Hello friends,
As I started the third book in The Austen Chronicles recently, and while I’ve been out promoting Welcome to Mansfield (more on both below), I have really been thinking about my writing process and how it developed over time.
Regardless of what you are writing, be it a poem, an essay, a shopping list, a text message, or a 350-page novel, the first thing you have to do is face the blank page. All writers must do it no matter what the page looks like. It could be a flashing cursor on a white page on your computer screen, an empty chat or text box on your phone, a clean sheet of paper rolled into your typewriter (OK, not as likely anymore, but Tom Hanks wrote a whole book about typewriters so…), an empty sheet of paper on a legal pad, or a page in a brand-new notebook. Whatever your blank page is, facing it can be the hardest thing to do.
What makes it most confounding is that, once it begins, the ideas that swirl about in the ether of your mind, suddenly become real. Someone else can pick up your dropped list and see that you were out of mouthwash and now you worry that they think you were walking around with bad breath all that time. Maybe they will just go around and do a bunch of close-talking until they find the person in the store who could use that list. I don’t recommend this activity by the way, but, because the words were written down, they had heft and actions could be taken.
Words have power, and writers know it. When I write fiction, I know that someone will read my work and wonder how much of myself is in there. What part of the made-up life is real? Can I have my villain say or do something horrific? Will people think that was me? Will they judge me? When I write a syllabus or a work email, I know that my students and colleagues will have a lot to say about me based on the tone of the document. My syllabus is a contract after all, and my emails are official school documents. So, you know, no pressure.
When I was a younger writer, I would agonize over this stuff. Sometimes to the point of paralysis. I am sure there are mental shelves full of ideas that never made it to fruition, not because they weren’t any good, but because I didn’t have a good process for how to start, and even worse, I didn’t know how to finish. See, the ending is just as problematic for writers as well. How many times have you gotten home from the store only to realize you didn’t stick the landing on that grocery list and you still need something? We can all relate to hitting send on an email before we finished and the person on the other end either thinks you have lost your mind or that you are really, really mad because you didn’t even bother to sign the thing.
I don’t worry about any of this stuff anymore because I quit pretending that I had to have it right the first time. I have a multi-step process that, more often than not, starts when I am nowhere near a pen or my computer. I write the first draft of everything in my head. I think about who the characters are, or what the course outcomes are, or what we want to have for dinner that week.
I let the second draft live a life of its own when I sit at my keyboard or when I pick up my pen. I take the character I created and I let her do whatever she needs to do. I don’t stop her from being funny, or shy, or mean. If I created a real character, then she should be allowed to do real things. If it is for work, I write the assignments I would like to have as a student. If it is a grocery list, I just let my stomach do the talking after consulting with my tastebuds. I just let it run wild. It is just for me anyway. Drafts one and two are secrets I keep, so who cares what I write? I’m not going to judge.
On the third draft, I ask for help. My wife is always my first reader; be it fiction, non-fiction, grocery list, social media post, or newsletter. She looks and tells me what she thinks is missing; be they words, or commas, or garlic salt. She gives me advice on what she thinks isn’t necessary because that description goes on too long, or she had an extra toothpaste under the bathroom sink. For That Other Dashwood Girl, I had a group of friends from the UK double-check all my British lingo. I made a lot of changes. It was so helpful. New eyes help. No writer does it alone.
Finally, I roll up my sleeves and throw elbows at the fourth, fifth, and whatever draft it is until I feel like the thing is ready. I add a line, or cut a line, or move it to chapter 30. I realize that the assignment needs more rigor or is too hard for students at that level. I decide that I wanted to make cookies so I add the ingredients I need.
Then, and this is the hardest part of the writing process, I let it go. It is done. It may not be perfect. The odds are it isn’t The Book Thief so I don’t let that kill me. I could have added a different reading for that section. I can do that next semester. We needed bay leaves. Oh man, guess we have to wait to have spaghetti. It is frustrating for sure, but for me, the best cure to the worries I get about the writing I finished, is to start over at step one and write something new and hope that I do better on the next one.
Notes From My Bookshelf
I have been reading a lot of graphic novels of late.
I read the entire series from Image Comics called The Beauty. It takes place in a world where an STD makes people beautiful. It isn’t perfect, but it set forth a great conversation with Alyson and Cody Shelton on Indie Comics Spotlight.
For Tonya Todd’s upcoming Banned Books series, I read the Tamaki cousins’ brilliant coming-of-age YA stand-alone graphic novel, This One Summer. I will link to that show when it comes out.
I revisited Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, from Boom Studios. They didn’t adapt the novel as a comic, they included the full text of the novel with illustrations. It is so worth the read.
Notes from My Keyboard
Book 3 of The Austen Chronicles will be called Universal Truth. It features Mary Bennet, whom readers will have met in Welcome to Mansfield as the president of Mansfield College. This book takes place in 1989, when Mary Bennet was 18 and ready to break out of her sleepy hamlet and go to college for herself. This book, my retelling of Pride and Prejudice, is flying along. I passed 30k words just today and I am really excited about where it is going.
I have a few podcast appearances coming up soon. Since none of those are out just yet, I will include links in future newsletters should you be interested in hearing me talk about Jane Austen, and writing, and art.
Finally, I do a quarterly book bingo on Instagram and Facebook and for the final quarter, I am looking for help to fill in the squares. Instead of doing genres, I am going to do authors. The first 24 authors suggested to me will make the card and I will finish my year by reading one book from each of those writers. If you have suggestions, please, send them my way.
Thanks as always for subscribing,
ARF
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