Something Happens

When people ask me what kind of writing I like to read, I always have the same answer: good. So what makes writing good? It's interesting. What constitutes interesting writing? It's not boring.

Suffice it to say that I'm kind of a dick when it comes to this question. But I have been trying to put my finger on what I really look for. Ultimately, there is one principle I have found that links all the things I like: something happens.

'Something happens' is also pretty vague, but it's the only way to encapsulate the principle. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, and any other kind of writing all need to have something happen. It can be a conversation, a fight, a walk, a halt, or a realization. A simple recitation of facts is just not good enough. To use an example from the past, the writing I hate more than anything else is when a novel spends two pages describing a room or a person's clothing. Nothing is happening during those pages. Imagine if you were watching a movie, you see the main character burst into a room, and then spend 30 seconds standing still, looking at the various objects on the walls. It would be total garbage and you wouldn't stand for it. I don't stand for it in writing of any kind.

This rule is especially important for serial work. If you are writing a comic strip, for example, you need to make sure that something happens in every installment. It can be any of the examples I mentioned earlier, but the important thing is that at the end of it, the state of things are different than they were in the previous strip.

What Isn't About Writing?

In talking about this blog, I've made the comment that I could turn any subject into a post on writing. Though I say it in jest, it's probably true. This can only mean one of two things. Either I am an excellent BSer, or everything actually is related to writing.

I like to believe that it is the latter option. After all, what is writing? It is either a record of things humans have done or it is a story meant to sound like such a record. So if writing is a record of humanity, then any subject about people is automatically related to writing.

Humanity is more than just humans. Humanity is also about human actions. Subjects like relationships, building things, doing jobs, all are part of human existence, and thus are related to writing.

But humanity is even more than that. Humanity is a lens through which we see the world. When we see two animals together, say a pair of cats, and we see them running around, playing together, eating from the same dish, sleeping next to each other, we view them through a human lens. Those cats affect us because we see the humanity in them. They have feelings, relationships, and desires, just like us. So since everything we see is through a lens of humanity, that means that everything can be tied back to writing, since it is a record of humanity.

So, to all writers, I have a bit of advice: take a step back, polish off your lens, and really look around. Look at all the things that you don't pay attention to. Look at the things that you always see, but never think about. Those are the things nobody talks about. Those are the wells full of untapped ideas that will give you all sorts of material to work with. And, failing that, ask your friend to give you a subject that isn't about writing, and then make it about writing.

The Believing Game

The believing game is an exercise I first learned about from an essay by Peter Elbow. Where the doubting game is an exercise to find doubt, the goal of the believing game is to find truth. In the essay, Elbow says that we should look for any grains of truth in what we see.

I have to admit that the first time I read the essay, I hated it. Everything I read either sounded painfully obvious or patently absurd. Though I largely dismissed it, I couldn't get it out of my head. It was not for several months before I had a realization.

The war cry of doubters is "you can't prove that's true." The war cry of believers is "you can't prove that's not true."

Consider things like spiritual healing. Whether it be prayer, crystals, herbs, massage, or anything else, there is no proof this stuff works. And yet, the people who believe in it seem to do well. They are in better moods, get more energy, and can often fight off illnesses that other people couldn't. There are ethereal forces that we can neither prove nor disprove. Those who doubt are called cynics. Those who believe are faithful.

Essentially, those with faith are the opposites of cynics. They have hope. They look for the best. If they have an opportunity to try something, they'll go for it. If somebody questions them, they respond, "why not?" Believers come in all shapes and sizes (which should not come as much of a surprise). Some people are pie in the sky, others try to be as rational as they can and use faith to fill in the blanks.

Ultimately, people come down as either cynics or faithfuls. As such, they play their respective games. Whichever one you happen to be, you will likely never be able to comprehend how the mind of the other one works. I wish I could say that this post and the previous one will help in some way, but from my own experiences, you can never understand what goes through their heads until you have had it go through yours. With any luck, though, you can at least sound like you know what you're talking about and create realistic characters, even if you still can't figure out why they act the way they do.

The Doubting Game

The doubting game is what we are trained to play in school. The shorter name for it is skepticism, and its war cry is, "you can't prove that's true."

Skeptics are down-to-earth, planners, scientists, doubters. If you don't have proof that something will work, there's no reason to think it will.

When it comes to being a writer, skepticism can be a useful tool. Since you get to create your own world, you can make sure that you know absolutely every detail, which will allow you to decide what is and isn't possible. When you doubt everything you come up with, it will force you to find the proof that will show that everything works.

