A decade is a beautifully fulsome length of time, as evidenced by our fascination with looking at the 1900s in ten-year blocks, juxtaposing historical events and fashion trends and pop culture!
Back in 2014, I had already been writing for over ten years, off and on, but I knew I was nowhere close to knowing all I needed to know about fiction writing, and furthermore that I could never possibly reach that level of knowledge - I'd never want to! Discoveries, often made by diving deeper rather than wider, are one of the joys of being creative, and the past ten years have given me plenty of those.
While I've shared a number of my creative explorations and innovations before on Something Delicious, some of them never made it into any blog posts, either because they just didn't quite fit or weren't enough to make up a whole post on their own.
This is the last post I'll likely share on Something Delicious (more about that at the end 😉✨), and so this seemed like the perfect time to tumble this medley of discoveries onto the page.
How about it, creative soul? Shall we dive right in?
Write down new ideas right away! And when a new idea does arrive, spend a bit of time asking questions, exploring the possibilities, and recording the initial spark of inspiration.
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To expand on the seed of an idea, examine which story elements you have already and which elements are still missing.
Maybe there's a plot and a setting but a dearth of interesting characters. Maybe the heart of the story is clear and a protagonist is ready to helm the ship, but there are three different plots that all sound amazing.
Write down everything you already know and list what's missing.
For each missing element, ask yourself two things: (1) "What are some of the most interesting and dynamic possibilities for this missing story element?" and (2) "What would I absolutely love to write about for this story element?"
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Rather than looking at being a writer as an ethereal, overwhelming "either/or" commitment for an unknown number of years, sometimes we need to embrace the present and focus on the one story that's right in front of us, right here, right now. Focus more on the work than what it could mean or what it could become - or all the currently-imaginary stories that could follow.
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Creating a now-thriving sourdough starter in early 2023 taught me valuable lessons not just about baking bread, but about creativity.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by a new project, especially if there are new skills to learn along the way, maybe it's time to jump in and learn as you go, one step at a time. Everything is overwhelming in the abstract. In reality, you'll start to see what's working and what isn't.
You'll discover the general temperature of your kitchen. Which flour your starter responds to best.
The genre tropes you're most excited to play with. That "list sentences" are really fun to write and beautifully evocative when done well.
Also, nurturing your sourdough starter is a lot like courting your creativity! Once you've established the starter (or a creative habit), you need to feed it and keep it active, but if you need to take a break for a little while, your starter (or your creativity) will survive just fine, so long as you take the starter out of the fridge (or your notebook off the shelf) every so often to refresh it and keep it lively!
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We seem to have a strange expectation sometimes that we should be able to just sit down and write a fantastic story, with no practice or studying or exercises along the way, and yet writing is a craft like any other, a craft that can be developed and cultivated. The more I study writing techniques, and practice what I learn, and do copywork, the more confidence I have in my ability to craft a story I love and that readers will enjoy, too!
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Whatever your character's profession, be wary of relying on cliches rather than looking at how that character's personality intersects with how they do their job. Five different characters with the same job may share the same duties, but the way they go about those tasks and how they interact with their coworkers and the results at the end of the day will all vary; sometimes mildly, sometimes wildly!
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A story needs somewhere to go - room for change, tension, anticipation. I wrote a scene early on in a story where I felt uncomfortable with the main character's priorities, and realized that this was exactly how she needed to be at this point in the story. Otherwise, there's very little opportunity to show her growth. This could even be a point the character looks back on later, to help drive home how things have changed.
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Before beginning to read a book, have an intention in mind.
If you're reading a novel to relax, remind yourself of this, and you're less likely to analyze the writing style as you go along.
If you're reading a nonfiction book to get an overview of the historical period you'll be writing in, don't overwhelm yourself with writing down minute details, but do jot down a few notes at the end of each chapter about the general gist and what you found most interesting.
If you're reading a novel you've read before to study its incredible settings, don't be afraid to skim-read the dialogue and action sequences. Focus instead on how the settings are depicted, whether in lengthy paragraphs or a phrase threaded in here and there.
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As you read, play video games, listen to radio shows and podcasts, watch TV and movies, and generally go about your life, collect memorable phrases, unique personal traits, and interesting situations to draw on for inspiration.
