Why I Write

I don't care if anyone doesn't read this.
Well, that's a bit of a lie - just a touch, though.
Why do I write? Why do I want to write?

Part of it comes from pride. The idea, thought, notion of being able to claim the title and be called a writer - or even better - an Author calls me. Beckons me. It's easy to want these things when they're already done, or when you say you're working on some creative project. But as for the actual doing, that's hard.

When I was little, the library in my elementary school was magic. I actually had trouble learning how to read well, and so libraries were a bit of a mystery for me back then. Oh sure, I loved being read to, or adventuring through the innumerable picture book tales... but I was embarrassed about not being able to read like everyone else. It frustrated me - and publicly shamed me in front of my other classmates and friends. I was in first and second grade, so it was kinda a big deal (and it still is, I think).

I owe an undying debt of gratitude to Mrs. Yorth, my second grade teacher, for taking the extra time, after school, to help me to learn how to read. My school, River Grove Elementary, also put me into a specialized reading class. Looking back on it all, I feel like I had my own Marvel origin story in that class... I don't really know what they did to me, but once I got out I was reading at a high school level - and soon after, at a college level.

I remember the day some time not long after I was out of that special class, I walked into the library. To this very day, I can't remember why I walked in there... because I'd usually pass it by... maybe it was a Scholastic book fair or something, and I was drawn in by the bright pictures... who knows... But I remember walking in to a place where only a second before had been like an empty room full of absolutely nothing... and then suddenly it had been transformed without flash or bang. I was now standing in a vast treasure trove - unexplored and all mine. I could look at endless row after endless row and know what I was looking at. I could read any book I choose (or not). I think this ability is lost on most people. The simple wonder - the marvel - of being able to do as you please, when you please... I also experienced this wonder with words, as I suffered from severe stuttering during that time in my life, too.

To get into the computer lab, full of all those glowing green-screen Macintosh computers, we had to stand in line along this library back row... which just happened to be where most of the fantasy was shelved. Since my last name begins with 'F' I was sort of jumbled somewhere in the middle of the line. So as we waited for the Powers-That-Were to do whatever it is that they did back in the early 90's, I would stare at the fantasy titles and wonder. It's funny. Usually I kind of don't like how I am generally shorter than other people, again thanks to my bout with childhood leukemia... the same disease which stunted my growth, had also been involved with scarring my vocal chords, as well as affecting my critical thinking... So when it comes to book shelves, the first thing I generally see is anything about midway up or slightly lower. I see the buried authors first. I remember seeing the Susan Cooper's (The Dark is Rising series); I saw the Peter S. Beagle's (The Last Unicorn); and the Patricia C Wrede's (The Dealing With Dragons series).

People will find your books. They will. My self-pride about writing and authorhood is just full of itself. The right people will find your work at the right time, and in the right place. You will probably never hear about it. You will most likely never know about it. But good stories have a curious way of transcending time and space. They slip out into the world and nestle into strange hands in unimaginable places. I should know - I was one of those readers. To this very day, there are still lost bookish treasures I'm still desperately hunting for - still gems which gleam in the darkness of obscurity, waiting once more to be reclaimed.

Good books are treasures. They are invitations sent out into the lost parts of the vast world. They are keys to secret kingdoms with hidden gates tucked away in unlikely places (like the threshold of an elementary school computer lab...).

So write on - who knows what will come of your next good book.

- Ryan

How to Write Your Story.

How do you start writing that idea for a story you've harbored all those years?

 

Here's my thoughts:

That's awesome that you've got a book in mind... honestly, I just kept writing. 

Writing Rienspel wasn't all at once... there wasn't any set writing block...

- I just discovered that I like to write... whenever I'm done with 'what I'm supposed to be doing' whether it's homework or job stuff... I would write... however you need to do it, what ever it looks like- just write. 

Is it crappy? Write. 

Is it terrible never-going-to-be-published? Write. 

Is it secretly awesome? Write. 

Secondly, read. 

Read to be inspired. Read what you love. Not what you ought to love, but what you honestly could read all day. 

I actually started with a map... the map that's on the Rienspel page, actually. 

During college I was invited to go camping one weekend... but for some odd reason, I decided to pass. I found myself alone in my quiet dorm-room and just started drawing... a couple hours later there was this whole continent... and I thought to myself, well- it needs people. So I started dreaming up people. And then I knew there was a story there... .lots of stories! So I said, I'd better write them. 

And so I am. 

Simple. 

There's not a magic bullet answer for how to write a story- there's just writing and more writing- this is what's worked for me. 

In general, though- I suggest a couple of loose phases: Brainstorm- write up/draw up anything, everything- don't throw anything away- use friends to talk to/bother and focus solely on creating. Then take the general main elements which surface and research them. Anything- everything- Wikipedia is your friend! Also, for example, pay attention to repeating themes across other stories you love- you're probably noticing these re-occurring themes for a reason. go with it. Next, take what you've researched and as you're continuing to write, find ways to work it into your story. Next- keep reading and writing- but don't be afraid to explore other tangents. Find the main tangent, eventually, and focus on that one- otherwise you can lose momentum and start to rabbit trail (I did this). Re-write as many times as you need. You have an infinite amount of time- remember! Enjoy it. And if you're not enjoying it- take a break. But while you're forgetting about it- deep down, still remember. 

Surround yourself with influences which inspire you. Do whatever it takes to continually squelch the negative thoughts (that's what editors are for later). Eventually, you'll feel out how your own story concludes by where its process leads you. Go with it. I also highly recommend Patricia C Wrede's writing blog http://pcwrede.com/blog/ - feel free to bounce ideas off me anytime- too- here, on http://www.facebook.com/rienspel or at thephoenixofredd@aol.com.

