The Scrawl

I have an ambitious reading list for this summer. Just like my dedication of two hours to write a day (or ten hours per week), I’m challenging myself to read for ninety minutes a day on Monday thru Wednesday plus Friday, or six hour a week. I tend to read 40 pages in an hour, 50 when I’m really feeling it, so if we take my optimistic number and combine it with six hours that’s 300 pages per week. Starting this week through the end of August, that’s fifteen weeks or 4500 pages. …That seems like a lot. I may have to re-think this. In the meantime, let’s get a little ambitious this morning!

All of these are selections I’ve never read before, so I have a completely fresh slate of stories awaiting me. Here they are in no particular order:

Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard (fiction novel, 272 pages)

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry (fiction novel, 288 pages) * Excelsior UMC Men’s Book Club selection

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (nonfiction novel, 307 pages) * Excelsior UMC Men’s Book Club selection

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (nonfiction novel, 274 pages) * Excelsior UMC Men’s Book Club selection

The View From the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockemeier (short story collection, 288 pages)

Tin House #39 (short stories and poetry, 200 pages)

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Diana Joseph (nonfiction short story collection, 208 pages)

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (nonfiction, 320 pages)

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (fiction, 528 pages… I can’t find the abridged version, which the Ron Book Team has decided is just fine for our summer reading) * Ron Book Team selection

How to Think Theologically by Howard W. Stone & James O. Duke (textbook, 126 pages)

Best American Short Stories 2008 (short story collection, 384 pages)

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (fiction novel, 272 pages)

I also have the following to “read” on audio, all of which are re-reads for me:

On Writing by Stephen King (nonfiction novel)

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (short story collection)

Up in Honey’s Room by Elmore Leonard (fiction novel)

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman (kinda-sorta-not-really nonfiction novel)

From a Buick 8 by Stephen King (fiction novel)

That’s only 2235 pages – a far cry from the 4500 pages I calculated above. I think I’m going to be reading a lot slower than at my 50-pages per hour clip. I’ll be reading short stories and each one of those deserves to be digested slowly like little meals unto themselves. Some of the novels are for Men’s Book Club and I want to slow down and annotate them so I can better lead discussion sessions. And others I hope are so good I’ll need to slow down and savor them (Road Dogs). I’ll keep you posted as I finish different stories.

Right now, Kelly and I are almost finished with the audio version of From a Buick 8 and I’m about forty pages into The Last Picture Show and really enjoying it. I hope to finish it before I go to camp and start on a new book by then, too (that’s June 13, for readers who aren’t in the know).

What are you reading this summer?

-nm

My summer writing plan in five steps:

1. I have chosen to have a set amount of time to write each day. I think putting in my time will be more effective for me than holding myself to a word count. It’s not that I think I’ll get more writing done this way, it’s that I think I’ll pour more talent into my time if I set it aside to be used instead of wasted. I want to try writing for two hours a day, Monday thru Wednesday and Friday thru Saturday. That’s ten hours a week. If I lose time one day, I make it up another time during the week. I’m down to one job now – this shouldn’t be difficult to do.

2. Thursday mornings are for sending out submissions. I’ll do this every two weeks starting on June 4 and let you know what I’m sending where. Submission day takes the place of a creative writing day, though I’ll be doing technical writing in the form of query letters and database keeping.

3. My writing will be split between short projects, long projects, and priority projects. I’ll work on one until another one calls me, all while leaving room for new ideas to be explored. I’ll do my best not to let this backfire into a situation in which I have a lot written but nothing finished. I’ve detailed my proposed writing projects below.

4. I’m going to challenge myself with challenging projects. I’m going to try tackling more time-consuming projects first (see long projects) and more emotionally-difficult projects (see nonfiction short projects) as soon as possible to challenge myself. The priority projects still stand, since they’re both under deadline.

5. I’m going to have a lot of fun along the way. If I’m not, then I need to stop. Writing cannot be work. Writing cannot be work.

