Paper Can Be Your Friend

When it comes to the creative process you're most likely going to use to digital media. Wherever you want to write a script, odds are likely that you'll just open a doc file and just simply go for it. It's just I think for the initial phases of the creation process when you're actually trying to figure out characters, plots, doing your first initial outline, the usual media is just way too constrictive. 

With a piece of paper, I can put all this really cool stuff in different areas of the paper. This means that I can see it all at once rather than having to scroll up or down. on top of that, I can figure out which areas I need to really work on first, such as the characters or the plot first. I can do all this stuff at same time. Sometimes it's really great to get away from the laptop and just go at it with a pencil on a piece of paper or even a notebook. 

What is really is cool is that if I want to I can actually set this up as post it notes, different colors for different situations. Or I put these on different types of note cards. I've even been known to use the back of a child's menu. What this does is that it allows me to see all of this stuff at one time. I'm not having to scroll up and down or go through different documents to see exactly what's going on. 

I just need to look at the board and go, "Hey, this is what's going on" or "That's not quite working." So I'll flip the cards around and start messing with stuff until everything works out to where I think it needs to be. It's just a really cool hands-on practicality. That makes paper really great. 

If you're having problems seeing what the problem is when you're writing, debate using paper, either a piece of paper, note cards, or even Post-it notes. It will definitely give you a different perspective on your story.

Learning to People Watch

A lot of writers have problems with dialogue. On one hand, you've got the writers that tend to have everything exactly the way they need it, and but in real life it would be a really boring conversation; while the dialogue is moving the plot along it just lacks anything of real interest. Then you have all these people who do all these ridiculously fluff things; the conversation may be great for helping you understand the characters but nothing is really being said. 

You need to find a nice happy medium that is unique. The best dialogue will move the plot and build the characters. But the problem is making it sound like two people are actually having a conversation.

To really appreciate how dialogue works you need to go out and actually watch people talk. You need to go to sporting events, cafes, even parks, and just sit back and watch people do what they do. You need to listen to for more than just their accents, but their slang and jargon, and how they're doing it. You also need to see which gestures they are using and even how they're facing each other. 

It's a lot of stuff to get down. But you're going find that the more you do this, the better your dialogue are  going to sound. You're also going to be able to hit that really great medium between what the story needs and that little bit of extra fluff that you need to sound real. Of course, you also need to learn how to watch people so you don't get arrested or even a stern talking to by security, but for now just go out and watch people have a little bit of fun with it. By studying people actually talking your dialogue can only get better,allowing your conversations to move the plot and build characters.

The Importance of History Shows

As writers we have two basic problems: We have to deal with writer's block and finding inspiration. The easy way to solving these problems is by turning on the TV and watching your favorite documentaries, I don't care if it's on the History Network, Discovery Channel, or even if you're just going to Netflix or Hulu, just track down whatever sounds really great and just simply watch them. 

You're going to find that a lot of really great stuff, some really incredible people, and some really fun situations that can be adapting to pretty much anything you're working on. And this is gonna help you both with writer's block as well as finding inspiration.You've got so much incredibly fun stuff going on that it's hard to be inspired by something. And once you start exploring, start getting into it, you see that this is some really great stuff; it needs to be written down and maybe even adapted into something. 

A lot of the stuff you see in documentaries is great for either a historical novel, or changing the details and converting that into your particular novel. It's always easy to convert something: You want some sweet old fashioned Space Marines go ahead and use the Roman gladiators as a model. There's always going to be something going on somewhere; it's just a matter of looking for it. And sometimes what's really cool is that this stuff will hit you unawares: You'll be watching a show, see something cool, and figure how to use it. 

This will demolish almost any writer's block. Sometimes the problem is that you simply can't figure out what to do with something. So if you're having problem with finding inspiration, if you having problems with writer's block, then step away from laptop and just simply go ahead and watch some history shows.

