Reality Doesn't Live Here

I've Moved!

2007-01-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

Yep, my blog has moved. Reality now doesn't live here.

Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?

2006-12-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

I am:

Ursula K. LeGuin

Perhaps the most admired writing talent in the science fiction field.

Which science fiction writer are you?

It's Done

2006-12-05T12:41:00.000-05:00

The first draft of Lessons is done. I finished it late Sunday night. Final wordcount: 194,880.

I miss it.

This story has been a driving obsession since it appeared in my head in late July. Now it's over. I'll need to revise it, but that will come later. For now, it's done. And I'm feeling aimless.

I still have Nothing So Pure to finish, but I'd like to get a few days of distance from Lessons before I dive into it again. So what do I do? Maybe I should take a break from writing for a couple of days. That would be the sane thing to do. But who ever said I was sane?

I've got a plotbunny dancing around in my head. Maybe I'll try doing a little worldbuilding for it. Take it nice and slow, and see if I can come up with something I'd like to work on after Nothing So Pure is done.

Lessons is done, and it's time to move on. Part of me is glad it's finished... but part of me wants it back.

The End... Almost

2006-11-27T22:42:00.000-05:00

NaNoWriMo is almost over. I'm going to miss it. Right now my wordcount is at just over 160,000 - much more than I had expected I would write this month. My goal was 100,000 words, but I didn't know whether I'd be able to get that far. I don't know if it's something about this story, or whether I've just discovered that I can write more than I thought I could in a day; I'm hoping it's the latter.

I don't want NaNo to end, but at the same time, I'm about ready for this novel to be over. It was supposed to be about 120,000 words long; now it's probably going to end up at just under 200,000. As much as I love the story, I'd like for it to end sometime soon. I'm still having fun with it though, and I'll miss it when it's gone.

Luckily I've got another plotbunny waiting in the wings... The downside to that, of course, is that this plotbunny sees no reason why I should be working on Lessons; it wants all my attention for itself.

More Lessons

2006-11-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

Still working on Lessons. I hit 100,000 words on the 14th. That means I've reached my goal for the month. But I'm not stopping; I'm still only halfway trhough the outline. This book is going to be massive, apparently. I don't know what happened.

Today wasn't such a good writing day. The weather was yucky and rainy all day, and I was writing a scene that was sandwiched in between two exciting scenes but wasn't as interesting as either of them. I had to write it, so I could introduce two new characters, but I'm glad it's over. Tomorrow I get to write a scene that will hopefully be more interesting. Though to be honest, I think the main reason I had a problem with what I wrote today was just that I wasn't in a very good mood to begin with.

And I figured out something about my character; I got an answer to a question that I hadn't been able to resolve. I'm happy with that, even though it wasn't a very good writing day.

Six Days

2006-11-11T22:04:00.000-05:00

Until now, my best record for hitting 50k was 18 days. I hit it in 19 days my first year, 29 days my second year, and 18 days my third year.

This year I hit it in six.

I don't know what happened this year. I think it's a combination of the phase outline and the fact that I've been enthralled with this idea since late July, but the story has been flowing wonderfully. Now that we're in the middle of the second week - always the hardest - of NaNoWriMo, I've slowed down a bit, but for this novel, "slowed down a bit" means I'm writing 4000-5000 words a day instead of 6000-10000. I seem to have turned prolific. I just hope it lasts.

Now that week two is here, the story isn't flowing quite as well as it did. But it's still going very well.

A couple of my fellow WriMos have gotten hit with plotbunnies that they're trying to fend off while finishing the current novel; I'm having the same problem. Lessons is still my top priority, but I've got another story knocking at the door, asking if there's room for it too. I keep telling it to wait, but characters are appearing in my head, and intriguing hints of a plot, and I find myself going online after I'm done NaNo-ing for the day and researching things I'll need to know for this project.

It's still an ephemeral idea at this point. I don't know if it will even last. But it's definitely caught my interest.

But for now, Lessons is more important. My goal for the month is 100k; I decided to double the usual NaNoWriMo goal this year, and I had wondered whether I'd be able to make it. Now I think I'll hit it by the end of next week.

And if you're doing NaNoWriMo, and are struggling with your wordcount, try dropping in an insane character or two, and let them babble. I've got one, and not only is she good for the wordcount, she's a lot of fun to write.

Lessons

2006-11-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the first day of NaNoWriMo. I woke up before my alarm, at the ungodly hour of 5:45 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep, but somehow my brain interpreted "Go back to sleep" as "Try to come up with a good first line for the novel." So I didn't get back to sleep; instead I got up and started writing. (And came up with a first line that I like quite a lot.)

Lessons is going very well. In fact, I think it's going better than any story I've ever written thus far. I haven't hit any points yet where I get stuck (knock on wood). It's all flowing so easily. I told a friend a couple of months ago that I didn't understand how people could write as much as 10,000 words in a single day. Well, yesterday I wrote 10,000. 10,889, to be exact. And today I reached the 20k mark in the novel. I'm stunned. I expected it to go well, but not this well. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

I'm having a blast with it. I've discovered a huge glaring flaw in my main character, one that she'll overcome over the course of the story. Always a good thing. And my villain is a lot of fun to write.

The difference between this novel and the others I've written? With this one, I decided to write about things that fascinate me, but that embarrass me to write about. I thought I'd have to fight my way through awkwardness and embarrassment because of it. Instead, it's going amazingly well.

There may be a lesson here.

E-book challenge

2006-10-31T11:17:00.000-05:00

I don't know how many of you have heard about PBW's E-book Challenge. For those of you who haven't, Paperback Writer (who writes the Darkyn novels as Lynn Viehl and the StarDoc novels as S.L. Viehl) challenged writers, both published and unpublished, to post a novel, novella, or short story as a free download by or on October 31st. As it happened, I had a story just waiting for me to do something with it, so I did a rewrite of it and posted it.

The story is called "To See You With," and it's a horror story, just in time for Halloween. It can be found here. The file is in PDF format; to download it, right-click the link and select "Save Target As" (or your browser's equivalent). To open the file in your browser window, just click the link normally. If you can't open the file, you can find the necessary program here. (And if you still can't get it working, let me know, and I'll see about posting the story directly to a webpage.)

I encourage you to check out both my story, and the other stories people have posted for the challenge. And once you've read "To See You With," tell me what you think!

Why the Hostility?

2006-10-23T11:50:00.000-05:00

I love the NaNoWriMo forums. In fact, now that I've won Nano three years in a row, and have amply proven to myself that I can do large amounts of writing in a short amount of time, one of the main draws of Nano is the community. The writing is still my focus, of course, but a big part of the fun is doing it with so many other people. Every year, the forums have been filled with people getting ready to tackle a large goal together, supporting each other, and approaching writing with a fun and playful attitude.

But this year it's different.

This year, the forums are much more hostile than they used to be. There are people tearing apart other people's plots, people complaining at the number of people who aren't writing a serous novel, people complaining that the new people are too enthusiastic (which struck me as very strange), and more. I don't know what happened. Maybe the event has reached some sort of critical mass; maybe people are just feeling cranky this year; maybe this hostility has even been there all along and I just didn't notice it before (though I know at least one other person feels the same way I do). Whatever the reason, I hope it stops; I want the old Nano forums back.

An Answer

2006-10-12T15:36:00.000-05:00

Apple left a comment asking about what a "Nano-novel" is. Nano is an abbreviation for NaNoWriMo, which is, in turn, an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo, if you haven't heard of it, is a challenge where you try to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I've done it every year since 2003, and it's a lot of fun. It's what got me to finish my first novel - before then, I started plenty of novels but didn't finish any of them. Nano is what gave me the push to actually get one finished.

The community is a big part of why I enjoy it, too. The forums are filled with other writers, all approaching writing with more playfulness than anything else. For Nano, it's not about coming up with a masterpiece - it's about writing an insane amount of words in a single month, and having a lot of fun doing it, and getting to be around lots of other people who are doing the same thing.

It's not for everyone, but I definitely recommend it. The novels we write during Nano may not be great, but they'll be fun to write - and that's more important than we usually make it.

Valley of the Soul

2006-10-10T20:37:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I received an ARC of Valley of the Soul by Tamara Siler Jones. I promptly devoured it. The book starts out absorbing, and quickly becomes more so. The story is densely woven, with many plot threads that all held my attention.

