KILLING YOUR INTERNAL EDITOR
by
Elizabeth Bemis
The
following article appeared in the April, 2004 issue of Undercover, the
newsletter of Ohio Valley RWA. Please feel free to use with credit!
People ask me pretty
frequently how I manage to write four books a year plus work a forty hour a week
job and run a free-lance company on the side all at the same time. I usually
jokingly respond at first that I don't sleep and I have a dog instead of a
husband and children. (And don't get me wrong. That helps.) My real answer,
however, is that I want this - i.e. to be a successful full-time novelist - more
than anything else in the world. I know it takes a lot of work, and I'm willing
to do it. But I've also found a few tricks that help me write more and more
consistently.
*
Make realistic daily or weekly page goals and stick to them. Increase them as
they become more attainable.
I've heard writers say
that for years, but no one ever gave me a gun and said "Point in that
direction," so my ability to do that eluded me and my own personal internal
editor continued to persistently demand perfection in my head.
"You spelled that
wrong. See, there's a wiggly red line under that word. FIX IT!" ...
"Are you sure he'd say THAT?! Decide before going on!" It was about
enough to paralyze me.
Then one day I was
trying to get through a scene I wasn't entirely ready to write. I'd been blocked
for a few days and staring at my blank computer screen wondering how much it
would hurt to re-install Free-Cell on my computer. (The answer, of course, is
that after 482 games of Free Cell, I still wouldn't have the scene written but I
would have a nice little case of carpal tunnel going and a zombie-like look in
my eye.) So instead of caving to the demons of electronic games, I tried to
figure out the basics of what needed to happen in the scene. (The following
example is off the cuff and isn't actually a part of any story.) First, I need
to know a bit about what's going on.
Who? Hero & Heroine
(two people who used to be lovers but were torn apart and now circumstances have
brought them back together) Let's call them Rob and Jenny. What? First Kiss
Where? His apartment. When? Mid-afternoon. Why? Umm... dunno yet. How?
Passionately, of course <G> POV? Hero
So I know (most of) the
basics. Forget the fact that I don't know WHY
they're about to kiss.
They will reveal that to me as I write (I hope). Then what? Let's block out the
scene and pinpoint the questions I need to answer. I'm making notes, so it
doesn't matter if I misspell, use bad grammar or switch between present and past
tense. (This is important. Repeat after me, "THESE ARE JUST NOTES!")
In fact, writing in the present tense seems to be the key for me. So here
goes...
First, Rob needs to
arrive home in the middle of the day. (1-Why?) Then he surprises Jenny snooping
about his apartment. (2- Why did she break in?) (3-What does he say when he sees
her?) Then something makes them cross the room (4-What?) and she sees an old
photo album lying on the table. She flips it open as he protests (5-What does he
say?) she sees a picture of them when they were together so many years ago.
(6-Doing What?) She looks up at him, shocked (7-How does he know this
specifically?) that he's kept the photo after she treated him. The look on her
face makes him want to kiss her. He does. (8) How does this make him feel?) Then
they're interrupted. (9-How?) (10-Then what happens?)
If the answers to the
questions in parentheses occur to me as I'm writing, I'll add them so I don't
forget. But if I don't know, I leave them blank.
Then I go back and
answer those questions within the manuscript. If they start up some great
conversation, I'll dictate, but if not, a generalization of what's happening in
the scene suffices. (Remember, I'm still making notes. Form matters not at all.)
After some thought, these are the answers to my questions above.
1) Because he forgot his
briefcase at home 2) Because he confiscated her credit card so she couldn't
leave town until after they accomplished whatever brought them back together. 3)
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted a former cat-burglar with my home
address." 4) She sees a box on the entertainment center that looks perfect
for hiding pilfered credit cards. 5)"Quit Snooping. I didn't leave your
credit card in a photo album!" 6) At an amusement park- make this a
significant event right before they broke up. 7)Her eyes get wide and her mouth
falls open. 8) Like he's come home. 9) The phone rings. 10) He has to go back to
the office, their issues still unresolved, and she's out of the apartment still
without her credit card.
Now I can either go back
and clean it up (and put it in past tense) and make it into something readable.
***
As he opened the
apartment door to retrieve his briefcase, Rob heard
something crash about in
the dining room. Knowing the source of the ruckus would be Jenny, he let the
door slam behind him. She looked up from her search of his table. "I knew I
shouldn't have trusted a former cat-burglar with my home address," he said.
"That will teach
you, won't it?" Her tone sounded a bit snide, and her eyes darted furtively
about his apartment. After landing on the small wooden box on the entertainment
center, she crossed the room, but stopped in front of the coffee table instead,
sidetracked by the photo album he'd thumbed through the night before.
"Quit snooping. I
didn't leave your credit card in a photo album."
She turned to the page
with the two of them at the amusement park. "You
still have these?"
She looked up at him,
tears wobbling on her lower lashes, as her mouth fell open in shock. The look on
her face punched him in the gut. Much as looking at the photos last night had.
(Something about how significant the photo is) He found himself pulled across
the room without any way to stop until he came to a standstill in front of her.
"I wasn't going to do this," he mumbled, moving one hand to her face,
the other to her waist to pull her closer.
His lips met hers before
she could respond. Her arms came around him, and the taste of her mouth felt
like home. He nearly wept when the phone on his belt began to ring. She pulled
back instantly and he flipped open the phone.
"What?" He
listened for a moment then snapped the phone shut.
"I have to go back
to work. And you need to get out of here."
***
I threw a real before
and after of a scene of my secondary characters from
BLOWING JACK'S COVER on
the VBoard Files section:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ovrwavboard/files/
(In case you're not a
member, it's also on my
website:
http://www.elizabethbemis.com/articles/fastwriting_before.doc
and
http://www.elizabethbemis.com/articles/fastwriting_after.doc
It's long, so no need to read the whole thing, but you'll get the general idea.
The key to killing your
internal editor is to truly give yourself permission to write crap. You'll find
it significantly easier to go back and fix the problems if you have some place
to start.
* * * * * * * *
Elizabeth Bemis is a soon-to-be published, award winning and Golden Heart
nominated author of eleven books, as well as a web designer and computer
programmer. You can check out her home on the web @ http://www.elizabethbemis.com.