Claire Scobie's Blog: Wordstruck

Are you a planner or a pantser — a fly-by-the-pants writer? Either way if you write your stories or books into a structure you’re more likely to finish them.

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People often worry about structure. They worry that it will hamper their plot or stifle their style. Actually structure does the opposite. It gives you a framework in which to write. It stops a story becoming unwieldy.

Imagine trying to build a house without a plan? Or without a foundation. It wouldn’t hold up.

Structure gives you the form and then you can play with the content. There’s a rule of thumb. Anything over about 2 – 3,000 words requires storytelling craft in order to keep the reader reading. So for those short blog posts, you can be a pantser. But doing long form, planning and structure are your best friends.

Here are 5 structures to make your writing more compelling

Chronological — the most straightforward for a memoir piece or a life story (fiction or non-fiction). Also works for a history of a place or an autbiography. If you’re new to writing, start chronologically and then you can always move scenes around later.

Thematic— often evolves as you are writing. Or you can decide on the themes as a way to tie loose strands together. In Sarah Macdonald’s Holy Cow she used the many faiths of India as way to organise her narrative.

Three act structure — follows a traditional formula that dates back to the Greeks and has been adapted to Hollywood by Syd Field. You have the set up, an inciting incident or catalyst that leads to the first major turning point. This pushes the story to the second act and the climax, a second major turning point and ultimately a resolution.

Hero’s Journey — another version of the ‘three act’ based around the work of mythologist Josesph Campbell, author of A Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell studied 100s of myths from around the world and realised that they follow the same pattern. Now widely used in Hollywood following Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey, you can simplify it and adapt for fiction. It can also be applicable to memoir if any of the stages of the Hero’s Journey — often a form of coming of age story — are applicable to your life.

Collage – takes its cue from visual art. This structure works well for disparate subjects that you are weaving together. It’s not right for a story with a beginning, middle and end. The entries are often short – separated by a ‘#’ or a gap or in numbered sections. Michael Ondaatje does collage very well in Running in the Family.

There are others… but that’s a post for next year.

This will be my last Wordstruck blog before the festive season. It will return at the end of January in a new format.

Look out for my new Wordstruck website with details of all my workshops, resources & other goodies. See you all then.

Have a safe, happy and restorative Christmas and a wonderful start to 2015.

My next Creative Writing course runs on 10 & 11 January 2015 at the Australian Writers Centre, Sydney.

If you’re planning ahead and the idea of a writing retreat in Italy sounds utterly gorgeous, my dates for Writing in a Palace are now confirmed: 19 – 26 September, 2015.

Two months ago I challenged you to make the most of the last quarter. To finish those half-written stories, to sign up for a workshop or join NaNoWriMo. How many did it?

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A friend was telling me that since she stopped doing a creative writing course she’s found it hard to stay inspired. ‘All I seem to do is push bits of paper around, rather than actually write anything.’

If you’re not creating – or if you’re creating stuff for other people, your day job – life can feel boring. Creating is what keeps it interesting.

So rather than feel bad, do something concrete in the last four weeks of 2014.

Book in for a one-off super mentoring session via Skype or in person with me on 16 December by emailing me back directly.

Or do a spreadsheet of all your current writing projects so you can track them. This is what I’ve just done and it made everything feel much more manageable. I have different columns for the various stages of each project:

Idea

To do

First draft

Revised draft

Edited

Polished

Done

In other columns you have:

Research needed – & break this down into

Interviews to do

Places to visit

Books to read

Then have a column with realistic deadlines for when you aim to get each stage completed. These will be in 2015 but at least you’re putting a structure in place now.

I also like my last column to be ‘Notes’ for any extra stuff.

I colour code my different projects so I can immediately see which is fiction or non-fiction, a short story or book, and where I am in the project.

If this works for you, then you can create a more in-depth spreadsheet for just one book and break it down further — into chapters, scenes etc. This is where Scrivener is fantastic but I think I’ve mentioned that already… (By the way Scrivener is currently offering its package at a $20 discount if you use the coupon code, NANOWRIMO.)

