Where everybody knows your name

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Confabulator CafeWriting is a solitary sport. At least, that’s what I used to think.

In years past, I would lock myself in a room and spend hours writing, unwilling to let anyone even look at me while I tried to weave strange stories and create compelling characters. But a career as a copywriter changed that. I quickly learned to write advertising in a crowd surrounded by other writers, art designers, and creative directors.

Then, last year, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Suddenly I was thrust into a room with total strangers who — like me — wanted to write creatively. We were creating worlds and telling stories. We killed characters and mourned their loss. And it was more than a solitary endeavor. It was a team effort, with everyone offering encouragement.

Now we’re taking things to the next level. Several of the NaNoWriMo veterans from our region have banded together to create the Confabulator Cafe (www.confabulatorcafe.com). Officially launching after the first of the year, the Cafe will be a place where we can discuss the writing process, talk about our favorite works, and get at the heart of what it means to be a writer.

We’ll continue to encourage one another all year long. And along the way, we hope we can encourage you as well.

I’ll be adding my two cents every Tuesday, starting January 3rd. I hope you’ll drop by, and make us a regular part of your writing regimen. I promise we’ll have some wonderful insights to share, and we hope you’ll add your own thoughts as well.

See you at the Cafe. I’ll save you a seat by the fire.

The Christmas Creativity

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Sam the Snowman

May your holiday season be filled with great stories.

It’s three days before Christmas, and I need to write a post. I want to write about the holiday, but I’m trying hard to avoid the clichés of this time of year. I want something that doesn’t rely on:

  • Revising “The Night Before Christmas” to be humorous or trendy
  • Assembling a top 10 list of favorite Christmas traditions… movies… recipes…
  • Discussing the best/worst anything for the year
  • Writing a heartfelt message about “What the season means to me”

That doesn’t leave a lot.

I could discuss the fact that I run into the same problem this time every year, in that I never remember how to spell Hanukkah. (Hint: I looked up the answer in the AP Stylebook when writing this post.)

Or I could talk about how my novel is coming along post-NaNoWriMo. (Don’t ask.)

I might even take a moment to discuss my upcoming collaboration with… (Nah, that would be telling. Check back next week.)

Even though this is The Creativity Well, right now I’m having trouble finding the time and the spirit (no, not those kind of spirits) to be truly creative.

Don’t kid yourself, though. Creativity — like the magic of the season — is all around us.

This is the gift I give to you this holiday season: The knowledge that despite whatever stress you are feeling about your writing, you can do it. It’s the same kind magic that makes friends of enemies, brings families together, and turns cold-hearted misers into generous philanthropists.

So, enjoy the holidays. But take some time to read and write. You owe it to yourself. And you owe it to the readers who are waiting for you to finish your novel.

Monkey Day 2011

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It’s that time of year again. It’s Monkey Day, when we celebrate the simians in the world (collectively referred to colloquially as “monkeys”).

Chimpanzee with laptop

Sometimes I work hard. Sometimes I play hard.

Last year, I celebrated this very important day by writing about Unleashing my inner monkey. Now it’s a year later, and I find myself pontificating once more on all things primate. Have I come in contact with my inner monkey? Do I understand the nature of my monkeyness? Was Rise of the Planet of the Apes really a good example of primate politics, or was it a cautionary tale about the corruption of human influence?

I hear you starting to grumble. What does this have to do with writing? With creativity? Am I going to ramble on nonsensically for 500 words just to put out a new blog post?

What if I am? The truth is that I sometimes think there is far too much structure in the world. At times, I prefer to go off on a tangent. I like to color outside the lines on occasion. I want to drive down the side streets rather than take the highway. That’s part of being a writer.

Some people look at me and think I must have attention deficit disorder. I struggle to concentrate on anything long enough to accomplish a task — unless there’s a deadline. The truth, however, is that I find wonder in so many things. My attention is drawn to snippets of conversation in the workplace, the newest blog post in my reader, or any object with a shiny factor of +1.

I enjoy these interludes to my routine, and I miss them when I have to spend all my time rushing, rushing, rushing through the crazy world we call “civilization.”