Make An Occasional Appearance

Writers tend to be introverts; some of us have made an art of avoiding people as much as we possibly can. Which sort of ironic when you realize how much of our job is based on interacting with other people and learning from it. As such we need to find times to interact with others, even if we don't want to do it.

One of the ways to do this is by showing up at a local convention, preferably in the artists alley section. The idea is to make some sort of connection with our fans, if at all possible.The way you do that is showing up the convention and making yourself available. Sell some books, give some signatures, and maybe even shake a few  hands. 

We try to avoid that. And it's not actually a bad thing. However, you're going to find out to the more convention appearances you make, the better it is for your bottom line. You're establishing some sort of connection with your fan base, and by doing so actually showing that you're actually a living breathing person. By doing so we can develop a fan base who are willing to go to bat for us in other weird areas and maybe even actually buy our books. 

And that's definitely a great thing. I mean, we definitely want to see people buy our stuff; a lot of us don't actually write just for the sake of writing. However, it's important to make sure that when we show up to the conventions that while we're there to build a fan base and actually build a reputation, we place that to the side and just have as much fun as we can. We put that aside and just deal with people as people; we need to make the fans feel special and you can't do that if you're thinking solely in business terms. 

This isn't to say that you should put aside completely, but only worry about the business when you're taking the money box to your room. 

You are going to find some the real connections, and the ones that work the best are the ones that are based on some sort of level of truth. So when you show up at a convention, just remember to be who you are not who you think people are expecting. At the very least, pretending to be someone else will tire you out really quickly and burn you out quickly; being yourself is usually the best option for longevity.

That said, keep in mind that a lot of writers make a lot of money from conventions, both during and after, so make every effort to make some sort of convention appearance and try to enjoy it. Your bottom line will appreciate it, and you may actually have some fun.

Necessary Evils Aren't Necessarily Evil

When it comes to keeping yourself motivated, there are going to be a lot of stuff that you do in your life that you simply don't like doing. These are what we call necessary evils: paying taxes, dealing with bills, shopping, sometimes even just interacting with other people. While they are things that you don't like doing, that doesn't make them necessarily evil. More to the point, these can actually save us in a lot of weird ways. 

We need to get away from the keyboard every so often and just simply do other things. The so-called necessary evils actually encourage us to do exactly that, even if it's doing something that's non-writing at the keyboard, we still have to go out and do things like paying taxes, taking care of bills, even sometimes doing things that we need to do in order to pay those bills. Nonetheless, we have to. And then of course, there's family, with all of its expectations, landmines, and traditions; even successful writers need to answer the "when will you get a real job?" question. 

We need that human interaction. We need to connect with other people on some level, even if it's in situations that we really prefer not to do. And trust me, I know, as a writer, you tend to be extremely introverted; we like being hermits. That's fine. That's just part of who we are. But we have to realize that occasionally, we need to do human things, if for no other reason than to keep in touch with our humanity; we need that to truly understand the species that we usually write about.  

Again, this is gonna sound sort of weird, but occasionally in order to become really focused as a writer, we need to lose that focus every so often and do other things. Otherwise, we're going to basically go crazy where you drive yourself nuts and when we might be fun to be around, but in all the wrong ways. We need to go out and do all that really nasty stuff that we don't normally want to do just because it gets in the way of whatever we're doing. You know, it prevents us from developing blocks. It helps us develop characters, and gives us some really nice details we can use later on. 

By interacting with others, we reaffirm our humanity and continue to gather experiences and knowledge that helps to write better. So we're not really getting away from writing, but we are getting away from the keyboard. Remember that when you start looking at your necessary evils and all of a sudden you'll realize that those necessary evils aren't necessarily evil. Just inconvenient.

Look For the Good

Part of being a writer is that we can investigate a lot of really bad stuff, even if it's just for our personal information. You just can't have the world's worst bad guy if the worst thing happened to him is that he burned some cookies. Don't get me wrong: Burnt cookies are a terrible tragedy. But they're not earth shattering. They're not all that really interesting. 

