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My big Retreat Week professional read this year was One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers by Gail Sher. I've got to tell you, I just do not know what to make of this book. I can imagine myself quoting from it. I can imagine myself referring to it for bits I recall and want to check out again. But I can't say that I got tremendous amounts from it and don't know who I would necessarily recommend it to.

For one thing, I think you have to have some knowledge of Zen and writing to make heads or tails of this thing. For instance, it begins with an exercise called "Writing Zazen: Write on the same subject every day for two weeks. Revisiting the same subject day after day will force you to exhaust stale, inauthentic, spurious thought patterns and dare you to enter places of subtler more "fringe" knowing."

Now, I happen to know that zazen is meditation. I have even thought that freewriting or morning pages might serve as a form of meditation.  But how many people picking up this book know what zazen is? And there wasn't anything in this short exercise description that tells readers that Sher is suggesting meditation. I was so freaked out by that, that I looked up zazen to make sure that I did, indeed, know what it was.

There was another section called "Not Knowing," which seemed similar to what I learned of as beginner's mind. I actually do try to maintain the mind of a beginner. The concept, as I know of it, isn't all that difficult to understand. But Sher's "Not Knowing" is a little different. "For a writer, "not knowing" means giving over the part of you that knows to the writing. The writing tells you what it is." Okay, I had trouble with this section of the book because it did remind me of something I already knew about, and I'm trying to superimpose my knowing onto it. Which would mean that I'm not maintaining the mind of a beginner at all.

Wow. I'm not getting a lot out of that and blowing my mind while doing it.

I wonder if these pieces couldn't be considered meditations or something like dharma talks, except, of course, about writing. They're too mystical for beginning writers and too simple for experienced ones. You'll only like these kinds of things if you like these kinds of things.

The title One Continuous Mistake doesn't refer to the book's whole concept. It's just the title of one of these essays and refers to a Zen teacher's statement that "Zen practice is one continuous mistake." I think I would enjoy reading someone's meditation/writing talk about writing practice being one continuous mistake, but that wasn't what Sher's One Continuous Mistake essaylet was about. At least, I don't think it was.  The book's subtitle Four Noble Truths for Writers, was also the title of an essay. The title refers to the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

There was a great deal in this book that attracted me but then didn't go anywhere...for me. What does that mean? It could mean something. While reading One Continuous Mistake, I began to think that I'd like to be part of a writers' book group that read and discussed nothing but books about writing, which is something I'm quite certain I'd never considered before.

I didn't learn much from reading this book. I didn't take a lot from it that I can use in my writing or my life. I merely had an experience while reading it. And I probably shouldn't use the word "merely" when saying that.

 

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So I finished my skim of Writing Fiction: Big Dreams, Tall Ambitions by Lucy Calkins. It's not what a nonteacher would call riveting reading because it models lesson plans with some coaching on the side by Lucy. Plus, I don't imagine even many teachers would sit down and try to get through one of these books as quickly as possible. They probably do their serious reading on a lesson-by-lesson need.

Calkins covers some very real and even sophisticated writing material here on character development, plotting, planning scenes, and doing drafts. I have no idea how well elementary school children are able to absorb and use this, but it seems as if Calkins could do a general intro to writing book that older writers might find useful.

She quotes many, many writing books in the coaching material. I read this in front of a computer and kept going on-line to find the authors quoted and their books. I wish there'd been a bibliography with Calkins' book. However, the one I read is part of a set on writing lesson plans. Maybe there's a bibliography somewhere for the whole set.

Calkins talks a great deal about the story format of giving a character something to want and then putting up obstructions to them getting it. "The core structure of a short story, in a nutshell, is that a character wants or needs something (or needs to learn something) and then encounters obstacles in reaching this goal." After hearing her talk about this over and over again, I started thinking about  Rust Hill, who said over and over again in Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular that stories are about "something that happened to somebody." When I find my copy of his book, I'm going to reread it, because a story being about "something that happened to somebody" is making a lot more sense to me right now than a story being about  a "character [who] wants or needs something (or needs to learn something) and then encounters obstacles in reaching this goal."

Calkins definitely puts on...pressure...for teachers and students to stick to writing her preferred type of fiction--realistic,  problem-based, social issue types of things. When discussing where writers get ideas, she says, "Teach them, too, that fiction writers read newspapers and watch the news on TV, noticing ways in which the world feels unfair for some people." Many, many writers get ideas from newspapers. I don't think we're looking only for story ideas relating to people being treated unfairly, though. That is a story idea that certainly has some dramatic potential, but it is also just one particular type of story. I think more often we're  looking for ideas that lend themselves to a story format or frame in which, well, something happens to somebody.

