Thank you for this question, Fred. I know this is something you're thinking about in your memoir now. I really think the answer depends on the individual book and how comfortable the writer feels with seeking advice at various points in the process, but here are some thoughts on when it might be a good time to enlist a developmental editor:
-When you get to the point where you have a lot of material written and you are unsure what to keep and what to leave on the editing room floor, a developmental editor can help you separate the wheat from the chaff.
-If you have written a significant chunk of a novel or memoir and feel "stuck"--that is, you feel you have written yourself into a corner or don't know where to go next--a developmental editor can ask good questions and can see the fertile ground in the manuscript that hasn't yet been fully explored.
-If you have a foundation of but feel that the narrative lacks direction, a developmental editor can help you structure the book more effectively.
The key is that you have a significant amount of the manuscript written before working with a developmental editor. This could be a complete draft or a partial draft of at least 30k words or so. I would be hesitant to work with a developmental editor before having written a significant chunk, because we discover the story through writing it. It's important to allow that discovery to happen before inviting other minds and opinions into the process.
For someone in your position--having written a complete draft and gone through at least one revision--a developmental editor can help you see things you might not see in the manuscript--such as weak points, missing links, or scenes/chapters that would benefit from being deepened or clarified. A developmental editor can also be helpful in pointing out what is working really well, the scenes and chapters you should leave as is--even if the writing/perfectionist brain wants to keep working on them!
Have 6 questions: (1) What are some of the best strategies for structuring and writing the middle of your novel? (2) What are the best ways to sort out the muddle (if your novel has somehow dwindled into a disordered or confused state or seems thoroughly unauthentic (the whole thing or just parts of it)? (3) What are the best options for self publishing and self marketing your first novel without having to spend too much should it thoroughly fail? (4) What are your thoughts on using "A Blue Book Grammar and Punctuation Guide for self editing your first novel? (5) Any practical suggestions for catching up if you haven't been writing constantly for the last 10 years? (6) The 10 best ways to defeat any self-doubts about one's writing or any thoughts you have concerning developing confidence in one's writing. Thanks for asking for questions we might see answered and discussed in a future The Caffeinated Writer article.
Hi Larry, these are all thought-provoking questions. Thank you. I'm going to start with question 2 and then circle back later to the others.
Q: What are the best ways to sort out the muddle (if your novel has somehow dwindled into a disordered or confused state or seems thoroughly unauthentic (the whole thing or just parts of it)
A: When I have a lot of writing for a novel and am feeling directionless, I do a reverse outline. I never outline before I write a novel, but once I have a significant chunk written, I go through it chapter by chapter and write a one-to-three sentence summary of each chapter. The summary states explicitly what HAPPENS in the chapter. If I have a hard time stating in this reverse outline what happens in any given chapter, I know that not enough happens. That is, the chapter doesn't have enough substance.
In other words, a summary of a chapter can't just say what a character thinks or what we know about a location, etc; the chapter has to have a clear event or events.
By reverse outlining in this way, I know what already exists, and I can see where there are holes in the plot--things that might be in my mind but not yet realized on the page.
Don't know if you are still on the lookout for topic questions for possible future writing advice posts? My question is "When should a writer hire an editor?" Have read various suggestions. 1) Much later than you think. 2) Once you can't make any more progress on your own. 3) Wait until you've "finished" your novel (a few times). 4) Don't do a lot of cleanup until after you have made the big changes. What would you advise? This is just in case, although you probably have already collected a lot of questions.
I mainly write mystery/suspense short stories and have tackled a novella. That established, to answer your question, I generally feel that when I write the story, it is through dialogue that I feel the character's depth initially. It is in the rewrites that I go back in layer in other aspects, especially desciption and emotional aspects of character, though limited due to story length.
You're very welcome, Larry. Thank you for the question!
It's so interesting that the character's depth comes to you first through dialogue. I wonder if you are naturally an auditory person? My husband, who "hears" the world far more acutely than I do, also tends to write more dialogue in first drafts. I perceive the world more vividly through visual stimuli, and that is what arrives on the page first for me.
I’ve taken a couple of your classes and loved them, my favourite being the flash fiction course. I remember you mentioned novels and memoirs made up of flash pieces, but I can’t remember any of the titles! Can you recommend a couple to me?
As well, I have worked in coffee and my wife currently does, (we are serious addicts!) and I’m wondering what your morning brew method is? Drip, espresso, French press, stove top, etc.? And who makes your favourite beans?
