{"id":899,"date":"2013-08-15T09:25:34","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T13:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/?p=899"},"modified":"2013-08-20T15:56:37","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T19:56:37","slug":"writing-news-and-part-3-of-advice-on-first-drafts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/2013\/08\/15\/writing-news-and-part-3-of-advice-on-first-drafts\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing News and Part 3 of Advice on First Drafts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cuppa<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Writing News<\/h1>\n

August 15, 2013–Check out local filmmaker Deborah Kampmeier’s crowdfunding drive for her upcoming film, SPLiT, here<\/span><\/a><\/span>. It looks AMAZING. \u00a0Deborah’s past projects include Hounddog and Virgin, portrayals of women’s experience that are true jewels in the astonishingly small contemporary treasure-chest. \u00a0In other news: writing is, apparently, communication! \u00a0The age-old rumor that many writers fail to connect with readers because of simple breakdowns in language and syntax–well, author Karl Taro Greenfeld says, it’s TRUE. Check out this interview<\/span><\/a> with Karl in The Review Review, in which he confirms the rumor: writing IS communication.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Writing Advice: First Drafts, Part 3<\/h1>\n

Vanquish “Writersbane:” Staying Out Of Your Own Way<\/h1>\n
Donna Lee Miele<\/em><\/address>\n

Emmy Laybourne says that her editors\u2019 initial rejection of Monument 14 \u201cwas very hard to hear,\u201d but the usual banes of self-doubt and writer\u2019s block never bogged down her process. She revised to produce the very different, very polished manuscript for her first novel, which went on to receive a Publisher’s Weekly starred review before release. To date, Monument 14 and its sequel, Monument 14: Sky on Fire, have earned her great reviews, thousands of young fans, and a hot demand for another sequel, due out in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really quite out of my own way,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not critical at all as I\u2019m writing. I just write. I let the stream pour and pour. When you\u2019re writing a first draft, you shouldn\u2019t sit down with that bully writing partner who looks over your shoulder going, \u2018No\u2026 that\u2019s not good. Start over. That sentence sucks. You know what, it\u2019s not gonna happen today.\u2019 I don\u2019t sit down with that person! She\u2019s not allowed. Not in a first draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

A highly trained improviser, comedienne, and actress, Emmy finds that her performance work gives her writing an edge. \u201cImprovisation is just about training your mind never to judge yourself in the moment. That is what I think is crippling to writers. When you\u2019re improvising, you cannot stay in the past for a second. Improv teaches you to stay in the present moment, to never judge yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Common writersbanes are self-doubt, writer\u2019s block, or garden-variety procrastination, that succubus that likes to sit on your chest, blocking your focus. Emmy dispatches them all without flinching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a few tricks,\u201d she says. \u201cNumber one is attaining a certain velocity. You have get up to speed. In a week where I\u2019ve written for four hours Monday, four hours Tuesday, I sit down to write on Wednesday, and I literally just start to write. It\u2019s right there. The next thing is, if I\u2019m really in the zone, before I go to bed, I think about the next day\u2019s writing. It works like a charm. Then, if I\u2019m blocked, or can\u2019t get started, I walk. It\u2019s better if it\u2019s the same walk every time. I\u2019ll walk as many loops as it takes for me to see the scene in my mind. Then I\u2019ll go back, I won\u2019t check emails, I\u2019ll just sit down and write what I came up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn to talk to yourself. You engage your banes via a healthy internal dialogue, instead of one in which they easily sabotage you. When you commit to regular writing hours on consecutive writing days, your storytelling voice strengthens. Walking, or any form of meditative movement that doesn\u2019t wear you out, keeps your focus active.<\/p>\n

Your infant creative work is only beginning to find its voice. Your anxieties and fears, by contrast, are well-versed in sending you off-track. Acknowledge them, instead of pretending they don\u2019t exist. Then quiet them. Your task is to nourish this new fantastical being, your story. Recognize your limits, be patient with your process, and the power of your story will eventually guide you past the blocks.<\/p>\n

