Writers for Writers: Alexander Chee's Writing Advice

Alexander Chee is author of the novels Edinburgh and Queen of the Night. He came to UMF in Spring of 2011 to give a reading and to meet with senior writing majors and gave us a lot of refreshing ideas about editing and self-doubt. Here are some of his insights.
For more about Chee, see:
http://alexanderchee.net/home.html


Chee's Thoughts on Editing
1. Return to where you left off to go on
This sounds simple, but there's an explanation. Chee explained an interesting theory about the difference between writing by hand/typewriter, and writing on a computer. In the days of old when one had a paper copy of their novel on hand at all times, a writer would just press on from where the last line left off. But on a word processor, the electronic document always opens to the beginning, and you have to scroll to find where to go next. "I've seen writers murder their openings with these revisits," Chee told us, and it makes sense. We should be careful not to doubt what we have each time we go back to our work. If one isn't careful, their self-doubt could talk them into starting all over, or worse, into quitting, if they judge a first draft too harshly while trying to finish it. Best to zip immediately to the blinking cursor and write as if you hadn't just seen your beginning and its inevitable flaws.
2. Don't start to edit until you've drafted to the end
Have you ever embarked on a first paragraph, and then halfway through a second or third, gone back to read over what you have? Then, while re-reading, have you starting changing words around, and becoming frustrated with how unpolished your beginning looks? No one will find value in a perfect beginning if a beginning is all you have. Soldier through (on your intuition) and then edit the entire thing. This will also help to keep a consistent voice and to look at the big picture as you polish. 
3. Let the story be your editor, not your fears
This is something I know that we all know, but have not necessarily taken time to think about. The stories and characters we're working on normally have a logical procession, and to allow this to develop without worrying about judgement usually allows for a fuller piece we are happier for in the end. Are your doubts interfering with where your story needs to go?
4. "Intellect is for edits, intuition is for drafting"
This is somewhat of an elaboration of the above bullet. Once you get a sense for how much or little control you've been inflicting on your storyline, Chee's line is a useful motto to remember. When beginning a story, its good to just allow things to unfold without trying to mold them too much. Worry about what makes sense once everything has filled out, and you'll be able to progress much faster.
5. Save EVERYTHING that you cut
I normally do this out of paranoia, and was happy to hear it endorsed by another writer. Its a good idea to keep up a notepad document alongside your draft as you're editing, and to copy/paste paragraphs or pages into it as you're removing them from your story. This way if pieces were sliced out in a self-loathing rampage, this can be discerned and remedied later with little harm done. Also, you never know when a side-tracked idea that doesn't fit where it began, could become a useful seed for another endeavor. I could go on for a while about why you should save what you remove and perhaps this will be a larger post in the future, but let the base fact stand that it is rare where an idea created and then not needed in one place, would not be useful on a future date.
6. Keep a writer diary 
This may sound silly. In fact, some of my writer friends have raised eyebrows at me when I've told them that I do this. In the same way that talking about a conflict can untangle it better than thinking alone, writing not just your story, but about your story can help you realize a lot about your characters' motives or situation that you may not have actualized before. Chee also pointed out that it's handy for reminding you how you felt during your last writing session: "This way, I'm not so far away when I come back. Page 37, still horrible!" It's also a good place to keep a to-do list of things you meant to get back to, like moments where you meant to add research or tension.

7. Changing font and text sizes
Although all of Chee's advice was intuitive and helpful, I found this piece to be the most clever. We are all painfully aware, I'm sure, of how easily a typo or awkward sentence can be overlooked. The reason for this, Chee suggests, is because the text, as an image, becomes familiar to us. If we change the font or the sizing of our test to rearrange the way we've come to look at the lines and body shape, it will snap us out of skimming because everything will look new. Then once you've polished away all the rough pieces, feel free to return the text of your writing to your original graphic presence.

Writers for Writers: Wes McNair's Rules for Poetry Line Breaks

Recently crowned with the title of Maine's Poet Laureate (What some argue is the only good decision made by governor Lepage), and who is also the founder of UMaine Farmington's BFA creative writing program, Wes Mcnair often meets with UMF students in his retired years in a workshop or one-shot lecture format to offer his sage advice.
This semester, Wes visited to discuss his new thinking, among other things, about why and how to select one's poetic line breaks. He eluded to having a longer list, but please enjoy the ten thoughts he shared with us.
For more about Wes McNair, see: http://blackwidow.umf.maine.edu/~wesmcnair/


Rules for Line Breaking
1. Break to suggest central action and its unfolding, to create anticipation
Let words stick out of your lines that connect to the poem's heart. Also, let the lines create tension, as professor Jeff Thompson would put it. Make the reader chase you to the next line to find out what fell, or who chased her, or whatever have you.
2. Break for interplay between line and sentence; This is free verse's rhyme & meter equivalent
In other words, as Wes was once advised: The line is Buddha, the sentence is Socrates 
Buddha is content to be were he is, as he is, the way a line, on its own, its simple, perhaps pretty or cryptic, but calm. Socrates is always asking, wanting, and hungry. You follow the entire sentence line to line to find out what, who, or why, jumping from Buddha to Buddha until your questions are answered. When line breaking, be aware of how you answer Socrates's questions effectively, but also create graceful pauses in your lines, to enjoy the moment.  
3. To create a graph of feeling
Playing with jagged margins, or waves, or open space to illustrate a reflection of the poem's feeling. Using shorter lines for riddles and unknowns also plays with what isn't said.
4. Break to emphasize related sounds
Is there a song to your poem? Find the music. See if there is a sense of metronome, or words you can link together at the poem's pauses to create a resonance. This can be done with or without rhyme.  
5. The word at the end of the line is most important.
Use Nouns, verbs, and their describers. All sentences have and, the, or but. They are less important, only connectors. End on the words that need to stand out of the poem, let them linger with the reader on the end of the line before they continue through your poem, or follow them through their day after they put your poem down.
6. Break to show the stresses of meditation
Listen to people around you as they speak. It was Wes Mcnair's observation that people speak in line breaks as well as can write in them. People pause for thought, for continued meditation, at places in their sentences that are their own, and make their voice. He advises to play with this in our poetry.
7. When breaking, be aware of stanza form: Do you use regular, or irregular stanzas?
You'd better know, and have done it on purpose.
8. "Let me learn the rules so I can break them"
In the days of rhyme and meter, rhythm would be broken in choice places in order to bring attention to a message. This rule was not abandoned in the days of free verse. Create a theme, pattern, or message, and then obscure it. Play with capital letters or punctuation at the end of lines in a way that brings focus to a contrary feeling or ironic concept.  
9. Find the second story
It isn't really a secret of the trade that poems about waltzes, or red wheelbarrows, or horses at night, rarely stop at just creating those everyday images. There is always a "second story," or rather, a reason for why the initial object was worth writing about, a discovery that is made along the way.   

Additionally, putting this much though into how one writes their poetry makes you a stronger reader. You will pay more attention to these choices as they are made by other poets, and take this play into consideration when you absorb their work.