Millions of other bloggers and authors have written on this subject. For that, I am sorry. But from what I’ve gleaned they all appear to say the same thing: read more. Read and read and read. The more you read, the better you write. And just as important: write. Practice writing. Write at least an hour a day. Schedule a time every day to write. Get into a routine of writing. Make it happen. If you want to get good at something, you have to exercise, so write as often as you can. I’m simplifying here, but you get the point.

This post is not one of those posts.

Although reading and writing more can and does help improve writing, it’s not the only way, or the best way, to improve your craft.

Here’s what you need to do:

Step One: Put down that writing implement
Whether it be pencil or pen or typewriter or phone or tablet or computer, put it away. Stop writing. Just stop it, right now. This may sound counterintuitive, but bear with me.

Step Two: Go outside
Seriously, do it. Stand up, open the door, and go outside. I know the outside with its Sun and light and nature and elements can be scary as hell, but just try it.

Step Three: Do something besides write
This is the apex of all art: you have to do other things. As a writer, you can’t just write and write and write, and read, but do nothing else. How can you write about the smell of rain if you stay inside all the time thinking about the smell of rain but never actually smelling the rain when it pours? Or how can you find the right words to describe how it feels when you first think you might love someone, if you’ve never been twitterpated before? With what feels like a limitless conglomeration of words to choose from, how do you know which is the right one for the sense or feeling you want to get across? This goes for all writing. And all art. In order to create, you have to experience.

Step Four (kind of): Try other art forms
Step four is a continuation of Step Three. You don’t actually have to go outside, so for all those Heliophobes out there, fear not (but it sure is nice out there in the big open air). I have found one of the best ways for me to improve my writing is to try other forms of art, other forms of expression. What better way to re-think or re-see a character or scene or experience than by capturing it in a different medium? Whether painting or sculpture or sewing or jewelry making or carpentry or landscape design or film or photography, whatever you find that you love, spend some time on that. Let that art form influence and improve your writing. After all, that’s what writing is all about.

Improving yourself, your community, and hopefully this little blue marble.

I’ve been married now for a little over two years and I love married life. When you find that person and commit to them with that level of sincerity, it can solidify you. But there was a time when I wasn’t married and went clubbing three times a week and asked girls to dance or for their numbers and got rejected so often you might’ve thought I had a Surgeon General’s warning printed on my forehead:

WARNING: Do not date this man. Actually, don’t even talk to him. If it doesn’t work out, he will write about you in a future novel or blog post and he won’t change your name (which isn’t true... I’ll at least change the name... maybe).

In my late teens and early twenties, rejection like that bothered me a lot. I’d finally get a date and not get a second date. Once, a girl asked me to sing to her on the phone and afterwards never called me back because I sing like a dying pig. Still, I felt like I had a lot to offer and wasn’t being given a chance for whatever reason. After a long night at the bar or club or one of those set-ups where your friends go out as a group to try and introduce you to someone, I’d stay up at night and wonder what was wrong with me.

I talk to my single friends now and it seems even worse. I keep hearing, “How do you meet someone?” You’ve got Match.com, Tinder, Christian Mingle, and a million other sites and apps all designed to help you meet people. But in a lot of ways, rejection of this sort is even worse. Instead of those 5-10 girls I got rejected by on any given night, thousands of people could be looking at your profile or your pic and “swiping right.” A lot of my single friends refuse to get back on these sites for such a reason. You put a little of yourself out there only to get smacked in the face.

Now that submitting stories to lit mags and queries to agents is part of my daily life, it almost feels like I’m trying to start dating again. I counted how many I received last year and it was close to 200. These letters have ranged from the “this is a you suck form letter and we are really busy which is to say it wasn’t good enough to warrant some additional comments” to the “wow, this is great, but doesn’t fit what we’re looking for, so please send us more of your work in the future” letters.  It really doesn’t matter, though, does it? Rejection is rejection.

