9 Ideas on How to Craft a Good Story Title

craft good story titles

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… Let’s talk about crafting good story titles.

Crafting a good title requires us to put things in perspective. So, how does choosing a story title works?

First, there is no magical formula for crafting a spectacular title. Also, rules for crafting non fiction, articles, essays, and even poetry, are mindful of their differences, not just in genre, but also respective formal conventions associated to them.

Still, for all of us readers, the title is the front door of our text. A good title opens the door to the reader and invites him in. A bad one, narrows that door opening, or even closes it firmly.

How many times has a book title invited us in and make us curious to read it? Many. And, I recall “An Inventory of Losses” por Judith Schalansky as one of my most recent examples.

The attention economy implies that titles, as the label which represents its content, must be able to fulfil the economical rules of the most valuable resource: readers attention towards your text.

Bad titles scare readers away, even editorial readers in submission processes. An experienced editor absorbs a lot from that first impression on a title.

As you work with an editor, if the title isn’t good enough, and you do not envision how to write a better one, someone will suggest another. And, it probably will not correspond to what you had envisioned for your work. Been there, more than once. And it is not pretty.

Therefore, I’ve committed to articulate what I know, from experience, about the different aspects to consider when we are crafting a fictional title, with a few tidbits overlapping for other genres.

9 things to consider:

1. Read and Compare

Read similar texts to yours, and compare the published titles. Observe how these titles are crafted, their characteristics; what do they make us think when we read them; on the first time and repeatedly; are they made of a long sentence, or a short one; or they have a subtitle; what do they make us wonder right on the first impact;

Compare those with your title options.

Each literary genre has a typical title construction. Learn what the similar text titles say about your genre preferences.

2. What do you see?

Think about other titles. What captured your attention? Did it made you buy the book? Read it? Which words are used? Did it make you laugh? Did it offered you a solution to a problem? Is it a useful to do list? Is it poetic? Is is simple? Complex? Obtuse? Does it have a double meaning? Uses stylistic resources? What does it mean to you, before reading its contents? Is it emotionally charged? In what way does it affects you? How do you relate with it? And what do you want to emulate or avoid in your own title?

These reflections give you clues about the best process to craft your titles.

3. Surprise!

Foresee something importante in the story context. A title is, or should be, alluding to a deeper meaning in the story. A great title is representative of that most important element, without revealing too much.

Which messages are important, in a text that you have read, that connects to its title? As you were reading the book, did you spotted the place where the story gave the writer its title? Is that relationship, between text and title, direct or indirect?

An example of this, as I recalled “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro.

4. Have you seen me?

Search for expressions, in our text, that may be titles in themselves.

In poetry it’s common to look for expressions in the text that stand as titles. And when we need to give a poem a title, to publish or identify it, we may use the first verse as a poem title, repeating it as title and as the first line of the poem.

In fiction writing, we may search for a short sentence, a meaningful expression that we have written in our text — not a clichéd, — which represents the work in a curious ways. We may find in it the words that make the title work, that is meaningful and has an immediate impact. But, keep in mind that it is important to maintain a relation between content of the text and its title. The title should always be linked to the story through a symbolic way.

5. Change the order of the proceedings

Sometimes, the title comes first to us. When we kind of have an idea of what we are writing about. Or when we did some research and plotted some of it. Or, even when our intuition says ‘this is it, and it’s final.‘

In other times, the title only comes up after a first draft… or a final draft. So, I’ve learned not to try and push the event. The title will surface. I will build it as I’m building the story, listening to what my gut tells me. It does not appear through magic… even if, sometimes, it feels like it.

While time runs his course and I’m working the story, titles pop up, and I’ll reiterate them as needed, until I find a version that feels right. But if you feel that the initial idea for the story already comes with a possible title attached, do not discard it just because is an initial thought. Write it down and rethink it later.

6. Make lists

Write several iterations of a title. Write down the fleeting ideas that come along. I can’t tell you to ‘write it all down!‘ because, this is not always the best option, as we do not need more friction caused by excess.

The three title options are confusing us already. We do not need to deal with a dozen more just because we are unsure of our choice.

But, if you feel that you need a brainstorming session, or two… write down your ideas, about what could make a decent title, put down words related to your story, or other titles iterations, and what you feel about those. Find yourself a set from where to pick from.

7. Research

So, you already have a possible title, or a short list of options… open a browser tab and search that title. Research all your book title ideas and allow the internet to give you the basics: if there is another title just like yours, or pretty similar to yours; when was it published; by who; in what genre and themes…

Sometimes, there are works published with pretty similar titles, at the same time. And even if this can be some sort of modern strategy to sell more books, it is pretty risky.