This book takes place after Ghosts in the Snow and Threads of Malice, the two other books featuring Dubric Byerly. Having read the other books in the series does give a better understanding of the characters, but it's not necessary by any means – this story works well on its own. The premise of the series is intriguing – Dubric investigates murders, but in a traditional fantasy world. This means he is without any of the technological advantages that modern detectives have; it also means that in addition to facing ordinary killers, he often comes up against killers who are using magic.

That is the case in Valley of the Soul; Dubric and his team begin investigating a series of killings that look as if they're the work of a mage. In this book, the very idea of a mage in town is a chilling prospect, because in Dubric's world, the mages are pure evil. Nobody can use magic for good purposes, and when mages are found, they must be killed.

In addition to the main mystery, there are several side plots involving the other characters. People who have read the previous two books will already care about these characters, and those who haven't will come to care about them by the end. Finding out what happens to these characters quickly becomes as important as catching the killer.

Apparently another Dubric novel is being written as we speak, which, as far as I'm concerned, is good news. I expect that the next story will draw me in as much as this one did – and this one left enough unresolved that I'm eager to see what happens next.

2006-09-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile - I've been so busy writing that it kind of slipped my mind.

It's hard to believe I only started Nothing So Pure a little over a month ago. I'm already almost 80,000 words into it. The phase outline is helping me immensely. I plan to use one for my Nano novel too. (I know there are a few people on the Nano forums who think using such a detailed outline is cheating, but even if it is, I've won three times already - I don't need to prove myself at this point.)

Speaking of the Nano outline, I started it yesterday. I can't tell whether it's going to be very hard or very easy. Maybe a little of both.

I've heard a lot of writers talk about inspiration coming to them in the shower. That rarely happens for me - for me, those flashes hit when I'm swimming, or sometimes when I'm on the trampoline. But last night, I was showering, and suddenly lines of dialogue started appearing in my head. (That's often how my flashes of inspiration appear - as dialogue.) I got out of the shower as quick as I could to write them down, and presto, I had new scenes to add to the outline.

If that just keeps happening, I'll be all set.

The Bad-Writing Fairy

2006-08-24T22:41:00.000-05:00

I think the bad-writing fairy visited me today, because today my writing stinks. I don't know why; it could be because my allergies are acting up, making me feel half-dead. It could just be my perception - I've had times before when I sat down and wrote and thought what I was writing was horrible, only to find later that that part was nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the story - but either way, it feels like everything I write today is terrible.

Despite this, I've written nearly 3000 words on Nothing So Pure today. I just keep telling myself that it's better to get the story out, even if it stinks, and that I can fix it in the rewrite. But I'm going to dread rereading this chapter after the novel is done.

Further Along

2006-08-23T21:17:00.000-05:00

I passed 30k on Nothing So Pure today. I'm at 31k now; I'm just about a quarter of the way through the book. This amazes me.

The phase outline is helping me a lot. I often get more words per day than I used to, but more importantly, the words are coming easier. And I'm past the comfort of the beginning and into the dreaded middle... and I'm doing all right.

My enthusiasm has dwindled a tiny bit, but not by much. With every other book I've written, my enthusiasm has dropped off sharply at this point, causing me to hate the story that I previously loved. This one is going very well so far, and I'm grateful for it.

As for the Nano novel, I'm still doing worldbuilding and character creation, and have taken the first tentative steps into plotting. I plan to start the outline sometime in early September.

Yes, the writing is going well.

Another 4k

2006-08-14T15:11:00.000-05:00

I ended up with 4000 words on Nothing So Pure yesterday, and got another 4000 today. I like the phase outline a lot so far. There's enough detail in it that I don't have to wonder what's supposed to happen next, or try to stretch for something to fill the space between one important event and the next one. I already have a rough idea of what needs to fill that space, and because I worked it out beforehand, it's important and necessary instead of just filler. And there's still enough room for me to play around and be creative. A lot of stuff that I never wrote in the outline makes it into the story, and not everything from the outline makes it in. I know that for a lot of people this type of outline would be too much structure, but so far it's just right for me.

I'll see how it takes me through the middle, though. Especially the beginning of the middle. That will be the real test.

The latest class still isn't up, so I feel vaguely guilty for starting the story. But this is technically the beginning of the writing section of the course; I read this week's lesson in the 2YN book. And even if it weren't, we have permission to work ahead in the book. I guess I just got trained in elementary school that working ahead is Very Bad.

I'm getting to know my main character a lot better. From all the planning I did, I knew who she was, but now I know how she moves through the world. And speaking of the world... this is a weird world I'm writing in. The more I write, the more I see it. But I like it a lot. I just hope it comes across as believable.

Nothing So Pure

2006-08-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

I started Nothing So Pure (my 2YN novel) today. This week's class, the first in the writing portion of the class, isn't up on the site yet, but I read it in the 2YN book this morning.

I've been working on this idea since January; it's been in my head since last December. It's hard to start actually putting the story down on paper. I've had an ideal version of it in my head for so long, and by making the story real, I kill the ideal. No story is ever as perfect on paper as it is in the writer's mind. For the story to be written, the ideal has to die. It's necessary, but I still grieve for all the perfect visions of my stories.

Still, it's going well. I have a little over 4000 words done, and I've done nine phases from my outline. Nine phases should equal 2700 words, which means I'm getting extra words, which is good, since normally my word count runs low. And I'm enjoying it. My writing doesn't look very good to me right now, but I think that's based more on my perceotions than on any objective idea of its quality.

Genre

2006-08-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

Genre is a funny thing.

At first it seems simple enough. Fantasy books have magic in them; science fiction books are set in the future (with the exception of sf books that involve aliens visiting modern or ancient Earth). Romance novels are about a love story. Mysteries are - surprise - about a mystery. And so on. But it gets more complicated than that. A fantasy novel is generally expected to be written in a certain style. The same goes for a science fiction novel. And if you're writing, say, science fiction, that not only implies that your novel is set sometime in the future (except in the cases mentioned above), but that you will most likely have spaceships or other planets or aliens or lots of futuristic technology. I think romance has the most freedom in this regard - there are a lot of different flavors of romance novel, with the common thread being only that they're always primarily about a love story - but from what I understand, romance has stringent rules in other areas, so I suppose it all evens out.

I was thinking about this the other day because neither of my current projects fit comfortably within their genre. In the case of the 2YN novel, I'm still not entirely sure what genre it is. It's set in the future, which makes it sort of science fiction, and it involves the supernatural, which makes it sort of fantasy. But it doesn't have any of the things that would make someone say without question, "Yes, it belongs in such-and-such genre." Does its setting make it science fiction? Do its supernatural elements make it fantasy? Or is it neither? And I'm having similar genre issues with my Nano novel.

So is there a place in the world for either of these stories? I don't know. I hope so. But either way, it won't keep me from writing them.

This Travel Scene Is In My Way

2006-08-10T12:10:00.000-05:00

I thought I had figured out how to start the 2YN novel so that I wouldn't have to immediately move into a scene of boring travel. But I was looking through the 2YN book today - not reading ahead, just seeing whether the actual writing really does start this coming week - and came across a line that said something like, "If your opening requires a flashback in the next few pages to explain it, you've started in the wrong place." Which basically means the new opening won't work. I had thought the flashback was kind of iffy, and now I've got confirmation.

So it's back to the old opening, and I still have to figure out what to do with the travel scene. I don't think it can be eliminated, but I want to devote as little time to it as possible, without detracting from the power of the opening. This may not be a fix-it-in-the-outline thing. In fact, this may be a fix-it-in-the-rewrite thing. But I'll see if I can figure out how to fix it in the next couple of days... along with seeing what I can do about the cluster of chapters whose purpose is to reveal everyone's backstory.

That means I'll have to spend more time thinking about my book. Poor me; what a hardship that will be. (That was sarcasm.)

Waiting

2006-08-02T14:26:00.000-05:00

I finished the outline last week. Yay! The only problem is, I can't start writing the novel until mid-August, because that's when the outlining portion of the class ends and the writing portion begins. But there's only a week and a half left. I can't wait to start this book, and yet at the same time, I'm very nervous about doing so. It works so well in my mind; I'm afraid to put it down onto paper, where it will inevitably turn out more flawed than the story I see in my head.

In the meantime, I've been preparing for NaNoWriMo. Yes, it's three months away. But a few days before I finished the outline, an idea came to me - or, more accurately, hit me over the head and abducted me. I had planned to start planning in September, but apparently that's not how it's going to work. In any case, it's good to have the planning time now, before I'm preoccupied with writing the 2YN novel.

