By Eros-Alegra Clarke
I think it’s safe to assume that most writers have to process a certain amount of internal mental pollution in order to produce their work. Regardless of whether you are a daily commuter or someone who waits until inspiration summons, there are two basic routes we usually take; rough draft or revision. Both have the potential to get mentally traffic-jammed, leaving us idling in exhaust and agitated. I have found a little trick to make my writing process more ego-friendly, and luckily, thanks to the musician Jack Johnson and the Curious George movie soundtrack, my trick comes with a monkey mascot and song. Johnson’s “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” song has become my background music for approaching either a blank page or the need to revise. Here is how it translates:
Reduce:
Rough drafts are the place for words to proliferate, but revisions generally require a ruthless reduction. This can be a painful process that is made easier with the understanding that just because a sentence or scene needs to be removed doesn’t mean it gets thrown away. Here is where we insert the singing monkey reminding us, “Reduce, reuse, recycle.”
Open up a file and name it something like “Potential Brilliance!” and begin dropping into it all sentences, paragraphs, scenes that are cluttering the manuscript at hand. Do it for the greater good, knowing that by reducing now, you are giving back to future generations of your writing.
Reuse:
Most writers have reservoirs of material in various stages of completion. In my mind, a story/article/novel is not complete until it is published. Before it reaches that stage, it is a resource to be used. A chapter in a novel can be transformed into material for a short story, a short story can be reduced to flash fiction, and a flash fiction can blossom into the first chapter of a novel. This means that I never have to be terrorized by a blank page or lack of inspiration (and as long as there is enough coffee in the house).
I always have a storehouse of material to draw from and the reassurance that none of my efforts are wasted. Anything written exists as potential, a good thought to keep in mind when I am idling before a blank page saying mean things to myself like, “Even if you do manage to write something, nothing will come of it. Look at all those other attempts! Failures! What a waste of time … ” Experience has taught me that my first intention might have been to write a short story but that short story was only a vehicle to deliver a publishable flash fiction. All material is waiting for its purpose to be found. Nothing goes to waste.
Recycle:
Recycle, like Reuse, can be helpful for both revision and rough drafts. I believe that a sentence, like most containers, can be used more than once. Even if a sentence has been published, it doesn’t mean it is no longer useful. The content of a sentence has at least several more uses.
Example:
Up close, the only hint at his secret is the way his wildfire hair appears to waver and glow with more laughter than usual.
This sentence appeared in a chapter of a novel but the descriptions contained in it, such as ‘wildfire hair,’ have gone through several evolutions applied to different writing projects. When I am faced with creating new material, whether it is a story, chapter, essay or blog, part of my anxiety is eased by knowing that if I find myself stalling, the words eluding me, a quick search through my storehouse will often give me exactly what I need. I am given permission to plagiarize myself without apology.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: simple steps to keep your writing atmosphere ego-friendly and the monkey on your back singing.
Eros-Alegra Clarke is a frequent contributor to Editor Unleashed. Check out her blog here.
Flickr photo by joeshlabotnik/
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Funny, but I’m one of those people who is the opposite on my first drafts. I have to expand, explain, describe… (*see me saying, “what? I was supposed to give you a CLUE what’s going on?*)
I’d LOVE to have to reduce my first draft. I try–really. My first drafts aren’t quite as lean as they used to be with quite a bit of effort. You’ll notice lean sounds so much better than skimpy or under-written. ;-)
I absolutely love the idea of reusing something I’ve already written for another purpose, especially taking a chapter from a novel and writing a short story with it.
Thanks for the great tips.
Dawn Herring
JournalWriter Freelance
http://www.journalwriter.blogspot.com
Writing in genres of fiction, essay, memoir, humor, devotional, and poetry.
“Potential Brilliance!”! Love it.
I keep everything I write, but have trouble keeping track of which versions of a story are the most recent one. I have lots of notes and ideas saved, but am not sure where to find them anymore. I’m considering deleting the older files to make finding things easier. If I dump all the older stuff in one file, I won’t ever find what I’m looking for. Anyone have suggestions on how to organize my files?
Oh, I recently “reused” a short story I wrote a few years ago but never submitted anywhere. It was a last minute entry in the EU Flash 40 contest, and was chosen for the anthology. The stories I tried writing specifically for the contest were complete garbage, unworthy of recycling. They were part of my “reduction” process. :)
I found freedom from that horrid angst that strikes when you decide you must strike a ‘lovely’ bit of purple prose. (Of course I think such bits are lovely; I wrote them!) I came up with the very solution you suggest to reduce: a dedicated file for each work in progress entitled Precious Purple Prose. I can dredge through it for things I want to reuse and I don’t lose any of it.
That PPP file gave me freedom to cut. I mostly don’t save that stuff now, either.
I believe the true mark of a writer is one who sees, as you do, everything as a resource to be used again. Great article!
All great advice and I’ve reduced, reused and recycled at one time or another. The ‘Potential brilliance!’ file is a particularly good thing to do, although I have to admit mine are less glamorously titled, ‘Scraps’. Maybe it’s the exclamation mark I’m missing.
Great article! I like how direct you are. Reusing is a good thing. I save all my drafts. When editing, I open up a “Junk” file for that story and toss everything inside for another day. It makes it much easier to edit when you know that nothing is being lost.
