Spring Cleaning for Your Desk and Mind

Yesterday on Twitter I ran a little survey about what people wanted to see on the blog. I got a pretty good response, and this is one of the ideas suggested to me. The suggestion came from Andrew Hayes and I felt it was a fantastic suggestion.

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The days are getting longer, the weather warmer and soon it’ll be Easter. That’s right! It’s the spring! A time of birth and new beginnings, and traditionally when feather dusters, bleach, furniture polish and all manner of cleaning stuff gets dragged from cupboards for Spring Cleaning.

As writers, maybe we too should do a Spring Clean. Our desks may or may not be cluttered with all manner of trinkets and pieces of paper, so maybe we should organise the area where we unleash our sword (pen… Or keyboard) to help us stay focused. I know that when I look at my desk, the thought of giving it a good de-clutter is daunting: Pens, old and empty lighters, scraps of paper, letters, CDs and DVDs with either music, movies or data on them; magazines, glasses and a teaspoon!

There is so much there to distract me from writing, many reasons to procrastinate, and with the TV remote on there in the mix too… Well, you get the picture, I’m sure. It certainly isn’t cohesive to healthy writing. So, what should I get rid of? What should I make sure is there?

Pens are a great idea. How else can I jot down those random ideas that come to me on a whim? Though scraps of paper don’t fit in with that: They can go. I’ll need a notebook, probably A5 in size, spiral bound. This makes note taking really easy and sometimes, let’s be honest, opening up a new Notepad window and typing your idea, even in this digital age can take a lot longer than using pen and paper. Note taking, as a writer is very important, as I’m sure you all know.

Cigarette lighters, mugs and teaspoons can all go in the bin or sink. Letters can go in the right folders and CDs and DVDs can go back in their cases, nicely neat and tidy. The TV remote, as much as I like being able to control the telly from my desk, can go on top of the TV where it belongs, I think. After all, I’ll be much less likely to turn it on when writing if I have to move to do so.

Phew! *Wipes brow* That done, and my desk looks a million times better! And with a tidy environment, my mind can work much more clearly. And I think it’s time to put my newly purchased notebook to use.

Spring cleaning for your mind is nowhere near as easy as your desk: It’s not just about removing anything distracting or messy. We’re now into the fourth month of the year… I wonder just how many ideas, thoughts, goals and other miscellanea have been floating around in your head since January? For me, there’s been a lot. All jumbled up and in no real order.

So, in this time of Spring Cleaning, maybe we should get our minds in order as well. Put down those goals, make them targets: Who, what, when, where and why? The ideas need to be jotted down, given order and organisation. Also, writing them down, like saying them, makes it all much more real than a mere whim. I spent a considerable while today getting my thoughts, goals and ideas in order. Maybe you should give it a try?

Bring your own duster!

What do you do when Spring Cleaning your desk and mind? Any hints, tips or tricks you find useful? Let us know!

And if we get enough ideas, I’ll throw together a nice post on Spring Cleaning tips from the Writer’s Journey community.

Disbelief? Suspend it!

Following on from my previous post on realism, I was reading an article by Vicki Hinze on the Fiction Factor website. It discusses suspension of disbelief when writing fiction.

But, what is this idea of suspending disbelief? It’s all about making your readers be able to believe that what you are writing is, or could be, real. Whether it’s a romance, action-adventure or fantasy piece you are writing your readers need to be able to believe in what they are reading. Elves? Not in the real world, that’s for sure? Don’t be silly! If you can suspend their disbelief, however, then it could well be possible that elves do exist in reality.

It’s all in the detail.

How do we do that for a novel without an atypical or unusual element?
In a word, details.

And in that quote, Vicki sums up the concept perfectly. It is the tiny, seemingly unimportant details that are key to suspending your reader’s disbelief. From making sure your characters are believable and relatable through giving them ‘real’ personalities, to giving enough prior background for an event to be plausible.

An example by Vicki speaks of snow in Florida. Sure enough, a snow storm in Florida wouldn’t happen in real life (I think. Do feel free to correct me if otherwise), in your novel it could well be. A change in weather fronts and well developed plans by Organisation X to affect weather against the natural order? Sure, that could well make snow fall in Florida.

Consistency is key.

Throughout your novel or fictional piece you need to be consistent to maintain the suspension of disbelief. To continue the the ’snow in Florida’ example: Suddenly throwing in this Organisation X and all related factors in the chapter immediately before or after the snow storm will look very much like a desperate ’saving grace’ attempt that will make the reader stop, think and still believe it couldn’t happen.

Before and after the event, you need to continue suspending disbelief. As another extreme example: There is snow in Florida for the above-stated reasons one day, on the next, blistering heat once again. No, doesn’t sound real to me either, considering the information we’ve been given already. “Boo!” at the writer!

Informative delivery.

Vicki goes on to speak about how you give this details and ‘facts’ to the reader, and brings up an interesting point:

It’s widely accepted as fact that a reader believes what one character says to another far more readily than the reader believes what an author says to them.

And that, I think, gives point enough on how best to deliver the information that builds believability.

Over to you.

What methods to you use to suspend disbelief as a writer? As a reader, what are you most likely to notice that will reinstate your disbelief? Or what do you like to see to enable suspension of disbelief?

Critiques: A Writer’s Best Tool?

Jamie over at How Not To Write wrote an interesting article on Sunday about receiving a critique from an external service, and his view on the critique given was certainly enlightening.

It can be difficult at times to take criticism. To be told that something we have spent time, effort, sweat and maybe even blood on is flawed can be a hefty blow. The tendency in a critique, as displayed in Joanna Young’s post about feedback on her Confident Writing blog, is to be told all the things done correctly. All the positive points. Focus tends to lead away from the negative. As that is what’s expected, so too is it delivered.

But, Jamie expects something different:

To me, a successful critique does three things:

1. Tells me something I don’t know.
2. Hammers me with examples of my failures over and over again
3. Tells me something I know, but have tried desperately to ignore.

These three points got me thinking about what I expect from a critique and what is a suitable balance. And as a part of that balance, I’ll go through each of the three points made by Jamie.

Tells us something we don’t know: Often we already know all the good points of our work. Pride can make us blind to any errors we might see if we look with a purely objective eye.

Hammers out examples of failure over and over again: The same pride that makes us blind to mistakes also wants us to write a perfect piece. The only way to do that is to correct our mistakes, which we can’t do unless we know them.

Tells us something we know but have tried to ignore: We can probably apply this to both of the above. We know something is wrong, but for whatever reason we try and ignore it. Having it pointed out to us by someone else makes it more real so we can’t really ignore it. Allowing us to get as near to perfection as possible.

Of course, however, we need to consider that we write better when confident about our skills. So, how can we keep balance? We need to be told what is wrong with our writing so we can change/improve it, but we need to know what we are doing right so we keep doing it.

Perhaps the way to do it is to have two critiques: One focused solely on the positive, the other focused entirely on the ‘negative.’ That way, we can see clearly how we are performing.

What are your thoughts on this? What would you suggest? After all, without critiques how will we ever grow? They are paramount to developing as a writer.

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