You're In Charge Of Your Own Writing Career: 005

Posts I’ve Seen Kicking Around

I did have a completely different subject in mind for this week but then a few posts caught my eye. One’s talking about whether you should write every day, and the guilt of not doing so. Others about the use of the Hero’s Journey, and how other various structures are limiting or outdated. Plenty about how to correctly use grammar within your writing and the shame of not doing so. And way way to many posts about quotation marks.

All I could think for every single post was, just do what you want to do.

Obviously I’m not against these posts existing, far from it. I like the different conversations. I read and comment on plenty. I have a deep fascination with storytelling, structure, format, and everything surrounding in.

The only thing I was actually concerned about was how many writers (both new and slightly more experienced) seemed to consider these things strict rules, rather than mere guidelines. How many believed they had to comply with everything being said rather than taking or leaving what they needed from each. So let’s quickly address a couple:

Writing Everyday

If you don’t want to write everyday, don’t. Just because the King does doesn’t mean you have to, and I’m sure he’d agree. Yes writing every day is a good discipline to develop and will help you produce work more regularly, but if it’s not practical for you, it’s not practical.

I try to write most days, but I didn’t write when I was on holiday. Then, I came home with the intention of catching up, but the UK was melting. The last thing on my mind was spending the day hovering over my laptop. I wrote some days, read others. It wasn’t a big deal. The world didn’t end because I didn’t write something everyday. I didn’t have my writers badge revoked. I like writing every day, but the days I can’t, or don’t feel like it, I don’t.

I want to enjoy my writing. It means everything to me, so I’m not going to force myself into doing it when I don’t feel like it and ruin or muddy the love I have for it. There’s massive a difference between one or two days off, a lighter schedule, or just flat out not bothering. You know whether you’re writing enough or not (even though you probably always want to write more)

If a few sessions a week works for you, do that. If all you can manage is five hours a week then know that’s enough to get a book written over time. If someone else is writing for ten hours a day seven days a week good for them, but you’re not competing with them (And who knows if their work is any good) You’re writing for you. The best schedule is the one in which you write, not the one where you procrastinate because you can’t put in the same time as others.

Heroes Journey

I’m sure I’ll write a bigger post about the Heroes Journey one day as it’s one of my favourite subjects, but I’ll keep this short. It’s a guideline! Personally, I love the Heroes Journey, if you don’t, you don’t. But I want to make it clear it is not something you have to rigidly stick to. It’s a tool. A guide. Use or don’t. Take what you need, leave the rest. The Heroes Journey isn’t stopping you writing an interesting story. It isn’t holding writers back with outdated notions. It’s a flexible tool which offers structure guidance, and it’s entirely up to you whether you use it or not.

Grammar

As for grammar, that’s not my strong point (as you’ve probably worked out reading this or other posts of mine) I do my best with the blogs and articles, and when it comes to published work, i’m in the hands of my Editor. What I won’t allow however is grammar to stop me writing. I want to tell stories and write articles, and I will. I’ve tried to improve and find ways to get my spelling and grammar to an acceptable level, but I refuse to hide away and never publish if I can’t.

I want my books to be professional, and I’m willing to pay to make sure they’re not littered with spelling and grammar errors, but if one or two slip by I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Especially when as a Self Published Author with control over my manuscript I can correct them afterwards

And I don’t worry about ever grammatical rule out there, and whether or not I’m sticking to them. You know why? Because the readers don’t give a shit. As long as the book is clear, makes sense (if it’s supposed to) and isn’t littered with so many obvious mistakes it becomes distracting, ninety-nine percent of them don’t care.

Sure some self confessed Grammar Nazi might, but if they’re decent people they’re not going to rip you book apart on Reddit because you used a symbol wrong. They may even privately let you know about the mistake so you can fix it.

I read and write most day and I couldn’t tell you if every grammatical rule is being used correctly. I know when something is horribly wrong, but chances are if you’ve edited your work it won’t be that horrific. The big errors would have been picked up already, and if the smaller ones sneak through, so be it. (Although obviously try and get your work to the highest standard you can)

So learn what you can, and use what you know in the best way possible to tell the story you want to tell. Don’t purposefully make a fucking mess of it all and throw full stops and commas in places you know they shouldn’t be, but don’t lose sleep over using a semi-colon wrong either.

