Writing Outside The Box

The first step to writing – writing anything – is to read.  Read voraciously and avidly.

Writing is perhaps one of the most frustrating and rewarding hobbies. You could pour your soul out on paper one day and suddenly end up with writers’ block for the next 3 days. You could formulate the most remarkable story in your head but be at a complete loss when it comes to putting them down in black and white. You could be hit by a whirlwind of ideas but forget them all by the time you sit down to start making a note of them.

 If you’ve ever wondered how Pixar comes up with such amazing films, you should try to remember that each movie undergoes around 6 years of work and development and a major chunk of that is spent on developing the story. There are several ways of going about writing a fictional tale (romance/slice-of-life, genre is an illusion) but I do believe that every individual develops stories in a unique manner.

There are those who like to make things up as they go. An example from the movies would be directors like Hayao Miyazaki or Jean-Luc Godard who let the movies develop themselves without any script. This lends the story a spontaneity and sincerity which scripted tales often miss. For us lesser mortals, an example would be day-dreaming: scenarios that unfold themselves without any exertion or pre-planning involved.

Another method would to be to begin meticulously with a rough draft, and then fill in the details while expanding it. This is perhaps the best process, and also the most underused because we all stopped making rough drafts after middle school, right?

Yet another method would be to start with a plot twist or dramatic ending and then work backwards to set up all the elements leading up to the twist. This is the way I like to work most of the time. But like I said, everybody has their own comfort zone.

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” 
― Ernest Hemingway

Despite Hemingway’s brilliant advise, it isn’t always easy to bleed.

So let’s start with a basic question that you might have asked yourself when you sit down and try to bleed words---

Should I write a short story or a poem?

I usually stick to short stories. Rarely have I ventured into the realm of verses for the simple reason that writing a poem, for me, requires a lot more effort, thought and structure than a story. And yet there are those who can cook up sonnets while walking their dog.

A short story on the other hand, has three to four parts; and while structured, allows the writing to flow rather than being bound by the limitations of rhyme and verse. The four parts I incorporate in my stories are: an introduction, an understanding, a twist and an ending. Sometimes the story ends at the twist, sometimes there’s an added prologue.

An introduction is where I introduce the setting of the story. Sample these two statements—

“I gripped my scarf closer to my chest and walked faster, without sparing a second glace.”

“I wrapped my scarf around my neck and began to increase my strides.”

While essentially the same, the two sentences create very different atmospheres. The former implies that the protagonist might be scared or running away. The latter implies that she or he is merely in a hurry to get somewhere.

Another set of examples—

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

The insanity of the opening lines sets the reader up for a wild ride.

“This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” —Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)

A straight forward opening that leaves the reader in no doubt as to what is to follow.

When in doubt, keep your introduction simple. After all, your introduction will set the tone for the entire story. So don’t go for ‘insanity’ unless your story requires it.

An understanding is where the writer allows the characters to grow and make themselves feasible. For a reader to connect with the character, the writer must herself imagine the protagonist as a real entity, with a past, present and future. Was she a nerd in school? Did he want to work in the movies? Does she dream of a world tour? What’s his opinion on the current political scenarios? Delving into these will allow the protagonist to have a personality of his own. If your characters have differing, individualistic core beliefs, they’ll stand out, and more importantly, sound unique.

For example, let us say our protagonist X is stopped by a beggar on the street.

X might be a snobby girl from a rich family who simply walks past the beggar.

Or

X might be a snobby girl from a rich family who grew up abroad and now finds it difficult to adjust to the winding lanes of her native country. The sudden approach of a street urchin surprises her and she keeps walking ahead and only realizes when it’s too late to turn back around that the beggar was only asking for food.

The former case paints X as the stereotypical rich girl that plays sidekick to the main actor in Bollywood movies. The latter fleshes out X as a real person who is surprised and embarrassed just like us. Hence explaining why a character thinks the way she thinks is important because it helps build a backstory and give your characters a three dimensional sense.

A twist is what keeps the story going. Usually, I formulate the twist first.

Example— I formulate a scenario where a mother finds out that her son has been the thief she has been looking for all along. Then I create events that lead up to such a confrontation. The task is to keep the earlier events interesting enough for the reader to reach the ‘twist’ and not put down the story midway out of frustration.

The ending, is where everything comes together. It may or may not always be present – your twist could have a conclusive element in it too. But an ending really acts as a culmination of all the above events – a paragraph to tie up all the loose ends.

The genre I mostly focus on is love/ fiction and not really ones with happy endings.

Even a relationship that does not end in a breakup by the last page could end up being a ‘sad ending’ if the writer can set up such a scenario as to make one the characters feel ‘trapped’ in it.