So take 2 hours out of your busy week to give structure to your writing. And next week I’ll tell you how the most successful authors write into a structure….

My next Creative Writing course runs on 10 & 11 January 2015 at the Australian Writers Centre, Sydney.

If you’re planning ahead and the idea of a writing retreat in Italy sounds utterly gorgeous, my dates for Writing in a Palace are now confirmed: 19 – 26 September, 2015.

A friend recently sent me an email asking when I had time to ‘dream and write?’ She’s been trying to connect up and I’ve been busy running workshops or busy mentoring or busy working on my new website.

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Busy. It’s the catchword for our age. ‘I don’t have time to…’ You fill in the gap. We all make excuses. I know I do.

So when I had a chance to go away for two weeks, I went into automatic pilot and planned a full writing schedule. 1000 words a day on my new novel, some afternoon slots for my memoir.

I went to India, where I’ve been before. It’s like a second home. The internet connection is pretty reliable. It’s a comfortable space to write and where I’ve written chunks of The Pagoda Tree.

The day before leaving I thought, am I mad? Do I really have to keep to this schedule and stay as busy as I am in Sydney? I don’t have any urgent deadlines to finish a book at the moment so… the answer is no.

Instead I bought two new notebooks and some good pens. I even bought a Parker ink pen to get into the mood. I also brought along my battered copy of Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualisation which I haven’t used for over a decade.

I decided I wanted to make writing feel like discovery – which is how it was before it became a profession. I wanted to doodle, to write long hand, to try ideas out, to waste time and explore byways and cul-de-sacs. I wanted to get out of my right brain and into my left brain. This allows the sub-conscious, the dreaming part, to take over.

Writing is unusual because it requires both hemispheres of our brain to work. When we stay in the rational side, we lose access to deeper ideas or the bigger picture.

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Planning a novel or a book or even a short story requires you to think about the landscape and the flowers dotted along the path. I experimented with both.

I dipped into Creative Visualisation. I re-read parts of Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg – a leading advocate of ‘writing as discovery’. I drew character arcs, used coloured pens and filled two notebooks.

It seemed life conspired with me. The internet didn’t work. I couldn’t charge my laptop. And I’ve come back feeling more immersed in my projects than I have for months.

So… as we countdown to Christmas… I encourage you all to schedule some dreaming time into the break ahead. You may write less words but I can (almost) guarantee you’ll have a different perspective on your work. You’ll feel re-inspired for 2015.

Any Tassie writers, I’m teaching two workshops in Launceston THIS WEEKEND — The Art of Travel Writing on Saturday 29 & Storytelling for the Soul on Sunday 30. Plus there is ONE Super Mentoring Session left on 1 December.

My next Creative Writing course runs on 10 & 11 January at the Australian Writers Centre, Sydney.

Learning the art of the interview can make you a better writer. You need it in all genres – obviously journalism but also non-fiction and fiction.

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In a family memoir, you may be chatting to Aunt Doris to find out her recollection of growing up in the ‘burbs. In a travel memoir, it could be a traveller or your tour guide through Bhutan. Both of these may be informal but you still need to take notes.

It’s important to jot down gestures, tone of voice and a thumb-nail description: a brief ‘word-picture’ of the person so the reader can visualise her or him.

In a novel, you may be speaking to a techno-geek who builds robots at a university for the moment your aliens land on earth. Or a fireman to work out how a fire would have ripped through the cathedral in you thriller. These sorts of interviews are about getting information rather than building character.

Here you want to ask open-ended questions to elicit the most interesting responses. ‘'How could a fire start?’

For travel writing or journalism, interviews are more formal. You may want to record them (easy with a smart phone) AND make notes.

Here are 10 tips on how to nail an interview.

Research – on the internet, in the library, speak to people. Always note down where you source your information.

Read everything you can and then take a step back and think – what is new here? What is unexpected?

Make your questions interesting, well informed and straightforward.

Build a rapport with your interviewee when you meet them. Empathise and encourage.

Use feedback – repeat back to your interviewee what you think they have said.

Start with easy questions to bring out anecdotes not just facts. Save the tough questions for later.

