Category: Craft Of Storytelling

When should an article or a story end?

Neera

Many times we can’t figure out when an article or story should end. The same goes for books, whether it is fiction or non-fiction.

As a writer, we have collected so much material that we keep on going long after the article, story or a book has reached its logical end.

What is that logical end?

The logical end is when you have made the argument.

Every piece of writing is making an argument.

Writing usually starts with an idea that often comes as a question or a problem. We explore that question, (like the question at the start of this post) and we make an argument.

Finding the argument in the story is a tool, and it can be used by filling in the blanks in the following line:

‘every …. can or should …’

This simple equation to be used to find the argument in your writing even before you started writing.

If your book is about travel writing your argument could be ‘every traveler can become a travel writer’ then give them ten steps to become a travel writer.

If your book is about taming a dog, the argument you could be making is ‘every dog can be tamed even the old and rigid ones then through your book you give them ten ways how the readers can do it.

If your book is about storytelling, the argument you are making is ‘every person should become a storyteller then give them ten benefits and teach them six elements of storytelling.

What you are doing through the argument is you are entering the mind of the reader and getting them to think differently, act differently, or teach something they want to learn.

You don’t want them to just read the article/ story/ book, you want them to do something with it.

It is easy to understand the concept of every piece of writing is making an argument in non-fiction, but what about fiction writing.

In fiction writing, the argument is made through the story.

Let’s have a look at arguments in some well-known stories.

The argument Shakespeare is making in Hamlet is, ‘everyone should stand for injustice.’

The argument of Romeo and Juliet is ‘the hatred can lead to bloodshed.’

The argument the movie Rocky is making that ‘even an underdog can win.’

None of these stories give ten points to prove the arguments they make, but they do it by weaving the argument within the story.

Because without an argument, there is no story.

If you’re telling your life’s story, it’s not just a story of survival, it’s a
story of hope and perseverance, and when somebody reads that story, they’re gonna get that too and apply that to their own situation, their own obstacles that they’re facing.

And when that story should end?

When the argument has been made.

It is that simple.

Anything after that is waffle weakens the story.

Now decide on what argument you are making, with whatever piece of writing you are doing, and stop as soon as you have made it.

Just like I am at this point.

How to write funny

Neera

Comic writer John Vorhaus says in the book The Comic Toolbox that you don’t need funny bones for comic writing, you need tools.

The one tool he recommends is – break rules, write in a passive tense.

Here is an example:

The room was walked into by a man by whom strong, handsome features were had. A woman was met by him. The bed was lain upon by her. Then the bed was lain upon by him. Clothing was removed from them both. Sex was had. The climax was achieved. Afterward, cigarettes were smoked by them. Suddenly, the door opened by the husband of the woman by whom the bed was lain upon. A gun was held by him. Some screams were screamed and angry words were exchanged. Jealousy was felt by the man by whom the gun was held. The firing of the gun was done by him. The floor was hit by the bodies. Remorse was then felt by the man by whom the gun was held. The gun was turned upon himself. And the rest, as they say, is forensics!

I had a go at it with some random paragraphs I picked from an old diary, exaggerating it and writing it in the past tense.

  1. Late waking up was done this morning. Mucking around was not held. The efficiency was experienced by achieving more in less time. The problems of the world were not contemplated upon while sitting on the throne.
  2. A meeting was held between me and the acting boss. This week’s action items were discussed. The disagreement was reached over tiny matters. The tempers were lost. The voices were raised. Desperate attempts were made by both sides to hold their grounds. The moods were spoiled. The swords were drawn. The throats would have been slain had the meeting not gone over time. Lives were saved due to time constraints.
  3. The gym bag was forgotten at home. A detour was made. The gym bag was picked up. The car was driven to the gym. The gym clothes were put on. The exercise was done half-heartedly. Machines were used to lift weights.
  4. The neighbor’s doorbell was rung. The door was opened by the neighbor with work clothes still on. A piece of paper was given to her with our phone number. A verbal invitation was extended for dinner at the house owned by us. A dinner promise, made to each other fifteen years ago, was fulfilled.

Mixing words with images

Neera 4 Comments

For some time I have been trying to figure out a way to blend my two passions – writing and drawing. I found the above picture in my papers today and was taken over by its beauty.

