Avoiding Repetition

So I've finished four chapters in my fifth rewrite/revision, up to 8,853 words. With any luck, I'll get the fifth chapter completed tomorrow.

In the meantime, during the Pratt writer's group I attended, I was asked by somebody there to read his latest manuscript. As I read through some of this afternoon, I started thinking about some of the writing tips I've learned in my meetings with other writers, following writers on Twitter and advice I've read in books and blogs.

One of the things that's stood out is to avoid repetition. In other words, you don't have to keep reminding readers about something all the time. Always find a way to describe what your character is doing without writing the same thing.

As an example: Let's say you have a character who is heading to the grocery store. Say you write this in your draft.

Joe needed to get some groceries. He walked out the door as he said to his wife, "I'm going to the grocery store."

There may be a need to say this in the quote, but you don't say it in the interior monologue. Let's try a different approach.

Joe opened the refrigertaor. No milk. Why didn't somebody keep track of these things? He shut the door, walked to the table and picked up his car keys.
"I'm going to the grocery store," he said to his wife.

Not only have we avoided repetition, we get into the reasons why the character is going to the store, and we've got an idea about what he thinks about the situation.

So a better way to remind your readers about the setting or situation your character is facing is to get your character's thoughts out there. If the setting is a crowded room, you may want to write about whether or not your character likes being in a crowd. If the situation is tense, write about your character's heart pounding. If it's hot, have your character wipe sweat from the forehead.

Remember, though, that repetition means you don't want to hammer the point home. Go back to the crowded room example. Mention the room is crowded, get into either your character's thoughts or actions, then get to your next development. From there, you only need to remind your readers about the crowded room if it leads to something else. How you do that depends on how important it is to the story.

If your character starts a conversation with somebody, and they try to leave the room, you can mention that they have to push past people to get out, but leave it at that. On the other hand, if somebody shouts "Fire!" and everyone panics, now the crowded room becomes an important element, and you can describe what your character is thinking and doing as everyone tries to get out.

With practice, you'll learn how many times it's OK to remind your readers about a setting or situation, and the ways you can do it without writing the same words. And your story will flow better.

Progress Continues

So I've written 6,385 words in three chapters of the fifth rewrite. It's been a good time to think about some changes from my original direction. Among them:

* Likely a new title, which I will unveil later. Again, the title is a work in progress, much like everything else with the book.
* New last names for the main characters (which are up on the book info page linked above).
* At least one character is being removed from the first book and pushed to the second. I'm debating on removing another entirely. Both are supporting characters I determined weren't as important to the story I wanted to tell.
* Trying to do more to get inside the heads of the characters, which means certain parts of the book that come later, will come earlier. I hope it builds more intrigue.
* Certain material I planned to push to the second book is likely getting pulled into the first instead.

In the meantime, I will try to find some time to jot down ideas for the second book, so that when it comes time to revisit that draft, I have an outline on where I really want things to go.

Tomorrow, I plan to go to Pratt to visit with another writers group. Figured it's a good idea to meet some more writers and see what other ideas I can get from them.

Oh, and I do plan to build my links list over time and see what other improvements I can make to the blog. As with the book, it's a work in progress and nothing was built in a day.

The Right Environment For Writing

So after having spending most of the day covering events at the local fair Sunday, I didn't get a chance to write. The good news is that I got the time this evening, added a few more thousand words and now have 4,513 words in two chapters of the fifth rewrite.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day either in a hot indor arena or outdoors, when temperatures were nearing 100 and the humidity was high. At the arena was a dog show, and at one point, they had to close the door that allowed fresh air to come in, so it got stuffy. Follow that with standing outside taking photos at multiple events, and by the time I was finished, I was exhausted.

What I've found is that I don't write well after I am outside in hot weather for long periods of time. I need time to cool down and get my mind focused. And when you are busy most of the day, it's hard to get that focus back.

This brings me to a brief point: When you write, you need to make sure you are writing in conditions that are comfortable for you. For me, and I imagine some of you as well, you need air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. For others, though, I would not be surprised if they write better when they are out in the sun, or perhaps when it's cool outside but there's no breeze. Maybe putting pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard gets them energized enough that they aren't bothered by cold temperatures.

What environment allows one to write well depends on the person. Whatever it is that works for you, that's what you should do. Obviously, you don't want the environment to result in harm to your health or well being. But you do want to find the right room temperature or outdoor climate that allows you to focus and gather your thoughts.

OK, so I imagine for most writers, sitting out in the sun with temperatures near 100 isn't ideal conditions. But not all writers are alike, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are people out there who are like that.

