Writing Essays

I had an experience recently that answered the question for me: why do writers write? I was sitting in my office working on my next book.

Writers’ doubts.

As I worked, I was thinking the thoughts all writers must think when starting a new project: What am I doing? Why am I writing this book? Will I ever finish it? Will it ever amount to anything? Will anyone ever want to read it? Will it make a difference in the world?

A call from a reader.

Just then, the phone rang.

“Hello, I’m George Mabon,” the caller said. “I’m an estates lawyer.”

I said, “Yes sir, what can I do for you today?”

“Well, you’ve already done it,” he said. “I just called to say thank you for your article on how to estimate costs in business litigation.”

My mind raced back through all of the articles I had ever written on many subjects: intuition, manifestation, healing, and earlier articles in my chosen profession, law. What article, I thought.

“Could you please remind me a little bit about the article, Mr. Mabon?” I said.

“Yes, it’s the one where you talk about all of the different types of attorney and client time and expense that have to go into the litigation process and how whether to take any of those steps has to be balanced against their cost and the amount in controversy in the dispute.”

My mind keeps racing back until it comes to the shocking realization that the article he’s talking about was published in a local bar association magazine 30 years ago.

“If I recall, Mr. Mabon, that article was written quite some time ago,” I said.

“Yes, but I’ve been using it a couple of times a month ever since it came out. You see, I mostly write wills and trusts, but people often ask me about disputes and courts. And I use your article to tell them what they can expect by way of costs. The article is quite accurate and my clients experience usually comes out just like the article predicts. And I was doing that again today, and I realized that I had never said thanks for all the help that that article has allowed me to give my clients over the years. So, I wanted to call and do that.”

“Wow, thank YOU, Mr. Mabon,” I said, “you’ve made my day!”

“You’re welcome,” he said.

We talk for a while, and, after exchanging a few more pleasantries, we ring off.

Encouragement today from an old article.

And I get to think about it. That article was on of the first ones I had ever written, and it was done 30 years ago. I remember wondering at the time whether anyone would publish it, whether anyone would read it, and whether it would make any difference, or whether it would get lost in the blizzard of information everyone’s exposed to.

And now, whilst thinking similar thoughts about the book I’m currently working on, I get a call out of the blue from someone who read the old article when it was published and who has often used it during the past 30 years to make a difference in his world.

The gifts of intuition and the means to carry it out.

And I think: that’s why writers write: something inside prompts them to share an experience that’s meant to be shared in a way that will make some difference in the world. And that intuition carries with it the energy to overcome all of the drawbacks, rejections, and difficulties to putting that experience into print and out to the world.

I’m thankful to Mr. Mabon for calling to thank me, and I’m thankful to the universe for Mr. Mabon’s call at a key moment to remind me that writers are given special gifts. Writers are first given the ability to communicate insight through the written word to others. Writers are then given the gift of life experience. They are sometimes given the gift of insight into that experience. And when an intuition with an insight into experience comes, writers are given the gift of the creative energy to make their writing exist in a tangible form accessible to the world.

Why writers write.

Why do writers write? They write because they have been given something special. They write because they are compelled to. They write because they are fulfilling their destiny to use the gifts they have been given to make a difference in the world.

And that’s why writers write.

People are drawn to writing for a variety of reasons and find success in a myriad of ways if they have solid ability to write. Some writers will be successful as fiction writers and turn out bestsellers or be satisfied as a mid-list writer with their name in print. Other writers will become masters at non-fiction or will write for academic and scientific journals. Still others will work for corporations or the government and will be the “go-to” person for reports, letters and documents that are cogent and well put together. A facility with the written word is a valuable commodity in the information society we live in today, and there are many opportunities for a writer to find success.

While it is true that any of the writing forms noted above can bring a writer a modicum of success and feelings of accomplishment, a writer will find their greatest success in writing in an area or subject they are passionate about. A writer’s skills will allow him or her to turn out solid, well put together prose on almost any subject if they put in some research and organization time, but finding a subject that you care about can take your work to the next level. This is true for creative writers that find the story they “need” to tell, or finally hit upon the character who is as real to them as their best friend from high school. But, it is also true for the non-fiction or corporate writer who has a subject they care deeply about or a project that they believe in.

