I like the ideea of understanding our own mistakes (even if I'm bad at accepting them). I usually need to be very tired to see tiny but important mistakes.
I could understand that I was doing everything wrong only when my Romanian teacher said that I was using too much English and that I had to learn to write stories and poems in Romanian as well (this was in september but neither now i don't really use my first language in my writings but my ohhh was that I could understand why all the romanian teachers from my city hate me)
I remember times when I decide "I'm going to write a new play" and then spend hours trying to think of an idea that will make me want to write. It never works. About a month ago I did this again. I tried to come up with something to write. I came up with an ok idea, but it didn't make me feel like I needed to work my way through this story. As someone with ADHD, I need to feel a sense of excitement and urgency to discover a story to get myself to actually sit down and write. Then a few days later I was at rehearsal and I was talking with a group about how the room we were in looked haunted. We joked and made up a ghost that lived in a cupboard none of us had ever seen open before (the door being open started the conversation). I got this idea in my head of a ghost investigation from the point of view of the ghosts. Not a scary/creepy story about a haunted place but a story where you see and understand both the living investigators and the ghosts whose stories are being investigated. Instead of writing notes from the rehearsal, I wrote notes for this play. I kept writing and writing and writing for days and had practically finished the one act play a week later. I had a writing prof once say that progress causes inspiration not the other way around. I disagree. If I don't get inspired by an idea I can't get myself to spend the time and energy exploring it. What I can say is that progress on a story that started with inspiration causes more inspiration as I learn more and come up with ideas of things to add, character secrets, everything that will eventually become an important part of the story as a whole. If there is no inspiration or excitement, it isn't worth my creative energy. I won't be able to make it feel right, because I'll be trying to write the wrong story.
Okay I CANNOT move past these horses; I have questions. Were they meant to replace Uma as a teacher? Did they speak English? Were THEY past students too? WHY HORSES??? 😭
As a stage director, I used to go in with a detailed plan—here's where everyone is going to move, enter, exit. All blocked out. And then, one day in 2011, I was re-reading Peter Brook's THE EMPTY SPACE, and he has a memorable scene where he realized that the living, breathing actors in front of him bore no resemblance to the figures he had used to plan his stage pictures, and that all his research and planning was useless. He tossed his notes, walked in amongst the actors, and never looked back. I wanted to try that. I wanted to welcome the actors as fellow artists and invite them to figure things out together while I just asked questions. So that's what we did.
And in 2016, in the midst of rehearsing a production of DUCHESS OF MALFI, I realized that I had a deep inner understanding of what that play was supposed to be, and, more than that, my communication with certain actors was literally beyond words. So I stopped talking and started listening.
If I ever write a book about directing, it will be called "The Art of Listening," because that's the necessary surrender to the muse and to one's collaborators.
You could use the same title for a book about writing. So much of writing is listening to your body's little twitches and instincts while you're going down garden paths... What a great story about your directing process. I need to read the Brook's book!
Wow, that is so much depth to the reason you don't outline! I had a aha moment when writing my second novel, and I was really stuck halfway through. Funny enough, my solution is the complete opposite of yours; I outlined how I wanted to portray the characters' internal conflict, and mashed that up with the plot. And suddenly, everything made sense!
But I think this just shows how differently each person works. "Ohhhhhhh" moments are so underrated- In a way, it's almost life-changing. I hope you find more of those "Ohhhhh" moments. I can't wait for your new novel! :)
This is actually so perfect! I’m taking this class called peer leadership and today we played a game called black magic and we had to have our own Ah-Ha moment. But, my English teacher has told me that my writing is very advanced and then he told me that my writing lacks “a bit from my cognitive conceptualizations” Soman do you have any tips for me on how to improve my writing? Im a freshman in high school and I love reading and writing
Bless you. Reminds me of the question I asked at Y'allFest a couple years ago, about characters that just do whatever they darn well please and don't follow author instructions. Your delightful cohost said her characters do that too. It made my day :-) P.S. thank you for letting me ask the question. I was having a BAD allergy day and my voice was shot.
which of course doesn't count the YEaRS of craft work, schooling, chucked ideas, & life experience to even write the ONE book! (+ networking, research, querying...!) :D
you delete it... and then re-write it? or just poof--it's gone and you start again, letting something new appear?!
i suppose i'm not SO brave, so my most recent (yesterday) compromise was to move 2 chapters i LOVE to the appendix. and added a footnote to where to find what the character is referencing... ;D i'm not saying it'll STAND should an editor ever get involved, but it's leaning in to my nerdy self and suits a read-along better as it's a great scene, great writing, but a little too much not the place i want readers to begin in the tale. even if it is pure character development, it's not the setting where we get to linger.
Thank you so much for writing this! I too switched from screenwriting to novel writing and have discovered it’s a whole new beast. When writing my novel I always view each event as up for negotiation because if it doesn’t feel right, then it means it really doesn’t belong.
The act of deleting a chapter you’ve just written sounds like an interesting experience to incorporate in one’s writing routine and one I’ll try when I start drafting again.