But if you are reading this, then you’ve likely committed to the first step. You’ve submitted a story here or somewhere else. You’ve put yourself out there. I know a few writers who are so scared of rejection they never submit anywhere. Don’t be that person unless you really want to be. It’s like your friend who says “all men are douches” or “no woman really wants a nice man” as a cover for their own insecurities and never puts themselves out there. So you’ve commited to submitting stories but now you’re getting rejected and thinking of quitting. Here are a couple tips to keep you chugging along:

1)   Look at the stuff you’re writing. It’s likely that you’re writing the stuff you think other people want to read instead of writing what’s really within you. So stop doing that. Meditate for 20 minutes, then immediately after, put your projects away and write what’s in your soul. Even if it starts out as a poem or a journal entry, do it. You’ll be amazed at how more successful you’ll be if you’re being yourself.

2)   Why are you writing?  Write down the reasons. For me, it’s understanding more about myself, other people, society, the world. It’s about connection. It’s about breaking down people’s barriers (and my own) and developing relationships.

Then ask yourself why you are submitting? Write down the reasons. Are you hoping to develop a career as an author and not have to work a 9 to 5 (my hand is raised)? Is even a part of you craving validation that you are doing something worthy and different in the world (guilty again)?

Take a look at both lists and figure out if they jibe. If they don’t, why not? Understanding your motivations can go a long way in reminding yourself why you’re doing this. Probably, those reasons are greater than the depressed state we all get when we get rejected.

All of the editors of From Sac are writers as well and trust us, we’ve received tons of rejection letters. We hate receiving them and we hate sending them. We go through periods of doubt and failure and hopelessness. It hurts to put yourself out there and continually get shot down. There have been several times where I thought of quitting, of how easier life would be if I didn’t have to deal with these levels of rejection.

But then I remember the last time I was single. I’d made a major life decision to quit a career and go back to school to learn how to write. I moved back in with my parents. I drove my dad’s cargo van at times. I’d decided that I didn’t care what anyone else thought. I knew who I was and I’d spent so much time being someone else that I thought people wanted me to be. And it was then, broke and one of the oldest people in all my classes, that I met my wife.

We all have stories like this. Times where we were true to ourselves and good things happened. As long as you are being you, writing what you want, submitting for the reasons that are right for you, then rejection is nothing to get down over. Because that means you’re a writer, and that’s awesome. 

- Elison

In a moment of frustration and passion for my writing I vented about the loneliness that
has followed me since completing grad school.  Just when I thought I wasn’t being completely heard (because let’s face it, I could go on about writing for days and bore a person not interested in the subject) I received this little gem as a gift. 











Turns out I was not only heard, but listened to and this book has been just what I needed.  

“What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere.  All creative             work builds on what came before.  Nothing is completely original.”

Kleon reminds his readers that it isn’t just about writing or painting or drawing, it is about the creativity.  Creating is not necessarily about being original.  As stated in the title, creativity comes from all over, including “stealing” from everyone and everything around you and making it your own. 

The book is organized in just that fashion, a bit like a journal with things stolen from others.  There are drawings, quotes, pictures etc.  It is a collage of Kleon’s writing mixed with what he has picked up on his writing journey.  The chapters are short, yet insightful and full of things that an artist may already know but needs to be reminded of from time to time.  The book is small and perfect for a coffee table.  It’s more of a tangible reminder to be creative rather than a book you read and then place onto a bookshelf.  Since I have had this book it has been thrown in my bag, brought to work, rested on my night stand, laid on my couch and tossed around in my car.    

Chapter five is one of my favorite reminders: Side Projects And Hobbies Are Important.  Within this chapter there is a section called Practice Productive Procrastination.  Kleon advises his readers to do other things, to “bounce between” different projects.  I have found this beneficial as of late.  My notebook sits around the house while I practice the guitar, water my plants, make homemade candles, make coasters, fix jewelry and all the while I am thinking about the new character in the story I am writing.  If something new pops into my head, I write it down and then carry on with what I am doing.  I also steal from some of the other things I am working on and incorporate them into my work.  This comes into play when sitting and writing is just not flowing the way I want it to. 

Kleon’s suggestions are easy to incorporate into your life, not mention the book is a quick read.  I chose to savor it, read a little at a time, but it can easily be read in a day.  Which is nice if you need a distraction or rather, a procrastination from your work.  I could go on about this book, but it is short and I don’t want to give it all away and ruin your experience.  My suggestion is that you go pick up a copy, spend a day reading it and then go be creative.       

