Writing Writers: January 2011

Murder Your Darlings

“Murder your darlings” is a phrase said to have been coined by F Scott Fitzgerald. He was referring to what you might call your “best bits.” He believed that these are the very “bits” you should always edit out of your work.

As Elmore Leonard once said, “If I come across anything in my work that smacks of ‘good writing,’ I immediately strike it out.”

The theory is that writing you’re particularly proud of is probably self-indulgent and will stand out.

You might think this is good. Wrong.

You will most likely break the “fictive dream.” (This is the state of consciousness reached by readers who are absorbed by a writer). And breaking your reader out of this fictive dream is a heinous sin!

Editing out “the best bits” is the hardest thing a novice writer has to do – after all, isn’t it counterproductive to write good things down only to cut them out?

Look at it this way…

When you start out, every word you write is precious. The words are torn from you. You wrestle with them, forcing them to express what you’re trying to say.

When you’re done, you may have only a paragraph or a few pages – but to you the writing shines with inner radiance and significance.

That’s why criticism cuts to the core. You can’t stand the idea of changing a single word in case the sense you’re trying to convey gets lost or distorted.

Worse still, you have moments of doubt when you think you’re a bad writer - criticism will do this every time. Sometimes you might go for months, blocked and worrying over your words and your ability.

There is only one cure for this – to write more; to get words out of your head and on to the page. When you do that, you’re ahead, no matter how bad you think you are.

After all, words are just the tools – a collection of words is not the end result, it is only the medium through which you work. In the same way that a builder uses bricks and wood to build a house – the end result is not about the materials, it’s about creating a place to live.

As you progress in your writing career, you become less touchy about your words. You have to. Editors hack them around without mercy. Agents get you to rewrite great swathes of text they don’t like. Publishers cut out whole sections as irrelevant.

All this hurts – a lot.

But after a while, you realize you’re being helped. That it’s not the words that matter so much as what you’re trying to communicate.

Once you accept that none of the words actually matter, and have the courage to “murder your darlings,” you have the makings of the correct professional attitude to ensure your writing career.

This is a tough lesson to learn.

But, as always, the trick is…to keep on writing!

The Hydra Syndrome

Have you ever noticed how you, as a writer, see-saw? For one heady moment you know you're brilliant and then, later, with just as much clarity, you know what you do is awful. It's the writer's curse.

I've noticed this happens at certain times in the writing process.

When the ideas are fresh and you're starting out on a project, the adrenaline is flowing, the words are spewing on to the page - everything seems so clear, so clever, so you.

And then after, when you look back, the words seem dull, the structure contrived and the talent - well, non-existent. But then... later, it can seem smooth and inspired again... and then, even later... dire.

Hold up! What's happening here?

I call it The Hydra Syndrome or, for short, THS.

You may remember that the Hydra was a mythological creature with many heads - and each time one was cut off, another sprouted in its place.

And the trouble with being a writer is that we too have many heads. Some are kind and benevolent, some are harsh and critical. And it doesn't matter how often we try to quash one head's opinion of what we do, there's always another that will have the alternate point of view.

It depends on our moods I think. When we're happy and confident, our words seem to fire all the right neurons on the brain, the synaptic gaps are bridged with ease. There's more than just the words in our writing - there's a whole world of meaning implicit.

But then sometimes when we're tired and listless, our brains are foggy and the words seem empty, unable to quite convey the richness we wanted to invoke.

At other times, we feel nothing. We see the words for what they are - just words: pale shadows of reality with no depth, no power, no meaning.

Whenever I'm suffering from a bout of THS, I have to remind myself that, when reading through a different head, I thought my writing was fine. But then I think, am I deluding myself? Maybe the bad head that hates my writing is the true head? Maybe the happy head is a liar and is secretly chuckling behind my back... oh, the woes of writing!

The other day was a good example.

I'd just finished editing (for about the twentieth time) the first 9500 words of my new novel, intending it for submission. I was pretty darn proud of what I'd done. As well as the words being perfect (or so I thought) there seemed also a profound depth of hidden meaning, subtle interconnectivity and the odd clever nuance that would have my readers in awe, enrapt... and yet...

I gave it to Robyn, my partner, to read. As she did so, I waited, butterflies threatening to burst out of my stomach like the alien in, um, Alien.

At least she read the whole thing in one sitting. I was dreading that she'd put it down and say, "I'll read the rest tomorrow." That would have hurt. Big time.

Anyway. At the end she said, "Yeah, it's excellent." But, of course, because she didn't say it's brilliant, I was disappointed.

"What's wrong with it?" I cried.

"Nothing. It's really good." Really good? What's that supposed to mean? She must hate it!

Tentatively, I ask, "Anything that might need fixing?"

"Well, there's a couple of typos." Typos! Gah - after twenty passes! How could that be? "Nothing major," she added.