I don’t remember where I got it from so can’t give credit to the original creator. But they say imitation is the best compliment you can give to an artist, so I tried to recreate it. Twice, in fact, changing the words each time.

The image is nowhere near as good as the original but I am happy with the first attempt.

I thought the writing around would be hard but it was super easy. I just needed to keep rotating the notebook.

I enjoyed the process so much that I went for the third one, this time finding another figure and word to match her pose.

I can say today has been super productive.

Journal writing – a simple practice that will make you the writer you want to become.

Neera

Writing is a challenge even for the best of the writers. For beginners, the undertaking is so daunting that most of them give up after a few tries. When the first novel or a bunch of short stories or hastily written poems don’t bring them either the satisfaction or the accolade they were looking for, they give up; without realizing that they could have kept their dream alive by doing one single practice.

Journal writing.

Journal writing is one simple tool that can make you an eloquent writer, a clear thinker and a much better human being.

What is a journal, anyway?

A journal is a place where you record your observations, insights, memories, impressions, and feelings. It is a keeper of your secrets and holder of your dreams and hopes. It is a whiteboard where you analyze stuff and make plans. It is a safe haven to vent your anger and share your hurts.

The simple practice of journal writing, if pursued faithfully, can make you the writer you want to become. Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, blog or business documents, you will find that the practice of keeping a journal makes you a much better writer.

Journal writing has been around for centuries. It is a practice adopted by the old and new writers alike.

Many prolific writers were journal-writers. Rainer Maris Rilke, Virginia Wolf, Whinston Churchill, Louis XiV, Henry David Thoreau, Carl Jung, Anais Nin, and Susan Sontag became the writers they are through the practice of keeping journals.

This is how Anne Frank started, at age thirteen, with the following words in The Diary of a Young Girl.

Thirteen years old Anne went on to become the most famous journal writer in the world even though her life was tragically cut short only a few years after she wrote those words.

If you have too many obstacles in the way to follow your dream, then do just one thing, keep a journal. Here are ten ways a journal will help you become a writer.

1. Journal writing will keep your writing dream alive

Twenty years ago, when I felt an urge to write, I couldn’t even put a decent sentence together. Having not written anything other than a bunch of letters I had no expertise in writing. Out of sheer luck, I picked up an old diary and started writing.

My first entry was a letter to my husband. I wrote on-and-off for a few years, gradually increasing the frequency to weekends and whenever life threw lemons at me. Little by little the urge to write took hold of me so much that any day I don’t write doesn’t feel like the day I have lived.

Journal writing, more than anything else, kept the dream of becoming a writer alive for me. All through the years while I was busy with work, home, raising children and parenting the parents, the only writing I was doing was in the journals. But this simple act made me a much better writer than I was before. I am a full-time writer now. It wouldn’t have been possible without the practice of journal writing.

2. Journal writing helps you become a better writer

When I started writing I had a very limited vocabulary. My writing expression was plain and I didn’t know a lot about literary devices and my knowledge of fiction and non-fiction writing was next to nil. All I had was a desire to write.

My journal became my teacher. I wrote in it whichever way it came, never editing, never trying to improve anything. For the first couple of years, I wrote with a pencil rather than a pen so that I could erase whatever I didn’t like but I don’t remember using it much. It was just there for comfort.

As I wrote I got better and better at it. My vocabulary increased and my sentences improved.

Journal writing provides you with a safe environment to practice. No one is going to read your journals. They are for you and you only. You can write in it whichever way it comes. Broken sentences, random rants, off-tangent remarks, unfinished poems, mundane stories – everything is acceptable.

In journal writing, it is not the outcome but the practice that matters.

3. Journal writing will bring out what lies buried deep inside you

A journal is a place where you can write intimately, truthfully, and without any constraint. No one is going to read what you write. You are writing for yourself.

It is also a very effective tool to bring out to surface what is buried deep inside you. When you write in a journal you inevitably return to the center of your being. A journal becomes a trusted companion to whom you can tell everything without the fear of being judged.

On the surface everything was fine, but deep down I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it and the nagging feeling wouldn’t go away. I went through the day, distracted, a part of my brain continuously trying to figure out the problem.

