Don't Forget the Seasons

Your story is set in time, even if the place is a galaxy far, far away. As the writer, your attention goes first to developing characters and plot. And that is the correct priority. However, you should not forget when your story takes place.

Does your story happen in the spring? Does it span several years? Spring in Bangor, Maine, is not the same as spring in Managua, Guatemala. If your story starts in London and ends a week later in Sydney, you will need to adjust your seasons because you changed hemispheres. Did your Thailand story take the monsoon season into account? It should have. Did you remember how humid New Orleans is in August (or any other month for that matter)?

You can avoid these mistakes by creating a timeline for your story. The longer the time horizon in your story, the more useful your timeline becomes. You may need to chart the days of the week, important holidays, major weather events and natural disasters.

Your characters cannot be in Haiti in February 2010 and ignore the earthquake. Similarly, you cannot set a story in New York City in September 2001 and fail to deal with the 9/11 attack. These details may seem trivial but paying attention to them adds credibility to your storytelling.

Are You Going to Finish That?

Frederick Pohl, the 90-year-old science fiction writer and editor, wrote under a dozen pen names in addition to his own name. He authored more than 30 science fiction novels, five non-fiction books, and countless short stories, articles and essays. He was Isaac Asimov's literary agent and lifelong friend.

He won both the Hugo and Nebula awards (the major, annual awards for the science fiction genre) and edited both Galaxy and If magazines. Obviously, Pohl knows a few things about writing and publishing.

Pohl offers three rules for anyone who wishes to write.

1. Write every day. Yes, that means that you must write 365 days a year. No excuses.

2. Write 600 words a day. If it takes you 45 minutes, fine. You are done for the day. If it takes you 18 hours, fine. That's how long your writing required that day.

3. Finish every piece you start. That way, you never fail as a writer since a writer's only real failure is the abandoned piece.

A finished story, book or article may or may not find a publisher. As such, it may become a disappointment, but it can never be a failure. You completed the piece, and that is its own success.

Not Waiting for the Muse

The romantic approach to writing suggests that you need inspiration to do good work. Some ancient writers thought the gods inspired their work, and they picked a a name for the god of creative inspiration -- Muse. When the Muse visited, an artist’s creativity was unleashed and great works of art sprang forth almost unbidden. When the Muse refused to visit, creative efforts bore no fruit. These notions persist among some writers even today. If they do not feel inspired, they do not make an effort to create. They seem to think that there is no solution for the problem but to wait for the arrival of the Muse.

I'm not a believer in the Muse. True, some writers are more inspired than others, and many writer has unexplained bursts of creativity and productivity. However, a writer hoping to develop a career cannot wait for the arrival of a favorable mood to do the work that needs doing.

A professional is someone who performs well even when he or she doesn’t feel like working. The most prolific writers work under all kinds of conditions and in all kinds of moods. The quality or quantity of the work may not be universally high, but the output is there.

Set yourself a writing schedule or quota and to stick to it. You should schedule either a certain number of hours of work a day (or week) or a certain number of words. Goals increase output in almost every arena, and it certainly works with writing. Admittedly, this is a bootcamp approach to writing, but if you follow this advice, you will write more poems, articles and books than you would depending on the Muse.

The Right to Write

You have a right to write. You need no one’s permission to put words on a page. You need no one’s permission to put print your words and bind them into a book between beautiful hard covers. If the read the first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, you can see that this is one of the rights guaranteed by the most powerful government on earth.

Yet many of us don’t feel worthy to write. This is a hangover from ancient times when the only writers were priests or government officials. Since writing was most often the work of priests, writing and books were sacred. Only the elite could read or write.

Later, the high cost of printing limited the ability of most people to see their words in print. Under these conditions, publishers printed only two types of writing: 1) government or church documents, and 2) books that that would sell a very large number of copies. Again, the elite - the economic elite in this case - controlled access to printing and publication.

In the 21st century, reading, writing and publishing are democratic freedoms. A person can use a computer with Internet access in a public library to publish a blog that may attract thousands upon thousands of readers. The cost of publishing such a blog is essentially zero.

So, feel free. Writing is your perfect right.

Writing from Inside Someone Else's Head

The first consciousness we understand is our own. This starts early; watch any two year old assert herself and demand to get her way. As we get older, we begin to understand that others see the world differently, have different needs and hold other opinions. Later still, we learn to understand others from inside their own head.

As a writer you need to create distinctive characters. You will need the empathy and insight to see the world through other people's eyes. You need to identify with a saint at one moment and a sinner the next. In today's writing session, you may need to see the world through the eyes of a young girl. Tomorrow's session may require you to get inside the head of con artist.

The more skilled you become as a writer, the easier it will be to change your perspective and see a given situation from different points of view. Really good writers can empathize with characters they do not like. One of the best ways to understand a character is to develop a full life for that person.

Write a biographical sketch for your character. Briefly describe her childhood, first love, educational background, accomplishments, disappointments and failures. Then, write her obituary. Now you are prepared to see the world from her point of view and with real understanding, even if you wouldn't want to invite her to dinner in your home.

Turn It Around, Upside Down and Inside Out

As a writer, you have to create characters that stand out, distinguishing themselves from other characters in your story. This is one of you major responsibilities. Here's an exercise that will help you with the task.

First, let's start with a thought experiment. Think of someone you greatly admire, someone you have put on a high pedestal. Make a list of this person's traits, personality and characteristics. Write a paragraph or two describing this person's behavior in situations that would challenge the composure, dignity and patience of the average person.

Second, take what you have just written and rewrite it to show your hero in a negative light. Put as negative slant on this person as possible. Since no person has a flawless character, look for those flaws. Even positive acts and good intentions can have negative, unintended consequences. Take your hero to task for failing to anticipate anything that may have gone wrong. Write you champion's obituary from the point of view of his worst enemy.

Third, change your hero's gender and name. Now you have a completely new character. Neat trick, huh?

Fiction, Non-Fiction or Verity

Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes doesn't like the word non-fiction. The term is not helpful, he argues, because too many types of writing are lumped together as non-fiction. In addition, "non-fiction" defines a category of writing by the negation of another category, fiction.

Rhodes suggests that we replace the word "non-fiction" with the word "verity." As you might suspect, verity is related to the word veracity, meaning truthfulness or factual.

Rhodes goes on to say: "[c]onsidered as a craft, technically, the writing of fiction and writing of verity are identical processes but for one significant difference: we expect the information conveyed in verity to conform to verifiable external references, while the information conveyed in fiction need be only internally consistent."

More than one kind of truth? I think so.