How I Do's It

How I Do’s It

I’ve been incorporating some eastern practices into my life. It helps me write.

Things like tying my hair into a bun, cooking with a wok, trying to sit still for long periods of time, using oils extracted from sesame seeds and soy beans to season my food, I meditate on the beyond, -30 wind chill does not keep me from Tai Chi chuan, being born in the year of the dragon means something to me, when I get a note in my dessert I take what it has to say into account: conquer your fears or they will conquer you.

I want to be diligent. I want discipline. I want patience.

I am Uma Thurman.

I follow the tutelage of Pai Mei.

“What if your enemy--is three inches in front of you…what do you do then?”

This is the thing I try and think when I sit in front of a white page.

“Curl into a ball…or do you put your fist through them?”

So I practice punching keys. I bang out letters into words then make sentences. I try to find heart in everything. I try to push myself into the mystery of the story, I tell myself not to be afraid of getting lost. I want to get lost then make my way back home.

It is the keyboard that should fear my hand—not the other way around.

This is true. I punctuate with authority. I hit the commas, the semicolons, and especially the periods with resounding forceful clicks. There is a small crack forming in my spacebar. I write work to mean something to someone, I am in control.

These things will get me where I want to go.

-Fiction Editor, Dennis Scott Herbert

*A special thanks to Quentin Tarantino

**This video does not belong to me, TM & © Miramax Films (2012)

White Winter (Writing) Playlist

It’s winter.  There’s nothing to do.  I suppose that means writing should be happening.  A lot of it.  This is difficult.  My walls are uninspiring.  The bare trees are uninspiring.  It’s easier to lay in bed and watch The Walking Dead.  Mad Men.  New Girl. 

When I think I’m getting bed sores and I think I maybe haven’t showered recently, I’ll try to create an environment conducive to writing.  I’ll crank the heat a little more, so my fingers don’t  feel too numb to type.  I’ll brew coffee.  I’ll create a playlist. 

Yes.  A Winter Writing Playlist.  This is good. 

1)      White Winter Hymnal, Fleet Foxes.  The title says winter, so I figure this is a good start.  It sounds like the sunlight sparkling off the snow.  It’s got a good rhythm.  Ok, pour the coffee, bob the head, this can work.  Fingers: poised over the keyboard…

Fleet Foxes Looking Inspired Like I'm Not

2)      Fitzpleasure, Alt J.  The song is a reference to the 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn.  My mind was more or less blown when I first realized this, and the title of the song took on a whole new meaning.  “Broom shaped pleasure.”  I should do something cool like that—plumb history for some anecdote heavy with meaning and shamelessly take advantage of it…

3)      When the Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin.  And then I’ll imagine Hunter Thompson listening to this.  Whether he ever did or not.

4)      Wrecking Ball, Miley Cyrus.  (As I was typing, I went Mylee.  Delete delete delete. Mylie.)  She makes her art, I make mine.  We are just fellow artists, ya know?  Working to bring light into this world.

5)      California Dreaming, The Mamas & The Papas.  And I’ll go ahead and put this one in twice.  It deserves a re-listen.  “California dreaming, on such a winter’s day!”  Apt.  So apt.  All I can think of now is that scene from Chungking Express where the girl at the diner in the heart of Hong Kong cranks this song on repeat so loud that you have to shout your orders to her.  She says that she plays her music so loud so she doesn’t have to think.  She says someday she’ll go to California. 

6)      Get It Get It, Girl Talk.  The caffeine has hit me by now, and it and the music is sending my brain into spastic twirls, and my fingers are zipping across the keyboard and I believe I’m being more productive than I really am.  Spastic, frantic circles. 

7)      Mmbop, Hanson.  Am I just tragically depressed by the sinking suspicion that everything I just wrote is going nowhere and I have no desire to build on it?  Whatever happened to Hanson?  Geez, that hair was gross.  I used to know a girl when I was a kid—she had a voice like gravel, and she ate, breathed, functioned in one glorious dedication of her life and being to Hanson. 

Yes, this is a picture of Hanson on the BER blog.  It's a thing.

      8)      Spring Love, McSomething.  I play this because I have to get up, stretch, get my blood moving.  It intimates saucy climates and twirly dresses.  I should join a Zumba class.

      9)      Maps, Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  WHO AM I?  DEAR GOD, WHAT IS MY LIFE.  In WHAT DIRECTION am I POISED?  WHAT CLIFF am I on the BRINK OF.  (On what cliff am I on the brink?)

      10)   Eblouie Par La Nuit, Zaz.  Ok, I am just procrastinating.  Sit down.  Focus.  A French song.  I’m an ARTIST.  I got this.

11)   Royals, Lorde.  I will never.  Ever.  Be a royal. 

12)   He Trusted in God, Handel.  YAHTZEE.  The song’s a wildcard to cleanse the palate.  When I have kids, I’m going to make them listen to this shit all the time.  Opera.  They’re gonna be geniuses.  I’ll name them Cora and Zane.  

Handel: OOh la la

…Ok, What have I written?

…I mean, it’s still rough, ya know, needs some editing, some touching up so to speak.  Yeah, there’re kernels here, I can milk a few pieces out of this.  *Throat clear*

Ok, but that music was good, the coffee was good, I am 96.2% likely to repeat this tomorrow.  So step 1 DONE.  (Establishment of an environment “conducive to writing” that I want to return to.) 

And maybe tomorrow, the writing will be good too…

New Year's Resolutions, 500 Words A Day, and Gary Shteyngart

 

500 Words A Day

Expectations can be a killer for writers as well as completely ungrounding. Where do you start? What are some realistic expectations? How much of this whole thing is luck? Well obviously we can only control so much of what happens outside of the page, but if we start there can set some solid goals.

I was skimming a social media site this week, rather than writing, and saw a close friend of mine was pondering how a particular great writer got to be who they are. To be a little clearer, he had a shower epiphany after wondering how Gary Shteyngart got to be the writer he is today. He came to the conclusion that Shteyngart got in his 500 words a day, every day.  Let’s call my friend Robert. Robert is an MFA student who started his tenure at my undergrad before I graduated there. Robert has just had several stories accepted by great journals (maybe evoking a little envy from me), and has started up his own online journal. He in short, has been getting his 500 words a day.

But what about being in a funk? What about being busy in the holidays? Well I can speak from my own experience, if I don’t get those consecutive days of writing in, I lose a little ground in my writing and narrative precision. It doesn't matter if I have to go to a writing exercise book or work on a piece for a deadline, I have to get that time and mental workout in.

Well okay, you have me, now what does this particular regimen get me? What kind of writing muscles will I be working with? Well if you run the numbers out, that’s 182,500 words, that’s over 600 pages of work. Now getting those in every single day with holidays, travel, work, school, family, and meetings can make you insane and your family upset, but say you get them in about five days a week—that’s 130,000 words, or about 400 to 450 pages depending your prose. Obviously we don’t use every word and page from a rough draft, and a lot of cutting takes place to get a piece tight, precise, and purposeful. But using half of these original pages after revisions still leaves a novel length or short story worth of work. And that’s every year!

Obviously this little post isn't about publishing—I’ll leave that for another one of our editors, but just in getting that amount of work out every year certainly puts you in a great place for sending pieces out and showing manuscripts to peers and editors. And as for the benefit to your writing? Well at the end of the year look back at the work you were writing when you were inconsistent, it should speak for itself about the importance of getting your 500 words a day.

That’s how Gary Shteyngart got to be Gary Shteyngart.   

-Bradley Cole