So the real trick is to think outside the box – do not kill off characters for sympathy, do not end relationships based on reasons like ‘the greater good’ and do not give your character the saddest possible backstory ever.

Now is the time where I admit I’ve done all of the above some time or other, but in my defense, we’ve all written stories we aren’t proud of.

Because in the end, what’s the purpose of penning something down if it isn’t unique?

And the only way you can be unique is to write what you really feel – because no two people ever read the same book. Everybody perceives the same book in different ways, reacts to the same situation in different ways. So the worst thing a writer could possibly do is to copy the style of someone else. Yes, you might aspire to be Fitzgerald but that doesn’t mean you have to copy his style!

As it often happens with me, sometimes penning down my thoughts often helps me flesh out a random story out of any situation in my life. Often I deal with a situation by creating an ideal protagonist and placing her in a story where she faces a similar situation. Often in this process, I find out how I could’ve dealt with the situation better. Repeating the scenario in better ways helps me achieve closure on some issue I dealt with badly in real life. Sometimes I create an interesting scenario in my head simply from a visit to the market. Similar to the daydreaming we all did back in school during History class, but kind of lost touch with along the way.

Basically, sometimes the distinction between real and reel life is blurry, and that is when I usually end up writing my best works till date. And while this statement has been repeated too often for me to mention it, but here goes:

“Take your broken heart. Make it into art.”

Because what’s a poet who has never experienced heartbreak and what’s an author who doesn’t dream? The saddest people write the best stories and the darkest hours produce the most beautiful rhymes.

Now, on how to deal with writer's block. The ideal solution, as even Wiki would tell you is to write everyday, but we all know that ain’t happening. To be honest, I only write when I’m overcome by a sudden burst of emotions or inspiration, since maintaining a regular writing schedule creates an expectation to produce something new or good everyday. And while that is a highly encouraged practise, personally I end up writing boring essays in such scenarios instead of something which ‘bleeds’. As for a writers’ block, what I prefer doing is rewriting the last few pages and often I find that I end up developing the scenario in a slightly different/better way. And when I say rewrite, I do not mean I edit it. I straight up delete it and start over again with a fresh mind. If this fails to work too, then like all other writers I throw in the towel and wait until inspiration hits, which usually isn’t until a week later. Till then, I read excerpts of old novels to find something – anything that might connect things up.

The last story that I posted on Launchora was titled Broken Pastels (which you can read in the Spring 2017 issue of ‘The Storyteller’!). And like my usual work ethic, I began working backwards with the frail guidelines that—

• There must be an artist somewhere in the story because I want the broken pastels to be something symbolic and also act as a climax.
• I will focus more on the feelings rather than the people.

Once I began working, things began to develop themselves. The focus on feelings resulted in descriptions rather than dialogue writing. I decided not to name my characters because I felt it would take away from the theme I had set up. The reader should be able to assume the characters as whoever they want them to be. If I were asked to describe the tone of the story in a colour, I’d say Grey. And the only way I could make my readers feel this was via metaphors or symbolism – the sky, the characters, the photographs. Despite there being an artist in the picture (which would make many think of bright splatters), I wrote on how the walls of his room remained unpainted. The protagonist keeps changing jobs a she struggles with her inner demons. Spring turns into winter as love runs out. The pastels remain broken and are never changed. The tea turns cold. The bed sheets are white. The sky is grey.

In the end, it isn’t necessary to always draw from your own emotions while writing a story, but it certainly helps; and while it might be mentally taxing to put down your thoughts on paper, it is certainly liberating later. And that’s why people write.

Paper is the best confidante. Do not focus on writing just stories, write down thought pieces, everyday life, your current political stance, the fight you had with your friends, the way your boss treated you—anything and everything could lead up to a story.

Besides the fact that writing helps me release my pent up emotions, I also write when I feel absolutely nothing. You know what I’m talking about—those dreary mornings when the coffee is too bitter and the sky is too overcast for the day to be productive. Or that moment that you come to the stark realisation that someone has walked out of your life forever. I simply start penning down the atmosphere and it ends up being the setting of a new story! Believe it or not, weather plays an important role in setting up the mood of stories because sometimes even the universe wishes for souls to be together. Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences.

Because “Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.” (Dead Poets Society)

So, whether you’re feeling up or down, it’s time to take out your pens and keyboards! Don’t be afraid of criticism, it’s only a stepping stone. A work begun is half done and as long as one remembers to pen down what they’re really feeling, instead of trying to ape someone else - there’s no way one can lose. Whatever your brain is thinking right now, could be the beginning for your next story. All you have to do to make it happen is to start writing!