"Stealing" Ideas

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What would you say if I told you that you could rip off major plot points from other sources and get away with it?

Would you say, “But that’s stealing and violating copyright laws”?

Would you say, “That would make me an unoriginal hack writer”?

What about, “People will know it’s a rip-off and no one will like my story?”

Let’s break this down.

“That’s stealing and violates copyright laws.”

Copyright laws are dodgy things. If you write a story that is basically exactly the same as somebody else’s, using the same characters (even if you change their names), then you have violated copyright laws. There’s no way around this. But if you were to look at Lois Lowry’s The Giver and think that forced hormonal therapy is an interesting concept, and you decide to use that in your story, that is not violating copyright laws.  You’ll probably want to do your take on forced hormonal therapy differently – that’s why it’s your take on it.

But isn’t it still stealing?

Let me tell you a secret. Nothing is original. Nada. Zilch. Zero.  Have you ever heard of William Shakespeare, a man still hailed today as a master of literary genius?

Yeah, he ripped off a bunch of other stories to make his plays.

So, yes, maybe it is ‘stealing’ story elements, but don’t think of it as stealing. Think of it as ‘drawing inspiration’ from another source. It’s not immoral or illegal – not the way that selling a story with Frodo the Hobbit in it would be.

I promise you, even if you come up with an idea all by yourself, the likelihood of seeing that somebody else has done something similar is really high. Does that mean you’re stealing? No. It just means that somebody else had a similar idea to you. Nobody has a monopoly on ideas, and nobody can copyright an idea like forced hormonal therapy. 

Now, if you put it in the exact configuration as The Giver, well…that’s  different story. Then it does become stealing.

You see, there is a definite difference between stealing and drawing inspiration from a source. It might seem fuzzy, but it is definitely there.

“That would make me an unoriginal hack writer.”

Was William Shakespeare a hack? The debate on this rages, but most people think highly of Shakespeare. Would you say Suzanne Collins is a hack? She borrowed a lot of elements for The Hunger Games from Roman history. Oh, and have you ever of J.R.R. Tolkien, a man widely regarded as the father of modern fantasy? He lifted a lot of stuff from Norse mythology. Does that make him an unoriginal hack writer? What about Rowling? Harry Potter took a bunch of stuff out of mythology, too.

So, what is it that makes these authors original, if they have so much unoriginal stuff in their writing?

It’s the way that things are configured. It’s sort of like starting with a ball of yarn. Give five different people a ball of yarn and tell them to knit a scarf. At least one of those scarves will be different than the others. It’s all about the way you tell your story – the way you spin a yarn, if you will. Yours will be unique, because it’s told by you, and you’ll make sure to tell it in a way nobody else has told it. That’s where the originality comes in.

As long as you tell the story your own unique way, you won’t be a hack.

“People will know it’s a rip-off and no one will like my story.”

Okay. This is just patently false.

Tolkien practically has a cult following, even after his death.

Shakespeare is studied in schools all around the world.

People liked their stories. Even though they heavily borrowed from other sources.

So what is it that really brings the originality to these stories – what is it that makes them original?

Two major things: setting and character.

I’ll give you an example – and this was what gave me the idea for this blog post in the first place.  This story begins with me admitting to the fact that I occasionally watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (I’ve collected ponies since I was four, and I just never stopped liking them.)

Courtesy of HasbroStudios.com. Used for review purposes only.

On Saturday, a new season of My Little Pony started, and I decided to watch. It was actually a really interesting episode. The main characters went to a village where everybody had the same cutie mark. If you don’t watch the show, suffice it to say that cutie marks reflect each pony’s individuality and special talents.

Everybody had the same cutie mark so that no one was special.

Nobody had special talents, so that nobody was better than anyone else.

Everybody had to think the same way and have the same beliefs.

Is this starting to sound familiar?  The more the episode unfolded, the more this town started to look communist. They even called it a ‘utopia’ in one of the songs. But it was clear that it was anything but a utopia. It was a classic dystopia, vaguely reminiscent of 1984 and Animal Farm. Nobody could say anything that went against the status quo, and if somebody did, the other ponies were supposed to rat them out.

It started to have even more elements of dystopian novels, such as brainwashing. The main characters were locked in a room and forced to listen to a loud recording of what they were supposed to believe – things like “To excel is to fail” and various other maxims of this dystopian society.

Finally, the leader of everything was revealed to have her own unique cutie mark, which she kept hidden from everybody else. The first thing that came to mind when I saw that was, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” (That’s from George Orwell’s Animal Farm.) This pony argued that she had to have her special talent so that everybody else could ‘enjoy’ life without theirs. That made me think of Napoleon from Animal Farm, who argued that he had to have more power so that everybody else could live in harmony.

So yeah. An entire episode of My Little Pony that basically took classic dystopian novels, put them through the grinder, and reshaped them. They didn’t even try to be the least bit subtle about it. It was super obvious where they were getting this stuff from.

But you know what? I loved it. I bet the other adults who watched it still loved it. I bet the kids who watched the show loved it.  So what makes is special and unique?