"And?"

"Well..." Here it comes, I thought. "You've got a couple of point of view issues. You tell the story from one guy's point of view in one chapter and I think you should do it from the hero's."

I slumped. Reality check. Thanks, Robyn.

She was right of course. I have to go back and fix it. But now I'm thinking my 9500 words are heavily flawed, and will remain so, until I've dealt with the problem. Now I wouldn't show my submission to another soul because it's dreadful, awful, until I've rewritten at least two large chunks of it. But then, maybe then, it will be perfect! Yay!

And to think, I used to wonder why my mother thought that writing was a silly way to make a living. Maybe she was right. I can find at least one of my Hydra heads that would rush to agree with her.

But I think the real point is that we need to be critical of our writing - at least some of the time. If we thought that what we did was always brilliant, we'd lose objectivity and we wouldn't want to improve, wouldn't know how to improve even.

Being hard on our writing sometimes is what makes us better writers.

But at those other, special times, loving what we do is what keeps us doing it!

Keep writing!

Getting a Publishing Deal - Is It Really Worth It?

Getting published is every writer's dream. It's what we want, it's what provides the motivation and gives us the spark to keep going - and keep writing and submitting until we finally crack the big one: a publishing deal, a proper one, with a trade publisher who will promote our books for free - and pay us royalties every six months for the rest of our lives!

Now that's the dream, right?

But how close is this to the reality of being a modern working writer?

Certainly having a bestseller can change your life. Desk bound introverts can become movie moguls (Dan Brown). Single-parent mothers can become very rich media celebrities (JK Rowling). And advertising executives can become household names (James Patterson).

But having a bestseller is not the only definition of success.

Just because the average person in the street hasn't heard of a writer doesn't mean that they aren't rich and successful.

As authors, we get this all the time. You're judged by the fame of your work. If you say you're a writer and the stranger you're talking to doesn't recognize any of the titles you throw at them, they seem to be of the opinion you're not really an author!

Which is crazy. And it's a trap that we, as writers, must not let ourselves fall into.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of professional writers out there who make a living, many are even very rich and successful, but whose names wouldn't raise an eyebrow.

Not everyone can be in the media spotlight. All those TV and movie writers out there who get paid by the script or series get very wealthy doing it - but you don't see their names plastered all over the tabloids.

Look at the average publishing list of ANY publishing house - and you'll see at least 100 names you don't recognize to every one that rings a bell. Do you think these 'unknown' writers are unsuccessful?

Why do we associate success with fame? And fame with success - when clearly some people are famous just for being famous - and not particularly talented?

I think we need to get over this idea. Because it's the only way to see our own success in perspective.

If someone could wave a magic wand, what would you ask for?

Financial independence brought about by writing? Most writers I know would give their mother, grandmother, and firstborn for JUST this, never mind fame or a chat with Oprah!

Which brings us back to getting a publishing deal. Because sometimes writers are very disappointed by the reality of having a deal with a trade publisher.

Rather than being the end point at which a writer can relax, kick back and enjoy a steady flow of money inwards, most new writer's experience is very different.

Getting published is not an end point - or even a starting point most times - it's a signpost on the journey of a writer's life. It's just one of the many signposts that indicate your success.

Other signposts might include winning a writing prize or self-publishing - or giving a talk about yourself or meeting with a movie producer. There's no particular order of things that you MUST follow in order to achieve writing success. It doesn't work like that.

You are the best judge of your success. You decide whether you're getting somewhere or you're not.

Many writers I know start writing and releasing ebooks AFTER their publishing deals - for two main reasons.

1. Fame and riches do not necessarily follow from having a publishing deal.

2. They look at internet writers of Kindle books and notice that, far from being 'lower' on the pecking order, they're better off and more respected nowadays.

No longer is there a stigma attached to writing for the net - nor with self-publishing. In fact, technology has revealed the secret that publishing companies have been holding on to for centuries - that THERE IS NO SECRET.

An independent author has just as much chance of creating a bestseller than does a publishing company, most of whom grub around in the dark wondering what will sell - rejecting authors out of hand for no good reason - simply because they don't really know what they're doing!

Most publishing companies HATE writers because we think we know what we're doing - and we don't listen to them. They like to give us the brush off because they have hundreds of other projects that don't make money - and don't have time for another that might.

The writing industry is entirely geared to say 'no' first, last and everywhere else in between.

Sure we've had great success - but we sometimes feel that the hacks who are supposedly there to help writers, basically lack the passion and commitment that are the prerequisites of being a working artist. They just don't get it.

I guess the point of this article is to encourage you not to think of agents and trade publishers as the be all and end all of your life. There are a hundred, maybe even a thousand, other fine ways of becoming a successful writer.

And, like us, you should be targeting those too!

Keep writing!