Author Archives: Holly West

Thankfully, my case of writer's block seems to have cleared up.  Today's writing task was to introduce a new and important character into the story.  This character is to be handsome and charming, and a possible love interest for my heroine.  It seemed, then, that writing his physical description was important.  This is what I wrote:

"Up close I could see that XXX was indeed a handsome man.  He had brown eyes and a thin brown mustache.  His hair, which fell to his shoulders in loose brown waves, appeared to be his own and not a periwig.  When he smiled, the left side of his mouth raised slightly higher than the right, revealing straight white teeth.  His manner of dress was fashionable but not foppish."

Is it just me, or does this guy sound a little like Rhett Butler?

It's moments like this that I am reminded that I am new to fiction writing and that I've got a lot to learn.  To that end, today did some reading of On Writing by Stephen King. 

I still struggle with descriptions, particularly, how much description to give.  Coincidentally, that is exactly the topic I happened upon in On Writing.  King confirms what I already suspected was true–belaboring a description is as tedious for the writer as it is for the reader.

My job here is to convey a not only a sense of what he looks like, but also to convey my heroine's interest.  How do do this effectively remains the question.  One thing is clear–I'm going to have to find a few other handsome-male-rogue-archetypes besides Rhett Butler (I say this because this is not the only male character in the story who somehow bears a striking resemblence to Mr. Butler).  Any suggestions?

I only include this writing sample because I know it won't appear like this in the finished manuscript.  To find out what XXX ends up looking like and how I describe him, you'll have to wait for publication.

Thank You
First of all, I'd like to start by saying thank you for all of the kind comments you wrote regarding my last post about losing Kramer.  That was a tough post to write and I really appreciate all of you who disregarded my warning about it being sad and read it anyway.

Writer's Block
I've had a wicked case of writer's block these last few days.  I've experienced it before, and the good news is that the further I get into the writing of this novel, the less I get it and the less severe it is when it does come.

That's not making me feel any better at the moment, however.

My general method of conquering writer's block is to try to push through it.  That means that even if every bone in my body wants to flop on the couch and watch Rock of Love, I ignore them and force myself to write.  If I don't have a particular scene in mind or I've finished all of my current chapters, I review my chapter outline and see if it sparks anything.  Lately, nada.

Get Your Facts Straight — Then Toss Them Aside
Without a doubt, the biggest reason for my writer's block is not having a clear idea of where my story is going.  To a large extent, I'm not writing off the top of my head.  This is fiction, sure, but many of the events and characters existed in real-life.  One thing I've had trouble grasping is that even though this story is based upon historical events, I don't have to adhere to them exactly.  It is, in fact, impossible to tell this story based solely on the facts of the case (or at least a book anyone would want to read).  I'm not writing nonfiction for a reason–I want to play.

For example, there is a key person in the real-life story who doesn't enter the action until a couple of months into the investigation.  If I was writing a nonfiction account of the events, this wouldn't matter, I would record the story as it unfolded.  In a novel, especially a mystery, this character should appear much earlier in the story.  For a long time, my outline stuck to the true events fairly strictly and I planned on introducing this character later in the book.  Today, however, I decided I need to get him into it by the beginning of the second act–at the very latest.  There are a couple of logical places I can do this and I will revise some of my current scenes to reflect this decision.

What will this do?  Well, it frees up the story in a lot of ways.  Because this person was so central to the true life events, he can now become a key character in my novel, and an interesting one at that.  I can use him in multiple ways to create conflict throughout the book, but if I wait until later to introduce him, he will have minimal impact.

But what this really means is that tomorrow I have a fresh burst of inspiration to work with and hopefully, it's adios writer's block.

Game On
When my husband and I wrote our teleplay for a pilot called Game On a few years back, it was the most significant writing I had done in years.  In my previous career I had published a few manuscripts on educational systems around the world, and contributed to another publication, but because these were reference materials I never gave much thought to the fact I was published.  They didn’t count.

The opportunity to write a pilot for a half-hour sitcom came up and my husband and I did a sort of “wonder twin powers unite” thing and got to work.  We had never collaborated on any project before and while it was not completely smooth sailing, we got the project finished as a team and it felt good.  I was energized by this writing in a way that I hadn’t been in years.

One of the reasons we worked well together is that we both brought different strengths to the project.  He was more the “outliner ” while I was the one who filled in the details.  We’d go to lunch several times a week and discuss one liners and scenes together (and argued quite a lot about what was actually funny), then we’d come home and get to work.

Outlining My Own Process
When I began writing my current WIP, a novel, I felt lost.  This was my own project–I didn’t have a partner to write the bones of the story for me.  And at the beginning, when there are no words written, the empty page seems like an ocean of failure, not opportunity.  I was overwhelmed, but still determined.