Finally, when the day was over, all the chores done, I sat in my bed and opened up to my journal. Layer by layer I started peeling off the ambiguity. One by one, I recounted all the reasons. Every pent up emotion came out. Raw and fierce.

At times I went off the tangent, but it didn’t matter. In about half an hour I started feeling better as if there was weight on my chest and it has been lifted. I could breathe normally now.

The problem was still there but I had dissected it. It was not a huge monster any more. It lay there in tiny pieces and I was not afraid of it any longer. I knew solution will come to me sometime in future. I closed my journal and drifted off to sleep.

An excerpt from my journal

Journal writing teaches reflection and brings focus. It gives you room to know yourself in depth.

4. Journal writing will help you know yourself

Writing in a journal helps you self-examine. It is a supreme way to record your thoughts and to understand your own thinking process.

The patterns of your thinking, emotions, and actions start becoming evident very early in the process of journal writing.

Unfolding these patterns can empower you to see what you are giving time and attention to; where your thoughts are taking you; what emotions accompany your thoughts; what insights are there and what changes are needed.

Self-awareness brings acceptance and widens our perceptions. The less aware we are about ourselves the more closed and restraint we become. The more secure we feel about ourselves, the easier it is to open up to what’s around us, including to other people’s views and experiences. Journal writing supports this.

5. Journal writing will help you become an observer

Journal writing will train and hone your eye for beauty. It will invite you into the present moment while also allowing you to roam your past. It will open you to experience awe and wonder. It will let you intensify and renew your pleasure in events and situations that have gone well. It will support your recovery and the gaining of wisdom from the times you wish had never happened.

The habit of journal writing creates the most interesting distance between you and your thoughts. Your feelings change when you write your thoughts down and you are able to change your perspective. Experiencing your own powers of observation, coupled with a greater awareness that you have choices, increases your sense of self-mastery and inner stability.

As your journal writing continues, this means that you become not only an acute observer of your own life but also an acute observer of life itself.

6. Journal writing will help you understand the world around you

Journal writing is a supremely effective way to engage more intimately with the world that is all around you.

It will help you become less judgemental and critical of other people and generally less judgemental and more supportive of yourself.

Journal writing is a self-directed source of inner development, yet it also makes the world beyond your own self more real and more vivid. It can be an interface between you and the outside world.

The change might take place at a glacial speed, but you will find out that your writing will become less and less about yourself and more and more about the outside world even if it is about the palm tree outside your window or the birds chatting to each other.

7. Journal writing makes you an original writer

Only you can write your journal. Only you know most about yourself. And only you have your own perspective. When you write in your journals you are not imitating or copying. You are just being you. In your journals, you find your voice.

The freshness that comes from writing a journal permeates your life.

It is impossible to write a journal consistently and not become more reflective, insightful, and original in your writing.

8. Journal writing helps you silence your inner critic

Journal writing is all about process – not goals or outcomes. It is freeing – not constraining. Journal is the place where you can retire the inner critic. How you write, what you write, matter only to you. You are writing to please yourself, no one else.

Sometimes when I read my old notebooks I get drawn into them like a novel. I almost forget that I have written it. Some insights are so profound that I stop and wonder where that came from. All negativity about my writing ability vanishes and a sense of acceptance of my own abilities surfaces.

Journal is a thinking place, where you are least inhibited. Many writers use journals as the place to develop ideas or reflect on their intellectual work in progress.

It can be a place of discovery, learning, emotional relief, and insight. It can also be a playground, where the everyday rules of writing, reflecting, problem-solving, goal-setting, production, and planning no longer apply.

9. Your journals are the containers for your stories

An empty page in your journal is an invitation.

It is a place to collect your stories. A perfect repository of your anecdotes. This is where you describe things that can’t be captured in pictures. Like your home, what it means for you, how it functions and what comfort it brings you.

In your journals your practice noticing and capturing details to make your writing intense. Through your journal, you learn to see the world in more vivid colors. Widen your vision. Excite your senses.

