The Anatomy Of Construction

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Exit music (For a blog)
2008-05-01 05:19:00
I?ve really enjoyed working on ?The Anatomy...? for the months I have. It?s been fun developing a book online; I?ve met some great people, I?ve grown as a writer, and I?ve learned a great deal.The Community of bloggers has be a constant source of courage and inspiration for me. It?s an experience I am not leaving behind, but coming back to in due time.Life can throw some heavy curve balls at you. I?m proud of the fact that I posted every page I have without my own internet connection, from public libraries, and internet café?s; but this is just a sign of my current poverty.Some time ago I threw down and decided to live life on my times- in doing this, I made several errors of judgment, each forcing me to live a more and more frugal lifestyle, which is not what I really want- a little bit of comfort goes a long way.The clean up I?m indulging in still affords me space to write- space to write, but not to dedicate the time I would like to to ?The Anatomy?? Rather than doing many things...
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Not one second less
2008-04-21 03:54:00
Do not approach a story as a mathematical formula. Avoid ideas that a story is a series of separate elements. A poem is not made up like a batch of scones.Story is a stream rippling over rocks and not easy to control without impeding its flow.Don?t be afraid of rewrites.It?s OK. Successive drafts is how to polish ideas into story.A piece of string is exactly twice as long as it is from one end to its center. It?s much more troublesome to ask how long it takes to write a story.It simply takes as long as it takes.You?re not competing with anyone- no one else will ever write quite the same story as you can.This is your great strength.
More About: Writing

The difficult is simple
2008-04-20 02:40:00
Tying your shoes is simple, isn’t it? Write down how to tie your shoes, make it a perfect, useful description. It’s not easy? Someone would have explained how to tie your shoes first and walked you through it many times. This does not explain why you find it so easy to tie your shoes, and yet so hard to explain. No other teacher can take the place of experience. We learn best by doing. Imagine what would happen if you never learned to tie your shoes and had to invent your own knot? There would be many failures. Experience will teach you the practice; practice often Teachers give you tools to use to gain experience; practice what they teach. Dedication will grant you ability; this is your reward for hard practice.Ask no more of practice.
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Strong teachers
2008-04-19 02:48:00
There is much we have to learn from and about writing. You don?t need to buy every text book on the subject. You would do well with just a dictionary and ?The Elements of style? By William Strunk Jr and EB White. Most of your text books are much more enjoyable. John Steinbeck?s works, anything by Banana Yosihmoto; Chuck Palahniuk to Jane Austin, the libraries of the world are your teachers. The smell of roast cooking on a cold night, the sound of leaves blown by the wind, and the elderly couple whose affection touches your heart; these are all mighty teachers. All the things you read, all the things you sense, take them and turn them over and about in your minds eye. Learn what things are from your point of view. Read a lot, and write a lot; there is much writing will teach you about the world.
More About: Writing , Strong , Teachers

Entering the city with bliss bestowing hands
2008-04-18 03:37:00
The responsibility of the writer is not limited to writing, editing and, polishing the story. The writer?s purpose is to get the story out to people.You don?t have to publish; you don?t have to show your book to anyone, but if you like of what you?ve done, you should seek a publisher.Remember, this is a story that you believed in enough to spend hundreds of hours writing and editing; it?s a story you?d like to see others read.There are options when it comes to publishing. Choose what suits you; no matter what you do from this point you?ve achieved a great thing.Just believe in the story. This story will be something of yourself, but your greater self, and shared with others. This is a powerful gift.
More About: Writing , Hands , City

Returning to the origin, back to the source.
2008-04-17 03:30:00
After people have read what you?ve written, your worst fear is faced and overcome. If people like it, they tell you. If people don?t like it, they lie to you, and tell you they like it.Your friends will share it with others.Your story is no longer a set of pages you have written and called a book. It is, once again, pure story and living where it should- in other people?s minds.The more people talk about your story, the better you will have told the story.Sharing a story with others is granting it life. A writer must bring stories to life.
More About: Writing , Story , Source , The Source , Back

The cow and the man, both gone out of sight
2008-04-16 03:30:00
There comes a time when you are done with editing. You will know when that time, and you must make a committed decision.This doesn?t mean you can?t make small typographical changes, but it means it?s time to let the story out of the door.Hand out several copies to the two types of friends you have; the ones who will tell you the truth warts and all, and the ones who will tell you pleasant lies.Listen to what your truth speaking friends say. Think about what they?ve said from the story?s point of view; you?ll find their changes stick.Listen to your friends who tell you your novel is a best seller and feel good.The two combined are your co-editors- they will tell you what is great about your story, and what needs work.Listen.
More About: Writing , Sight , Out Of Sight

