My New Website!

Hello, fellow writers and wordsmiths!

I regret to inform you that I will not be updating The Lonely Young Writer any longer.

But there is a silver lining.

I launched a new website: Fantasy. Literature. Life. at http://alsvossler.com

This marks a new phase in my career as a writer, so I invite you to come celebrate with with me by reading and following my new site. Please check it out for regular features such as "Flash Fiction Fridays" and "Book Reviews and Novel News Tues." You'll not only be entertained, but also will get updates on the progress of my debut novel Charybda, which will be published sometime this fall.

Maintaining the new website regularly and focusing so much on my novel writing will most likely prevent me from updating this site, but I'm leaving it here for people to use as a resource. Hopefully it has been useful to you. 

Thank you for your readership! Hope to see you at the new site!

Letter from Camp! (Camp NaNoWriMo)

So, I am deep in the midst of every writer’s favorite July activity, Camp NaNoWriMo! Okay, perhaps not every writer’s favorite July activity. I can’t even say it’s my favorite July activity, as it is the first time I have participated in it. I have done NaNoWriMo twice and won once—though the time I didn’t win, I was so close. I loved-hated both times, as it was a lot of work, and to be honest, the quality was sub-par. However, that is what revision is for! Camp NaNoWriMo is a little less stressful.

One of the nice things about Camp NaNoWriMo is that you can set your own word count, and you can even choose to edit instead of write (where you monitor time spent and convert that to words at the proposed rate of 1,000 words per hour). I chose to work on revising my novel Charybda, part of which I wrote during NaNoWriMo. Funnily, I had the bulk of the book written and used NaNo as a push to write the last part of the book. The unrevised manuscript of Charybda, in need of repairs and continuity fixes from start to finish, sat on my hard drive patiently waiting for me to finally get around to revising it. It wasn’t until the beginning of this year that I got off my behind (or put my behind in the writer’s chair, as it were) and started to work on it in earnest.

It has been a difficult road for me. I envy the writers who write quickly and require little revision on their drafts. I will never be one of those writers. I’m meticulous, which is good, but self-critical, which is not. It takes me a little time anyway, but I have occasional bouts of depression that bring all of it to a grinding halt. However, I am pleased to report that since the beginning of the year, I have made my way through thirteen or so chapters of the novel!

Camp NaNoWriMo was a fun way to motivate myself to work on my revising even more. I decided that, for me at least, 500 words per hour was a better conversion rate for time spent editing. Then, I set myself a goal of 10,000 words—which, by the by, is the minimum goal—equaling 20 hours of revision time. It sounded doable, and like a goal I might even surpass with a little dedication.

Another benefit of Camp NaNoWriMo is that it helped me realize something about revising. Revising, or content editing, if you will, is difficult to quantify. When you write, you have this nice concrete word count as your measurement. When it comes to revising, all you can measure is the time you spend working. Prior to Camp NaNo, I was setting goals based on the amount of the manuscript I got through—x number of chapters. However, each chapter is different. There was one chapter that took me two hours to ‘fix.’ There was another that took me two weeks. You see the inevitable problem.

I had been resisting the idea of measuring my revision in time, because there are times where it takes me an hour just to make a single change. That can be very depressing. How can one change really count for anything? I would be really hard on myself for things like this. Nevertheless, you have to quantify the work somehow, and it turns out that a time goal is a lot more manageable than a ‘distance’ goal. If not for Camp NaNo, I might not have ever realized this.

Even better, setting a time goal helps me work more efficiently. With the distance goal, I would get distracted and take a long time, so discouraged by how far away the endpoint was that I would give up. With the time goal, I find that the first 20 minutes or so are the most difficult, but once I’m past that, I get sucked into what I’m doing and work much harder than I would have otherwise.