Because it’s a show about frickin’ talking horses! With songs and dance routines! With magic! It’s the characters and the setting that makes it what it is, that makes it fresh and fun and original, even when it’s obviously a rip-off.

So there you have it. Don’t freak out if your idea is similar to someone else’s. Draw inspiration from other places all you want – just be unique in the way that you put it together.

 Don’t use talking, dancing, magical, brightly colored horses, though. I think that might have been done already.

What do you think about the idea of ‘ripping off’ other sources? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

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Ways to Improve Your Writing Without Writing

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If you play a musical instrument, or know anybody who plays a musical instrument, you probably know that the single most important thing to do is to practice. If you do not practice, you’ll never get anywhere.  Practice ‘til your fingers/lips/tongue (depending on the instrument you play, this might be all three) fall off.  There’s a reason that trumpet players tend to use a lot of lip balm. 

On the other hand, there are ways to improve your instrumental skills without playing your instrument. You can, for example, listen to music, which improves your sense of pitch. You can watch experts play their instruments, which helps give you an idea for how to implement technique. You will have to apply all of things in order to master them, but just by watching and listening, you can improve your skills. In fact, if you just practice without observing others – stumbling around in the dark, so to speak – you might be holding yourself back as a musician.

Likewise, one of the best ways to improve your writing is to write.  Just write.  And write.  And write.  But, there are ways to improve your writing that don’t involve writing at all. 

OMG, right? (I should probably stop trying to sound like I'm even the tiniest bit cool.)

Read, read, read

Just like listening to music and observing technique can help improve your skills as a musician, reading will improve your skills as a writer. It improves your sense of what makes for good writing, and it gives you an idea for implementing technique. So read.  Read good books. A lot of them. Read the classic books, read modern books, and especially read books in the genre you’re writing in.

Also read bad stories. Really bad ones. You know how when you were being taught bike safety, the instructors would smash a melon on the ground to demonstrate what happens without a helmet? That’s what reading bad stories is like. They show you just how bad things get when plotting is loose, when characters are unbelievable, when grammar is atrocious. They are cautionary tales. Take heed.

Work to understand the difference between the two.  If you have well-developed sense of pitch, listening to an orchestra where even one instrument is out of tune is excruciating. If you’re still developing it, you might realize that something isn’t right, but you might not be affected by the discordance as strongly. The more critically you approach performances (remember that ‘criticism’ means ‘systematic evaluation’ and not ‘being mean’), the more you can differentiate between a good performance and a bad one.  Likewise, approaching all books with a critical eye will help you differentiate between good and bad.

Really stop to evaluate every book after you’ve read it.  What did you like and why? What didn’t you like and why? How did the author build suspense? If the book was non-fiction, was the information presented cleanly and in logical order? Think about the writing itself. Was it clear and concise? Was it garbled? If something felt 'off' about the book, but you’re not sure what, apply yourself to figuring out what made it feel not quite right.

Read books about writing.  Take note: books about writing should be approached with a very open mind, understanding that for every writer out there, there is a different opinion on what constitutes good writing.  A lot of books, and especially articles on writing, tend to present things as “THE ONLY WAY TO WRITE.” You should not ignore the advice in these books, but neither should you swallow it like it’s pure doctrine handed down by God himself. Rather, use them to help you define your own path.

Whatever you do, don’t exclusively read books about writing. By reading a lot of other stories/non-fiction you’ll learn way more about what good writing looks like, and you’ll see that good writing takes hundreds of different forms.  You’ll also start to see styles you like and styles you don’t like, which will help you define your own unique style even better than books about writing will. Don’t get me wrong, books about how to write are useful, but they shouldn’t be all that you read.

If you’re in college or highschool, you have an extra advantage: teachers who will help you with this kind of thing.  Ask your teachers questions, and get their opinions on this type of thing. It really makes a difference.

Watch television

Another thing that can help you improve your writing is to watch movies and TV shows.  Yes, believe it or not, this will help you improve your writing, as sacrilegious as that sounds.  After all, the visual arts are still a form of storytelling, and if you want to become a good storyteller, it’s good to pay attention. (If you want to write non-fiction, documentaries are useful.) Pay attention to the characters and how they are developed.  Do they behave consistently? What about pacing and plot? Do the writers of the show do a good job? Also, if the acting is good quality, you can develop a feel for what people do with their bodies while they speak.  One of the most neglected parts of dialogue is body language. 

You’ll quickly discover both good and bad TV shows. Identify why the good ones are good and the bad ones are bad. Be prepared to defend your analysis, as others might disagree with you. (This also goes for reading books.) This will help cement what you like in storytelling. (If you don’t like the story you’re writing, why would anyone else?) You shouldn’t ignore the professional criticisms you hear about a show, but you don’t have to buy them hook, line, and sinker.

Listen and look

Listen to actual people speaking.  Don’t exclusively rely on television for this.  Listen to their inflections and word choice.  Notice how different people speak differently. Develop a feel for what sounds natural.  A lot of time, dialogue is poorly written because it doesn’t sound like stuff any people anywhere would actually say.  To get a feel for speech of different time periods…that’s right, hit the books again. Again, don’t rely on TV for this, because unfortunately, a lot of period dialogue in many shows sounds like it was written by a hack. (Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Reading can help you determine the difference.) Really paying attention to the way people actually speak will give you a better sense of how to write dialogue.