The cow forgotten, leaving the man alone
2008-04-15 03:41:00
When you are editing be dispassionate- Natalie Goldman calls it ?Samurai mode? in her book ?Writing down the bones? Eliminate all unnecessary words.Your editing pen, is a sword of life. You cut that which harms the story; you cut that which obscures it; you are its liberator and protector.But you will not see the story.The story will be invisible as you tighten sentences and eliminate word madness; you will be aware of it, but not conscious.You?re still working on the story, but in editing weighing one word, then one sentence at a time, eclipses other concerns; your story will well survive the pruning.
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Riding home on the cows back
2008-04-14 02:46:00
In the second redraft, the story will be apparent.The editing will not be complete. You have story, but you must bring it out into the world properly.Write to be read.Remove all the punctuation and grammatical mistakes.Make things clear; plot is not the act of straightening out poor story telling in earlier chapters ? Jack-in-the-box twists added later are no asset.Try reading out aloud- our minds have a way of twisting what we read to make sense of things. By saying it aloud, you let yourself her from an outside angle, what you?ve written.This is just polish though- no amount of editing can revive a dead story.Unless you?ve written a text book people expect to find a living story.
More About: Writing , Home , Back , Riding , Cows

Herding the cow
2008-04-13 04:18:00
The first draft will never be perfect; a rough draft does not make a marketable product. There will be typing mistakes, grammatical train wrecks, unnecessary words, and misshapen ambiguities. It?s okay to have these in the rough draft. If you don?t find these in the rough draft you?re not reading your work back carefully enough. Get some distance between yourself and the story before you read it back- say a minimum of six weeks, lest you inadvertently maim it with over zealous editing. The first redraft will be the most drastic in terms of what you cut away, and what you change. Don?t be afraid of beating the story into shape, when you see it with fresh eyes. There will be things to change, there will be things you shouldn?t. Good editing relies on the ability to distinguish between the two.
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Catching the cow
2008-04-12 03:03:00
Listening and writing is not enough. You have to listen, and write, and get the story down on the page.All of the story, intact and whole; a rough draft.As you are writing, let the characters take the deviations they need to make the story happen. A detail or an episode might seem superfluous, but it is much easier to edit things out than to add solid detail and maintain a consistent connection.Story and character develop together, and it is very hard to add tracts of material to a draft.Better to let your pen run wild and write it all down as it comes than try to recapture that spirit.The story has to be complete; you can?t call it a rough draft with any part of the story missing.
More About: Writing

Seeing The Cow
2008-04-11 03:44:00
Ignore the first page of the first draft. It won?t be the story and it won?t describe what you see in the story.Consider your first draft getting to know the characters.As you write chapter after chapter after chapter, things will change. Characters become people you live with on the page.The character's voice will come through stronger, their actions will become more authentic.You do have to listen to them though, and you do have to watch what they do.Let that character live. If they do something unexpected, do not berate them, or beat them down; work with them, record their lives.The quality of your watching and listening determines the quality of the transmission between the story and the page; you are the medium, perfect yourself.
More About: Writing

Seeing traces of the cow
2008-04-09 02:52:00
When you begin, the story will be a dead thing, an idea.?The man who could not eat the color red.?This is all it will be. You?ll have this idea, and many others.?The fish that feel in love with the moon,? ?A rainy night homeless in Capetown,? ?The man who could not eat the color red,? ?A life of thirteen years in a one foot by six inch glass tank,? ?The sound of bells on a lake only dreamed,?Some of these ides will seem good. Some of these ideas will seem bad, but they are all equivalent; mere ideas.None will grab you immediately and scream, ?I?m a Vogel winner!? but there will be some that appeal to you more than others.When you are looking, all stories are equal; choose one you like, there is no limit to what that story can contain.
More About: Writing

Looking for the cow
2008-04-08 02:59:00
It's hard to believe you could come up with a story so fascinating that you could write one hundred thousand words in its telling. You?ll think of many other stories other people have written. Maybe you'll have ashamedly thought, ?What if I just take this story, and bend it like so? You might think on abandoning writing.Don't worry, you won?t come through with the story straight away. You will have tiny idea bursts that your brain swallows as fast as they appear.These go into the vat of your mind and are stewed until little ideas start to congeal into a story. This story is made up of hundreds of little events and circumstances; one hundred thousand words wont seem enough.Wrap these circumstances, people, and events- these little ideas- up in an overall story. Any story you like, just tell it well.