Ravenne
The big problem here is that these ideas just make too much sense. You would miss out on all the fun of writing over a first draft, never printing it, then realizing that each of the subsequent 17 drafts is getting progressively worse. You see all the joy and personal growth you would be eliminating from your life? Live in the now, wallow in the regrets of the future, that’s the Greg way.
@JR Tomlin: I think ‘lean’ is a fine and appropriate word choice ;o)
@Dawn: I am so glad you found it helpful.
@ Natalia: Coffee fueled enthusiasm always takes me far. I am a big believer in grand declarations.
@Carol & @ WrittenWyrrd: Carol, I have still been looking for a system but WrittenWyrrd’s suggestion of simply putting the material to be reused in a file titled by the project you are working on sounds effective! Easy on the memory recall.
@Jordan: Roses from compost, right? Having that ‘writerly’ perspective of harvesting material makes all kinds of life situations far more bearable.
@ Iain: I believe in the liberal use of exclamation marks in the privacy of my own mind.
@ Laurel: Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it.
@ Greg: The Greg Way sounds like a path for the few chosen ones. I think you should start a movement.
I agree with Greg. Your ideas make waaaaayyy too much sense. I guess sometimes writers need to be reminded to keep it simple. This sounds way better than my idea of “killing my old stuff so I can get on with some new stuff.” Again I shoul be listening to you more often. I’m going to blame the ants.
The ants took my d too.
Alegra, super post.
I sense we approach writing the same way. I start huge and winnow down, and never, ever waste a word or phrase. In early revisions, I tack all my ‘potential brilliance’ at the end of the chapter to remind myself of their context. On subsequent drafts, I cut them out with a header alerting me to their original source.
I always reuse. My flash piece DEFECTION is the first scene to a novel in process. I’ve published flashes that have morphed into poems, and vice versa. In one poem, a rondeau redouble which will never be published, I coined a phrase (substantial as a dragonfly’s wing) I’ve since used two other places.
I’m simply not creative enough to always be birthing new stuff, but cheap enough to use – and reuse – what I’ve already written. Peace, Linda
Along the same vein, I’d include “Resubmit” as a not-so-strange bedfellow among your “Re” three. I’ve sold three articles to publications this year that were pieces that I dusted off from years back. And a different sale this year was for an article that described the nonfiction backstory behind a short story published years ago. Like poison oak oil that remains active for years after its deposit, there’s life in those tales that snooze on your shelves!
(Now that I think about it, the poison oak simile might not be quite the inspiration I was reaching for….)
Sitting in LAX I thumb the teeny, tiny keys on my crackberry to submit my comment…now that is indeed devotion!
I love the idea of your article! (And your fearless use of the exclamation point)! ;)
Although my academic writing is much less inspiring to those with massive imaginations to weave fictional tales designed to draw in the reader, I also use similar tools. I save my notes and roughs because I often find interlocking pieces to the topics I research and write about. The world is full of amazing connections and we only have to find the spirit to make them.
K – nuff crackberry tiny key thumb typing for a gal winging cross country on 1 hour’s worth o’ sleep.
Keep up your inspiring and insightful contributions to this very interesting blog, Alegra! You always have good stuff to say and I, for one, have picked up some good tips from you!
PJ: we both might want to consider keeping a few ants on the premises for the purpose of having an easy scapegoat
Linda: It does sound like we have a similar approach. Although I have to say, you sound far more organized! :o)
Tom: HA! Yeah, the idea of our writing having the potential to cause a rash is motivation of an entirely different kind.
Devorah: Crackberry typing in transit IS a true mark of loyalty!
This is an idea wonderfully expressed.
I also love the “circle of writing,” in which long things become short and the short can be expanded (or re-expanded) into longer pieces. Everyday I try to capture a whole story in a couple of sentences. Then later, expand that to short flash. Later still, take that and use it as an element in a longer piece. Stealing from yourself is highest form of self-flattery.
“Stealing from yourself is highest form of self-flattery.”
Considering how mean-spirited most writers’ inner editor can be, ain’t this the truth! ;o)
I’m finally to the point where I’ve learned to jot down those nifty ideas and lines when they come to me, and, when inspired, let the story tell as much of itself as it wants to at the moment of inspiration. (A friend gave me a moleskin notebook that facilitates this when my computer is not convenient…I can highly recommend them having now used one).
Like Carol, I rarely throw anything away, though I do find I will run across things I can’t remember writing.
–John
John,
I think I need to put ‘moleskin notebook’ on my upcoming birthday wish list. I always regret it when I don’t jot things down – I am learning that I am rarely able to retrieve that first flash of inspiration later on, even if I remember the primary idea. Unfortunately, inspiration always seems to visit me when I am on the verge of falling asleep.
I enjoy it when I discover things I can’t remember writing – it is like sneaking up on myself!
Alegra
You know, I’ve never even thought of keeping a ‘potential brilliance’ file of all those words and sentences I’ve clipped out of short stories, flashes, and such…I’ve always deleted and moved on. I’m good about keeping all the stories that haven’t worked and using them for other things, but never a ‘potential brilliance’ file.
Great idea.
I really enjoyed this article, Alegra. Good work.
~Jodi
I feel when Recovery becomes failure it is Discovery. the cycle continues.
We may identifiy few 50 ,100, but not thousands from identifying our own Head Hairs because the limit is the Time similarly some of the identified files/info will be lost as you identify more of the old ones. My explanation stands for a limit to Recycle, Reuse n Reduce