Tag: poem
River Boat Writer
“The process of writing a novel is like taking a journey by boat. You have to continually set yourself on course. If you get distracted or allow yourself to drift, you will never make it to the destination. It’s not like highly defined train tracks or a highway; this is a path that you are creating discovering. The journey is your narrative. Keep to it and there will be a tale told.”
― Walter Mosley, This Year You Write Your Novel
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Big Game Writer
“Writing is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating.”
― Kate Braverman
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Guts, Not Talent…Necessarily.
Finishing A Book…
“Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.”
– Truman Capote
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Tell a story
“Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.”
– Anne McCaffrey
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Poetry Tools
Even writers of novels will run across the need to write a poem. Take J.K. Rowling for instance—how many poems and lyrics lace the pages of her hit series Harry Potter?
Here are some quick links to help poets on their journey:- RHYMES: Perhaps, you need to find a rhyme that has three syllables, and rhymes on the last two? Even if you just need a quick rhyme for a simple word—this tool is what you need: RhymeZone.
- THESAURUS: Have you been searching for a different word, it’s on the tip of your tongue, but you just…can’t…reach it? An online thesaurus is what you need: Thesaurus.
- DICTIONARY: Do you suddenly wonder if that word means what you think it means? Inconceivable! Use an all-encompassing online dictionary: MoreWords.
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ACROSTIC: Poe used poetry that was mathematic, and shaped. He used acrostic form to a new level. The typical definition is “a series of lines or verses in which the first, last, or other particular letters when taken in order spell out a word, phrase, etc.” Poe used this form to hide the names of his mistresses within his art.
- Here is a dictionary to find certain letters within the words you need (i.e. you need a seven letter word, and the fourth letter has to be an R): Acrostic Dictionary.
- Crossword Cheats can be used in reverse to build an intense acrostic: Crossword Reverse.
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When to delete, to be complete
“My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.”
– Anton Chekhov
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Hero Character? Or Hapless Victim?
[found on 5writers5novels5months.com]
“Why Do We Torture Our Heroes?
There are three big problems with a hapless victim as protagonist.
Problem #1: Repetitive Agonizing
Over-tortured, victimized characters tend to express their constant frustration. After all, the author has to give these poor sods something to say, and when a character with a life-threatening disease, whose true love recently dumped him just after his dog was run over by a car, falls off a cliff and into a gigantic waterfall after being chased by evil aliens … well, let’s just assume the first words out of his mouth after he hits the water will not be, “Wow! What a beautiful waterfall.” How many readers want to spend a whole book with a constantly anguished or angry protagonist? We all want someone to root for, not just feel sorry for.
Problem #2: Boredom
Being in a pickle is not inherently exciting. Giving a protagonist a ton of problems to worry about and suffer from does not automatically create conflict and tension. A guy sitting in solitary confinement in a prison cell has big trouble, but watching him pace the floor and mark the days off on the wall is not interesting. Or even tense (for the reader, at least). Why? He can’t solve his problem. All he can do is be miserable. And misery without conflict, action or interaction is kinda boring. (In case Papillon comes to mind as an exception, that was Henri Charriere’s memoir and, arguably, the exciting parts were the escapes, not the scenes where he spit out his rotting teeth in a filthy cell.)
Problem #3: Miraculous Victory
“The Perils of Pauline” told classic damsel-in-distress stories. Sending in some outside force to rescue the protagonist is one way to get him, or her, down from the tree. But if you’re not (intentionally) writing melodrama, you have to figure out a way to have your hero find his own way down from the tree. If you’ve beset your protagonist with continuously mounting (and unsolved) troubles through the whole book – your character is going to have to morph from hapless victim to unstoppable Superman in the last act to get out of the mess by himself. (Okay, Papillon is certainly a breathtaking example of this … but if it hadn’t been an autobiography, who would have believed it?)
So, what does the “up a tree” dictum really tell us to do? This is something we discussed at length in Whistler, and my own personal epiphany was about the purpose of giving your protagonist troubles. It’s not to make him a miserable, complaining victim. It’s to give him something heroic to do. To put him in action. Only by the protagonist’s reaction to his troubles can we get to know what he’s made of.
Ding … the lightbulb went on for me. Give your hero problems he actually can do something about. Then let him show his stuff. Do we really care about a hero who sits up in that tree kvetching and waiting for miracle? No, we want him to be visibly overcoming his fear of heights, planning his escape, throwing apples at the baying dogs below, weaving a rope out of twigs or something … anything! The tougher the problem, the bigger the hero. But if the protagonist is not well matched with the problems to be solved, the writer may have to cheat and resort to miracles or magic, and that could actually diminish the hero.”
Editing Addict, LLC 