Max Ellendale encountered another common interloper while writing her first novel: too much advice.<\/p>\n

Wanting more than anything to make a living as a novelist, Max brought Glyph, a paranormal romance, to the first year of her graduate writing program. But neither she nor her novel were prepared for the literary fire-breathers at the gate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, most people were not clued in to the booming sci-fi\/fantasy genre. I felt like an outcast. What I was writing wasn\u2019t good enough, because it wasn\u2019t memoir or literary fiction. It dampened my spirit. \u2018What are you writing that for? That has no value.\u2019 I butchered Glyph and changed it to attempt to meet the needs of others, breaking Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s rule of writing fiction: \u2018Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Max vanquish her banes? By hard, often introspective work, she improved her skills and her story, and gained new confidence. A little help from the magic of online networking did the rest.<\/p>\n

**And for a little extra mojo**<\/em><\/p>\n

Along with Emmy, James King recommends \u201cSh**ty First Drafts,\u201d a chapter from Anne Lamott\u2019s Bird by Bird. \u201cThe first draft is a child\u2019s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page,\u201d Anne writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cUse the first draft to be as creative as possible,\u201d James says. \u201cThis is tough to do if that little voice inside your head is constantly piping up\u2026 \u2018You think anyone\u2019s going to publish that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren Groff\u2019s pet interloper during the first draft is getting into \u201cfetishizing the individual sentences,\u201d she says. \u201cI write the first draft longhand, without really caring what I\u2019m writing about, because the first draft is where the characters come alive, and they start to tell me who they are\u2026 And I don\u2019t even look at it again\u2026 I go and do another longhand, and then possibly one more\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the sentences are good, they\u2019ll stay\u2026 And if they\u2019re not good, why not throw them out, and start over again with something else?\u201d<\/p>\n

To tune back into her subconscious when she\u2019s stuck, Lauren also observes the ancient practice of\u2026 napping. \u201cNapping is a huge part of the writing process!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dreamscape is really important\u2026 Sometimes [a problem] solves itself in your head, if you just close your eyes and relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day-to-day anxieties clamor for her attention, but Joanna Clapps Herman has the discipline to let them wait. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten past them so many times,\u201d she says. \u201cNow they are like annoying old relatives. Oh, you\u2019re here again? I know how to deal with you. Sit down and have a cup of coffee, because I have some work to do! If I\u2019m really having trouble, I force myself to sit down for just ten minutes a day. I start a log, where I literally log myself in and out. Even if I am only at work for very short periods of time, especially then, to keep myself honest. By the end of two weeks of this, something always emerges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming Next Time: Part 4, Be Unstoppable<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

References:\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n

Except where noted below, quoted material from James King (Bill Warrington’s Last Chance,\u00a0<\/em>New York: Viking, 2010), Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14<\/em>: Sky on Fire<\/em>, New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2013), Max Ellendale (Glyph<\/em>, Breathless Press, 2012), and Joanna Clapps Herman (The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America<\/em>, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011)\u00a0are from personal interviews and emails with the author, March-June, 2012.<\/p>\n

Quoted material from Lauren Groff (Arcadia<\/em>, New York: Voice, 2012)\u00a0is from the author\u2019s transcript of Ms. Groff\u2019s seminar at the New York Writer\u2019s Institute, State University of New York at Albany, March 27, 2012.\u00a0\u201cLauren Groff on Writing and Arcadia\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Anne Lamott,\u00a0Bird by Bird (New York: Anchor Books, 1995), 22-23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Writing News August 15, 2013–Check out local filmmaker Deborah Kampmeier’s crowdfunding drive for her upcoming film, SPLiT, here. It looks AMAZING. \u00a0Deborah’s past projects include Hounddog and Virgin, portrayals of women’s experience that are true jewels in the astonishingly small contemporary treasure-chest. \u00a0In other news: writing is, apparently, communication! \u00a0The age-old rumor that many writers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,12,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-news","category-cuppa-blog","category-homepage-firstfeature","category-writers-resources","category-news-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuppapulp.com\/writers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}