How to Write Faster

The secret is not to try to be perfect. If you try to be perfect, you procrastinate, you go over and over what you wrote, you make no forward motion. Trying to be perfect doesn't produce masterpieces, only agony and slow writing.

I'm not writing to be remembered fifty years from now,, I'm writing to entertain myself. You have to work with the engine you were given. I get up at 4:30 and exercise for thirty minutes. By 6:00 AM., I'm at my desk. I reread the previous one to four chapters and make pencil edits to get back into my characters' heads. I write on an IBM Selectric because of dyslexia. I try to write a chapter a day in two five-page slugs.

Everything I write is carefully plotted out. For a screenplay, I write a forty page treatment. For a book, I write a seventy-page synopsis. All the hard plotting and thinking comes first. Some writers say their characters ran away with the story. That's the result of an undisciplined process.

Never write for money. You're going to be underpaid at the beginning of your career. When you're old and senile; they'll pay you half a million for a script.

from How to Write Faster by Stephen J. Cannell, Esquire February 2003

The Opening Promise

As a writer, you must know what promise your story or novel makes. Your reader will know. She may buy your book because it belongs to a genre that promises certain things (romance, science fiction, horror, political thriller). Or she may come to your story without preconceptions, in which case she'll form them pretty quickly from your characters, tone, plot and style.

By the time she's read your opening, your reader knows what you've implicitly promised. A satisfying middle is one that develops that promise with specificity and interest. A satisfying ending is one that delivers on the promise, providing new insight or comfortable confirmation or vicarious happiness. Even when it's surprising in some way, the ending feels inevitable, because it fulfills the promise of the story. And-this is important-the ending feels satisfying only because the beginning set up the implicit promise in the first place.

In your first scene, however, your main goal is to keep your reader interested. You do that through focusing not on overall meaning but on the four elements that make a first scene compelling: character, conflict, specificity and credibility.

from Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress

Richard Russo: Advice to Writers

Richard Russo finds that short stories pose a lesser risk ("If short stories fail, it's a month out of your life-damage control"), but they are much more difficult for him to write. "They are all about control, which I've never had a lot of. I'm a creature of digression. You can't allow yourself to be distracted."

Yet distraction is exactly what Russo goes after in his writing environment. He prefers to write in diners or busy places, where his mind can wander and make connections. "You can end up where you didn't mean to go, but it's probably more interesting than where you meant to go in the first place:'

Russo's advice to novelists in particular is this: "Whatever you're working on, take small bites. A few pages at a time. Whatever you're working on should be the most exciting thing. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component:'

Also: "Don't keep a journal because you'll think what you remembered to write down was important when it's actually not:'

From WRITER'S DIGEST February 2003
"Master of the Tragicomedy: Richard Russo" by Jane Friedman

John Steinbeck

"The book Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck noted in the journal that he kept alongside the novel, would be composed 'in a musical technique.' He would try to use ‘the forms and the mathematics of music rather than those of prose.' It would be 'symphonic,' he said, 'in composition, in movement, in tone and scope.' "

from Book Magazine

Publisher's Advice

Many of the publisher's offer advice. The following are a few of those random tips:

"The greatest advice I have heard about writing is: 'No one cares about you.' It may sound callous, but we find that the writing we enjoy most is the writing that concerns itself with the reader, and not solely with the talents and/or cleverness of the author."

"A query must consist of all of the following to be considered (please use non-erasable paper): a brief cover letter stating the subject and word length of the proposed article; a detailed one-page outline explaining the information to be presented in the article; an extensive bibliography of materials the author intends to use in preparing the article; a self-addressed stamped envelope. (Authors are urged to use primary resources and up-to-date scholarly resources in their bibliography.) Writers new to Calliope should send a writing sample with the query. In all correspondence, please include your complete address as well as a telephone number where you can be reached."

"We look for impeccable presentation and grammar, outstanding prose, original story line and the element of difference that forbids me to put the story down. A good opening paragraph usually grabs me. Read one or two copies and study the guidelines. A beginning writer should read as much as possible. The trend seems to be for stories written in first-person/present tense and for stories without end leaving the reader thinking, 'so what?' Stories not following this trend stand more chance of being published by me!"

"We look for writing distinguished by economy, directness, authenticity, and heart."

"There must be a clear conflict/goal, a major decision to be made by the protagonist, or a significant change in attitude/behavior. Strong, sympathetic active protagonist a must--realistic dialogue. Write the kind of stories that you enjoy reading. Submit stories that mean something to you. The readers will feel your passion. Go to bookstores and read other fiction anthologies/magazines. Learn the value of patience, of resting your story for a month and rereading it. Too many publications reject quality stories because of a restrictive word count policy. Hindsight will publish any short story of quality regardless of its size, never rejecting a powerful work because it doesn't fit, nor will it ask a writer to make major cuts to make it fit. New writers with talent but no publications to their credit are not published enough. Hindsight will help correct this for the new writers."

"Professional conduct and sincerity help. Know it's the best you can do on a work before sending it out. Skill is the luck of the prepared. Everything counts. We love what we do, and are serious about it--and expect you to share that attitude. If writing is a casual hobby, time filler, or resume-builder, please direct your efforts toward a more appropriate publication."

"Read the journal and assess the range of contents and the level of writing. We have no guidelines to offer or set expectations; every manuscript is judged on its unique qualities. On essays--query with a very thorough description of the argument and a copy of the first page. Watch for announcements of special issues which are usually expanded issues and draw upon a lot of freelance writing. Be aware that this is a university quarterly that publishes a limited amount of fiction and poetry that it is directed at an educated audience, one that has done a great deal of reading in all types of literature."

"Your first paragraph is crucial. Editors are swamped with submissions, so a plain or clumsy lead will send your manuscript to the recycling bin. Also, too many writers come off as self-important. When writing a cover letter really try to talk to the editor--don't just rattle off a list of publications you've been in."

"Write to the best of your abilities, submit your best work. Present yourself and your work professionally. When we evaluate a submission, we ask, `Is this something we would like to read again? Is this something we would give to someone else to read?' A good manuscript makes the reader forget they are reading a manuscript. We look for attention to craft: Voice, language, character, and plot working together to maximum effect. Unique yet credible settings and situations that entertain get the most attention."

"Tell your story, speak your poem, straight from the heart. We are attracted to language and to good writing, but we are most interested in what the good writing leads us to, or where."

"Reading what we have published is still the best but we do love to see excitement and enthusiasm for the craft, and those who care enough to self-edit. Send SASE for anything you want returned and do not send mail that requires a signature on arrival. Give us a try. We want to see you succeed."

"Proofread your work thoroughly. We will instantly reject your work for spelling and grammar errors. Save your document as plain text and paste it into an e-mail message. We will not open attachments. We want work that the reader will think about long after reading it. We want stories that compel the reader to continue reading them. We like experimental work, but that should not be construed as a license to forget narrative clarity, plot, character development, or reader satisfaction."

"Write well and read some past issues."

WRITING ADVICE from Writer's Market 2003

I Don't Think Fiction is Good When You Have to Make an Effort

I feel in Kafka a great power, but the truth is that the literary idols of this generation are not my idols‑neither Kafka nor Joyce. I have to make an effort to read them and I don't think that fiction is good when you have to make an effort. After you read, say, fifty pages of The Trial, you get the point.

from Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer

Criticism

Everybody won't like everything you write. Some people won't like anything you write. Get over it. (Susan Elizabeth Philips)

THE WRITER January 2003, From "What I know, for sure ... I think" (A best-selling author offers words of wisdom gleaned from 20 years of writing) by Susan Elizabeth Philips