Writing?

The work that no one sees (or believes)

What is writing? Is it just putting letters into words, words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, chucking about a few ‘decorative pieces’ (to break away from the same-old, same-old) such as: . , ? ! “ ‘? In a way, yes. But really NOT!

The funny thing about writing is that it’s not about writing at all. All the stuff about letters, and words, and sentences, and paragraphs, and ‘decorative pieces’, is true, but it’s only about 20% of the work. Most of the work, like 80%, is about thinking, planning, scribbling, researching (reading), and (of course) deleting, changing, editing, rethinking… And remembering! Oh my goodness, there is so much to remember. When you’re halfway through a book you need to remember EVERYTHING you’ve already written. You must know your characters as if they were real. You must know where they’ve been, what they’ve said, how they reacted, and you must remember where they’re going, what they’ll do next, how they’ll react, what will happen to them, who they met, when, how and why, and then you must remember the world they’re in — if their office is on the fifth floor, you better frigging remember ‘fifth floor’ because that kind of detail is vital. Is it any wonder that writers might need ‘head’ space when they’re writing?

Like many writers out there, I cannot afford (at least not yet, fingers crossed) to just write. I have to pay my bills and stretch myself to five different places before I can even think about writing. So, to help me juggle it all, I have to be organised.

1. I keep my writing separate from everything else, even though my writing is inspired by everything else in my life. This may sound odd, but I’m sure many writers out there will understand. In lamest terms, it is about separating the material side, while the emotional and mental side remain connected. I have a small space where I write — small as in my tiny desk and ordinary chair can fit, office chair can’t fit. I have a notebook just for my writing. And my head shifts into a different gear when I pick up that particular notebook, especially if I sit in my writing space. I still think about all the things in my life (can’t get those out of my head), but they become secondary. My focus is on the story that I’m writing.

2. I leave lots, and lots, and lots of notes. I have notes about where the characters have been, what they did, how they reacted. I have notes on little details, like their bedroom is upstairs, facing west. I have notes on where they need to go next and how they will react, what will happen to them, who they’ll meet and what that character will do to the whole story.

3. I leave a list of all that I have already done. This helps me remember where I’ve been, and it gives me a feeling of success — “my, my, my, look how much I’ve done”. Some days I’ll find I don’t have even five minutes for my writing. Some days, I’ll have only five minutes, but I’ll be tempted to think ‘what’s the point, such short time can’t be enough for anything’. “Remove that thought.” I tell myself, sometimes out loud. Any time I have, whether it’s five minutes or five hours, I use it. Add a word or two. Breathe the air in my writing corner. Refresh my memory. Say hi to my characters. Whatever, I’m there even for five minutes. Eventually, I find it all added up and it’ll give me such an amazing feeling of accomplishment.

4. I leave all the notes I write during the day in one place. At some point, I might find the time to organise them. I have notes on envelopes that contained my electricity bill — hey, it was the only piece of paper I had nearby when the idea came to me. And, when I do organise my notes, I recycle the old papers that I scribbled on, which means I recycle twice; I like to think of it this way, so let it be.

5. (I’ll write this point as advice, you can figure out what I did and where I went wrong, very wrong) Take your time with major decisions like places and names of your characters. DO NOT CHANGE THEM halfway through, or once you’ve done the first draft. Changing characters' names is a nightmare. Spending more time thinking about this decision is time well spent. As I said in the beginning, writing is really about thinking or at least more of it is about thinking than writing. There’s an excellent reason for that. Once you’ve given your character a name, write down why you chose that name. If you should find yourself doubting the decision, look back on your note and leave the character’s name as it is. The same goes for places. If the story is set in London, oh do NOT change that. Just leave it in London. Write another story set in whatever place that has recently inspired you.

That’s all I will say in this post. Remember that writing is like growing flowers, except that we can’t depend on nature to do the work for us. Planting the seed is the writing in terms of letters into words, words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and chuck around a few ‘decorative pieces’. What makes the seed turn into a flower is the mystery and the real work a writer has to do.

May all our stories be free of: plot holes, two-dimensional characters, inconsistencies, and nonsense.

Originally published at https://meliha.webador.co.uk.