Watch people while they talk. Notice their mannerisms. Do they look you in the eye? Stare at the ground? Look up when they’re trying to remember something? Do they fold their arms, get fidgety, etc.? This actually improves your interpersonal skills too, so it’s a step worth taking.  You just might discover that people are sending you subtle hints through their body language, and you can seem friendlier by adjusting your own.

Pay attention to yourself.  It’s a little hard to do this without altering your natural state, but with a little practice, you can do it.  How do you speak? How does your inner dialogue relate to your outer dialogue? What do you do with your body when you speak – when you like somebody, when you like like somebody, when you dislike somebody, and when you flat out hate somebody? How do you move when you’re excited? The list goes on and on. It’s important to write from life. I’m not saying your characters should be clones of you, but if you know what it’s like to be in somebody’s head (your own) you can imagine and translate that kind of thing into somebody else’s head (your character’s).

I cannot stress enough how useful this activity is, both for your life and for writing.  Dialogue is the place where most screw-ups in writing take place, and this will help you avoid that. This also allows you to show your audience your character’s mood or ‘tude instead of telling them. Instead of saying, “He was getting bored with the conversation,” you can write, “He glanced at his watch and crossed his arms over his chest, resisting the urge to tap his toes.” The second one is better, because everybody knows how it feels to be in that position.  We’ve all done it.  A good story will make the reader forget that they are reading, and studying and then writing natural behaviors will help you achieve that goal.

Get psyched out

If you’re in high school or college, don’t snooze through your psychology class. (If you happen to be an older writer, and you did snooze through your psychology class, do some research.) This class will do more for your writing abilities than you realize.  It will help you write believable characters, and it also helps you understand how not everyone’s thought processes are the same. If you have a chance to take the official Meyers-Briggs Personality Inventory, take it. Research what your personality type is and what all of the other ones are, too.  When you’re creating characters, trying to assign them one of these types will really help you make them seem real. There are a lot of websites with info on these, but nothing beats the original, official stuff.

Act just a little bit crazy

Okay. This one is from personal experience, so your mileage may vary.  I also know for a fact that at least one other person on the planet does this. I can definitively say that this simply won’t work for some people, while for others it might be the writing miracle you’ve been waiting for.

Walk around in circles and talk to yourself.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds, I promise! It’s so much more than that.  What I personally do is to walk laps around my basement or room, and I talk to myself about my story. I act out some of the motions, speak the dialogue that I’ve imagined, and try to actually feel what the characters feel. I probably look like an asylum escapee, walking around, muttering, and sometimes crying.  But really – it’s less walking around and talking to oneself than it is acting, like you’re on a stage and you’re the only viewer.  I’ve done drama in the past, and it’s not all that different from exercises to get into character. So, if drama is something you really like, this might be an immensely useful activity for you.

This isn’t just for fiction – I’ve done this for essays, blogging, and poetry, too, all with great success. (Guess what I did to help me write today’s post?)
What this does for me is twofold: it can take the place of prewriting (taking notes or a quick outline of the scene), and it cements what I want to wind up on paper. It also really, really helps with dialogue, because I can actually say what I want the characters to say, and see if it sounds natural.

So…I guess we’re up to three folds now, unless you include dialogue under the ‘what I want on paper’ fold.  

If this sounds totally ridiculous to you, go ahead and give it a try anyway.  You will either totally love it or totally hate it. If you hate it, you’ll never have to do it again. I will warn you: you will feel pretty ridiculous the whole time.  I still do, and I’ve done this for well over a decade.  I absolutely cannot do this if I know that anybody can see me or is within earshot. And, if you’re still not convinced that this isn’t total malarkey, remember that scientific studies have shown that physical movement does increase creativity and productivity.  In fact, some companies have wised up to this and are actually promoting “standing desks” so that people can do desk work while standing. So if the whole talking thing freaks you out, take a walk or get on some exercise equipment and just think about your story instead.

Take care of yourself

Here is a final thought: if something is good for your body, it’s good for your mind, which means it’s good for your writing. Eat nutritiously, sleep well, exercise, and practice good hygiene. (…she wrote, as she glanced at the half pan of brownies on her countertop.)

None of these activities should take the place of writing (well, you might want to prioritize your health at least a little), but they will make your writing more effective. Even if you only implement a few of them, you will benefit a lot.

What are your thoughts on some of these techniques? Are there things that you like to do to help improve your writing? Share any thoughts, questions, or opinions about how crazy I am in the comments.

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Character Creation

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So, let’s say you’ve had an awesome idea for a story.  You just have one problem: you don’t really know who your characters are.

Everyone’s creative processes are different, and often, different from project to project.  Some people come up with characters and then create a plot around them, while others come up with a plot and then create characters for it.  Some people have the idea hit them all at once. Either way, you have to create your characters. Unless you’re writing fan fiction, nobody will hand characters to you on a silver platter.  You have to sculpt them from the ground up.