For readers, it is just confusing, potentially inducing deceptions, and frustrating expectations. And, to me, is giving a not so proper image of the writer, showing an intentional duplicity, that I do not appreciate.

And, do not forget to research the meanings of the chosen words for the title. We should check if their meaning is appropriated to the title we want. There are several words with alternative meanings, specially if they are time apropos or culturally relevant, and that are imbued of other meanings. There’s a need to evaluate those possibilities and make sure that the words we use are intentional.

8. Distance text from the antsy to scratch something about it

It is not uncommon to write a whole text and still be confused about the appropriate title for it. It happens to me, all the time, as I frequently battle with articles titles, like this one.

It helps to distance ourselves from the text. Finish what we are writing, save it, and go for a walk, do something else, take a brake with a activity more physical, relaying the theme processing to our unconscious mind.

Our minds keep trying to solve it or, at least, processing the challenge that we have given it, and it is not rare to come up with a solution as we are doing something else entirely… while taking a shower, run an errand, or doing something else, that is not the direct process of ‘thinking about it‘. As the possibilities might arrive at odd moments, it’s important to have where to wrote down those ideas for future use.

9. Not this, not that, not these

The title should not be too generic, nor too specific. A generic title just sufficiently not to become dark and incomprehensible. Or, a title so specific that tells it all at first glance, and strips the reader of any curiosity about the text itself.

Also, it is not nice to use cliched wordings. Those well-known phrases that frustrate the reader at first glance, for their plainest view… even if it feels appropriated to the story itself. A common expression of this kind has to rely on a perceived trust that the reader has the correct popular meaning of the sentence, when most of its roots are buried in time or, frankly, outdated or culturally misplaced.

Any title should be well research before it’s put up for submission process and/or publication. And yet, there’s always the risk of not being able to use it. In this matter also, it is needed for us to be moderated in our wishes and possibilities.

It’s better to have a published title, even if it’s not what we have dreamed of, than a confrontation, which may be hard to deal with or have a good outcome.

We need to put things in perspective, just like what is required of a title: to put what we are reading into perspective.

And after reading it, we may be able to confirm, or disproof, the title’s initial perspective.

∞

Subscribe for more writings about Writing. Help me grow this blog and keep on sharing the writerly talk.

Bye and Keep Writing! ✍

A Method to My Creative Practice

method to creative practice

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… Let’s talk about my writing method.

These are the first three steps of the creative method that I’m trying to structure at the present moment:

1. Learn

2. Capture

3. Practice

If you read last week’s post, you may be aware of my attempt to organize my own creative method, and the path of better structuring the knowledge about myself, and how it impacts my own creative method.

This is a recurrent theme, to which I have dedicated much time, and that I want to share, as I’m weaving my way into its construction.

I believe we have the need to construct our own method, to which we will be able to turn to, whatever our current state of mind at any given moment. I feel this is essential to maintain a satisfactory creative existence.

I figure that to nurture one’s creative life we have to be able to see the nuances of the practice.

Contemplate a sunset, as he drops below the ocean, may induce me to go create something. But, many times, is the image of a, not so beautiful, ant that struggles with a crumb, that makes me think of moving impossible objects. Or, looking at a broken sea shell, and realising that its mother-pearl does not lose the creamish-pink beauty just because it has jagged edges.

So, why do we feel we need this sort of trigger to create something? And what do we do when he does not manifest itself at present? What art works do we create when the world pressures us in brutal, and hard to reconcile, ways if we need the peace to inspire us to create?

Not every one of us are prone to social intervention art creations, or aim to build art that will change the world. Sometimes, escapist art it’s the best contribution to society one can give, to the thousands that need the boost of a helpful piece.

To facilitate the trigger that leads to creative construction is part of finding our own personal method, which allows us to work on our art, without depending of the mystical and elusive inspiration.

To wait for inspiration to start creating is not a long term sustainable creative method.

But, to be aware of what surrounds us, in accord to what we thing about such experiences, is the fountain from where we drink to create, and part of our own personal method.

To think in showing up to a page and write something, is to know that, if inspiration is pushing us to ‘create! quick! don’t think, act!’ the process seems easy.

It appears to be what we have heard of what an artist should be: struck by a genius idea, and the rushed frenzy of putting the idea into the work of art, whichever form of choice… a page, a canvas, an uninterrupted role of paper, a digital file.

But, how many times does this happen? And how do we build a regular work practice when all we do is create when we are inspired?

