Please Welcome Guest Blogger L. William Gibbons . . . .
The others, none of whom were over nineteen years old,
seemed unsure of what they had stepped into. I was the old man – in fact, older
than the professor – but I began to relax when I recognized the professor.
Granted, her face was not the same, her build and stature were different, and she
was not a man. Physical appearance aside, she was the embodiment of my drill
instructor in boot camp when I joined the Air Force in 1965. I began calling
her Sarge when talking to her without
other students around.
I soon realized that the course would center around
discipline – more to the point, self-discipline, one of the primary goals of
military boot camp – when writing in an academic environment.
Positive responses to my writing from the professor
and other students prompted me to tackle a work of fiction that had been teasing
my mind for the previous ten years. During Thanksgiving break of that semester,
I put pen to paper – uh, fingers to keyboard.
After writing that novel and several short stories,
it became apparent that self-discipline is required not only in academic
writing but in any writing intended for publication. Of course, proper grammar,
punctuation, verb tense, and other fundamental aspects should be obvious, even
to the untried novice. But self-discipline is also required to stay within the
character's mind and mindset, to remain conscious of voice and style, to
develop and maintain plot arc and, where appropriate, character arc.
During editing, self-discipline is even more
critical. The writer must adopt the roll of reader, with an eye toward
preventing lectio interruptus,
interruption of reading. Frequently lethal to a writer's work, jarring the
reader out of the story can be caused by factual inaccuracies, repetitive word
usage, boring narrative, gratuitous scenes or dialogue, and other literary
sins. As Stephen King noted in his highly-regarded book, On Writing, "Description begins in the writer's imagination,
but should finish in the reader's."
Among other writers of note, King also suggests that
writers "kill your darlings." In other words, passages that don't
contribute to furthering the plot, enriching the scene or dialogue, or serving
some other significant purpose, should be cut from the manuscript, regardless
of the attachment that the writer might feel toward them. That can be painful –
and requires self-discipline.
Being aware that self-discipline is required in
writing is one thing; internalizing it and making it second nature is quite
another. For my latest publication, Marrow
Bone Road And Other Tales, I learned that the serious writer would do well
to create an imaginary drill sergeant, named Sarge, who looks over the writer's shoulder at all times during the
creative process.
Where to find more of L. William Gibbons
Website: http://www.LWilliamGibbons.com
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