Scribblers Retreat

As a writer, you have the ability to influence thought, action, and values. The question is whose values you will adapt in order to do this.

You don’t get to choose whether or not what you write will affect someone’s actions or values. That is entirely beyond your control. And so, that leaves you, as a writer, with a powerful responsibility. When you write, ask yourself:

1. What do I want to have happen as a result of what I’m writing?

I’m not talking about fame here. I’m talking about your readers—what do you want them to feel, to believe, to do?

2. What things could happen that I didn’t intend to happen?

If you write about a young girl who makes a decision which you, as an adult, know will ruin the girl’s life in the long run, and you choose not to show the consequences, could another real girl use that as reassurance that she can make the same decision without consequences?

You have values, personally held beliefs that matter to you. What part do they play in your writing? Do you compromise your values because it’s “expected if you want to succeed?” In the long run, do your values mean less to you than fame and fortune? This is something you have to decide for yourself. How strongly do you feel about your values and what are you willing to sacrifice for fame?

Many will say you should be willing to sacrifice everything for your art. I disagree. In the long run, fame means nothing if you sacrifice your very core to achieve it. What makes a great writer great is passion, and turning off your passions turns off what has the power to make you great.

Don’t sacrifice your values for your art. Take your responsibilities to your readers, especially young ones, seriously. If everyone did it, there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. So dare to prove to the world you are so talented you can break the rules by hanging on to your values, and still succeed.

I run an ESL program at church. I usually have the intermediates these days, but some weeks, when my students have to work, I help out with the advanced class, since the teacher there isn't a native. I get peppered with questions on the nuances of language.

Last night: What's the difference between "I doubt" and "I'm not sure?" At first, they seem like synonyms. As I gave it a quick thought, though, I realized I don't use them interchangably.

Example:
"You're having trouble with your car. Let me fix it for you."
"You're a great mechanic, but I'm not sure you can fix this one. Do you have experience with antique cars?"

""You're having trouble with your car. Let me fix it for you."
"Ummm...you're ten years old. I doubt you can fix my car."

Tone of voice for the first is politer than for the second, where a bit of sarcasm is blended in.

I'm beginning to think more about the nuances of our language as I answer these types of questions. The difference between an average writer and a great one might be, in part, an ear for nuance.

I always hated symbolism analysis in school. I'd read too many disclaimers from authors saying the symbolism literary analysts were writing about their books was nonsense and they hadn't written any into their book. In fact, I once wrote a children's story (never published, fortunately) that was read to a writer's group--not my own. They were convinced the tree in the story represented the dead mother. I was confused. There was no mention of a mother in the whole story. It was a brief story about a father and daughter and while the mother is never mentioned, I didn't say she was dead. She might well have been in the kitchen baking cookies or at work. She just wasn't needed. And a tree as a substitute mother? I didn't get it. I still don't.

So I'm now working on a novel for practice, and my sister the lit major thinks it demands symbolism. Can a person who has always made fun of symbolism put symbolism into her story? Am I even capable of it?

Sister says there are several elements to my story that make ideal symbolism...stones and light. So we'll see if I can do it. It's only for practice anyway, right...unless it turns out to be any good, but I'm not holding out extreme hope for this possibility.

But then again, I never thought I could write a non-fiction book and get it publshed and I've written two, so who know.

I'm reading a great book on structure called "Plot and Structure" by James Scott Bell. It's part of the Write Great Fiction series from Writer's Digest. I've read a lot of books on structure because it's my downfall in fiction. In fact, it's my main focus in the practice novel I'm writing. When I read the first few chapters of Bell's book, however, something clicked and I got it. I knew exactly what I always do wrong, and therefore why my books disintigrate in the last half. Somehow he managed to get it into terms I understood--a disruption and two doorways. He even explained where they go in the book--I had them, but way too soon. I had my disruption in the first five sentences and sent my heroine charging through the first door instantly, and there wasn't enough story to sustain a novel as a result.

He outlined that, the three act structure and the mythic structure. I set them out in a Word document, inserted the parts of my practice story that I knew about and...they fit. Mythic structure...who'd have guessed?

Suddenly this book doesn't seem nearly as hard as it did a week ago.

Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish)by James Scott Bell

Deseret News asked kids under age 18 to write intentionally bad sentences from a pretend novel. These are great!

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695224331,00.html

The one on funeral potatoes may not make sense unless you've lived in Utah. It's right up there with green jello and red punch as Utah food.

Anyone care to contribute his own bad sentences? Shall I loan you some of my attempts at writing fiction?