Something revelatory I discovered in my writing process is that when I’m drafting I need to shut out all the noise from others. All the opinions and feedback just deter me from finishing my story and you can’t incorporate or listen to others feedback until you’ve told yourself the whole story first. Even at the structural revisions stage, outside opinions can be a detriment because it can lead you down the wrong path and drown out your own personal intuition that is guiding you to tell the best story you can write.
That's so interesting because I actually LIKE outside feedback at a fairly early stage. Just to get a sense if it's having any visceral impact in an audience. But I think that might be the result of 10+ years of professional experience. In my early days, I couldn't show anyone anything until it was done done done.
This is such an interesting concept and one I definitely want to implement. I sometimes get too attached to certain paragraphs or story ideas and it's hard to take a step back and consider something completely different. I can't even imagine deleting an entire chapter I've just written, but maybe I should! Because I have also felt that "ohhh" moment and you're right, it is so worth it. Do you have any advice for when it's best to listen to your intuition and when it might be better to ignore it in favor of just writing? I think I sometimes chase that "ohhh" moment too much and I end up getting stuck in the world / plot building because I'm searching for the perfect idea before I can start writing.
Always just keep writing. But know that it's just play-dough. The intuition hits when you're not even thinking about it -- but you have to be open to correcting course if it tells you that's what has to happen... Most of the time we resist because we don't want to give up on work we've already done!
I would say I used to be worried about losing the "original, first" vibes of my stories until I moved forward and realized many stories don't even stick with the first vibe. And so I just let myself write what made most sense for the story. Another thing for me was, I kept making the characters too"moral" all the time and I thought it would be more compelling to write characters who did bad things, because they develop more genuine believable morals by the end-- or maybe, not.
The vibe changes during revision. Honestly, first drafts you're just sticking your toe in the water. You don't even know the temperature until you get all the way in.
Hey soman! Any advice for a fifteen year old teenage author whos in the cusp of adults treating her like an adult, and her feeling like a kid, and how her writing sometimes feels too mature and sometimes too kiddish?
It means you're 15. You're in the in-between. Enjoy that tension. It will resolve eventually, but if you resist it too much, you'll just end up even more stuck in it. Just know every day you're growing, whether you like it or not! And that tone will even out, I assure you.
I like the ideea of understanding our own mistakes (even if I'm bad at accepting them). I usually need to be very tired to see tiny but important mistakes.
I could understand that I was doing everything wrong only when my Romanian teacher said that I was using too much English and that I had to learn to write stories and poems in Romanian as well (this was in september but neither now i don't really use my first language in my writings but my ohhh was that I could understand why all the romanian teachers from my city hate me)
Really loved reading this. As someone who is a current state of despair over writing, and getting it "right" this sparked a few things in me!
I remember times when I decide "I'm going to write a new play" and then spend hours trying to think of an idea that will make me want to write. It never works. About a month ago I did this again. I tried to come up with something to write. I came up with an ok idea, but it didn't make me feel like I needed to work my way through this story. As someone with ADHD, I need to feel a sense of excitement and urgency to discover a story to get myself to actually sit down and write. Then a few days later I was at rehearsal and I was talking with a group about how the room we were in looked haunted. We joked and made up a ghost that lived in a cupboard none of us had ever seen open before (the door being open started the conversation). I got this idea in my head of a ghost investigation from the point of view of the ghosts. Not a scary/creepy story about a haunted place but a story where you see and understand both the living investigators and the ghosts whose stories are being investigated. Instead of writing notes from the rehearsal, I wrote notes for this play. I kept writing and writing and writing for days and had practically finished the one act play a week later. I had a writing prof once say that progress causes inspiration not the other way around. I disagree. If I don't get inspired by an idea I can't get myself to spend the time and energy exploring it. What I can say is that progress on a story that started with inspiration causes more inspiration as I learn more and come up with ideas of things to add, character secrets, everything that will eventually become an important part of the story as a whole. If there is no inspiration or excitement, it isn't worth my creative energy. I won't be able to make it feel right, because I'll be trying to write the wrong story.
Okay I CANNOT move past these horses; I have questions. Were they meant to replace Uma as a teacher? Did they speak English? Were THEY past students too? WHY HORSES??? 😭
It was so dumb. They were like sparkly ponies. I'm very happy they're gone!
As a stage director, I used to go in with a detailed plan—here's where everyone is going to move, enter, exit. All blocked out. And then, one day in 2011, I was re-reading Peter Brook's THE EMPTY SPACE, and he has a memorable scene where he realized that the living, breathing actors in front of him bore no resemblance to the figures he had used to plan his stage pictures, and that all his research and planning was useless. He tossed his notes, walked in amongst the actors, and never looked back. I wanted to try that. I wanted to welcome the actors as fellow artists and invite them to figure things out together while I just asked questions. So that's what we did.
And in 2016, in the midst of rehearsing a production of DUCHESS OF MALFI, I realized that I had a deep inner understanding of what that play was supposed to be, and, more than that, my communication with certain actors was literally beyond words. So I stopped talking and started listening.
If I ever write a book about directing, it will be called "The Art of Listening," because that's the necessary surrender to the muse and to one's collaborators.