My Priority Projects:

- My Application for something big. I won’t divulge what the “something” is until I hear the outcome, but this needs to get done and get done fast.

- Sketch Comedy for a show I’m writing and acting for in June. It’s The Weekly: Yesterday’s News Today and features sketches written the same week they’re performed that are about current events both local and global. It will be interesting to see how the pacing of this show works and I’m excited to be asked to do some ensemble work.

My Short Story Projects:

- Lucky Seven (fiction, short story), a story that’s gone through two drafts and has been sitting around waiting for a polish so it can make the submission rounds. I dig this story and it deserves to be treated better than I’ve done with it.

- Wing Sauce (fiction, short story) got amazing notes and suggestions from my NCC writer’s group of fellow instructors during the first week of March and has sat on my hard drive ever since. It’s about a car crash and love, and it’s hitting too close to home. After my wife survived a pretty bad car crash with a broken leg mere days after getting workshop notes, there’s a part of me that’s really invested in the story (her, too, because she liked this story when I showed it to her) and there’s a part of me that just can’t work on it right now. My wife goes back to work next week, so I think I’ll go back to the story.

- Meeting Santa Claus (nonfiction, short story) may sound like an odd story to work on in the heat of the summer, but I wonder if writing this and preparing to submit it now sets it up for a better chance to appear somewhere in the Christmas season.

- Her New Scar (nonfiction, short story) is a piece that’s only a few scrawled paragraphs at this point. It’s about my wife’s latest surgery scar from her car accident and other scars from her past. It’s something I think would be good for me to write as we walk away from the accident together.

My Long Projects:

- My Super Secret Screenplay (script) doesn’t have a third act. It needs to be finished, it needs a new draft, it needs new readers, and it needs to be looked at with fresh eyes. I stepped away from it for some time on purpose so I could come back to it when I’m ready. And I’m ready.

- Scrawlers stories, comments, and blogs need to be a regular part of my writing over the summer. I’ve been away from blogging too long and my taste for it has returned. With the new Scrawlers redesign, I’m excited to write and comment there again, too.

- My Super Secret Novel (fiction) probably deserves to be looked at this summer, too, but I’m honestly not in any hurry. I feel like I already have a pretty full load as it is.

So that’s my plan. What’s yours?

-nm

Nearly two months to the day we introduced our first weekly feature on this blog, “Your Monday Prompt,” we bring you our second weekly blog feature, “Your Friday Recommendation.” You’ll see worthwhile books on writing craft, creative productivity, and improv, plus recommended short stories, anthologies, magazines, novels, poetry collections, films, podcasts, and other media content worth your time. It’s all in the name of advancing creativity, recognizing good writing, and figuring out how story works.

The Scrawlers maxim is “Writers read. Writers write.” The second sentence is a no-brainer, but the first sometimes trips people up. Why should I read if I’m only interested in writing? Why waste writing time by reading a book? Why spoil my clean canvas of creativity with the work of others? The answer to each question is that reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Reading builds vocabulary, helps you know what sells, teaches you what’s good and what’s not-so-good, and pushes your concepts of creativity’s boundaries just a little farther. And who knows, you may have fun, too.

Or don’t read. Aspiring writers don’t need to read, particularly anything of literary merit, and especially in their chosen genre. This bit of faux advice makes just as much sense as telling an aspiring comic book-style artist they can draw everything freehand without laying out light pencil shaping first, telling an aspiring writer the first draft is always gold and they don’t need to worry about revision or editing, or telling an aspiring improviser they always make the right choices and are the driving force behind their ensemble. I’ve been that artist, that writer, that improviser who naïvely believed they can put the horse before the cart and make it work better than ever. It’s a natural step in the creative process and you can learn from it, provided you push yourself to move on.

Read it and see what happens.

