07 January 2013

Problem Solving: Breaking Down to Build Up


By Molly Field

When our fearless leader, Carrie Bailey suggested a prompt for any willing and able and (in my case head-cold -afflicted Peevish Penman), I was all in.

The prompt however, left me thinking more about how to consider it than to actually write to it. The prompt, which I going to chew up as many words as I can by referencing it here is this: "think of a problem you've encountered as a writer and then detail a solution for it."

This head-cold really stinks, but it has come in amazingly handy for this prompt because while NyQuil gives you audacious and coo-coo dreams, DayQuil gives you the confidence to make you think you can achieve them. For instance, writing this piece on solving a problem in my writing.

Here's where my flip attitude about this topic ends. Despite the genré (humor, suspense, fiction, non-fiction), writing is serious business: a writer's word choice, phrasing, tempo and skill tells a reader a lot more about the writer than a casual conversation. We wear our hearts on our fingertips and readers get the gist of who we are rather quickly.

That said, sometimes we don't want to be so obvious. My "encountered problem" would be my relationship with what I've written. Sometimes I'm too close and I get stuck. Every writer experiences a problem in what they're writing. Even non-writers. Consider the note to a child's teacher or a friend you're visiting.

For the note to the teacher, sometimes it's not so simple and I can tell you as a parent with full access to any manner of writing tools, a paper and pen is always best when it comes to those missives. When I sit at the computer, I am suddenly Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy: wanting to sound intent but clever and engaging.

To wit: "Dear Mrs. Hausenfraussenagle, It is always believed that a child who comes to school sleepy is one wont of more... sleep, of course! Therefore, I regret to impart to you my dear educator, that Mortimer slept past the rooster's crow this dusky Monday morn and I beg your pardon for the inconvenience. We are a happy family..."

A paper and pencil solves this immediately:

"Dear Mrs. H: Mort slept in this morning. We all did. Long, fun weekend. Please accept our regrets. Have a great day."   



Still with me?

Grrr....Yes, but Molly, why are you talking about a tardy note...? 

Here's what I'm getting at: when I am stuck...really stuck, I take a pen to paper. I write out what I mean to say in short hits. Consider the tardy note as a piece of a story:

Kid sleeps in.
Late to school.
Family reference.
Regret.

Now, what you do with that is up to you: if we're talking about a fictional work, some sort of character development, then you write in / include your modifiers: mother is hungover; father is sick or on travel; older sibling left for job before school without waking anyone else. I decided, because I'm so happy-go-lucky, that we'd have a family-in-crisis scenario.

Color it in... (this is all off the top of my OTC-grade cold remedy -influenced head, so keep your rotten vegetables at bay):

When Susan awoke in the morning, her head was the heaviest piece of her body. The bedsheets and blankets were twisted by her feet. A bout of crying and fighting with her bottle demons stole precious hours from her otherwise typical night's sleep. Her little boy, Mort, was in his hoodie, snoring on the tattered sofa, his mouth open to the page in the library book he'd fallen asleep upon. The sun was barely cresting the scant treetops on the reservation, but slivers of light made their way through the holes in the drawn blinds. It was going to be a bright day, Susan thought about her sunglasses, where were they? She ambled out of her bed, slipped into her flip-flops, and felt her way to the kitchen where she started a pan of hot water to cook for the coffee. The clanging of the silverware in the double-wide bounced off the prefab walls, rustled Morty, whose cherubic face popped over the back of the sofa to see what his mother was up to. A note on the counter from Mitch, her older son announced his departure for his job at the bagel shop. She needed to get Mort off to school, but he would be late, again.

There. It obviously needs some editing, but...

Break it down to build it up.

Another tactic I've used is stream of consciousness writing. Where you just sit and write -- either with pen and paper or at the keyboard and just go. Oftentimes for me anyway, I've got a lot on my mind, so just letting it rip can be therapeutic. That piece about Susan and Morty just flowed out right now. I know this about me: I can't tell a story, but I can write a story.

Another tip I can share is this: STOP. Get up and leave. Go for a walk. Listen to some music that isn't writerly; get a sheet of paper and a pencil and go to another room and MAKE YOURSELF draw a picture of what you're looking at. Pick your image and DO IT. You might surprise yourself with how good you might be or... you might confirm your opinion that you suck at illustration. I got an iPad for Christmas and last night I was feeling like fetid garbage and bored to tears so I drew this on it:



And here I am today, all OTC'd up and ready to go. Don't judge. The point is: you're trying something new and you're developing new synapses in your brain which will help you be more creative. Other than that or saying have a go at performance art, I'm out of suggestions.

Sometimes getting back to the elemental basics, the five Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) will get you unstuck. Sometimes a section might need to be written just to get you going again. To borrow from Stephen King, you might have to kill the darlings on final edits, but those moments of breaking down, those moments of distillation are essential to get you to move forward. I realize that I could've broken down this entire post to the very paragraph I'm closing right now, but then it wouldn't have been nearly as charming, now would it?

I hope this helped. I'm going back to bed.

19 comments:

  1. Ah, I see you've been ravaged by this damn flu as well. Hope you feel better!

    I'll admit to being a big fan of the "STOP" approach myself, though that could just be the Sick talking. It seems that disengagement is the common theme in many of the solutions to various writing problems, especially blockage. It's almost like a Zen Koan, or that really effed up flu dream I just had where I was a gardener on a big suspension bridge overlooking a harbour....yeah, time for more meds. :)

    Great post!

