November's Best

The few. The proud. The higher page-viewed than others.

These three posts will go on to be immortalized in our Best of W.A.W. menu.

(And yes if you're thinking "Hey, didn't Chris say he was going to do a Vlog today," you're right. Now that I'm feeling better, everyone else in the house is sick (including the contrarian) so it's been a nightmare, plus I started to try and record it (I never get it on the first try) I realized that my voice was hoarse and cracking from my own cold. So that might just have to wait.

Cis Het White Male Authors and Their Characters (Part 2) The second part of an involved question about how white people can write from non-white viewpoints.

The Sad Breath Between Vacations (Personal Update) 
Half personal update and half eulogy to a friend whose time came entirely too soon.

Those Coddled Minorities
The question is who is coddling whom?

Protect Your Writing Time

Me, at life.

This morning is a perfect example of why writers need to carve out their writing time. It is the perfect example of what happens if a writer doesn't protect their writing time.

Because something always goes wrong.

If you've been paying any attention at all, you know I've really been struggling lately to ramp up my own productivity. Now, I could probably work a bit more efficiently–lord knows having an "online presence" sometimes means I lose swaths of time in Facebook arguments. I could probably squeeze a couple more productive hours a week out of the time I have.  But for the most part, more writing is going to mean more writing time.

With a two year old in the mix, that is not an easy proposition.

Two weeks ago, getting back from not one, but TWO back to back vacations, I decided it was time to hammer into a whole new routine and redesign my week from top to bottom giving myself another couple of hours a day...but the holidays.

Last week I was ready to go, but I got really sick.

This week I was absolutely ready to go, nothing holding me back this time, rock and roll, we can build this dream together because NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW.....

and our morning baby sitter called in, so I had to watch the contrarian for six hours instead of three.

Which is all by way of saying that there is supposed to be a VLOG here, but it'll be up tomorrow.

But even from my head-deskingly frustrated position of trying to write a splat, jazz hands post before I drive to teach, I can relay two things. One: if I were letting all this schedule crap stop me from writing at all, I would have just had over a month of no productivity. There is ALWAYS something. Some reason it can't be done. Some visit, some holiday, some vacation, some illness. That's just how life is.

Two: Getting writing time is always always always (even for a guy who's been making money at it for three years now) an act of will. Even the best writers (which I am most certainly NOT one of) are constantly trying to push themselves even further to write more.

How Long to Find One's Voice (Mailbox)

A turkey mailbox?
Oh right, because I started this article before I got sick....
in the before time.

[Remember, keep sending in your questions to chris.brecheen@gmail.com with the subject line "W.A.W. Mailbox" and I will answer each Friday.  I will use your first name ONLY unless you tell me explicitly that you'd like me to use your full name or you would prefer to remain anonymous.  My comment policy also may mean one of your comments ends up in the mailbox. When I say "each Friday" it's more of a guideline than an actual rule.]  

Li asks:

Can I ask a question? ...revising my writing and seeing where the plot holes are, the bad grammar, where it needs more work, how I somehow changed perspectives without noticing on a few scenes... treating each story as an individual thing... How long do you think it takes to learn your style in writing? I mean I know it's one of those 'well that depends' questions... say you're writing everyday for a couple hours ect... What do you think are the fundamental things to consider first when turning a draft into a next level novel?

My reply:

It depends.

Oh....wait. Goddamn it.

Okay, let me start with your second question.

Writing style is a living thing, kind of analogous to your personality. It will always be changing throughout your life. Morphing. Adapting. Refining. But thankfully not in a horrible human amoeba way like Tetsuo in Akira. Because that could just get messy.

Naaaaa Naaaaaa Na Na.  Ding!

Oh my god, that part where he stops the tank shell and blows up the bridge, and then they fight with the giant tubes snaking around....oh man, that was awesome! Wait...what was I talking about?

Steve's been watching 80s anime.

Oh right. Writing style.

When you're a young writer (by which I mean a starting writer, not necessarily a writer of a certain age–though writers who start physically older tend to move through the phase more quickly), your style can change quickly, dramatically, suddenly, and sometimes from day to day. (Much the same way a young person's personality can be mercurial.) You will probably even find that your style shifts wildly based on who you're reading (like some people's personalities change as they move between groups of friends). If you're reading a lot of Lovecraft, you will find your style becomes languid, almost Byzantine in its complexity and richness, forming several clauses in each sentence to spill out rich and detailed descriptions. Hemingway will make you clipped. You will use short declarative sentences. Reading me will make you verbose and take forever to get to the point.

Your style will solidify as you write. The longer you've been writing, the more sure you'll be of your inner voice and the less other authors' styles will influence you, even if you're binging on a single author harder than your Jessica Jones marathon. Much as older people will be more solid and confident about who they are even when around very different folk.

