Luc Reid

I pushed to finish The Writing Engine within the first week of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in hopes that it will be useful to some participants in trying to finish 50,000 words in 30 days.

The eBook is an 80-page Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file and is free to copy and share; you’re welcome to forward it, host it on your own site, etc. Details of the Creative Commons License for the eBook are printed inside. It includes extensive sections on how writing motivation works and specific techniques to improve writing motivation and productivity along with special sections like a rundown of how to make the most immediate practical use of information gathered from books, a Writing Motivation Troubleshooter section, and a list of Emergency Writing Motivation Techniques.

In the prequel to this post, I talked about how especially well-thought-out tools can make work more enjoyable and productive. Today I’ll be moving on to the topic of work environments and how subtle differences in your surroundings can attract you to your work and help you work better. I won’t go into great detail with each item: I think you’ll get enough of the idea to be able to apply it to your own workspace from just visiting each piece of the puzzle.

The essential question is this: what could you do to the space where you work that would

• make you happier or remind you of things that make you happy
• make it easier to concentrate
• put things more easily to hand or more conveniently out of the way
• attract you to your work
• remind you of why you do the work you do, or
• put you in a good mood or frame of mind to focus?

In answer, here are eight elements you can look at improving to make your work environment work harder for you.

Light: Is there enough of it? Is it prevented from glaring in your eyes and reflecting off screens? Is there a way you could get more natural light, or a lamp with a quality of light that is more comfortable for you?

Space: Does your workspace feel open and uncrowded? Can you easily move in it without bumping into things? Can you see and get to things without being obstructed?

Music: If music helps you work, do you know what kinds of music fit your working habits the best? Have you experimented with different kinds? Do you have a convenient way to play music? If you don’t have a library of music available to you where you work (or even if you do), I highly recommend Pandora, a free sort of jukebox where you steer the music selections by naming artists and songs you like. In case your musical tastes turn out to be anything like mine (which are a little unusual sometimes, I admit), you can hear my Pandora stations at http://www.pandora.com/people/luc2 .

Comfort and ergonomics: Of course it’s more expensive and takes more trouble to get a good office chair or a drawing table that you can set to exactly the right height, but if you spend long hours in a particular workspace, problems like back pain or a crick in your neck can tend to make your work unenjoyable or cut your work sessions short, so some extra effort and expense might be worth it in the long run.

Neatness and organization: Your workspace only has to be neat and organized enough that you can easily get to everything you need to use, nothing’s in your way, and you’re happy. For me, having a place for everything and everything in its place is an ongoing process, but one that makes me noticeably happier to sit down to work whenever I make progress at it; for you, a little more disorder might be joyful–or like many people, you might find a little time spent on organization goes a long way in lifting your spirits.

Beauty and personality: Photographs, objects that make you feel at home, artwork that puts you in a good mood, or anything that makes your workspace more comfortable or beautiful is likely to make you more eager to get things done, as long as it isn’t distracting.

Refuge: Both in commercial buildings and home work areas, it might be an option to have privacy and peace or it might not, depending on the way things are arranged.

If you have some say about your workspace, you might consider whether you would be happier and more productive in a more peaceful setting than you have now–or in a setting where you get to interact with others more. If you would prefer peace but need to work in the midst of chaos, remember that it is possible to adapt. I used to be nearly unable to write in a room where I could hear anyone talking; after a couple of years of writing, by necessity, in a room that was also a playroom for two young children, I grew nearly immune to distraction. One large writing project was finished in the midst of a bunch of writers having a half-convention, half-party–and it was a lot of fun to work in that context. We’re adaptable creatures.

The directions of things: Though I was skeptical at first, I learned some valuable techniques from a feng shui expert who came in to talk to a group of us at a former job. Not all of the teachings of feng shui necessarily struck me as constructive for offices (though admittedly, I know only a little about it), but the ones I like are:

• Avoid having things (corners of tables, pens, etc.) pointing at you while you work, as it can set you on edge.
• Try to work in a position where you can easily see the door. This prevents having to wonder who might be behind you.
• Arrange your workspace so that things meet in curves or open angles rather than corners. For instance, turn one piece of furniture 45 degrees where it meets another to create a more harmonious line.
• Add plants to your workspace; some easy ones to maintain that are tolerant of offices include ficus and jade plant

I’d be interested to hear your suggestions on creating more inviting and productive work spaces. What do you do to make your work environment work better for you?

Slush I Read
by Jim C. Hines

(Apologies to Seuss)

I read slush.
Slush I read.

That slush I read.
That slush I read!
I do not like that slush I read.

Do you like fanfic with vamps?

I do not like them Mary Sue.
Why do these vamps all worship you?

Read the whole thing at http://jimhines.livejournal.com/467074.html
 

Before Scrivener, in order to prevent getting off track or distracted, those kinds of notes would tend to end up in a big document that would eventually have to be organized and re-organized, requiring me to write some, organize some, update my outline, and then go back to writing again. In a normal word processor, I have to impose organization. In Scrivener, organization is the whole idea, and in the normal course of using the program I automatically put things in their places.

