Forcing the Muse

My schedule didn't allow me to participate in NANOWRIMO this year, but I do have a handful of friends who undertook the challenge. My conversations with them has led me to understand one very important thing: Sometimes the muse doesn't come willingly. Sometimes you have to drag it.

One friend of mine sat looking at her computer screen for the first four days of November, slowly falling behind in her word count. She fretted over the fact she had no concept, no characters, no setting, and no plot line.

Her imagination was an empty void.

"I would have quit," I admitted sheepishly to her. "Not writing, of course, but I would have quit NANOWRIMO. Obviously, it wasn't my year."

The beautiful thing is: she didn't take my advice.

On the fifth day, frustrated and crying, she began writing down absolute nonsense.

My headphones are red. The cord is longer than I think it should be. I have a sugar skull eraser. I don't wish to use it in case I erase off the face.

Pages and pages of nonsense ensued. Two lattes were downed and refilled. Somewhere, along the way, her muse remembered how to walk, then run.

By the end of the week she had a character and a novel plot. Her setting unfolded and she caught up, then surpassed her word count goals.

All of us have been here at some point - staring for days, thinking it's finally happened, we've finally lost our ability to write creatively. In fact, as I write this blog post, I'm in that boat. I've been sick for three weeks and with the surroundings of a new state, new house, and new job, I haven't had much time to devote to writing. Now throw in the holidays and it's like my muse no longer exists.

What I'll have to do next, and what you'll likely have to do eventually too, is force the muse. I'm going to have to get her out of her recliner, walking and remembering what writing feels like and how easily ideas can flow. I'm going to have to make her recall the beauty and the freedom in writing.

And while I won't be NANOWRIMOing anytime soon, I'm hoping a new short story or novel flows forth. I'm not giving up until it does.

A Recipe For Descriptive Phrases

There are two ways for you to describe your characters: through direct description and through indirect description.

Ultimately, the best novels utilize both direct and indirect description in combination with each other. Think of it like cooking. You need a cup of this, a pinch of that. Description works best when the concoction is mixed throughout the story.

First, let's define our methods of description:

Direct description is a clear explanation of what the character looks like/act likes etc. 

Suzie had blue eyes and silky black hair that always slipped from her braid before third period was even over.

Whereas indirect description is the characterization of the character through actions or implied thought.

Suzie slunk through the cafeteria, her eyes glued to her tray as she weaved between tables and ultimately exited through the doors to the field house. 

In the first example, we get a picture of Suzie's physical characteristics in a concise descriptive sentence. Nothing is happening other than the narrator telling the reader what Suzie looks like. We learn that she has blue eyes and silky hair.

However, in the second example, readers are in the action, watching Suzie slink and exit in a timid manner. We learn that Suzie is shy and possibly embarrassed to interact with her classmates. She gets what she needs and she's out of there.

I once had a creative writing teacher boil it down for me and say, "Direct description is telling, and indirect description is showing."

If you've been writing fiction long enough, you know that showing is always better than telling. We've had this drilled into our heads from our first high school writing course.

But wait! Before you go to your work in progress and delete every instance of direct description, hear me out.

We need both direct and indirect description to make a novel work.While, yes, indirect description keeps the reader in the action of the story and is more authentic to how we meet and interpret people in real life (we're not going to get a paragraph about their likes and dislikes spelled out for us before we meet a new person - however nice it would be!), sometimes important descriptive information needs to be conveyed in a concise manner.

For example, let's say the narrator of the above story notices Suzie's shoes:

They were wore out Chuck Taylors with mismatched sets of shoelaces. But Suzie hadn't been the one to give those shoes their scuffs. Those were Goodwill shoes. I knew because I'd donated them last week and my initials were still scrawled in Sharpie on the left sole.

This is a direct description of the shoes Suzie is wearing. We know they're Chuck Taylors, they're worn out, that they have mismatched shoe laces, and initials on the left sole. However, the description continues and morphs into indirect description as well. Suzie wears pre-worn shoes. This could say something about her socioeconomic status and could be contributing to her lack of self confidence.

So, as you can see, direct description is needed to make sense of indirect description. You can't have nameless, faceless characters acting on a blank set and expect your reader to understand it. Both must work in tandem to create the perfect story.