Thank you, Kayla! So good to hear from you! I'll be answering this question in a separate post...but the quick answer on coffee: usually drip, and my favorite beans are from Philz!
First off, I subscribe partly because I am a writer and editor who runs on coffee -- I wrote a short series of stories on newspaper editing called "Edit High", in which I revealed that my drug of choice is nothing more exotic than coffee:
If I can ask one question, this is about something that really bugs me about a lot of American writing. You give advice to writers, including ideas about what to try writing about this week.
This bothers me in ways I find difficult to explain.
It seems people want to be Writers, but they're often not sure what to write about.
If you're not sure what to write about -- why do you want to be a writer?
So my question is: with so much shit going on in the world, why do people find it so hard to find things to write about? If you've lived some life and have something to say, it makes finding the words so much easier. It also makes it easier to ask relevant questions about writing technique and the best ways to express something effectively.
A very poorly expressed question, but I hope you get my drift. I see a lot of writing that tries to intellectualize the world and justify itself purely on this basis. Just being clever is not nearly enough.
Loved this from your Medium piece: "In his Lectures on Lecturing, the best set of lectures ever given, Rudolf Steiner says that journalists drink coffee, because it makes them logical while focusing on one story, while diplomats drink tea, as they have to chit-chat lightly while flitting from one subject to the next. The last time I checked, journalism was the profession with by far the highest use of coffee as a stimulant."
Although I will say, when I was living abroad on a diplomatic passport, the diplomats had regular "coffee" mornings. No one called it a tea morning, although, come to think of it, tea was available.
Thank you for your question, Karl. I'll try to answer it with an anecdote. A few years ago, a friend reached out to me and asked me to write a short story for an anthology he was editing for Akashic Books, titled Alabama Noir. I was living in Paris at the time, writing about daily life in Paris--being in a city that remained foreign to me in many ways, even years into living there, always provided the a wellspring of necessary friction that gave me endless ideas. I was also working on a couple of novels.
A few months passed, and I didn't write the story for Alabama Noir. It had a couple of specific parameters, and I wasn't sure how to approach it. As the deadline loomed, I thought about something that had long been on my mind, and it had to do with the murder of a politician who has, through his actions, made likely he murder of countless others. So I sat down and wrote the short story over a period of a few days, titled "What Brings You Back Home," and that story gave me an idea for a novel.
For me, having an "assignment," even at this late stage in my career, helped me to write something I certainly wouldn't have written, in that particular form, otherwise. If this editor had not asked for a noir story set in Alabama, the short story never would have come to be.
The same was true for another commissioned story. An editor asked me to write a story for CNet's "Technically Literate"--the story had to be centered on tech in some way. What came out of that assignment was the short story "The Last Taco Truck in Silicon Valley." I live near Silicon Valley, my husband worked there for years, and I love taco trucks and we sometimes lamented their demise, and all that meant. But had I not gotten that "assignment," that particular story would have never come to be.
And the same can be said for a story I was asked to write by the fiction editor of Playboy Magazine. She asked if I could send her a short story. I'd had an essay in Playboy but never a short story, and I loved the idea of being in the magazine that had published many of the most iconic American writers. So I had to come up with an idea that would be literary but would also push the boundaries in a way that would appeal to the fiction editor of Playboy and to the magazine's readers: the result was a story called "An Exciting New Career in Medicine," which, again, would not have existed otherwise.
All of this to say: the "What to Write This Week" series doesn't exist because I think people don't have ideas. Yes, ideas exist in the ether. They come to us through reading and walking and living and observing. I trust that writers have ideas. But an assignment or prompt spurs you to write something that would not have otherwise existed. A writer may have many ideas, but a specific prompt will lead to the creation of a thing that wouldn't have otherwise leapt to mind.
Wow, thanks for this, Michelle, much appreciated. I just get the feeling that a lot of people want to write for the sake of being "writers." Get some experience of the real world, see how to do some good in the real world, and *then* you may have something to write about, is my advice. Too much introspection can be counterproductive.
I hear you! I do think there is a sort of "being a writer" thing in the air that is quite different from the deep compulsion to write. You can't fake the latter!
Yes, yes, "get some experience of the real world..." So true.
