Scott William Carter

Games Writers Play #14: Five Minute Free Write

April 20, 2010April 16, 2010Scott William Carter

If you’re like me, there’s times when you sit down at the keyboard and every idea that comes to you seems hackneyed. The well has run dry. You can’t seem to think of an original idea.

Well, therein lies the problem, this tendency that writers have that everything must be original, and that everything they write should be autographed and framed on the wall. Sometimes you have to plow through thousands of words of practice before the original idea — the one that really gets you excited — emerges.

Here’s a technique I’ve used all the time just to get the fingers moving: Set your countdown timer to five minutes and write as many words as you can in that time. Don’t stop. Don’t judge. Just keep typing until the timer goes off. Then add up the words. If you like this technique, keep a running total of how many words you’ve written at each session. *

Now, you might be thinking, well, I could just type random words, but I dare you to try it. Our minds actually want to create order out of chaos. You might be surprised at where your typing takes you. If you’re pushing yourself to write fast — remember, don’t judge, just keeping pushing, the focus is on the number of words and not on the quality — you’re out-racing the critical side of your brain, the side that censors things for being “too weird.” But when I’ve used this technique, often those “too weird” ideas are the ones I’ve been able to turn into something I had a blast writing — and usually sold too.

The worst that can happen? Even if you don’t find anything in your free write you want to use, you spent five minutes — a whopping five minutes — warming up your fingers and shaking the cobwebs out of your brain. That’s valuable all by itself.

* Note: If you use Microsoft Word, you can click on File, then Properties to get the word count of your document.

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Spring 2010 Update and the Next Phase

April 19, 2010April 16, 2010Scott William Carter

As far as publications go, this Spring is the biggest one yet: Last month, I published two story collections — The Dinosaur Diaries, as well as A Web of Black Widows — and here in a little over a week my first novel is coming out from Simon and Schuster. For the most part, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, is garnering great reviews (Publisher’s Weekly called it a “touching and impressive debut novel”), so I’m hoping sales are good as well. Early next month, I’m having my official book launch event in my hometown. Lots happening. And if you plan to buy the book, please preorder and buy in the first few weeks. Those early sales numbers encourage bookstores to stock more copies, which helps an author’s career.

There’s some things percolating on the writing front, some things that could be potentially very good, but I can’t talk about them yet. Regardless, I have this sense that my writing career is shifting into its next phase. What that phase ultimately looks like remains to be seen, but the shift is happening, I think.

It’s also caused me to do a lot of thinking about exactly what my career goals are as a writer. Up until now, I’ve pretty much just gone by the seat of my pants, my philosophy that I would just keep trying different types of books to see what sticks. And because my writing is just like my reading — eclectic — this plays to my strengths. I just write what I want to write and let the chips fall where they may.

And while I may always be a little that way (it’s just who I am), I also want to give myself the best chance at reaching the widest audience possible. This might mean being a little more careful about what I write and why. It might mean thinking about the potential audience a little more, as well as how commercial and marketable a particular concept is. Up until this point, I’ve pretty much refrained from letting the marketing and business side into my creative space, but lately I’ve been challenging that assumption. And that’s okay. I think I’m finally at a point where I can do this in a way that augments my creativity rather than hinders it.

It’s a very subtle shift in the way I’m approaching the craft, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a significant one. I’m also more willing to allow people into the early stages of the creative process to help me gage these factors. This is the biggest gamble for me, but there’s some things that have happened lately — and we should see in the near future how these things pan out — that give me hope I’m finally at a point that I can do this without jeopardizing my confidence. I never would have attempted some of these things ten years ago, and I would seldom if ever recommend that beginning writers do anything but just write what they feel passionate about and finish it before showing it to anybody.

But becoming successful at anything involves some amount of risk, and it’s not just in the product. It can also involve your methods. I’m starting to take more risks with my methods right now. We’ll see how it pans out.

Book Launch / Signing on May 6

April 15, 2010April 15, 2010Scott William Carter

With two collections of my short stories published in the last few months, and my first novel due out from Simon and Schuster in a couple weeks, this has been a big year for my writing. The Salem Public Library has been gracious enough to set up a book signing and reading on Thursday, May 6 at 7 p.m. in their Loucks Auditorium. If you’re anywhere in the vicinity of Salem, Oregon, I’d love to have you celebrate with me. A local university bookstore will have books on hand for purchase. I’m considering this my official “book launch” event.

I’ll do a brief reading from my collection The Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time, a few pages from my book, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, as well as talk just a little and answer any questions. It should be great fun! It’s certainly something I don’t plan to do all the time, but after all the hard work over the years, well, it’ll be nice to take a breather and celebrate — and especially nice to do this in my hometown, where lots of friends, family, and other supporters of my writing can join me.

Here’s more details from the library’s website and newsletter (PDF). The event is free and open to the public.

If you can’t join me, but you’d still like to purchase my books, you can buy my first novel (a hardcover first edition, no less!) and my collection from Amazon. Here’s the links:

The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys (novel)
The Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time (story collection)

And please spread the word! In today’s publishing world, it’s more important than ever that an author hit the ground running. Every sale really does help. Buy a book for yourself. Buy one for a friend. Buy extras in case you lose the originals . . .

Cheers,

Scott

Games Writers Play #13: Grid and Dice

April 13, 2010April 13, 2010Scott William Carter

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

If you’re sitting around waiting for the perfect idea to pop into your head before you put a word on the page, you’re going to be waiting a long time. Usually you never know when an idea is great anyway — it just happens along the way. And even when you’re finished, you may think the end product is terrible, but your own opinion is often distorted because you’re comparing your work to some impossible ideal and not really seeing the true merits of what’s on the page.

Anyway, ideas are easy. It’s what you do with those ideas that makes great writing.

Still, there are times when the ideas just won’t flow. Here’s a neat game that can give you a jolt: Use a dice and a grid with story possibilities to create the bones of a new story.

This is geared toward fiction, but you could certainly adapt it to nonfiction. For fiction, the bones of every story can generally be boiled down to a character in a setting with a problem.

A hobbit named Frodo [C] journeys across the ancient land of Middle Earth [S] to destroy the One Ring before the evil Sauron finds him [P].

In fact, you can boil almost every scene down to those essentials too.

Indiana Jones [C] races through a deadly cave [S] to avoid from getting crushed by a giant boulder [P].

To play this game, create a 3 x 6 grid. The three columns along the top should be labeled “Character,” “Setting,” and “Problem.” Number the six rows on the left. Now it’s time to do some brainstorming. You need to come up with six characters, six settings, and six problems. Be creative! Here’s an example:

The next step is to roll the dice three times. The first number chooses the character. The second number chooses the setting. The third chooses the problem. Once you’ve got those, start your story and see where it goes. Here’s a tip: Don’t be too constrained. If the story takes you in a different direction, go with it.

So let’s say I rolled a “3,” a “1” and a “6.” That would give me a lead singer in a hit band who’s in an elevator and must pay off a bet to a mafia man. My mind is already rolling . . .

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