Now, there are hundreds if not thousands of resources and recommendations regarding this topic, so my two bits really are just a spit in the ocean.

The first thing to remember with character creation is that your character is fluid.  You can change your character at any time.  Say, you’ve been writing your character as blonde but change your mind and want a redhead instead.  That’s fine.  Change it.  Need your character to be 25 instead of 21? Change it. Short instead of tall? Plump instead of slender? Robert instead of Joseph? Even male instead of female? Change it. You are not committed to the very first things you put down on paper.

But…what about character consistency? You might hear about this in literature classes, or maybe you’ve read about it.  Yes, your characters absolutely have to be consistent.  This is not an option. This just means they have to be consistent throughout the story, so if you do change Stephen into Stephanie halfway through your book, you have to go back and change every little thing to reflect that. (Unless your story is about a sex change operation, but you know that’s not what I’m talking about.)

So, yes, the character must always be consistent throughout the story, but the character him/her/itself is fluid. This is because you are the puppet master of the microcosm you’ve created. You don’t have to commit to anything. Simply remember that once you’ve made a change, the change has to be applied across the whole story – this is not an optional step.

The fact that character creation/design is fluid is an important thing to note, because I can almost guarantee you that your character will evolve and change from your initial plans as you write the story.  You’ll need to make changes, you’ll want to make changes, and this is totally okay. It is a pain, because when you change your character you have to rework literally everything you’ve written, but changing your character is, in many cases, necessary.

Additionally, please keep in mind that this reflects my creative process and is by no means the only way to do this. There are some things I feel more strongly about, but remember that none of this is written in stone.

Having gotten that out of the way, you need to start thinking about the fundamentals of your character.

Okay, Cassidy is five-foot-four with blonde hair and green eyes and she has a few freckles on her cheeks and she wears a size 8 US with a shoe size 10 US and she’s a little uncomfortable about how big her feet are –

No! Cut that crap out! These are, for the most part, SECONDARY considerations. This is not where you start when creating your character.  Well, I suppose you can, but this is a little like picking out serving dishes before you’ve even decided what to make for dinner.  You might get a little inspiration from the dishes, like we can get some inspiration for Cassidy’s personality based on her self-consciousness over shoe size, but in the long run, these attributes will be the most likely to change. Holding off on them for now might be best. (But, if you really want to start here, go for it.)

The first step in character creation, often times, is to ask “In what time period and place is this story set?” This is a bit like looking in the refrigerator to see what you have on hand before you start making dinner.  Why time period and place? If your story is set in Africa in the 1800s but your character acts like an American in the 2000s, you have a massive problem. Time period and region of origin are a huge part of how people define themselves and choose their behaviors.  If you’re a girl, you will have a significantly different understanding of your role as a woman in 2015 than a woman in 1915.  It will also be different based on whether you live in America or Papua New Guinea. (The same goes for fantasy worlds.)

Once you have a setting figured out, you need to decide on your character’s personality attributes. You may need to float around a bit in the process here, since if the character has a chronic illness, this will most likely affect his/her personality. So, this isn’t a hard and fast step.  None of these steps really are, as your character is totally fluid.  But these steps can help you stay on track. 

So, to establish personality attributes, first establish a baseline for your character.  This is your character’s wake-up-on-an-average-day behavior.  Are they diligent? Lazy? Optimistic? Morose? For an idea of what this might look like, try to imagine first how you would describe your average behavior, personality, moods, thought processes, etc.  Now, come up with descriptions that fit your character.  Keep in mind that if you are writing this down, a good trick is to use a pen, not a pencil. Strike out the things you change instead of erasing them. You never know – you might want to back-track.

Once baseline is established, explore your character’s extremes. How does your character behave when extremely elated? How do they behave under extreme duress?  All of these behaviors need to have some root in your character’s baseline. A very brave person will act differently under duress than a coward does. A lot of times, I like to establish extremes first, because that helps me choose their baseline behavior accordingly. (Not hard and fast steps, remember?)  

Now, you may pick a name for your character.

Wait…what? The name isn’t first???

Well, you can pick the name first, but keep in mind that names are a reflection of setting. A girl from the fantasy world of G’tharlubul probably won’t be named Betty.  A guy from 18^th century Japan probably won’t be named Robert. An average white dude in 16^th century England most likely won’t be named Tanaka. Conversely, in 21^st century America, just about any name works, up to and including G’tharlubul, depending on how out-there the child’s parents are. (If your name is G’tharlubul, understand that I mean you no offense. Also: your parents named you G’tharlubul??????!!!!!! What’s your last name, Cthuluhu?)

Watch.  Now some person actually named G’tharlubul is going to leave me hate mail.

Ahem. Back on track.

Furthermore, names can often be symbolic. They don’t have to be, and they aren’t always, but they add a little something extra when they are. You can go with an ironic twist, like somebody who was born during winter being named ‘Summer,’ or you can go with something a little deeper. A woman who is trapped in servitude her whole life might be named Jenny.  At first brush, this might not mean anything to you, and if you look at what the name Jennifer means, it means ‘fair one.’ But, just like a female deer is called a doe, a female mule is called a jenny.  So, it’s subtle, but it’s a nice touch.