Over a writer’s career they will likely be called on to write many things that they have little passion for. Still, a professional sits down and turns the work out and will be successful. Yet when that same writer finds a project they have passion for they can make a quantum leap forward as a writer. Even if you are engaged in multiple writing projects to pay the rent or that just need to get done, continue to look around for a project that sets you on fire. Maybe you won’t be able to get to it until this year’s corporate report is done or you get that graduate history paper turned in, but make note of your idea and file a few notes away. Once you find a subject that you are passionate about, take the time to expand it and see where it takes you.

Learning how to write characters is the single most important part of writing a novel or screenplay. The kinds of characters that you introduce play an important role in the success of your story. Freelance novelists need to make them complex but believable. There are several ways on how freelance novelists can write characters:

1. Substantiality. Freelance fiction writers need to make the characters as real as possible by conveying to the readers information about them that will also be beneficial for the development of the story. Examples of these particularized facts are possessions, a specific residence, medical records, his personal preferences and opinions.

2. Using symbolism to reveal the character’s nature is part of how to write characters. It is appropriate to relate the character’s nature with objects or settings in your plot even though the readers may not instantly comprehend. According to Northrop Frye using symbols can be knowingly “archetypal” which means a writer is representing or constituting an original type, the writer’s character in this case, after which other similar things are patterned; this refers to comparable characters in the world of literature. It is also possible to use symbolism in a manner that readers may not willfully comprehend. Using characters’ names is a classic means of achieving symbolic associations although it is now commonly applied only in comic or ironic writing and seldom in other forms of modern fiction.

3. Verbal Communication. The content and manner of the verbal communication of each of the characters in your story, helps suggest to the readers the personality of your characters, whether a character is assertive and blunt, quiet and reserved, flirtatious or funny. Those that know how to write characters avoid letting their characters speak unnatural ways. In this way, prejudice can be avoided. The character’s speech should effectively reveal to the readers his social and ethnic background. In turn, the character’s manner of speaking should be justifiable by his background.

4. Stimulus and Drive. The character’s actions should be in harmony with his or her personality, attributes, and goals. Moreover, a major part of how to write characters is consistency. Once the character’s goal is established, it becomes the primary driving force throughout the novel or screenplay.

5. Realistic. The fiction freelancer should let the readers believe that all the actions of their character are justifiable. They should not sound so far-fetched that readers lose their suspension of disbelief. How to write characters is highly related to their actions. People judge people more on their actions than words.

6. Transformation. People usually respond to experiences by making an intimate transformation or avoiding this transformation. How to write characters requires that the conflicts and struggles be instrumental in illustrating the character’s personality. If there is no such development, the readers will likely lose interest in you characters.

Developing characters in a novel could be a headache without a plot outline. Plot and developing characters are greatly interrelated you need to know what part of the character’s life you are going to work in a certain setting. Start to imagine and draw some section of the scenes in your mind. Start to figure out how the main character would react and why they should act that way. Give bits and pieces of revealing information each time. Remember that each time you interact with real people you tend to change the intensity of your feelings by how you relate to them. Their behavior, attitude, outlook, and life events kept on changing and this include how you see them in their phenomenon too.

Life is what you give them! Your characters’ life experiences are essential to developing characters in a novel. They gained what you give! It is an author’s most interesting but difficult job to define each character in the novel and give them intriguing life experiences. Developing fictional characters could be easy or difficult depending on how good you are at observing people and taking other people’s real life experiences beside your own dramatic experience.

Look at the people around you and start feeling how they feel. This will help you relay and emote their experiences on paper. One way is to go to the center of a very busy area or park and just sit down in a coffee shop then look at the passersby. Look at the people passing by and observe their faces. Their expressions could complete section and sections of your story. Expressions are everything. It tells how they feel, the level of their happiness or contentment, and how they take life. Then start defining your characters. You may need more than a pen and a paper for this task. Sometimes a mini laptop, a recorder, or a wi-fi phone by which you can type or record would be crucial and may come in handy anytime, anywhere you feel like writing your thoughts.

Make a sketch of how your character would look like. Appearances and attitude help when developing characters in a novel. People usually present themselves for what they are inside them. This holds true with creating fictional characters. You are creating people, giving up life experiences, and building up emotions. Describe your main characters appearances, likes, and dislikes first before you create the list of supporting characters. A short or long description depends on the role the characters play. The main character is the only one who needs long description.