I seem to have picked up on some sort of NaNoWriMo planning vibe, too. When I returned to the site's forums shortly after I got my idea, people were just hanging out there, not talking much about preparations for this November. But a few days after I showed up, other people started returning, and more people started talking about their novels for this November. And a NaNoWriMo preparation board opened up on Forward Motion a couple of days ago. I must have just picked up on it a few days earlier than the others. That explains my idea coming to me, at any rate - I guess it's going around.

Good News, Bad News

2006-07-23T16:55:00.000-05:00

Good news: I'm almost done with the outline. I have 376 phases done (out of what will probably come to somewhere between 400 and 450). I'm finally past the middle and on to the ending. I think I'll be done by the end of the week.

Bad news: My computer has taken to shutting down randomly. The thing that is supposed to keep it alive during power failures is malfunctioning, and every so often it decides to turn off, turning my computer off with it. I'm backing up my writing files frequently.

List Night?

2006-07-19T20:07:00.000-05:00

I was just reading through a short story to see if I needed to make any changes before sending it off to my writing group. In the first paragraph, I had a character saying, "Last night was amazing"... only that's not what she said. She said, "List night was amazing." What's amazing is that this made it through one revision already, as well as several readers. I wonder if any of those readers wondered what "list night" was and why this character was so enthusiastic about it. It certainly doesn't sound that exciting to me.

I like finding amusing typos; they make me laugh.

The Rest of Us

2006-07-19T07:57:00.000-05:00

It seems like more and more, urban fantasy and paranormal romance are merging. I like the books that result; they're fun, and I enjoy reading then. But it makes me wonder – is there still room for the rest of us?

My books don't have a strong romance component. I'm not a romance writer, primarily because I'm not a romance reader. I'm not prejudiced against romance; I don't think romance is worth less than other genres. It's just a personal preference. I'm perfectly happy to read a romance if it's got lots of other stuff in it besides the romance (for example, Lynn Viehl's Darkyn novels, or Tall, Dark, and Dead by Tate Hallaway; the latter has secret Vatican witch-hunters, and there was no way I could pass that up), and occasionally I'll pick up a romance if it looks particularly angsty (yeah, I'm a sucker for angst). But while I like love stories, for the most part they're not what get me excited about a book, and when I'm writing, the love story is rarely what ignites my inspiration and makes me eager to sit back down at the keyboard.

I also don't write sexy chick-lit heroines. I'm not offended by reading about them – sometimes they're so alien to me that I wonder if I've picked up a science fiction novel by mistake, but assuming the book is well-written, that's just part of the fun. But they're not what I write. Take Phoenix, the heroine in my 2YN novel (which isn't precisely urban fantasy; in fact, I'm still not entirely sure what it is). She's not sexy; in fact, she's quite socially awkward. She doesn't exude sex appeal, and probably never will.

For awhile I tried to write this style of urban fantasy. After all, I like to read it, so it only made sense that I would like to write it. But my ideas were lackluster, and I couldn't sustain enthusiasm for them; only one actually made it to the writing stage, and I never got more than a couple of pages into it. In contrast, when I let myself write in my natural style, the writing flows much more smoothly. Liking to read something doesn't necessarily mean you'll like to write it.

So I wonder – is there still room for me in this genre, or has it moved far enough away from what I write that I don't fit anymore?

The Halfway Point

2006-07-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

I hit two hundred phases tonight, which means I'm about halfway through the outline. This is good; my goal was to hit two hundred by the end of this week, which would get me finished with the outline a week before the actual writing starts. I often feel like I'm going too slowly with this, so it's encouraging to see that I'm ahead of schedule.

I'm still in the middle. Seeing as I said I'm halfway through the outline, you probably guessed that. Sometimes it feels like an impenetrable forest, or a collage of unrelated fragments, but sometimes it actually feels like I'm building something that's true to the vision in my head.

It doesn't help, though, that the humidity here is making it very hard for me to think. It was bad enough this evening that I felt nauseous.

Frankenstein's Monster

2006-07-07T08:04:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a phase outline for the 2YN novel (tentatively titled Nothing So Pure) - a very detailed form of outline developed by Lazette Gifford. So far I'm liking it very much - it gives me a chance to write down all the little details and snippets of dialogue that tehd to occur to me when I'm in the prewriting stage. That way I won't have to worry about forgetting them, and I won't have to rush through a scene to make sure I don't forget what's supposed to happen next. It also makes it harder for me to save the hard work until the last minute - in my usual line-per-scene outlines, I can get away with saying vague things like Tim somehow finds out where Lia is, but in this type of outline, that's harder to do.

This outlining process is also having an unexpected result. I think I may have figured out what my problem is with novels - why they always seem to die on me. I think my problem is middles. Beginnings are for setting everything up, endings feel like coasting down a hill, but in the middle the book starts to feel like Frankenstein's monster - a collection of scenes badly sewn together, trying to be a book. And then I feel like it must be a weak idea, and then I get discouraged. With this form of outlining, I'm close enough to the story that it's almost like I'm writing it, but I'm also far away enough that I can observe the process, so I can see this happening more easily than if I was doing actual writing or doing a more distant outline.

So now I finally know what the issue is. That's the good news. The bad news is, I'm smack in the middle right now, and the book is starting to feel like Frankenstein's monster.

I've Never Even Heard of This One...

2006-06-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

(Apologies for how skinny the result is; unfortunately, I don't know how to fix it.)

Which Classic Novel do You Belong In?

Your belonging in The Mysteries of Udolpho is quite evident; a world of intrigue, melancholy, sublimity and terror. You belong where there are danger, gloomy edifices, and evil Italian guardians. Your passion for the passion of the Mediterranean, the divine contemplation of nature, and for adventure stories, makes you a prime contender for a spot in a gothic romance.
Take this quiz!

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Logistical Issues

2006-06-25T16:28:00.000-05:00

We've gotten to the outlining section in the 2YN class. Ever since we began, I've been itching to get started on the actual writing... but now that we're almost there, I want to go back to the safe waters of worldbuilding. I feel like I'm not ready... but the problem is, I'll never feel ready. I'm just afraid of screwing this story up, since I've worked so hard on the background for it - and now, in the outlining phase, is when the screwups can start to happen. But better to have a flawed story than an unwritten one, and this one won't get written unless I get the outline done, and the outline won't get done unless I get it started.

So I started on my outline today, and I've come across my first snag. I'm having transportation issues. The best transportation these particular people have is their own feet, and in this instance, well, that's just not going to cut it. Not for what they need to be doing.

Ah! I think I may have found the answer. This is why writing this stuff out is good.

This I Sweat

2006-06-18T17:16:00.000-05:00

Trying to come up with a line for one of my characters, I typed as far as, "I swear by the..." before I realized that I had typed "sweat" in place of "swear." Much less impressive.

Ten Elements

2006-06-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

From Tambo, ten elements/words that I associate with my writing:

1. Tragedy
2. Destiny
3. Isolation
4. Spirituality
5. Angst
6. Shades of gray
7. Love
8. Magic
9. Oppression
10. Bittersweet endings

Losing Everything

2006-05-29T10:04:00.000-05:00

I've noticed that one of the things I like to do in my stories is have my characters lose everything that matters to them and then see what it turns them into. Everyone will react differently. In fact, in my 2YN series I have two characters who come from very similar backgrounds, but who react to their respective crises in completely opposite ways.

I think that's why I like designing this post-apocalyptic world. In this world, the whole world is in the position of having lost everything. And there's such a range of reactions to play with. In this world I'm designing, I get to explore this fascination of mine fully - and that's always good for a writing project.

How Much is Significant?

2006-05-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

While doing research for my 2YN-class novel, I came across this sentence:

"Illness becomes increasingly severe, and significant mortality sets in."

... Significant mortality? How much mortality has to set in before it's significant? What happens if an insignificant amount of mortality sets in?

I know from the context that what they meant is that a significant percentage of people will die. But it made me giggle nonetheless.

Unoriginal Sins

2006-05-13T14:14:00.000-05:00

"Unoriginal Sins," a New York Times article by Whitney Otto about the Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism scandal, begins like this:

The beach book, the novel that we take with us on a languorous summer vacation, when we demand that reading be a pleasure and not a chore, the one "serious" readers apologize for even though they shouldn't, is known more formally as genre fiction. The thing that makes genre fiction so appealing is the exact same thing that can make it such a bore: it's predictable. If the recent rash of novels classified as chick lit were laid end to end, you would have the literary equivalent of a tract-house development.

