What Kind of Writer?

I'm currently working my way through Dave Farland's new edition of Million Dollar Outlines.

He suggests, and rightly so, that there are two main types of writers: the discovery writer and the outliner.

Of course it's not quite that cut and dried.

Essentially, there are a hundred kinds of writers, but they all fall on a scale somewhere between discovery and outliner.

So what do I mean by those terms?

A pure discovery writer never thinks ahead about what he's going to write.  He sits down, begins writing, and discovers where his writing will take him.  A VERY pure discovery writer won't even have a preconceived story idea in mind when he begins writing.

A pure outline writer won't write a word unless he has a detailed outline of every detail of the story, from beginning to end, and will NOT deviate from that outline in any way.

But there really are very few pure discovery or pure outline writers.  We mainly fall somewhere in between.

Even a heavy discovery writer will begin writing with a general story in mind, or maybe the end of a story in mind, or maybe a character who needs a story in mind.

A heavy outline writer (at least a smart one) will allow himself to let the story take him in a new direction, taking some time to readjust his outline to reflect that.

Each type of writer has his own challenges.  For example, a discovery writer may end up with a mess of disorganization at the end of months of writing that will need so much editing that it hardly seems worth the effort; while an outline writer may be so wrapped up in the outlining that by the time it comes to writing the story he's bored with it, never getting beyond the outline in the process.

Personally, I can't imagine sitting down to write with no preconceived notions of what I'm going to write, though I'll suggest that doing such a thing is an excellent exercise for getting over writer's block or for getting the creative juices flowing at the beginning of a writing session.

But I do lack a certain amount of skill in the area of outlining.

That's why I'm reading Dave's book.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Originality in Storytelling

Someone once said that there are no new stories.

He was right.

All stories can be categorized into one of many motiffs, all of which have been done for as long as stories have been told.

So how do you make your story original?

You don't.  But you DO make it interesting.

First, let me slay a myth--people don't read your story to find out what happens at the end.  The underlying story structure that we, as humans, have lived with for thousands of years says that good wins, problems are solved, characters learn lessons, and life goes on.

Even in a murder mystery we know the killer will be caught in the end.  And in a well-written murder mystery we even have a richly satisfying "I KNEW IT!" moment when the killer is revealed.  You see? We already knew.

So what makes us read a story?  The middle.  The stuff that gets us to the end.

We want to see what happens to get your characters there.  We want to see their struggles, their desires, their pain, their courage, their cowardice, their triumphs, strengths, weaknesses, warts and all.  We want characters to be REAL to us.  We want to feel for them.  We want to feel WITH them.

Your characters don't need to have green hair or seven toes to be interesting.  They don't even need to be described in great detail.  They only need to do things that your readers can relate to, can understand, can empathize with.

Another aspect of making a story more original, or interesting, is to avoid cliche.  Avoid the first thing that comes to the collective human conscience.  For example, if a kid is walking across a playground and comes across a hoppy-taw, what's the first thing he might do with it?  Sticks it in his pocket?  Maybe.  Play a game of hopscotch?  Possibly.  Those are pretty common answers.  What's slightly more interesting than that?  Maybe he goes on a quest to discover the owner of the hoppy-taw.  Maybe that gets him into some other kind of adventure.  Maybe he knows whose it is and decides to keep it.  Maybe there's some tension between him and this other child.  What could it be?  How might it be resolved?

Keep thinking.  The third or fourth idea will likely be considerably more original.  And that idea will lead to others, and the process begins again.

So, originality is less in the story structure and more in the story details.  Give yourself a break.  Let yourself use the standard story structure and enrich your stories with the treasures you can stuff inside it.

Need I Reiterate? Apparently I Do.

You want advice on submitting your work?

I'll give you advice.

The trouble is I've given this advice before.  Many times.  I, or one of my team leaders, give this same advice almost daily.  We reject stories because of it.  We waste our time and the time of aspiring authors because of it.

Here it is.

In caps.

Because I feel like yelling it...

READ MARKET GUIDELINES!!!

(Three exclamation marks, even.)

If you haven't visited a market in awhile--say 6 months or so--review the guidelines.

If you're submitting a story or novel for the very first time, read the guidelines.

If you think you're a big hotshot author who will obviously have his/her story land right on the top of the slush pile because of your impressive list of publications, despite the fact that you choose to ignore the guidelines, think again.

If you think guidelines aren't important, think again.

If you think it's fine for you to waste someone else's time--particularly someone who might pay you for that time--think again.

And do more than just read the guidelines.

Read them CAREFULLY.

Then HEED them!

Read n' heed.  Read n' heed.  It's really not that complicated.

On Young Authors and Adult Authors Who Try to Write Like Children

This week I've had something of a dubious pleasure to read several submissions by young authors.  By young I mean under 18, and by dubious I mean that they were not represented as such.  These authors, for reasons unknown, chose to represent themselves as adults.

How do I know?

I don't for absolutely certain.

But I've been a young writer myself.  In fact, I recently read one of the horrid stories that now, as an adult, I'm ashamed to have ever unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.  (I threw it in the trash, by the way.  It was THAT awful.)

Still, I don't know for certain.

Flash Fiction Online is an international market.  We have readers form all over the world and accept submissions from all over the world.

And there are 3 possible reasons for a story to be as unprofessionally written as these stories.

The first is the least pleasant to consider--that an adult has that poor a grasp of grammar, syntax, logic, maturity, empathy, etc.  It's like watching the tryouts for American Idol.  You know the ones I'm talking about.  The ones that are uncomfortable to watch because that poor simple soul has come out of his/her short life with the delusion that they can sing.

No one should ever stop writing, but as adults we should be able to recognize our failings and, if we have the will and the determination, to work to correct them.  It's much easier for someone with poor grammar to learn to write using correct English than it is for someone who is tone deaf to learn to sing on key.

The second is completely understandable--that the author is not a native English speaker and has a poor grasp of sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, phrasing, cultural nuances, etc.  In this case, the author should tap into the worldwide community of writers available on the web and cultivate a friendship with native English speaking writers.  Once that friendship is cultivated it is a simple matter to ask for help in smoothing out those rough spots to make a story considerably more comprehensible.

The third is the most likely--that the author is actually a child.

I don't mind children submitting to Flash Fiction Online.  I really don't.  It shows a tremendous amount of pluck and courage.   Sheesh!  It's terrifying for many adult authors to submit stories and face rejection.

What I DO mind is when that child submits under the guise of being an adult.

Don't lie to me.  Just don't.  I don't like an unreliable narrator, and I don't like a lying author.

We've never published a story written by a child, because we have yet to receive a submission from a child that is written with the professional poise and grace and understanding of an adult author.  One came close.  Only one.  And only close.

Still, as I said, I don't mind when children submit.  In fact I've often taken the time to give them feedback and to encourage them to continue writing and studying both grammar and the craft of writing.  Someday, some best-selling author is going to dedicate a novel to me because I encouraged them as a 12-year-old to keep writing and studying.

But this post isn't just about young authors.

I recently received a submission from a person who claimed to be an adult author.  I didn't believe it.  I thought certainly it must be a young author.  Very young, with very poor grammar and very poor writing skills.

But then another thought occurred to me, considering the title and theme of the work.  Perhaps it really was an adult author who was deliberately writing with poor grammar and syntax in order to make it SEEM like the writing of a child.

My reaction to that was worse than if it had actually been written by a child.

There are better ways to convey the point of view of a child than to write like one--misspellings and all.  It was awful to read.  The grammar and spelling and syntax errors were such a distraction I could not even bring myself to finish the story, and gleaned little or no information concerning what the story was actually about.

Don't make me work that hard.  Just don't.  I have a lot of stories to read.  If I have to work at it, if you don't make it as easy as slicing warm butter, you're sunk.  Just sunk.

Am I Repeating Myself?

Probably. But it STILL needs to be said:

PLEASE, read market guidelines every time you submit.

Market guidelines...

...sometimes change;
...are almost always just a little bit different for each market;
...are sometimes VERY different than the 'standard' market guidelines;
...show the market that you have a head on your shoulders when you prove, through your properly handled submission, that you know how to follow instructions.

It is a truth, that editors become VERY leery of submitters who clearly do NOT read and follow guidelines.

Another truth is that most markets flat out reject submissions that don't follow guidelines.

It IS worth your time, because it doesn't waste MY time. I get annoyed when people waste my time.

11 Tips for Writing Productivity

Fantasy Author David Farland is hosting a series of live Q&A conference calls with published writers. Each Q&A features a different topic on the writing craft, and audio files of the conferences are available on his site--Farland's Authors' Advisory Conference Calls.

This one features Author Kevin J. Anderson on Writing Productivity.

I'm Baaaa-aaaack!

Don't know if that's a good thing, but here I am.

I must confess, I've had my computer back for a few weeks, but have also been making a concerted effort at as lazy a summer as possible.

It hasn't worked so far.

And summer is waning.

Which is why I'm doing a lot of playing this month.

Maybe sometime in September I'll get back into this whole writing/editing thing.

A lot of editors take the summer off, you know. ;-)