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How to Write Fast Under Pressure

By Philip Vassallo

American Management Association

ISBN: 0814414850

Paperback, 185 pages, $18.95

Although this book is meant primarily for business people who have to write reports on a regular basis, I asked for a review copy because the title intrigued me. As an author, I’m always interested in writing advice, especially when it’s related to writing fast and, as the title states, under pressure. As it turned out, I was able to gather a lot of motivational and helpful tips from this book.

As a writer, sometimes it’s hard to focus when you’re working on various projects simultaneously and even more so when you’re under a deadline. I don’t know about you, but I tend to freeze when I have many projects unless I have a clear-cut plan worked out in advance. There are various ways you can trick your brain into focusing on your writing. Vassallo’s book teaches some techniques on how to write effectively, consistently and, most important, quickly.

The author’s approach is based on DASH, the four critical components needed when working under pressure: Direction, Acceleration, Strength, and Health. These elements are fully demonstrated and explained in the book, but to give you a quick idea of what to expect:

Direction: Tips for organizing your thoughts.

Acceleration: Tips for writing on the fly with a ‘beat the clock’ mindset.

Strength: Tips on how to use a quality control system and creating a productive environment.

Health: Tips on prioritizing work and minimizing future pressures.

I found the book well structured and the writing straight forward and enjoyable. Vassallo uses clear examples and metaphors to demonstrate his ideas and techniques. It is a quick read, too. If you work in business and have to write fast under deadlines, I prompt you to get a copy of this book. But How to Write Fast isn’t only for business people and most writers will benefit from this method.

I'm also participating in a blog ch

6 Comments on Review: How to Write Fast Under Pressure, by Philip Vassallo, last added: 2/4/2010

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L. Diane Wolfe said, on 2/4/2010 3:58:00 AM

Sounds like a great book for any writer!

L. Diane Wolfe said, on 2/4/2010 5:08:00 AM

And Mayra, I'd love for you to do a guest spot! Would Feb. 8 be too soon?

Nancy I. Sanders said, on 2/4/2010 1:01:00 PM

I think these tips are so great. Just from this blog post, I am now interested in this book! As a children's writer, I can see how these will really help me to write more productively.
-Nancy

kathy stemke said, on 2/4/2010 2:06:00 PM

This is a book I intend to purchase.

Kristi Bernard said, on 2/4/2010 2:40:00 PM

I need this book. I need to learn to be more productive.

Karen and Robyn - Writing for Children said, on 2/4/2010 3:21:00 PM

This book sounds like a great writer's tool. THis is on my to get list.

Karen Cioffi

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I think it appropriate that the book I will review today will be Jane  Yolen's Take Joy, due to all the joy I've been taking in my new camera over the weekend. I've been finding the joy again in my photography that I've been delaying for so long because film has become such an encumbrance that I end up saving rolls of film for months--my latest batch included shots from San Diego Comic-Con last July, a trip I took last August, several rolls from my Christmas travels, as well as a variety of smaller events in the last six months--and by the time I get to see them again, the pictures have little meaning. I didn't play with pictures as much as I used to when in photography classes because I don't have the time to play in the darkroom making the exposure perfect (though how tempting it has been over the years to find a place I can build a darkroom, especially this last year because my uncle offered me his enlarger....).

Getting the digital camera, even in the first few days of use, has given me back that joy. I'm starting to remember the way I used to play with angles and lighting and the strange subjects I used to seek out. I have done a little of that playing with my camera phone, but that's more of a toy than a passion--when you're dealing with a 2 MP camera, there's only so much art you can create.

(I have a point, really I do.)

This is an important process to me, because I occasionally do a freelance article here and there, a wedding here and there, that kind of thing. I'm taking some pictures for our kickboxing teacher in a couple weeks to help him promote his new dojo. But I'd been feeling lately that I was losinig my chops. All my pictures ended up coming out the same--lots of flash burn, standard compositions, nothing out of the ordinary that gives you that wow factor. Competent, but not excellent. Even the pictures I posted in the last few days reflect those ways of seeing, though I love the salt shaker post because it's something different, something new I tried after learning a few things about indoor lighting (the bane of my photographic existence).

So, what does this have to do with writing and with Jane Yolen's book in particular? 

