Category: writing-craft

Writing Journal Entry: Words for January

word for January

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Today I want to experiment with a new kind of blog post. Something in the lines of the traditional blog entries from the beginnings. Kind of like a journal entry… Tell me what you think in the comments below, if this is interesting enough for a blog post.

This is the Writing Journal Entry for January 2023

… and hopefully I’ll be writing more of these as I go along. January has been a tough month. You might say “as they all are”, to which I don’t agree.

There are events, or clusters of events, that do change everything at once and that throw us off course. And even though these events have a huge impact in my life and, consequently, in my writings, they don’t relate to it per se, so I won’t be sharing those here (those will go into the proper paper journal).

But I do want to do a profound review of what this January has been and what it means to me to work on these projects.

I have started this year putting into paper my goals for my writings. Creating and sharing the free workbook Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023, was part of my personal efforts to create some balance in my life, and keep myself aware of my ongoing writing projects, as well as reading and mind-growing projects. This was important for me, it has helped me cope with the always latent overwhelming feeling of having so much to do, and not controlling the creative output as I envision doing, among other more distasteful things. To be an author and to show up for it, whatever the situation, has costs and it takes a big toll on our health. All of our health.

Again, this is the link for the free download… [No dropbox account is needed to download it] It’s never too late to draw some plans.

During January I have been pondering about what I want this blog to be really about. Not that I haven’t thought about it before, or made my kind of impromptu planning of it, because I have and I did.

This blog’s service will remain aligned with my will to share more about themes related to Writing, in a broad sense of this area of expertise.

I just keep depositing high hopes in this little corner of the web, and working on it as a kind of repository of ideas about the writing practice, and what it entails in this world of speedy images and an important need for the right words.

In January, this Writer’s blog saw a few of my favorite themes:

It might seem weird but I’m pretty proud of these blog posts. I do love to write in this format/genre and about the craft. 

To me, writing exists in a full spectre, and each writing project has its form, function and gift associated with it. Blog writing is just one piece of the large array os pieces that make this puzzle.

As for Long Fiction Writing efforts:

January was a month for the ‘The Shapeshifters’. I have defined some goals and I’m keeping my word on it. As times passes, and I keep attentively looking at The Shapeshifters #1, I notice other things I need to take care of.

It’s not just about writing the manuscript and crafting the story as I want it to be: as a good starting point of a series… It’s also about the vision for the whole series, the proper way to do other non-related writing work, the acceptance of what I can’t change and the going with my gut while discovering these stories inside me.

I have set a few goals for book #1 and #2 and I’m keeping my word on those. But also, I’m finding that I need to do other exploratory works on these and, even change some things on the first book.

This is my first series materialising itself. I have written other projects that were thought as series but this one is my first full out attempt right at doing so. And this is fun and scary at the same time.

And not just because is my first serious attempt at writing a series but also being out of my comfort zone in so many ways. I have chosen some things for this story that will need a careful editing process and I keep finding things to stress about.

Short-Fiction and Poetry

I always have parallel projects on these formats. There are goals set for some works in progress, but it has been six months since I have devoted the time to constant practice.

I do not like it. Nop.

In my defense, I have been channeling a lot of energy into ‘The Shapeshifters’, but this should be no excuse for my lack of attention to my other writing practices. After all, poetry has been with me since my teens, and I do have a few published poems and a (very ignored by now) poetry blog.

As for short-fiction…

Again, I’m always working on something. This is the elected format for the current writing contests around me, so it’s something to think about if I want to publish any of my stories through the usual channels.

I have put some of this on hold until I figure some things out.

How can people do it all? Frankly, I do not know. Planning only takes us so far… But this is my journal-type of vent, to put the questions out and give them the chance to be answered in a timely manner. 

This was the Writing Journal Entry for January 2023… about writings and feelings and stuff.

How was your January?

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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Edit the White Room Syndrome in your writing

white room syndrome

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Let’s talk about writing! Let’s talk about the White Room Syndrome.

The White Room Syndrome happens when we are writing a scene and fail to give the details to help the reader imagine what the surroundings of the characters look like.