I believe that it’s in moments of quietude, those which are spent contemplating outside things, while inferring what’s happening inside us, that feed the creative act.

To see something differently, and regularly build and adding to its meaning, means that we need uninterrupted time for the creator with its thoughts, and a multitude of experiences that help him recombine his ideas.

It’s not the velocity that provides consistent work. It is the stable progress, discovering in little increments, and showing up to organize which are our ideas, about the artistic means we have chosen.

It’s in the nuances, in which we build ourselves that we may, and should, come up with the system that helps us lead a creative life.

It’s in the experienced differences, in ways of being and creating, that need to be respected when we establish our own creative method.

Not forgetting that, to learn from other people’s experiences is essential. After all, we don’t know what we don’t know, so we need to go and look for it. To gather ideas and knowledge is essential to any person, more if we speak of someone which desires to do creative work.

To organize our own experiences, with the intent to base a system with which we are intimate, and that guides us, is essential to the creative practice. We need to know what we are doing next, without too much pause or friction.

To know ourselves, without prejudices or artifice of exaggerated productivity, help us acknowledge when we work better, when we have the means, and when our experience is inspiration to something more objective.

And from this point on?

To learn through a pletora of sources.

To capture what we know, and what we continue learning, in ways that nurture the creative process.

And always practicing our art.

My best method, or that which I recognise as the beginning of my creative process, has three phases: Learn; Capture Ideas; Practice.

Which always happen simultaneously. This is because, to capture ideas which seem interesting to explore later is a constant process to be kept. To have a place, or several, where to note things down, is part of my resources always carried with me. And, to write it, practicing the art, is an essential output.

1. Learn

Learn the relevant techniques. Learn what others, before and contemporary to us, have added to the themes. Learn the basic details, and the more advanced knowledge, as is possible. To learn is the Creative Input that we need.

To ponder: Sources. Quality of our Sources. Diversity of experiences. Research work. Thinking process. Iterating processes. Hyper-focus on what we are captivated by (no guilt).

About exposing ourselves to different experiences: what we experience embeds itself in who we are, and what we do. To broaden our activities, meet people, go to spaces and experience other artistic manifestations… we end up finding out that we really love to collect theatre brochures, photograph art pieces, rock climbing, volunteering, going to music concerts, pottery workshops… whatever it is that makes us happy and ready to use that information/inspiration.

All materials, or experiences that teach us something, are valuable.

2. Capture

At the same time, learning implies to have the means to capture what we learn, and build the personal iterations about the different matters.

External: I have experimented almost everything that I’ve came across, on the process of Capture of relevant information, and the ideas that were brought from those experiments. Even on my most difficult moments, I have tried to keep my records and even adapted this process, when my health required a more thorough process of capture, than the one I was accustomed to.

Daily calendars, online calendars, diary, dedicated notebooks to each project, photographs, photocopies, commonplace books, A5/A6/A7 cards, text and calculation files, organisational apps, right until creative challenges that asked for a continuous writing, painting or collaging, for a set number os days, a precise and regular practice… I have experimented all that sparks my interest and I find it most enlightening of our personal tastes.

For now, I have a small notebook for Capture all the information. And this is a entryway which works for me. I prefer to have this capture notebook, accompanied by the notes app on my mobile, adding the pertinent photographs to my photo library. I am also a frequent user of Canva, in order to organise all this input of information.

From this Capture notebook, I then copy the information to the correct project notebook. If its an idea for a book, I’ll put it in the project notebook. If it’s a reference to add to an article , I’ll put it on the first drafts notebook… and so on.

All these project notebooks have started to be organised in a particular way but, about this, I’ll write in some other article, if you have interest on the subject (let me know in the comments).

Internal: What I Capture might generate an idea. I’ll write it down in the capture notebook, and add a photo or other relevant material, to remind myself from where the idea came from. For example, all that comes to me when I read a book is noted on the margins and copied to the Capture notebook or dedicated Project notebook, as soon as possible.

I’ll let my internal monologues be influenced by what I see… if it’s a painting, and it reminds me of a character, or a possible personality trace, I’ll capture that connection and, later, I’ll transcribe it to my project notebook.

3. Practice

Every first draft, whichever project, has a dedicated space. A physical or virtual space that does not obey to any revision work. I’ll write what I want, in a first draft so messy as he requires, and leave it on the waiting cue.

Some books take years until I figure out what a better draft requires.

Writing blog posts and Substack newsletters take less time than other forms of fiction writing, but some of these never see the publication date arrive, even after days on end of revisions. “One simply is not fit to be seen.” (‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen)

Other blog posts, end up supplying the main idea to other article, even if totally different from the initial iteration.

