The Journey

I’m convinced that the people who are most successful – writers, actors, musicians, football coaches, business people, software designers, restaurant managers, sales people - have a plan. That’s certainly no revelation, but I think sometimes we forget about planning.

I still remember what one of my mentors told me when I was a band director. “To have a great band, you only have to go through three steps: Step One – Know what a good band sounds like. Step Two – Know what your band sounds like. Step Three – Know how to get your band from Step Two to Step One.”

That’s the plan. First, find out what a good story is like. Right now I’m studying one story a week, one story that I really admire. (This week’s story is “Only Partly Here” by Lucius Shepard.) What is this writer doing in this story? How does he do it? Why does he use this tense? This point of view? What does this scene do? How does he convey information about the characters, the story, the setting? Why does he use dialogue in this scene and not this one? What does this symbol mean?

Then know what your stories are really like. If you’re getting your stories critiqued on a regular basis, you’ll start seeing patterns. Right now I know that I have too many ideas in my stories. I also sometimes don’t make pivotal story points clear enough. You’ve got to point to specifics in your stories and be able to say, “This is a problem.” (And I believe you need somebody to point them out, whether it’s a first reader, an editor or a writers’ group.)

Now the fun part. Moving from where you are to where you want to be.

I remember the first band I taught. They sounded awful and it was my fault. I asked a director friend of mine to listen to them. When the rehearsal was over, I said to him in frustration, “Everything is wrong. Nothing is right. What do I do?”

“Isolate problems,” he said. “Fix the most obvious problem first, then tackle the others one at a time. That’s it.”

When it comes down to it, he’s right. That’s exactly what you do.

And I wasn’t kidding. The journey – learning and applying what you learn - really IS the fun part! Maybe I’m weird (a given), but when I discover something about my writing I didn’t know before, and how to make it better – that’s exciting. That means I’ve taken one step closer to becoming a better writer; not necessarily a published writer, but a better one. And I can live with that.

Now Playing = Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes