Blueprint for The Writing Life

Over my morning coffee, I'm admiring writing coach Jessica Page Morrell's use of the word "blueprint" to describe the writing life and wishing I'd thought of it. If you engage in the writing life and aren't familiar with Jessica's work, do yourself a favor and correct the oversight. She helps keep me inspired to write.

I describe my love/hate affair with writing, my engagment with the writing life, as "doom-eager." For me, writing is a compulsion, an act of joy and misery, a pleasure and a constant banging of my head against a beautiful brick wall. Those of us who feel the compulsion deeply, feel it continually, often when we'd rather shut it off. Burton Rascoe wrote:

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window.

We construct, destruct, write and revise whether on the page or in our heads wherever we are, whatever we're doing. We have to remember sometimes, it's okay to shut it off, let the story go, be present in the world around us. Part of our "blueprint" as writers must include time released from the "doom-eager" hold the writing life has over us.

Getting Published and Publishing "Deal Breakers"

When I'm feeling particularly blocked creatively, I like to go to the bookstore and scan through the books on writing and publishing. Most of the time I find advice books that appear to be written to the complete novice with lots of time-soaking exercises that, although I'm sure have some merit, seem mostly included to beef up the page count and rather skimpy advice.

On my last visit, I found Jessics Page Morrell's Thanks, But This Isn't For Us: A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected. Written in a genuine and frank voice, Morrell has produced not only a useful guide to writing the best novel one can but, also, a practical handbook to understanding the mind of the publisher and what he or she is expecting, including what Morrell referrs to as "Deal Breakers," those absolute no-no's that will cause your manuscript to be rejected.

After reading through it, I saw many mistakes I needed to fix in my first draft and wanted to start revising right away. However, I was happy I read to chapter 13 first, "The Final Edit: Fixing Your Manuscript Without Losing It." With Morrell's helpful advice, I realized that if I didn't finish the first draft before going back for a major revision, I might trip myself up and lose momentum. In this chapter, Morrell lays out step-by-step the process for revision, from the larger issues of structure and plot to the more detailed, fine revision work of language clarity, cohesion, and resonance.

Check out Morrell's blog: The Writing Life Too and her website at www.writing-life.com.