Tag: Writing

Musings

Weekly Musing: Habitual Ritual

DH Hanni

I found inspiration for this week’s musing as I took a break from writing and was looking for articles to read. On Women on Writing I found an interesting article talking about the value of getting into a writing ritual. It also related the writing rituals of famous authors past and present. Needless to say, some of the rituals of the greats were eye-opening. From writing in the nude, I’m assuming from the friendly confines of their home, to writing standing up and even in different colors of ink, the article provides insight into the weird mind of a writer.

The bulk of the article, though, does focus on the value of the writing ritual. That need to have just the right atmosphere to get into the most productive frame of mind. To have a ritual is actually good for the brain as it allows for the transition from everyday life into the creative area. Of course not all writers need a ritual to get into the groove but it is reassuring to read being particular about my own writing environment is not uncommon.

When composing rough drafts, I have to not be at home. Too many distractions. Two dogs, a whiny cat, and people who have the nerve to call or ring the doorbell. I just can’t concentrate. So I pack up my computer, my writing journals, pens, and head out the door.

The cliché of the writer in a coffee shop applies to me. It started with when I first began writing for fun. I worked full-time so during my lunch hour, I would usually head to the nearest coffee shop and write in my journal. As I began enjoying and craving writing, I started writing on the weekends and the coffee shop thing stuck.

Which one I go to is up to my mood and the weather. If the weather is crummy or I’m just feeling a bit lazy, I stay closer to home. If the weather is nicer and I want more physical distance from the house, I pick a spot in another town. Different scenery, different demographic of people seems to energize my creativity.

But the physical location of the spot is just the beginning of my ritual. Once inside, I pick an appropriate place to set up shop. Usually I want to be in the back with a clear view of the front so I can people watch while I’m thinking. Hopefully they don’t notice my facial expressions as I think and stare.

So now I’ve got my spot staked at, coffee is ordered, computer is set up, writing journal is ready, and now the fun begins. I fire up Rhapsody and select the classical music station. I absolutely MUST listen to classical music. Classical music helps me think and provides the perfect way to block the noise. I think the complex structure and the absences of vocals is the key to the doorway of the creative part of my brain. I turn that key and it feels like the words and ideas flow out. If I listen to contemporary music, I’m way too tempted to sing and no one needs to suffer through that caterwauling. It’s also incredibly distracting since I’m too busy thinking about the song rather than the writing.

Now that I have settled into music land, I put on my headphones. My headphones have to be at the precise pressure on my head. I wear glasses so the correct pressure points between where my glasses rest behind my ears and on my nose must be in line with the pressure exerted by the headphones on my head. Whenever any of those shift, I take off my glasses and headphones and start over. My feng shui is thrown off. The axis of the Earth is temporarily thrown off its course. Armageddon could erupt in my mind.

Ahhh but I’m still completely settled in. I take off my watch because I’m such a slave to time that I found myself constantly looking at my watch which agitated me. That and it just physically bothers me to wear it while writing. After removing my watch, I then proceed to spread out my stuff. I failed to mention I also try to pick a spot that has a large enough table or two tables I can put together. I take up a lot of space with the computer, the journal, and any research materials I’ve printed out. It’s a great way to ensure people won’t bother me. Don’t wake the dragon.

By now, I’m almost ready to begin writing. I close my laptop because it is a huge diversion with the screensaver and free Wi-Fi. I limit actually touching the laptop to skipping an opera piece, researching something I’m hung up on in a story, or when taking a break. If I’m not doing any of that, the laptop stays closed.

The last step is to arrange the space. Everything that isn’t a journal, a pen, and a dictionary/thesaurus, gets pushed as far away as possible.

And now I’m ready to write.

Oddly enough, when it comes to rewrites, I’m pretty flexible. I can work at home or out and I can actually tolerate non-classical music. As I grow and evolve as a writer, I can see changing my ritual. People get older. Move to some place new. Want and need new sources of inspiration. Plus, in the words of Moriarty on the series Sherlock, “I’m just sooooo changeable!”

Musings

Weekly Musing: Dreams and Modest Exptectations

DH Hanni

About two months ago, I waxed un-poetically about goals and commandments I had given myself. After I was finished writing that post, I added to my list of blog topics to do a follow up post about my dreams and expectations. I decided this week would be a good week to explore those as I received an e-mail earlier this week informing me I had sold my first, and hopefully not last, story. To say I was floored, and still am, would be a gross misstatement. I’m cautiously optimistic but I think it won’t truly click what I accomplished until I see the story bound in a book. It’s just too surreal.

It is important to have dreams and expectations not only as a writer but as a human being. Expectations are those realistic assessments of what our talents, strengths, and weaknesses are. What can I expect out of myself at this moment? What do I think I do well and what areas do I want to work on? Before this starts sounding too much like a performance review, I’ll stop it right there.

For me, it has always been difficult to determine what I think I’m good at. I’m a humble person. My poo does stink. It is far, far easier for me to list deficiencies. Such lists are subjective but the older I get the more I have realized it is okay to say what I think I’m good at.

