Writers’ Tips

What makes me think I can write a column about tips for writers? Well … I’ve been writing, learning about the writing process, and teaching writing classes for all ages of writers for at least 40 years. For the past five years I have been teaching writing nonfiction for adults and stories for children at Guilford Technical Community College.

Regardless of the length of your current writing project, or whether it is fiction or nonfiction, there are times when it is hard to get moving.  I am a firm advocate of journaling; and if you are a devotee of Julia Cameron/The Artist’s Way, much of this may be redundant – or perhaps a reminder of its value.

I recommend keeping a journal daily. Three pages or half an hour would be optimum.  Even if you don’t produce this much every time, this is a good goal.

What goes into the journal?  Not a diary though some entries may read like one, the journal is more the repository for almost anything you want to put there.  Laundry lists of things you need to do today, this week or this year.  An account of the fight you had with your significant other or child.  Examination of a feeling, experience or idea you might have. 

Exploration of a story idea or a scene, description of a setting or character all fit into the journal.  Each entry offers an opportunity to practice putting your words on paper, letting them roll off your finger tips.

What about those days when you really don’t want to journal?  Well, I suggest to my students that they have a good argument with me.  Such as: “I don’t want to write in this stupid journal today even though June says I should!  (Use lots of exclamation points here!!)  I don’t even know what to write today. I can’t think.  This is dumb and it …” 

As you keep writing you may notice that perseverance brings you to actually writing something more productive in time.

In addition to being an opportunity to explore pieces of a manuscript you are writing, the journal gives you a place to move past the initial hesitation of putting words on paper.  Sometimes we fear getting started lest it not be perfect enough, lest it appear silly, etc., etc., but the journal is forgiving of all that.  And the next time you want to really write something, your writing gears have been lubricated by the practice.

One question that often faces new writers is where do ideas come from? How do I know what to write about?

The answer is right under our noses – ideas are everywhere, whether it’ll be how to make the garden grow well in dry weather, or an imaginary trip into space based on a TV research-based show, a childhood memory or some chance remark made by a friend.

As my brother asked, why did I want to write about a prostitute? Well… I had never really hankered to write about a prostitute and that’s not the way it started.

I had always known that Dell Burke ran the Yellow Hotel ‘down that street’ past the railroad depot, but my activities almost never took me down there. And as a child growing up in the country with lots to do and think about out there, I was not overly curious about the Madam.

It took the opportunity in 1981 to tour her hotel one year after she died when her estate was on sale to pique my curiosity. Listening to people tell anecdotes about Dell, and noticing the contents of the hotel, began to bring her to life for me.

However, other events in my life took precedence as I landed my first counseling job after I completed my doctoral program in Texas. I wrote a number of non-fiction pieces for the newspaper in Worland, for distribution to our clients at the mental health center there, and occasionally my imagination would carry me away to play with other subjects (not written for clients however).

About 20 years later, I chanced onto a reminder that Dell’s story was still of interest to people and I decided to pursue the subject.

I would warn you aspiring biography writers that you will want to spend years (at least 3 or more) just researching your subject in order to locate and validate as much information as possible.

Talk with people who knew your subject. Read what other people have said about him/her. Read about the experiences of others who held similar occupations and were involved in similar activities. Go where your subject lived and worked. Talk with their family and friends if possible. Get a flavor of the surroundings that were important to your subject and why.

Consider why you would want to write this biography? Notice whether this person would be of national or regional interest – whether other people have written biographies about this person and how yours would be different.

Then dig in. And digging you will be. The deeper you dig, the more you will realize how little you really know about what went on in his/her mind.

If you continue to pursue this project – this biography – to its conclusion, you may come to feel you know this person better than anyone else in the world does, or at least that you know him/her as well as you know your own family.

In my case, Dell had been living a double life and few people in Lusk knew her family. At the same time, she had been careful to tell her family only that she ran a hotel in Lusk, but not what went on there. Known to them as Marie Fisher Law, she loved her family and stayed in close contact with several members. It was satisfying to bring the two sides of Dell Burke/Marie Fisher Law together to help her be appreciated as a whole unique person.