-nm

[tags]reading recommendation, writers read, your friday recommendation[/tags]

When we first began the Monday prompts, we announced they would continue through the remainder of 2007. Nine weeks later, we’re pleased to say you can plan on continuing to receive a fresh Monday prompt every week in 2008.

Your Monday Prompt:

Write your own unique take on either the beginning of the world OR the end of the world. Decide which direction appeals to you most, and let tone guide where the story goes. Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time.

Write it up and see what happens.

-nm

Get ready for a new weekly feature on this blog, “Your Monday Prompt.”

I’m a proponent of the writing prompt. I use them in the writing classes I teach and I find it a great way to get past the blank page. A good prompt allows you to stretch your writer’s legs to places you perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise. They also allow you the opportunity to try an exercise in writing within constraints. That sounds harsh on the outside, but embracing constraints keeps you laser-focused on the writing task at-hand.

Prompts can be a gateway to generating new ideas, let you change up the way you approach voice, tone, and genre, and give you a chance to explore old characters in new ways. For example, through an in-class prompt two weeks ago I discovered something new about the main character in a series of short stories I’m writing. I never would have gotten there without a prompt to get me started in a new direction.

Starting tomorrow and every Monday through the end of 2007, there will be a fresh writing prompt awaiting you in this blog. This feature, known as “Your Monday Prompt” (YMP or “yump” if you’re into pronouncing acronyms), will feature original prompts by me as well as some favorites from other sources (I’ll credit them, when applicable). Some may come to you naturally, while others have you circling it with apprehension. However a writing prompt strikes you, I encourage you to adhere to its directions and give it your full attention. Oh, and if what you write falls within the 100-word parameters of Scrawlers, by all means post it!

Write it up and see what happens.

-nm

I posted a comment on Bob Walsh’s last blog post that I miss him posting. It’s been two weeks without another great article from him. Then I realized it’s been even longer since I’ve posted something here, felt guilty, and remembered I have something new to write about in terms of what I’m currently writing for a workshop.

Steady blog readers know I spent a good portion of my summer doing research for a new writing project on my plate this fall. The project has arrived, the deadlines have been set, and the writing is underway. A few new tactics have helped me so far:

I clean off my desk at the end of the day.

This is a tip I scored from Freelance Switch, a blog aimed at assisting wanna-be entrepeneuers going from corporate shackles to personal freedom. Leo Babuata presents “10 Easy Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Day,” and I’ve really taken to his number nine tip, clearing off my desk. It helps me conclude a “work” session, and I get to come to the next one fresh. I’m typically a man of clutter, one who looks around with sudden realization at the piles of books, papers, DVDs, and half-full water cups (“It has dust in it,” as young Bo might say). Since giving Babuata’s tip a try at the home and work office, I’ve found it a refreshing way to approach my work station.

When I’m tired, I stop instead of trudge through.

Yes, deadlines loom and yes, I’m not where I want to be in my writing, but the alternative is staying up late with bleary eyes and weary fingers pecking away at an ever-warming laptop keyboard until my face hits the keys in slumber (with my luck, my nose will come to rest on the delete key). If I work when I’m tired, I only come to resent the work I’m doing. I write because I enjoy creating. Part of creativity is the process, so why should I resent the process? When I’m into it, I write and when I’m tired, I stop. As long as I give it a try every day, I’m happy.

If I don’t know the answer, I’ll come back to it later.

After doing what I feel is plenty of research, I’m still finding myself wanting to turn back to my sources for additional information as I write. But that’s a slow process, and starting and stopping in an endless loop isn’t that appealing. Instead, if I don’t know a bit of research which could make a particular writing passage better, I make a note and keep going, using my momentum to propel me forward. This helps with another pitfall I’m notorious for jumping into – getting distracted.

Pages are due in workshop on Monday, and we begin workshopping the next Monday. I’m not sure when my work will be up for comments, but I will keep you posted.

-nm

[tags]clean desk, writing momentum, writing research[/tags]