Writing Tips from Publisher Cecilia Tan

And a Brainstorming Exercise

Founder of Circlet Press, Cecilia Tan offers a few tips on how to make good writing great.

"The whole point of writing is to knock something loose from the subconscious. It's a discovery process."

She recommends reading Scott Turow and Carol Queen to get ideas on how to construct your writing.

Pacing is an important, overlooked aesthetic consideration. Bad pacing very much degrades what is otherwise good writing. 

The Short Story
A short story usually takes about 6-7 hours to write. 

"Think of the story as a series of revelations, not events."

Two things are going on simultaneously in a story, externally and internally:

Conflict   ----->  Resolution
           crisis

Tension   ----->  Release
           climax

The story doesn't necessarily need to be chronological, but avoid too many flashbacks!

There tends to be a lot of "false veneer." Everyone wants to write about the same types of settings, like beaches or islands. "You can get more interesting than this!"

On Character
"Character makes your story matter. These are not puppets. Enter their world." 

Even if you're not a character-centered author and don't relish writing dialogue, you can make character matter through the plot: "I thought I knew this character, and then _______ happened."

Ways to show character:
-Plot/Action
-Dialogue/Monologue
-Inner thoughts/ Feelings
(Descriptions -- physical, background setting, vervy fashion choices, etc.)

Telling v. Showing 
If you can get just a bit better at this, it goes a long way toward improving the story.

"Blurting out info is graceless. But merely showing is a disservice too."

Narrative Voice
The narration is your interpretation, your perception. 

"Screenplays are so limited [compared to books] because you can only see and hear stuff."

"The writer is doing all the interpreting of everything for everyone about everything!"

Trends
Traditionally, people like conflict and suspense in their entertainment. She has learned that people very much preferred to read terrible things, not bliss and happy endings. But the tide may be turning as people get fed up with so many real world problems. 

Cecilia Tan also writes about baseball. In 2004 the Red Sox finally reversed the curse and won the World Series for the first time since 1904. In the least religious part of the country so many people were SO happy they began to openly express sentiments like, Oh, my God, if we're this happy now, imagine what Heaven must be like! It turns out bliss is not boring at all. 

Tan's Discovery Phase Exercise (Brainstorming)
"Usually you start with a grain of an idea. Very exciting! This is a chance to sack the closets of my mind."

1. Write a single word in the center of a page, for example, RED.
2. Free associate. What other words come to mind when you think of "red"? Draw a line connecting "red" to each word that comes to mind: anger, passion, wine.... 
3. Continue to free associate each of these words with additional words. Anger links to high blood-pressure, etc. Drawing a line to each new word, and so on and so on. 

An interesting map will emerge of possible topics and where the story lines might go.

Shelter & Write
When Cecilia Tan needs to get some serious writing done, she's been known to check into a hotel, turn on CNN, "just the right level of background noise," turn off her phone, and hole up without distraction until the writing is done (just like the law students cramming for exams in "The Paper Chase").

Author Isabelle Allende does something similar in her writer's studio from January to June she enters the world of her writing and emerges with a final product. 

Powerful Dialogue: https://lauramoreno.substack.com/p/how-to-write-powerful-dialogue