The whole book is about that discovery process, giving writers permission to find that joy that I have been rediscovering in my photography. In the first chapter Yolen quotes Gene Fowler, "'Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead'" and immediately refutes him: "I suggest you learn to write not with blood and fear, but with joy." She says to forget about publishing, because it's out of your hands, and to focus on the joy of your craft--of writing a story well, of really digging in and living in the story.

A very good premise. I mean, after all, why write if you don't find joy in it? I write. I think I've said it before here. I have a story, a retelling of a Scottish fairy tale, that I've been working on since my last year at BYU, in 2001. It's gone through many renditions, and the most I've ever finished was a novellette for a folklore class in grad school. Then I threw out the entire setting and decided to change it all around, and have gotten all of 10,000 words written since then in the new setting. 

Why haven't I finished it? Because while it brings me joy to live in that story, it doesn't bring me enough joy to make it worth my time to write every night after doing a very similar activity at work every day. I fully admit I may never be a published fiction writer (I am a published non-fiction freelance writer over and over, but that's a different market), and that's enough for me to find the little joys in the little bits of writing I do from time to time because publication isn't important to me--what's important to me is the story in my imagination. 

And mostly because I find that same kind of joy in being an editor to far better books than I could probably write right now.

For those who don't have that push-pull of using up that creative energy before you can set pen to paper (metaphorically speaking), Yolen's book will have much fodder for the imagination. 

Though I must say that the whole numinous "the mystery of fiction," "the mystery of the writing process," bleh. Don't make it all mysterious, as if someone with a little talent and a lot of effort can't figure it out. There's nothing mysterious about the combination of putting in the time to do something you love so that you can develop the inborn talent you have into something better. It's work, but if you find joy in it, it's time well spent, in my opinion. 

But that may just be my practical Midwestern upbringing coming into play. Doesn't mean that there isn't mystery in the art, and if that motivates you to seek joy in creating art, whatever your art is, more power to you.

Back to Take Joy--as you have probably already guessed, this isn't so much a review as a disjointed essay borne from a few ideas I've plucked from its pages--Yolen says that "These stories grace our actual lives with their fictional realities. Like angels they lift us above the hurrying world." I really like that idea. I don't know if I can recapture what it is that caught me about that particular passage, but I'll try.

As I was driving home the other night a program on NPR caught my attention. It was a Romanian professor by the name of Kodrescu (spelling? who knows?) who was speaking about the power of memories, how we create memories that didn't actually happen and turn them to pedagogical uses, how we change memory to fantasy because sometimes fantasy feels more real than the reality it is trying to reflect. 

How to express this? That talk really said something to me the other night, but now it's slipping from my mind, and I can barely even remember who the speaker was at this point. 

At any rate, I think what I'm trying to say is that sometimes in fiction we find more truth than we do in the reality we're seeking to interpret. I've said this before about fantasy, about its wonderful metaphorical magic. We can talk about struggles, the epic battle between good and evil, the shades of gray, the variety of human existence, in so many ways in fantasy that we can't do as well in realism sometimes because of the power the metaphor gives us--the power that the fictional, the fantasy (meaning the numinous, the fantastic, as well as simply the fantasy of making up a story), give us to assign multiple meanings and to interpret and reinterpret.

That the stories can "grace our actual lives with their fictional realities" can mean so many things, and I'm losing the ability to express what I'm trying to say.

At any rate, the book is a good read, and I think nonwriters as well as writers can benefit from the idea of taking joy in the art you pursue--remembering why you do what you do.

Of course, writers will get even more out of it, because she's got some solid advice for writers in there about taking rejection well, the elements of a good story (beyond a simple anecdote to a fully drawn drama), finding your voice, even a whole section dedicated to specific practical advice. I love the little interludes, the little bits of wisdom between chapters. One such, before chapter 5, is especially apropos for anyone who writes historical fiction, fantasy, or other genres that require lots of research:

For a writer, nothing is lost. Research once done can be used again and again, a kind of marvel of recycling. As writers we need to be shameless about thieving from ourselves. 

For example, I did two books on the Shakers--a nonfiction book called Simple Gifts and a novel, The Gift of Sarah Barker. And it is no coincidence that the round barn I discovered in my historical research, I then used as a piece of setting in the Sarah Barker book. It later found its way into my young adult science fiction novel, Dragon's Blood.

Good research swims upstream where it can spawn. (p. 41)

So there you have it, as one of hopefully a lot of writing book recommendations here at Stacy Whitman's Grimoire, couched in an essay on finding my photography chops again. Check out the book--you might find some gems that help you find joy in your own writing.

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