Hi Kathryn, the first books that come to mind are the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. In the late nineties I was living in NYC with my then-boyfriend (now husband). I had told him I would go to New York with him as long as he promised we would move to SF as soon as possible. During that time, he gave me the Tales of the City books, and I read them, dreaming of San Francisco. Then we moved to SF and I managed the apartment building we lived in in the Castro, and we often drove to the Russian River, where he'd been going to his family cabin since he was a child (and where Maupin set some of his stories). So those were a favorite in my early days of living in San Francisco.
I also loved Andrew Sean Greer's Story of a Marriage (2008), which is set in the Outer Sunset, Ben Fong Torres's memoir The Rice Room, and The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma. I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now! What about you?
Definitely Maupin. I read them the first year that I lived here, heard him do a reading of the then-newest one at The Make-Out Room, and chose Macondray Lane (which inspired Barbary Lane) for a photo shoot of a favorite SF place.
I haven't read Greer in a while and can't remember if I read that one. But I loved the Confessions of Max Tivoli and if I remember correctly it was also set here. I haven't read either of the others you mentioned so I must. Another in fiction for me: At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman
I tend to read a lot of non-fiction so Season of the Witch and American Sherlock are two of my favorites. Also The Beautiful Unseen which is a memoir that is also an investigation into different types of fog. (I intend to read your Year of Fog, having just finished The Marriage Pact.) Other memoirs set here that I loved: Fairyland by Alysia Abbott and both of Cleve Jones books.
Maupin at the Make-Out Room sounds divine! I have such great memories of that place during Litquake events and other literary brou-ha-has!
Oh yes, Confessions of Max Tivoli was also great. And your mention of Seligman's book brings to mind Ellen Sussman's On a Night Like This.
Oh, goodness, how do I not know about The Beautiful Unseen?! That sounds right up my alley! Thank you! Speaking of fog, I love Gary Kamiya's Cool Gray City of Love. I read as much nonfiction as fiction, especially memoir, so I'm excited to hear about these SF memoirs.
Oh yes, Cool Gray City of Love has been on my list for a long time. Love Kamiya's local writing.
I used to regularly attend Writers with Drinks at the Make Out Room which was hosted by Charlie Jane Anders who I believe has gone on to a pretty good writing career.
Oooh, I loved Writers with Drinks! So fun! Charline Jane Anders is a San Francisco lit scene treasure. The last Writers With Drinks event I did, I think, was with Michelle Tea--also an SF literary treasure!
I know you have shared tips on inspiration, which have been very helpful, but I’d love to know a bit more about how/where you go about searching for ideas when you feel your mind is blank and you “have to” write (either because of a deadline or because you’ve got some free time which you know won’t last).
This is an interesting question, Andres, and it really depends on what I'm writing. If I'm working on a novel (and I'm always working on a novel), the ideas are somehow embedded in the novel itself. That is, as I progress through the novel I think about how to make things worse/harder/more complicated for the protagonist. I think, "What would she do in this situation?" or "what could make things worse?"
For me, coming up with the premise of a novel isn't difficult--the premise just comes to me--but then you have to narrow it down and decide which one to write, which for me is really a matter of how much I love an idea, how excited I feel about it, whether or not I love it enough to spend a couple of years with it. If I don't find it exciting and complex, I won't even begin.
The most intriguing phrase in your question is "when your mind is blank." And it occurs to me, reading this, that my mind is not often enough blank. And I mean this in the sense that: I'm too distracted. If I have some free time to write--which is really the way my day is structured--I can come here to Substack and write something for The Caffeinated Writer or The Wandering Writer.
What I mean is, I don't really give myself the brain space to have a blank mind--which is really a mistake for a writer. I used to write short stories all the time, and I rarely write them anymore. That's probably because I always have "projects" outside of the current novel-on-contract. In the past, when I stepped away from my novel-on-contract during my writing period, a sentence would often present itself in my mind, and from that sentence I would write a short story, flash fiction, or essay. These days, though, I'm always "working on" something else outside of my. novel, which surely limits the free flow of ideas.
So, you have given me something to think about! The challenge: how to get to that "blank mind" space where creativity flows in unexpected directions.
I have “blank mind” moments way too often so I think it’s great you always find something (I guess the grass is always greener!). But I hear you. Maybe a balance between the two every now and then wouldn’t be a bad idea!
Have you ever heard/used the term depth in teaching craft? If so, what does it mean to you? I took a class with Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publications) and he used this term to connect the reader's experience with the character and setting from the get go. From what I can tell, it's the use of specifics that helps a reader "experience" the story. In this course it was about the roller coaster ride of thrillers. What are your thoughts on this?