Move from the general to the specific.

Be persistent. Tread water — What do you mean? Why is that?

Keep a note of what still needs to be covered. There is so much going on in an interview that you have to keep up with unanswered questions, as well as planning future questions and making notes as well.

Double check spellings of names or places.

How do you use interviews in you writing?

Any Tassie writers, I am teaching two workshops in Launceston 29 & 30 November — The Art of Travel Writing on Saturday 29 & Storytelling for the Soul on Sunday 30. Plus I am also offering some Super Mentoring Sessions on 1 December in Launceston.

My next Creative Writing course runs on 10 & 11 January at the Australian Writers Centre, Sydney.

Yesterday I re-read this. I won’t tell you who wrote it, so don’t look beyond the first paragraph. Just see if it resonates. Have you ever felt this way about your work?

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‘The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it.

‘You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness… The other thing to realise is that all writers think they suck.’

If this sounds familiar then know you are in good company. We all have our off days. Our days when the prose lies turgid on the page. The days when nothing makes sense and our words come out like scrambled egg.

The days when despite our best intention we don’t make it to the desk, and then when we do, physically, we aren’t there mentally.

Be kind to yourself on those days. Extra kind. Don’t bite your keyboard or stamp on your mouse.

You are in good company.

Here’s what Elizabeth Gilbert continues to say. Yes, the author of Eat Pray Love wrote this. The author of one of the best-selling travel memoirs in recent years which sold over 7 million copies and then had Julia Roberts play the starring role in the movie.

She says, ‘When I was writing Eat, Pray, Love, I had just as a strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book.

‘One day, when I was agonising over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realised: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realised was this – I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write.’

Doesn’t that make you feel better?

It made me feel better when I read it years ago when I was sweating over a book. So next time you feel a little of this… be gentle… be kind… and then get back to the desk.

If you’re writing about your journeys and happen to be free this weekend join me for my last Travel Memoir course of the year. 1 & 2 November at the Australian Writers’ Centre, Sydney.

If you’re planning ahead and the idea of a writing retreat in Italy sounds utterly gorgeous, my dates for Writing in a Palace are now confirmed: 19 – 26 September, 2015.

I’m always looking for ways to boost my creativity. This week I’ve been dipping into The Creative Habit by the American choreographer Twyla Tharp who offers plenty of inspiration on how to make creativity a habit.

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For a start she believes in rituals. Rituals help train the mind. They have ‘a transforming effect on the activity.’

Like Twyla, who gets up at 5.30 am every day, takes a cab to the gym and works out for two hours before she starts her day, the writer Walter Mason (Destination Saigon) gets up at 6am to meditate for two hours. Only then does he start writing.

I have such admiration for people like that. I’m not an early morning person and can rarely stick to one routine.

Walter takes a wide-angle view to creativity. For him it is all about collaboration, community and helping each other out.

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He sees himself as being ‘part of a creative wave.‘ He is 'only one small drop of water but the motion of the wave pushes him to the top.’

I love that idea and know that in my career I’ve benefited hugely from his generousity. He always ‘tells people to be the readers they wish they had. Be a super fan and help create the literary culture you want.’

You see, being creative is not just hammering out your own opus or travel story or blog. It’s about becoming part of something bigger. Walter is so passionate about this philosophy that he’s designed an entire workshop – Fabulously Creative – on how to expand our vision.

So here are 10 tips to be more creative – in writing & in life

Develop routine. Sound counter-intuitive? I may not get up at dawn but I still have writing routines which help train and settle my mind.

See your writing as a piece of art. Or an opera. Or a film. What would it look like? This is great advice from the screenwriter David Roach. When I was writing The Pagoda Tree I imagined it as a chiaroscuro oil painting by Caraveggio with strong contrasts between light and dark and lots of atmosphere.

Take that further. If you get stuck, broaden your mind by going to a gallery or the cinema and let other art forms freshen your words.

Write in a library. Writing among a group of focused people can encourage you to spend longer chiseling your own story.

Change your scenery. I know one writer who divides his time between two libraries. He writes a commissioned memoir in one and his novel in the other.