Breathing life into characters
2008-04-07 02:39:00
Leave all the pretending to the page, but when you pretend, pretend earnestly.If your character is an outlaw motorcyclist, don?t affect a different voice and take on some bravado.As you are writing try to understand the character's life, what they feel, why they feel the way they do, and why it comes across the way it does.Experience things with the character. Don?t judge them; let their living inform your story.You are God to their Adam; form them of mere words and by your will, breathe life into their actions.Your breath of life to character is the words on the page; the words must be living things not a deathly dissection.You will be surprised how it changes your character?s behavior.
More About: Life , Writing , Characters , Character

Owls and magic feathers
2008-04-06 04:31:00
It is easy to fall into hoping for inspiration borne in through the window by unseen hands. Or owls.It is a bad thing to want to be a writer, and write only a little. The great writers you read will make you wonder. ?What do they do different to me?? These great writers would say to most people who ask this question, ?We write books,? but many of us search for a magic feather, something that will make our writing fly. Anything but spending hours everyday writing. Inspiration , is often the magic thing that we think makes all the difference. We like to pretend Milton, Steinbeck, Rowling and Keats were better writers because of their inspiration. But it is just pretending.
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Writing is nothing about self deception.
2008-04-05 01:06:00
Sitting and talking to your friends about your great book that you?ve not yet started is self deception; nothing but writing will produce that book you long for. Self deception is revealed by an absence of writing; this absence is not writing by any measure, good or bad. There are some who believe a big owl will swoop in during the night and leave an almighty deposit on their desk. They would call that deposit inspiration, and it will solve all their problems of narrative and character and story. They will not have to sit for hours writing. This owl will have done all the work. Inspiration is what we name our influences after we?ve written a book; Big owls will not replace writing in the production of a book. Practice writing, not self deception.
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The Rules of the Road
2008-04-04 01:43:00
Writing is an art. While there are rules to writing there is no formula to writing a good novel. These rules are simple. First, you must fall in love with a story Then, you must write a rough draft of that story. Finally, polish that draft, through successive drafts, to bring the story out. While doing this you will learn to write. Everything else is like worrying about gilding the frame of a mirror and hoping that this will somehow make the mirror reflect better. Each and every story requires us to learn anew, no one is an expert when it comes to a new story. You must learn to write according to the needs of each and every story; each story contains its own lessons on the art of storytelling and writing. Listen to the story, not your ego.
More About: Writing , Rules , Road , The Rules , The Road

Love story.
2008-04-02 22:50:00
That is, of course, what you are doing when you write- expressing a great love for story. We write because we love the story so much we want to share it with others. There are many other reasons, all legitimate, but this is the most important reason. If you don?t love story, you?ve no business writing stories. It is like picking a sport, and pursuing it to be an Olympic gold medal winner. You simply won?t have what it takes. It?s is this passion that will bring you every other skill needed to write. Discipline. Determination. Strength. Ability. All these stem from passion, and a love for telling story. It follows that good writing stems from this same root. Love what you do, and what you do will be great.
More About: Writing , Story , Love story

How to show your love for story.
2008-04-02 02:29:00
You mustn?t feel as though you are fighting for words- that?s not to say give up, walk away; just forget your expectations. Don?t get any big ideas, they?re not going to happen. Big ideas will lead to never writing a word. You won?t write a word if you have these big ideas because your body and heart both know that there is a lot more to writing than big ideas of success. Your body and heart know much more than your brain thinks it does. Let the story be your biggest, most important idea. Tell the story very well for the sake of telling the story well, and you will tell the story well. This is the only way to express love for story.
More About: Writing , Love , Story , Show

All things in their place
2008-04-01 01:39:00
Each and every thing in its turn. You do not have to know what genre of story you are writing to write - story is not so mechanical as this. This subdivision is easy enough once the piece is done.To concern yourself with favoring an element of the story is to take away from the story.In each and every word you needn?t concentrate on effect; by concentrating on telling the story honestly and you will achieve effect in the words you use.A story is a symphony, of high notes and low notes, but each and every one in its place; leave off artifical emphasis.Our whole lives we are leaves carried along in the stream of story, our writing is just one more aspect of our lives; let it flow, don?t fight and struggle for effect.
More About: Writing , Story , Place , Things , Cassidy

Writing with feeling
2008-03-31 02:11:00
When you are writing, do not write something cold and mechanical. Write with feeling, your feeling.Do not sit and ask, ?What is a good metaphor for this feeling?? because if you have to articulate in mechanical thought what you feel, you don?t really feel it. You are thinking it.A metaphor is a method of saying one thing, is equal to another. Her kiss was like the sweet summers dew; at once cold, and tender.A metaphor is a way of saying you know this to feel like that.The metaphor evokes a sensation, a feeling. Of course a girl?s kiss will never be like a summer?s dew, but the impression of the two may be very similar to your heart.Write with honesty- sincerity shines through.
More About: Writing , Feeling