It’s only a few clicks and a few seconds easier and faster than doing the same kind of thing with a couple of folders full of files, but because it’s so easy to do things in an organized way in Scrivener, I do much more more of it there than I would in any other context. This means that almost all of my time and attention when I use Scrivener is focused on what I’m writing or planning out at that moment, and it also means that as I finish one thing, the next thing to do is often sitting there, ready for me to plunge into it without having to go back and figure out where I’m going next.

If you’ve read many of my other posts, you might begin to recognize these pieces as being the kind of things that help a person get into a state of flow. Flow, briefly, is a state in which you’re highly focused on a task, working enthusiastically at your highest level of skill, to the point where the time just seems to fly by while you get things done. As you can imagine or may know from experience, it’s both very productive and a ton of fun.

I don’t mean this article to be an advertisement for Scrivener (although it’s a great tool, and I recommend it for writers who have Macs), but when we look at how for some writers using this program instead of even a very good word processor affects getting things done, it’s clear that the right tools can do a lot to create a productive and enthusiastic mental state.

So what kinds of tools help make work inviting, improve focus, and boost productivity? Search out tools that

• keep your work organized with little or no effort, like tool trays for graphic artists
• let you break your work up into smaller pieces, like a long workbench that offers room for a series of components to be spread out
• are attractive or appealing, like a comfortable pen that makes a good line
• work smoothly and effectively all the time, like a top-notch pair of hair cutting scissors
• keep your tools or components in front of you (rather than hiding things you might need to remember or find), like pegboard
• are intuitive, like an iPod

In Wednesday’s article, I’ll turn the discussion to work environment itself and what kinds of changes we can make to turn a space where we’re trying to get something done into a space that actually helps us get things done–and make the process more enjoyable. And I’m curious about tools that you’ve found help motivate you. What’s the most exceptional tool you own?

Multitool photo by 2:19

YOU’RE MINE, DEAR READER

 Mwuhahaha

 Okay, maybe not. But you are wired to be mine. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Let’s back up. Luc wrote about writing memorable. I agree with the idea that the stories that produce a strong emotional reaction are the most memorable. In fact, I believe that triggering of emotion is THE reason why linear narrative that puts us into the trance has lasted so long in so many forms and makes so much money.

But can writers guide reader emotions? Or is it all just by accident?

At first glance, we might think it's impossible. After all, what triggers the emotion (and which emotion) for one reader often does not do the trick for the next. We all have friends who should love the books we love, but don't, and vice versa. You just can't force a reader's reaction. You certainly can't force every reader to react the same way and to the same degree to any given novel.

But if you look at a book's ability to trigger a type of emotional experience over a large number of readers, I'd say many authors do very well guiding readers into a particular type of emotional response. If we take 1,000 U.S., adult thriller readers and give them the latest Koontz or Finder, I'm going to guess that a large portion of them will have the *intended reactions along some type of bell curve. Same with 1,000 romance readers given a Nora Roberts or Janet Evanovich.

So my answer is, yes, we can write for effect. In fact we do it all the time when we decide we want a happy ending or a beginning that hooks or a plot turn that surprises or a thousand other things we want the story to do. The question is not whether it can be done, but whether we can control it consistently.

We can. In a general sort of way. There are three reasons why.

First, emotional responses are automatic. We have two emotional circuits working all the time. There's the fast one that goes straight from sensory input to physical response. There's another slower one that starts in the cortex with conscious thought. Either way, when we notice details or patterns in our environment that approximate situations or things that have significance to us, one or both circuits immediately fires, producing a physical response, which, among other things, includes emotions that help us pay attention to whatever is triggering the response and prepare us to act.

For example, I live up in the boonies of Utah. We have rattlers around here. So when I walked out of my house and stepped on something that seemed to slither through the grass, I had an immediate physical response that included emotion. That's the fast circuit. I then looked down and saw the slither was way too long and realized I'd stepped on the hose. This modified my physical response. It was automatic. I couldn't avoid either the initial response or the modification.

You may be saying, that's fine for snakes and hoses, but we're talking about books. Well, the research shows that it's just not environmental stimuli that trigger the response. Thoughts have the same effect. In fact, sometimes thoughts are more powerful than the real thing. In studies of people with fear of snakes, the thought of the snake produced a stronger physical response than the actual critter.

So emotion is automatic, whether triggered by the environment or thought. If I sense a situation and believe it's real, I'm going to have a physical response.

Second, linear narrative focuses our limited attention on salient details of character types and situations. These salient details trigger the type or situation in our minds, evoking all the data associated with that type or situation as well. There are probably many ways to evoke the types and situations, many salient details that will work. But the point is that if we focus the reader's attention on types and situations that have significance to them, and it's done in a way that's believable, then the emotional response is automatic. It's unavoidable. It's how we're wired.

BTW, the best book on how emotion works and how it works with linear narratives that I've found is Jenefer Robinson's DEEPER THAN REASON. If you haven't read the first 5 chapters, you truly must. Every writer must.

Okay, fine, you say. But everyone doesn't react the same way to the same stimuli. True, but not only do specific demographics generally share the same emotional triggers (the patterns and types of significance) but there are triggers shared by many demographics.