I was hanging clothes on the clothesline when I took off a pair of socks I had already hung and straightened them by pressing them between the palms of my hands. Then I put them up again my cheeks to feel their texture. I hanged them up again, this time slowly and nicely so that when they dry I can fold them the way Marie Kondo suggested. It was then the realization struck me – I now have time to thank my socks. I laughed when I read that suggestion in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying. Now I just did that.

Excerpt from my journal

These stories make perfect reading for rocking-chair days.

Journal writing is a supremely effective way to engage with your own inner world – and to engage more intimately and confidently with the world that is all around you.

10. Your journals itself will become your writing

Over time your journals will become your life’s work, something more precious, truthful, and rich than any book you can write. Many journal writers have left their journals as their legacy. Anais Nin made an art form out of her journal writing. She left behind 150 volumes (about 150,000 pages) many of which got published in her life making her a feminist icon of the sixties.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing or sing in writing then don’t write because our culture has no use for it.

Anais Nin

Start a journal you don’t have one, and for the love of writing keep going if you already have one.

Photo by Essentialiving on Unsplash

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The lost art of letter writing

Neera 3 Comments

Dear Creative Souls,

Yesterday, while waiting in the reception area of the local hospital, where my niece was going through a minor procedure, I felt the urge to write to you. Not just any writing but deep, meaningful, connecting kind of writing. I pondered how to do that. For a long time now, I have been trying to figure out ways to communicate with you on a personal level. One to one, you see.

I don’t seem to be achieving that through blog posts. At least I don’t feel that. Blog posts with their ‘scannable’ nature sometimes sound distant and preachy. As if there is a thin curtain between the writer and reader.

I want to be able to talk to you like I talk to my friends over a cup of coffee.

I would love to have a cup of coffee with you.

Chances of happening that are slim. Not impossible, but slim.

This constraint reminded me of the longing I felt for my family when I migrated to Australia thirty-plus years ago. In those days there was no mobile phone, or skype and the landlines were outrageously expensive. My only way to stay connected with my family was letters. I used to write long, extra-long letters, by hand.

I loved writing those letters. Pouring my heart out to my mother as a newlywed would. Describing the new landscape and history of my adopted country to my father and father-in-law. Bonding with my sisters-in-law through separate notes.

What I loved more than writing letters was receiving them. Those striped edge envelopes with lots of stamps containing neatly folded lined paper with its unique smell. The anticipation of its content. The stories of food, festivals, neighbors, weather. Somehow, even mundane things would sound special. Those who wrote back regularly hold a special place in my heart forever. They gave me a gift which can’t be paralleled. They comforted me through the loneliness of the initial years.

This is how I want to communicate with you. By writing letters. Providing you comfort and support through your creative journey. As your companion. As someone who fights fear on a daily basis.

Speaking of fear, as my creativity was flowing, and I was coming with these ideas of writing all these letters, FEAR popped its head and reprimanded me.

Sweetheart,

Hold your horses. Just think about what you are going to do. Writing personal letters to your readers? What a dangerous idea. That will expose you on the net. You have any idea how vulnerable it will make you. People will know your deepest desires, your failures, your agonies, your anxiety. Do you really want to announce all those things. Don’t forget you are an introvert. Introvert don’t live their lives out in the open.

As usual FEAR was right on many things. I was almost going to drop the idea when I remembered Elizabeth Gilbert’s advice in Big Magic to write a letter to FEAR.

That’s what I did.

That silenced him.

I hadn’t written a letter to anyone for decades now. It still feels great. Writing letters builds relationships, brings clarity and provides comfort. It not only warms the heart of the recipient but also of the writer.

I urge you to write a letter today. To someone. Anyone. Write to your children and leave it in their lunch box. Or your husband and place it in his briefcase. Or a long lost friend you recently found on Facebook. Tell them you were thinking of them. Tell them you were remembering the times both of you have spent together.

Or write a letter to your fears and see how much clarity and mutual understanding it brings.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

Finding a writing voice

Neera 2 Comments

Who am I? What is my message? What is my writing voice?

I had never thought I would be pondering these questions in a blogging course, yet here I am. In the last two days, I went through an unexpected self-discovery journey which is worth sharing here.

When I started this blog I picked two topics I was most passionate about – writing and creativity – and started writing about them. Then I went traveling and travel writing got added to the mix. I am still extremely passionate about these topics I am not sure where they are taking my blog.