You'll never be completely free of influence or completely free of evolution. A casual glance at any prolific author's collected works will bear this out, as you will see their style change over the arc of the decades they wrote. But the difference between their first few works will often be noticeable and their last few will seem more solid.

Stephen King did a major post-publication revision on the first book of The Dark Tower series because he knew 1970's Gunslinger voice was very different from his early 2000s voice, and if you've ever Salem's Lot after Mr. Mercedes, you know he's not fucking wrong.

That sort of answers part of your "how long does it take" question, Li–it never really ends. However if you're wanting to know how long it takes on the short end to get really comfortable in your style as a writer, I'm not sure. However, I can leave you with this tidbit. Most writers don't publish the first novel they write. Few publish their second. Many many writers who publish their first or second book have written in other media for years first. If you're writing a couple of hours a day (and I mean religiously) it would probably take at least two or three years.

Really though, this is like the cheesy martial arts movies. I sip my tea and stroke my long pointy beard and tell you that only you can know for sure, Grasshopper. When you start to realize that you're ignoring most advice about prose and just writing how you're comfortable writing, you're getting close. Of course revision and editing work are still vital, and we all write sentences that need to be taken out behind the chemical shed and executed, but if you are pretty comfortable and most people say they understand you and enjoy writing, you're probably mostly there.

No, not THAT rewrite! 

As far as the most important thing you can do (which answers both your last question and the first one about grammar and tense/POV shifts and such) is not to try to "revise" your first draft within a word document. You really need to REWRITE your manuscript at least once. Print it out, mark it up, and start a completely new document. You can't imagine how much you're willing to slash and burn or completely change if you're committed to rewriting the whole thing anyway. And you won't believe how much people will try to fudge some genuine revision if they think they can keep big chunks of useless text. Your work will also be so much crisper in terms of grammar, plot holes, and such. After that second complete rewrite, your work is likely solid enough to survive being revised instead of rewritten. There are some philosophy differences among writers as to whether you should rewrite once, twice, or three times and revise four, five, or even eleven times, but almost every writer of merit highly recommends that the second draft be a complete rewrite, not a revision.

Best Dystopia (Final Round)

What is the best dystopia in fiction?  

Welcome to the final round.

Our poll is eight names. Culled through semifinals from 17 names that you offered though our write in nominations. Each of you will be given three (3) votes. Please remember that there is no "ranking" system for votes so each vote you cast beyond the first will "dilute" the power of all the others. You should vote for as few as you can bear to.

This poll will run until December 16th.  By that time we should have new nominations for our next poll.

One reminder that I always need to put on our more popular polls. This poll is about books. It is not about movies. There have been some great movie adaptations of many  of these titles, but stick to voting for the BOOKS.

The poll itself is on the lower left of the side menus–just below the "About the Author."

Since I can't really stop shenanigans, I welcome all the shenanigans. The main one is of course that Polldaddy tracks your IP for a week so you could vote from multiple computers or vote again after a week, but people have also enlisted friends, family, and even author forums or Facebook communities to join in the fun.

Poll Results (Best Dystopia Semifinal 2)

I don't have a lot in me today to do a breakdown of the poll. I'm still floating in and out of fever and feeling like my head is going to pop right off every time I sneeze (which is fucking all the damned time).

Top four names will be going on to the final round, which I will post tomorrow.

The Writer is Sick!

I have been struggling against some mild sniffles for a couple of days, but last night I started having fever dreams (something about needing to get on top of small hills in order to be able to see the lay of the land which was vital to progressing in Fallout 4.....for like five hours) and I woke up with my throat burning and a cough. Ever since I had the croup in childhood, my coughs are always these horribly nasty whooping things as well so they make my throat hurt even more. There's also a couple of degrees of fever up in this bad boy and a pounding headache.

I'm not dying (I think) but I am very, very uncomfortable, and no fit shape to do any writing.

So today I'm going to get that poll result up, and not much else. And tomorrow we'll start the new poll. And I'm going to beg you all for clemency for dragging that out as jazz hands. And then my plan is to put up posts over the weekend (two a day if I can manage it) to bring us back up to our regular output.

Remember, not every day is going to be a 2500 word count day. Some days, life happens. But if you write a little something to keep your fire burning and your wordsmith honed, then when the planets are aligning a little better, you can really chug it out.

Last Chance to Vote (Best Dystopia Semifinal 2)

What is the best Dystopia?    

Handmaid's Tale is definitely going on to our final round, but things are a little closer for next three.

Our second semifinal for best Dystopia will be tabulated tomorrow (and the final poll will go up shortly after that), so come get your vote on.

The poll itself is down and to the left at the bottom of the left side widgets.