How Writing Habits Make Your Writing Easier

by Guest Blogger

Today’s guest post is by Michael Mahin. Michael is a repped screenwriter and children’s book author, with two books forthcoming from Atheneum and Clarion. He blogs about writing and dreaming big at MichaelMahin.com. He also runs a web design business that caters to building sites for writers, actors, and other creative types. 

As all athletes know, whether you’re getting ready for a basketball game or a short jog, you need to loosen up. But for elite athletes, just like writers, loosening up isn’t just about warming up the physical body; it’s also about preparing yourself mentally for what is to come.

Photo by Keith Allison (creative commons). Modified by The Write Practice.

If you’ve ever seen basketball star LeBron James’ pregame “chalk toss” ritual, you’ll know what I’m talking about. You may not toss chalk before you write, but you can develop writing habits that will make your writing easier.

Great Writers Share Common Traits

If you’ve read my recent guest posts, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with Susan Perry’s Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity (1999), an analysis of hundreds of interviews with award-winning writers. Based on her interviews (of everyone from Michael Crichton to Octavia Butler), Perry observed 5 common traits/ practices that most successful writers seemed to have in common.

I’ve talked about a couple of these key traits in my previous guest posts How to Be a Better and Happier Writer and How to Think Like a Great Writer. In this post, we’ll talk about what Perry calls “Loosening Up.”

Find a Way to Loosen Up

According to Perry,

“To allow your creativity, your insights, your inner stories to spill over onto the page, you’ll need to work out—consciously or not—some way to loosen yourself up so it can happen.”

James’ “chalk toss” was as much a part of his warm-up routine as shooting free throws was. But whereas the free throws warmed him up physically, the chalk routine was a ritualized behavior that (consciously or unconsciously) helped him enter the mental head space of the game. If you’ve ever seen him do it, it’s almost meditative. (It also happened to be a great shtick for the audience.)

This same principle works for writers.

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Writers can actually make writing easier by using rituals and routines to “loosen up” before they write.

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In her interviews with writers, Perry noticed that most had developed some sort of personalized ritual or routine that seemed to ease them into their writing.

Perry explains how these writing habits and rituals work when she writes,

“By their habitual nature, they [rituals] help you make the shift into an alternate consciousness and contribute to your creative process.”

So, while James’ chalk toss helped him get into the “game on” mood, a ritualized cup of coffee can similarly help a writer say “game on.” Over time, these rituals can actually become behavioral triggers that help you get into the writing head space before you’ve even begun writing.

Create Your Own Writing Rituals

If you don’t have a writing ritual, try initiating one. Pour a cup of tea before you write. Clean your desk. Read the paper. Write at a specific time every day. Listen to a song that puts you in the right mood.

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Find a ritual you can do that signals to your brain and body that it’s time to write.

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On the other hand, if you’re in a writing rut, try changing your routine to find something that works better for you. Keep track of the outcomes so you can repeat the writing habits that have the best effect.

The key is finding what works for you.

An Effective Writing Routine: Prewriting Exercises

Just like basketball players who warm up shooting baskets, prewriting exercises can help relieve anxiety about writing by occupying your mind with a familiar routine.

I used to start my writing sessions with a random exercise selected from a book. It helped counter my anxiety over what I should be working on by eliminating that choice. After I’d done the exercise, moving on to my “real” work was much easier.

Ray Bradbury’s Writing Habits

One of my favorite prewriting routines is one that Ray Bradbury credits with helping him find his voice. (For more about Ray Bradbury and his classic book on the craft of writing, Zen in the Art of Writing, check out my blog post How Ray Bradbury Found His Voice and How You Can Too).

Bradbury’s “loosening up” routine was to get out of bed each morning, walk immediately to his desk, and write down any word or series of words that came to him.

Bradbury says,

“I would then take arms against the word, or for it, and bring on an assortment of characters to weigh the word and show me its meaning in my own life. An hour or two hours later, to my amazement, a new story would be finished and done. The surprise was total and lovely. I soon found that I would have to work this way for the rest of my life.”

Notice how Bradbury “loosened up” using a ritual (by writing this list first thing every morning) and a prewriting routine (in which he searched his list for a word or words to base a story on).

This is how Bradbury found his voice. How will you find yours?

What are your writing habits, rituals, and prewriting routines? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll share mine. Maybe the next Ray Bradbury is among us!

PRACTICE

Take fifteen minutes to do what Bradbury did.

