Rules of Writing

Rules for writing. 

My writer friends Gretchen and Wayne invited me to this wonderful journey of reading books about the craft of writing and sharing thoughts. I dedicate myself to honing the craft of writing. 

We start with Robert McKee's book ‘Story’ and will add others as needed. 

This 437-page book is about the craft of writing though it pleasantly surprises me when I  read that there is no formula for good writing. 

Then what are these four hundred pages for? I wonder. 

I hear the same message in D.V.Swain’s book - (Techniques of the Selling Writer) 

“No writer in his right mind writes by a set of rules, at least not someone else’s rules.’-  says the author (page 9).

Why not?

‘Because rules start at the wrong end, with restrictions and formulas.’

Then what do I start with? I ask. 

“With your feelings. Your own feelings," answers Mr. Swain., “ If you haven’t got feelings, you can’t write.” 

I love to hear, “The self-taught writer holds a small advantage here, perhaps. Lacking formal training, he is unaware of technique a thing separate and apart. Intellectualization of art is still alien to him.” 

So he focuses on feeling. 

Mc. Kee adds: 

“Over the last 25 years,….the method of teaching creative writing in American universities has shifted from the intrinsic to the extrinsic… Erosion of values has brought with it a corresponding erosion of story.….First, we must dig deeply into life to uncover new insights, new refinements of values and meaning.”  

I remember Maya Angelou’s quotation - “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”. That is the reason you, my dear writer why you write.

  

I remember my  late writer father’s admonishing- “Write only if you can’t do without.” 

Still,  as a bilingual, bicultural writer  I hesitate when I am confronted with ‘Who is your audience?’ 

Would the mainstream western readers relate to my story? Would my audience understand my voice which is different because my values are, my language is?

Mr. McKee answered my quest with an example:  the story of a younger sibling who is dying to get married. She belongs to a culture where the older siblings must be married first. The protagonist spends her whole life not being able to be with her beloved. 

This story may not touch a reader who doesn’t share this way of living. He may find this problem weird, absurd and the story not worth reading because it is too foreign..

How could this plot be a successful story? Here the author shone his light to the understanding of two important terms: 

Stereotypical and archetypal.   

The writer’s focus should be on the archetypal, digging deep on the feelings of the protagonist so it resonates with that of the reader’s.  

How?

 Focus on basic human emotion. Strike the right cord of the reader’s emotion where he feels the pain of the helpless lover. That is a universal, eternal thing. 

Readers read fiction because
"fiction gives life its form… a story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality." explains Swain. 

Good Story Well Told

McKee brings this point succinctly with two examples:  a lady’s story ‘ how I put my children on the school bus’ and ‘a mother’s funeral. 

The subject of the second story is much touching. But it did not touch the listeners for its boring delivery and stereotypical details. In contrast, the mention of the ‘nose-picker’ child made everyone burst in heartfelt laughter. It touched the audience. 

"Trivial materials brilliantly told vs profound material badly told," 

Story talent and Literary talent

Story talent is primary says, McKee, while literary talent is secondary. Without good storytelling no matter how sharp your grammar sense be, it won't stand.  At the same time sense of grammar is essential too. 

Talent without craft 

The author brought the fuel and the engine in the analogy of talent without craft. Without the engine the fuel is meaningless. It may burn but accomplish nothing.

Therefore, those 437 pages!    

Novel and Bell

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explains a good story ( or novel) is like a bell in her article about writing. An interesting analogy. She writes: 

“The successful novel, on the other hand, has a shape much like a bell. We begin at the top of the bell, its tight curve. Every detail has a purpose here: the way a woman tilts her head, the slant of light as one exits the subway, the repetition of a phrase. As soon as we have gained our bearings, we notice things beginning to open up, flaring outward the way a bell does…..

Reading it becomes a three-dimensional experience, beginning in the book and ending in ourselves. Such a novel, while it is a mirror of, and a commentary on, a particular event, people, country or time, is on some level about each one of us, our central truth. Each successful novel gives a special flavor and shape -- and tone -- to this truth but does not limit it to these. In this, it is similar to the bell, which shapes sound without enclosing it."

  

Focus (For a Writer)

I needed a focus.  Thoughts drifted me away, and it felt like I was trying to cook on all four burners while things were spilling from each one even though all I was doing was driving, not cooking. 

I calmed down and realized that the drive through the Kirker Pass road on this chilly day from my home town Walnut Creek to Pittsburg was such a blessing.  Yes, blessing, and did I ever count that? 

Thank You for this scenery, thank You I can still see it.

The hills that were hay-yellow and brown last summer are velvet soft brushed with green, like an oil painting with bold, confident strokes.  The bare branches of the trees done with pen and ink sketches meticulously etched.  Occasional cherry blossoms with whisper soft pink dabbed with sponge paint, looked like a child’s art.  Then the clouds that hugged the snow-capped Mt. Diablo!  Here the Supreme artist brought her watercolor palette. 

What a magnificent decision to mix all the various media. How daring - forgetting all rules, breaking all formulas to express exactly what She wanted.

I was trying to paint that too, with words, but in vain. What I felt today in my solo driving was a sense of transcendence, a feeling of uplift that doesn’t happen often in everyday living.  I wanted to hold on to that feeling.  Stay at that moment and stretch it.  

Mind drifted away. Thoughts accumulated like dust balls and whirled in front of me. 

It started with the thought: ‘Why write another book while so many others are there?’   Then, ‘who’ll read yours?  What is your WHY?’

The quotation from the speaker Stephen Nightingale shared at the CWC meeting last Saturday shone like a light bulb. 

“Writing is a way of giving to the stranger.” 

STRANGER! Huh! Did I ever think like that?  

Yes, I can feel that is the reason I toss and turn, go through enormous pain that all endeavoring writers  (or artists) go through. I wanted to give to the stranger,  to connect. 

There is a tremendous urge to give, to share my story to a stranger who’d listen, who’d connect with my writer’s soul.  This stranger is unknown, maybe even not born yet... but that is my goal. 

There is so much noise out there regarding choosing your reader I am confused.  Heck! Do I know that?  But I hear over and over ‘Who is your audience?’.

I go from one book to another, click one link to another to get that answer.  I have a wealth of information  I gather at the end of each day but I don’t know what to do with it. 

FOCUS- says my inner voice.  Just write.