Sure, some of the houses are beige and others are cream, but they all have the same two-car garage, great room and marble counters in the kitchen. That's why people buy them.

The article goes on to explain that Kaavya Viswanathan can be excused for her plagiarism because all the books in that genre are so similar anyway - and that people are most likely to write genre fiction if they are motivated more by the prestige of being a writer than the actual act of writing.

I don't write literary fiction. I write genre fiction - most often urban fantasy, and variants thereof. But I certainly don't strive to make my books like every other book in the genre. If writing genre fiction means your books must look just like all the other books in the genre, then I should just get out now, because I'm never going to succeed at that.

Awhile ago, I was told by a literary-writer friend of mine that one of the differences between genre fiction and literary fiction is that literary fiction values originality and creativity. She didn't actually mean it as an insult, but I found it a rather strange statement to make. Aren't originality and creativity valued in all forms of fiction? I didn't understand then, and don't understand now, the idea that predictability is more highly valued in genre fiction than creativity.

I also find it strange that while people who write anything besides literary fiction are supposedly only doing it because they want fame and prestige and don't care about the writing itself, so many of them continue to do it even after years of not getting published.

But I do find it telling that the people who make these statements about genre fiction aren't the people who write it.

Book vs. Author, Again

2006-05-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

On her blog, Holly Lisle posted a link to a letter supporting the Iraq war. In her post, she says some people may stop reading her blog and buying her books because they disagree with what this letter says. It's certainly not something I would do. I don't agree with what the letter says, but that has nothing to do with my opinion of Holly's writing - or my opinion of Holly herself. I like her, I like her blog, and I like her books, and I'm not going to deprive myself of them because I don't agree with her politics.

But would other people really turn against an author because they have different views? I talked about this in an earlier post. People want the authors they like to be just like them, and when it turns out they're not, they feel betrayed. But nobody is going to be exactly like you. Even if an author writes a book that perfectly describes how you see the world, and that touches the deepest part of your soul, the author is not going to be just like you, and might be very different. So does that mean that you shouldn't like the book anymore, or that it loses its hold on you? I don't think it should.

Everyone, I think, wants to find people like themselves. Life is a long search for connection. In books we sometimes find these connections. But a book is different from the person who wrote it, and sometimes it's hard to remember that. The author who wrote a book that touches you could write a book next year that repulses you. I write about characters who have traits in common with me; I also write about characters who are very different from me. I write from the perspective of my own worldview, but that doesn't exclude the possibility that someone with a completely different worldview will read something I've written and be touched deeply by it.

Posted!

2006-04-26T13:21:00.000-05:00

I've been in the throes of creative inspiration these past few days, and so have neglected to mention that Disciple's Path is now posted on The Forum. It's strange to see one of my stories posted somewhere. There's my name up top, and those are the words I wrote... it makes me giggle with glee.

Who's in Charge Here?

2006-04-15T16:59:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wonder just how much control I have over these stories of mine.

No, I don't think they can do things completely on their own, but they do seem to direct themselves sometimes, and in strange ways. For instance, my 2YN. I had a very hard time figuring out where it was going to take place. My first idea for a location made no sense to me; I had no idea why I had chosen that particular location. As I've said before, I also had trouble naming the characters in this book. I had no idea what my main character would be called, until it hit me one day - my first location choice wasn't where the book was going to take place; it was my main character's name, and it fit perfectly.

Then, today, I realized why my character looks the way she does. Mind you, I figured out her appearance weeks ago, and figured out the reasons for it (one location-related, one history-related) just the other day - and until today, had no idea that these things were at all connected to her appearance.

Yes, I create these stories. But they also create themselves.

Writers' Group

2006-04-12T23:20:00.000-05:00

Today I went to a meeting of a local writers' group. I only recently found out about the group's existence, and I thought I'd try it out. I had a good time, as it turned out. The group was informal, and everyone there seemed friendly. For a lot of the time, we just chatted about writing in general - the trials of query letters, those times when the story just flows, and how if we had any sense we'd just give this whole thing up. That sort of thing. It's nice being able to talk to other writers; I'm solitary by nature, but I also like knowing that other people have the same experiences that I do. When I talked about how the story I had brought to share had completely mutated from what it was originally supposed to be, and how when I had sat down to write it the story had taken control, they all knew just what I was talking about.

The story I brought was "Lingua Franca," a short story I wrote a month or two ago. It's a dark reflective story about death. I suspect the others in the group weren't expecting something like that. I don't give off that kind of vibe. I've been told I radiate innocence. I seem like the person who should be writing stories about rainbows and kittens. My writing is darker than I am. I'm not sure my writing is the way it is, and sometimes I feel guilty for it - what kind of a person am I to write about all this death and oppression? But these are the stories that call to me.

Anyway, everyone was impressed with the story. Nobody seemed to think there was a problem with the lack of action or the absence of a specific protagonist. That reassured me; I like it the way it is, but I was afraid that people with a more objective viewpoint would say it didn't work. They all seemed to like it, though.

I wonder if I could find a suitable market for this story. It would be a hard one to place, I think. But I like it a lot, and I've discovered that it can also appeal to people who aren't me and who don't know me. This heartens me.

Sinner

2006-04-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

The sin quiz, courtesy of All Kinds of Writing:

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	High

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

Wikipedia Meme

2006-04-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

(Got this from tambo)

Go to Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/). Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.

Events:
- In ancient Greece, the first day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, during which the sacred objects were brought from Eleusis to Athens.
- 1752 - The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days.
- On December 1, 1969, September 14th is drawn as the first birthdate in the U.S. draft during the Vietnam War. (Okay, I suppose this didn't actually happen on my birthday, but it does involve it... Come on, humor me. My birthday is seriously lacking in interesting events.)

Births: (wow, hardly anybody interesting was born on my birthday)
1486 - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German alchemist
1849 - Ivan Pavlov, Russian scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Deaths:
775 - Constantine V, Byzantine Emperor

Book vs. Author

2006-04-06T22:46:00.000-05:00

I remember awhile ago when a lot of people were mad because they found out that Orson Scott Card was vehemently against homosexuality. They felt betrayed, because his books had touched them and they were now finding out that his views were, in reality, quite different from their own. I was surprised myself to find out Card's views, but when I thought about it, I realized it didn't, and shouldn't, matter.

I can like an author's books without agreeing with, or even liking, the author as a person. For me, the books stand on their own. It can be strange to find out that an author I love believes things very different from what I believe, but I'll still read the books, and I'll still buy them, and I'll still like them. For instance, Orson Scott Card is against homosexuality, which I definitely am not. I still love his Ender books and his From her occasional political posts, Holly Lisle appears to be very much a Republican, which I definitely am not. I still love her books and am learning a lot from her in the worldbuilding course (and like her as a person, as well).

But it makes me wonder - how much distance should there be between the book and the author? If I write characters who are substantially different from me, or whose beliefs I don't agree with (and all good writers do at some point), will readers come to identify with those characters and then feel betrayed when they learn that I don't agree with the beliefs those characters hold and maybe don't even like the type of people that those characters are? And how much should I share about my personal life? How much can I share before I start alienating readers who want me to be like them? How much should a book stand apart from the author who wrote it?

Naive Writing

2006-04-05T09:45:00.000-05:00

The phrase "naive physics" refers to people's untrained knowledge of the way the world works. For instance, people learn at an early age that when you drop something it's going to fall, even if they don't yet know why this happens. It's understanding based on common sense, rather than academic knowledge. And it works well, but it has limits.

I guess you could call my writing "naive writing." For the most part, I've been working purely on instinct. I know what to do, but I don't know the reasons for it. I don't think about it consciously, it just feels right. And it's worked well for me... but it has limits.

I'm at a point now where I'm trying to consciously learn all the things I've been unconsciously doing. As a part of this effort, I'm reading Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card, since it's so highly recommended. I'm learning some interesting things from it. For instance, the idea of the MICE Quotient. In this view, there are four types of stories - the Milieu story, which is dominated by the setting; the Idea story, which is dominated by a mystery; the Character story, which is dominated by a character's transformation; and the Event story, which is dominated by an event that disrupts the natural order. Thinking about this view in relation to my own stories, I discovered what may have gone wrong with Ascension (besides the fact that it was almost completely unplanned and that's not my natural way of working). It was a Character story, but in the absence of a coherent plot, it took on the structure of a Milieu story. The milieu, however, left a lot to be desired, because it wasn't supposed to be the main focus of the story.