We start telling the story without giving it a recognisable physical space to live in.

The physical details helps us ground a story. Instead of having the action happening in a nondescript, empty scenery around them, we have the opportunity to bring it to life by sharing a bit of what’s going on outside our characters experience, and how those surroundings may or may not affect them in that scene.

In further analysis, the details we infuse our stories with, may be of specific relevance and representations of themes and points we wish to make with our stories.

We should never neglect the chance to make our narrative more meaningful and choosing some specific details to intertwine in our narrative will achieve this.

Theme and the White Room

It’s not just describing someone’s space, making it speak about the character in itself, or decorating the set so we can feel a more vivid imagery and immersion in the story. It’s using those references to allude to the bigger theme and propelling our story in the way we want it to go.

Not everything has to have a double meaning, or be on theme, but if it’s possible to have double meaning and if it serves a function in the telling of our story, know that she gets better for it.

Describing in the White Room

Description has its objectives and it serves the story, helping to construct a narrative that feels more real. The surroundings can be working with, or against, our characters and thus elevating the story to other levels of artful complexity.

But to capture the scene we have in our head and commit it to paper requires attention to detail. Even if we want our readers to fill in some blanks, and trust me a reader is quite eager to do some of that, we must be careful of leaving too many blanks to fill.

If a reader has difficulty in envision the setting, or if he’s seeing something else entirely from what we thought we had created, then we have incurred in the White Room Syndrome.

But this is only contemplated when we have other people giving feedback or if we can distance ourselves enough from our work to catch these inconsistencies.

Fixing the White Room Syndrome

Answering some simple questions like:

  • What so we want our readers to see in this scene?
  • What are our characters feeling and how can their surroundings reflect that?
  • Which objects or surroundings may enlighten the reader toward the characters inner struggle?
  • Which senses are we using when in that space? (smell, hearing, taste, sight…)

The dangers of Filling the White Room

Be mindful not to over-share information. Those long, boring, uneventful pages of description may be a pain to read and make our readers drop our work as if it burned them. I know I have dropped a few myself.

Over-sharing is a very common mistake and it hurts our story. Nobody wants to sit there and read all about every tiny bric-a-brac in a room… or of a story. Too much detail is as hurtful and no detail at all.

Don’t use random things just because you want to paint a picture so bad that anything would serve this purpose. There are meanings behind most objects, color, ambiences, weather… Don’t use them idly. References will work only if they are respectfully and diligently chosen for some effect.

Avoid the clichés. This is something that is cross-cut in all of it. Avoid a cliché like you would avoid the plague (LOL).

Filling the room with a few well beaten references to some idilic little town, or a creepy old mansion, or using other types of “It was a dark and stormy night” type of descriptions, it’s not very imaginative or advisable… Unless you’re doing an all cliché type of story.

When we need the White Room to do it’s thing

There are certain moments in a narrative that may require a White Room. Like when we want to convey more attention to some character’s internal landscape. To focus on the important is better than to distract our reader with the casual and just there for the word count.

In these moments we might want to shed more light into dialogue, or inner monologue, or sensations, and not so much in what is outside our characters. Describing feelings and thoughts gain the front stage to better tell some part of the story, while their surroundings may fall back.

In conclusion…

The White Room Syndrome is something to tackle on a second draft, when we are on the editing phase of our manuscript. It shouldn’t be considered in the initial stages of creating a writing piece.

Being too worried with this in an earlier stage may damage our writing flow and the ideas we have for the initial draft… which can always be worked on and improved upon, but later in the process.

And it’s one of those things that is here to remind us that art is made of meaningful details added in specific moments, when we are focused on making our writing better and more meaningful.

In our composing efforts we should pay attention to it in order to improve our manuscript. But we shouldn’t let it define us while we are creating a piece.

We have been suffering from the “show don’t tell” and “the cut all the fluff out”, at least I know I have, so it’s normal that we have difficulties in discerning what details to put into our stories. Good editing will solve that.

I’ll leave some outside articles for further reading and reference below.  

