Writing

When I speak to schools about creative writing, I take two New Yorker covers with me. One shows a chimpanzee at a typewriter. At first, he’s baffled, then terrified and furious, until finally, he arrives at that wondrous Eureka!—when ideas hit— and he starts typing. The other illustration is of a man putting a pencil to the floor, literally writing himself into a corner. (That's what happens when the author doesn't have an outline!)

I try to make light of the “writer's block” pictured in the cartoons because so many students freeze if perfect paragraphs don't just gush out of them from the get-go. But here's the deal. Writing is incredibly rewarding, but it takes work. As light-bulb inventor Thomas Edison said: "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."

Writing is about sweating it out—digging through your own life, of course, but also learning to “report a story,” carefully watching, listening, researching, absorbing, and reflecting. Asking those why questions. The best writers can not only explain what they feel, but also accurately describe what the person across the room might be thinking.  

There is no precise prescription for creativity, but these qualities can help build the craft a writer needs:
1.  Read. Read a variety of genres, styles, and authors. Take note of what type of writing best suits a scene or story. Remember that language has cadence, tone, and personality. If you particularly like an author's style or voice, try writing a few passages emulating it so you can absorb what creates its effect. Take note of things that capture your curiosity, move you emotionally, or simply delight you with their beauty.

2.  Keep a journal. But don't just write about your own life and thoughts. Learn to decipher and depict what you see and hear. People watch. Go to a park, a library, or an art museum. Sit down for an hour and open your ears, eyes, and heart. Imagine why passersby have come there, where they are going later, what they might be thinking—create their story. Look for revealing details about them. Their behavior will give hints about who they are, their dreams, what their mood is that day. Go outside and describe the sunset or the sound of bird song or the scent of tree blossoms, the feel of grass.

Include as many senses as possible—sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell. Write down words you particularly like, quotes that inspire you, newspaper headlines that disturb you. Do character sketches. These are all exercises to hone the craft of writing—just like musicians practice scales to build their ability to play larger, more complicated works.

Journals are also a great tactic for “saving string,” a term news reporters use. It means taking a snippet of a conversation, a dab of a persona, a tidbit of a news event, or the description of a scene and tucking it into your proverbial pocket to eventually save up enough bits of string to make a ball of twine—the threads of your story.  

3.  Write for student newspapers or magazines. I believe journalism is one of the best preparations for creating fiction. Journalism teaches you to make a deadline, to stop obsessing over that one paragraph, to use one adjective rather than four, and to finish a story. It demands clarity. Your fiction dialogue will also be far more believable and authentic if you interview people for profiles for a while first. I discovered how people really speak by writing down exactly what they said word-for-word as a reporter.

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and novelist Anna Quindlen puts it best: “I spent decades writing down people’s words verbatim, how real people talk. I learned that syntax and rhythm were almost as individualistic as a fingerprint. That one quotation, precisely transcribed and intentionally untidied, could delineate a character in a way that pages of exposition never could.”

Observe while you interview. I once wrote a long piece that grew into a nonfiction book about a domestic violence case. I spent 80+ hours interviewing the victim and one day she started nudging furniture in the room as we talked. I finally asked what she was doing, and she laughed self-consciously and said it was an unconscious habit, that her husband had been angered if she vacuumed but didn’t put the furniture legs back into the indentation marks in the carpet. That opened up a whole valley of anecdotes that I wouldn’t have had, if I hadn’t noticed her doing that.

Revealing details, small anecdotes show rather than tell what a person is feeling or the meaning of a moment. Sometimes the way someone says something (if they shift uncomfortably, look away, or become more animated) is as important as the words they use. Including those descriptive details will paint a far more comprehensive portrait. They also keep your characters from sounding or acting like one another.

4.  Practice. When I give writing workshops, one of the exercises I use is to divide the class into pairs. Each student is to think of one adjective—JUST one—that they feel best describes them. (A great exercise in and of itself!) Then they must think of an anecdote from their life that shows that personality trait. Their partner must interview to get that anecdote out of the student, listening carefully to answers to then be able to ask effective follow-up questions, coaxing the anecdote out of their partner. Only then do they guess the descriptive word based on the elicited story. You can replicate this on your own with a friend or family member.

5.  Don't stall out trying for perfection on the first draft. Students do this all the time. Yes, the “lede” has to be so gripping or evocative that you hook your reader. But I have found it is best to keep moving, finish the section or the chapter, and then go back and revise, revise, revise, and revise again.

4.  Read your writing out loud to yourself. Listen for the rhythm. It's the best way to hear if you have repeated something, or have one too many beats in a description, or meandering phrases. If I stumble over a passage, if my tongue trips up on itself as I read, I know I have some rewriting to do.

5.  Take writing classes. Work hard. Leave arrogance at the door. Be honest but supportive when critiquing one another. Don't let anyone discourage you. Judgments on creative writing are subjective. I had one grad school professor who definitely did not think that I had what it took to become a professional writer. I promise you...I have written far more books than he. Even so, it took a while. I received more than a dozen rejection letters before my first picture book manuscript was accepted. That’s typical.

So have courage. Be determined if you want to write. Take the risk if you have something to say. Don’t just talk about it—sit yourself down and do it!