Tag: Harriet Phoenix

Writing Advice

Writing Advice: Throw the Pointy Rock

Harriet Phoenix

After talking last time about respecting the writing community, now I think it’s time to get into some advice about actually writing! I’d like to focus on plotting, as in, deciding what actually happens in your story.

Say you have a story, and you’re not sure where to go with it. Then, out of nowhere, a plot development occurs to you. It’s perfect: it touches themically on everything that’s gone before while upping the stakes to dizzying new heights. It’s also cruel, horrifying and will utterly destroy your poor dear character.

“Oh, no!” you think. “I can’t possibly do that!”

DO IT.

Let’s face it, it’s already done. If you have such a strong emotional reaction to your idea, then that idea is the only thing that can happen. It means that you just touched the third rail that gives your story life. If your character’s journey doesn’t affect you, why should anyone else care?

Director and playwright George Abbot said that your job as a writer is to chase your character up a tree and throw rocks at them (and yes, I did have to look up where that quote is from). That “I can’t possibly!” reaction means that you just picked up a big, pointy rock that is really going to hurt when you hurl it into their face. But that’s what we’re here for, and that’s why you have to go ahead and throw it, sweetie, as hard as you can.

Plot is what happens. Story is why it happens, and what happens because of it. Stories are about change, and changes don’t happen for no reason. People don’t change for no reason. They change because something forces them to change; something painful and, above all, personal. That development you just dreamed up is daunting because it hits your character right where they live; their worst nightmare, their secret shame, their deepest trauma. And that’s where the stakes are.

If anyone’s going to care what happens in your story, then it has to hurt.

After all, why did you give your character a deepest nightmare, if you’re not using it to torture them?

Writing Advice

Writing Advice: Feed the Good Wolf

Harriet Phoenix

So I’ve been thinking about what to do with this blog other than post my fairly scant news, and I’ve decided to try sharing my random insights on writing. Maybe this will be of use to someone who’s struggled with the same things I have, or maybe someone will just get a good laugh out of it. Who knows? We’ll see what happens.

I’m hoping to cover something from all aspects of writing, from the creative process itself to the nuts-and-bolts aspects of getting published, but for this first post I’d like to focus on how you, as a writer, interact with the greater writing community. I’m calling it, “Feed the Good Wolf,” but it could just as easily be, “Listen to the Shoulder Angel,” or, “Seriously, Don’t be a Dick.”

A few years ago, I was working at an academic publisher. There was a writer’s group there, and it was from this group that I heard about a writing competition. I forget exactly who was running it, but they were putting together an anthology aimed at new writers. That’s right: PUBLICATION was on the table here. Cue heavenly choir.

I was not yet published. Not even a little. Did I want in on this anthology? Hell. Yeah.

As I was preparing my entry, it suddenly occurred to me that other people might want to hear about this competition as well. I thought it might be nice to send a link to my old University, so the latest batch of Creative Writing students might get in on the action too. If I sent my old tutors a link, maybe someone could print off a poster and all those fresh-faced under- and post- grads could send in their entries. I felt really good about this idea!

Until the ol’ shoulder devil started talking. “Hold on there,” it said. “That sounds like an awful lot of extra competition you’re courting there. You sure you want to do that?”

I HAD been sure… until then. But the more I mulled it over, the more it seemed like a mistake. How would I feel if I shared this competition, and then lost? Like a sucker, that’s how. I’d been tremendously lucky to hear about this competition; was I obliged to share that luck? I decided I wasn’t. I’m not proud of it, but that’s what happened. I listened to the shoulder devil, fed the bad wolf, and generally acted like a selfish, insecure ass. I sent my entry off and sat back, proud of what a pragmatic, cut-throat decision I’d made.

The competition was cancelled due to lack of entries.

Yeah. Score one for cut-throat pragmatism.

 Now, I don’t know if sharing that link would have changed anything. Maybe there still wouldn’t have been enough entries of sufficiently high quality. Maybe the competition would have gone ahead, my story wouldn’t have won and I’d have been angry with myself for a different reason. Or maybe the anthology would have happened and I’d be in it, pleased with myself for taking the high road.

I hear from time to time that society works better when people are altruistic, because the fewer people act like selfish asses, the more nice things we’re able to have. In this case, a potentially great thing didn’t happen, that I might have been able to save but didn’t, because I was too busy watching my own interests.

Look, I can’t tell you to share a great opportunity rather than hoard it. All I can tell you is that if you’re a writer, then the writing community’s interests are your interests. Do you want to live in a community of good wolves, or bad ones? That’s up to you.