Maureen writes:

My husband, Bob, is an engineer and it first felt as if our work—he worked with mechanisms and molds, designed the everyday things that make our lives work, and I wrote fiction—didn’t have a lot of overlap. I’d ask him about what he was working on, and he’d talk about molds and undercuts, materials, and the way the design guys thought everything should be ‘swoopy’. A toaster, he would grouse, does not need to be aerodynamic. Unless you throw it out the window.

Over the years I recognized that there are a lot of similarities between what a development engineer does and what I do. In one sense, engineering means learning a set of real-world solutions to the problem of making things. Over and over, Bob would describe how he solved a problem versus the technique someone he worked with used to solve a problem. Everyone has their repertoire of skills and solutions, built up over years of experience.

Strategies

If you read blogs and watch videos from people talking about writing, and then you write, you, too are building up a repertoire of skills. There is no one way to write. There is only what works, just like in engineering. Engineers work to make things that people can use. A bad design means things break or they don’t do something people need.

As a writer, I have a bunch of strategies for how I deal with description, characterization, structure, and when I don’t know what to write next. I’m only aware of them because I teach, and I’ve had to think about how I solve a problem to tell someone else what to try. Stephen King has a bunch of strategies, too, and if we could somehow list the strategies he uses and the strategies I use, and the strategies you use, there would probably be a pretty big overlap. We all probably try to show things for emotional effect rather than just tell the reader, for example. We all probably stick mostly to ‘said’ and ‘ask’ for dialogue tags.

A lot of my strategies are idiosyncratic, often tied to what I like to read and think about. Stephen King has a particular style and that style could be described as the result of his particular strategies. I have a style, too, which is perhaps not as effective at reaching a broad audience(1) but which results in a ‘Maureen McHugh’ short story.

I worry, though. I got those strategies by coming up on a problem and figuring out how to do what I wanted to do. Maybe it was to create a sense of place. Maybe it was to increase the dramatic tension. But now, whenever I hit the same problem, I tend to unconsciously solve it using the strategy I figured out. I worry that I’m not evolving as a writer, and that I might be becoming a caricature of myself. That my stories all feel the same now.

If you’re reading this, and you’re still trying to develop your craft, find your strategies, and get an audience, then you may legitimately feel like this is the writing equivalent of a first world problem. And it is! Up until it isn’t. Years ago I was talking to an editor and he said that the average traditionally published midlist(2) writer had a twenty year career. That may not be true anymore or may have changed. But I’m well past the twenty-year mark. What does that mean for me as an artist? How do I keep my writing fresh and avoid it feeling too much like every other story I’ve written. For me, I try reading and teaching, and telling stories in mediums other than prose. I’ve done narrative design for interactive experiences and tried some screenwriting. I’ve studied poetry. The best thing I ever did was write to someone else’s expectations.

When I worked in interactive narrative design, someone else dictated the kinds of stories and the kinds of characters I was writing. Some things I’ll never be good at—I’m looking at you, comedy—but it did force me to think about different ways to do things.

Artists and musicians often take lessons for their entire career. One of the reasons for Story Kitchen is to provide a place for people who have been writing to do that, take lessons that give them new strategies. It’s not the only reason for Story Kitchen, Jane and I want our classes to provide technique for newer writers as well.

If you’ve been writing for a while, do you have ideas for staying fresh?

Takeaways:

• Writing a story involves solving problems

• It helps to continue to develop new ways to do that

• Try writing out of your comfort zone in either a new medium or in a different style

• Comedy is really hard

Footnotes

(1) There was a point in the last century when Stephen King’s book sales made up a measurable if small percentage of total novel, and total book sales in North America. Of course, there was a backlash, and he was seen as a hack. My opinion is that he is kind of the Charles Dickens of horror. One of his strategies was to use name brands and contemporary references in fiction and that has made him feel dated to younger readers, but the man can write a really good book. Your mileage may vary.

(2) Yeah, I love footnotes. A traditionally published midlist writer is a writer who is neither the best seller big advance author, nor the bottom of the pack, churns out rather generic stuff. So most of us.

Announcements

We’ve got a game design class this month: click here to check it out.

It meets on four Saturdays starting Feb 12 at 1pm Pacific, and combines both basic principles of game design and exercises in narrative design. Use code FRIEND50 for $50 off.

We’ve got more classes coming, including a class on revision and a class on endings. Watch our website, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube.

Recipe: Maureen Makes Tomato Soup

I found the simplest, tastiest recipe for a filling tomato soup. It’s a New York Times recipe. It’s loaded with garlic, and uses canned tomatoes and canned white beans. In the pandemic, I’m trying to stay out of public places as much as possible, so having canned food I can make into stuff I’ll really be willing to eat is a great thing. Canned food is a little like tropes, ubiquitous solutions that can fail because they’re not fresh but can be extraordinarily useful if used well. (Link to podcast on tropes.)

The comments on recipes are a fascinating combination of people asking for clarification (what if I want to use fresh beans, for example) people who love it or hate it, and an enormous number of people who have hacked the recipe somehow. This recipe is just screaming for hacks. It’s so simple at its most basic, you can make it with garlic, olive oil, two cans of beans, and a 28 oz can of tomatoes. The recipe says to drizzle it with half and half.

But the hacks!

• Add a jalapeño, or cayenne pepper, or as I did, smoked paprika. Garam masala, siracha, whatever you like. (I wouldn’t personally add tabasco. Tabasco is vinegar based, and the tomatoes make this already pretty acidic.) Mediterranean spices like basil.

• Top with yogurt, or shredded mozzarella instead of half and half.

• Make your beans from scratch.

• Roast fresh tomatoes in olive oil. They become jammy and wonderfully sweet. The oil that they’re roasted in becomes infused with tomatoey goodness. Roast your garlic in that oil.

• When you roast your garlic, add a dollop of tomato paste.

• Use canned fire roasted tomatoes.

• Start with a mirepoix, that is, the classic French basic of chopped onions, celery, and carrots.

All of these are really the same basic recipe, but each one has a different style, a different solution to how to make this simple dish more layered, more tasty, more like you like it. Enjoy!

We'd love to hear what you think! What writing issues would you like help with? What topics would you like us to cover? Let us know! Write us at storykitchenstudio@gmail.com.

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