I feel like I finally stumbled onto the answer for which I have been searching for some time now. There is always an abundance of advice on how to stay motivated while writing, but their is little said about the revision process. “Just keep writing—don’t worry if it stinks, you can fix that later.” There is a lot of silence when that later finally arrives. (Maybe there is a lot of advice out there, but I never seem to find it.) The answer for the “fixing it later” is to set small, manageable, quantifiable goals rather than looking at the big messy manuscript as a whole. Perhaps this should be obvious—the adage of eating an elephant one bite at a time has been around forever. For me, the problem was the quantifying of the goals. Now, I have finally settled into this system which works, and allows me to define the amount of work I’m actually doing. It allows me feel good about myself even when a single change takes an hour—because I have spent that entire hour working diligently to determine which change should be made. It gives me time to read the manuscript and make a plan for the next phase, while still feeling good because even if I make no changes, I have set myself up for success. I still get to count that hour as an achievement.

Another thing that has aided me in the revision process is giving myself rewards for achieving goals. At the end of every month, I give myself a prize if I meet my goal. Not just any prize, like going out for ice cream or something. No, this is a prize I’ll work my butt off in order to get. That’s right..a new My Little Pony! I bought a lot of ponies off of eBay, which are sitting in a box waiting for me to free them by achieving my goals. I only get one pony as a prize, though, so there are enough to keep me motivated for the next year or so.  It has worked well so far—there was one month where I did most of the work in the last week because I was so desperate to get that pony. (I don’t know if that’s pathetic or not, but I don’t care.) Now that I have a better system worked out, thanks to Camp NaNo, I’ll be well on my way to successfully earning ponies at the agonizingly slow rate of 1 pony per month. Even if the prize winning process is slow, the revising process has sped up, which is a prize all its own.

One more thing of note is that I have changed my terminology when referring to what I am doing to my manuscript. I had been calling it editing, which is not completely inaccurate. I am, after all, content editing. But since editing can also refer to line editing—going through line by line and fixing grammatical and stylistic errors, my subconscious was confused about what I was really doing. I would feel bad that I wasn’t at the final stage of perfecting the work. Now that I have changed to the term revising, I feel that it is a more accurate reflection of what I am doing. It also takes off the subconscious pressure that comes with the word ‘editing.’

It has been an enlightening summer, to be sure, and I feel that the rest of my year will be filled with even more successes.

What helps you out with revising your writing?

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The Number One Rule of Writing

Trust yourself to put that first word on the page.

Trust yourself.

That is all.

What, were you expecting it to be something far more elaborate and detailed? Perhaps something rigid and defined?

Well, there certainly are a lot of rules for writing, and they are all very useful rules to keep in mind. Things like: use proper grammar; avoid contractions in formal writing; avoid redundant adverbs and eliminate weak verb-adverb pairs; use 'said' as your default for speech tags; do not have your characters constantly say each other's names; have a defined beginning, middle, and end; raise the stakes for your characters and put them in jeopardy...

The list goes on and on and on. Rules about POV, rules about style, rules, rules, rules, rules.

The only hard and fast rule of writing is that there are as many rules as there are writers.

What do I mean by that? I mean that every writer out there is going to have their own idea of what makes writing good. Writing rules are subjective. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a sucker for the rules. I believe there is such a thing as good writing and bad writing. However, which is which really depends on who you ask. There is a sort of 'canon' idea of what makes for good writing, but people work outside of that all the time and still have success.  Bad writing exists, but not everyone agrees on what makes writing bad.

The commonly agreed upon reasons for bad writing are: weak plot, weak and flat characters, inconsistent style, poor grammar, and similar things. But again, people still disagree as to what is what.

So, here you are, trying to navigate the waters of being a writer. You will be given conflicting advice. How do you know which is right, which is the way to go?

This is where trusting yourself comes in. If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust? Even if you follow all the supposed rules that you have read about, if you don't trust yourself, your writing will be weak and shaky. Do you really need to do something that breaks a rule, because you think it will make your story more powerful? Break that sucker.

Trust yourself.