Quotation Marks

Lastly, there’s quotation marks (so many posts about quotation marks this week) To use them or not to use them, that is the question? The answer, do as you please. I use them, others don’t. Some of the greats don’t use them, others do. I personally think this one comes down to style, so it’s whatever suits your needs. I admit I find it a little distracting when I don’t see them, but when the dialogue flows and the stories great I forget all about it… because story is what matters.

Use the tools at your disposal to tell the best story you can, in the clearest way you can, and don’t worry about the noise. Write when you want to write, not to someone else’s schedule. You know the difference between being lazy and procrastinating, compared to not actually having time to write, or only being able to spare an hour or two. When it comes to story, structure, character, etc, again… use the tools available to you, or don’t.

This is your writing career. You are in control. Don’t you get enough rules at that job you hate or wish you could leave? Don’t bring those rules into your writing too. Read the books and blogs that will help. Listen to the experts. Edit your work and put it out to the highest standard you can. But ultimately, make up your own mind what works for you when it comes to your writing.

My Writing This Week

Despite the heat in the UK and taking a day or two off I’ve made good progress on Alice on the Air this week. I’m getting into the meat of the story now, and the big big character decisions. It’s always an interesting point in a story when you start to dislike some of the decisions your main character is making, but they have to make those choices. Got to have conflict.

I’m less confident about the book being complete by the end of the month now, but that’s the beauty of Self Publishing, it was a self imposed deadline rather than an actual one. It’s likely to take a couple more weeks and I’m ok with that. The reason is that the story is turning out slightly longer than I thought it would (think I hinted at that before, but now it definitely is) There’s worse reasons to be behind schedule.

Every time I try to write something quick and punchy with a shorter page count it never works out that way. I can’t help myself. I always want to put in those extra details and make the story more complete. Develop the character more. I have a couple of ideas for novelettes I’m looking to write soon and I’m already curious as to whether they will stay novelettes or not given my track record. I’m guessing probably not.

What I Read Last Week

I finished reading James Sallis, Sarah Jane. It was written in this fragmented kind of way which could be jarring at times and difficult to follow, but I like that about his work. For me it wasn’t up there with Drive or Driven, but I liked Sarah and the story she was living. I really do like these hazy vibe James Sallis creates, no matter the setting.

Afterwards I read a book called ’13’ by Steve Wilson. The first part was basically bike porn, and I know absolutely nothing about motorbikes. But when the more exploitation B-Movie aspects of the story hit I enjoyed it. Felt like a midnight movie, which is my kind of thing. It was violent and sexy, a fun pulp novel, and ultimately an odd thing to find in my local British Heart Foundation shop.

I also read T.S. Eliot Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (the poetry book Cats is based on) I loved Cats so it was nice getting to read the poetry it came from. The Rum Tum Tugger was my favourite for anyone who’s read the book.

Lastly I’ve started re-reading Preacher (Am currently on the 5th Graphic Novel) Preacher is one of my absolute favourites. I have always been a massive fan of Garth Ennis. I’m re-reading it partly to potentially write something about it on a future subgenre piece, and partly because it’s just been to long. I re-read my other favourite series, Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis, not to long ago so It only feels right to read Preacher again too.

This Coming Week

Again the focus this week will be on Alice on the Air. With a couple of good sessions I could practically finish it, but I won’t rush. This will be my first book under Spilt Latte Press so I want it to be good. I’m not looking to put work out there for the sake of having work out there, I want each story I tell to be of the highest standard I can publish it at.

I also have my latest article scheduled for my look at Neo-Noir as part of my subgenre work Thursday, and will be posting an unrelated short story called State of my Kitchen on Sunday. I’m hoping that story gets the same kind of attention as Terraroid as that’s been getting a few extra reads of late.

Then, I’ll carrying on reading Preacher each day, and maybe start another book on the side.

Think that about wraps it up for this week. I was going to share some photos I took on holiday last week but I haven’t got around to editing them yet. Maybe next week, or maybe I’ll do something more with them in the future and show them then, who knows. I do have an idea in mind but don’t want to overwhelm myself.

Stephen.