Back to school week is always exhausting as well as exciting for me. I have 3 groups of wonderful students who are eager to put their writing dreams on paper. When I start with a new class, I feel as if I get a bonus. In reviewing basic writing principles, I get a review too. All the stuff you know you know hits you in the head and you say, “Wow, how refreshing! I’d forgotten about that.” The adages—Make your character want something right away, even if it’s a drink of water (Vonnegut), the vivid and continous dream (Gardner) and write shitty first drafts (Lamott) all come rushing back to me. It’s all stuff my creative side knows intuitively, but so often that info gets shoved aside by the editorial side. Today, I’ll be thinking not in terms of technical terms (is my sequel balanced against my scene?) but of the stuff I know is true: Write from your heart, Write a LOT and Write like nobody’s watching (oh wait.) Ken Kesey told students to “Junk it through.” Are you willing to write crap in order to see where the story should go?

Writing Tip for Today: We writers say we’re willing to make mistakes but are we? Nobody enjoys being told the wonderful fun scene they wrote is dreck. Be willing to endure that kind of criticism, because if you can keep your ego intact, your story will benefit from the rough tumble of critique. Think of your words as more expendable. You can always make more. And if you have to make a lot more words to get your scene, chapter or novel right, you’ll be rewarded by writing the best fiction you can write.