On Writing
You are what you read
Apr 20th
Apologies for my absence in general, things have been hectic lately.
I started classes over at Gotham Writers again, which is always a good thing because it gets me writing and it forces me to set aside time for reading, reviewing and studying the craft. The problem is I have two classes this time and the workload is heavier than I was expecting.
In short, I have one to two free nights per week that I can devote to classwork and enough work to last three or four nights. Mostly, this work involves reading. Reading assigned stories and novels, reading lectures from my noble instructors and reading the work of my peers.
Stephen King once said something like “if you want to be a writer you need to do two things: read a lot and write a lot.” Several other great writers have made similar statements about reading. If you’re learning, studying, and attempting to perfect a craft – shouldn’t you observe successful practitioners of the craft?
Inspiration and Editing
Mar 24th
I’ve been thinking about inspiration lately. A lot of writers get asked that famous question, where do you get your ideas from? I already spoke a little on my muse and how I like to write, but I don’t think I’ve spent much time on inspiration itself.
I get inspiration from all sorts of places. I get inspired when I read work from other writers. I get inspired when I’m in the shower or driving down the road or grocery shopping. I get inspired when I’m walking around in a book store. I get inspired when I’m dreaming.
I think inspiration is what drives us as writers. I think that’s when the magic happens. And it really is a sort of magic. We sit down and we write and we get to that place where the words are just spewing from somewhere we can’t even put our finger on and then when we step back we’re in awe at this beautiful creation and we can’t believe it’s not already sitting on the bestseller shelf at Walgreens. Then, later, we come back to that same piece and we scowl and we turn our head like someone has stepped in behind us and thrown up all over it. Inspiration clouds us, and yet, it’s where we get the raw material from.
Dreams
Mar 6th
An idea came to me last night in a dream. It was a story idea, of course, as I’m struck with them at almost any given moment without rhyme or reason. Usually I hunt out a pad and pen to scribble down whatever line of dialog or narrative hits me – but this time I thought about it for a while before I wrote it in my idea book.
I thought about how personal of a connection this one was. It deals with the thought I often have of finding my Father or visiting with him even though the last time I saw him was almost 7 years ago.
This isn’t the first time an idea struck me in this manner – on the contrary it happens quite often. I think it’s something that happens to a great many writers. I know that the popular story from Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame is that she awoke from a dream about the first book and set out to write it. That dream has certainly done well for her.
Ride into the Danger Zone
Feb 27th
Some of you may have thought of the movie Top Gun when you read that line, or perhaps of the artist Kenny Loggins, or perhaps it didn’t strike you at all. That may be one of those age revealing scenarios, but I think it fits the thought I had for this post quite well.
Being only 1 year old in 1986 when Top Gun hit theaters, I wasn’t there on opening night (or at least wasn’t aware of it if I was). But I did watch Top Gun at some point in the early 90’s and, being male, I watched it again and again and again. I believe the copy I had was a recorded VHS of an HBO airing. I didn’t really care about the plot (which isn’t too bad) or the characters (which weren’t too bad either), I was more concerned with the jets. And seeing things blow up.
On Co-authoring
Feb 9th
I know my posts have been slow coming lately, and I thought I should give you some insight as to why. Simply put, I’ve been working on something.
Of course by working I mean writing, so it’s not that I haven’t written anything in the last four weeks, just that I haven’t written anything here. The fact of the matter is I was chatting with a writing friend about a simm we were both enjoying in our spare time, and an idea hit us that was just so strong we felt we should pursue it. Four weeks later, we have about about 25,000 words of a novel down and we’re not slowing down anytime soon. The words have come easily and quickly, and the whole process has really worked well.
So what is this new venture you ask? Well I’m co-authoring a sci-fi romance with established e-book author Mina Carter. Yes, you read that correctly, a romance. Although I will validate it by saying there is a science fiction type space war going on in the background, the primary focus are the main characters and the chemistry between them. Is that such a bad thing? Although some spear-chucking, chilli-shovelling men might think so, I disagree. I think it represents a great opportunity for trying out a new medium, not to mention the very real possibility of placing work in a market that I can possibly expand in (e-book).
