Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Once upon a time, I had a lot of fun with a couple of communities who offered up prompts for fifteen-minute ficlets. Once you clicked the link and saw the prompt (usually a single word; sometimes an image), you had fifteen minutes to write like a madman. Totally spontaneous, totally unpolished. Some of my favorite ministories came out of doing that (such as these two).

So I revived it, both on Twitter with @15minfic and on my website with a forum, where you can login with a variety of pre-existing IDs, including Twitter, Google, and Facebook.

I’ll be posting a prompt just about every day, and folks are strongly encouraged to post their ficlets in response to the thread, for ease of sharing and enjoying. Feel free to wander on over and contribute, or just hang out! (There is a coffeeshop on the forum. )

For all my multi-tasking and jack-of-all-trades-ness, I can be very single-minded at times. Almost everything that I learn in the Real World^TM is immediately translated into my ability to convey plausible fiction. New recipes spark ideas about how a species might season their food. Taking my motorcycle apart is incorporated into how an individual works on her magic-powered vehicle. The texture of my cat’s fur correlates to the texture of an alien animal’s soft, glossy pelt. The unspoken social hierarchy in a certain group of people brings up questions on how another culture might function in a similar situation. You get the idea.

I am greatly fascinated by natural sciences – zoology, anatomy/physiology, evolution, botany, geology, astrophysics, and more. I am passionate about these subjects because they’re incredibly interesting to me, because I like understanding this amazing world in which we live– and because I want to use that knowledge to enhance my geofiction and my writing. It’s good to have a seemingly unique, seemingly possible idea to incorporate into a piece of worldbuilding; it’s much, much better to have the education and knowledge to back up that theory.

As part of my current walk in life, I plan on self-educating myself on the sciences in much greater detail than I’ve so far learned them. Natural sciences come first, followed by social sciences (especially psychology, religion/mythology, and ancient history), and then whatever else I’m curious about and might put to use (such as mechanics). I’m not doing this solely for my writing, but it is one of the primary motivations to find some solid texts and teach myself some of the innumerable things that I don’t know yet. Plus, it’s awesome! These subjects, this world, this universe, are all bizarre and beautiful. Lessening my ignorance will only teach me how much more there is to appreciate in this life.

How far do you go in the name of your craft? Do you casually pick up shards of information as they become necessary, or do you eagerly dive in to study the pillars on which you stand?

Image Credit: Crestock Creative Photos.

I have a confession, my friends. I… I have been remiss in reading for the past few years.

Please, don’t judge me. I’ve been busy! I’ve lived in two hundred places! (Okay, maybe just seven. Wait, no, eight!) I’ve… I’ve… um…

Okay, so there’s no good excuse for a writer to not read. I hang my head in shame.

That’s why I’m here today. I need your help.

Please, take thirty seconds and comment with one long series (5+ books), two short series (2-5 books), or five stand-alone books that you consider must-reads. Fiction only, please! Make sure to include the author, and if you could summarize them in a sentence, that would be excellent. (Also, please read the comments above yours so you don’t recommend something already mentioned. Just assume I’ve read absolutely nothing; if I’ve already read it, I’ll let you know, and you can recommend something else.)

Thanks so much in advance, folks – I need to increase my awesome quotient broaden my literary horizons!

Image Credit: Yuri Arcurs.

Can’t blog, must write!

(Plus, I just moved to a new, lovely duplex with J! It does not have internet yet, so blog posts may be less regular than usual for a week or two. Bear with me!)

Of all the people in the world, a fiction writer seems to be one of the least qualified to tell you to live in your body. Especially one who works as a computer geek. I spend my work and play hours on a computer, sitting down and trying to avoid numb-butt syndrome by stretching every now and then. I type 119 words per minute without any particular effort. I can tell when a graphic-in-progress in Photoshop is a pixel or two off. I’m a certifiable dork.

Who am I to ask if you’re present in your physical flesh?

(Well, I’m A, but if you’re here, you know that already, right?)

Since we’re asking questions, how about this one: If you’re writing any sort of physical motion, how will you describe how it feels if you haven’t lived as a spine-flexing, muscle-contracting, blood-pumping body?