You could use the same title for a book about writing. So much of writing is listening to your body's little twitches and instincts while you're going down garden paths... What a great story about your directing process. I need to read the Brook's book!
Wow, that is so much depth to the reason you don't outline! I had a aha moment when writing my second novel, and I was really stuck halfway through. Funny enough, my solution is the complete opposite of yours; I outlined how I wanted to portray the characters' internal conflict, and mashed that up with the plot. And suddenly, everything made sense!
But I think this just shows how differently each person works. "Ohhhhhhh" moments are so underrated- In a way, it's almost life-changing. I hope you find more of those "Ohhhhh" moments. I can't wait for your new novel! :)
Everyone's ohhhhh is totally different, which is what's wonderful about it!!
This is actually so perfect! I’m taking this class called peer leadership and today we played a game called black magic and we had to have our own Ah-Ha moment. But, my English teacher has told me that my writing is very advanced and then he told me that my writing lacks “a bit from my cognitive conceptualizations” Soman do you have any tips for me on how to improve my writing? Im a freshman in high school and I love reading and writing
What is a cognitive conceptualization??!!! Tell him he's saying nonsense lol.
lol
Bless you. Reminds me of the question I asked at Y'allFest a couple years ago, about characters that just do whatever they darn well please and don't follow author instructions. Your delightful cohost said her characters do that too. It made my day :-) P.S. thank you for letting me ask the question. I was having a BAD allergy day and my voice was shot.
You are very welcome!!!
& it's also been said often: "no writing is wasted."
so i take comfort in that, too.
especially since you're so right: art is the process.
the 99% of the iceburg, the 99% of all that time and effort that a reader/audience doesn't see when they finally enjoy the thing we made.
In SGE #1, you literally saw 4% of the work.
4%!!!!!!
which of course doesn't count the YEaRS of craft work, schooling, chucked ideas, & life experience to even write the ONE book! (+ networking, research, querying...!) :D
you delete it... and then re-write it? or just poof--it's gone and you start again, letting something new appear?!
i suppose i'm not SO brave, so my most recent (yesterday) compromise was to move 2 chapters i LOVE to the appendix. and added a footnote to where to find what the character is referencing... ;D i'm not saying it'll STAND should an editor ever get involved, but it's leaning in to my nerdy self and suits a read-along better as it's a great scene, great writing, but a little too much not the place i want readers to begin in the tale. even if it is pure character development, it's not the setting where we get to linger.
I delete it and see how I feel! That tells me how much rewriting is required... or whether it belongs at all!
amazing! :D
Thank you so much for writing this! I too switched from screenwriting to novel writing and have discovered it’s a whole new beast. When writing my novel I always view each event as up for negotiation because if it doesn’t feel right, then it means it really doesn’t belong.
The act of deleting a chapter you’ve just written sounds like an interesting experience to incorporate in one’s writing routine and one I’ll try when I start drafting again.
Something revelatory I discovered in my writing process is that when I’m drafting I need to shut out all the noise from others. All the opinions and feedback just deter me from finishing my story and you can’t incorporate or listen to others feedback until you’ve told yourself the whole story first. Even at the structural revisions stage, outside opinions can be a detriment because it can lead you down the wrong path and drown out your own personal intuition that is guiding you to tell the best story you can write.
That's so interesting because I actually LIKE outside feedback at a fairly early stage. Just to get a sense if it's having any visceral impact in an audience. But I think that might be the result of 10+ years of professional experience. In my early days, I couldn't show anyone anything until it was done done done.
This is such an interesting concept and one I definitely want to implement. I sometimes get too attached to certain paragraphs or story ideas and it's hard to take a step back and consider something completely different. I can't even imagine deleting an entire chapter I've just written, but maybe I should! Because I have also felt that "ohhh" moment and you're right, it is so worth it. Do you have any advice for when it's best to listen to your intuition and when it might be better to ignore it in favor of just writing? I think I sometimes chase that "ohhh" moment too much and I end up getting stuck in the world / plot building because I'm searching for the perfect idea before I can start writing.
Always just keep writing. But know that it's just play-dough. The intuition hits when you're not even thinking about it -- but you have to be open to correcting course if it tells you that's what has to happen... Most of the time we resist because we don't want to give up on work we've already done!
I would say I used to be worried about losing the "original, first" vibes of my stories until I moved forward and realized many stories don't even stick with the first vibe. And so I just let myself write what made most sense for the story. Another thing for me was, I kept making the characters too"moral" all the time and I thought it would be more compelling to write characters who did bad things, because they develop more genuine believable morals by the end-- or maybe, not.
The vibe changes during revision. Honestly, first drafts you're just sticking your toe in the water. You don't even know the temperature until you get all the way in.
Hey soman! Any advice for a fifteen year old teenage author whos in the cusp of adults treating her like an adult, and her feeling like a kid, and how her writing sometimes feels too mature and sometimes too kiddish?
It means you're 15. You're in the in-between. Enjoy that tension. It will resolve eventually, but if you resist it too much, you'll just end up even more stuck in it. Just know every day you're growing, whether you like it or not! And that tone will even out, I assure you.