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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References: 

My favorite writing-craft books

favorite books

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

This week is the final stretch before Christmas, as is celebrated by yours truly.

I have been on my usual predicaments, writing and reading, and more writing, and editing, but I’ve decided to share with you some of my favorite writing-craft books.

So, if you are thinking about giving a book to your favorite author/reader, feel free to pick one, or several, of these books. I’ll share a bit of my opinion about them, of course…

1. ‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott

I wish I could just share the impact of this book with you. This is a book for writer’s and for writer’s friends and family. It helps others understand a bit of what ails us.

Written by Anne Lamott, which I am a fan, and have read most of her other books also, never feeling disappointed by any of those. But I do feel this ‘Bird by Bird’ had made a great impact in me and in my writing.

If you like writerly themes, if you have an aspiring author in your life, if you want to gift someone with a great book about the writing craft, this is the book for you.

2. ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron

Is it a book? Is it a course? Is it guidance from above? All of those. I found this book in a very tricky phase of my life.

I was going through some life altering changes, and doubting myself, and my writing efforts. This book got me through a lot of doubts. It helped me get in line with my program and devote myself to my writing efforts, respecting myself as a creative person.

This is a book for people who lost or are losing hope in their creativity. I can’t recommend it enough.

3. ‘Writing Fiction for Dummies’ by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy

What can I say? Everybody is a dummy before learning to be something else.

This book has so many basics about writing and creating our stories, and methods, and writing techniques, and themes, and loads of other important information that is hard to list them all. I found this book very enlightening and go back to it repeatedly.

If you want to know some basics of the writing craft this is the book for you.

4. ‘The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art’ by Joyce Carol Oates

Having the undiluted view of a writer about her craft, and how it impacts life, it’s a priceless gift.

Through this book we get to learn how struggles make our path in writing a true one. Oates guides us through our most recurrent themes, showing us that it’s our faith and our devotion to reading and learning that get us through the difficult patches.

It’s a must read.

5. ‘Letters to a Young Writer’ by Rainer Maria Rilke

To have a teacher as Rilke telling us about devotion to our writing craft, in this particular case directed towards a young wanna be poet, is touching.

Life, writing, devotion, work, all are themes for Rilke to discourse upon, and for us to accept the vision of a very wise man.

You’ll find nuggets of wisdom that will make ou wonder how this could be…

6. ‘Why I write’ by George Orwell

A book made of several essays but it’s this ‘Why I Write’ that allows us to discern how Orwell’s thought about the writing craft.

It’s a very enlightening essay, full of technical questions and subsequent answers. The big premise of them all being inserted by the list of reasons that get someone to became a writer.

It’s a must read essay about the writing life and craft.

7. ‘How to read Literature like a Professor’ by Thomas C. Foster

Oh! This was a fun book to read. As a true Professor, Foster knows how to captivate his audience and make us see what might have been lost because of sheer boredom.

His way of handling the writing subjects, the meanings behind techniques and making us look for just good, unbiased, writing, is a gift for all that get to read this title.

I do recommend it if you are an aspiring author. It made a huge impact in me.

8. ‘Turning Pro’ by Steven Pressfield

Turning Pro is the nudge we all need to get in touch with our life’s program. Pressfield writes about his life and his experience in becoming a well-known writer.

There are some powerful lessons inside this book. No sugarcoating the thing, no handling with care, no lies about what we need to accept in our live’s if we want to pursue the writing craft.

It’s an eye opener of sorts. I do recommend it most vividly.

9. ‘Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear’ by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is road trip through all of our most ingrained fears and tremors about the writing life. Always reaching for a positive and transformative point of view on all matters, Gilbert help us having a new perspective of the writer’s life choices.

There are myths in here being debunked with the personal flair of this writer.

It’s a fun and helpful book if you are an aspiring writer.

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I hope you found these suggestions inspiring. I’m always on the look out for other favorites so, let me know if you have one to suggest.

Let me know if you read any of these and your opinion about them. And, please feel free to suggest a few of your favorite books on the writing-craft.

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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