Are creative writing skills a learnt trait or are they a blessing one is born with? There has always been a lot of debate on this; and there will continue to be a lot of debate on this because everyone has a different opinion on this subject.

In my opinion, it is a bit of both. The skills needed in creative writing can be learnt and cultivated but there has to be some element of talent also existing. The available talent gets the necessary refinement and polish when it is enriched with development of fundamental skills constantly. Top three skills that enrich creative writing are -

1. Good Language Skills:
Good language skills are paramount for good writing. Language skills need to be developed continuously for having good hold over creative writing. An excellent way of developing the language skills is to make a habit of learning one or two new words every day and then using them in your regular communication verbal as well as written.

2. Good Thinking Skills:
Creative writing is the outcome of creative thoughts. Most people hardly pay any attention to their thoughts. But if you wish your writing skills to be enriched it is absolutely mandatory to monitor your thoughts and develop good creative thoughts. The way to do this is to develop your observation power. When you closely observe things you find that you create a deliberate gap in your involuntary thoughts and start having conscious thoughts, which have better and deeper meanings. Your observations get translated into creative thoughts, which in turn form strong foundation for your creative writing skill development.

3. Good Expression Skills:
Creative thoughts need to be translated on paper in order to reach others as creative writing. The process of doing this is through expression. Most people tend to get lost somewhere when they try to express their thoughts. The main reason for this is that there is a gap between their thoughts and their language. The best way to develop good expression skills is through writing short passages with just a few lines of thought so that you do not tend to get lost or diverted. A good way is to set a word count and then stay close to it. This way, if you have a habit to exaggerate or use lesser number of words, you will stay in better control. The idea is to remain as close as possible to the main line of thought.

Using mind maps is also a good idea. How to use mind maps shall be covered in greater detail in a later article.

Using these top three skills will definitely enrich your creative writing efforts.

When you are writing short fiction stories you are often not given the opportunity to fully explain you character to the reader. There just simply isn’t enough time to get into your character sketch in great detail and in some cases your reader won’t even know what your character looks like or even their name. But does that mean you should spend less time doing a character sketch? Yes, and no.

I say no because it is still important to know everything there is to know about you character. What they like and dislike and how they react in situations is important for developing the story. But it isn’t as important as it would be in a novel. You do not need to do a complete past, present and future analysis of your character and know everything about them. It is only important that you know enough so that you can make your character believable in your story. By no means am I giving anyone permission to slack off on their character sketches. Instead, I am suggesting that the relevance of a long in-depth character sketch is minimized because you will not be able to get into any sort of detail about who your character is and what makes them who they are.

This concept can seem a little confusing at first but hopefully it will make more sence by the end. The first thing that I always do when I am considering the who of my story is to find a picture of someone who fits with the character I have in my head. This gives me something to work off of for building the rest of the character. The picture needs to be detailed enough so that you can get the features of the character and a sense of who they are. Write out a quick list with bullet points featuring the important characteristics that you want your character to have. Feel free to change eye color, hair color or anything else that you want, just make sure you have a character that you are happy with.

The second thing that I do is write out a quick one paragraph description of who my character is. I think of it as a cover page to a resume. A quick life story if you will of the characters past. This could include things like the job they are in, their hobbies, their favorite foods and anything else that would set them apart from the crowd. Try not to focus on one area of their life too much as it could start to get lengthy.

The third and final step is to, sticking with the resume idea, write a paragraph with you characters intentions for the future. You should write down what your character wants to do in the next five, ten and 15 years. This is a step that a lot of people tend to skip because they feel that it doesn’t have anything to do with their story but in reality if you look at yourself closely you will see that every action we take is to get us one step closer to our future goals. At least, that is how it should be.

It is just that simple. This three-step process gives you enough information to write a compelling character into your story. If you have a good set of ideas in your head then this should take no more than an hour to complete. Just remember to do a quick overview for each part and don’t get into a ton of detail. That will only lengthen the process and will have you spending more time than needed on something that may not be too important to your story. Just remember that you are writing a short story and not a novel and you should do just fine.

The next installment in the “W” series will look at the what of your story and make this sometimes difficult part of story writing seem a little bit easier to manage.