Don't Kill Your Mice!

Someone once told me, that writing classes are a waste of time. If you really need to learn how to write, then you can’t be a good writer. To write, you must be good at it and work until its right, because there is no set way you can teach this.

To an extent, I believed in a small part of that opinion for a long time. I used to take it on as truth, that’s the way it was and writing classes were like a ‘hope’ course. Someone who really wants to write, but just can’t do it. I wrote stories about these people for years until I realized how depressing and utterly untrue that statement really is.

Being in a writing course is not being told how to write, nor is it to be told what to do with your writing. For me, the best advice they have given me is to find your voice. What makes you tick, and we shall help you along the way to really polish that voice into something worth reading. That is not to say that people who haven’t done a writing course cannot write as well. But maybe because we have these courses, for a lot people, such as myself, they need the hope, they need the instruction to find themselves, because humans are so fragile and at times we just can’t walk it alone.

My fiction teacher today was giving us good writing advice from all these different writers in order to help us be inspired to complete the challenge she set for us in two weeks. But, more on that later…

There were loads of things to write on, and every writer seemed to have their own way of creating a story. Which I think was really nice to hear. But the point she was really trying to make, is what kinds of authors resonate with you. What words and ways of writing do you relate to?

These authors resonated with me:

EM Forster – “’The King died, and then the Queen died’ is the story. ‘The King died, and then the Queen died, of grief’ is the plot.”

Eva Sallis – “Its very hard to imitate someone elses style well…I have this theory that everyone has a layer of crap that they have to write through before they get to the good stuff…just write, just let it rip…the only way you’ll ever find your voice.”

Anne Michaels – write with poetry of language to explore themes

Robin Hemley – “I’ve found I can be intrigued with characters without necessarily liking them…but I must feel sympathy for the character…” and “don’t kill your mice…in plainer language you might say they torture these poor mice…if I had allowed the mice to die…that would have become the story…overwhelmed the character and certainly any care the reader might have for them…I wanted to be liked…’I’m glad the mice didn’t die. If they had you would have lost me as a reader. Never kill the mice.”

Anne Lamott – ABDCE (Action, Background, Development, Climax, Ending)

Allegra Goodman – “there is nothing better than listening to your characters regale you…they are all fictional characters, yet in writing they are real” let them tell the story. Be amused by them, let them come alive.

These people intrigued me because they made me think about the story I was writing and all the times I’ve had trouble with some parts that just don’t feel like they’re working, seemed so small and insignificant when I really thought about what the experts believed. Especially Robin Hemley, who told me not to kill my mice! I realized after reading his article Sympathy for the Devil: What to Do About Difficult Characters I was going to kill my mice in my own story, which is why it was failing. I had to leave my mice in the story…what the mice are…well that’s my little secret!
It really inspires you to write when you realize that authors who have their works published have sat in your exact position wondering the same thing. I hope later in my career when I’m middle aged and have written a few stories/articles that I can write my own writing story. That someone will want to know how I got through the bad days, the writers block and pick up a few pieces to put towards their puzzle.

Something to look forward to

On another note, the challenge my fiction teacher set us. Are you ready?

THE THREE HOUR NOVELLA CONTEST!

The mission? To write a 4000-5000 word narrative in 3 hours!

Wish me luck; I am craving some good chain-me-to-the-chair-writing! I am, truly! I’ve never done anything like it before!

I just need to locate my delicious bowl mug. This is going to take a large cup of tea…

Promising not to kill her mice, and always yours,

Jinx xx