It's interesting to consciously analyze things like that; it gives a different perspective, a useful one. And I'm not losing my instinctive knowledge, everything I've absorbed from many years of reading and writing; I'm just adding to it.

Ambition

2006-04-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

It used to be, I didn't think about publication. Every so often I'd think about how it would be nice, but it was nothing more than an afterthought. What really mattered was the writing itself. And if I ever did get my books published, I thought, I wanted them to be read, but I didn't want to be as well-known as, say, Stephen King. That would only get in the way.

But over the past couple of years, something has changed.

Some things haven't changed. The most important part is still the writing itself. That's what really matters. If today I found out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that nobody would ever publish a single one of my books, I'd write them anyway. I'd do it because it's what I love to do. It feeds my soul. What better reason is there?

But now I want to be published. I want a writing career. I want to be a well-known writer (though no matter how unknown I am, the mere fact of somebody wanting to publish a book of mine would be enough to send me into paroxysms of joy).

I'm not sure when the shift happened... but it has happened.

I've become something I never thought I would be.

I've become ambitious.

I Have News!

2006-04-04T09:21:00.000-05:00

Guess what I found in my inbox yesterday morning?

An acceptance!

Yes, one of my short stories is going to be published. The story in question is "Disciple's Path," a story I wrote in 2004. It's going to be published on The Forum at the end of April.

When reading the email, I kept waiting for the part that would say, "...but we can't use this story." It never came. They actually want it. This is surreal to me.

I'm still all giddy.

Something I wrote is going to be published!

This amazes me.

Planning

2006-03-30T11:41:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do the March Madness challenge over at Forward Motion (basically, massive amounts of writing during the last week in March), but... it didn't work out. I had an idea, and I was doing chracter creation and working on an outline, but something was wrong with that story. I figured it out shortly after I began the planning, but tried to ignore it. I couldn't ignore it forever, though. The story was dead. I could try to resurrect it all I wanted, but it still wasn't anything more than a zombie with occasional flashes of life. I knew that I could fix it, but I also knew it would take longer than I had.

So I moved on. A fwe days before the challenge was supposed to start, I started an outline-less story, figuring that by the time the challenge started, the story would be rolling along on its own momentum and I'd be able to get plenty of words done on it. At least, this is what I hoped, even though I know I do much better when I have an outline to work from. I should be able to write without one, I thought. I'm a writer; I'm creative. And people keep saying that outlines get in the way of creativity. But I just don't write well like that. When I can separate the planning part from the wrong part, I can devote more attention to both, and I don't have to worry about losing track of my ideas. With this story, I had no idea where I was going with it. I considered pushing past it and forcing myself to write the story, but I had a bad experience a year and a half ago where I forced myself to finish an aimless and dying story and thus killed my creativity for months.

Next plan: Interconnected short stories. Deep down, I knew it wasn't going to work. But I tried anyway. And failed. And had to accept the fact that I just wasn't going to do the challenge this year.

So, back to planning.

I feel kind of guilty about all this planning I'm doing. I'm doing the 2YN class, where we've just finished character creation and have moved on to worldbuilding. I'm also doing worldbuilding for a series that I've been wanting to write for a very long time. I've got several ideas stewing in the back of my mind; I play with them every so often, and I can feel them bubbling away back there, soon to explode into something new and better. And I'm tentatively working iwth one of those ideas, trying to solidify it on paper. (This is hard for me, though; the 2YN novel is my current project, and I'm not used to splitting my creative focus like this.) All my projects are in the planning stage.

Don't get me wrong, I've been writing. (My February word count was something like 27,000... though that did include that very long short story.) But those words are all planning. They're details about plots and characters and worlds. They're not actual story words.

I know the planning part is just as necessary as any other. (Some people can skip it, and do better that way; I'm not one of those people.) But it still feels like I'm not doing real writing.

Statistics

2006-03-27T09:16:00.000-05:00

A couple of statistics I heard the other day:

5% of people in America say they read books
82% of people in America say they are writing a book

I don't know if these are true (78% of all statistics are made up on the spot), but I'd believe it. It would explain the quality of some writing; it would also explain why people keep telling aspiring authors to read. I always thought that was sort of a silly thing to say - of course we're going to read! We love books; that's why we're writing them!

But then, some people don't write because they love books; some people write because they think it's the path to fame and fortune. I'm glad I'm not one of them; fame and fortune are hard to come by, but if you write because you love it, you'll still love it even when the mailbox is filled with nothing but rejections.

What It's All About

2006-03-20T11:23:00.000-05:00

The other day I realized what my overall theme is - the theme that runs through all my stories, underneath the themes specific to each particular book.

It is this: the inherent beauty in an imperfect world.

The song "Still" by Alanis Morissette also sums it up nicely.

Bad things happen in my stories, and people face decisions that they can't neatly resolve. Good people do bad things. Bad people do good things. The world looks flawed.

It looks flawed... but it's not. There's beauty in all of it.

This is what I try to get across.

Driven

2006-03-17T00:16:00.000-05:00

For awhile I've been trying to figure out whether I'm plot-driven or character-driven. I'm both, and yet neither. When I come up with a story, I usually come up with a very basic idea for a plot, and then I work out what characters would work best with it, and after that the characters and the plot build on each other until I have a story. Neither character nor plot is clearly dominant.

The other day, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it hit me. Characters fascinate me. Plot fascinates me. But at the core, I'm emotion-driven. It's the emotional core of a story that drives me, and if that core disappears, I lose interest.

And yet... I tend to only skim the surface of the emotional realm when I'm writing. Because I'm self-conscious about it, and am afraid of seeming silly or melodramatic. The emotion is there when I'm planning the stories, but when I write them, I avoid that core and, in so doing, suck the life out of the stories. And lose interest in them.

Avoiding the part of the story that fascinates me most is probably not a good idea.

Submission Dread

2006-03-09T10:15:00.000-05:00

I meant to do some short story submissions this year. I really did. Back in January, I was researching markets and everything. But here I am in March, with a total of zero stories submitted.

Usually I have an excuse for avoiding submissions. I'm not a short-story writer, I'm a novel writer. And so far, all my novels are fit only to be the stuff I look back on later and think with amazement about how far I've come. (With the exception of one of them, with is scheduled for a massive rewrite. Massive, as in different setting, different plot, and somewhat-different characters.) They're just not publishable-quality yet. Almost, but not quite.

But though novels are a much more natural form for me, I do sometimes go through phases of writing short stories. And I have a few good ones sitting on my computer, just waiting to be sent out (some for the first time, some for the second or third; I really have done submissions before, just... not very many).

Yet I'm avoiding it.

I don't like rejections; no one likes rejections. A wave of anxiety hits me when I see an envelope in the mail pile that has my address written on it in my handwriting. But my dislike for rejections is much less than I would have thought it would be, considering how insecure I am normally. Rejections are impersonal. There just isn't space for most of the stories editors receive. The editor isn't sitting at his desk with a malicious grin, thinking, "Whose dreams shall I crush today?" Editors have to reject most of the stories they get; that's just the way it works. (Maybe I'm only able to come to terms with this so easily because my short stories are much less a part of me than my novels are; I imagine it'll be harder to deal with the rejections once I start submitting a novel.)

Still, I'm scared that one day I'll open one of those envelopes and see a note explaining in excruciating detail why my story is the worst piece of drivel ever to cross this particular editor's desk. And I'm afraid of doing it wrong somehow. That's why I'm fanatical about following submission guidelines. It's one thing to have an editor read my story and not be able to use it; it's quite another to have that editor think I'm an utter moron.

Of course, I suppose I just try to avoid the idea of an editor reading my story and laughing at it and/or thinking I'm a moron for writing such a thing. I prefer to believe someone read the story, liked it, but couldn't use it. And I'll never know either way, so I might as well make it easier on myself.

I really need to send out some of those short stories.

Early Lessons

2006-03-08T20:46:00.000-05:00

I had been thinking that my run of bad luck with writing classes started when I began taking college classes, but today I remembered that it actually started much earlier than that. It started in the fourth grade, when I took after-school classes aimed at gifted kids. I signed up for a creative-writing class; we spent most of the creative-writing class talking about nonverbal communication and the things that words can't convey but that things like dance can.

I'm quite serious.

And don't get me started on writing in school. I started homeschooling halfway through the sixth grade, but I managed to get in plenty of bad writing experiences during the years I was in school. My third-grade teacher was responsible for many of these. She once told me the word "awfully" was spelled "awfulley." So I erased "awfully" and wrote "awfulley," and stared at it for a minute. It looked wrong. So I changed it back. A couple of months later, we had a lesson on how words that end in "-ly" should not be spelled with a "-ley."

The story where she complained about the word "awfully" was the Mouse in the Pumpkin Patch story. Everyone had to write a story about a mouse in a pumpkin patch; she gave the same assignment every year. In my story, the mouse came across a hose at one point, and because I was seeing through the mouse's eyes, I described the water flowing from the hose as a river. "Were you talking about a hose?" she asked me when she saw the story. I nodded. "So why didn't you just call it a hose?" she asked.

Also, I had the mouse build a house inside a pumpkin. I said the mouse made furniture out of leaves. "You mean leaves and acorns," my teacher said when she saw this part. "He can't make furniture out of just leaves." I'd had a specific idea in mind - the way I saw it, the mouse had taken the thick strings ut of the leaves and hung up other leaves with them, like hammocks. But rather than try to explain this, I changed it. I'd learned it was best not to try to explain things to this teacher. (This is the teacher who, at the school ice cream social, cheerfully informed my mother that I was a very manipulative child but that she was curing me of it.)

Then there was sixth grade. When the Language Arts teacher handed a poem back to a friend of mine, she said, "I put a star next to every line that I like in a poem. There are no stars on this poem. Do you know what that means? That means this is a pathetic poem."

In that same class, we had to fill out a form poem about Autumn Leaves. We had to fill in an adjective here and a noun there, like a game of Mad Libs where the story was already visible. The last line was marked "Your Thoughts About Leaves." Since the poem had been describing leaves floating through the air, I wrote, "Like they never want to hit the ground." The teacher was not happy about this. "What is the last line supposed to be?" she asked me.

"Your Thoughts About Leaves," I read.

"That's right. The line you wrote isn't your thoughts. It's the leaves' thoughts."

Really, is it any wonder most people don't write?

Don't Sell Your Soul

2006-03-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

I got a postcard in the mail the other day from a local tech school. At the top, it said something like, "Imagine a fulfilling career doing something you love!" Yes, I can imagine it very well. A writing career. The postcard presented me with such options as "Paralegal Studies" and "MicroComputer Technician"... my dreams are not filled with such careers as those.

Then I looked at the other side of the card. The last four digits of their phone number were "6660."

So I took that card as a reminder to keep imagining the career I want... and not to sell my soul to Satan for the sake of something more stable.

Naming Dilemma

2006-03-03T00:10:00.000-05:00

I've been struggling with the name of one of my 2YN characters ever since the course started. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to find anything that fit. I was getting sick of referring to him either by his role in the story or by the temporary name that is easy to remember but that I don't plan to use. I also wanted to find a name fairly fast, before the temporary name stuck and I couldn't think of him as anything else. But the universe was not cooperating; nothing suited him.

Yesterday, I remembered my eariest idea of a name for him, and decided it worked quite well for him. Cause for celebration... at least until I Googled the name and found out that it used to belong to a Power Ranger.

I certainly don't want my readers thinking of the Power Rangers every time they come across this character. (It's a fairly unusual name, too, so people probably wouldn't have too many other associations with it.) On the other hand, I think the name would work for him... and not many names will. So do I risk it? How popular was that particular incarnation of the Power Rangers, anyway?

I'm still undecided. For now, the character has been promoted from unnamed to maybe-named - and that's improvement.

Even if he does share a name with a Power Ranger.

Interesting.

2006-03-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion:

You have low extroversion.
You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.
A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.
You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people.

Conscientiousness:

You have medium conscientiousness.
You're generally good at balancing work and play.
When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done.
But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it.

Agreeableness:

You have high agreeableness.
You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.
Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.
You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance.

Neuroticism:

You have medium neuroticism.
You're generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic.
Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy.
Your life is pretty smooth, but there's a few emotional bumps you'd like to get rid of.

Openness to experience:

Your openness to new experiences is medium.
You are generally broad minded when it come to new things.
But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it.
You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

The Typical Day

2006-03-01T15:15:00.000-05:00

Anders Bruce asked, on his blog, about people's typical writing day. Mine is probably much more unstructured than average. I'm very disciplined, but in a weird way. I can force myself to write even when I don't feel like it, but if I make myself follow a set writing schedule, I start thinking of it as a chore that I have to get over with, and I rebel. My system probably wouldn't work for a lot of people, but it works for me - the writing gets done.

I wake up at the crack of nine, and spend an hour or two waking up by reading blogs and browsing forums. After that, I head downstairs and have breakfast, and take the dog out for a walk in the woods. Then I might come back upstairs and browse the web some more, or post work for the plethora of online classes I'm taking, or watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel (I'm making my way through both shows at a rapid pace), or I might open up the Word files for whatever project I'm currently working on and start writing.

After awhile I'll get myself a snack (I eat lots of snacks in between breakfast and dinner, rather than eating lunch; my body works better that way), and then I'll exercise for an hour. Exercising sometimes gives me new ideas for my writing; physical movement tends to help my creativity. I usually spend the rest of the afternoon working on my writing, with time for other stuff too (like reading, meditation, playing The Sims 2, and other such things). Oh, and somewhere in there I'll do work for college classes I'm taking (not that I get anything out of it; these classes are horrible).

Then I'll make dinner, and eat with Dad. After that, my evenings are pretty much just like my afternoons, until I head to bed at about 2 a.m. I usually spend about an hour reading before bed; I've learned not to spend this time writing instead. Sometimes I'm tempted, but if I work on creative stuff that close to bedtime, I get bouncy and energetic and it's harder for me to fall asleep, since what I really want to do is work on my writing some more. (It's hard enough to convince myself I want to go to bed; I'm usually much more tired when I wake up than I am when I go to bed.)

Then I wake up the next morning at the crack of nine, and it begins again.

I Love the Internet

2006-02-27T09:41:00.000-05:00

The internet is a wonderful thing. I'm always having to look up weird stuff like the effects of radiation poisoning or the names of the Antichrist, and it hit me the other day that before the internet, writers' only option would be to search actual books for stuff like this. Without those books, they'd be helpless, research-wise. And that means lots of trips to the library, which, in my case, means either the local library which is is about the size of my living room, or the bigger library which is half an hour away and won't let non-residents check out books unless you pay them a yearly fee that is quite high. And it's a lot harder to find relevant facts in a book than it is to find them through Google, at least most of the time.

This is not to say that book research isn't important - especially for broad topics, such as what life was like in a particular period in history - but the internet is invaluable for those small, specific, yet important things.

Maybe this makes up for how it keeps distracting me from my writing...

What Kind of Novel?

2006-02-15T13:38:00.000-05:00

GOTHICS! - Deep, dark, mysterious and melodramatic. You are drawn to write tales of the shadows and what might lurk there. Could it be Love? Or Madness? Anne Rice and Brahm Stoker are your guides.

What Kind of Novel Should I Write?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hmm... I think not. (Most of what I write is urban fantasy.)

Writing Rules

2006-02-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

The other day I found the Writing Rules I created for myself last year. In reading them, I thought I needed them now just as much as I did then. I don't know how much they'll apply to other people's writing (I know some people, for instance, write best when they have no outline at all), but I thought I'd post them, in case someone else needs to remember these things as much as I do.

1. Writing is fun. Remember this. Don't treat it as work; treat it as play.

2. Write deeply. Don't just write a sketch of what the outline says. Fully explore the truth of each scene.

3. Stop and smell the roses. Squeeze every last drop of potential out of each scene before moving on to the next.

4. Write as if nobody else will ever read it. Don't be constrained by the fear of others' criticism.

5. Put lots of ideas in the outline. Don't rely on the idea that you'll get lots of inspiration as soon as you start actually writing.

6. Write confidently. If you're writing about something you don't know anything about, write as if you do know all about it.

Inspiration Coming Out My Ears

2006-02-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

Ask and ye shall receive...

Remember when I was talking about how I wanted a writing project to work on while the 2YN novel was still in the early planning stages? Well, I got one; the novella I wrote (it turned out to be shorter than a novella, but the first draft is done) fired up my inspiration, and I got an idea for a novel. So I've been working with that idea and doing some planning.

