updated msh blog tour posts

Week 3: (June 9 thru June 15) Describe your writing routine. Are you more creative in the morning, evening? Do you write when you can? On your commute? Do you have your own workspace or share an area?

I’m not sure I have a strict writing ‘routine,’ which is probably why I don’t produce regularly. I am not a morning person, so I am not creative in the morning. When I have a story to tell, I write almost constantly. I talk to myself. It’s how I write dialogue. I write on my laptop, but I have also been known to write on legal pads and notebooks while on the clock at call centers, between calls. I write while listening to talk radio, listening to music, and listening to audio books. I use these things to distract my conscious mind and let the stories come out.

The source of my stories is usually my own baggage. I have an idea for a story about addiction. I have issues. I don’t smoke. I drink occasionally. I have been known to smoke a little weed, but I can count the number of times I’ve done it on one hand. I realized a few years ago that I was addicted to anger. Running on the adrenaline of anger was the only way I felt strong. When I crashed, I was so worn out that I had to get  more angry the next time to compensate. There’s something there, but I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet.  I do know that, because of my disability, and my addiction to anger, my adrenal glands are over-active, and therefore exhausted. I have to feed those organs in order to feel awake, healthy, and mentally sound.

A lot of writers have issues. Dashiell Hammett was in poor health a lot. So was Edgar Allan Poe. Our own Aurora Martinez has issues of her own, so I’m in good company. If you have physical issues that get in the way of your writing, so are you. Take heart. Stay encouraged. Don’t quit.

Week 4: (June 16 thru June 22) What are your pet peeves as a writer? Is it bad grammar? Poor plotting? Narrative voice? Telling versus showing?

I used to have a lot of pet peeves as a writer. I have recently gone through a shift that has removed most of them. The only real pet peeve I still have is ignorance. My own, as well as others. The interesting thing about that is that I came up with a statement regarding ignorance, stupidity, and foolishness. Ignorance = don’t know. Stupidity = don’t know and don’t care. Foolishness = don’t know, don’t care, and proud of it. Writing ignorance can be cured by two things: reading and practice.

Basic rules of grammar are critically important. Basic rules of punctuation are more than critically important. People may not be conscious of what they know, but they know when they’re reading something that’s grammatically and punctually incorrect. A writer that can tell a good story but that can’t write loses credibility. Spelling is also important. If you choose to misspell words, do it in dialogue, don’t do it in your prose.

If you have a writer you look up to, steal. Read everything they’ve written. Write like them. Start with two paragraphs of their stuff, and run from there. Read wider. Read stuff you don’t like. One of the best books I’ve seen about grammar is The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need by Susan Thurman. Read Aristotle’s Poetics. That’s the bones of story. Plot is tops. Everything else serves plot. A lot of green writers think that putting words on paper makes you a writer. This isn’t necessarily true. putting the right words on paper makes you a writer. For advice on that, consult Elements of Style.

The thing that improved my writing most drastically and most quickly was when I realized that the thing I needed to be most conscious of was how I wanted my reader to feel. To control that, I have to be vulnerable as a writer. Nothing is off limits. Don’t say how your character feels, show it.  

Week 5: (June 23 thru June 29) What are your top ten favorite and most hated books? Brief discussion of why on each one. (Or at least 2 or 3 of them off each list)

     I don’t know that I  have a top ten favorite or hated books. I hope I’ve never read a book I hate. This sounds terrible, but there are books I’ve read that I’m sure I could have written better. The most glaring example of that is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The story she wrote could have been written in about a third the pages of the novel. Of course, it sold millions of copies, and she’ll be remembered forever, so I’m sure I’m wrong. Mystic River is a great book. The twists really sell it. Shutter Island is a great book. I know it was good because it took me twice through it to understand it. There are books I wish I had read. One of them is Forrest Gump. If Next, with Nichols Cage, had been a book, I would have read that. I also wish I had read The Life of David Gale.