To put something in the world, the Creative Output, is the main goal of the previous actions: learn and capture.

Memorize to future use

In light of this, I cannot help but think that it is important to consider memory as essential to it all. This creative method is, simultaneously, a group of strategies that help me keep the information that crosses my path, so I don’t forget, to repeat it until I memorize what I need, in order to recombine ideas, and use them in my writings.

This is a process that helps me remember what’s important, and the most relevant details from those experiences. If I did not make the effort to write down, and remember, the positive experiences, soon only the negatives would have space.

Life is made of too many memories, which we unintentionally forget, or that we need to arquive somewhere in a less accessible spot. But, to practice our arts we need memories, and the ability do memorize, and not just those which are more emotional impactful, but also the ones less dramatic.

To have processes in place to maintain constructive memories, that I wish to keep, has been determinant to my memory, and helped narrowing the uncertainty of some memories, even if it does not save me from the normal cognitive biases, that are certain and assist us all.

So, these are the first steps of my creative method: Learn. Capture. Practice.

Not the solo ones of this method, of course. But they are the infrastructure on which I build upon. Part of growing my own garden.

I hope this glimpse of the entry point on my creative practice is of some use to you. I’ll share other strategies and methods in due time.

∞

Subscribe for more writings about Writing. Help me grow this blog and keep on sharing the writerly talk.

Bye and Keep Writing! ✍

Grow your garden. Find your method. Create your art.

grow your garden

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… Let’s talk about your writing method.

Have you been searching for a method that helps your writing? What are you doing about it?

This is me, constantly searching for the best method. I guess, no other literary activity has capture my attention like searching for processes that could help in my writing practice.

But, how may I find my own writing method? Find or create it?

In ‘Candide‘, Voltaire writes: “One must cultivate one’s own garden.” An aphorism that has been interpreted in different ways. To me, it means to take care of our own domain, to find our own tastes and methods.

Because when we talk about the creative act, there’s always a confusion between what may be considered a hobby and true work.

As I’ve been told, in repeated circumstances, it’s common-knowledge that we can’t make money with a hobby. Not seriously. As soon as this happens, that said hobby turns into a job, and from that point on, everything gets more difficult. Creative ideas flow away, the pleasure from the creative act itself disappears, and purpose solidifies on obligation instead of satisfaction.

It is said that if we go in search of a method that helps us keep a creative practice, — even if we feel discouraged by the expectations we had, not having how to assure any achievements,— the probability of finding dozens of methods that work for others, and still may work for us, but of which we cannot stick to and make them our own, is huge.

To experiment new strategies, different methods that seem productive and interesting, can be a potent motivator but they are not a miracle in a fun package. Not forgetting that, meanwhile, we are adding a pletora of knowledge (learning from others), ways of doing and thinking things differently, some with better results than others.

Different projects means the use of different methods, and the need to adjust the process, or parts of it, to the theme itself. Each project will require a different version of the process, suitable to that particular construct.

There’s no scarcity of creative methods to adopt, but the one that makes sense to me it is not someone else’s method. Does it seem arrogance speaking? It is not. I am grateful to all the sources that informed me, and helped me go search for my own writing method. Other methods have inspired me in the constructing the idea for my own method, and I have learned immensely with others articulations about different writing subjects, past and present influences.

I find that we develop a particular taste for those things that dazzle us. So we follow our intuition and go towards those things that enchant us and help us create something of our own machinations. And this is the principle to a valuable method. My method.

To come across our own particular taste for something is invaluable. And to find our true will to write, — or to do the creative activity of our choice, — while feeling the appreciation for the act in itself, not just the product after completion, but the joyous Doing is the best method ever.

Of course that, if this was easy everybody would do it. Sometimes is very hard to appreciate the work of doing something. But, to not appreciate parts of the process, doesn’t mean we should give up. On the contrary, if we can find pleasure in what is hard, boring or tiresome, we find an advantage on the work itself.

Maybe the ‘better method’ problem resides in our will to get results, without ponder what does it really mean to do the work. How much the creative work requires from oneself and our personal reality. Our own personal method, independent of the learnings that we benefit from, must ground itself in who we are as a person, as creatives and as members of general society.

As a person, because our daily life, health and economical means have a big impact on our creativity. As creatives, because access to different things and our own personality have a direct link to our art. And as a member of society, because there’s always expectations and contributions that we have to do towards family and the assorted communities that we are active part of.

I suspect that the best method only depends of the best professional, writer, creative artist that we can be. And nothing else.