Check out Kleon's website:  http://austinkleon.com/

 

You wake up to your alarm clock thinking about stories. You write. Maybe you’ve read On Writing by Stephen King or some other book about writing. Maybe you’ve participated in a workshop. Maybe you’ve taken a writing class. Maybe you’ve even graduated from a creative writing program. And if any of these things are true, you know the following rules:

1)  Show, don’t tell.
2) Use the active voice.
3) Adverbs are lazy.
4) Characters should change (sorry, transform).
5) Write what you know.
6) Above all else, keep writing.

After going through the MA Creative Writing program at Sacramento State, I learned all of these things and a million more. Some of us may have learned this in middle or high school. And it becomes so engrained in your head that you hate yourself when you break them. You see “to be” verbs in your writing and you want to slash the page with that red pen. And then you read some of the lit mags out there and realize that everything you learned is wrong.

Well, not everything, but more of a realization that you need to un-learn some of these “rules” to expand your writing because you’ve been writing the same thing over and over again. You need to un-learn to grow into something else. Think about it. If everyone is writing by these very rules, then of course our stories are boring. Read any lit mag or modern novel and you’ll see the best stories break the rules.

So here are some tips to help you un-learn:

1) Show, don’t tell. Ah, Commandment #1. The point of this rule is to help you concentrate on scene instead of thoughts, feelings, and other abstractions. And focusing on this rule works well for scenes. But what about in between scenes? What if you want to write a novel where you actually have to explain backstory, world building, etc.

Storyboard your favorite novel chapter or short story and see what percentage of the story is “telling.” 60%? 70%? 80%? The problem with learning the “show, don’t tell” rule isn’t the rule itself, it’s that you are beat over the head with it. But no one really ever teaches you how to “tell” properly, how to connect scenes. So if you’re interested in doing this, here’s an exercise:

Copy that favorite novel chapter or short story word for word. Focus on the exposition. Study how the author moves between scenes, how the author moves inside and outside of the narrator’s heads. Try this a few times and you’ll start seeing how telling works in the overall structure of stories. 

2) Active voice. Can you imagine if every single sentence was written in active voice? Much like the “show, don’t tell” rule, this is one of those golden writing commandments. The point is clarity. You may have also had a professor who told you to “activate” your writing. If you’re like me, you have a penchant for starting sentences with “There were” or “She was” and it makes you want to throw a laptop across the room. There was (heh) actually a time in my life where I tried to write whole stories with no passive voice at all.

I heard in a writing class once that a study determined effective writing – that is, being optimally understood – contains 70% active voice. What does this mean? It means that if you have a paragraph that’s ten sentences long, you can actually have three sentences that are in passive voice! Get out, you say! So how do you unlearn the desire to scratch off every passive sentence with bold, red ink?

It’s called the three second breath. While editing, before automatically slashing out something just because it’s in passive voice, stop and take a three second breath. Then exhale and ask yourself how the passive voice is working. Are you softening tone? Changing a rhythm of a paragraph? If so, then maybe you should leave it. Chances are you’re being too hard on yourself.

3) Adverbs are lazy. When you're a beginning writer, this is an important rule to keep. The beginning writer tends to use adverbs instead of picking the right verbs. Verbs are usually the most important part of a sentence as the indicate action. Adverbs “soften” action. Take for instance the following:

He ran into me heavily.

He slammed into me.

But once you’ve got some experience writing, adverbs can be extremely useful. Just look at any of your favorite modern stories and you’ll see them. Take for instance:

She stomped into the house as though she owned it.

She stomped into the house possessively.

In this case, the adverb makes the sentence more efficient and less cliché. So don’t automatically eliminate all adverbs from writing. Write them all down in your draft. When you edit, circle them all and truly ask yourself if you’re being lazy or trying to make your writing more “pretty.” If so, take them out. But if not, it’s perfectly okay to leave some of them in.

4) Characters should transform by the end of the story. This is a classic creative writing lesson. It likely derives from James Joyce’s epiphanies,  where the protagonist would, as a result of the plot, learn something new about themselves or the world and would touch on the story’s theme. You likely learned something similar. Maybe it was a story isn’t a story unless a character transforms. They must change.

But this rule can be very limiting. It often causes a writer to write inorganically, forcing an epiphanic revelation and/or theme that just isn’t there. I personally struggle with this. So instead of coming to a story with a pre-ordained theme, do this. Go to a restaurant or café or somewhere in public and focus on a group of people. Write everything you see, hear, and smell. Write what they say. Do not write any opinions, narrative intrustions, and the like. Just pure “sense.” If you do this for a long enough period of time, you’ll see that you have a story with a beginning, middle and end, and likely there won’t be a “sudden realization” about something that wraps things up so nicely. 

