Hearing Them Breathe

I really enjoy the song Thoughts of a Dying Atheist by Muse. When I listen to it, I get so sucked in that I start singing along. At one point, though, I become really aware of my breathing. There are a number of words which get held for a long time, so they require a lot of air. They also require tactical inhaling. You have to take a deep enough breath to sing the next part, but quickly enough that you aren't late on the beat.

I noticed that every time I listened to the song, I kept breathing in the same spot every time. Then my ears perked open. As it turns out, the singer was taking the exact same breaths in the exact same moments of the song. That made me really happy.

Studio albums sound really good. They have all kinds of effects and filters and can make it sound so clean and polished and supernatural, but in doing so, they can also take away from the humanity of the music. Hearing deep breaths in the music reminded me that this was real, that human beings were making this music and that they were just as limited by the laws of physics and physiology as anybody else (and that I was just as capable of singing along).

I like reading handwritten manuscripts for the same reason. You can see so much humanity in the words themselves: how they were written, cross-outs, breaks in writing style or writing utensil that indicate a break in the writing process and a return at a later time. Sometimes, even food stains can add more to the human who wrote the story.

Sometimes, though, all I want are the words. If the words are thoroughly encapsulating, then I don't need the story of their creation.  However, within the words themselves, I still want humanity. In your stories, don't forget that humans breathe, and that breathing is audible.

Writing Is A Multiperson Project

Although Blogger was having some technical difficulties last night, it did not stop me from making my blog post.  It occurs to me that writing, in general, is a multiperson project.

I am an editor, and a damned good one at that. If you read my blog, you might not believe me. I have a lot of typos and other little errors that do not reflect well upon my skills (one of the many reasons I keep Cheff Salad unadvertised).  But I do not edit my works.  That's why they're there.

I am a great editor, but I am the worst editor of my own work. When I just finished writing something, it is way too fresh in my mind. I can't concentrate over each little letter because I already know the whole sentence in my head.

There are tricks that help you to edit your works. Read your sentences or paragraphs in reverse order. Read something else for 10 minutes and then come back to your work. Tricks are helpful, but really, the best editor is a fresh set of eyes.

That's when I realized that writing really is a multiperson project. One person may be writing, but another will be editing. Another may be giving creative feedback to aid in the revising process. There are agents and publicists involved, too.  Some of whom may have more impact in the writing process than others, but all of whom do make a difference.

Consider all the people that are involved in your writing process. Don't forget to make use of them when you need them.  Also don't forget to say thank you.

A Meal of Ingredients

My favorite part of writing is making characters. I love defining people and qualities in them, explaining their past in order to understand their present mentalities and beliefs. Seeing the world through their eyes is definitely interesting, but the best part is telling the story of who this person is.

The problem is that such a story is like one ingredient in a recipe. Character bios need to be mixed with settings, conflicts, potential resolutions, and countless other parts. If I just told a character bio, it would be like eating a piece of lettuce instead of making a whole sandwich.

What I would like to do is write a collection of character bios. They might only be a few pages, or they could be a sizable short story in length, depending on the depth of the character. But, rather than tell a full-length, drawn-out story involving these characters, I would simply present them, one at a time.

It would be like having a platter, each section of which having the makings of a sandwich, but rather than assembling one, just eating each ingredient one at a time.

At this point in the thought process, I remembered: I like to do exactly that! One can totally enjoy a meal of ingredients. They're all going to the same place (stomach/mind), so it doesn't matter how mixed up they are before they head that way.

I'm going to be working on my collection of characters. Their stories may be brief, even miniscule, but it will be ok, because they will be satisfying.

Reason vs. Excuse

In my previous post, I said that technical difficulties were the reason for my lack of updates, but it did not excuse them. There is a significant difference between a reason and an excuse, one of the many lessons I learned from my father.

A reason is an explanation. It tells you what the cause is in a cause and effect relation. Reasons are facts, cold and simple.  "I didn't do my homework because I was too tired to stay awake" is a reason.