I knew almost from the start that I needed to work from an outline.  Some authors don’t–I’m not one of them.  The first thing I did was write what I thought would be the ten core scenes that would move the story forward.  I say “thought” because over the last few months of writing, things have changed and those original 10 scenes have been moved around, updated, or taken out.  Writing them, however, helped immensely during those first days of staring at the empty page.

I found it wasn’t enough, however, because I still didn’t have a clear vision of the beginning, middle, and end of my story and that was causing writer’s block.  I wrote a 20 chapter outline with one-sentence descriptions and suddenly things really got started for me.  I made notes where key actions had to occur to move the story forward (things such as turning points, complications, temporary triumph, etc).  Though this 20 chapter outline has changed as well (and honestly, is missing a few points) it has been the true beginning of getting this novel written.

If you’ve never embarked on writing a novel before and don’t know where to start, I recommend trying the 20 chapter outline first.  Don’t worry if you can’t fill in all twenty chapters–this will evolve over time and give you a mental image of the scenes that need to be written.  Write the scenes that are clearest to you first, and they will spawn new scenes.  If the 20 chapter outline doesn’t work, try something else.  But most of all, start writing.

Perhaps it was all that thinking I did about writing and depression, but in the last couple of days I've been ruminating about my history as a writer and the types of writing I've done throughout my life.

When I was young, writing was really my only creative outlet.  I have a journal filled with the poetry I wrote as a teenager and in college, and reading it now is, um, interesting.  When I was a senior in high school we did a unit on Shakespeare's sonnets, and I was quite taken with the structure of them.  This is the first one I wrote–an assignment for the English class:

If I were to reach out and call to thee,
In speaking would my words make me a fool?
If I looked within your soul would I see
A heart of stone and eyes forever cool?
Yet even if I never bare my heart,
In looking at you my eyes betray me.
They speak of feelings words cannot impart
And show you all the passion locked in me.
To say that I love you should be a lie;
For love is only true if is shared.
But I would put one more star in the sky
To know for one short moment that you care.
    In loving you I've nothing left to give–
    I sometimes wish you'd die so I might live.

So much aching in the heart of a 17 year-old girl!  I am not 100% sure, but I think I remember the boy I wrote this about (and I'm friends with him on Facebook now, if I'm thinking of the right person).  I was all melodrama and tears back then–this is why I say I wouldn't go back to my youth for anything in the world!

There are eight sonnets in the journal, and five of them are about various forms of unrequited love (for the first 28 years of my life there was no other kind).  One is about God–I was once a devout believer–and letting go of Him was a painful but unavoidable part of my life.  I don't think I'll be posting that one.

There are other poems besides sonnets in the journal, but I think perhaps the sonnets are the best.  The constraints of the Shakespearean sonnet require the writer to keep things tight and choose words wisely–good practice for any writer.  I responded to it then and I respond to it now, even if I'm not quite the bundle of teenage angst I was back then.

I was desperately trying to think of a topic to write about today when this fell into my lap via RonHogan on Twitter:

Writing and Depression:  the Kiwiburger Conversation

I have long wanted to discuss my depression in relation to my writing/creativity, but it seems so difficult to put into words.  How does one even describe depression?  I'll start by answering a couple of the questions posed in the Kiwiburger blog.

1. What is depression?
To me depression is like hovering on the edge of a cliff that you are trying not to slip off of.  You use all of your mental (and sometimes physical) energy to stay on the edge and not fall.  It is exhausting, and you always feel like you're dangerously close to slipping.

As a chronically depressed person, I live very much in my head.  I am overly analytical and I have an active imagination.  I am also very introverted and though well-liked and on the outside, fairly sociable, my preference is to be by myself or with my husband.

I do not use writing as a coping mechanism.  For me writing is a compulsion that taunts me mercilessly.  It's like exercise.  The process itself is miserable, but the end result is worth it.

2. If you live with depression, how/when did you first realise it? Was there a formal diagnosis at some point?

I have lived with depression my whole life, or at least as long as I can remember.  When I was young, I staved it off by reading my favorite books over and over.  I reckon I've read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret more times than anyone on the planet.

During college, my depression hit a fever pitch.  Already low on self-confidence, I found myself thrust into a new environment with no support system, no boundaries, and copious amounts of alcohol.  By the time I did build up that support system, I had already learned that alcohol was an effective, though temporary, form of self-medication.  Bad choices, lots of them, were made, particularly in the area of (shall we say) interpersonal relationships with boys.  Without a doubt, college was the worst four years of my life.