So, I ask: Who are you as a creative constructor? Where do you find inspiration? What are your processes? Through what actions do you feel motivated to do the work? Do you recognise your own method glimpsing through the outer noise?

∞

Subscribe for more writings about Writing. Help me grow this blog and keep on sharing the writerly talk.

Bye and Keep Writing! ✍

Let’s talk about bad writing and Stephen King

bad writing

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… let’s talk about bad writing.

Writing is a skill. We learn the basics, we spend years practicing, we devote ourselves to the genre or outlet of our choosing (because there’s a difference between writing fiction, a blog post, or an essay), we keep at it until magic is made.

“At its most basic we are only discussing a learned skill, but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations? We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style . . . but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.” — Stephen King, “On Writing”

“On Writing” has been one of the books about the writing craft, that I always see mentioned, whenever there’s somebody writing about writing.

And Stephen King isn’t afraid to point out bad writing practices.

I have read this book a few years ago (in 2011, according to Goodreads), and it made an impression. Still, I haven’t reread it… or hadn’t until this post put me in the mood to go and find it. And to find it I did.

“I believe large numbers of people have at least some talent as writers and storytellers, and that those talents can be strengthened and sharpened. If I didn’t believe that, writing a book like this would be a waste of time.” — SK

About Talent and Practice:

Talent is overrated. If we just look for potential, we see it everywhere. But to have it materialize into actual value, there’s another matter entirely. And to develop writing skills is essential to be a fiction writer.

I recall the first time I understood the diference between Showing and Telling. I remember wanting to do a just Showing book. Yeah! People do have strange ideas when they come across something interesting. I still have that moment near to my heart. Why? Because in the next moment, I figured out that to do all Show and no Tell would do a disservice to the story.

I found that some formats gain from a prevalent Showing instead of Telling. And that in every work we need to have exposition as well as action.

Some of these things I learned only with practice. After understanding what it meant, and analysing what I was doing, and flipping the text around just to find out if there was a better way to write the tale.

To write that “the rain poured down, drenching his clothes.” or to write “In seconds, the dark skies were upon him, his clothes weighted a ton, and the cold clang to his skin, as the downpour hit him.”, gives us ideas on how to pull the reader in, and make him feel that he is right there with our character… getting outright rained upon.

As E.L. Doctorow said: good writing has to evoke a sensation in the reader – ‘not the fact that it is raining but the feeling of being rained upon.’

These are learned skills and still we need to let ourselves loose so we might find magic in it. Understanding the rules, learning the basics and attuning the skills we need to write, clears the fundamental space we need to make art happen.

The object isn’t to make art. It’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable. — Robert Henri

And this is not just in inspirational terms but also in craft basic skills.

About Fear and Bad Writing:

We fear to write what we know. So we choose not to write at all. We fear to write somethings, so we choose the most bland and uninteresting thing there is. We fear not to be good enough, so we end up quitting. We loose dept and strength when we let fear tell us what to do.

I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. If one is writing for one’s own pleasure, that fear may be mild—timidity is the word I’ve used here. If, however, one is working under deadline—a school paper, a newspaper article, the SAT writing sample—that fear may be intense. — S.K. (p.127)

But when some sort of practice takes place, and we keep at it, there’s a sense that working through the fear is part of this process. There’s always fear when something is important enough.

But that’s why we have courage.

Every time fear shows it’s face, courage comes right behind him and makes him fall back. At least that’s what is expected.

And it will do it every time. Not just a one time thing, but every time something makes us doubt and fear, courage has to step in and put fear in his place.

Just Writing:

Bad writing is fearful behaviour. To choose this word or that word, overly preoccupied and attentive to what might sound like, and be like, and having other people’s rules in mind all the while we are trying to construct something… it’s tiresome and not a good process to have at all.

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as “good” and other sorts as “bad,” is fearful behavior. Good writing is also about making good choices when it comes to picking the tools you plan to work with. — S.K. (p.128)

To write as good as we are able, means to choose our toolbox (Stephen King’s concept) with intention and knowledge. To have a discernment about what goes inside our writing craft toolbox so we are able to build with using the good tools we have been collecting.

Bad writing might be just unexperienced writer. And a competent writer might be an uninspired one. But a good writer? That takes talent, practice, a good toolbox and some extraordinary instincts… and life experience.

I can’t let this one out. Life experience is what shines through in the mist of our works. The things we experienced, the things we lived through, the knowing in our bones what it’s like to be there, to feel it. It’s the school of life experience that keeps a writer going and gives dept to his work.

As Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, in one of her letters:

I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown — where it has experienced something — felt something — it has not understood — and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown — known. (…) Making your unknown known is the important thing — and keeping the unknown always beyond you (…) that you must always keep working to grasp (..) — Georgia O’Keeffe

We live, we read, we write. A lot. Of all three.

∞

Subscribe for more writings about Writing. Help me grow this blog and keep on sharing the writerly talk.

Would you like to know anything about me? Please leave a question below and I’ll reply asap.

Bye and Keep Writing! ✍🏼

Find inspiration of different sorts and build a creative identity

find inspiration

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… and about using different sources of inspiration to better ourselves and our writings.

Why do we need to inspire ourselves to create? Why do we find that our artistic output to be a blueprint of who we are?

We write what we know.

Yes, I know this idea has become so commonplace that it is seen as just a cliché without any worth to it. It is cliché, if we do not understand what it means, and do not make an effort to recognise what it stands for in our work. It is a cliché if we just throw it around, without fully grasp what it means, and how we need to use it.

But that it’s not how I perceive it to be.

Write what you know stands for: To recognise what make us ourselves, and to see it in our creative work.

And these are two difficult things to do. To know our ways, to build upon them, and to see all of it in what we create.

Ultimately, I believe that we will not be able hide who we are in any creative output. So, it is indeed revealing.

And not just to know others… But this is a different theme, that you can read more about in the post Know Thy Human.

When we practice painting, for example, we put in the hours of work until our style is recognisable. Until we, ourselves, and our identifiable style comes through our work. We choose to create/reproduce images in a way that is familiar to us, and that ends up representing our personal style.

Some painters bodies of work are gloomy, others are colourful, others are free style, or nature inspired, some are impressionists, others are modern, and so on…

It is the same process for us writers.

We start writing something, in whatever means, genre, or format, and as we put in the hours, our style becomes more and more defined. We start perfecting it, even if we do not have a sense that we are doing this betterment process. And, some time later (10 000 hours later?!) we get a sense that our output has changed, our way to deal with subjects has changed, our style has evolved. We have abandoned some things, and took upon us to enlighten ourselves in others.

If we keep at it, eventually our style will be recognisable to the people that read our work.

While we are at our practicing periods, we end up feeling that we need inspiration from other people’s works. So, we go in search of it.

This process of looking for, contemplating, learning and appreciating, other works — paintings, conversations, views, sculptures, books, and all sorts of activities that get inside ourselves, — begins. And then, its revelations come forward through our writings.

To each one of us, some mediums will be more appealing than others. Some ideas resonate more than others. Some mediums might be more suitable than others.

Some will love poetry more, while others find that listening to nature sounds are more suitable for their creative processes.

For example, I have been enjoying a documentary on YouTube that I suggest you to a look: Anselm Kiefer: Remembering the Future

I always find myself attracted to big, dark, dystopian works. Maybe, because I usually find myself engrossed in heavy feelings, whichever the means they are presented in. I appreciate the subtleties of how different people respond to personal history, and how it influences their creative process.

But, to look for ‘knowing more‘ shouldn’t be a chore.

Most of this research isn’t consciously chosen.

We follow things that make sense to us. Things that makes us crave more knowledge, that we feel passionate, and just need to know more about.

We do not think, let’s go and look at some paintings, or some documentary, and maybe I will feel inspired to write. No! We might expose ourselves deliberately to a work of art, but how it interacts with our creative processes is something beyond the cognitively perception that we will be influenced by it.

And this is why we gain in exposing our minds to new experiences. And not just the good, happy stuff. All the bad and gritty things we will look upon, will come bearing fruits. There’s a most likely chance that the less obvious thing, will not be overlooked. It will not be discarded, even if we do not like it, because it will build upon on some point, that we will find suitable to make in our works. We will use the knowledge, to prove or disprove it. It will become our own.

As we live, we will learn to recognise more of what influences us. And we will learn to find explanations, so very different from what we thought they would be, and to discover other ways of living through other people’s art. And, ultimately we end up incorporating and using knowledge, that we didn’t even knew we consciously had gained. And our work will be better for it.

Our writings will be better at each instalment of novelty. At each knew discovery of something we love, as well as of something we hate.

If we see more of whatever it is that we find appealing, or repellent in this world, we will surely have it seep into our works. That’s why artists always navigate toward a specific worldview, which comes through in their works of art.

People who have seen war, fighting and death, will be more inclined to use those themes in their works. People who fancy a more nature inclined living, will make art using that. People who are dumbstruck by people’s extreme acts, will try to make sense of it all, and so on…

Finding different sources of inspiration, helps us know more about what encircles us and about ourselves, and therefore, define our style in a more personal way.