Everyone knows that writers can and do write things they haven’t personally experienced. “Write what you know” is a common adage, seemingly in contradiction to our immense imaginations. Take them both in moderation and consider this: how different would a short story about drag-racing be if the author had never even gotten his driver’s license? How would you write about a long cross-country journey if you’ve never walked through the woods? Sure, research and second-hand stories are great, but do they really replace personal experience?

Stephen R. Boyett wrote a great article about The One True Thing. He writes fantasy, but he gathers as much real-life experience pertaining to that fantasy as possible, so that he can include genuine details that make the unbelievable a little more real. Tiny things like road signs, the oft-overlooked decorations on large buildings, and that one tree that juts up from that hill over there when you’re driving down the highway. As a result of these True Things, his readers can suspend disbelief all the more easily.

And, really, can you write a story without ever having a physical body moving?

Are you present enough in your own skin to make it believable?

Give me the one true thing. The sudden rush of heat following a sharp pain; the sensitivity of your fingertip when a long nail is suddenly chopped short; the itch of a necklace chain on your collarbone. Make me believe that your character is just as alive as me – even if he’s the farthest thing from human you can get.

Live it, and let your stories benefit from your life.

I have a veritable history with NaNoWriMo. I began participating in 2003 and, with one exception, have won every year since.

In 2003, I had written only one novel before; it was The Dark Wars, an unfinished Young Adult story about the most memorable and violent time in Lavana‘s history. It spanned five spiral-bound notebooks – yes, I had written the entire thing by hand. But, in 2003, I was a fast typist, and my NaNovel was done on computer. It was entitled Seeker, a story about two gay boys in college trying to find themselves and finding each other instead. (Shh. It wasn’t a real romance, I swear.) While I got 50,000 words on the story, the plot arc was far from complete. This would set the norm for all NaNovels to come.

In 2004, I wrote Outcast, my first Korat-only novel. I got 80% finished with the story arc by the time I crossed the 50k finish line, which was the closest I’d come to completing an entire novel in my life. I even skipped ahead and wrote the ending scene (which, sadly, I later lost). Outcast followed the story of a lone striped female as she never stopped running for her life, even when she encountered three people who actually didn’t want to kill her.

In 2005, I wrote The Panthera Walkers: Peace as part of a Panthera Walkers trilogy (the second book, might I add – the first and third unwritten). Set in Ykinde, TPW:P chronicled the story of the growing Walker tribe and their aid in trying to establish peace between Lupos and Avans – trying to end the Elderwar – and how nothing is ever as black-and-white as it seems. I had a lot of trouble that year and took a major plot detour, then had to write feverishly to catch up and cross the finish line – at something like seven minutes ’til midnight on the last day. It was nuts.

In 2006, I failed. I did participate, and scanning back over my personal journal for November, I wrote that I’d gotten 21k on something. For the life of me, I can’t remember what it was, so I’m inclined to think it was a bunch of false starts and half-baked stories. My only excuse was that two great friends of mine were visiting for two weeks from Britain, and I was out and about with them almost every day they were here. (Sure, I was working full-time, too, but I’d been working every November except for 2003 – and in 2004, I was taking a few college classes as well as holding a job!)

In 2007, the miracle that was The Demon-God of Jubagh came to pass. By the time November rolled around, I’d already finished Book One; that year’s NaNoWriMo saw Book Two and half of Book Three completed before the 30th, and the rest of Book Three finished before the December holidays. I’ve already discussed TDGoJ previously on here (see the above link), but let me tell you – this was the first (and so far only) time I’d truly, totally, 100% finished a novel. I was gleeful.