Trust you had a wonderful holiday and will have a Happy Writing New Year!!!
Thank you for this question, Larry. I'm not sure what Smith was talking about specifically, but the term "depth," particularly in fiction, brings to mind two things for me: depth of character and depth of story.
One of the questions I encourage my students to think about is WHY their characters do what they do. A character can do anything--no matter how brash, unreasonable, cruel, naive, or short-sighted--so long as we understand the character's motivation, and so long as the writer makes us believe that motivation. Motivation is a crucial element of character depth.
Writing a character with depth is also a matter of going beyond the obvious. It's easy to write about a character's blue eyes and red car, his bad knees or favorite brand of beer. It's more difficult to show subtleties in a characters' reactions and their way of perceiving the world. And this is part of how a story builds: revealing a character slowly over time through action, reaction, and dialogue--the things he does, the things he doesn't do, the things he doesn't say.
The other thing I would mention in terms of depth is depth of story, which arises from cause and effect, and from the intelligent (and often intuitive) use of echoes.
The novel must have cause and effect, one thing leading to another. So, in other words, an event doesn't just pop up, untethered from what has come before and what will come after. It must arise logically from a. previous event and lead logically to other events.
Beyond cause and effect, a novel has echoes. An image or event will echo later in the novel--softly or more loudly--but the echoes will be present in a way that the discerning reader (not a reader who has to "work" at understanding the novel--which is a sign that the writer has failed--but a reader who is paying attention) will hear them.
And of course, beyond all of that, are the small, significant details (not too many, not too few) that immerse the reader in the world of the story, so that we feel we are there with the protagonist instead of just skimming the surface.
Thank you again for this question! And, to continue the conversation: I'd love to know how you are aware, when you are writing or when you have finished a draft, that the story or character has depth.
How does one gauge when their manuscript is ready to enlist a developmental editor?
Thank you for this question, Fred. I know this is something you're thinking about in your memoir now. I really think the answer depends on the individual book and how comfortable the writer feels with seeking advice at various points in the process, but here are some thoughts on when it might be a good time to enlist a developmental editor:
-When you get to the point where you have a lot of material written and you are unsure what to keep and what to leave on the editing room floor, a developmental editor can help you separate the wheat from the chaff.
-If you have written a significant chunk of a novel or memoir and feel "stuck"--that is, you feel you have written yourself into a corner or don't know where to go next--a developmental editor can ask good questions and can see the fertile ground in the manuscript that hasn't yet been fully explored.
-If you have a foundation of but feel that the narrative lacks direction, a developmental editor can help you structure the book more effectively.
The key is that you have a significant amount of the manuscript written before working with a developmental editor. This could be a complete draft or a partial draft of at least 30k words or so. I would be hesitant to work with a developmental editor before having written a significant chunk, because we discover the story through writing it. It's important to allow that discovery to happen before inviting other minds and opinions into the process.
For someone in your position--having written a complete draft and gone through at least one revision--a developmental editor can help you see things you might not see in the manuscript--such as weak points, missing links, or scenes/chapters that would benefit from being deepened or clarified. A developmental editor can also be helpful in pointing out what is working really well, the scenes and chapters you should leave as is--even if the writing/perfectionist brain wants to keep working on them!
Have 6 questions: (1) What are some of the best strategies for structuring and writing the middle of your novel? (2) What are the best ways to sort out the muddle (if your novel has somehow dwindled into a disordered or confused state or seems thoroughly unauthentic (the whole thing or just parts of it)? (3) What are the best options for self publishing and self marketing your first novel without having to spend too much should it thoroughly fail? (4) What are your thoughts on using "A Blue Book Grammar and Punctuation Guide for self editing your first novel? (5) Any practical suggestions for catching up if you haven't been writing constantly for the last 10 years? (6) The 10 best ways to defeat any self-doubts about one's writing or any thoughts you have concerning developing confidence in one's writing. Thanks for asking for questions we might see answered and discussed in a future The Caffeinated Writer article.
Hi Larry, these are all thought-provoking questions. Thank you. I'm going to start with question 2 and then circle back later to the others.
Q: What are the best ways to sort out the muddle (if your novel has somehow dwindled into a disordered or confused state or seems thoroughly unauthentic (the whole thing or just parts of it)
A: When I have a lot of writing for a novel and am feeling directionless, I do a reverse outline. I never outline before I write a novel, but once I have a significant chunk written, I go through it chapter by chapter and write a one-to-three sentence summary of each chapter. The summary states explicitly what HAPPENS in the chapter. If I have a hard time stating in this reverse outline what happens in any given chapter, I know that not enough happens. That is, the chapter doesn't have enough substance.