My expectations for my writing career are: 1) always push myself to improve with each piece, each draft, 2) to push my comfort zone and take chances with subject matter, point of view, or genre, 3) to be published more than once in my life, 4) build up my confidence, 5) to make a decent, not millionaire status, living doing what I love, and 6) develop a thicker skin but to also be okay with being disappointed or hurt if what I write isn’t liked or well-received. It happens to everyone but I shouldn’t bottle that initial emotional reaction. It’s okay to cry and rage but to do it in the privacy of my home and then move on. No need to run to the nearest craft store to make a voodoo doll of said critic.

I hesitate to list my dreams. They seem laughable and truly out there. But like expectations, dreams can motivate and push me along but not to the point of nuttiness I am very much prone to. I’m the harshest boss I could ever have and sometimes my performance reviews don’t go so well.

My fantastical dreams are: 1) get a book published, preferably more than one book (this is different than expectation #3, I’m more referring to short stories), and have it sell well, 2) to be considered a good writer (although great would be thrilling), 3) have one of my books turned into a mini-series produced either by HBO or BBC or together, 4) seeing ‘Best-selling author DH Hanni’, and 5) to hear someone say they love my work and it inspires them.

So there you have it. My dreams and expectations. One I can work towards and the other just something to do while staring off into space. Now to ride a unicorn whilst surfing a rainbow to the other side to beat up a leprechaun and jack his pot of gold.

Musings

Weekly Musing: Write Long and Prosper?

DH Hanni

I didn’t know until May 26th that May is Short Story Month and only because I received an e-mail from a Anne R. Allen’s blog . In the article, it extolled the advantages of writing short stories vs. novels.

Some of the points in the article got me thinking about my own writing aspirations as well as the pro-short story arguments.

Personally, I love novels. I guess it’s because I’ve always had an attention span. I love the build-up. I will stick with a story if it is paced just right even epic, behemoth novels. I need and want that background. I need the time to have the characters fleshed out. I can read a novel faster than I can a short story collection. With a short story collection, I find myself flipping through the pages more to see when the story will end. I will groan if I see that it doesn’t end for a while. I guess I could just skip to the next story but I have this odd thing that I should finish a story. The author put in all that time and effort, the least I can do is finish a 10 page story. For example, it took me about 2.5 weeks to get through a 177 page short story collection. In comparison, a 260 page book I got through in about 8 hours. Naturally some of this is due to the content of the story itself.

The biggest reason for the resurgence of short-stories is due to people’s decreasing attention spans coupled with many small screen digital devices. Short stories and flash fiction, an even shorter story, are easily digestible. That’s fine however, I’m not sure encouraging people to become even less engaged in long-term critical thinking is a good thing. We are already far too much of a disposable society. When it comes to something I feel is as sacred as the written word, shorter isn’t always better. I’m not saying all short stories are poorly written or can’t say anything, then can and do, but it dismays me to see further erosion into ‘this bores me already’ culture. It’s a further dumbing down and boosts short-term gratification.

In my opinion, novellas and novels more fully engage the reader to think deeper about the characters, issues, themes, plots, and subplots. More subtext can be developed. A reader can take the necessary time to appreciate what is going on. With a short story, you read the story then move on. It’s just an appetizer and if you feast solely upon appetizers, you will never get full. Whereas a novella or novel, I can have an appetizer, move through several courses, and then have dessert; a much more satisfying experience. It will stay with me longer. And maybe even give me heartburn.

As a beginning writer, I view composing short stories as training wheels. I need to cut my teeth and learn how to craft all the elements that go into a story. Writing short stories allows me to do that. It helps build my confidence in what my abilities are before I tackle a novel, the writing form I’m most interested in. One point mentioned in the article noted above is the author’s own admission of viewing short story writing as just practice before graduating to novels. For me, I equate it with learning to crawl before being able to walk and run. I don’t feel my skill level is up to tackling a full-blown novel. There are too many things to think about and to practice but then again, I’m a pretty cautious person.

Another advantage I am finding to writing short stories is the ability to play with different genres. I believe as I’ve mentioned in one of my first posts, I’m a fan of different genres; I’ll read anything if it sounds interesting so why should I limit myself to just one? It’s about the story, not the category it fits into. And with short stories, I can do that. I just finished a Victorian vampire story but I’ve also written a Steampunk-inspired pirate story, a story inspired the bombing of Hiroshima, a priest reflecting back to an incident in his childhood in Spain, and a reanimated corpse stuck in a county morgue, to mention just a few.

The idea, though, of sticking strictly to short stories, has never crossed my mind. True, writing a short story takes a much shorter commitment of overall time than a novel does. And it is more efficient in terms of per year production. And it probably is a more lucrative way to make money as an author, but my heart loves novels. Maybe it sounds pretentious or naïve, but a good majority of the story ideas I have saved on my hard drive feel like they require a few hundred pages to be developed properly. Perhaps I’m just a glutton for punishment.