For the first five minutes, free associate a list of words (or images, or doodles, or whatever works for you). Don’t edit, and don’t stop for the full five minutes.

Then, for the next ten minutes, take one of those words (or a group of them) and use it as the basis for a story or poem. Don’t let yourself off the hook, but don’t feel like it needs to be anything longer than a warm up (unless you can’t help yourself).

Post your poem, story, reflections, or rituals in the comments below. And if you share, be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers!

The post How Writing Habits Make Your Writing Easier appeared first on The Write Practice.

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GOLF GEEKS: The Ball Flight Laws of Golf

By: Adam Young

Controlling your direction is obviously a hugely important part of golf. However, when questioned, most golfers don’t seem to understand what actually causes a ball to go straight/offline. I know this because I teach golf for a living, and it's a question I ask each of my students.

While there are many swing-style elements which could contribute to an offline shot, I like to boil it down to what definitively causes a ball to go in the desired direction (or not).

The Facts

The golf ball responds to what we call the “impact interval” - the time in which the ball is in contact with the face of the club; to the golf ball, nothing else matters. So whether you are:

• 6'4" or 4'6"
• 230lb of muscle or 110lb soaking wet
• Tiger Woods in his prime, or a complete beginner
• Have a weak grip or strong grip
• Long or short swing
• Lifting your left heel in the backswing or keeping it planted

etc., it makes no difference to the result.

While this sounds controversial, it is a fact. The best players are simply great at creating a functional and consistent impact. It is important to state that the difference between you and a top tour pro resides in this 0.75" or so of space where the club is in contact with the ball.

This is why we can see so many different swing styles on tour being effective – they are simply an individual’s unique vehicle to a functional impact interval.

So many different styles.

This is not to say that swing style is irrelevant – many technical moves can add consistency/improvements to the impact interval. However, if a swing change doesn’t positively effect this small space at impact, it wont affect your golf ball.

Path and Face

The logical progression from that information would be to look at what causes direction. Given a centered strike (sweet spot – more on this in later articles), there are two main elements which determine a shot’s direction – path and face.

Path

Path refers to the direction the club is moving during the impact interval. Most players will have heard of the terms “in-to-out” (referring to a club moving to the right of the target line) or “out-to-in” (referring to a club moving left of the target line).

Images taken from The Practice Manual – The Ultimate Guide for Golfers

The swing path is only really responsible for around 25% of the starting direction of the golf ball. Also, while it is necessary to have a relatively square swing path through impact to achieve the elusive perfectly straight shot onto our target, it is not necessary to have a square swing path to play great golf.

In fact, many top players are able to play great golf with clubs which swing to the right of/left of the target line through impact – essentially hitting a draw or fade shot. Some, such as Bubba Watson, may dramatically change their swing paths from shot to shot to achieve a desired shot shape.

Face

Clubface direction is simply the direction the clubface is pointing during this impact interval (it also includes dynamic lie angle).

This has the biggest influence on starting direction of the ball (often around 70-80%). In fact, a clubface direction which is offline can easily override the swing path of the player. For example, a player may swing the club 3 degrees in-to-out (to the right) and have a clubface which points 3 degrees left – meaning the ball starts to left and moves further to the left.

The player will then often report that they felt they have “come over the top” of it, whereas this was not the case (I can then use Trackman numbers to prove this to them).

A match made in heaven

Effectively, it is the relationship between these two factors which create the direction of the ball. For example, a square swing path and square clubface at impact (sweet-spot strike, barring minutiae) will produce a straight shot with no curvature.

Image taken from The Practice Manual – The Ultimate Guide for Golfers

If the clubface is closed to the swing path, the ball will curve to the left, and vice versa. The amount of difference between the path and the face will determine the amount of curvature, with a bigger difference creating a bigger curvature – all other things relative.

A general rule I like to give beginner players is to learn to control/manage the clubface better. We do this through a mixture of drills and techniques, as well as improvements in awareness.

We then progress to a better understanding, with the general rule of;

“The ball starts on the line of the clubface and curves away from the swing path”.

Note - While this is not 100% accurate (the ball actually starts around 70-80% between the path and face, favoring the face), it is easier to remember, and functional enough to make appropriate changes.

Image taken from The Practice Manual – The Ultimate Guide for Golfers

For example, if your ball starts on the target line but curves right, your clubface was square the the target at impact, but your swing path would have been more to the left (the more curvature the ball has to the right, the more left the swing path was).