In other words, a summary of a chapter can't just say what a character thinks or what we know about a location, etc; the chapter has to have a clear event or events.
By reverse outlining in this way, I know what already exists, and I can see where there are holes in the plot--things that might be in my mind but not yet realized on the page.
That is a perfect sort out technique. The perfect next step when even a little muddled. Thanks so much.
You're very welcome! I'm happy that it's helpful!
Michelle,
Don't know if you are still on the lookout for topic questions for possible future writing advice posts? My question is "When should a writer hire an editor?" Have read various suggestions. 1) Much later than you think. 2) Once you can't make any more progress on your own. 3) Wait until you've "finished" your novel (a few times). 4) Don't do a lot of cleanup until after you have made the big changes. What would you advise? This is just in case, although you probably have already collected a lot of questions.
Larry B.
Michelle,
Thanks for the answer.
I mainly write mystery/suspense short stories and have tackled a novella. That established, to answer your question, I generally feel that when I write the story, it is through dialogue that I feel the character's depth initially. It is in the rewrites that I go back in layer in other aspects, especially desciption and emotional aspects of character, though limited due to story length.
Wishing you a Happy New Year!
You're very welcome, Larry. Thank you for the question!
It's so interesting that the character's depth comes to you first through dialogue. I wonder if you are naturally an auditory person? My husband, who "hears" the world far more acutely than I do, also tends to write more dialogue in first drafts. I perceive the world more vividly through visual stimuli, and that is what arrives on the page first for me.
Happy New Year to you too!
Hi Michelle,
I have two questions :)
I’ve taken a couple of your classes and loved them, my favourite being the flash fiction course. I remember you mentioned novels and memoirs made up of flash pieces, but I can’t remember any of the titles! Can you recommend a couple to me?
As well, I have worked in coffee and my wife currently does, (we are serious addicts!) and I’m wondering what your morning brew method is? Drip, espresso, French press, stove top, etc.? And who makes your favourite beans?
Thank you :),
Kayla
Thank you, Kayla! So good to hear from you! I'll be answering this question in a separate post...but the quick answer on coffee: usually drip, and my favorite beans are from Philz!
Hi Kayla, I finally answered this in today's very coffee-centric post:)
First off, I subscribe partly because I am a writer and editor who runs on coffee -- I wrote a short series of stories on newspaper editing called "Edit High", in which I revealed that my drug of choice is nothing more exotic than coffee:
https://medium.com/@3DA0KM/edit-high-0-ctrl-z-ce804c3b3b48
On this score, we are on the same page.
If I can ask one question, this is about something that really bugs me about a lot of American writing. You give advice to writers, including ideas about what to try writing about this week.
This bothers me in ways I find difficult to explain.
It seems people want to be Writers, but they're often not sure what to write about.
If you're not sure what to write about -- why do you want to be a writer?
So my question is: with so much shit going on in the world, why do people find it so hard to find things to write about? If you've lived some life and have something to say, it makes finding the words so much easier. It also makes it easier to ask relevant questions about writing technique and the best ways to express something effectively.
A very poorly expressed question, but I hope you get my drift. I see a lot of writing that tries to intellectualize the world and justify itself purely on this basis. Just being clever is not nearly enough.
And yes...COFFEE. I too run on coffee.
Loved this from your Medium piece: "In his Lectures on Lecturing, the best set of lectures ever given, Rudolf Steiner says that journalists drink coffee, because it makes them logical while focusing on one story, while diplomats drink tea, as they have to chit-chat lightly while flitting from one subject to the next. The last time I checked, journalism was the profession with by far the highest use of coffee as a stimulant."
Although I will say, when I was living abroad on a diplomatic passport, the diplomats had regular "coffee" mornings. No one called it a tea morning, although, come to think of it, tea was available.
Thank you for your question, Karl. I'll try to answer it with an anecdote. A few years ago, a friend reached out to me and asked me to write a short story for an anthology he was editing for Akashic Books, titled Alabama Noir. I was living in Paris at the time, writing about daily life in Paris--being in a city that remained foreign to me in many ways, even years into living there, always provided the a wellspring of necessary friction that gave me endless ideas. I was also working on a couple of novels.