Once all of this is done, decide on the physical attributes of your character.  Keep in mind that certain physical attributes can affect personality, but a short guy doesn’t necessarily have to be insecure about it. Also, keep in mind that you probably won’t every actually tell people how tall your character is unless it’s relevant to the plot. However, you need to know so that you can write your character accurately.  

Character creation, at least as far I’m concerned, isn’t a tidy step-by-step process.  They make massive character checklists that you can download, and I’m sure that for some people, these are awesome tools. For me, character creation is a big page of random notes with lots of stuff crossed out, and then I finally emerge triumphant with a character that I am satisfied with.

If you want to learn more about good character creation, please check out Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card.  It’s one of my go-to books, and he offers much more concise guidelines.

Do you think that this process is useful? Have you created characters before? What is your process, and do you currently like it? Share any thoughts or questions in the comments.

Also, I wrote this in a massive hurry, so if you find any major grammatical errors, it’s because I didn’t proofread this. Your tolerance and forgiveness is appreciated.

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Hunting for Inspiration

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Oh, hi! Is it Friday?

Okay, I knew that it was Friday.  I've just been banging my head against a wall trying to find inspiration for this post. Then I remembered this quote:

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
― Jack London

For those who don't know, Jack London was a writer and novelist who wrote during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  His most famous novels are White Fang and Call of the Wild. He was very popular and could earn up to $1000 for a short story―in 1910. That translates to about $25,000 dollars today.

This is kind of a funny thing to think about―going after inspiration with a club.  It takes the notion of the writer being this fancy, spiritual guru who somehow communes with the writing Muse and dashes it to pieces.  Now, you might be thinking―when did anyone ever think that writing was this super spiritual thing?

The Romantic Period writers did. Not joking. I could honestly write a whole post on that―and I actually wrote a 10 page paper on it―but I don't want to bore you out of your skull.

Now, it makes sense that London would say that you have to go hunt for inspiration, since London was part of the Realism movement (this movement was a direct reaction to Romanticism). It's kind of his way of nodding toward what used to be popular belief and then turning it on its head.

And let's face it―London made a lot more money than anyone in the Romantic Period did.

So what does it mean to go after inspiration with a club? It means that if you have this vague idea of, "You know, I'd like to write a book," but you have no idea what to write about, you have to actively seek out ideas.

What does that look like?

Well, I wrote about some ways to generate ideas a while back―that's a way one can hunt for inspiration.  But another thing to keep in mind is that if you don't have some kind of passion for your project, you aren't likely to carry through with it. In that case, the first step to hunting for inspiration is to ask yourself, "What do I really care about? What really moves me? What really inspires me?"

You can sort of answer this question by looking at the types of books or movies you already like.  Figure out what it is about them that you like.  Then, use what you like about the book/movie/whatever as your inspiration. For example, I love The Lord of the Rings. I love a lot of stories that center on people who might at first be considered incapable of doing something. A "the weak are the strong" theme, if you will.

You can furthermore answer the question by figuring out what it is that you believe. I'm talking about ideologies here.  You might be too young to have your worldview figured out just yet, but it's never too early to start.  Ask yourself "What do I believe, and why do I believe it?" For example, I believe that all people are valuable, regardless of size, ethnicity, ability or disability, young or old, born or unborn, and on and on. (Notice that this fits in with idea of "the weak are strong.") Now, I believe this for many reasons and I won't tire you with that diatribe.

Our beliefs should be the greatest source of inspiration to us. If we're looking for inspiration, we should examine our beliefs.  That's what Jack London did.  He was an animal rights activist, and you will see that reflected in his work.  He was a socialist, and you will see that reflected in his work.  In fact, if you look at all of his ideologies, you'll see that they all find their way into his writing one way or another.

So go out there and hunt for inspiration.  Do this by trying to figure out what you believe. It sounds like a big deal, but it really isn't.  Chances are that you already have a lot of beliefs in place. Take a look at the things that you really like in storytelling, and ask yourself how you can combine your beliefs with that.  Then work on generating some ideas.

You'll be inspired in no time.

Share any thoughts or questions in the comments. 

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Haiku

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Ah, the haiku.  Doubtless, you’ve all heard of it in your English classes, whether that was yesterday or years ago.  In its Anglicized form, it is a poem consisting of three lines.  The first and third lines are five syllables each, and the second line is seven syllables.  Katya Sabaroff Taylor offers a really great into to haiku on her website, Creative Arts and Healing:

“Each Haiku is a tiny world of its own. Whether the poem is about a flower opening its petals to the sun, a woman looking in the mirror, or a cat playing with an old garden hose, Haiku often offers an “aha” moment to both writer and reader, as we become “one” with the image and its levels of meaning.

Haiku Structure:

This is a haiku                   5

in seventeen syllables        7

one revelation                    5         

Haiku can be lighthearted, bittersweet, philosophical or joyous."