Work On It

There are many dogmatic statements in golf instruction explaining how you ‘must’ swing this way/that way. However, most of this is unfounded – as evidenced by the innumerable functional swings on tour.

The commonality between all tour players is that they all manage their clubface/path relationship really well. And if you want to hit the ball more accurately, this is something you should be working on too. We all work and tinker with our swings endlessly, but have you worked directly on clubface or swing path yet? The answers to better golf lie there.

I use a mixture of drills, techniques and conceptual understanding to make dramatic improvements with my students in this area.

 

 

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Nike VAPOR FLY TW IS USGA CONFORMING

By: Tony Covey

Fresh off the holiday weekend, it nearly went unnoticed that the USGA added a new version of Nike's Vapor Fly driver to its conforming list. Specifically you're looking at the Vapor Fly TW (Version 2).

If you find yourself immediately wondering how you missed Version 1, it's likely because the initial revision never made it to the conforming list.

As is always the case with USGA photos, scale can be difficult to ascertain, but the bonded hosel, apparently smaller footprint, and of course, the inclusion of a TW logo make it pretty easy to draw inferences about what Nike was thinking with this one.

"Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Woods y'all. Hey, Tiger Woods y'all."

In the past I would have told you that the odds were against this one every being available to the public, but given Nike's recent propensity for all things Limited Edition, I wouldn't complete rule out the possibility of some of these finding their way to Nike.com.

Is that something you'd like to see?

Vapor FLY TW (Version 2) Identification markings

SOLE: (diamond pattern), (bent line), (Nike logo over diamond pattern), (bent line), (diamond pattern), (TW logo)
TOE: VAPOR, FLY, (Nike logo)
HOSEL: (square)

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What Is Plot?

by Ruthanne Reid

Hey, you. Do you want readers to love your story? (Who doesn’t, am I right?) Then you need to understand plot.

Plot has a specific structure. It follows a format that sucks readers in; introduces characters and character development at a pace guaranteed to create fans; and compels readers to keep reading in order to satisfy conflict and answer questions.

In today’s post, I am honored to give you a broad overview of what plot is and how to use it.

What Is Plot?

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the components of plot in an article about the 6 elements of fiction. But at its most basic, plot is what happens when in a specific cause-and-effect manner.  In other words, it’s not just a recitation of facts; the facts you include in your plot each have a purpose, pulling the story toward its conclusion.

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A plot is a sequence of events in which every cause has an effect, pulling the story towards its conclusion.

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In Aspects of Novel, E.M. Forster makes a distinction between “story” and “plot.” A story just an event, almost a recitation of facts. The mouse ate a cookie isn’t a plot—it’s just a story (albeit a cute story).

On the other hand, the mouse ate a cookie and then asked for a glass of milk is a plot because it’s causal.  I’ll let Forster explain it better:

“Let us define plot. We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. ‘The king died and then the queen died,’ is a story. ‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief,’ is a plot. The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it. Or again: ‘The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.’ This is a plot with a mystery in it…”
– E. M. Forster

To trim that down:

• The king died and then the queen died is a story.
• The king died and then the queen died of grief is a plot because it’s causal and connected.

Hemingway’s ‎famous six-word story is an amazing example of plot: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Why are they for sale? Because the baby never wore them (and oh, it’s so sad). These aren’t disconnected facts; this is actually a miniature plot. More on that in a moment.

The Components of Plot

So how do you build a plot with this cause-and-effect thing? Fortunately, the answer is simple: you break plot down into its components.

The components of plot are like puzzle pieces. If you want your reader to see the final picture, you need to see the shape of each component and fit them into their proper place.

Does anyone else feel like this puzzle piece is closing a hole in the universe or something? Just me? Too much Dr. Who, I guess.

1. Exposition or introduction. This establishes characters and setting. Not all your world-building happens here, but this is where you show your readers what “normal” is for your characters. That way, readers will know what’s wrong when we hit the next step.
2. Rising action, which reveals the conflict. You know that quote about getting your characters up a tree, then throwing rocks at them? This is rock-throwing time. Here’s where you raise the stakes and begin building up to the story’s climax. It’s crucial that your readers know what’s at stake here; it’s also critical that they clearly understand the conflict.
3. The climax, or turning point. You’ve been building up to this moment all story long. This is the moment that matters most, the moment characters’ choices determine it all. The big conflict must be addressed here. If you did it right, this is the worst (i.e. best) moment of tension in the whole story, setting your readers on edge, which means now it’s time for . . .
4. Falling action. It’s time to wind everything down, nice and easy. Here’s where you address all the other problems and questions you’ve brought up, filling in the holes. More importantly, this is also where you explore the results of your characters’ decisions. Think consequences, folks; every choice your characters made have had an effect, and however they resolved the conflict, here’s where we see what happened after.
5. Resolution. Now, in the resolution, you’re establishing “normal” all over again—but the new normal, incorporating the changes and experiences of your characters. Your readers can sit with your characters a little in their new normal, emotionally wrapping everything up so your reader can put the book away without flipping back through the pages to see what they missed. It’s a scene-closure with enough finality to deserve those two words: The End.