Because you will never be as good at being your favorite author as that author is. But you can most definitely be the best at being yourself. And to do that, you will have to trust yourself.

It is not easy. I still struggle with it every day. It is especially difficult when you are editing something, and when a self-imposed deadline looms over your head like a Sword of Damocles, threatening a sense of failure.

I try to remind myself that there is no failure as long as I keep plugging away at my work, as long as I do not give up, as long as I do my best...

...as long as I trust myself.

So keep the rules in mind--because rules are useful and will make your writing stronger--but remember to trust yourself, even if that means stepping outside of the rules.

That is the number one rule of writing.

Four Acts, No Conflict?

So, today I learned all about Kishōtenketsu, which is a four-act story structure that does not rely on conflict for plot development.

SAY WHAT? No conflict? Surely this is blasphemy!

But it's not blasphemy, just culture shock. Kishōtenketsu is the product of Eastern thought, whereas my entire set of thought processes is a product of Western thought. So, it makes sense that I would be a little put off by the notion.

I guess, to be more accurate, I should say that today I re-learned all about Kishōtenketsu. In my Classical World Literature class in college, we did discuss and and read several examples of it, then all sat around and argued whether or not they actually did or did not have conflict in them. Ah, good times.

Anyway, check out this article by Nils Ödlund on Mythic Scribes for the skinny on
Kishōtenketsu: http://mythicscribes.com/plot/kishotenketsu/

Be sure to read all of the links that Ödlund includes--they really helped me get a bit more of a grasp on the whole concept. 

I may write more about this later, but for now, my job beckons.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #18

Is fat really the worst thing a human being can be? Is fat worse than vindictive, jealous, shallow, vain, boring, evil, or cruel? Not to me."
- J. K. Rowling

The size of your body says nothing about who you really are, or what your behaviors are, or whether you are worthy of love and affection. If anyone says otherwise, there are two possible reasons: One, they are a bully. Two, they are trying to sell you something. Sometimes, it's both simultaneously.

Don't assume that people dislike you. You are not a mind reader.

Don't try to predict what other people will do or say. You are not a fortune teller. 

November Nuggets of Wisdom #17

Don't worry about whether or not your passions, hobbies, and interests are "cool" or not. If you're an adult or teenager who likes kids' shows and movies, don't be ashamed. If you're a Trekkie or a Star Wars fan or a Lord of the Rings nut, embrace that. The more you embrace your own interests, the happier you are. If anyone makes fun of you, it's just because they are jealous that they aren't as happy as you.

If you can, try to learn a musical instrument. It will expand your mind.

As much as school sucks sometimes, you will need it later in life. Yes, even chemistry. Chemistry especially. Chemistry will teach you why you should NEVER mix bleach and lime-away (or CLR, or vinegar). That's a real-life application that can actually save your life. Don't believe me? Ask your science teacher.

And yes, you need math too. Especially unit conversion. Especially when you live in the United States where we don't use metric. Algebra and trigonometry, too, depending on what career path you choose. Also, don't underestimate arithmetic. Someday you will be working a cash register and somebody will give you an odd change amount and you'll accidentally skip the screen that tells you how much change you need to give them.

On a related note, learn how to count back change.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #16

DON'T TRY TO COME UP WITH A BUNCH OF SAGE ADVICE FOR EVERY DAY IN NOVEMBER. YOU WILL START RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS.

Never overestimate your own ability to have smart advice. Usually all you can do is parrot wise things that other, wiser people have said.

Be cool, stay in school.

Don't do drugs.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #15

NaNoWriMo is halfway over and I still have all of my hair. There's no wisdom in that one. I'm just bragging.

On the downside, the bags under my eyes are big enough that they would have to go through checked luggage, not carry-on. Wait a second, that's not wisdom either. Ummm...get plenty of sleep? Or something.

Coffee...need more coffee...oh. Wisdom. Um, coffee addiction is not good?

