Robert Louis Stevenson: Build a web

He wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in six days, but he wasn’t in too big a hurry to mind the web of “sound patterns” essential to the delicate art of constructing sentences, which he elucidates in the first chapter of his 1919 essay collection, The Art of Writing:

Music and literature, the two temporal arts, contrive their pattern of sounds in time; or, in other words, of sounds and pauses. Communication may be made in broken words, the business of life be carried on with substantives alone; but that is not what we call literature; and the true business of the literary artist is to plait or weave his meaning, involving it around itself; so that each sentence, by successive phrases, shall first come into a kind of knot, and then, after a moment of suspended meaning, solve and clear itself. In every properly constructed sentence there should be observed this knot or hitch; so that (however delicately) we are led to foresee, to expect, and then to welcome the successive phrases. The pleasure may be heightened by an element of surprise, as, very grossly, in the common figure of the antithesis, or, with much greater subtlety, where an antithesis is first suggested and then deftly evaded. Each phrase, besides, is to be comely in itself; and between the implication and the evolution of the sentence there should be a satisfying equipoise of sound; for nothing more often disappoints the ear than a sentence solemnly and sonorously prepared, and hastily and weakly finished. Nor should the balance be too striking and exact, for the one rule is to be infinitely various; to interest, to disappoint, to surprise, and yet still to gratify; to be ever changing, as it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of an ingenious neatness.

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I found his recent thoughts on the future of publishing on his blog. I agree with all of them, and many pertain to non-fiction as well as to fiction. Here’s a teaser and a link:

The Future of Publishing

The world of publishing is currently going through massive turmoil. Some people believe that the rise of e-books is going to be the biggest single change in publishing since Gutenberg’s invention of movable type.

I’m not a prophet nor a seer nor clairvoyant. But I do have my eyes open, and in this column, I give you my best predictions for the coming years. They may be right. They may be wrong. Either way, one thing seems certain: Huge changes are coming.

I offer these predictions to suggest ways you might plan for your future. I’m using them to plan for mine.

Prediction #1: E-books Will Surpass P-books Soon

I define a “p-book” to be a book printed on paper. Click here for more

A hot issue: Truth in memoirs. After several scandals (look up authors James Frey and Frank McCourt and throw in “Oprah,” and you’ll get the gist), the subject of “embellishment” of stories that are ostensibly true has gotten a lot of attention.

But let’s cut to the chase: ALL writing is false, in some sense, no matter how journalistic or scientific. It is false in that it perforce tells only part of the story. There’s going to be a range of “truthfulness”; if you invent people or events claim truthfulness, don’t be surprised if you get called on it.

Yet whose memory is perfect? Even with notes or recordings? And what “facts” are significant? Is it better to write, “The color of our family car was blue, or maybe grey; actually, it may have been dark green. I’m not sure…” or “Dad pulled the blue Buick into the driveway, and threw his suitcase into the back seat”? Well, what do you mean by, “better”? The latter moves the action along; the former may be more truthful; but what are you trying to accomplish?

Most of my clients are writing books to establish their professional credibility. I encourage them to include some autobiography, so that readers can get to know them–and perhaps like and trust them. To that end, I suggest judicious storytelling–not to mislead, but not to draw attention to imperfections.

Ultimately, your book represents you. Your integrity, or lack thereof, will be examined, largely by the evidence you provide–and how well it matches what people may find on the Internet. Think about that when you plan what to write.

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down. More

FastPencil.com is getting behind NanoWriMo in a big way. Watch the site for interesting stuff!

Trust Yourself

As a writer, you have to keep all of the elements of craft in your head at once. But, as Bell suggests, “if you are trying to think of them as you write, you’ll tense up.” To this end, it’s a good idea to NOT think about these elements too much as you write your first draft. Tune out your inner editor. Allow yourself to take risks; write freely and without inhibition. Trust your instincts.

The important part is that your hand keeps moving, writing paragraph after paragraph, scene after scene, page after page. After you’re finished with your first draft, then you can go back and polish it, paying attention to the elements of craft, refining your characters and their motivations, heightening the conflict, and reorganizing the structure.

Sign up today for Write Great Fiction: Revision & Self-Editing and take advantage of the 20% off any September and October course by using coupon code SEPT209 at checkout.

(I left the sign-up info in because it looks like a good course–and because I want to balance my use of it as a negative example.)

This is NOT the way to write great NON-fiction. This is the way to write non-fiction slowly, painfully, and unproductively. It may be cathartic, or have other benefits, but it is just what my methodology (Joel’s BookProgram) was designed to remedy.

To write non-fiction well and quickly, you do the following:

• First create your structure. The structure bears your message.
• Within the structure, remember that “the diamond is your friend.” This tells you exactly what your structure must do to serve your message–and thus, your reader.
• You do NO writing until the structure is COMPLETE. Then you ZipWrite, quickly and easily.

I’m grateful to Brian Klems, the Writer’s Digest Online Community editor, for giving me the opportunity to verbalize this clear contrast between great fiction writing and great non-fiction writing.

Only write the good stuff.

That seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?  Clearly you don’t want
to write bad stuff.

But I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read a post or a
blog or heard a writer say, “I can hardly wait to get through
this chapter so I can write the one I’m excited about.”

Have you ever been there.  Found yourself dragging through a
scene you’ve told yourself just HAS to be in the story because
if it isn’t, the story won’t make sense… but you’re not having
any fun at all writing that scene.  The good stuff is up ahead
somewhere, and you’re writing toward it.

Here’s a little secret.  What you’re hating to write, your
readers will hate to read.  If it’s dull for you—who in
theory at least love your story because it belongs to you—
it’s going to be twice as dull for them.

Your readers can only love what you have loved first.

If you’re having a miserable time writing the scene, stop yourself.
Look at the scene.  Something is wrong with it.

Write this somewhere in front of where you write:

If I’m not having fun with this scene, neither will anyone
else.

Write with joy,
Holly

P.S.  If you’re really struggling with scenes, I can help you.
Here’s the link to the system I use to create scenes I WANT to
write and have fun writing:

http://hollylisle.net/courses/GreatScenes

Holly Lisle

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