5) Write what you know. I’m sure you’ve heard this. For the beginning writer, it makes sense. You’re trying to learn about craft and so it’s easier to focus on craft instead of content.

If you think of the best stories, though, they are stories of discovery, where the ending feels inevitable and yet surprising, almost as though the writer discovered the story as you were reading it. So here’s a tip: don’t outline before you write. Sure, get a general plot down, but once you start outlining things before you even know what your story is about (or what your characters are going to do), you will force your story into what you already know because you’ve already determined it. But stories aren’t paint by numbers. Get some stuff on the paper first, then outline or storyboard. But let your plot develop naturally; let your characters go where they’re gonna go. As an old professor said, don’t be a fascist with your stories. Your characters have their own lives, even if you don't know what they are yet.

6) Whatever you do, keep writing. What do you mean? How can this be bad? It’s not bad, but sometimes we focus so much on writing, even when we’re sitting in front of a blank page for weeks on end doing nothing, when there are other things we could be doing to improve our writing. For example, sometimes it’s better to read. If you’ve written crap every session for a week, take a break and read something. Or go do something you’ve never done. Or talk to a stranger. Or talk to someone who is not a stranger. The point is that writing is just not about writing. It’s about everything. So yes, keep writing, but don’t forget to keep living, too. Living helps writing.

Also don’t forget that something important must always be at stake, that the denouement should always tie every loose end, and that you should never use exclamation points!!!!!!!!

Okay, okay. These rules are important. But remember the most important writing rule: if it works, it works. Also remember that this is "creative writing." Creative. If you're a writer who lives by writing rules, then you need to try different things. Write a different genre. Or a different form. Or in longer or shorter sentences. Or in second person. You get the idea. In order to write something fresh and new, some rules are going to have to be broken, well except that one about opening stories with someone waking up to an alarm clock. Don't do that. Everyone has done that and it doesn't work. 

Good day, and happy writing. 

My writing community consists of few people, all of whom I rarely see in person.  I have tried many times to form or be a part of writing groups, but they end up dissipating before they even really get started.  It is true the act of writing is a solo act.  It is not like a sports team where you have to get together in order to practice.  But I have to admit I miss my grad school workshopping days.  I miss the days when I would enter the classroom excited to talk about a beautifully structured sentence, pointing out why and how each word worked.  To an outsider, this may seem like the most boring activity in the world, but to a person who writes there is nothing more thrilling than discovering a beautifully written sentence.  Grad school has long been over and still I long for these moments.  What I discovered after graduating is this:

 Writing can often feel lonely.          

 Writing requires discipline, consistency, accountability and passion.  All of these are easily lost when one is no longer faced with deadlines or by the scowl on someone’s face because you failed to critique their work and give them feedback.  It is easy to get discouraged when you enter the “real” writing world often consisting of rejection letters and failed projects.  This is where the loneliness sets in.  At this point you now have few people to vent to.  Most of the people you went to grad school with found “real” jobs and are no longer writing or the grad school glue that once made you feel like you had known each other for years has now worn off.  You realize that if you are going to have any success as a writer you have to make a go of it on your own. 

 What does this mean?  It means you keep writing because you love to write and you can’t imagine not writing.  Make writing a priority and structure your life around it, but make sure that you remember to have fun with it.  Taking yourself too seriously, on any level, is never a good idea.  And in those moments when you feel all alone in your love for words remember there are many of us feeling the same way at the same moments.    

  

Over the last six months, I’d officially been in a writing slump. The worst I’ve ever had. I won’t call it writer’s block – I started writing this, obviously, so it’s not like my fingers are completely incapable of stringing words together on a screen – but I haven’t written anything worthwhile. My subconscious, which for so long had fought to the forefront of my mind in the middle of meetings, sleep, conversations, meals, drives, workouts, and TV shows with creative ideas about characters and stories, had abandoned me. I felt devoid of writing synergy. I thought about putting in the work and would lock myself in my den with a blank Word document up, but instead decided to check Facebook or how my fantasy sports teams were doing. There are a lot of excuses for this, which I won’t enumerate here, but they mostly had to do with devoting time and energy to things that weren’t writing. I thought maybe I’d been wrong that I could do this. Or that I didn’t have enough of whatever it was I needed (talent, work ethic, creativity, patience, and a million other things). But two nights ago, I was plucked out of my writing funk by the past.