But that's not all. The 2YN class is starting to pick up speed. I'm still doing worldbuilding with Holly, as I mentioned in my last post. One of my friends wants me to write some poems for his website. And today, while I was exercising, I got an idea for a series of short stories.

I've definitely got projects to work on now.

Perhaps I need to be a bit more specific about what I'm looking for. Take last year, for instance - one of my goals was to start a new novel. I started two of them. They're both languishing unfinished on my hard drive, and are likely to stay that way.

I'm not really complaining, though. Lots of inspiration is definitely better than two little. Inspiration is good. And this way I get to learn how to work on more than one project at once.

Lots of Projects

2006-02-06T11:58:00.000-05:00

It turns out the novella was just what I needed. After working on it for a couple of days, I got hit with an idea for a novel. This is the fire I was looking for in the other project. It just wasn't there for that story. I might write it someday, but now just isn't the right time.

So I'll be doing planning for the new novel... in between 2YN work, and Holly worldbuilding work, and adding the last couple of scenes to that novella (which turned out to be more the length of either a very long short story or a very short novelette). I'll be busy... but it's a good kind of busy. I'll be busy doing stuff I love to do.

Productivity and Poetry

2006-02-03T12:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I tried setting aside half an hour just to write. No checking blogs and webcomics, no email, no putting on music and then messing with the playlist incessantly... just writing. Then I did the same thing later in the day. I discovered that if I write for half an hour at a comfortable pace, I can get about 1000 words down. I've done this kind of experiment before, so I know that's a typical pace for me. Then, last night, I did some writing without restrictions on what else I could do while I was working, and it took me two hours to write 500 words. That's four times the time to get half the amount of words.

My experiment also made me realize that I spend less time writing than I think I do. Or that I resist setting aside time exclusively for writing. Or both. It was hard to get myself to set aside two half-hours to just write; that's only an hour total.

But I did it, and it worked.

I did two yesterday; today I'll go for three.

I also wrote a poem yesterday, and another a few days ago. Before that, I hadn't been able to write decent poetry for months, maybe longer. But I like these two. I don't know whether my poetry is publishable-quality, but I like it nonetheless.

19,650

2006-02-02T09:40:00.000-05:00

That's my word count for the month. I counted up all the fiction (including brainstorming and character profiles and such) I've written this month, expecting that I'd done about 8k since the beginning of January. Instead, I got almost 20k. I think that's the most I've written in a month when I'm not working on a novel.

I'm naturally a prolific writer. The problem is, I'm also naturally a lazy writer, and that has a tendency to kill the prolific part. The internet is always there beckoning, and even though I know I write better and enjoy it more when I concentrate only on it for awhile, I still check stuff online every few minutes while I'm writing. Not to mention, I have season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD downstairs, with sixteen episodes still unwatched, and they demand to be watched.

And writing is hard, and thus easy to avoid. Which is not a good habit for a writer.

But I've been quite productive this month. Let's hope next month is even better.

Ten Ways to Know You're Reading a Novel by Me

2006-02-01T23:58:00.000-05:00

(Jumping on the bandwagon with this meme...)

1. Oppressive governments. Chances are, someone's being oppressed or persecuted, and chances are it's by the government.

2. Tough moral questions. I like to give my characters moral dilemmas with no easy answers, and not present an absolute right answer in the story. I also often have my main characters do bad things, while keeping them sympathetic.

3. Spirituality. God, religion, and spirituality have been important elements in a lot of my recent writing.

4. Tragic death. Especially for love interests. If a character has a romantic relationship with one of my main characters, that character has a high chance of dying.

5. Evil mothers. I don't know why, but a lot of the mothers in my stories are evil and/or strange. I don't plan for them to be that way; they just develop like that.

6. Getting into characters' heads. I don't use first person more than third person, or vice versa, and I don't prefer one over the other. It just depends on what the story needs. But even when I write in third person, I stick very close to my main characters, and I'm often inside their heads.

7. Alienation. Most of my characters are separate from the rest of the world in some way, and are separate in a way that the people around them don't know about.

8. People on the run and/or in hiding. They're probably trying to get away from those oppressive governments.

9. People with powers. Psychic powers, magic powers, anything beyond the norm.

10. Not-quite-happy endings. My endings tend to be less "Yay, everything's all better" and more "Everything we care about has been destroyed, but we'll survive... somehow..."

Mostly Better

2006-01-31T11:01:00.000-05:00

That cold got a lot worse than I thought it would. But now it's a lot better, though it's still not completely gone. For a couple of days everything felt lifeless. Nothing tasted good. Jokes weren't funny. Books weren't interesting. I couldn't summon up even a drop of creativity. I could tell I was getting better when I started coming up with story ideas again.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with Blood of the Fallen. It's going on the back burner for now, though. The 2YN assignments are getting more in-depth, so I'll be spending more time on that. I'll also still be doing worldbuilding with Holly. I still want a nice meaty writing project, though. Something to sink my teeth into.

I've got an idea for a novella, though, so I'm going to start on that and see how it goes.

(There seems to be something wrong with my blog; I have it set to show entries from the last 14 days, but my first entry, from the beginning of January, is still visible on the main page. Grr...)

Let's Just Be Friends

2006-01-26T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'm having some trouble with planning this novel. I like my premise, and I like my characters (I've got a pretty good idea of one, and a very basic idea of the other two)... but that's as far as it goes. There's no lightning. There's no spark. I like this story, but if I saw it in a bookstore, I don't know if I'd pick it up. Sometimes I want to write it, but sometimes I don't care. I'm trying to create chemistry here, but it's just not happening.

But I don't know the reason, or whether it means I should leave the story alone for now. It could be because I'm not used to working on two novels at once - but I'd like to develop the ability to do that. It's hard, though, to direct my creativity-passion in two directions at once. On the other hand, I'm doing fine combining my worldbuilding with my 2YN work.

It could be because I'm afraid of starting a new novel project. (More on this later.)

It could also just be because I'm sick. Maybe this cold I've got is just messing with my creativity.
Or maybe I'm not supposed to be writing this story right now. Which is kind of frustrating. It's a good story. I like it. But from the beginning, that passion just hasn't been there. But does it have to be there, or should I be able to create that feeling on command, or write without it? I don't have that feeling with my short stories. But I've never written a novel without it.

I want a novel to work on, but right now, no story is calling to me. Nothing is hitting me like lightning. This usually isn't a problem for me; usually, I've got too many ideas, not too few. So what's wrong now?

Wait, Who?

2006-01-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Tambo and SAHW, a quiz:

Devoutly dedicated to helping lead others to glory, you are a strong, supportive, and spiritual caregiver.
Summoned, I take the place that has been prepared for me.
Delenn is a character in the Babylon 5 universe. You can read her biography at the Worlds of JMS fansite.

Problem is, I never watched Babylon 5. I have exactly no clue who this person is.

The Perils of Naming

2006-01-25T09:48:00.000-05:00

How hard can it be to find a character name?

I have a book called A Dictionary of Angels. As the name implies, it's full of names of angels and descriptions of those angels' spheres of influence. (For example, did you know that the angel Paraqlitos is the guardian angel of the sorrows of death? Me neither.) So of course, when I wanted a name for an angel character of mine, that's where I turned. In searching the back of the book for an index, however, I discovered that this book has an appendix which has some really strange stuff in it. Thus, I found myself having the following one-sided conversation with the book:

"I'm just looking for a character name! I don't need to know how to do an exorcism (as cool as that is). I don't need to make a magic carpet. (It's winter! In New Hampshire! I'll take my nice heated car, thanks. And anyway, we are not in Alladin.) Why is the index so hard to find? ...What do you mean there's no index??"

Needless to say, I didn't find a character name there.

So I turned to the internet. And promptly ended up here.

Now I'm thinking searching someplace for a name for this character is a bad idea. I guess I'll just rely on my own imagintion. Of course, who knows what weird stuff I'll encounter there...

Blood of the Fallen

2006-01-24T20:04:00.000-05:00

Since we're not going to start writing our novels for the 2YN class until about halfway through this class, I was thinking today about starting another novel project. I can only write short stories for so long before I start wanting a meatier project. I'm not used to working on two novels at once, but I might as well learn how to do it, right?