On writing haiku, she says:

"Let yourself tune in closely to nature and the seasons, to city streets, to a pot of rice sending out its fragrance from the stove. You have a kindred relationship to animals, trees, people, the stars, moon, and rain. Look around you, what do you see? What holds meaning for you, at this moment now?"

It’s all pretty philosophical and deep, right?  This can make haiku seem kind of intimidating.  Haiku doesn’t have to be, though.  My introduction to haiku was actually a funny humor website that my sister found when I was younger.  Haiku about Spam.  Not email spam, but SPAM Spam.  You know, that weird stuff that nobody eats but everybody still sells it? 

Here are a couple of the gems from that.  Sadly, I don’t know who wrote these.

Twist, pull the sharp lid

Jerks and cuts me deeply but

Spam, aah, my poultice

Clad in metal, proud

No mere salt-curing for you

You are not bacon

And who dares mock Spam?

You? You? You are not worthy

Of one rich pink fleck.

To this day, these still make me laugh.  Really, haiku can be about anything.  If you want to deepen your understanding and appreciation of haiku, write about something fun and familiar.  Here are some more awesome examples of haiku – I like these, since they are Lord of the Rings based.  Many years ago this website called The BarrowDowns had a haiku contest.  This one by Alan Lensink was my favorite:

If Sam kept the ring,
Barad-dur would have flowers,
Mount Doom, potatoes.

I like it because it’s funny, but at the same time, it’s a wonderful exposition of Sam’s character.

The reason haiku is so good for poetic expression is that you are forced to choose your words wisely.  You have to condense your entire thought for a poem into seventeen syllables.  This means that each word must be packed with meaning. 

Maybe a demonstration will be helpful.

The most important part of writing a haiku is understanding the thought you want to communicate.  If you have a thought in mind, that’s great.  If you don’t, then allow yourself to draw from the moment.  My haiku was drawn from a project I was working on today.  I was having trouble figuring out this post, and so I worked on another project instead: rendering tallow.  I didn’t expect to find poetic inspiration doing this, but I did. 

That’s the thing about poetic inspiration.  Sometimes it’s intentional, other times, accidental.

So why was I rendering tallow? I make soap, and tallow just happens to be one of the best fats for a hard, high-lather bar.  Also, tallow is usually free.  You go to your local butcher to find it.  It sort of goes like this:

You: Hi, can I have a massive lump of nasty cow fat?

Butcher: Sure! I was gonna throw it away anyway.

You: Awesome! I now have a chunk of fat bigger than my head!

As you might imagine, it’s a very messy process.  You have to chop up this solid chunk of fat and cook it slowly until all of it is liquefied but the gristle and nasty sinewy stuff.  The result is this golden brown liquid that’s actually kind of pretty.  When it cools down, it’s solid and creamy white in color, sort of like shortening. It’s glossy and fairly attractive, as far as fat goes.

Anything is pretty compared to raw tallow, though.

I found myself thinking, “It’s really neat how this ugly, horrific junk turns into this pretty gold color, then makes such lovely soap.  Who thought something so disgusting could make something so awesome?”

That was when I realized that I needed to write a haiku. 

Yes, about cow fat.

But remember that haiku can be about anything.  Some of the best poetry takes something seemingly insignificant and captures its essence through the power of the written word.

So, my central thought for the haiku was, “this gross fat turns into something awesome.”  I ran through several possibilities.  There were many aspects I could focus on: the messy fat turns into something I can use to clean, or the changing process itself.  I bounced around a few words in my head – impermanence, which is related to change, but I rejected it as it didn’t really fit. I played with short phrases – hard white fat, shimmering golden oil, ugly fat – and I liked all of them.

This is the difficult part: condensing the essence of your thoughts into seventeen syllables while still using poetic language.

Slowly, the first draft congealed.

Ugly, hard white fat

Shimmering golden liquid

Something to clean with.

It didn’t feel right, plus, I really wanted to emphasize the change.  This worked especially well with the word ‘golden,’ since the old alchemists were always trying to figure out how to transform lead into gold. After counting the syllables of various combinations, I tried this: 

What transformation!

Hard white fat, golden liquid,

Something that will clean.

I didn’t like it.  I liked the idea of the second line, as it really highlighted the contrast. I did not like the word ‘something.’  It was far too weak and ate up two whole syllables. I realized that the bit about cleaning a) was too ambiguous and b) didn’t really fit the overall concept.  I was trying to combine the thoughts of messy stuff making something that cleans with the thoughts of the changing process. 

Haiku only has room for one thought at a time.

So, I needed to change that last line.  I tried this:

What transformation!

Hard white fat, golden liquid,

Into bubbly soap.

The concept was better, but the whole thing didn’t really flow.  I also wasn’t sure I liked ‘bubbly’ as the descriptor for ‘soap.’  I also thought that rather than saying “what transformation,” I wanted emphasize how dramatic the change was.  I swapped ‘such’ for ‘what,’ and changed the exclamation point into a colon.  This made it clear that the first line was, “Hey, the following is a really big transformation, so pay attention.”

Such transformation:

Hard white fat, golden liquid,

Into lovely soap.