Be helpful. This is one of Walter’s top tips. ‘One of the least-recognised sources of creative inspiration is the celebration of others,’ he says. ‘I meet people who are overly-protective of their work or their time, who are obsessed with limiting their output and reining in the energy. I say let it all out!’

Go without. Twyla Tharp says that people diet all the time but they rarely starve themselves of distractions. Spend one week without the TV or social media or clocks or newspapers. Focus all that time on writing instead.

Challenge yourself. Every time you leave the house write down some dialogue you hear and imagine a new character with those words. Find a new word every day and make a point of using it in your stories.

Be playful. When were you last silly or danced around your living room? Look at how children grab every moment they can to play and bring that quality into your writing or your cooking or your eating.

And to end some more of Walter’s wisdom. ‘Tell someone else daily how wonderful another writer or actor or artist is. If you can cultivate this way of being you’ll never lose your mojo. Instead you are constantly renewed, constantly inspired and, inevitably, bowled over by the generosity of the community you have helped create.’

If you have a journey to share, join me for my next weekend Travel Memoir course on 1 & 2 November at the Australian Writers’ Centre, Sydney.

If you want to experience Walter Mason’s magic up close, join him on 6 December for Fabulously Creative at NSWWC.

Yesterday when I heard that Richard Flanagan had won the Man Booker prize for his novel, The Narrow Road To The Deep North, I whooped and did a little dance.

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Since he was shortlisted I’ve been hoping that he’d beat the odds to become the third Australian writer to win this prestigious literary prize. To hear that he’d done it, in his usual flamboyant style, made my day.

I haven’t read his latest work but his third novel, Gould’s Book of Fish, is one of my top ten favourites. It has an extraordinary voice and takes you on a watery journey into the darkest places of the convict system with the dizzying heights of language. The Guardian described it as ‘one of the most fatiguingly inventive novels to have been published in recent years.’

It doesn’t have a normal plot. It’s baffling. It’s over the top. And it’s wonderful.

This is what literature should be. It should take us into the hard, thorny places and then blast us open to the gods. Break us, test us, shake us and tease us.

But to get there, to get our story truly as we want it on the page can be incredibly hard and the journey, long The pay is abysmal and only seems to be getting worse. In the past few weeks, I admit, I’ve slumped into a ‘what’s the point’ of it all.

I’m sure Richard Flanagan has been there, too. In fact, I know he has. When he received the prize he said that he did four versions of the novel over 12 years. He was close to throwing it all in – and trying to get a job down the mines.

It often takes several books for writers to work out their voice. And a few more to hit the jackpot. Some never do, but they still write. I hope I’ll always be one of them.

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And yesterday was a red letter day for me, too, as I received 10 copies of the new edition of The Pagoda Tree. It’s been republished in B-format. This means a smaller, cheaper version of my novel will be on sale in November. (At $20 a perfect stocking filler, don’t you think?)

B-formats used to happen as a matter of course but these days they don’t. Of course, I’m delighted that the book gets another run. But will it pay my mortgage? No, of course not.

The economies of scale with writing literary fiction – in fact any genre of fiction – don’t add up. But am I writing another novel? Yes.

So what I want to say is… with writing or any artistic pursuit it helps to redefine what it means to fail and what it means to succeed. The prizes are what we dream of. The film rights are what we wish for. Yet really it’s about writing a story that you can be proud of, that you want to share and that generates its own life with or without you.

As the wise Indian writer, Annie Zaidi said to me, ‘Books have their own journey, too. Trust that.’

This Saturday I’m teaching a Travel Writing workshop at NSWWC in Sydney.

My next weekend Travel Memoir course is on 1 & 2 November at the Australian Writers’ Centre, Sydney.

This weekend I’m excited to be launching a new ‘Write Smarter’ workshop in Melbourne… because here’s the thing, writing takes time, often a long time.

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And all this time we spend sitting at our desks is not good for our health, our bodies or our sanity.

I’m actually converting my workspace into a standing area – for when I’m doing emails – and a sitting area for when I’m writing in the creative zone. I now read standing up, too.

