Janis, Did you start the book yet?

[Rickster]

Janis, Was just wondering if you started the book yet or you are just chillin' . I'm often perplexed and interested in how one would start a monumental task like this one. Would you start by putting all the events in ones life in chronological order. I'm sure you could give us some insight on the mechanics of a giant task like this.(Or is the process alot looser than this?) Okay...I can see it now on your website..."The making of an Autobiography". :)

[DaveM]

Rickster, the two toughest parts of writing a book are beginning it and finishing it. To begin, one stares at that terrifying blank piece of paper (or screen) and contemplates the size of the task ahead. After some days of this, one writes a few pages which seem utterly inadequate. Then some more. And at some point one gets the idea that perhaps the project will fly.

Then there is the point when it's time to write THE END. Which you may well actually write. Then you realize you left something out. Put it in. Repeat this 1000 or so times. Then go back and take half of it out, along with much of the material you originally wrote. Repeat this a few hundred times. Eventually, grow tired of the manuscript and either submit it to someone, take to drink, run for the nearest wilderness, or resolve never to attempt another book--or all of the above.

Somehow it seems to work out in the end.

See Edward Gorey's "The Unstrung Harp, Or, Mr. Earbrass Writes A Novel". Possibly the most concise discussion of the whole process ever written.

Oh, and by the way....the best way on earth to really annoy a writer and stop them from writing at all is to keep asking how much they have written and how it is going. So, while Janis is working, we'd all best shhh....

[hoops]

davem.
i think your definition is pretty darned close, except those moments when you think you have written something really critical and earthshattering then you go back to read it and realize it is crap. lol
peace
hoops

[DaveM]

The opposite happens as well--Mr. Earbrass encounters it.

Then again, I am reminded of the story of a writer who had a recurring dream which, on awakening, he could never recall clearly. However, he was convinced that it was the greatest story ever imagined, and determined to "get it" somehow. So....he started keeping a pen and paper next to his bed, and the next time he had the dream, he woke up and wrote it down before he could forget, then contentedly went back to sleep.

When he awakened the next morning, he looked at the paper, and there were the words: "boy meets girl".

[Rickster]

Dave, I merely was interested in how one begins a project as big as this. I believe we all have an autobiography in us. (and really was not meant to annoy ) Believe me, annoying someone is the farthest thing from my mind.
I'm sure, as time permits, Janis would be gracious enough to give her take on
this process since she is an experienced writer.

[janisian]

Rickster, I am currently researching my life (really - going through old datebooks and diaries), and doing what every good author does before beginning a major project. I've cleaned the laundry room, I've cleaned the back closet, I've cleaned the kitchen.
Pat says when I run out of rooms, I can come and clean her office...

[KarenSews2]

Rickster, I am currently researching my life (really - going through old datebooks and diaries), and doing what every good author does before beginning a major project. I've cleaned the laundry room, I've cleaned the back closet, I've cleaned the kitchen.
Pat says when I run out of rooms, I can come and clean her office...


Umm...I'd like to make an appointment, too! Mixty STILL hasn't shown up to help me with my sewing room!

[Agnes]

Rickster, I am currently researching my life (really - going through old datebooks and diaries), and doing what every good author does before beginning a major project. I've cleaned the laundry room, I've cleaned the back closet, I've cleaned the kitchen.
Pat says when I run out of rooms, I can come and clean her office...

LOL :D Good to see you again, Janis. I hope you're feeling well :)

[DaveM]

There you go, Janis....just be warned, you will run out of rooms and excuses, and then you'll have no alternative but to.....write. Do know you have friends here who know exactly what you're enduring just now.

Rickster, I didn't mean to suggest that you were annoying anyone. My apologies if my comments appeared to be personal in nature.

[Wes]

Once saw a famous author interviewed on the TV. "How do you motivate yourself to start writing?" asked the interviewer. "I use the 'Or Else' System" replied the writer. "The What?" enquired the interviewer. The author smiled "I go out & rent a penthouse apartment,buy a new car,Buy a wardrobe of designer clothes & an expensive new watch. Then I write or else"

[Dee]

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. - William Strunk, Jr.

There's different styles of writing, and then there's rewriting. For me, it comes from the heart first, from what I feel needs to be said, and from there I can shape it based on the reality that I live in. - Omar Epps

Good writing is like a windowpane. - George Orwell

[MARILYN/GEMINI]

Nice to see you Janis......Happy New Year and happy researching....

[david uk]

Yes indeed, good to see you Janis :)

[Rickster]

Janis, Thanks for the response! I find it interesting to know how one would even know where to begin. I really would like to write a book (not sure yet what genre) I think I would be interested in writing a childrens book. Thanks again and good luck. Happy new year! I hope that you will "check in" from time to time.

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

Janiz,
Mi spelink and gramar iz reel gud... If yew need help let mi no... Eye'd be hapi tew ofer my asistanze...

Best tu Ewe and Pat

R. frum Pa

[ponytail]

A novelist friend once told me that when he's working he writes three pages a day no matter what, and then eventually it's finished.