An excuse is a pardoning. It says that, although an undesirable thing happened, it does not deserve punishment or retribution of any kind.  "I didn't do my homework because my brother was sent to the hospital" is an excuse.

Excuses always have a tacit ending: "and that's more important."  I didn't make my bed because I was making breakfast for my family...and that's more important.

Because that ending is tacit, a reason and an excuse sound identical. And if nobody teaches us the difference, we don't realize that there is one.

The other difficulty is that excuses are judgement calls. It is up to the individual to decide what is more important. However, no matter how hard we try to justify our actions, some things you just can't defend that hard.

Shirking your duties to play games is inexcusable. Not writing because one method of writing is not available is inexcusable.

Before you try to excuse your actions (or lack thereof), take a step back and think about it. Are you giving a reason, or an excuse?

Technical Difficulties

It does not inspire faith when I write about the obligation to create that we have, and then proceed to miss multiple updates immediately after that. For that, I apologize. The reason is technical difficulties. The excuse is nonexistent.

Shit happens. No avoiding it. However, that does not excuse us from writing. Writing is communication, and it is nearly impossible to not communicate. If one method fails, there are countless others. Be resourceful.

Aside from my laptop, I have an old laptop in the closet I can pull out if I absolutely needed to get online or do electronic work. I have my phone that I can write notes in. I have my boxful of notebooks I can write in. I have a pocket-sized pad of paper to write in. I have pens and markers which work perfectly well on my hand if nothing else is available.

Technical difficulties made me frustrated and not wanting to write (and took a good chunk of my time), but it did not actually prevent me from doing that. Next time you try to say that you were unable to get some writing done (whether you are trying to convince yourself or somebody else), take a look around and see if that's really true.

Is It Really Shorthand?

I find abbreviations pretty amusing sometimes. They are designed to save time and energy, but can often not be any help at all

Some months have long names. Others, not so much. "June" and "July" are only 4 characters. "Jun." and "Jul." are still 4 characters. The abbreviation saved no effort.

Sometimes abbreviations are meant to save time. Using a single character to represent a word is convenient. But the problem is that it is only convenient if you are used to it. I dabbled in internet/chat speak, but am not the hugest fan of it. Typing "u" instead of "you" requires more effort because it is not one of the common words that I have a muscle memory developed for. All of a sudden, the abbreviation only saves in keystrokes, but not in time or energy.

The other issue with shorthands like abbreviations is explaining them to others. If I talk about the Department of Justice all the time, DOJ is handy.  If I mention it once or twice in a conversation, it takes more energy to call it the DOJ because I will also have to say what it stands for when the listener gets confused and asks what it means.

So, consider how beneficial your shorthands are. Are they saving you time and energy? If so, are those savings just in the short run or are they still beneficial in the long run? If not, why the heck are you doing them anyway?

Let Your Fingers Do The Typing

I spend more time typing than handwriting. I've been using word processors since at least 4th grade, so I'm pretty comfortable with a keyboard and have developed a pretty strong muscle memory because of it.

I know where the keys are on the keyboard. I remember the first time I realized that I could type without looking at the keys (I still do look at the keys, but that's more of a hand-eye coordination thing). I am not only comfortable with finding individual keys, but I am comfortable with key combinations, too.

There are a lot of common words out there, words I probably type every day. Because of that, my fingers move from key to key without really thinking about it. Typing is nearly as fluent and thoughtless as walking. I do not have to think about the typing itself, just coming up with the words that I wish to type.

Sometimes, though, my mind and my body are not in sync. Sometimes I am composing a sentence in my head, but my hands are typing the word behind what I am thinking. When I am cognizant of it, it trips me up. I have to halt my thoughts in order to catch up physically. Then I can work in tandem.

The important point, though, is that, when I am on autopilot, I get by just fine. I don't think about the spelling of words. I don't think about where in the sentence I am. I just compose it and my body takes the dictation.

If you are comfortable enough typing that you largely don't think about it, then don't think about it. Let your fingers do the typing and let your brain do the thinking. When you trust everybody to do their jobs, then work gets done.