This still didn’t work for me.  The first line was great, and the second line was great, but the third line was ‘meh.’  Also, it didn’t really have any kind of syntactic flow.  I toyed around with adding ‘then’ to the second line, but realized I’d be a syllable over. So, I changed ‘liquid’ into ‘oil.’

‘Oil’ is only one syllable, despite the fact that it might sound like two.  This is because ‘l’ is a “liquid” consonant.  Imagine the same word but with a “stop” consonant, like ‘t,’ and you can tell that it is only one syllable.  Also, I checked the dictionary, and it said that ‘oil’ is only one syllable. So, you know, that settles it.

Anyway, linguistic debates aside, I now had one extra syllable in line two to work with.  I realized that ‘then’ didn’t really work so well, since the hard white fat was transforming to golden oil, then into lovely soap.                                                                                                     

Such transformation:
Hard white fat to golden oil

Then to lovely soap.

I knew I was close now.  But it still needed tweaking. ‘Lovely’ wasn’t working for me.  I decided to use alliteration for poetic effect – alliteration is when two or more words in the same phrase start with the same consonant sound.  I chose ‘sudsy’ instead because of this.  That, and ‘sudsy’ seems mellifluous to me.  Then, there were the grammatical considerations.  I felt that the phrase really needed a pause, so I added a comma to the end of the second line.  I also un-capitalized the first word of the second and third lines.  This is a personal choice.  Some prefer to capitalize every line of poetry; others capitalize only where grammatically necessary.  Some don’t capitalize at all.  It all depends on the effect you’re trying to achieve.  Since I wanted to emphasize that this was all one connected sentence, I decided to un-capitalize ‘hard’ and ‘then.’ Normally, I would add a title to a poem, but since this is a haiku, it doesn’t really work.  A title has the power to color the whole meaning of a poem, and that’s basically an extra few words in haiku.  It’s cheating.  You have seventeen syllables, and that’s it.

The final result:

Such transformation:

hard white fat to golden oil,

then to sudsy soap.

This took me less than forty-five minutes to compose.  It wasn’t a huge effort.  It’s simple, really.  Nothing grandiose.  But haiku isn’t about the grandiose.  It’s about the moment, the single fleeting thought.  Remember that haiku is Japanese in origin, and a lot of Japanese (and Eastern in general) philosophy focuses on the impermanence of things. It’s fitting then, that the haiku is brief and momentary.

Now, there remains the question of how to read haiku.  Do you pause at the end of every line?

Not necessarily.  As in reading all punctuated poetry, you pause where the punctuation indicates it, just as if you were reading a sentence.  When you read it out loud, inflect it (inflection is the tone of voice you use) like you would normal speech.  Before a comma, raise the pitch of your voice ever-so-slightly.  At a period, drop the pitch, just like when you speak normally.  

Some poetry, including haiku, does not use any punctuation, in which case the end of a line is as good a place to pause as any. Without punctuation, however, you as the reader have the freedom to decide where to pause.  What flows naturally?  Try reading the poem with different inflections and caesuras (a caesura is a poetic pause) and see what you like best.  You might even notice that the way you read it out loud changes your interpretation of the poem’s meaning.

Haiku is very open to interpretation in general.  If you didn’t have the context of my tallow haiku, would you have known what I was talking about?  If you had never eaten Spam, would you interpret those silly haikus the same way as someone who has?  Or if you never read or watched The Lord of the Rings, would you ‘get’ the haiku about Sam?

Remember: fleeting, impermanent thoughts.  That’s what you should be thinking when you approach haiku. This was the essence of a moment in the poet’s mind. Not all of our moments are fancy.  They range from silly, like the Spam haiku, to very serious. When you read haiku, try to understand the essence of the moment being presented. 

Share your thoughts on haiku in the comments.
 

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The Reset Button

Do you like this? I made it myself! You didn't know I was so talented, did you?

As of Sunday evening, my NaNo word count is 17,000! I am honestly stoked...this is the most writing I've put out in quite a long time.

However, one thing I've noticed is that over the last three days, I have been experiencing major creative burnout.  If it weren't for the deadline hanging over my head, I probably wouldn't have gotten anything done at all.

In the past, even while not doing NaNo, I have suffered from this burnout. It’s something like you’re bored, or just uninspired, and every word you type feels useless and stupid.  I remember mentioning my burnout on my favorite writer’s forum a couple years ago, and someone said, “Maybe you need to write something else for a while.”  Of course, I didn’t want to write something else, and I stubbornly held out—as a result, I got almost nothing written. 

Well, then I started writing just fun, frivolous projects that had nothing to do with anything in my novel, and I got really absorbed in those for the better part of a year.  I have found that in doing that, I sort of hit a ‘reset’ button that allowed me to get into NaNo in the first place.  NaNo has actually made me excited about my story arc again. 