We need something bigger, nastier, and actually horrible to happen to create a truly memorable bad guys. So we need to know what evil is out there. 

This also means that we need to keep some sort of shield between us and that bad stuff that we're looking into. This means doing weird things like volunteering at an old folks or childcare centers because we need that positivity in our life. It means paying attention to the good things that our families doing, even if it's something as simple as graduating or doing really well in the pennant race, or, even getting an A on a quiz. 

We need that positivity in our life.

We need to know that no matter how bad things get, there's always going to be something good out there. I don't care how dark your stories are, if you want to have nothing but evil endings. Fine. But figure out a way to balance that out. You can't keep continually charging into the darkness without some sort of beacon to help you come out of it or you will eventually lose yourself in that darkness. 

I know it's sort of a weird way of looking at it. But you need to realize that for all the bad stuff that's out there, there's a lot of good stuff out there as well; that for every plane that crashes there are thousands of flights arriving at their destinations, safe and without harm. Those passenger meeting their folks. They're meeting their family. They're there to start a new life. 

There's a lot of positivity that we're not cognizant of which we need to be. We need to realize that there's a lot of really great stuff going on there because if we don't we're going to drive yourself into depression at a hundred miles per hour. So remember that no matter how bad things are, there are a lot of great thing happening out there. 

If you're having a really bad day, stop what you're doing. Stop the research into all of that really nasty bad stuff and start looking for the good. You're going to need to power your shield every so often, and that means Weird Al, dog videos, and kids. Remember that there is some good stuff out there, and you should be able to shield yourself from the worst that is out there. 

Conversations Need Lumps

One of the ways you can tell the difference between mashed potatoes you get a restaurant versus that you get home is well, the ones you get at home is the ones from home have a couple of lumps here and there. When you get them from a restaurant, these scenes are perfect. They're smooth, they're creamy, and they have peaks. They're great. But they're boring. 

When you are at home, however, they have a little bit more character to them. The flavor may be off just a little bit. They're going to have lumps. They're going to have flaws. It sort of makes your mashed potatoes all sorts of interesting. You actually have a lot of people that base their Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday memories off of those lumpy mashed potatoes. Sure, you're gonna have a lot of people tell you that the best ways to make perfect mashed potatoes but those tend to be a little bit boring. There's nothing exciting about them. 

They're just there. The imperfections make the mashed potatoes that much better.

Well, your conversations need to have their own lumps. You need to have those little flaws in there. They may have absolutely nothing to do with character, plot development, or anything major; they're just there for you to have a little bit of fun with. You're always gonna have some sort of talk about the weather. Let's talk about sports teams. Did Clarissa actually say those things? You need those lumps in the conversations that are just there to add a little bit of flavor. You just need things in the conversation that are to make the conversation flow and not really do anything.

A problem is that a lot of writers tend to forget about that and go straight for those really huge exposition dumps that pretty much don't really go anywhere. You've got two people talking about the ruthless warlord and his tactics. Great. Unfortunately, that's not what you would call a realistic conversation because even if you got two grizzled veterans that are trying to figure out how to break into the warlords keep. you're also going to hear the occasional little bit of gossip in between the tactical discussions, a little bit of how the kids are doing, that the general is a schmuck, and maybe even where to find a decent meal.

Those little details don't add to the story, but they make those characters seem a little more real. Sure, they can add details we need to worry about later, but they can also just make those characters seem more like real people. Those imperfections, those reflections and details, make the conversations more real. 

If you throw those lumps into your conversations, they're going to make those conversations have a little bit more spice, a little bit more flavor, and they're going to be a lot more interesting. And people are actually gonna remember those a little bit more, just like lumps in home-made mashed potatoes. So remember that conversations have lumps and you need to figure out a way to put them in there. Those lumps can make for some delicious conversation, so put them in!