So I figured I would write the fantasy novel that was in my head back in December. I opened up Create a Character Clinic by Holly Lisle, which I just bought the other day, and got to work on my three characters for that novel. But I was feeling strangely unenthusiastic about the project. I thought about working on another project I've had in my head for awhile instead, but I felt no draw towards that story. So I asked myself, What project do I want to work on? Is it this novel, or is it something else?

To my surprise, the project that came to mind was Blood of the Fallen, a really weird urban fantasy novel that I thought up two or three years ago and, honestly, was pretty sure I would never write. Suddenly this project is looking interesting to me. The novel's premise is a bit out-there, but I think I can make it work.

So, once again, I opened up Create a Character Clinic and started developing a character, this time from scratch. It's hard work, but I'm having fun with it.

Blood of the Fallen will probably be my next novel, unless I decide it's unworkable.

Goals, and the Lack Thereof

2006-01-22T21:48:00.000-05:00

I'm taking the 2006-2007 Only a Novel class (otherwise known as the 2YN class) on Forward Motion. Basically, the class takes you through the whole process of writing a novel, from basic idea-creation to revising and submitting. It started at the beginning of this month, and right now we're going over basic elements like idea and theme.

The first place I had trouble was with genre. Someone in the class compared my idea to Lyda Morehouse's AngeLINK books, which made me happy, because those are some of my favorite books. (Angels! Cool religion stuff! Dark urban setting! Complicated twisty plots! All elements I love.) But the problem is that my idea, like those books, straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy. The AngeLINK books are classified as science fiction, but I didn't feel like my idea could really fit into that genre. But it's not exactly fantasy either. After pondering for awhile, I decided to call it post-apocalyptic fantasy.

This week's assignment involves figuring out the main character's main goal and the conflicts that will get in the way of achieving that goal. And I'm having a surprisingly hard time with it. I have a basic idea of what will happen in this book... but it's hard for me to pin down just what the main character is trying to accomplish. I think I have this problem with a lot of books, actually. My main characters don't often have clear goals. They're also often much too passive, with the story consisting of them dealing with whatever life throws at them, instead of them taking initiative. This may be why I tend to lose inspiration for my novels shortly after I start writing the middle sections, actually. My characters don't have anything to accomplish. Their main job is to sit around waiting for life to throw them a bad situation for them to get out of.

Now that I think about it, I don't think any of my characters has had a clear goal. This is a problem.

I just hope it's the problem that's been causing my novels to die horrible agonizing deaths. If so, I can fix it, and my novels will then stay alive until I'm done writing them. (After all, my characters are supposed to die horrible agonizing deaths, not the books themselves.)

Yes, that would be good.

Weird Cover Quote

2006-01-19T00:31:00.000-05:00

On the back of The Nag Hammadi Library (edited by James M. Robinson) is this quote:

"Opens the secrets of a religion, which the Gnostics themselves had hoped would be kept sealed until the Last Day." - The New York Review of Books

So... this quote basically says that even the people who wrote this book didn't want it published. Is that a good review or a bad review?

Either way, I think it's the weirdest cover quote I've ever seen.

Of course, there was that one book whose only cover quote was from the author...

Ascension

2006-01-16T09:49:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, I started writing a novel called Ascension. It was an experiment in writing without an outline, and so it turned strange very quickly. The story stalled, and I'm not sure whether I'll do any more work on it or not; I'll probably revisit the basic idea in a few years, change it around, and do something completely different with it. I don't think I'm going to finish it in its current form (though I still might). But there are still parts of it that I like, and I thought I'd post a short sample:

She didn't understand how Themea's body could be here, still preserved over so many years. But it was undeniably her. Taylor knew it in her heart. Once, long ago, she had lived in that body. Now she stood in a different body, looking down at the one she had once worn.

It was an eerie feeling.

She stared down at Themea's body for awhile, wondering whether she would ever remember that life. She wished she did; things would be so much simpler then. She would know how to defeat the demons. On second thought, though, maybe she wouldn't. The demons had beaten Themea, not the other way around; otherwise, Taylor wouldn't be standing looking down at her body. Taylor rested her hand on Themea's cheek; it felt cool and smooth.

"Tell me, Themea," she whispered. "Tell me how to fight them." But she knew she wouldn't receive an answer. This body was empty, and the soul it had once housed was her own. The answers might be somewhere inside her, if only she knew where to find them. And she wasn't even sure whether they were there at all. She thought back to all the bodies lying in the center room, and to opening doors to room after room of destruction. How could she fight something like that? She, who until yesterday had never known this war existed? A tear rolled down her cheek and landed in the corner of Themea's eye.

"Tell me," she whispered again. "I don't know how to fight this war. Maybe everybody else is right; maybe it's too late. But I think there has to be a way. I just don't know what it is. I need your help. Where are you, Themea? Where are you?"

College Writing Classes

2006-01-10T11:24:00.000-05:00

I've given up on college writing classes.

I've taken a few of them. A couple of fiction classes, and a couple of nonfiction classes (because fiction classes are few and far between). In none of them has the main focus been writing. They all seem to focus primarily on reading, and analyzing what we read. When I gripe about this to people, they tend to say something to the effect of, "You have to read to be a writer." Believe me, I know that, and I've got the reading part down. I've been a bookworm since before I could read. And the reading I do on my own is more useful to my writing than the reading I've done in those classes. I'm much more likely to write like Mercedes Lackey or Holly Lisle than like Don DeLillo.

And if all this reading is supposed to be teaching us something about writing, why do we not analyze the stories from a writer's perspective instead of a reader's?

The college that I live near has, as far as I can tell, exactly one fiction class. You have to get special permission to take it. I got that permission, from the instructor of an essay-writing class I had taken there earlier. I learned that the class was mainly about reading and analyzing stories, rather than actually writing them. This frustrated me, but I planned to take the class anyway - until I found out about another class at a different nearby college. This class was called "Speculative Writing," and the description said that it was about writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I was excited - finally, a class about the kind of writing I actually did! So I quickly exchanged the lackluster-looking fiction class for this one.Unfortunately, the class was not at all about the type of writing I did. I started to realize that on the first day when the instructor said that we should strive to be as artsy and intellectual as possible. We wound up spending most of our time reading literary stories with various types of monsters in them. Again, the writing aspect was secondary.

That class was the last straw. I never went back to take that other fiction class. In fact, I haven't taken any other college writing classes since then.

I don't think I will.

Not a Morning Person

2006-01-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

A lot of writers say that they do their best writing in the early mornings. They say they get up early, before everyone else, and start writing. They take advantage of the morning calm and the receptive state of not having been awake for very long.

My response to this is an inarticulate scream of horror.

I have nothing against morning writers; I wish them luck. But I can't do it. I usually wake up at the crack of nine, and use every ounce of willpower that I possess to drag myself out of bed instead of turning off the alarm, pulling the covers over my head, and falling back asleep. I then browse the internet for an hour or two, while my brain slowly begins to function normally. After my brain wakes up, I can write. But trying before then only leads to staring at a blank screen.

Other than "not in the mornings," I don't think I have an optimal writing time. I can write in the afternoon, in the evening, at night... whenever. Just not in the mornings. Lately, though, I've been doing a lot of my writing late at night. This makes sense, seeing as I'm a night person. I tend to go to bed somewhere between 2 and 2:30 a.m. My brain is most awake in the evening and at night. So it follows that I would do a lot of writing at night. Afternoon writing is good too, though. Just... not in the morning.

On that note, it's getting late, so I'm off to write. Maybe I'll write that short story I've had in my head for months, the one about Lilith.

Where I Write

2006-01-06T21:12:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Paperback Writer, here's a picture of where I write:

Yeah, it's kind of messy, but it doesn't bother me. Besides, there's a reason all those books are on the floor - there's not enough room for them on the shelves. (And yet I keep buying more...)

The Introduction

2006-01-06T14:45:00.000-05:00

So, here I am. I'm Zoe, and I'm an aspiring writer. I've been meaning to start a writing blog for awhile, but I'm only now getting around to it. (Pretty much everything in this blog will be writing-related, though other stuff may sneak in once in awhile.) I mostly write fantasy, in various forms, generally contemporary fantasy. I write novels more naturally than I write short stories, but lately I've been writing short stories when I'm between novels. As for novels, for the longest time I couldn't get one finished, until a couple of years ago NaNoWriMo gave me the kick in the pants I needed. Now I've written four of them, though I don't think any of them are publishable-quality yet. I'm getting there, though...

And I'm having lots of fun along the way. And that's what's really important.