The writer’s mind, I think, like a messed up electronic device, needs to have a reset button.  Obviously, in the writer’s case, this does not erase all information.  Instead, it gives the mind a break.
So, when I started to feel burned out this weekend, I figured that I needed to hit the reset button.  I knew I had a deadline, so I knew that I couldn’t just keep hitting it, like hitting a snooze button on your alarm repeatedly during finals week.  So I gave my mind two hours or so to be creative in other ways.  I thought about my frivolous writing projects.  I engaged a totally separate part of the creative mind by playing my guitar. I got some exercise.  I took a nap.  I worked on a blog post (not this one, actually). 

It made going back to my novel so much easier.  I mean, way easier.  I was able to defeat my burnout.  It did make me wish that I hadn’t hit the reset button so much over the past year, but maybe it was something I really needed.

Don’t be afraid to hit ‘reset.’ It’s not as if your writing project is going to think you are cheating on it. Creativity fuels creativity—so while not be creative in a different way for a little while?

Do you think that it's counter-intuitive to do something else in order to finish your writing project? Share any thoughts you might have in the comments. 

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Blinking Cursor Syndrome

Making your workspace fun helps when you feel stuck.

Well, I'm at 11,390 words for NaNo as of Thursday evening!

Yesterday was a very rough day for me, inspiration-wise.  I had a very bad case of blinking cursor syndrome. It's very similar to blank page syndrome, except that it's far more annoying.  With the blank page, you feel at least some sense of being justified with your mental freeze.  There's a huge, blank space, and that can be kind of intimidating.

Blinking cursor, on the other hand, is worse in that it seems to be mocking you. "Ha ha! You've written all of this and now you're stuck! Loser!" Each additional blink seems to be another cry of "Loser!" from the impudent cursor.

In the past, I've allowed this to conquer me.  But today, I had a word count to meet, darn it.  So you know what I did?

I made my work space as fun as I could. I turned on my favorite tunes with a good, solid beat.  I lined up a few of my miniature My Little Ponies on my laptop. 

Then, I shut my eyes and just started typing.

It was amazing how once I didn't see the cursor anymore, once I didn't have the challenge staring me in the face, that the words finally started flowing.  Now, I made all kinds of typos, but that is easily fixable.

When I finally opened my eyes, I had fun My Little Ponies to look at, and the awesome beat of my favorite music just kind of kept the fun going.

Suddenly, I was just on a roll and kept going until it was done.

So yeah...just some random thoughts from me.

What helps you with blank page, blinking cursor, and other related syndromes? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

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Not Editing (At First)

The Elements of Style is an excellent resource, but don't use it at the wrong time.

Firstly, for those who are curious, my current NaNo word count as of Tuesday evening is 7,752.

Secondly, for those who were enjoying (or dreading) my parts of speech series, I will be putting them on a hiatus until November is over.  I apologize for the disappointment (or happily announce the reprieve) that will surely accompany this news.

I really amuse myself sometimes.

Anyway, as last week's post was all about the importance of knowing how to edit, the title of today's post might surprise you somewhat.  The topic might surprise you even more.

You shouldn't edit your work while you're writing it.

This is another of those lessons from NaNo that I'm experiencing firsthand. I always knew about this 'rule' of thumb, but now that I have to crank out so many words, it has completely hit home.

However, even before I really got started on NaNo, I was reminded of this fact by the lovely Sarah McCabe, author of the blog Falling into Mythopoesis. (Her blog is a wonderful resource for writers of fantasy.) She left a very thought-provoking comment on my post. She wrote:

Agreed. All writers should have editing skills. Though usually they shouldn't be employed at the same time as our creative skills. ;)

This reminded me of the important rule (if you can even call it a 'rule') of "You shouldn't edit your work while you're writing it." 

This is because, while it's fine to pay a little attention to your sentence structure and the like, and make sure that you're not making gross syntax errors, trying to edit your work while your write makes writing painfully slow and discouraging. You are better served by 'turning off' your internal editor and simply letting the words flow out of you.

Even if you happen to make those gross syntax errors.  I have been known to type so furiously (even in the past) that when I go back later, not only have I misspelled words (and I pride myself on my spelling skills) but sometimes the sentences make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

This is fine.  This is great, even.  It allows you to edit a little more creatively when you do go back to edit (don't edit while you're doing it, remember?). I do try to keep things at least a little orderly so that when I do go back, editing isn't so challenging, but it definitely slows my writing down.

I don't have time for that during NaNo. Actually, it was really funny yesterday.  As I was pounding out sentences like a maniac, I was sort of aware of the fact that every single two-independent-clause sentence was separated by a semicolon.

Every. Single. One.

No sentence structure variation is a pretty poor style choice.

Guess what?  Who flipping cares at this point?  I'm getting the story written. I am not going to waste my precious time going back to fix it.  After NaNo, I will edit this and make sure it is stylistically gorgeous. I'll probably even find dozens of misspelled words--perhaps a few homonym errors and the like--but who cares?

I think I'm going to do all of my creative writing like this at first from now on.  It'll easily double my output, and I can go back to edit it.

Grammatical and stylistic skills are crucial to have, but they don't mesh well with the creative spirit.  Learn all you can about grammar and style, but forget some of it when you're writing at first. Turn off that internal editor, that internal critic, and just write. 

Write on!