We all learn in different ways, so I’ve also created a visual representation of plot. FYI, I cannot draw.

The Components of Plot: Examples

In my experience, examples drive a point home. Let’s look at a few stories and break down their plots.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

Also known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to those who know only the American version.

• Exposition: We’re introduced to the Dursleys, to Harry, and to Hogwarts.
• Rising action: We learn about Voldemort; there’s a troll loose in the dungeons. Our heroes realize this all has to do with Voldemort, and are determined to stop him at any cost.
• Climax: Holy crap, it’s Quirrel! All the conflict and questions have led to this point; we see Ron’s skills with chess and Hermione’s unusual intelligence combined with Harry’s flying skills to lead to this amazing moment, in which Harry has to make a choice: to side with evil and possibly get his parents back, or choose to continue to suffer that grief and fight the evil bad guy.
• Falling Action: Harry wakes up in the hospital wing. The major issue of the story was addressed in the climax, but now, Dumbledore wraps up the few loose ends, tells Harry what happened after, and shares some of the consequences of Harry’s decisions. (“What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally the whole school knows” is one of my favorite lines in any book ever.) Oh, and the Gryffindors Win Everything.
• Resolution: Harry’s friendship is renewed. He’s heading back home, looking forward to next year, and while there are still questions and challenges ahead of him, enough has been resolved that the reader can put the book down with a contented sigh. (Or in my case, turn right back to page one and start again. Ahem.) Harry’s new normal has been established.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Exposition: We’re introduced to the town of Maycomb, to the Finch family (Atticus, Scout, and Jem), and to the setup of racist neighbors in the deep south of 1930s America.
• Rising Action: Atticus, a lawyer, agrees to defend Tom, a black man, on charges of raping a white woman—placing him in direct conflict with pretty much everybody in the town.
• Climax: The courtroom scene. Ouch. Racism wins out over justice, and it looks like Tom is going to be executed. This is horrible, but unfortunately, the only logical conclusion of all the build-up.
• Falling Action: Consequences abound. Tom gets shot in jail; horrible-guy Ewell tries to take revenge on Atticus by killing Atticus’ children; and Atticus’ racist neighbor saves the children’s lives.
• Resolution: In this moment, through Scout’s eyes, we reach a complicated and painful but honest conclusion: everyone (even racist neighbors) is a person with good and bad to them, and injustice is unfortunately a deeply ingrained part of the system. No, it’s not a happy ending by any means, but once again, everything that’s going to be resolved is resolved, questions have been answered, and the reader knows it’s time to put the book down. Scout and Jem’s new normal has been established.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

This isn’t as well-known a book, and it’s tricky because it’s the second book in the series, so I’ll give a little more detail.

• Exposition: We’re introduced to Discworld (a flat world that moves through space on the back of a giant turtle); to wizard Rincewind (a “failed” wizard because a sentient spell has lodged itself in his head, preventing him from learning any other magic); Twoflower (a career tourist who’s the epitome of everything wrong with career tourists); and the Octavo (a book of sentient magic apparently determined to keep Rincewind alive).
• Rising Action: Did we mention the world is ending? The great turtle appears to be heading directly into a star and to her death. Everything is going nuts because of this, from the laws of magic to political and economic structures. It’s chaos everywhere as society breaks down around these characters.
• Climax: An idiot tries to use the Octavo for his own ends, and boy, does that blow up in his face. Just as the great turtle reaches the red star, this idiot’s botched magic goes awry and nearly ruins everything. But then, the spell hiding out in Rincewind’s head makes itself known, leading to one hell of a showdown, and the end of the world is diverted by inches.
• Falling Action: The turtle finally swims away from the red star (having fetched from it a bunch of brand-new baby space turtles); the world returns to normal, including economy and magic; the Octavo’s rogue spell has left Rincewind’s head, allowing him to finally learn other spells; and the career tourist, Twoflower, has decided he’s had enough travel.
• Resolution: Twoflower and Rincewind part ways and Rincewind re-enrolls in the same university that threw him out years before, having come full circle. The reader can put the book down. Yes, there’s more to learn and more characters to follow, but this particular story is resolved and a new normal has been achieved by all.