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If a scene goes on and on and on because there's just so much that needs to happen, so many reveals to be made, it's likely better to split the scene in two. Find a way to weave some of the information or shifts or confrontations into an earlier or later scene, and the current one will benefit massively from the narrowed focus.
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Visual mediums like TV, movies, and video games aren't the only way to portray a striking visual motif. The motif of a butterfly, for example, could show up in pages "fluttering" to the floor; a character's dress fabric swirling with butterflies; dialogue about the butterfly effect; or soft, rounded wings embroidered on the corner of an heirloom quilt.
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Set up significant details early on in the story to allow for greater impact later - the less you need to explain in what should be a tense, dramatic moment, the better!
For example, a character may grouse about their squeaky desk chair in one scene, and a friend might wince and ask if they've ever oiled it in another, until finally your character is elsewhere in the house and hears a loud squeak. Both the character and the reader will clue in immediately that someone is at their desk!
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Reflecting on stage acting and stage managing I did in high school, I discovered a few apt parallels to the process of writing a story.
Things will go wrong. Someone will get sick during dress rehearsals, a crucial prop will go missing, or someone will forget their lines mid-performance. We can't prevent every crisis, but we can have plans in place for the most likely ones; be flexible about changing course when necessary; and, if all else fails, cultivate a sense of humour about it all!
It's absolutely necessary to project your voice so that it can be heard by the person sitting in the back row, or they'll be missing out on an important aspect of the performance. Likewise, the more we work on the craft of writing, write consistently, and allow our personal touch to shine, the more our creative voice has a chance to blossom and take root in each story.
And finally, whether it's a dramatic exercise or part of the play itself, improvisation requires you to be responsive to what you receive. If you and a castmate are improvising as a warm-up, and they say, "I see a swamp up ahead!", you don't say, "No, it's actually a desert. The swamp is just a mirage." Be a good improv buddy for yourself - don't second-guess all your ideas or everything you put on the page! Explore and see where it goes.
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We all have particular words we use incredibly often, and while this could be a feature of our voice as writers, if it's not shaken up from time to time, it can (a) start to get a bit dull and predictable, and (b) make for samey dialogue, descriptions, and narrative, no matter how unique the characters and settings are meant to be.
Keep a list of words you use all the time, and research synonyms for each of them as potential alternatives. Write down an antonym or two, as well!
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Embracing who we want to be, hope to be as writers, with a sense of wonder and excitement - a childlike fearlessness, if you will - no longer feels like a goal to attain and then uphold forever more. It's part of the journey. It's something we come back to, however and whenever we can. It's a continual choice to remember why we want to write, and how, in this moment of our lives, we can best honour that calling. How can we most realistically, and most hopefully, shape our environment, our ideas, our days, to support our writing? What can we choose to write that will bring us the most joy?
Speaking of embracing our bespoke writing journey, I did say I had something to share about Something Delicious, so let's have a cuppa and a wee chat!
Something Delicious has been a creative joy for me this past decade. As much as I've shared and shown, I've learned ten times that, and at one point I couldn't visualize an end to this particular creative adventure.
On reflecting this year, however, I realized that I'm ready to embark on a stage of my creative journey that's both new and vintage all at once; a stage where I once again focus wholly on my own fictional creations, both in written form (novels and novellas) and video game design.
There is only so much time in the day, and what time I don't spend devoted to loved ones, my day job, and personal pursuits, I'm so excited to spend working on my fiction projects. When I thought about how to support this, timing and energy-wise, I discovered, in an immensely bright spark of realization, that I was finally ready to bring Something Delicious to a close.
The thought of letting Something Delicious drift away into the night without a word felt wrong for me on so many levels. Instead, to honour the work I've put in over the past ten years and the time you wonderful writers have spent here, I chose the blog post ideas I was especially excited about and poured myself into their creation.
This post is the last of those, and so, as with any theatrical run, we find ourselves now at the final curtain.
I hope both this post and others before it have inspired you in your own creative journey. Perhaps I'll see you again in the future, through your writing or mine!
So many marvellous discoveries and adventures lie ahead. Here's to the next decade of creative wonderment! ✨ Happy writing, creative soul! ✨