more books, no more…ahem. Sorry.
Last Sunday was the actual graduation ceremony, and it was a little long in parts but fun. Columbia put on a great show, and presented honors to the likes of blues legend Buddy Guy (who performed a kick-ass number afterward) and Bernard Sahlins, founder of Second City. Good stuff.
Now I continue the job search while I get back to my own writing. I hope to make more regular entries here as well. See you soon.
Count Down
I have a good excuse for not blogging, I swear. I am currently finishing up my final semester in the Fiction Writing program at Columbia College. May 12th is my official last day of class, and my graduation commencement is the following Sunday. So it's a mad rush of final projects for three very different kinds of writing classes (and a lot of procrastinating thrown in). Thus, no bloggin'. However, I promise to return in force once I have graduated.
I should also note that I have begun The Job Search--trying to find a use for my BA in writing. Found a couple of cool places. Shot off the ol' resume. There's one place in particular I've applied to that I'm rather excited about. We shall see. But this should prove interesting. When you're in the writing trenches, getting a novel published is only half the battle. You have to survive. Food, clothes, and a new toothbrush are luxuries at this point. A job would be nice.
By the way: If any readers need to hire a writer for anything, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
The Elixir
In one of my classes I turned in a longish short story for critique and got some great feedback and encouragement. While the general consensus was that the story had much going for it, there were a few things that needed reworking. The story's major flaw? The ending.
Ah, endings. They can be a bitch.
In my conference with the teacher for this same class, we discussed how beginnings and endings are the hardest parts of story writing. I've already mentioned here the special difficulties of beginnings, and while I struggle a great deal with those, endings are what kill me. This story is a case in point.
Everyone seemed unsatisfied with my story's end. But why? In my conference, my instructor mentioned that the main character must walk away with something they didn't have before (or lose something significant), otherwise, what's the point of the story? I've received rejection letters that suggested a similar flaw to the submitted stories. Clearly, this is a blind spot for me. But what my instructor said about gaining something by story's end reminded me of something I'd read in Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey.
The Elixir.
According to Vogler, "Return With the Elixir" is final stage in a story using the mythic structure he describes in his book. The Elixir is something the hero brings back from the Special World he struggled through in the story's middle. Now that he is returning to the Ordinary World (basically normal life), he or she should possess something obtained on the heroic journey. Sounded pretty much exactly like what my instructor said.
It sounds so simple, but I think it's extremely important.
What sort of things qualify as an Elixir? Vogler gives some suggestions in his book, but a glance at several favorite novels will show how flexible this story element is. In many cases (especially romance novels) the Elixir is a love relationship. Love is the Elixir. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo gets rid of the physical object of the Ring (not the Elixir), and ends up with peace in Middle Earth. Peace for an entire world is a pretty big Elixir.
In a crime novel, the Elixir could be the identity of the killer, which leads to the killer's arrest or defeat. But I think in the best crime novels the true Elixir is won after the crime is solved--a community's safety, a new understanding of the nature of humanity, or maybe something as simple as a paycheck. Though if it's the latter, you might want to consider why that money is important, and how that will fundamentally affect your hero or those around him.
Which brings me to a final point about this idea. The Elixir should have some significance to the hero and/or the world of your story. If all your hero gets at the end is a shiny sword (or that paycheck) to use in his next adventure, so what? But if he finally finds the means of protecting his family who, before now, had no hope for survival, you might have something. Note that giving the Elixir some weight also suggests something about your main character. In this example, one might wonder what sort of emotional issues would consume a father who cannot protect his family from danger, and how those issues would change once he found the means to defend them. Suddenly, the story is not only more interesting, but has a point.
Okay. It's time for me to go back to my own story and find the Elixir, that thingy the hero gains at the end to make the whole adventure worth experiencing. Then my personal Elixir might be a published story.
Great Advice From Around the Web
There is a wealth of good advice on writing on the web these days (thanks, in large part, to weblogs). I thought I'd share some of my random favorites in no particular order:
-
Avoiding Plodding Plotting-
Creating Dynamic Characters-
Outlines, Writer's Block, and Motivation-
Building Your House-
Creating Characters That Jump Off the Page-
Make Your Pitch-
Novel V: Visualize-
Notecarding: Plotting Under PressureThere's a lot more out there. And the authors of these particular articles and blog entries have even more good advice on their respective websites that you might want to check out.
Have fun!