Sounds strange? I just can’t sit for hours and hours like I used to. My hip grumbles, my shoulders nag. My mind fogs up. (This could be another way of saying I’m getting old ☺)

So this year I’ve been refining how I work and part of that is to get smarter at it… in the hope that if I get things written quicker, I can spend more time doing the fun stuff.

As part of this I’ve incorporated a new verb into my writing vocabulary: ‘to spreadsheet.’ I know it’s ugly.

Writers are adverse to spreadsheets and Excel. They often avoid number crunching and cash flow analysis (I’m still working on that myself.)

Yes, Excel is fiddly to use and can be irritating but I’ve found spreadsheets are the best and cheapest way to get an overview of a project and drill down to the fine detail. They help you manage your writing, so useful if you’re working on several big projects at once.

I’ve also been road-testing some of the digital tools for writers. I’m not especially techno-minded but the following research apps help me get the job done quicker. A list of writing apps to follow soon.

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5 handy compiling & research apps

Simplenote – for the utter technophobe. Works across mobile, tablet & desktop. It also syncs with the writing software Scrivener. Free.

Evernote – a more complex system that allows you to compile text, images, web links & anything else. Works across mobile, tablet & desktop. Very useful when you are working on a new project and collecting research. Free.

Googlekeep – For the Google fans among us, this lets you keep a virtual record of your notes, pix, lists, URLs etc. Works via the web and on android. Free.

Virtual Moleskin – for those who love the Moleskin notebook and want a virtual experience too. Essentially allows you to scan your handwritten notes directly into the iPhone or iPad app. Free.

Easybib – allows you to create an easy bibliography. For iPhone, iPad & android. Hold your phone over a book barcode, it scans it and uploads the title. You can choose what bibliographic style you like – MLA, Chicago etc. – and export the list as a spreadsheet via email. Especially useful in bookshops / libraries and for more academic projects. Free.

Note: Most of these apps start free but do have cost-paying premium versions.

So what do you use to be more streamlined. Please, do share…

This weekend there are still a couple of places in my workshop, Write Smarter, Work Faster on Sunday 12 October, in Melbourne.

Or in Sydney, I’m teaching a Travel Writing workshop on 18 November at NSWWC.

Happy 1st October! It’s hard to believe that we’re already in the last quarter of the year.

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Be honest, now. How many of you made some writing resolutions back in January that you still haven’t completed? You’re not the only one. I have a few outstanding…

With only 12 weeks left to go – and that includes silly season – here are 10 ways to tick off some of those boxes on your TO WRITE list.

How to end 2014 with a bang

Put together a plan on what you still want to achieve. Doesn’t matter if it’s handwritten or a spreadsheet, a mindmap or a bunch of sticky post-its. Goals are much more achievable if they’re written down.

Prioritise. Realistically you probably aren’t going to complete the final draft of your novel, write the synopsis AND get a publishing deal before the clock strikes midnight on December 31. But there’s time to add another 15,000 words to your manuscript if you aim to write 1,500 words a week for the next 10 weeks (c'mon that’s do-able).

Sign up for NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month in November. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in one month & you can sign up from today. This is a brilliant way to get your fingers flying over the keyboard & feel part of a global community of writers. It’s free.

Make a date to meet up with your writing buddy or writing group. Do this now before everyone’s diaries get filled up. Ensure that you give each other a task. Then celebrate afterwards and schedule your next meet-up in the new year.

Spring clean your desk. Honestly, clearing your physical space helps remove psychic clutter. Take 2 hours to sift through your stack of papers, chuck out obsolete drafts & make space for the new. Wipe down your desk, pick some flowers, make it a pleasant place to sit.

Go through all the work you have done this year. You’ve probably forgotten that short story you wrote on the train to work. Compile it – either in print-outs or digitally – and feel good about what you’ve already achieved. See where the gaps are and what you want to plug before the end of 2014.

Block out a writing day (half-a-day if that’s all you have) between now and Christmas. Diarise this. Make it yours. Give yourself one thing to complete and when you’ve done that, send it to a writing buddy you trust.

