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A Note for Writers

There is still time for you to become a writer, no matter where you are in your life right now. (And I highly recommend the writer’s life.) But to become a good writer you must be a good reader. A good reader may or may not become a good writer, but you can’t hope to be a good writer unless you’re a good reader. That means reading a lot and reading great stuff.
My favorite novels are Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire by Nabokov, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, the Catcher In the Rye by JD Salinger, 1984 by George Orwell, and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. They’re all great fun. Try to read them over the next year. For me the three best books about writing are: The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand, The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, and the Modern Library’s Writer’s Workshop by Stephen Koch. Also, the second half Stephen King’s book on writing is quite good. They’re all short, clear, and easy to read, and they’ll help you get better fast. For the more spiritual side of art and writing try Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens, and Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Rilke. Of course, you always learn more by reading great writing than by reading about writing. Also, the key to figuring out what makes a great book great is to read it two or three times. That second time through, when already you know what’s going to happen, you can see things coming and figure out how the author constructed it and begin to figure out how to construct yours. Nabokov said that it would be better to read six great books over and over until you master them than to read lots and lots of things once.
Always have the courage to say what you really feel. Don’t be afraid to be the only one who feels how you feel, if you really believe it. Have the courage and conviction to say what you really believe, even if everyone disagrees. Try to see the truth as it is for you and you alone. Push yourself to see things as they really are for you (as opposed to what someone else might be telling you or wanting you to see). Say the thing that no one wants said but is so true. Never let anyone make you hold your tongue. It’s okay to offend a few people. Don’t offend just to do it, but if don’t edit yourself just to be non-offensive. If, in telling the truth as you know it, you offend some people, or a lot of people, that’s fine. If you haven’t risked offending somebody, somewhere you probably said nothing. Never let fear of someone’s response, or everyone’s response, mute your opinion. The rewards of being bold are great.
Writing is, in part, about seeing. Either seeing with your eyes or with your mind’s eye. Acquiring details, noticing behavior, noticing things about ideas, noticing the impact certain words have on people. Try to see things as no one else sees them. Practice seeing, just pure looking. Look around and try to notice something you’ve never seen before in a room where you’ve spent a lot of time. Try to notice what it is that no one is saying about something.
Remember that one of the reasons why you love certain great characters from fiction is because the nature of fiction allows you to come to know them very well, sometimes, even better than you know your friends. E.M. Forester talks about this in his great book, Aspects of the Novel.
When you’re constructing a story remember that it’s easier to excel at creating fictional characters who are your age or younger, and the same gender as you. Also, when you’re creating, as you go through the story ask yourself, what is the most interesting thing that could happen to this character at this point? Or, what’s the most difficult challenge I could throw at this character now? Great stories have interesting characters with interesting motivations struggling with great conflicts and then having a satisfying resolution. The more interesting and compelling the conflict(s) the character has to surmount the better the story will be.
My process begins in increments, writing notes on a yellow post-it pad. These sentences, phrases, words, come all the time, while driving, while walking, while sleeping, so my pad is always there, by my side. Once I have enough notes I begin writing. I’m looking for just lots of good little bits of ideas that can be mushed together into something. There’s fragments of narrative, names I like, maybe something from the science pages, all sorts of things that I can play with. When I'm working I'm looking for a deep relationship with my subconscious, looking to lose myself for a few hours, to silence everything and think long and hard and get into a state athletes might call the zone. This includes some visualization of the scenes I'm writing. This includes playing music that equals the mood of the piece I'm trying to write. Sometimes I give myself a stylistic goal, a sortof rule or stricture. For example, a certain tone, or using the 1st person and then 2nd person and then 3rd person. Or write in a style that mimicks speech but doesn't mock it. Or write something in which every sentence begins with the word A. These aren't great examples, but giving yourself a rule to follow around style and tone can help answer a lot of questions you may have as you go along. I start a first draft and go through to the end. Then I read it back and revise. Repeat between five to fifty-five times until you can't see any way to make it any bit shorter or longer, until you start cutting pieces and then putting them right back, until every single sentence and character and every bit of it is awesome, then you stop.
Sometimes it’s helpful to figure out what the final climax or confrontation of your story is before you know how the characters arrive at that final moment.
Clarity is so critical in fiction and non-fiction. Let the reader know what it is you’re really thinking, what you really mean to say. Don’t strive to be clear to most, strive to be unable to be misunderstood by anyone who’s reasonably smart. Don’t think of how people will understand you, try to anticipate how some might misunderstand and restructure the writing so that even they can’t misunderstand.
In my fiction I’m not looking for reality. I’m looking to create the most interesting, entertaining story [a key word], possible. Magic realism is about finding the exaggeration or outright lie that expresses the truth (for that particular writer at that particular moment) better than would a faithful retelling of reality. In order to be a magic realist you need to create a universe in which the fantastic co-exists alongside the commonplace. You must embrace the presence of an active spiritual world and get that world into your writing. You must write from the perch of the God of the universe you’re creating and not accept the physics of your current reality
In journalism, when I go to interview a celebrity I’m not a fan. I can’t be influenced by wanting to like them or, worse, wanting them to like me. My job isn’t to write stories that will be pleasing to the subject. It’s to write stories that will be interesting, surprising, and above all entertaining (because a writer is indeed an entertainer). Maybe that’ll be a negative story, maybe not. I found the following description of Michael Wolff and thought it a description to aspire to.