It just doesn't work for me, that's all.

Just A Short Update

It's fair weekend here in Kingman County, so I won't have much to write about tonight, after taking photos at a sheep and goat show and doing an interview.

I will tell you that the next draft of the book has a little less than 2,000 words written and I hope to get more writing done on Saturday afternoon when I have a little free time. Otherwise, my weekend will be busy with fair activities.

It is a good time for me to observe people, though, and get ideas on how to describe what people do and how they react to situations. Something I've had to think about as I prepare the next draft.

After the weekend, I should hopefully have more insights about writing and books that I have either read or need to read.

Best Advice I Ever Read

I was glad that I bought the book "The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published" because one of the many bits of advice given was to get involved with a writer's club or association. I looked up a couple in the Wichita area and that's how I learned more about the Kansas Writer's Association.

From there, I learned about their informal meetings on Monday nights, at which I brought a few pages from my first novel. There, I got some good advice about the things I was doing well and the areas in which I needed improvement.

After talking with a few people there, I concluded that my first book is not yet ready to submit to agents, meaning I will have to do some rewrites again. And this round of rewrites may take a little longer.

I believe it will be worth it, though. It's all about ensuring that the book I submit to agents is one that they will generate at least some interest, rather than a pass after the first few pages.

In the meantime, one of the association members agreed to look over my first book draft to see what ideas work for her, where my strengths lie and what needs the most work.

I am continuing to jot down ideas as they come to me, though. I've read in many places that the best thing you can do with any book idea is to keep writing or typing ideas, and then go back to look at them.

In the meantime, I may have to seek out Stephen King's memoir "On Writing" as that was a book that several KWA members recommended.

So a thanks to Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Steery for helpful advice in their book, which led to the advice from the KWA members. Now I have better ideas about what to do next.

(Side note: I did make slight revisions to the page about my planned book. It will be updated as changes and progress are made.)

All About Me In 20 Questions

For those who are new to my blog, you probably want to know a little more about me, as much as you may want to know about my book.

So I decided to answer 20 questions about myself. I hope these are questions you thought you might want to ask, or that it at least gives you a better idea about who you are reading.

I will mention something before I begin: Yes, my first name is Bob, but I am going by B.W. in fiction writing to avoid confusion with another fiction writer who has the same first and last name as I do.

1. What do you do for a living?
I have written for small-town newspapers for more than 20 years. I first started in November 1993 at the Rocky Ford (Colo.) Daily Gazette. I spent five years there, before taking a job with The Raton (N.M.) Range as the sports editor in January 1999. I stayed there until July 2013, when the paper ceased publication. From there, I started work at The Duncan (Okla.) Banner as the sports editor in August 2013. I didn't find that job to be the right fit, so I took a job with the Kingman (Kan.) Leader-Courier in June 2014 as the sports editor. I just my finished my first year.

2.  So it sounds like you've been covering sports for a long time. You like it?
Yeah, I do. I've mostly covered high school sports. So I get some insight into how teenagers are like, the personalities you deal with, and how they sometimes interact with one another.

Kansas Writers Association and Creativity

I attended the monthly meeting of the Kansas Writers Association earlier today and enjoyed it. It was good to meet a few other people who were writing, I learned about a writer's group that meets in Pratt and the chance to go to informal meetings in Wichita, at which time people will critique each other's writing. Definitely made the right decision to go and hopefully I'll get some more insight regarding writing and how to get published.

The topic at the meeting was about creativity and imagination. One of the points discussed was that the usage of "creativity" with regards to the thought process, didn't become common until 1926. Among the topics discussed was how creativity seemed to be linked to mood disorders, which I can relate to a bit (I have an overactive imagination and a short temper) and that creative people tend to be persistent (evidence: when a writer sits down to write a short story or novel, the writer really wants to get it finished).

We also discussed how children these days get a lot of time to imagine and pretend, and how it wasn't always that way. It used to be the children would go and do the same work their parents were doing. Nowadays they are allowed to be kids and have some fun.

And that brings me to another topic discussed: How creativity is enhanced in part by work, by play and by rest -- and the three should be evenly divided. In other words, too much work leads to too much stress and stifles creativity.

It makes sense when you think about the 24-hour day, to have an eight-hour day for work, get eight hours of sleep and leave the rest of the day to yourself. It's definitely something our workaholic society who survives on not enough sleep should think carefully about. How many creative works are likely getting lost because we spend too much time working and not enough time sleeping and enjoying ourselves.

I look forward to more meetings with Kansas Writers Association members. It was a pleasure to get to know some people there and hopefully this helps me along the new path I'm following.