One
2008-03-29 23:26:00
Everything is written in the same fashion: One word at a time. This is not an academic point. Hallmark greeting cards, The Bible, every great novel were not started with intention, but one word written on the page. The Words you write, your first draft, is demonstration of your intent. Intention alone, with regard to writing, is only an idea. If every intention to write a novel was realized, everyone would be a writer. They are not, because intention is just a word. Start by writing just one word. Continue by writing another after it, and another, and another. This is how a novel is written. Intend nothing, write down the things you feel and imagine.
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One word at a time.
2008-03-29 05:01:00
Every word you write is practice for the next. Knowing how to choose the next word, happily putting it on the page, happily letting it live on the page; all of these things take courage, and a certain skill. It?s not a big courage, it?s nothing more special than being confident enough to sit down and write, and accept the results as something that exists. It?s not a big skill; it?s a skill you acquire from repetition. Writing requires courage, because many people think it does. Writing is a skill, because you do have to invest time into developing it. Improve your writing, by writing. In what world can you imagine improving your writing by not writing? Write with diligence, and consideration for story and the words will flow in an endless stream. Don?t fear how you?ll feel about the results, don?t anticipate results. Just write.
More About: Time , Word

Let your mind not abide
2008-03-28 01:34:00
Describe the forest and the tress and each and every leaf without lingering; the story must be complete without halting its flow. Let character nor leaves nor trees detract from the other. Description, dialog, scene, and character cannot be separate entities; in your writing there can be no dualism; each has to be a seamless part of a whole. Should you abide in one aspect you create an artificial separation. Story is the seamless melding of all things without creating elements. Be you hand, eye or foot? No, yet you have all these things in me. Story too must contain all things, but be not one. Control your pen, and thoughts, but in doing so, ensure you let story light on what it will.
More About: Writing , Mind

The wonder of it all
2008-03-27 00:58:00
You must tell the story, your story, with your words, through new eyes; eyes that see all things as new. To bring life to a story you must see that which is fascinating in what you see as mundane. You see your face everyday in the mirror, but try and see it with a blank mind, a beginners mind. Unlearn all the things you know about yourself. Where did that scar come from? What pain caused your forehead to crease so? Discover the world again, without knowing, but asking. Reading should be a journey, a path you walk hand in hand with the author. Show your reader the world, help them understand what you see, but do not tell them all the things you know. We know so little, but understand so much more.
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Not One Thing
2008-03-26 01:21:00
Don?t worry about ?Write what you know? and rules of that ilk. You can no more write what you don?t know than turn the tides by wishing.Story and you can no more be separate than the hand that strums guitar strings and that which fingers chords.To write what you don?t know would be to sit, for thousands and thousands of words, and tell in detail of something you know nothing of.Consider your writing a fine gold ring.It may slip upon but one finger, and encompass only that.Or at a turn of your will, when lifted to the sky, encompass the blazing sun and heavens, the source of all life.Your writing is an education, a practice, and a liberation.Enjoy all aspects of it.
More About: Writing , Thing

Love not the secret chord
2008-03-25 00:46:00
The best you can ever do is to love what you do- but one cannot survive on love alone- one needs a little house for that love to live in This is story, or more specifically, your story telling. To be a writer, you must love your storytelling, and your stories. When you sit at the page, you sit beside a bright campfire, with marshmallows sizzling, and an audience that will never leave you- the page. Your story may take thousands of hours to tell; the page will always be attentive to you, and remember every thing you say. If you love story telling, this is a moment you can make last a lifetime, filled with a thousand different stories, each of which you can polish to be the story you have dreamed.
More About: Writing , Love , The Secret , Secret , Chord

Writing makes neither God or Martyr
2008-03-24 00:19:00
You will not be vindicated or victimized for writing. You write, and your writing is an extension of who you are. Pay no mind to ideas of fame, fortune and notoriety. Your duty, as a writer, is to write, not to plant a tree and hope for it to become an aeroplane. The product of your writing efforts, is writing. Don?t ask any more of the practice than this; let your thoughts linger on the story, not a future not yet come. Write as best you can; put your heart and soul into your words when you are drafting; look to the story you are telling when you are editing, this is your reference; take steps to ensure you love what you do. If you love what you?re doing, you?ve got everything you need.
More About: Writing , Success , Martyr

What are you improving your writing for?
2008-03-23 03:21:00
What are you improving your writing for? Success in the eyes of the world is not something you can set out to create. It is the pursuit of popular opinion, and an obsession that will take all your energy. You only have so much energy. Don?t waste energy explaining to people what you?re trying to do. Don?t explain to people how successful you want to be. Use all the energy you have for writing to produce the best piece of writing you can. Instead of focusing on being successful, focus on doing one thing very well. Improve your writing for the sake of communicating better.You don?t write to be loved.You write because you want to write.You?re loved because of your love for others.
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