A few months passed, and I didn't write the story for Alabama Noir. It had a couple of specific parameters, and I wasn't sure how to approach it. As the deadline loomed, I thought about something that had long been on my mind, and it had to do with the murder of a politician who has, through his actions, made likely he murder of countless others. So I sat down and wrote the short story over a period of a few days, titled "What Brings You Back Home," and that story gave me an idea for a novel.
For me, having an "assignment," even at this late stage in my career, helped me to write something I certainly wouldn't have written, in that particular form, otherwise. If this editor had not asked for a noir story set in Alabama, the short story never would have come to be.
The same was true for another commissioned story. An editor asked me to write a story for CNet's "Technically Literate"--the story had to be centered on tech in some way. What came out of that assignment was the short story "The Last Taco Truck in Silicon Valley." I live near Silicon Valley, my husband worked there for years, and I love taco trucks and we sometimes lamented their demise, and all that meant. But had I not gotten that "assignment," that particular story would have never come to be.
And the same can be said for a story I was asked to write by the fiction editor of Playboy Magazine. She asked if I could send her a short story. I'd had an essay in Playboy but never a short story, and I loved the idea of being in the magazine that had published many of the most iconic American writers. So I had to come up with an idea that would be literary but would also push the boundaries in a way that would appeal to the fiction editor of Playboy and to the magazine's readers: the result was a story called "An Exciting New Career in Medicine," which, again, would not have existed otherwise.
All of this to say: the "What to Write This Week" series doesn't exist because I think people don't have ideas. Yes, ideas exist in the ether. They come to us through reading and walking and living and observing. I trust that writers have ideas. But an assignment or prompt spurs you to write something that would not have otherwise existed. A writer may have many ideas, but a specific prompt will lead to the creation of a thing that wouldn't have otherwise leapt to mind.
Wow, thanks for this, Michelle, much appreciated. I just get the feeling that a lot of people want to write for the sake of being "writers." Get some experience of the real world, see how to do some good in the real world, and *then* you may have something to write about, is my advice. Too much introspection can be counterproductive.
I hear you! I do think there is a sort of "being a writer" thing in the air that is quite different from the deep compulsion to write. You can't fake the latter!
Yes, yes, "get some experience of the real world..." So true.
What are your favorite books set in San Francisco other than your own?
Hi Kathryn, the first books that come to mind are the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. In the late nineties I was living in NYC with my then-boyfriend (now husband). I had told him I would go to New York with him as long as he promised we would move to SF as soon as possible. During that time, he gave me the Tales of the City books, and I read them, dreaming of San Francisco. Then we moved to SF and I managed the apartment building we lived in in the Castro, and we often drove to the Russian River, where he'd been going to his family cabin since he was a child (and where Maupin set some of his stories). So those were a favorite in my early days of living in San Francisco.
I also loved Andrew Sean Greer's Story of a Marriage (2008), which is set in the Outer Sunset, Ben Fong Torres's memoir The Rice Room, and The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma. I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now! What about you?
Definitely Maupin. I read them the first year that I lived here, heard him do a reading of the then-newest one at The Make-Out Room, and chose Macondray Lane (which inspired Barbary Lane) for a photo shoot of a favorite SF place.
I haven't read Greer in a while and can't remember if I read that one. But I loved the Confessions of Max Tivoli and if I remember correctly it was also set here. I haven't read either of the others you mentioned so I must. Another in fiction for me: At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman
I tend to read a lot of non-fiction so Season of the Witch and American Sherlock are two of my favorites. Also The Beautiful Unseen which is a memoir that is also an investigation into different types of fog. (I intend to read your Year of Fog, having just finished The Marriage Pact.) Other memoirs set here that I loved: Fairyland by Alysia Abbott and both of Cleve Jones books.
Maupin at the Make-Out Room sounds divine! I have such great memories of that place during Litquake events and other literary brou-ha-has!
Oh yes, Confessions of Max Tivoli was also great. And your mention of Seligman's book brings to mind Ellen Sussman's On a Night Like This.
Oh, goodness, how do I not know about The Beautiful Unseen?! That sounds right up my alley! Thank you! Speaking of fog, I love Gary Kamiya's Cool Gray City of Love. I read as much nonfiction as fiction, especially memoir, so I'm excited to hear about these SF memoirs.
Oh yes, Cool Gray City of Love has been on my list for a long time. Love Kamiya's local writing.