In terms of characters, a skeptic can be a loudmouth or the strong and silent type. The loudmouth is one who is searching for truth actively. If they question everything they hear, it shows their youth and ignorance. The strong, silent skeptic are also questioning everything, but it is internal. They are at a different level, where unless they need to denounce something, they will keep their thoughts to themselves.

The reasons a character is a skeptic are as varied as the kinds of skeptical characters that are possible. Perhaps one is fascinated with the world around them. Maybe one is comforted by provable facts. Somebody could have been burned by not being skeptical in the past. Although skepticism is the same thing in any character, the reasons that made it happen will shape the character far more than this one character trait.

The Joy of Doing

Why do you write? What do you want from it? There is no one answer. Every person will generally have a combination of reasons. However, if you want to be a writer to get rich, I will highly recommend putting down the pen and choosing a different field.

There can be some great glamor in writing. You get paid for being creative. You get fans of your work who get excited just to be in your presence. But that is not why you should write. For one thing, it is very unlikely it will happen.

The writing market is supersaturated. Everybody thinks they can write. Everybody thinks they will make it big and live the sweet life. That is just not going to happen. You are an artist and the simple fact is that there is never much money in the arts.

Ultimately, you should be writing because you love doing it. You should feel joy from the parts of writing. Be excited to come up with new ideas, feel brilliant when you figure out a path that characters take which will tie up all the loose ends, feel like a craftsman when you revise and edit your work into exactly what you want.

If you do not feel the joy of doing your art, then you are wasting your time. That joy is the greatest reward you will get from writing. Without it, all you've got is a shell.

Accept Your Failure

There are a lot of similarities among arts. I think there is a lot one can learn by finding those principles, those things that always ring true. One of them I have found both in writing and in music.

For a musician, your job application is an audition. Resumes and interviews are largely worthless. Skill matters more than anything else, so you play for a couple of judges and show off those skills. Writing is the same way. A resume might show that you have been published in the past, but it is truly your skill, as seen in a portfolio, that matters most.

If you talk with enough musicians, you will find out that everybody has an audition story. One person didn't warm up enough, so they were still stiff. Another person warmed up too much and was starting to lose steam when they got in front of the judges. Stories can soon get increasingly ridiculous (spontaneous instrument failure, random illness, etc.), but everybody agrees on one thing: sometimes you just have a bad audition. It was nobody's fault. You were prepared, you were warmed up well, everything was in order, but something just didn't click.

Writing is the same way. You have your hits and you have your misses. In terms of a portfolio, you have the luxury of preparing it carefully beforehand, but even still, sometimes it just doesn't go right. Sometimes your reviewer/interviewer just doesn't like it. They question you and your work and you just don't know what to say. You are a combination of shocked, scared, and offended and it just paralyzes you. Similarly, if you are a regular writer, sometimes you just don't have your usual sparkle or zazz. And maybe one day you turn in what you've written and your shocked that you made it because it is so below your standards.

Whether you're a musician or a writer, the same thing is true. Tough luck. These things happen. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get over it. Don't worry about blame. Don't beat yourself up. Don't lose your heart or your confidence. Sometimes you just have a bad audition. Accept your failure and move on to your next thing.

Didn't Care or Wasn't Aware

When somebody has a problem, there are two possible reasons for it. Either he didn't care wasn't aware. This applies both to characters and to writers, though it affects them differently.

Consider your characters. None of them are perfect; that's what makes them human. How are they imperfect? What do they do wrong? Why don't they fix it? A person who isn't aware of their problems can be helped, though ironically rarely are. People feel bad about pointing out people's problems, so they instead choose to put up with those problems and badmouth them behind their back.

Characters who don't care about their problems are aware of them, but either don't think they're a big deal or think that everybody else needs to chill out and deal with it. These characters are stronger because they have more knowledge and a lot of confidence (people who aren't aware are moreso in a state of blissful ignorance).

Being aware of these two kinds of people will help greatly in making your characters real. For as similar as they are in their actions, they couldn't be more different in the reasons why. Know why your characters do what they do, and you will always be sure what they will do next.

Writers, also being people, also have problems, and also split between not knowing and not caring. However, if you are writing with the intent of sharing it with others, you cannot afford the luxury of not knowing or not caring about your problems. No matter what the reason, the fact remains that if you have problems in your writing, you need to fix them.