“Michael will say anything about anybody," NYT's David Carr says of Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff. "He's fearless in a way that people attribute to sociopathology…." Michelle Cottle writes: "Uninterested in the working press, Wolff's special focus (fixation, even) has always been on the power players -- the moguls -- most of whom he has relentlessly and repeatedly skewered, scraping away the sheen of power and money to reveal the warts, flab, and psychic scars plaguing that rarefied breed of (in Wolff's view) super-wealthy narcissists who buy, run, and ruin media companies for the gratification of their insatiable egos."In journalism, before I go to interview someone I think about the public discussion around that person. Are people saying the subject is washed up or is looking old or doing the best work of his life or what? That’s the sort of stuff I want to ask about. But doing an interview is about having a relaxed conversation. I like to follow the conversation and make it all natural and comfortable, not imposed. I think that you always get the best answers in follow-up questions or re-asking your question in a new way and. Being a good interviewer involves a lot of listening during the interview and being able to improvise to follow the leads that come up in their conversation.
Before you begin creating it’s often helpful to give yourself a little direction, to begin by suggesting what the tone will be and who the audience is. What do they know or not know about something? What are they used to hearing and what do they never hear?
Start with what you know, then remove the unknowns. (I got this from Design Observer.com. It’s supposed to be for designers, but it works for writers as well.) In design this means “draw what you know.” Start by putting down what you already know and already understand. If you are designing a chair, for example, you know that humans are of predictable height. The seat height, the angle of repose, and the loading requirements can at least be approximated. So draw them. Most students panic when faced with something they do not know and cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the beginning. Then work on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a time. It is the most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as “Be where you are.” It works.
When you’re editing your work read it out loud. You want your words to sound good to your ear. Then put it aside for a little while and come back to it when you’ve forgotten it a bit. Try to see it as though you’ve never seen it before. Try to step outside of yourself and see it with someone else’s eyes. Imagine a specific person you respect reading it and imagine their response. If they don’t like something, then change it. Sometimes in the editing process you might be moved to say, “this sucks!” and get depressed. While I’m editing I often say, “this sucks!” But immediately after I say, “I can make it better.” Don’t get bogged down in judging the quality of your work while you’re working on it. Just keep trying to find little ways to make it better. But look at it from the eyes of another so that you don’t get so wrapped up in it that you don’t see the obvious things and someone can come along and say, Well why don’t they just do X? Ask yourself where am I vulnerable to an easy question? The audience can never outthink the author. Anticipate dissent. Read it as another person would, read it as your enemy would.
Try to think about the rhythm of your sentences. Try to think about the ways that a certain thought is translated from your brain and received in another brain and how the order and tone of the words impacts that reception. Consider putting the emphasis at the end of the sentence, the word or phrase that you most want to highlight at the end. The punchline goes at the end. However, you can also be subtle, arch, sly, ironic and throw the punchline in the middle.
Have opinions on words, especially know that which you hate. If you know what you hate then you can begin to construct what it is you love. I hate “literally” and “pick your brain” and “the Madonnas and the Princes…”
Never begin a sentence with a gerund, a word ending with -ing.
As you edit look at particular words and say, do I need this word? If you can put your finger over that word or phrase and the rest of the writing remains essentially the same that means it’s not necessary. Cut it out.
Write for the ear. Read out loud, at least in your mind. Make choices based on how it sounds to your ears.
Think of your work as a conversation with the reader and try to anticipate all potential reasonable dissent and defend it within the work. When people read it you won’t be there to explain it so you’ve got to do that within the work itself.
Try to write with self-confidence. Your opinion matters. Write as though what you’re saying is very important, at least to you.
I think writer’s block is about stage fright. Writing is a performance and all performance requires a leap of faith. Go for it and don’t allow your fear to hold you back. What are you worried about? It’s a public performance, yes, but then it’s not. You’ve got to remember that there’s an audience, but also forget that they’re out there.
I keep a Post-It pad and pen with me at all times to write down any little ideas I have for fiction at any time. The point is not simply to get things down on paper but to never be holding on to ideas, clinging to ideas in your mind which has the tendency to stop the flow of the mind. If you just write down your valuable thoughts you don’t have to think about remembering them and you’re more free to think of new thoughts, to have the mind flow continue.
If you find yourself writing something you’re afraid to reveal, but you know it’s really true, then definitely say it. Salman Rushdie said, “Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world.”

Good luck.