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    1. Hi Jody, thanks for commenting! You were the first. That means you commented before anyone else. In internet culture that's supposed to be a big deal. So... wear the mantle proudly.

      I like the STOP approach too, but then for me, it can morph dangerously close to the "forgedaboudit" approach which ends with me in a crying heap saying I'll never ever ever be any good at this. Ever. It's not pretty. So I delude myself into thinking that going on to another creative exercise (pen and paper, doodling, music) is *not stopping* ... I'm all about self-deception.

      I like that dream you had. Last night I dreamt I painted my car but the paint was all chunky, you know, old? and it was this hideous blue, like a superman blue but with chunks in it and it had sparkles. NOT KIDDING. In the dream, my husband (who rarely drops an F bomb) asked me, "What the f--- are you doing?! You ruined the car!" and I was all (I never say "I was all like..." unless I'm feeling particularly "street" in my caricature), "Yo, wha's the problem. It's chunky is all... I'll smooth it out with this broom..." <- NOT KIDDING.

      yeah, time for more NyQuil.

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  2. Bravo Molly! Not just for dragging yourself from the infirmary to write this (although that is impressive as I just emerged from the mucus-fever cloud myself), but also for hitting a big bulls-eye for me. My biggest frustration is the tendency to obsess over a simple point because I feel like "I'm supposed to be writing a novel," but if the words aren't there, they aren't there and adding a bunch of fluff is only going to irritate me further. Thank you for giving me some validation and a few hints to keep me from throwing my laptop through the window in the future.

    Now go back to bed! Those fever dreams are waiting for you!

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    1. Hey Rob!

      Yes, fluff doesn't work. I'm editing my own stuff at the moment and I keep hearing Clark Brook's post about staying on target. If what I'm writing doesn't add to the story, then it's gotta go. It's hard to resist the muscle flexing / ego traps of writing. "I should write more because I write so well...." is not ever really going to lead to a good book.

      The example I wrote above, I just re-read it, could be culled by half and still make the point. The temptation is to layer it incase we're not feeling strongly enough about it. I dunno... for the beginning of a book or section, I guess it's a good hook, but in the middle of a novel, it's garbage. Fetid garbage. Which brings me to my next point: diagnosis of bronchitis and sinus infection! Wahoo! Not. Well, at least I've got the Zpack.

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  3. I always thought Z-Pack should be the name of a superhero team that fights the evil villain BioHazard.

    Gayle, let's make it happen! Of course, it would probably end up sitting in doctors' waiting rooms, but hey, a sale is a sale, right?

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  4. Waah... did Gayle comment? I see nothing! -M

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    1. No, I'm just saying that the Z-Pack idea sounds like it's in her comic book wheelhouse. Don't worry, the meds aren't making you hallucinate...yet.

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    3. i am all about a comic book villain named Amos CyVillian ...

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    4. I'm on it! The Z-Pack and I are on *excellent* terms,s o I'm sure I can get it to sign over its likeness rights without a problem.

      Molly, I am a big fan of the break down to build up. I usually swear to people I don't outline, but when my head gets stuck, there's the list, telling me what's got to happen. I just don't call it an outline, so it obviously isn't one. :)

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  5. You have so many great tips and ideas when it comes to writing. I was struck by the "do something different" portion. Write in pen/pencil instead of typing. Synapse away! In art, we are told to draw with the opposite hand, draw something upside down, draw without once picking your pencil up from the paper, or draw something without taking your eyes off of it (DO NOT LOOK DOWN AT THAT PAPER). I love tools that help you stretch, grow and get unstuck. Thanks!

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    1. Yes, art has many wonderful techniques for creating new synapses; and writing does too - I just didn't have the mental bandwidth to mention more of them. now that the clouds are breaking, there's dialogue only; storyboard it, screenplay writing (which is how I tend to write: everything is a picture in my head and then I write it) and limericks or poetry... the rule is: no rules. To break out we must break rules. Thanks, Lillian!

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  6. Molly: Such great advice! I agree we often get too close to our writing and it's hard to see through the fog. As always, thank you oh Wise, Mad Writer. Feel better soon!

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    1. thanks, Kristal! yes... the closer we get, the more hosed we are. I re-read that blurb I wrote for the post again and I'm sorta mortified. I would LOVE to have another challenge with our Fiction Fridays where we all trade a piece that we wrote say a month earlier and edit it for the other writer... that would be amazing.

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  7. Oh, love that idea. I feel like such the amateur of the bunch - yet honored to be included. Just read your other post about having confidence. The fictional posts from all the other writers (including you) have been incredible. Coming from a business writing background I am in a world of writing I've never explored. Guess I need to work on that confidence thing. Thanks for being a part of my tribe. *tear*

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    1. Which post about confidence? The one about contacting the publisher? Yeah... I'm going for it. What do I have to lose other than fear? I am so incredibly grateful you've found ME! I appreciate your support more than you know ... well, maybe you do know. I have "met" some fantastic people through the writing... opening myself up and sharing me. It's been the best gift I could've ever given myself. It's almost better than chocolate ice cream. :)

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  8. Fearless leader :D. I'll comment again later when get over that bit.

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    1. Carrie! YOU ARE THE FEARLESS LEADER. and i mean "fearless" - I don't think you get it... you inspire me. You really do. And I'm so grateful to be part of this PPM world you've created. Truly. Thanks.

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