Book yourself in for a writing workshop. This is especially for those of you who made it a 2014 New Year Resolution and haven’t yet signed up. Join me in Melbourne, Sydney or Launceston, or a slew of other courses in all corners of the globe. It’s amazing how one day in the presence of others can re-focus your writing.

Start reading that book you keep promising yourself you’ll read… and never do. Start tonight. I find that reading is a great way to re-invigorate my writing.

And lastly… Map out your writing strategy for the last quarter AND for the next quarter. It’s important to end the year on a high so you start 2015 with a bang.

If you’re taking a break over Christmas, make sure you end your current writing project at a suitable juncture – and before you finish up, write a list of what you’re going to do next. That way, when you come back after your holiday, you have an instant starting point & waste less time.

Let me know how you go!

Join me next weekend in Ballarat & Melbourne. On Saturday 10 October, I am teaching Travel Memoir in Ballarat & on Sunday 11 October, a new workshop, Write Smarter, Work Faster in Melbourne.

Or in Sydney, I’m teaching a Travel Writing workshop on 18 November at NSWWC.

Here are six common causes why writers panic – and six solutions

1. You get stuck halfway through

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Don’t worry. I’ve referred to this before as embracing the chaos. Former Good Weekend editor Fenella Souter described it as the ‘slough of despond.‘ Keep chipping away and you’ll get clarity on your thesis question (for an essay), your narrative thread (for a book), your character’s journey (for a novel) or your key findings (for an executive summary in a report).

2. You seem to be going round in circles.

A friend writing a university essay complained that after spending all day on it, she’d advanced nowhere. While she might have felt this, immersing yourself in the material and research is necessary before you can figure out your exit path… and with it the main point of your story/essay/report. If you find days bleed into weeks and you’re still swimming in your research, then call a halt and put it aside. A break will give you the distance you need to read your work with fresh eyes.

3. Your writing bores you.

Sometimes boredom is another form of procrastination or it masks fear – that you think you’re no good. Sometimes boredom is telling you to move on. The story may not be relevant in your life, or it may bring back too many bad memories – which you don’t want to re-experience. Listen to this. I’m always telling my mentees if you’re writing for fun (and honest, some of us are!) then there aren’t any ‘shoulds’. Life is too short for another ‘I should be doing this.‘ Find another topic that excites you and write about that.

4. You hate your writing.

My writing buddy said to me on the weekend, ‘I’m sending you the last part of my novel to read so I can get it off my plate. I’m sick of the sight of it.’ Strong words – and not unusual. When you’ve been working on a manuscript for months and years, by the end, you often hate it. This is especially true when a book is going through the publishing process and after several edits, you still have to make more changes. All I can say is… this too will pass. Grit your teeth. Do whatever you need to, to get it across the line. And know you’re in good company!

5. You get a bad review. Or a rejection. Or someone criticises your story.

Sadly rejections are part of the artistic lot. When you’ve written something very personal, it can feel like you are being rejected — not your art. But you’re not. Like any art form, writing is subjective. What I like to read one week will differ to what I enjoy the next. Humans are very fickle. I’ve written about rejection strategies here, but in a nutshell, tell yourself this. You can’t please everyone. Nor do you want to. Write what is true to you.

6. You’re writing something unique and someone publishes a similar story – or worse, similar book.

Call it zeitgeist. Call it strange universal happenings. This year sees the release of two films about Yves St Laurent as directors battle over the fashion designer’s legacy. American writer Patrick Robbins describes his horror after working on his first novel for two-and-a-half-years only to discover another writer had just published a similar story with… get this… the same bizarre title Babayaga. It happens.

If you aren’t too far advanced in your project, and a similar title is released, change yours enough and find a new angle. Take it as a sign that there is wider interest in the subject. There might be 100s of books on marketing, but remember that yours, with your view on the world and how you approach a subject, will be different… And if all else fails, put together a zany media strategy to make sure your story gets seen.

And take heart. As Robbins says in The Awl, ‘The sky is not falling in if someone writes something similar to what you’ve written. Neither is everyone ripping you off… Your writing is still yours.’