When I think of monkeys (large and small) I always find myself at peace. These fuzzy people (to me, they are people) seem to give importance to things we humans often take for granted: family, food, and fun. You will never see a chimpanzee bemoaning the fact that he can’t afford an iPhone. You’ll never see a golden lion tamarin wondering whether she’ll get her crops harvested on Farmville. And you’ll never see a gorilla taking antacids because he has too much stress. Monkeys understand the secret to happiness.

Today, of all days, it’s important to remember the simple pleasures of life. So spend some time with your family. Eat a good meal. And have some fun. Your inner monkey demands it.

Jane Goodall Institute

Jane Goodall Institute adIf you love monkeys (and really, who doesn’t?) please consider donating to the Jane Goodall Institute. Specifically, they seek to:

  • Improve global understanding and treatment of great apes through research, public education and advocacy
  • Contribute to the preservation of great apes and their habitats by combining conservation with education and promotion of sustainable livelihoods in local communities
  • Create a worldwide network of young people who have learned to care deeply for their human community, for all animals and for the environment, and who will take responsible action to care for them

Take out the garbage

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When I was in college, I interned with the Kansas Film Commission. My mentor, Jerry, gave me a great bit of writing advice after editing one of my pieces. He told me to get rid of the fluff words, because word count doesn’t matter.

Oscar the Grouch

Ever notice that Oscar's trashcan seems to be infinitely bigger on the inside than the outside? Maybe it's a TARDIS.

“You’re not writing a college paper,” he told me. “Take out the garbage.”

I don’t know if those are the exact words he used, but the sentiment stuck with me. My writing was filled with phrases like “more and more” and “like as if.” (“Pick one,” he told me. “It’s either ‘like’ or ‘as if.’”) I also doused my writing with more than a generous amount of adverbs, something I still struggle with today.

Being a copywriter, I have a job that demands I write tightly. It’s not always easy to do. And when I’m writing a short story or novel, it’s hard not to get lost in the sea of words.

But when I’m editing, whether my own work or someone else’s, I’m much more conscious of unnecessary words.

This is why it’s imperative I work revision time into my writing schedule. My writing may be good in the first draft, but it can always be cleaner and tighter. When I put on my editor’s cap, I look for those extra words that are just taking up space.

Editing Tip

I came across this interesting editing suggestion while reading Wylie’s Writing Tips newsletter:

“When I conduct writing workshops at Tellabs, I always learn as much as I teach. One day, watching the Tellabs team edit a press release during a practice session, I was surprised to see George Stenitzer, vice president of Corporate Communications, wielding a highlighter instead of a pencil. Instead of cutting words, phrases and ideas he wanted to remove from the piece, George was highlighting information he wanted to keep.  It’s a great technique, because it focuses you on finding what you need instead of what you want to scrap.”

NaNoWriMo: Finish lines and finishing are two different things

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This month, I challenged myself to do something extraordinary. I wanted to write 50,000 words as part of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge.

Winning!I’m happy to say, I’m a winner. I crossed that finish line.

If you’re a writer, you know how difficult it can be to write 50,000 words. But this November was very important to me for several reasons.

First, I had not tried writing a novel-length piece in over 10 years. More importantly, though, I needed to do this to remind myself that I am (and always have been) a writer. As much as I am loathe to admit it, I’ve been futzing around for the past decade and haven’t done a lot of writing. And what I have written hasn’t been great. I needed this to reclaim my title as “writer.”

But it doesn’t end here.

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Casting your novel

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When you write your characters, do you ever consider who should play them in the big screen adaptation? It may be the height of hubris to talk about making a film of a novel I’m still writing, but a story in the news this week has me considering this very thing.

The Hunger Games - Rue

The character poster for Rue, from The Hunger Games. Do your characters stand out to readers?

A controversy has arisen among fans of The Hunger Games after seeing character posters for the upcoming film. Specifically, a discussion arose after seeing a poster of the character Rue.

In the novel, the narrator, Katniss, describes Rue:

“She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor.”

Even so, comments on The Hunger Games Facebook page ranged from “she is suppose to have read hair i hate it when directors dont fallow the book” to “im not racist i swear to gosh! but y is she black!?!?”

I’m not going to bash on the readers here. We all picture characters in our heads as we read. And, as readers, once we get a picture of a character in our heads, it can be difficult to switch it. If you’ve ever read a book after seeing a movie, you know how difficult it is to NOT think of the actors from the film.

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