Let’s open up to ways to invite novelties to us. Let’s accept hardship and struggle. Let’s invite knowledge in, so we may get it all out of ourselves through our creative work.

∞

Please subscribe for more writings about Writing. Help me grow this blog and keep on sharing the writerly talk.

Would you like to know anything about me? Please leave a question below and I’ll reply asap.

Bye and Keep Writing! ✍🏼

Books on the Writing Craft and other matters at hand

books about writing

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… and reading towards our writing practice.

On this article, you’ll find some ideas about formal studies, the need to keep learning, and the books that I’ve included on my learning practice about the writing craft.

Yes, I made a list with all my 5 star reads on the writing craft. Enjoy!

And tell me more… What have you read? What are you reading? Recommend some books to me?

So… About formal studies

Formal studies teach us to read, focusing on goals. School gets us the reading practice oriented to themes, and learnings that we need, in order to perform… mostly to perform in tests, but if we have writerly aspirations, it gives backbone to our efforts.

Later, and as we exit the formal education system, all we bring with us are the systems taught, while learning the official programs.

And many of us, also bring an intense dislike by obligatory readings.

Out of school and into self-learning…

Out of school, no more learnings? No. Self-learning is part of the writing (and living) craft.

To make use of a more formal approach to learning, even if we are out of school for good, can make the diference we need, in order to write better.

After all, if we are not in the formal circles is a lot more difficult to be exposed to the basics, because it’s what school give us: the basics.

At this time, we have licence to go and study by ourselves whatever we want to learn.

Of course, that Learning is hard. Not just while in the formal teaching institution, but also by ourselves. We tend to be lenient towards what we have to do, and want to do. It takes a lot of discipline to really live the scholastic life, when we frankly don’t have to.

So we struggle.

Best versions of ourselves are hard to grasp

Trying to find things that motivate us to learn more about, or read more about, and failing on maintaining that energy is the usual cup of tea.

Also, having the means to do it (time, money, will…) is usually a hard combo to achieve. Means are usually scarce, and it’s hard to get our hands in the best version of the knowledge, we need to have access to.

And it’s just better not to bother. It’s easiest not to do it. Or to pretend to do it, and just give an half-ass efforts into it… And then we end up more hurt by trying it half way, instead of going all in.

Because we fail to see the reward, we put moderated efforts and get frustrated when things just don’t pan out as we wish. We want it all, but fail to give it our all.

A clue…

Set some order on learning efforts. Have a more organised approach to subjects and just do the time on the work. Read the book, do the training, have the workshop, write the text…

And, in the midst of setting my own learning practices, I give you the most important learning resources I have come accross in the past fifteen years.

So… I give you some books about the writing craft, that have made a difference on this learning journey. Just the 5 stars reads that were useful and fun.

Books on Writing

“Revision & Self-Editing” by James Scott Bell

About the most important aspects of writing and the impact of revisional work and self-editing our writings.

“Turning Pro” by Steven Pressfield

A motivational book identifying a force known as Resistance, and how it impacts our creative efforts.

“Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Some well thought advices, from a most beloved poet and letter writer, that guide us through the sacrifices that the work demands from us.

“Turning Home” by Susanna Tamaro

Reflections about living a writerly life and how her personal experiences shaped her, her longings, and her fictional writing.

“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf

Getting to know the irony that shaped this women, in her writing acknowledgements and achievements, is a priceless lesson, humorously put.

“Word by Word” by Anne Lamott

Invaluable lessons on the most common (and abstract) problems about writing and living a writer’s life. A guide to our more common feelings towards the writing predicaments.

“Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Stop romanticising the hardships of the creative life. Accept the mystical of the creation act and find happiness in writing.

“Escrita em Dia” by Margarida Fonseca Santos

Useful exercises on the writing craft, helping unblock ourselves, and finding rhythms in our creative practices.

“Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It” by Steven Pressfield

A non-nonsense way of looking to readers realities. We might as well face it and learn to do better to captivate people’s attention.

“Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You” by Ray Bradbury

Inspiration and the celebration of the writing life.

“The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises” by James Scott Bell

Strategies and thoughts on writing, through the lenses of the first manual written on war by Sun Tzu.

“The Artist’s Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self” Julia Cameron

Unstuck yourself with this 12 weeks course on how to create and be creative. Find out the easiest way to accept that we are all creatives at heart.

“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott

Writer’s themes are dealt with with humour and simplicity. A precious help on the more usual predicaments about the writing life. And it’s good for the non-writer’s as well.