Your personal writing style will determine how much of each descriptive technique you put into your stories.

However, as a good rule of thumb, I like to use this recipe:

Add no more than one sentence of direct description for every page of indirect description utilized.

The Importance of a Writing Group

I've talked about writing groups in the past, but I wanted to reiterate their importance once again for any new blog followers who came on in the past few months.

When I was young and first writing, I didn't think writing groups were necessary. Why would I want to take time away from my own writing to review and critique other people's work. Also, if I didn't find a group that wrote solely within my genre, why bother? They're not going to know the subtle nuances I'm trying to achieve.

And then I joined a writing group.

I was 18 when I attended my first group session. It was a face-to-face session attended by roughly 3-4 different members every month. We shared pages a few weeks prior and then brought our notes for each other to some coffee shop here or there around Wisconsin.

There wasn't a single writer in that group that also wrote YA.

I absolutely loved it.

Sure, they might not have known everything about the YA genre, just as I sure as heck didn't know that much about memoirs at the time, but what young me had failed to notice is that I was surrounded by other serious writers. These were writers who put their fingers to the keys and plugged out pages of content every month for other serious writers to read. I grew in my knowledge of the craft in general  and I made some amazing friends.

Now that I've moved cross-country, I've joined another writing group (by the prodding of one of the original Wisconsin face-to-face members) that takes place entirely online. Rather than meeting for coffee, we have monthly quotas to fill (2 submission and 4 critiques per month) that keep all of us plugging away at our work. We stay in contact through email and Facebook and the occasional bi-yearly get together somewhere in the USA.

This format of a writing group has also helped me exponentially. Not only does the online format offer writers from all over the world membership, but it also allows me to read a variety of genres. I get feedback from a diverse group of readers and I give my own unique feedback to them.

Also, when I'm having a rough month and am unable to find time, energy, or inspiration to write, it helps to simply sit down with my laptop and a mug of tea and read the work of my writing group companions.

They inspire me to go back to my own work.

They help me improve that work.

Basically, writing groups are important because they force us to be who we are: writers.

I suggest, no matter your age, that you find a group that fits you. It may take a little while, but don't be discouraged, once you have them, you can never let them go.

The Morsel

Whether you separate your novel by chapters or your short story with asterisks or pound signs (let's face it, they're hashtags now. Forever hashtags.), there's one thing you need to remember before offering your reader a break. It's what I call The Morsel.

The Morsel is some tiny bit of information or foreshadowing that makes it impossible for the reader to stop reading at the intended break.

You give them a whiff - just the tiniest peek - at what you have to offer next, chances are they'll stay to read the next section and the next and the next, and before they or you know it, they're finding you on Twitter and Facebook and writing on your blog that they NEED the next installment of your work or they'll explode.

The Morsel is what makes people read past their bedtimes. It's what makes us fly through giant tomes in two days. The Morsel is the great locomotive of the story.


For example, let's say your chapter ends like this:

"He'll never know anything about it," Chester assured, winking. He then turned his back on me and sauntered out of the room. 

It's okay, right? The scene itself is over in that particular destination. The information has been relayed and we know that Chester is keeping a secret. There's plot here and character. 

But now read the chapter with the inclusion of The Morsel:

"He'll never know anything about it," Chester assured, winking. He then turned his back on me and sauntered out of the room.

It was the last time I'd see him alive.

That's so much better, right? Now the reader wants to know why it's the last time the protagonist sees Chester alive. They want to know how Chester dies and where, and if "He" who Chester is keeping a secret from has anything to do with it. 

The Morsel is what makes the reader turn the page and skim the beginning of the next chapter. It's what tricks them into reading "just ONE MORE." If you're good, your whole book will feel like this to the reader. One Morsel after another after another.

Because, when you boil it down, The Morsel contains one very essential aspect of storytelling: tension. 

It's what makes us stay tuned during the commercial breaks and the chapter breaks and the hashtag pauses. Because we know something is happening or going wrong and we need to find out how and why.

So, go through your latest project. Could your story be aided by some Morsels? Sprinkle them in. Have your betas take a read. Ratchet up that tension.