Am I confusing my readers? Are all my readers interested in all the topics I am writing about? I know some of my readers are reading just the travel articles and other only creativity or writing tips.

In comes the blogging course Intentional Blogging by Jeff Goins.

The first thing that strikes me in the course is that blogging is not about picking the right topic and writing about them but about finding your voice.

Your writing voice is your unique way of sharing whatever it is that you’re going to say. It’s your particular perspective. It’s the way that you view the world.

There are three aspects of a powerful writing voice. It is distinct, it is attractive and it is personal.

Jeff Goins

How to find your writing voice?

Jeff has a three-word exercise to find writing voice to be done in three steps.

“First, review a piece of your own writing and describe it in three words, or short phrases, but try to use adjectives such as funny, smart, and super-cool.”

Okay.

“Second, select at least five of your favorite writers and list three words to describe their writing voice. This will indicate the kind of voice you like, read and engage with.”

Done.

“Third, ask five of your readers to describe you in three words or phrases.”

Not too much to ask on the surface.

But when I put the question to my father-in-law, first-ever reader of my blog, he had to go for a walk to think about it.

My devoted, encouraging lawyer-daughter wanted to know the purpose of the question. “It’s to determine what my readers would want to read?” I offer.

“That is a wrong approach,” she cried, “You can’t ask us what we want to read. It is up to you. You should write what you want to write about.”

“Yes, but it will help me find my writing voice.”

“I like what you are writing,” she said.

“But it is too broad. I need to narrow it down. I probably need to drop travel writing.”

“But you are traveling. You should write about your travels. Some of your best writing is travel writing. I like your post Words are better than 1000 pictures. I love the anecdotes there.”

In a roundabout way, she told me she wanted me to include anecdotes in my writing. Like the everyday stories post, I wrote earlier also Aunt Grace’s Philosophy, A story that will touch your heart, Evoke the senses with your writing, only that she wanted to write my stories, not other people’s stories.

“I don’t have a word for it,” said my son-in-law, “but you say in your writing you did such-and-such and you found so-and-so.”

“Learnings that it. Life’s learnings.”

“Your writing is not preachy but informational. Information based on personal experience” chimed in my husband.

“Insights, is the word.” said, my daughter.

“Seeker, courage-of-conviction and go-getter” declared my father-in-law, the three phrases he thought during his walk.

“Diligent, creative and consistent,” said my brother.

How finding my writing voice exercise led to important discoveries

At night I sat quietly and looked back at the arc of my life, from a child to a young woman to an aging adult. I was surprised at all the transitions I have gone through. First I was who I was. Then I didn’t know who I was. Then I became what everyone around me wanted me to become. Then I invented someone I really wanted to be and became that. And finally, I am what I am again.

It is a privilege to be my own person.

When we are young we don’t know what we are. As we go through life we learn about love, about marriage, about betrayal, about failing, about falling and getting up again, about work, about staggering towards success, about raising children, about caring for the aging parents, about what matters to us and to the world around us.

And when we get towards the end of life we learn who we are.

“Life must be lived forward but understood backward.”

Soren Kierkegaard

It is interesting to note that most of our learning happens not in a classroom or in a library but in the school of life. We can look back and identify the moments – the friends’ betrayal, the work promotion, the careless comments, the difficult forgiveness, the silence, the debates, the hurt. All these things shape us, make us the person we become and give us the wisdom to share.

Two discoveries:

  1. We learn about life in retrospect.
  2. The wisdom of everyday life is timeless and worth sharing.

My daughter was right. It is the anecdotes that capture the essence of my writing voice. My father-in-law was right too, I am a life-long seeker. Seeker of answers, seeker of knowledge, seeker of wisdom. My son-in-law pointed out another one of my traits, learnings from trial and error. And my husband said the evident – I am not a preacher. I just say my truth.

This exercise has changed the focus of my blog from a topic-based blog to a personal blog. I have discovered I have so much more to share now. My passions give me a unique perspective on life, my seeking, learning, and insights give my writing voice a distinct flavor that hopefully will attract the right audience.

“Curious, insightful and inspirational.” I wrote down on the course notes and went to sleep.