The Importance of Simming
Jan 15th
Today I want to reflect on something that is a fairly large part of my daily life, something that both fosters strong writing techniques and principles but resides in relative obscurity from the writing world’s radar. That something is known as simming, an activity that has been around (according to wikipedia) for over 20 years but has yet to make a large enough impact on the web world to be a well known phenomenon, like social networking sites or internet dating.
Simming, which most likely grew out of off-line role playing games that date further back, is really just a game played via chat, forum, or e-mail where players collectively write a story from their respective character’s point of view. In other words, the organizer (GM or Game Master/Manager) sets a story in motion with their character and other players develop a character or characters to tell a certain part of the story as it would happen to them. Usually, simming is based on an established television or movie series (think Star Trek or Star Wars) and as such is regarded as fan fiction – a general dislike of the writing community.
The End
Dec 4th
…of a story has been reached. The ’stealing’ story I gave you a sneak peek on a while back is now a completed short story (in first draft) titled “Old Enough.” It was an experimentation in first person POV and I am happy with it at the moment, but the magic of just completing it hasn’t completely worn off yet.
This monumental occasion does raise another topic for discussion, however. A question that I struggle with as a writer and (I assume) other fledgling scribblers struggle with as well. That is the question of ‘is it done?’ Or, better yet, ‘when is it done?’
To shed some light on the topic, I think I’ll borrow an element of my instructor’s most recent lecture. He spoke on the essence of plot, but he gave two formulas that are so simple they cause you to toss your head and make a sound like Homer Simpson. But if you think about it, if you study it, capturing plot in any story (long or short) can really be boiled down this simply.
Honesty in Fiction
Oct 29th
I read over a lecture in my class last week dealing with honesty in fiction. I think that’s something worth exploring here.
So what do we mean when we say honesty? Well we mean telling the truth and not a lie. But what is fiction if not a fabulous, intricate lie? So then we must say that honesty in fiction is a little different. My instructor describes it as being true to the characters and the story. In other words, the reader must feel as if the actions of the character or the decisions that lead to the result of the story are undeniably the actions that the character would make/choose. That way, the reader won’t feel cheated by an unrealistic event or some dues ex machina that resolves all the obstacles in the plot miraculously.
I commented on a perfect example of a time when I felt cheated by this very thing. In the original Superman movie, with Christopher Reeve, the plot is woven thick with enormous obstacles and events that Superman must somehow overcome to save the world. (Yes, leave it to me to bring up Superman in a creative writing class.) In this particular instance, he’s drowning with a heavy kryptonite necklace holding him down, there are two nuclear missiles headed in different directions (destined to kill thousands) and an earthquake meant to drift the west coast and (more importantly) Lois Lane into the Pacific.
Creating Character
Oct 20th
If you read the ‘Why?’ post below you know I’ve been reading a textbook in preparation for my next class. The second chapter of that book focused on a critical aspect of writing – character. What is it we need to instill in these people we make up to convince a reader that they are real and, more importantly, convince a reader to care about what’s going on in their life? The answer is, well, character.
No I wasn’t trying to play the profound card there, I simply mean we need to give this person something that makes them unique. Have you ever been speaking about someone – maybe a family member or a loved one or a friend – and you said “he/she would be such a good person if they just ______”? Fill in the blank with whatever bad trait or weird habit you want – and you’ve got the first thing a character has to have. They need some sort of conflict. “He would be such a good husband if he would just stop beating his wife.” “She would be such a great roommate if she just learned how to keep her door shut when she had company.” Some of these examples could be trivial but it’s these little idiosyncrasies that make us who we are. They may be trivial, but often we forget to add these things to our characters.
Why?
Oct 16th
Yes, it is the (many times) repeated question of every child regarding any and every topic during the early years. Yes, it is a repeated query of the obnoxious when something is just not getting through their thick sculls. It is also a question that I ran into while reading the other night, and a question I thought would be interesting to explore in a blog post. Bear with me, we’re about to pick up a string and run with it. (Refer to method of composition post for explanation of metaphor).
For my upcoming class, Advanced Fiction Writing, I was required to purchase two books. Textbooks if you will. One of them is entitled Writing Fiction – The practical guide from New York’s Acclaimed Creative Writing School. This book is written by teachers and contributors form Gotham, where I’m enrolled in the Fiction Certificate Program. Although I don’t have to read it for my class, I decided to read it anyway because writing is my passion and when I have a passion for things I like to absorb as much about them as I can.