“The Faith of a Writer” by Joyce Carol Oates

What a writer believes, and writes about, and how an honest take on the writerly issues can help us cope with this life.

“Why I Write” by George Orwell

A short essay on his motives for writing, so similar to our own, and interesting to compare to.

“Quem disser o contrário é porque tem razão” Mário de Carvalho

A Portuguese author’s take on the writing life, and writerly themes, setting the tone with: there are no absolute truths, just opinions on subjects and actions we take.

“How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines” by Thomas C. Foster

A funny, well versed, intelligent professor gives us the written version of his usual classes on Literature. With the so well put knowledge, we learn to see beyond the works and criticism on literary works.

“On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King

A glimpse into his thoughts on the writing craft throughout the years, and his multiple experiences with being the struggling, and the successful writer.

“Writing Fiction for Dummies” by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy

The nuts and bolts of writing through some studied methods. This is a how to book, worth the immense time it takes to read and apprehend it fully.

There are others, but not 5 stars reviews, so I’ve kept them out of this list. These are my most precious and inspiring book on the writing craft.

Reading and self-learning efforts…

This year I have a reread already lined up, and a new book on the craft.

The reread will be “How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines” by Thomas C. Foster. I just got the paperback copy and want to read it in this format.

The new book is “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk, which I hope to get to soon.

Meanwhile,

I discovered some 4 stars right here on my shelf, that I feel have been neglected. I have read them, but I feel the need to reread and see what I missed on the first time, that made me give them a 4 star rating. These are:

“Ernest Hemingway on Writing”, edited by Larry W. Phillips

Some quotes and curated excerpts of Hemingway’s works related to the writing craft and his practices.

“How Fiction Works” by James Wood

A literary essay on criticism, literary artefacts and craft tricks writers use to deliver their messages.

“The Art of Fiction” by David Lodge

Prose for the newspaper readers, as he gathers a topic from a well-known novel and uses his literary experience to enlighten and delight the common reader.

I feel all of these need a second turn on my reading radar.

Getting Back to the basics…

I have wanted to be exposed to the basics, and I’m working through some kind of writing bibliography, in tandem with reading fiction.

But I feel I need to have a more dedicated study practice. And this is something to chew on for a while… Set some guidelines and do the work. I’ll let you know how this goes on future blog posts.

See you next week! And, meanwhile you may checkout my social media and subscribe to this blog.

∞

Please subscribe to the blog for more writings about Writing. Help me grow this blog and keep on sharing the writerly talk.

Would you like to know anything about me? Please leave a question below and I’ll reply asap.

Bye and Keep Writing! ✍🏼

Did you say 50 000 words and 3 books?

writing the shapeshifters

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog… Let’s talk about writing.

November came and went, and so did NaNoWriMo. You know, the challenge where we corner ourselves into writing 50 000 words in one month, and then get pretty upset when that shit doesn’t happen.

This year, I came up half short on the word count — 25 400, was the tally at Nov.30th.

But there’s no problem AT ALL.

The previous book took two NaNoWriMo’s to get to it’s “final” form, so I’m kind of used to taking a really long time in completing a writing project.

I’m currently working on my second novel for The Shapeshifters World. First book took three years in the making and it’s pretty much done. Just a bit of fiddling after the third book is complete, so that I can erase the unforeseens. Yes, I am a detail tweaking maniac, but I intent to produce the best book I can, so… to tweak it is.

At this point in time the status of the situation is:

The Shapeshifters #1 (which has a secret book title only to disclose if I’ll manage to publish) is complete and I’m very happy to have finish it. Truth be told, I did not imagined it could be such a arduous ride. And it is subject to final tweaks, as previously mentioned.

The Shapeshifters #2 (also book title is a secret) is on the way, almost halfway written, on his zero draft. It has diverted from the initial idea plot wise, but these characters have been talking to me… And I will listen! We should listen to our work (tip for future me) before it starts talking in batshit mode and get us stuck on a “and now what?!” type of conundrum.

The Shapeshifters #3 is also growing. Initial plots and plans have altered, and grew a bit, as it should. But this one is a future me problem, so… onward.

So, this is the plan, for now: just keep going.

To be able to write this story has been something very powerful. Time, effort, skills, learning… it all enters the pot before something (a book) can come out of it. I have been playing with some fears, some stories, some happenings, and it’s one hell of a ride home.

To find my Home in my Writing, and make it my Work, is a magical force, made of all the on goings, the smooth, the tempests, the it is what it is moments.

And it’s all worth it.

∞

What have you been writing? Tell me everything in the comments section below!