I always found with prose that I had to do research to get my facts straight, check my thesis, or find out if an idea was plausible (even for fiction). Then I'd do as detailed an outline as I could. Then I'd follow the outline, and as I was writing, the story would develop a mind of its own and take over. Sometimes the story would take twists that rerquired more research. This served me well in hundreds of articles that were published and one novel that my agent sent around fruitlessly for years.

Poems, on the other hand, largely write themselves (even when they're in forms). You either get inspired or you don't -- though you can trick yourself into it with prompts and such. I'm in the waiting for inspiration phase now, and I don't like it.

My late friend Quentin, who wrote several books, once said "People think writers are people who have brilliant ideas and run to write them down. Actually, writers are people who say, 'This pile of papers goes over here, and this pile of papers goes over here..." This from a guy whose every word off the top of his head was brilliant and should have been written down!

Good luck, Janis. May the muse inspire you fiercely and may your words flow like the rapids.

[aabram]

So let's all ssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............ or we'll NEVER get her back on the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes: :D :p

[DaveM]

Ernest Hemingway had a simple formula for successful writing: "Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair in front of the typewriter". Simple, but by no means easy....

[hoops]

i find it interesting that whne i want to write a special project it takes a process of making a list of what i want to include in the work, checking grammar and spelling, making sure i sit down every day to write SOMETHING and figuring out how it all fits together.
when don't have a plan or particular piece or work in mind, the words just flow freely from my fingers. I've started many, many books this way. I've written many poem and much prose this way. i've not completed a book but my other works i find to be finished within the same day they are started.
my mom wanted me to finish a book, and when she was still with us, i started that book, it has been a year and half since her death and i am no where near finished. i look at it everyday and wonder how and why it will work out. if someday you find yourself in a bookstore and see the author's name Leone' fedino...know that i have finished my work.
peace
hoops

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

Hoops....

You will finish it when your ready....

Best wishes

R. from pa

[Oak Kitten]

After diddling around with my dissertation for 13 years :eek: what finally made me finish was an ultimatum from the University that if it was not done by the end of the academic year, they were kicking me out with nothing to show for it. I wrote most of the second half of the dissertation in two weeks while on duty at the Naval War College. As soon as the workday was over, I locked myself in the BOQ and wrote like hell. There were no distractions - no rooms to clean, no cats to play with, no husband to feel guilty about ignoring.

Of course, all the research had been finished, it was just making myself sit down and organize and write the damn thing. No more time to agonize over every little word. I was pretty happy with the final result, as was my committee - those who were still alive. (Yes, I actually had one member of the committee die on me.) So I respond well to threats.

I actually am in the same boat at present, I have to finish the manuscript for a history of the command I work for within the next week if we are to have any hope of having it in print in time for our 125th anniversary in March. I've been stuck in the interwar era for weeks. Now that time is running out, I have hauled all my research home to write over the 4 day holiday weekend. Mr. Oak will be racing sailboats in Key West, so hopefully I can get to the Cold War era by Monday. . .

Oak

[aabram]

Ernest Hemingway had a simple formula for successful writing: "Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair in front of the typewriter". Simple, but by no means easy....

These days it isn't, as typwriters have now been replaced by computers. Most computers have Internet these days, and that can be SSSSSOOOOO distracting. It takes alot of willpower not to come on here for instance :rolleyes: :eek:

[MARILYN/GEMINI]

Ah......Hoops......You"ll get it done when the time is right...and I'd love to read it !! :)

[Chet]

if someday you find yourself in a bookstore and see the author's name Leone' fedino...know that i have finished my work.
peace
hoops
Dear hoops

I look forward to that day. Love ya.

[Mimi]

These days it isn't, as typwriters have now been replaced by computers. Most computers have Internet these days, and that can be SSSSSOOOOO distracting. It takes alot of willpower not to come on here for instance :rolleyes: :eek:

That's soooo true... How glad I am that I wrote my PHD thesis before I was connected to the internet...

Mimi

[DaveM]

Hadn't thought of that....probably best to pull the plug. Which won't help if you've gone wireless....

It seems that everyone here is intimately familiar with the toughest part of being a writer: there is ALWAYS another excuse not to write.

[Dee]

It seems that everyone here is intimately familiar with the toughest part of being a writer: there is ALWAYS another excuse not to write.

As you may have guessed by now, my two thousand (plus) posts aren’t really to get my name bumped to the top. They’re practice exercises for when I actually sit down and begin writing my memoirs. The life stories I have to tell nobody’s going to believe. (I’m not sure I believe some of them myself). :eek:

[Amy in Vermont]

...who sends me a new vignette of his memoirs weekly for editing.

He seems to find writing quite enjoyable and he's pretty good at it!

I am good at editing, a reluctant writer. Its just not my thang. I write well when forced to write, but I would rather not!

[Bryan]

I love that expression, researching my life. I've done that in my own way, though not for a book. Looking forward to that autobiography when the time comes.

[aabram]

Hadn't thought of that....probably best to pull the plug. Which won't help if you've gone wireless....

It seems that everyone here is intimately familiar with the toughest part of being a writer: there is ALWAYS another excuse not to write.

And I'm as guilty as everyone else of that :rolleyes: and not being on line unless I want to be at home is such a good idea :p

[hoops]

chet and marilyn, thank you for the supportive words. and as aloways for the kindness.
peace
Noel