Discussion: Why Do You Love Writing?

Photo credit: DaveAustria.com on Flickr

So it's the day after Valentine's Day and I totally didn't write about romance or even mention the word "love" in Wednesday's post, so I thought it appropriate to mention a love-related topic today. Except not quite in a romance-y way because mushy gushy romance day was yesterday. So.

Assuming that most of you reading this are writers or readers who enjoy reading writing blogs, I'm sure many of you have on more than one occasion come across a post detailing all the downsides of being a writer. Hell, you may have even read some of those posts here, because I like to be realistic when talking about the whole writing thing.

But sometimes when the days are particularly hard, or when you have more than a handful of rejections sitting in your inbox, or you look at your writing and wonder why you're even bothering to attempt to write, we writers need a little reminder as to why we embarked upon this writing journey to begin with. Sometimes we forget why we ever wanted to be writers to begin with, why we tell others we love to write so much, why we subject ourselves to rejection after rejection or an assortment of other disappointments that invariably come with the territory. Sometimes we need to take the time to remember why we love to write.

For me, the answer lies in the characters. I never tire of falling in love with new characters and watching them grow and change. I never get bored watching them interact with each other—whether it's a page of witty dialogue or an argument that ends badly. There's something truly incredible about creating characters people care about, and writing a story people want to read, and devising a world with just words that continues to fascinate me.

There's something about creating something out of nothing that I absolutely love, and it gets me time and time again, manuscript after manuscript.

You guys, we writers have the coolest job on the planet: we pull characters and entire worlds from our imaginations and release them to the world for others to see and expand upon. And we do it all with combinations of letters and our minds.

And if you ask me, that's pretty darn cool. And I'll always love it.

Join the discussion! Why do you love writing or reading other people's writing?

Why Writers Must Be Observers

Photo credit: Raymond Larose on Flickr

Contrary to popular belief, a writer must be more than a person who just writes. Of course writing is our primary goal, but in order to write authentically, we must first be vigilant observers. All the time.

You see, we writers have a pretty unique job; we are tasked with a mission to bring the impossible to life on the page, to create stories that pluck our readers from their everyday lives and to bring attention to details of the world around them that ring perfectly true. 

But in order to achieve that, we must first observe the world around us. When there’s a wicked thunderstorm and the trees are bowing to the wind and the claps of thunder and lightning send most people searching for their flashlights, the writer should be listening and watching very carefully, while asking, how would I describe this?

When overwhelmed with emotion—whether it’s happiness, anger, frustration or something else—writers must pause and pay attention to exactly how they feel so that when their characters experience the same emotion, it can be described with authenticity. A great example of this is one of my favorite passages from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green:

“Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but A Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile.” (Page 213-214)

I know that seems like a pretty depressing favorite passage, but the reason it stuck out to me so much is because when I read it for the first time, I nodded along and thought, yes, it’s exactly like that. Granted, my way of thinking when upset is pretty different from Hazel’s (the POV character), but the clenching of teeth and looking up at the ceiling and swallowing when your throat is so tight it’s painful are all things I’m sure many of us have experienced when trying not to cry.

Another (lighter) example from Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi:

“Every butterfly in the world has migrated to my stomach.” (Page 155) 

This example is less literal than the first, but I think we all know the feeling Juliette (the POV character) is referencing.

Our goal as writers is to take every day real things and translate them into words that remind our readers of that exact moment. That ring true and honest and have them nodding along and saying yes, that’s it, it’s just like that. But in order to do that we must first pay attention to everything, all the time, and take mental (or real) notes as we move through our lives and experience the world.

Then after observing, we translate those moments back into words so that we can share them with someone else.

Have you ever encountered a sentence or passage that felt exactly right? 

What Makes You Keep Reading?

Photo credit: photosteve101 on Flickr (planetofsuccess)

After reading a certain blue, white and black book written by John Green in a single day, I started thinking. Truth is, the only thing The Fault in Our Stars has in common with most of the books I read is that it happens to be a YA novel. There aren't any high-action scenes or evil villains to destroy or superpowers or magic or spaceships or horrific dystopian societies that must be overturned.

And yet, I whipped through its 318 pages like nobody's business and loved every moment of it. So it got me thinking: what really makes readers keep reading?

Because sure, cliffhangers and gun fights and epic magical battles and action-packed pages can definitely keep a reader hooked, but there are underlying threads deeper than that keep us turning pages in a book. That make it impossible not to continue reading.

Some Underlying Threads:

1. Make the readers care about the characters. This is a must. What's the point of reading to find out what happens to a character if it doesn't matter? (Answer: there is no point, so they won't read any further). Whether it's a voice that's impossible to ignore, or situations that make your protagonist sympathetic, or an endearing personality or all three, the readers have to care about the characters.


2. Keep the reader guessing. Will Katniss and Peeta survive The Hunger Games? Will Harry ever get to go to wizarding school? Will Hazel and Augustus ever find out what happens after An Imperial Affliction ? Although this is pretty directly tied to the last point, we need to keep the readers (and the characters) asking questions throughout the book. As soon as all of the questions are answered and choices are made, there are few reasons to continue reading.