            My old notebook from a graduate fiction writing class.

            I found it in a drawer in the guest bedroom, completely unaware I had kept it there for safekeeping. I looked at the notebook’s dirty cover, “Sac State” inscribed in gold across the center, and the folded papers sticking out from the pages as though in a hurry to reveal themselves. I sat on the edge of the bed and squinted at my handwriting, consuming each word, arrow, underline, star, scribble on each page before tenderly turning to the next page, to the next revelatory note:

·      Henry James: “fiction does its work by creating a dream in the reader’s mind. We may observe, first, that if the effect of the dream is to be powerful, the dream must probably be vivid and continuous…”

·      meaning design, not theme design – the meaning should flow like a current underneath the plot/narrative design

·      trying to prove something always results in bad writing

·      Writing is always about revelation, not destination

·      a good scene complicates character but reveals something about them at the same time

·      stories are shaped by a character’s desire and the obstructions to obtaining that desire

·      the story says something; the author keeps quiet

·      you must risk approaching sentimentality but you also must never cross that line

·      what you read, watch, talk about and who you hang out with will often determine what you write about and how you write without you knowing it, so choose wisely!

·      Good stories always have motion towards something that is surprising yet inevitable

·      Desire is a word before it’s a thing.

·      Be okay with writing crap. Not only will you get to the good stuff, you’ll also have some interesting accidents along the way.

·      In dialogue, don’t forget to use silence, actions, and descriptions to add complication, imagery, and rhythm.

·      Picasso: “If you want to be an artist, remain a child”

            I consumed all the notes with such joy. I had been transported back to my graduate program, when all my time was centered on writing and learning the craft, talking to people with similar interests, my entire being filled with words and images and emotions and finding ways to put them all together. And then, in the middle of a page, my subconscious leapt back into its familiar spot, and an idea for a character and plot rushed through my brain and goosebumps came over me. I was excited again. I grabbed my laptop and wrote stream-of-consciousness style all the ideas pouring out from my head. It was pure light. That heat. That zone that I sometimes used to get when no one - not even the magnetic lure of social media - can stop you.

            And then I stopped myself. This had happened before. You have three other novels already in progress, Elison. Remember how excited you were to start those? Yes, but this one is different. THIS IS THE ONE. Calm down, dumbass. You need to finish one of those other ones. What’s the point of half-finished stories? But this is the one begging to be told, can’t you see?

            Since I couldn’t decide, I naturally posed the question on Facebook. Almost all of my friends who also write said: it’s not about excitement, it’s about work. Writing is work. Stop complaining and just finish a story already. Almost all of my friends who are not writers said: follow the new story. See how long that excitement can take you. Follow that passion.

            The fact that both sides were split so clearly between writers and non-writers was astonishing to me. The writers answered from a state of understanding, and the others from a place of comparison. Writing as basketball. Or writing as everyday work. It occurred to me, then, that the the reason for my slump was I’d been having this exact debate over the past six months in my own head. I had a day job now. A mortgage. A wife. I wasn’t an unemployed graduate student with all the free time and space to let my creativity run wild. I didn’t want to work for 8 plus hours a day and then come home to writing, that thing I loved doing, to feel like work as well. I wanted the excitement. I wanted the passion. But somehow, it had left me, and I was so close to letting it stay lost.

              But here's the thing - if this is going to work, for me or for any of us, we have to do both.

            There will be days when you can’t get anything down on the page. This is just like any other job. You don’t want to tackle those spreadsheets or write that report or make that presentation, but it’s your job and so you have to do it. Writing is your job, too, and you have to do that as well. But writing is also more than a job. It’s your vocation. Your soul. Your inner voice. And just because it goes away for a while doesn’t mean it’s not going to come back. But you have to fight for it. So unplug your router. Let your phone die. Read. Even then, there will be days when you watch The Walking Dead instead or sleep through your scheduled writing time. This will happen. But no matter what, keep coming back to that blinking cursor. Keep working. Because just when you think that’s it, you're done, that’s when the real story begins.