The Six-Word Story

Remember “For sale: baby shoes, never worn?” I’m insane, so I’m going to tackle this six-word story, too.

• Exposition: This person’s normal: selling items, presumably no longer needed. It’s an ordinary, everyday circumstance everyone can relate to.
• Rising Action: Baby shoes? That could be a happy thing; assumedly, the baby grew out of them. Of course, this raises the stakes. Used baby shoes could be no good for a child, after all, so now we’re not sure we want to purchase them.
• Climax: Never worn. And in this moment, everything comes to a head. It’s the worst possible direction this little story could have taken, and while it answers all the little questions (such as shoe-size; it’s probably newborn), this one moment is the gut-punch in the middle of the story. It even carries a cost with it—and oh, such a horrible cost.
• Falling Action/Resolution: In six words, we don’t have a ton of resolution, but we can come to the conclusion that this seller has a new normal: childless, and selling the items that remind this grieving parent of that child.

(By the way, K.M. Weiland has an incredible database of stories in which she breaks down the plots of movies and books alike. Check it out and enjoy.)

Questions to Ask Yourself

So how do you achieve this amazing plot structure? There are a few simple questions to ask yourself about every scene that can help you whittle away problems and connect what needs connecting.

• For Exposition: What is “normal” at the beginning of this book? Remember, your character needs to grow and change, and the loss of this normal is part of the price paid.
• For Resolution: What is “normal” at the end of this book? After the storm passes and the water calms, what has changed? If you’re writing a series, here’s where you’re establishing what “normal” will look like in the beginning of book two. (Note: you can move this step to the end, but I find it’s really helpful if you know where you’re going as you plan.)
• For Rising Action: What’s at stake? What’s the cost if your protagonist blows it? If you can’t answer this, your reader won’t be able to, either. It needs to be built up enough that your reader cares. It can be good to keep a list of the issues and questions you’re creating in here; there’s nothing more satisfying than to have all the little loose ends wrapped up later.
• For the Climax: How does it all come to a head in the climax? This needs to emotionally be the crux of everything you’ve built up to, and the stakes need to be in genuine danger. If there’s no real threat, then there’s no reason for your reader to care; this climax has to matter, even if it’s about something as simple as selling enough magazines to send a little girl to camp.
• For Falling Action: What’s left to resolve? Be sure to check that list. Yes, you can leave some things unexplained, but there needs to be a reason for it. If your reader feels like there are plot holes—or worse, that you just forgot stuff—she will be quite frustrated. If you craft your falling action right, then your resolution will feel like coasting—naturally, gently—to a stop.

Do you struggle with any of the components of plot? Let me know in the comments.

PRACTICE

It’s time to apply this personally: take fifteen minutes and tackle your work in progress. Take one of the components of plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), and show that point in your story. When you’re done, post your practice in the comments. Don’t forget to leave feedback for your fellow writers!

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New Arrivals - Come Full Circle with Adeline Cacheux

Introducing the New Collection

PURE CIRCLES

by

Adeline Cacheux is constantly reinventing her work each season using a mix of sterling silver and gold to create Parisian casual chic yet timeless jewelry.  Pure Circles uses clean lines to create pieces that have a rock 'n' roll aesthetic with a touch of sophistication.

Pure Circles Ring


Pure Circles Necklace

Adeline's hoops have a new take on the traditional style. Instead of the earring going through the hole, her design sits on the surface of the ear lobe and face out.



Pure Circles Hoop Earrings




Pure Circles Large Hoop Earrings

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CONTEST: Win The Driver of YOUR Choice

 

Want to win a driver?  How about the driver of your choice?

That means ANY driver from ANY brand you want.

Pretty sweet right!

 

HOW TO ENTER:

Simply click on this link and follow the simple instructions.

It's that easy!

ENTER NOW

 

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2001

For Nigel Wylie '05, the world is becoming even smaller as drones become more abundant and affordable. Nigel is building a company, SwarmX, based on the possibility of using remotely controlled drones to collect information anywhere in the world.

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