Stress

 

(reposted from http://pcwrede.com/stress/) - Patricia C. Wrede is one of my favorite writers... someone who helped influence 'the voice' of Rienspel... she also has great advice for writers...

"Stress affects everybody’s writing, one way or another, sooner or later, because stress is part of life. How stress affects people’s writing varies from writer to writers. For some folks, writing is an escape, so the more stressed they are, the more they write (though this isn’t that common among published writers, probably because it’s too hard to balance on the knife-edge of stressed-enough-to-write-but-not-so-stressed-that-there-really-isn’t-time-to-write). Other folks hit a certain level of stress, and find that it’s using every bit of energy they have just to stay alive, and there’s no energy or brain cells left over for writing. (Which can add stress, if writing is one’s main occupation and source of income.) For others, it depends on the kind of stress – if it’s outside stuff like an intense day job or the sewer backing up, they can write straight through it without blinking, but if it’s anything personal or emotional, they might as well forget it. And of course there are the folks who get stressed if they go too long without writing, because it’s a safety valve.

Everybody gets overstressed at some point, and the result can be quite dramatic in terms of productivity (and if it isn’t, you frequently end up paying for it later). And all too often, we make it worse for ourselves. Over and over, I’ve watched otherwise rational professionals fall to pieces because they’re under stress and refuse to admit it or allow for it. Writers who have a major operation or illness and refuse to ask for either help or a deadline extension, and then work themselves right back into the emergency room. Writers who’ve had a string of minor catastrophes, and who beat themselves up for not writing. (Usually, these are the sort who could sail through any one minor catastrophe without pause; it’s dealing with five or six in quick succession that’s too much. So they look at everything one at a time: the car accident that took a week and dozens of phone calls to the insurance company to settle, and the kid who fell out of the tree and broke an arm, and the water pipe that leaked three inches of water into the living room, and the refrigerator pump that failed and unfroze everything inside, and the cat who had to be rushed to the vet in the middle of the night, and the scary letter from the IRS about last year’s taxes, and it doesn’t occur to them that when all that happens in the same week, you are allowed to not get any writing done). Writers who are taking care of a seriously ill family member, and think they should do that, have a day job, and still write full time.

Some of this happens, I think, because those of us who write for a living are so very, very aware of how easy it is to find excuses not to write…and how very dangerous it is to give in to that impulse. Everybody sneers at the wannabes who only ever talk about the great story they are going to write some day…and who’ve been talking about it, and not writing a single word, for the past ten or fifteen years. But part of the reason we sneer is that we know just how little it would take for use to slide back into “some day, sooner or later” land. It took a lot of work and discipline and determination to get to the point where writing happens and pages get produced on a regular basis, and we don’t want to have to climb that hill again.

But stuff happens, and if you don’t recognize it, admit it, and deal with it, you’ll very likely be much worse off in the long run. It’s a bit like writing, or exercise, or losing weight: other people can tell you that you need to do it, but you are the only one who can actually write the words, do the pushups, lose the weight, or manage your own stress.

There are a bazillion books out there on how to manage stress, and they all say the same things and they’re all right: exercise, eat right, take care of yourself, take a break, take a walk, meditate, talk to people about it, find ways to reduce the stress if possible (move, change jobs, get a massage, change the locks on the house or the phone number, quit listening to the news, etc.), see a professional if it gets to be too much. The one thing none of them advise is ignoring the fact that you are stressed and trying to carry on normally.

The trouble is that the things that are most effective for dealing with stress all work over the long run, and we’re a quick-fix society…and most people don’t start trying to deal with stress until they’re already in over their heads and sinking.

Also, you’re never going to get rid of all the stress in your life. It simply isn’t possible. Sometimes, you can get rid of a particular stressor permanently, sometimes, the only thing you can change is your attitude and the degree to which you take care of yourself. And one of the important ways of taking care of yourself is to not beat yourself up when you didn’t write as much as you think you should. Much as we all love doing it, writing is not always the most important thing in the world. Not compared to, say, getting your kid to the emergency room after that bicycle accident, or rebuilding the house and community that got smashed by the tornado. As one of my editors says when a writer gets too panicky, “Babies won’t die if you’re late getting your manuscript in.”

When you are under stress, you don’t think straight. It is useful, I find, to check in once in a while and actually listen to what you are telling yourself. If you’re frustrated and cross because you want to write and don’t have time, then writing may be part of your way of coping with stress, and it’s worth making time, even just a few minutes, to do it (along with eating right, sleeping, etc.). If, however, you’re fussing about the deadline and your general lack of productivity and how you can’t possibly be a Real Writer and It Is Your Job/Duty, You Cannot Waste Valuable Writing Time…stuff it. You don’t have to write when your Mom is in the hospital or your kid is running a temperature or you’re worried sick about layoffs or the roof just blew off in a tornado. You can if you want, but you don’t have to.

Also, sometimes when you’ve been under stress for a long time and take it off suddenly, there’s a sort of rebound reaction and everything kind of collapses for a while…which can take a lot longer than you think it ought to, especially if you were holding it together long past the normal burn-out point.
When my mother died after a two-year decline into Alzheimer’s, it took me nearly four years to get back to approaching-normal. I managed to get some writing done during that time, but not nearly as much as I usually do. It taught me that if you’ve keep trying to write during a crisis when you not only don’t feel like it, but really don’t want to and don’t think you can, then a) you probably should take a break, and b) you probably don’t have to worry that you’re one of those pseudo-writers who takes any and every excuse to not-write."

by Patricia Wrede Posted on September 21, 2014