I used to regularly attend Writers with Drinks at the Make Out Room which was hosted by Charlie Jane Anders who I believe has gone on to a pretty good writing career.
Oooh, I loved Writers with Drinks! So fun! Charline Jane Anders is a San Francisco lit scene treasure. The last Writers With Drinks event I did, I think, was with Michelle Tea--also an SF literary treasure!
Oh yes! What a great one. I am loving this walk down SF writing memory lane!
I know you have shared tips on inspiration, which have been very helpful, but I’d love to know a bit more about how/where you go about searching for ideas when you feel your mind is blank and you “have to” write (either because of a deadline or because you’ve got some free time which you know won’t last).
This is an interesting question, Andres, and it really depends on what I'm writing. If I'm working on a novel (and I'm always working on a novel), the ideas are somehow embedded in the novel itself. That is, as I progress through the novel I think about how to make things worse/harder/more complicated for the protagonist. I think, "What would she do in this situation?" or "what could make things worse?"
For me, coming up with the premise of a novel isn't difficult--the premise just comes to me--but then you have to narrow it down and decide which one to write, which for me is really a matter of how much I love an idea, how excited I feel about it, whether or not I love it enough to spend a couple of years with it. If I don't find it exciting and complex, I won't even begin.
The most intriguing phrase in your question is "when your mind is blank." And it occurs to me, reading this, that my mind is not often enough blank. And I mean this in the sense that: I'm too distracted. If I have some free time to write--which is really the way my day is structured--I can come here to Substack and write something for The Caffeinated Writer or The Wandering Writer.
What I mean is, I don't really give myself the brain space to have a blank mind--which is really a mistake for a writer. I used to write short stories all the time, and I rarely write them anymore. That's probably because I always have "projects" outside of the current novel-on-contract. In the past, when I stepped away from my novel-on-contract during my writing period, a sentence would often present itself in my mind, and from that sentence I would write a short story, flash fiction, or essay. These days, though, I'm always "working on" something else outside of my. novel, which surely limits the free flow of ideas.
So, you have given me something to think about! The challenge: how to get to that "blank mind" space where creativity flows in unexpected directions.
I have “blank mind” moments way too often so I think it’s great you always find something (I guess the grass is always greener!). But I hear you. Maybe a balance between the two every now and then wouldn’t be a bad idea!
Depth
Have you ever heard/used the term depth in teaching craft? If so, what does it mean to you? I took a class with Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publications) and he used this term to connect the reader's experience with the character and setting from the get go. From what I can tell, it's the use of specifics that helps a reader "experience" the story. In this course it was about the roller coaster ride of thrillers. What are your thoughts on this?
Trust you had a wonderful holiday and will have a Happy Writing New Year!!!
Thanks,
Larry
Thank you for this question, Larry. I'm not sure what Smith was talking about specifically, but the term "depth," particularly in fiction, brings to mind two things for me: depth of character and depth of story.
One of the questions I encourage my students to think about is WHY their characters do what they do. A character can do anything--no matter how brash, unreasonable, cruel, naive, or short-sighted--so long as we understand the character's motivation, and so long as the writer makes us believe that motivation. Motivation is a crucial element of character depth.
Writing a character with depth is also a matter of going beyond the obvious. It's easy to write about a character's blue eyes and red car, his bad knees or favorite brand of beer. It's more difficult to show subtleties in a characters' reactions and their way of perceiving the world. And this is part of how a story builds: revealing a character slowly over time through action, reaction, and dialogue--the things he does, the things he doesn't do, the things he doesn't say.
The other thing I would mention in terms of depth is depth of story, which arises from cause and effect, and from the intelligent (and often intuitive) use of echoes.
The novel must have cause and effect, one thing leading to another. So, in other words, an event doesn't just pop up, untethered from what has come before and what will come after. It must arise logically from a. previous event and lead logically to other events.
Beyond cause and effect, a novel has echoes. An image or event will echo later in the novel--softly or more loudly--but the echoes will be present in a way that the discerning reader (not a reader who has to "work" at understanding the novel--which is a sign that the writer has failed--but a reader who is paying attention) will hear them.
And of course, beyond all of that, are the small, significant details (not too many, not too few) that immerse the reader in the world of the story, so that we feel we are there with the protagonist instead of just skimming the surface.
Thank you again for this question! And, to continue the conversation: I'd love to know how you are aware, when you are writing or when you have finished a draft, that the story or character has depth.