Starting a Story Too Early

Remember, just because you write a scene does not mean the scene belongs in your story. 

We often write twice as many scenes as will ultimately end up in the finished novel, memoir, short story, screenplay. 

Still, every single word and line and scene you write is invaluable to you as a writer because in writing, you:

• Expand your writing skills
  
• Deepen your writer's voice
  

And most of all, the more scenes you write, the more you learn about: 

• The characters in your story

No writing you do is a waste of time. Quite the opposite. However, what separates a good writer from a truly great writer is the ability to assess what stays in and, more, what needs to be cut. 

The Scene Tracker is one way to help writers decide whether a scene is working hard enough to warrant staying in the piece and it gives clues as to how to expand weak scenes and make all your scenes truly great. 

Whatever method you use to help you determine what stays in your manuscript and what needs to be cut, do not worry about this in the first couple of drafts. 

The #1 defining skill needed to ultimately finish a story is the ability to write the story all the way through to the end. Yeah, I hear you -- duh. But, you might be surprised to learn how many "want-to-be" writers never accomplish that. They never finish even a first -- what I call "vomit-on-the-page" -- draft, much less the finished, polished draft. That is why I call them "want-to-be" writers. Before you can truly call yourself a writer, you have to finish what you start. I cringe writing that because I can hear the objections. In this blog, I speak to writers who hold the dream of one day being published. 

First, finish one draft all the way through. Even write a couple of drafts. After that and before writing more, begin evaluating:

• What works in your story?
  
• What does not work?
  
• Why?
  
• What to do about that which does not contribute to the whole = cut or expand?
  

Writing for Ourselves. Writing for Others.

Now on her third book, the writer moves away from herself. 

Memoir writers aren't the only ones who write about themselves. Many of us write to work things out in our minds, our hearts, to learn our own individual truths, to make sense of our worlds. 

Memoir writers shape their stories around their own lives and stick to the truth and call their work a memoir. 

Fiction writers take their lives and embellish for meaning or humor or excitement's sake to create a novel or screenplay or short story.

Some of us tire of ourselves and find more compelling fodder. 

Others continue to delve into the well of our lives. 

How many of your stories are about you?

Memoir Writing

I'm personally excited about an upcoming plot consultation with a well-respected veteran writer and photographer of some 50 years for most of the top news agencies and magazines in the country and the world.

From the early info I require about the character (for a memoir writer that is the writer himself) and theme, I sense this writer is interested in using his action-packed background of intrigue and danger to illuminate his flaws and fears and thus give meaning and significance to his life.

Memoir writing at its best shares the writer's past with the reader in order to entertain, enlighten, motivate, and/or make sense of life itself. 

One of my personal favorites is Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton.

Have you read it? Did you like it? Any memoirs you recommend?