Category: THE WRITING LIFE

FILLING THE WELL

As a fiction writer, how widely should you read?

As spinners of stories and tellers of tales, how much and how widely should we read? Is it better to cling mainly to our own genres, honing our skills with a laser focus, or to branch out, tasting this and that? I think both approaches may have merit, but I’d like to share a little of my own experiences, in the hope they might be useful to others.

I am a fantasy writer, and fantasy is probably my first love as a reader, too. But it is by no means the only fiction I consume. I choose books primarily for pleasure, and derive a great deal of joy from them. But lately I have come to realise that reading outside my own genre has also brought many benefits to my writing practice.

Here are the four genres I read the most, and what I have gained from each of them:

-SPECULATIVE FICTION-

I write character-driven, epic fantasy. I read it, too, along with other types of fantasy, dystopian tales, and science fiction. All of these are brimming with original ideas, and expand my mind to consider new possibilities for my own fiction. Just yesterday, the mere presence of an opal in a story I was reading unexpectedly sparked a whole new thread for my next novel. I immediately put the book down and wrote two pages of notes (before going back to my reading, of course), and I can’t wait to explore this further. And I wouldn’t know where to begin with worldbuilding if I hadn’t been visiting wondrous, extraordinary worlds ever since childhood.

-CRIME-

From cosy mysteries, through police procedurals and creepy, atmospheric tales, all the way up to tense, action-packed thrillers, I devour this genre. I especially adore classic puzzles, clever twists and turns, character reversals, and trying to solve the case myself before the detective gets there. Thanks to decades of this steady diet, I find myself filling my fantasy novels with mystery and intrigue. I implant hints, make multiple links and connections, and gleefully blaze narrow, camouflaged trails for the astute reader to follow. Surprise revelations and ‘ah-ha’ moments give me enormous pleasure to write, and I love readers’ reactions to them. I would find it very hard to write a novel with no mystery elements, and I can’t imagine wanting to. They make my stories richer.

-ROMANCE-

I read a little romance when I’m in the mood for it, and especially enjoy the kind that is full of wit and humour. The clever banter in these novels has had a direct influence on my own dialogue, making it more natural and entertaining. I intend to improve it further by indulging in more of this kind of reading, and I’d appreciate recommendations from more experienced romance readers in the comments.

-LITERARY FICTION-

These are books that combine serious ideas with exemplary writing. A little of this genre goes a long way, but those I read tend to earn 5-star reviews from me, and undoubtedly influence my own work for the better.
Thanks to these books, I have felt confident enough to write about deep emotions including guilt, childhood trauma, destructive ambition, and grief. In Greenhaelan, alongside the characters’ personal issues, I depicted the despair and displacement of communities caused by an ecological catastrophe. The allure and deception of damaging cults is present in Skalsinger. And then there are the real biggies: the nature of existence, good and evil, free will, and spirituality. I would have found it almost impossible to know how to weave such weighty matters into an engaging story if I had not experienced others doing it so superbly.
And then there’s writing style: mine is by no means elevated to “literary”, but exposure to the very best not only brings me a great deal of pleasure (word-nerd that I am) but gives me the tools I need to say what I want in the way I want to say it, and to recognise when I am succeeding.

Almost every book I read has something to teach me, whether I am aware of the lesson or blissfully lost in the story. Together they fill the well of creativity and skill I draw from when I write. If I want that water to stay fresh and deep, I need to keep replenishing it. For me, reading widely is the way.

How widely do you read, and how does it enhance your life? And if you are a writer, do you believe that reading widely influences your writing for the better?

Two Golden Hours

THE CONCEPT

I don’t know where the original “two golden hours” concept came from, but I first came across it in regard to writing here.
Dr Jane Genovese had been impressed by a seminar called “Turbocharging your writing” run by Hugh Kearns from ithinkwell.com

Hugh then talked about the idea of nailing your feet to the floor to force yourself to write for “Two Golden hours”. He then warned us that during the first 45 minutes of this process, most people experience some level of anxiety and discomfort. It’s common to have thoughts such as “I can’t write this”, “I rather be doing something else” or “This is really hard…”. This is completely normal but often what happens is people think that something is wrong when they experience this anxiety. They think that because they’re finding it hard to write, perhaps they should stop and often that’s exactly what they do. Big mistake. “If you just hang in there, the anxiety will eventually disappear” said Hugh Kearns.

SLOGGING THROUGH THE MUD

At the time I read this, I was faithfully showing up at my desk at 6am each morning, with two hours at my disposal and the manuscript of Skalsinger open on my laptop, but it was like slogging through mud. My word count for the past week had averaged out at:

155 words per hour! 😧

Something needed to change, and drastically, or the final 10% of this first draft would take months to finish.

Enter Two Golden Hours and another writing experiment.

Hugh Kearn’s rules were simple:

  1. Write early in the day
  2. Use a dedicated place
  3. Close the door
  4. NO internet at all! Pull out the cable if you have to.
  5. Nail your feet to the floor and stay there, no matter how mentally uncomfortable you get
  6. Ignore your inner critic and just get the words down

Simple, but not necessarily easy.

A MODIFICATION

I did modify this experiment by including short breaks. I saw a Twitter post to this effect by Kelly Gardiner and asked her how she broke the time up. She does 25-minute writing sprints followed by 5-minute breaks to stretch, go to the bathroom, walk around, etc. But no internet! This made sense to me. So I had my plan. How did it go?

Minutes 0-25
Task: plotting/planning/making notes/ brainstorming
Notes: I found a plot hole and worked out what needs to happen next
Words added to manuscript: 0

1st break: drank water, stretched

Minutes 30-55
Task: Begin the new scene, which will be mostly dialogue
Notes: after a slow start, the words began flowing quite well, and I was surprised when the timer went off.
Words added to manuscript: 314

2nd break: bathroom break, then sat quietly. Realisation surfaced that the scene needed more conflict; I decided to add a third character.

Minutes 60-85
Task: rewrite the scene, adding the third character
Notes: I felt it was working well.
Words added to manuscript: 212

3rd break: walked around the garden. Lots of ideas buzzing around my head, including how to end the scene.

Minutes 90-115
Task: complete the scene
Notes: the words felt like they were coming more slowly, but I pushed and completed the scene almost right on the timer.
Words added to manuscript: 289

CONCLUSION

As I spent the first 25 minutes just planning, I added 815 words to my draft in 75 minutes, equivalent to

652 words per hour!😊

This is a massive improvement on the past week, and suggests this method really works for me.

WHAT NEXT?

  • I’d like to plan ahead next time so I can try actually writing for the whole four sessions and see what that does to my word count.
  • I also think it could be valuable to do some single Golden Hours, just two 25-minute sessions with a break in the middle.
  • The breaks were useful and I would definitely keep them in. They were short enough that I stayed in writing mode, but they gave me enough distance from the task for new ideas to arise.
  • I’m sure that what made the biggest difference was excluding all activity on the internet during this time. Not exactly a surprise, but now I’ve proved what an effect it has on me personally, I know what to do. Can I do it, though? We’ll see…

Have you tried this or any other methods to maximise the productivity of your writing time? I’d love to hear about your experiences.