3. Tension. I wrote an entire post on tension, so I'm not going to rehash the whole thing, but in short no tension = no reason to keep reading = book that doesn't get read.

There are other underlying threads, I'm sure, but these three are really what have stood out to me as I continue to read some truly fantastic books. And what better way to learn how to improve your writing than reading a great book?

Have you read any un-put-downable books lately? What makes you keep reading?

5 Reasons You Should Be Blogging

Photo credit: Fireblend on Flickr

This is my 99th blog post.

I don't know exactly how many words I've written for this blog, but figuring that I average about 500 words a post, we can probably guestimate that around 50,000 words have gone into this blog.

50,000 words. That's longer than some of my WIPs.

That's a lot of time that's gone into blogging— and that doesn't even count the time I spent designing Writability and laying out the widgets and fixing buttons and promoting my posts, and it's certainly a lot of writing.

Which brings me to my point: blogging— that is, serious, consistent blogging— isn't easy. It's time-consuming work that takes discipline and creativity and a certain amount of organization to do it correctly.

Blogging is hard work. So why bother?

Looking back at the my first eight months in the blog world, at 32 weeks of writing post after post, I've come to realize that I don't regret a thing. In fact, starting a blog was probably one of the best decisions I made this year.

Why bother blogging?

1. Blogging teaches you discipline. This mostly applies if you blog consistently. Blogging with a deadline or quota of a certain number of posts per week not only teaches you how to be a disciplined writer—but it teaches you that you have the ability to write under pressure.


2. Blogging cultivates creativity. Coming up with new blog post ideas every week isn't easy. There are times when you'll be fresh out of ideas, but according to your blogging schedule you have a post due tomorrow anyway. That's when you have to start getting creative with your ideas. That's when you learn just how valuable creativity is after all.


3. Blogging forces you to think. As a writer, blogging about writing has been a hugely valuable experience for me. I know conventional blogging wisdom out there tells writers not to write about writing, but for me, blogging about writing has been as much of a learning experience as it has a chance to share my thoughts.

Because in order to write a blog post you really need to think about whatever topic you're covering.Writing about what makes a character beautiful, for example, forced me to think about my own characters. About their weaknesses and flaws and whether or not I would consider them beautiful.  In short, I've learned just as much from this (if not more) as I hope you have. 


4. Blogging creates relationships. Some of my most loyal Twitter friends found me through this blog. Guest posting, commenting on each others' blogs and sharing post content all helps cultivate great online relationships. I've met some fantastic writers both through my blog and other blogs and I don't doubt that this trend will continue.


5. Blogging is fun. Just because something is a lot of work, doesn't mean it can't be fun, right? Right. In all seriousness, I'll continue to blog because I love it. Because the experience is valuable and it keeps me writing and call me crazy, but I think it's fun to come up with posts three times a week and interact with you guys and write and write and write.

So those are the reasons I will continue to blog. Do you blog? What would you add to the list?

Why Writers Must Read

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”—Stephen King

Photo credit: o5com on Flickr

Long before I knew I was a writer, I was an avid reader. I was that kid in school who sat in class with a book on her lap and had her nose between pages during lunch.

So it always amazed me when someone would tell me they didn’t like to read. Even in elementary school, I gaped at peers who said reading was boring—I didn’t understand them. How could reading be boring? There’s a book for everyone out there, surely you could find something that interested you.

Most of us that enjoy reading will say books are an escape—a chance to slip into someone else’s life, someone else’s world and go on an adventure with them. A good book will make you laugh and cry and feel as though you’re right there with the characters, like the real world is the one within the pages, not the one around you.

For writers, though, reading is even more important than that.

You see, there are only two ways for artists to improve their craft—practice and study the work of other artists. For writers, that means you improve by writing and reading.

But there has to be a balance. You can only improve so much if all you ever do is write—without studying published books out there, you can’t learn about what works or doesn’t work. You aren’t exposing yourself to other voices, other styles, other plots and characters and worlds that would in turn influence your writing. Without reading fresh material, your writing will plateau and it doesn’t matter how much practice you put in, you will stop improving.

On the flip side, if all you ever do is read without putting your pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard), you will learn plenty about craft and styles and voices, but without applying them yourself and putting in on paper, you can’t start your journey as a writer.

Writers need to write and read all the time. Read good books, bad books, popular books, obscure books, classics and trashy novels and whatever catches your eye because there is something to be learned from any book that sits on the shelf—even those you despise. Then, when you’re done reading, you need to sit down and write.

In short, reading gives us the tools to write. Writing without reading is like trying to build a sculpture without clay, or create a painting without paint. Reading isn’t just a hobby for writers—it’s a necessity.

Don’t have the time to read? Make time. Like writing, even five minutes a day of reading is better than nothing, and if you’re serious about improving your craft, then it’s not really an option.

How important do YOU think reading is for a writer? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Reading isn't just a hobby for writers—it's a necessity. (Click to tweet)

Don't have the time to read? Make time. If you're serious about becoming a writer, it's not an option. (Click to tweet) 

Klout: Why I Stopped Caring About My Score

Three months ago, I never would have thought that I was going to write this post.

I checked my Klout score every day, then— I wasn’t obsessed with it or anything, but I liked to see how what I did or didn’t do affected my score. For the most part I watched it rise (I went from low 40s in May to 60 by August), and it was fun to give people +K and watch my Klout topics grow and change.

It was a service I enjoyed, so I checked in on it.

For those of you who don’t know, Klout is a service that measures your online influence across various social media sites and gives you a score of 1-100. The average Klout score is pretty low, so a 50 or 60 is a pretty decent score and anything above 70 is considered very good. For a better explanation of how they determine your score, you can check out their explanation page .

So when they announced they were going to update the way they measured influence about a month or so ago, I thought it might mess with my score, but I didn't worry about it much. If it dropped a few points, I'd survive. Big deal.

The Klout update was released. My score dropped from a near 61 to 54. Ouch.

I tried not to worry too much about it. I figured with some time I'd be able to recover and it wouldn't be a big deal. I continued to use my social media sites like I always did and waited for it to climb back up.

It didn't—in fact, my score continued to drop. Even when I got a lot of retweets on Twitter, my influence across social media continued it's rather ungraceful nosedive.

Or did it?

I hadn't changed much. Sure I wasn't on Twitter as often as before, but I was still sharing the same content and keeping up with my blog and tumbling just about everything I thought was interesting. My following on different social media sites continued to grow, Klout or no Klout. Did my score really affect my influence online?

Honestly? I don't think it did.

True, my Klout score was dropping, which would indicate that my influence in the social media sphere was dropping, but the responses from my readers and Twitter/tumblr followers didn't seem to match my dropping score. It occurred to me that I was putting too much weight on my Klout score.

Is Klout a useful service? I think it is, especially those involved in businesses where social media influence is a big deal. But it stopped becoming useful to me when I started worrying about my nosediving score that didn't seem to change no matter what I tried, rather than what my reception was online. What could have been a useful measurement became instead (to me) a source of stress.

So I stopped caring.

Will I check my influence online via Klout in the future? Maybe. But as long as my readers and followers like you guys keep being awesome, I'm perfectly happy with whatever influence I have.

Do you watch your Klout score? Am I the only one who stressed out about it?

5 Reasons Why

Most people don’t like to write. The thought of sitting in front of a computer, pounding away at the keyboard for hours on end doesn’t translate to “exciting” for the average person. Hell, there are even some days when I think writing is overrated, but I keep at it anyway.

The question of course, is why?

Why write when you could go out and enjoy the sun? Why torment yourself over finding the right word, over ending the next scene over editing and editing and editing until your eyes bleed and you can quote from your book BY PAGE NUMBER?

Why?

There isn’t a simple answer, but I’ll tell you why I do it. Five reasons. Here we go.

1.       On MOST days, I love writing. I guess that makes me weird, but there are some people who love to sit around and solve math problems all day and that just doesn’t make any sense to me. I suppose I’m the same kind of weird to them that they are to me, and that’s ok. I embrace weird. Normal’s overrated, anyway.
2.      Discovery. Those who’ve never written fiction before may find this one difficult to understand. Don’t you know what you’ve set out to write? they wonder. In simple terms: no, not always. And even when I do, sometimes my characters will do something COMPLETELY different from what I planned. And that’s the best part. Because they’ve taken a life of their own. Because they’ve surprised me and when that happens they truly become alive. And it’s the best feeling in the world
3.      I love reading. I’m not saying that all readers love to write, but all writers should love to read. Period. Reading is the equivalent of studying, and if you ask me, it’s the most fun I ever have working. Because when you’re a writer, reading is working. It’s learning from the greats, and there is always ALWAYS more to learn.
4.       I’m a dreamer—a daydreamer, that is. I daydream all the time. When I eat, before I sleep, when I’m in the shower, I even daydream when I’m supposed to be writing. I don’t really know what everyone else daydreams about, but I dream about different places. About characters and worlds and situations that are impossible in real life, but could totally happen in a YA paranormal novel. Yes, that’s how I think. And I love it. Because in my books, the impossible can be possible. And that’s just freaking awesome.
5.      NOT writing hurts. I mentioned in a previous post a time when I went a few months without writing. Let me tell you, it was miserable. I felt guilty for not writing. For not working on a story. For not getting anything of literary merit down on paper. And for not keeping to the stories I tried to start. Truthfully, this is the core reason why I write. I’m a writer. I write. If I don’t, I feel like something’s missing. That’s just who I am, it’s part of my life and I’m proud of it.

In the end guys, I write because I’m a writer and writing is what I do.

Maybe you don’t write (and maybe you do!), either way, what is YOUR passion, and why do you do it?