Things Writers Do, Part 11: Push

In the countless of interviews of successful authors I have read and heard, not once has an interviewee said, "I am satisfied with what I have written." The objective is to write, not to finish once and for all. Once they have completed the piece, they move on to the next one. Writers write; that's what they do.

Writers see themselves in a state of development, continuously sharpening their craft by reading, writing, editing, learning, experiencing. They likely take great pleasure in completing a literary work, but the reward for them is more work. Writing is not something that they one day hope to retire from. Indeed, it is their essence, so they just keep pushing along. 

Things Writers Do, Part 10: Travel

Writers do not sit still. They are on the move. But they do not necessarily take expensive vacations. Their trips may be to the dry cleaner, the bank, or the grocery store, yet they are observing how the 60-year-old Vietnamese dry cleaner seems extra pushy in talking to her 30-year-old daughter working the register, or how the 20-year-old, shy bank teller pays extra attention to the pretty, young female customer who simply wants to complete a routine transaction, or how the Salvadoran teenage girl stocking the produce at the bodega has made remarkable strides in learning English over the summer. 

True, writers live in their minds when at their writing chair, but they travel a lot too. They always seek something new wherever they go in the hope of finding the best line to complete a difficult poem or the quirkiest dialogue to enliven a character in a play or a novel.

If you're a beginning writer, get up now. Travel. To another coast. To a new street. To a different room. Pay close attention in your travels. See what you find there. You'll surely put what you find there to use.

Things Writers Do, Part 9: Imagine

Without imagination, writers are worthless. Imagination is their lifeblood. They do not take story endings at face value; they create alternate climaxes, devise different decisions, and realize contrasting resolutions to conceptualize new narrative paths. They are not happy with the "perfect" sentence. They rewrite even the favorite ones they've read or written to shape other realities.

The next time you read a sentence so good it gives you the chills, try rewriting it. Who knows what will come up. Maybe the beginning of a new story.

Things Writers Do, Part 8: Play

Writers need to play with words, phrases, and clauses to create their best sentences. I remember needing to write a sentence that went something like this:

Actually, the state of a contaminated substance extending into infinity is the problem that is important regardless of what critics think.

The sentence was clunky and wordy, so I edited it to read:

Although critics challenge the assumption, the infinite presence of a contaminated substance can cause problems for generations. 

But before editing the final draft, I had some fun with the idea that the multiple meanings of the word matter could have replaced several words in the original sentence:

As a matter of fact, the matter of contaminated matter as a matter of infinity is the matter that matters no matter what critics think.

What's the point? Writers sometimes make play of their work to lessen its gravity and increase its pleasure.

Things Writers Do, Part 7: Concede

Good writers test their assumptions with verifiable evidence and quickly concede alternative viewpoints. Examples of such evenhanded reporting appear in Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power (1998) and Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2000). 

In The 48 Laws of Power, Greene lays down with historical evidence the key principles that underlie his laws, and he concludes each chapter with reversals that show when those principles do not apply or can be abused at their most extreme.

In Blink, Gladwell asserts his major thesis about the usefulness of intuitive split-second thinking in solving problems and then cites occasions when deciding in the blink of an eye can be fatal.

In both books, the authors strengthen their argument, giving readers a deeper understanding of their claims. All strong writers will be quick to make concessions at the service of advancing their key ideas.

Things Writers Do, Part 6: Ask Questions

For successful writers, Habit 5 of Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a given: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Writers report on what they witness. They listen. They ask questions. They seek the essence of  a subject, the heart of a character. 

The proverb "He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever" is a foregone conclusion for writers. They do not fear asking the tough question of their subjects and, more important, of themselves. Edward T. Hall dedicated his life to asking what makes one culture different from another, and he comes up with remarkable answers in the books Beyond Culture, The Hidden Dimension, and The Silent Language. Rebecca D. Costa's The Watchman's Rattle identifies trends driving our global culture by asking the difficult questions concerning our mores.  Barack H. Obama's Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope also ask challenging personal and political questions, respectively, and Obama tries to answer them cogently.

Starting out with the toughest question and striving to answer it through interviews, research, and free-writing may not resolve the matter at hand, but it will make for interesting reading.

Things Writers Do, Part 5: Work 24-7

Writers never take off from work. They seek ideas when researching, but they also look for new experiences to write about when vacationing. They spend their waking hours turning a phrase or spinning a yarn, but they record their dreams, which may become part of their next narrative. They dine out just like other people, but they listen to dialogues in restaurants that become a part of their next script. True, they hike, jog, bike, sunbathe, and sail like the rest of us. But they are constantly jotting down their observations: the creatures they see on their hikes, the city sounds they hear on their runs, the engine exhaust they smell during their bike trips, the sand they feel stuck between their fingers on the beach, and the spray of the ocean they taste from their sailboat.

Writing is a reflection of experience, and experience never ends until we do. So writers work 24-7 until they are no longer writers.