What this all means is that the author is guiding the reader to see certain things that usually evoke a particular reaction.

Let me demonstrate. I think I can, for a middle class US female demographic, evoke a strong average response of antipathy for a character by having him call his wife "stupid cu**" all the time and have him talk in vulgar ways about the hotties he sees in his wife's presence.

So in just a few paragraphs in one or more scenes, presenting just a few salient details, I've guided readers into a similar response (over a bell curve).

Of course, this is not to say it's a piece of cake, a few buttons to push, and readers are helpless in our evil hands. It's sometimes very hard to orchestrate the emotional build over the novel and keep the whole thing going. It can be incredibly complex. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.

To sum up, the storyteller's craft deals with probabilistic cause and effect, not deterministic push button formulas. But probabilistic effect can still be very large and predictive. And those writers, who deliver again and again and again, on average, to their audiences, seem to have figured out how to do it.

So maybe you’re not mine. But you ARE hoping you’re somebody’s. You’re hoping, every time you crack a novel, that the author will take you on a ride that will blow your mind, leave you breathless, scare the soup out of you, make you fall in love again—you fill in the emotional blanks. You want to be guided.

You’re wired for it.

* BTW, I say "intended," knowing that sometimes we create and have only a vague yearning for some effect, one we might not even be able to put words to, and that it sometimes takes a few drafts to bring it to full focus. Or maybe not at all for any given section of the book. Still, I think we know in general what we're yearning for even if we have to write the book first to figure it out.

Happiness, 

John
 

Dialog
* Always some kind of conflict or tension?
* Stage directions subtle, but enough to prevent reader confusion?
* Distinctive character voices (diction, topics, vocabulary, personality, etc.)?
* Would a real person talk like this?
* Length of speech logical for the situation?
* Can reader tell who is speaking when?
* Everything said because of what the characters want, nothing strictly for the reader's benefit?

Description
* Where's the light coming from?
* Are several senses engaged on each page?
* Is the scene clear from the description alone, without your extra knowledge as the writer?

* Are descriptions specific, sensory, and fresh?

Opening
* Conveys character(s); at least a hint of conflict; and setting?
* Originality in first few paragraphs?
* Opening problem, hook, or other draw?

Title
* Not easily confused with the title of another book or story?
* Suggests the kind of story?
* Offers something intriguing or attractive?
* Sets the right tone?
* Easy for one person to pass on to another?

Ending
* Satisfying, yet unexpected?
* Resonates with beginning and/or theme of story?

Antagonist
* Has sympathetic traits?
* Actively trying to achieve a goal?
* Realistic motivation?
* Offstage time accounted for?

Language
* Leaving out unnecessary words or phrases?
* Mood and/or foreshadowing conveyed through word choice?
* Tension level conveyed through word size, flow, harsh/soft sounds?
* Active construction wherever possible?
* Use of strong verbs and nouns?
* Minimal use of adverbs and adjectives?
* Avoiding distracting repetitions (rare words only once in a book, non-structure words once in a paragraph or page)?
* Avoiding weak modifiers very, slightly, just, quite?
* Avoiding sensory crutch words like looked, appeared, seemed, heard, sounded?
* Avoiding self-contradictory language (impossibly tall, slightly unique)?

Protagonist
* Struggling with some important flaw?
* Sympathetic, likely to attract the reader?
* Actively trying to achieve a goal?
* If more than one, are they about equally engaging and sympathetic?
* Protagonist the person with the most to lose?

* Acts unusually, and shown in situations that demonstrate it?

Story concept
* Something significant that the reader might care about at stake?
* Both internal and external conflicts present?
* Taking into account reader expecations for genre/subgenre/story model?
* Decent capsule description of story automatically sounds compelling and attractive?
* Something about the story that's attractive and enticing to readers?
* Character's goals feel important to the reader?
* Has inherent conflict, or is the conflict just incidental?
* If a standard story type, doing something unique that justifies the story?
* Some elements of this story blow the cool meter?
* Powerful moments that create compelling, unusual images?

Plot
* Do mysteries naturally arise in the storyline without artificially withholding information?
* Inciting incident, character response, disaster?
* Driven by character, not author?
* Enough tension at any given moment?

Scenes
* Taking into account time of day in each scene?
* Describing an actual event rather than summarizing when possible?
* Each scene contributing to the story in at least two ways? (e.g. characterization + tension, immersiveness + stakes, etc.)
* Each scene essential to the story or strengthens/propels it?

Characters
* Readers care what happens to them?
* Names easily distinguished from one another?
* Based on an understanding of real people instead of on movies, other books, or stereotypes?
* Any characters who would be more effective if combined into one?
* Each important character has an implied past, friends, family, a job, something they would be doing if the story weren't happening?

POV
* Chosen POV the most effective for this story?
* If first person, justified by the character having a distinctive voice or special way of seeing things?
* If not omniscient, is POV clear and consistent?
* Are changes in time, place, or POV character clearly tagged as such from the start?
* If multiple POV characters, are the transitions smooth?
* Do POV changes propel the reader on rather than making them start again cold?

Facts
* For scientific/tech details, math checked?
* Factual subjects handled accurately from knowledge or research?