In 2008, last year, I struggled to pick a direction for the first week or so. I first veered towards an anthology of myths and stories of Redwood, sidifir oerri, ageless mother of the Koratian race. I thought I could do two novels in one month, since I was on part-time at work and would never have that much free time ever again, so I tried to do a story about animetals on Ryarna in that world’s equivalent of the Wild West. Both petered out within days, and then – thanks in large part to some brainfodder and a great friend being a sounding board – I got inspired to do Into Fang Wood. I flew past the finish line, half-crazed and gibbering from the chaos of trying to wrangle that story in a month. (Later, of course, I found out how big it wanted to be, and I quailed, and then I began outlining…)

In 2009, this year, I have something very fun planned. The incredibly tentative working title is The Ghost In The Machine. (Asimov, I salute you, sir.) Set in the Gurhai universe, it will feature three corata, shapeshifting mammalian predators, who find themselves on Ryarna by chance or by fate. They encounter an impossible thing: a feral, instinct-smart herd of motorcycle-like wheeled vehicles that are, apparently, bound to and powered by animal ghosts. It’s illegal to fuse a ghost to anything but an animetal shell, however, and these wheelers are meant for personal transportation alone – not animation. Not only do the corata have to survive the largely-without-fleshy-animals desert, they have to figure out how to survive increasingly restless, doggedly stubborn aniwheelers.

It’s going to be so much fun.

Fellow WriMos, what are you planning for this lovely November?

And that’s putting it lightly. The work week was stressful and rather long, involving a 12-hour day and a 9.5-hour day among other days of normal length, and the rest of my time was spent out of the house – J’s kids got over the swine flu fairly quickly, thanks to the awesomeness of their mama, so I’ve been hanging out with them and their oh-my-gods-I’m-not-sick-anymore-HOORAY gleeful energy.

Needless to say, I fell behind on my blog posts. (I confess, I’m being moderately sinful and back-dating some posts to fill the gaps. Given the size of my readership at the moment, it’s not too annoying… Right, guys? Right? Um, guys…)

I don’t know about you, but when I fall behind, the build-up of inertia makes it hard to get going again. I had a lot of time yesterday to write, but I didn’t do more than login to my WordPress admin panel and stare at my drafts blankly. I couldn’t get any mojo up, couldn’t think of what I wanted to say that would be worth reading. Today was shaping up in much the same boggy manner.

So, I went back and reread old writing posts and recent stories.

I smiled. I laughed. I nitpicked my sentence construction, word choice, and the flow of the paragraphs. I remembered the elation of writing stories I love with characters I love in places I love – and the feeling of accomplishment when I finished a section or a whole story.

Then I came back here, clicked on “Add New Post,” and started typing.

Now, granted, I still have two posts to make up. But I have a writing voice in me again, and ideas for topics, and at least two more hours before I have to wake J up to venture out into the wild desert yonder. I’m feelin’ the muse, and I’m happy.

How do you get back in the saddle again after stabling your creativity for too long?

If you’re not familiar with the National Novel-Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, please allow me to introduce you to one of the most awesome things to happen to writers since ballpoint pens.

NaNoWriMo is a caffeine-addled, plot-fevered, ever-growing group of people who bridge geographical distances to write a novel in each other’s company. It espouses “exuberant imperfection,” quantity over quality, speed over strength, and the end of the “one day” novelist. (“One day, I’d like to write a book…” Trust me, your ‘one day’ will expand into thirty, and they are fast approaching, my friend.) NaNoWriMo begins at 12:00 AM on November 1st and ends at 11:59 PM November 30th. In those sweet, mind-boggling, too-short thirty days, you are going to write an original work of fiction of at least 50,000 words – 175 pages in your average Word document.

Writing so much in such a short time is bound to produce a crazed heap of scribbling, and NaNoWriMo’s founder, Chris Baty, acknowledges this – and encourages it. You can’t write the story lurking in your head if you’re too afraid of churning out terrible fiction to even pick up the pen or turn on the computer. NaNoWriMo gives you the excuse and the freedom to write whatever comes to mind in whatever fashion you choose, so long as you hit your word count goal by the end of the month. There is no competition – everyone who crosses the 50,000 word finish line is a winner.

The prize? Being able to tell everyone who asks (or doesn’t): Yes, I wrote a novel.

In a month.

Signups have started, and there’s more information waiting just a click away. Come join the madness!

(If you doubt it’s possible to succeed in this epic quest, let me reassure you – it is. I’ve participated six years in a row and won five of them… while working full-time jobs, and once while attending school and still holding down a job. You’d be surprised how easy it is to make time for something crazy in an already-busy schedule.)