WHO AM I KIDDING COFFEE IS AMAZING.

You should never...wait, you should always, addfathekedkadfpa dhafheaphas hpehpahpihass hhhhhhhhhk

Sorry, fell asleep there for a moment.

Ahhh....

Ummm...

Coffee. And stuff. And junk.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #14

"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

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

- W. Somerset Maugham
 

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

- Toni Morrison

"If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor."

- Edgar Rice Burroughs

November Nuggets of Wisdom #13

If you have a crush on somebody, don't do everything in your power to convince yourself that it's really "true love." What you really are is infatuated. If you think it's "true love," then you're just ridiculously infatuated. Infatuation is fun, but keep it in check. The more you obsess, the harder the letdown.

Keep in mind that 9 times out of 10, infatuation lasts around two years after you start your relationship. Don't try to convince yourself that you're the exception to that rule. This doesn't mean you can't make a commitment, it's just something you need to be aware of. After two years, your relationship becomes much harder work.

Ladies: No matter how cute the guy is, purposely falling on the ice so that he'll come help you is stupid. And painful. And yes, I speak from experience. Just don't do it, okay?

Love poetry is a lot like kissing: best kept strictly between the two people who are in a relationship together. Nobody else cares about your love poems. Sorry.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #12

Sometimes, it's better to be a little late than it is to drive yourself batty trying to meet unrealistic goals. There are days where you have to have this attitude:"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams

That being said, some deadlines are totally unforgiving. Carefully discern which deadlines are paramount and which are flexible. You'll make your life a lot easier that way. 

If it's a choice between turning in the paper late or not turning it in at all, turn in the paper late. As Aragorn says in the book The Lord of the Rings, "Need brooks no delay, yet better late than never." 

Show up to work on time. Seriously. People will more readily forgive you when you have a legitimate reason for being late if you usually show up on time. In fact, try to be five minutes early. You'd be surprised just how far that kind of behavior will get you in a job.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #11

Some hills are worth dying on. Select them carefully.

If it’s a choice between fighting over how socks should be folded and changing the way that you personally fold them, just swallow your pride and fold them the way the other person wants. Some hills are not worth dying on.

Discretion is the better part of valor. Every time.  There’s a reason that maxim has been around forever.

The older I get, the more I realize how spookily accurate Murphy’s Law is. Prepare accordingly. If that sounds depressing, think of it this way: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #10

“Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:…‘Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.’”

- Proverbs 8:1-3, 10-11 ESV

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”

- Proverbs 12:1 ESV

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

- Proverbs 15:1 ESV

Reading the book of Proverbs will leave you totally inspired.  It will also make you a little depressed. Read it anyway. 

November Nuggets of Wisdom #9

Spoiler alert: You are not perfect. Stop freaking out when you screw up. Then teach me how to stop freaking out, too.

It’s surprising how many issues can be resolved or lessened simply by taking a hot shower.

Giving advice is one of the easiest things to do. Following it is one of the most difficult. As Alice sings, “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom take it.”

Sleep is sweetest when it’s well-earned. Work hard and sleep well.

November Nuggets of Wisdom #8

Depression is a heavy weight tied around your neck. On good days, you leave it behind, but for the most part, you carry it with you everywhere. Your body and your mind ache.  However, lugging that weight will eventually make you strong—and you will be stronger than the people around you who will never know what that burden feels like.

Carolyn Kizer says, “Poets are mostly interested in death and commas.” Just remember that while death may be fascinating in its own right, interest in commas will get you much further in life.

Writing is one of the cheapest, most efficacious coping skills available. It only costs as much as pen and paper.  Writing about your problems gives you psychological control over them. Once they’re on the paper, they are much more manageable.

Our feelings do not define us. In fact, they frequently lie to us. Even more than logic does. Sometimes logic leads to invalid conclusions, too.  So what are we to do in times of distress?  Hint: Run to God’s arms and let Him take care of it.