PS: Um, if the site’s down, it’s simply overwhelmed with enthusiasm and will be propped back upright shortly. The NaNo crew always tries to prep the servers before November 1st, so October is a time of testing and upgrading. Be patient, be loyal, and be persistent until you can join the insanity!

Last night, I asked J to give me ideas for blog posts. He mentioned a few stories he wants me to write, which I pointed out were not quite what I wanted. (I mean, a herd of ghost-powered, steampunk, feral motorcycles in the desert? Yeeeah. I’m not letting that one go. But he likes reminding me himself – especially since it was his idea.)

He eventually proposed that I write about drawing inspiration from the people and situations in life. I joked that he just wanted me to write about him.

He has a valid point, though. I’ve always drawn a lot of inspiration from those around me and the experiences I live through. (The ones I don’t live through probably make better stories, but rigor mortis makes typing rather difficult…) And while I chase the story’s tail to find its face, talking plot points and characters out with someone helps me avoid tripping over my feet and catapulting into a steaming pile of drivel. More than once, I’ve not had a clue where the story was going, and discussing my friends’ reactions to what they’d read so far helped steer me onto the right trail.

In fact, I’m not entirely sure how The Demon-God of Jubagh would have ended if I hadn’t been chewing the fat with a certain British gentleman.

(You know, you don’t often see ‘chewing the fat’ in the same sentence with ‘British gentleman’. Mixing regional phrases is fun, kids.)

Life inspires me. People inspire me. Situations and circumstances inspire me. Media – other fiction – inspires me. Everything I think, see, hear, smell, touch, taste, say, and do inspires me. It’s not necessarily a constant stream of vivid and original ideas, but flashes and new angles can strike at any time with varying frequency. For me, storytelling is a form of communication, of taking what I’ve lived and presenting it in a new format so that other people can, in some way, live it too. I’m driven to write because the story needs told and shared.

What inspires you?

(Spoiler: The title is facetious.)

It has been an … interesting week. I’ve been engaged in a job-hunt, which resulted in one great interview on Friday and one to come next week; I attended an ice cream social at J’s daughter’s school with her mama and some friends; I removed and replaced the front wheel on my motorcycle; and I went through and studied six ranks (of ten) in martial arts with the home study DVDs and manual I have, in hopeful preparation of returning to class Monday evening and kicking a– um, of doing much better for the review. (I’ve also been practicing my run-on sentences – can you tell?)

…you’ll note the lack of writing and worldbuilding progress in there. At least I’ve stayed on track with the blog – my plan is a post every other day. This may change in the near future to be a more post-on-certain-weekdays sort of schedule, but for now, every other day is a great goal. Oh, and yes, there will be short stories / flash fiction posted on some of those days. Some old, some new, all under 1500 words or so.

Which leads me, in a meandering path, to today’s topic: methodology. With all this talk about writing, how do I… well… write?

I’ve noticed two particular trends among writers. The first is to write intellectually: have an idea, explore the idea, expand it, write an outline, fix the obvious plot flaws, and then begin writing the first draft. The second is to write emotionally: have an idea, then grab its hand and run screaming out the door with it waving behind you like a captured flag. Intellectual writing, or organized writing, is a very measured and controlled process; emotional writing, or haphazard writing, is a very intuitive and spontaneous process that involves very little pre-planning and precious little deliberate direction.

Me, I’m a haphazard writer. I am capable of doing things in a more organized fashion, but I’ve never felt like an architect – I’m more of a channel. If I hit something good, it feels like the story is flowing through me, rather than being born and shaped in me. I’m just the frantically-typing pair of hands and proof-reading pair of eyes that lets the story be seen and heard by other folks. When I run with a concept and it doesn’t work, I find myself wondering what I had to be smoking to think I could manage to make something out of what turned out to be nothing.

But when it does work, the angels are caterwauling and the goblins are jigging as all the pieces fall into place, galvanized by some unseen and miraculous force that knows how everything works out in the end– and I sit, breathless and amazed, at what just poured into and out of me.

(And then, well, there’s editing, and fixing plot holes, and revising, and all of the oh-so-fun revision process– but that happens no matter how you write.)

So, my fellow storytellers – how do you write?