I like having reference photos for my characters to look at while I write. They don't necessarily have to match what they look like in my mind, though it helps, but they do have to contain something that reminds me of them. Sometimes it's the model's attitude and sometimes it's what they're wearing but there's always a correlation between the two. But I always know what I'm looking for before I go hunting. So when I searched for photos last week the last thing I expected was a new character.
While I hunted for the right menacing photo for my villain, Google threw in a picture of a handsome, young man that had nothing to do with my initial search. Normally this either annoys or amuses me. This time it was a magical moment because as soon as I saw the picture I knew his name and what his role in my WIP was.
What made this so magical was that his character didn't exist until I saw the picture. That's never happened to me before. I've had characters surprise me mid scene, characters pop in my head and say "this is who I am and this is my story, now go write it", and characters pop in a scene they weren't supposed to be in. Each time I went with the flow after the initial grousing. When creativity provides an unexpected twist it would be silly not to use it. This time I didn't grouse. I'm not sure if it's because I liked his character or simply too entranced by the image to care. Possibly a bit of both. It was a really sexy photo. (Not that sexy. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
Has this happened to any of you? Am I the only one with sexy males penetrating my plots?
Showing posts with label WIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WIP. Show all posts
Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Getting whipped
About this time last year I was incredibly stuck. Stuck writing 250 wpm, stuck hating my WIP, and stuck thinking that I bit off more than I could chew. That's when a good friend told me to write the f&#*ing sentence. When I first talked about it I had just started to implement that advice. I managed to get to 300 wpm and was working on the rest. After a year of writing the f&#*ing sentence, the difference is astounding.
The most obvious change is that I'm now writing 500 wpm with bursts up to 600. I've more than doubled my output. That's pretty freaking awesome. Better yet, I no longer see ______ word count as being impossible. I know a few people who can write 1K an hour and while I'm not at that speed yet, I believe that I can -- that's a huge step right there.
Another huge step is that I can look at daunting scenes and say "I'm not sure I can pull it off but I'm going to try." and mean it. It took a good part of the year to get that through my thick skull. I still have the occasional "what was I thinking" moment but every time that happens I hear Lee's voice in my head and get back to work. In some ways he's kind of become my shoulder angel. Except instead of wielding a harp and kind word it's a whip and some tough love. That statement might be a little too revealing but that doesn't make it any less true.
This philosophy has bolstered my confidence so that I no longer feel like a newbie that can't do anything right. Instead I see myself as an up and coming writer with a lot of potential. If that's the result of getting whipped once perhaps it needs to happen more often?
The most obvious change is that I'm now writing 500 wpm with bursts up to 600. I've more than doubled my output. That's pretty freaking awesome. Better yet, I no longer see ______ word count as being impossible. I know a few people who can write 1K an hour and while I'm not at that speed yet, I believe that I can -- that's a huge step right there.
Another huge step is that I can look at daunting scenes and say "I'm not sure I can pull it off but I'm going to try." and mean it. It took a good part of the year to get that through my thick skull. I still have the occasional "what was I thinking" moment but every time that happens I hear Lee's voice in my head and get back to work. In some ways he's kind of become my shoulder angel. Except instead of wielding a harp and kind word it's a whip and some tough love. That statement might be a little too revealing but that doesn't make it any less true.
This philosophy has bolstered my confidence so that I no longer feel like a newbie that can't do anything right. Instead I see myself as an up and coming writer with a lot of potential. If that's the result of getting whipped once perhaps it needs to happen more often?
Monday, November 25, 2013
Seventeen chapters in six days
So, in the great tradition of NaNo, I have too much on my plate. My social schedule is crazy (as usual), my work schedule is crazy (more than normal), and the result is that I'm behind on my chosen project for the month (as usual). So, as much as I'd love to share specifics and my sneaky, ninja enlightenment of the week, I'm going to bow out this week so I can catch up on the edit-o-rama. Despite my hectic schedule, it's imperative that I finish the edit this week. I'll explain why next week but for now, I'll simply wish you a happy Thanksgiving and/or Hanukkah, and depart.
Monday, August 12, 2013
The strong, silent type
One of the characters in F & F (Flame and Filch) is very old, very bright, very male, and can't speak a word (ladies and gay gentlemen, feel free to make comments about him being the ideal man). I've had a lot of fun coming up with dialogue for him. No, really. I have. Just because he can't speak doesn't mean that he can't communicate. In fact, he has a lot to say.
So, how did I solve this silent problem? Well it was as hard and easier than you think.
The first possibility that came to mind was to use ASL or a form of it. The problem with that though was how the heck to describe the hand movements. Sure I could have described every finger wiggle and accompanying expression, but a single line of dialogue described in that manner would take an entire paragraph to complete. Plus it would be incredibly confusing if the reader didn't know ASL. I'd hate to force them to have a picture dictionary nearby just to read a conversation, so that possibility got nixed.
The next possibility I thought of was to use telepathy. It's an easy and well established method in fantasy novels so I certainly wouldn't be confusing any readers. However, I also wouldn't be doing anything original. I didn't like this possibility because I felt that this was one of those situations where taking the super easy route would hurt the story. All those italics would make it very obvious that there was dialogue on the page, which may cause the reader to skim, and that would be bad. That doesn't make this option weak -- in fact I've read books where it was used really well -- it's just not a device that I can use heavily.
What I finally decided to use was body language and to treat that the same way I would dialogue. Everybody uses non-verbal cues to communicate -- a nod, a wink, a shrug of the shoulders -- and it's something that's already incorporated into my stories. Granted, I'm more accustomed to accentuating dialogue with it, not replacing it. Non-verbal cues also have a similar problem to ASL in that I have to quickly and clearly describe the gesture or expression, while making it unmistakable what he said.
Describing the non-verbal cues succinctly was easy enough since it's typically one or two motions. As for the rest, I discovered that the dialogue was easy enough to understand because we already know what certain cues mean. A wink = I'm being playful. Slumped shoulders = disappointment. A nod = I agree. I didn't need to add anything to it. It's clear enough on it's own. The one thing I have to be careful of is to not sacrifice his strength for a conversation. Every non-verbal cue that I can think of is used in reaction to something, whether it be something someone said, or a situation, it's still a reaction. I have to walk the fine line of having a reactionary character without making him weak. I may have to incorporate some selective, magical telepathy in order to give him an opportunity to be an instigator. We'll see. For now this method works well enough.
So, how did I solve this silent problem? Well it was as hard and easier than you think.
The first possibility that came to mind was to use ASL or a form of it. The problem with that though was how the heck to describe the hand movements. Sure I could have described every finger wiggle and accompanying expression, but a single line of dialogue described in that manner would take an entire paragraph to complete. Plus it would be incredibly confusing if the reader didn't know ASL. I'd hate to force them to have a picture dictionary nearby just to read a conversation, so that possibility got nixed.
The next possibility I thought of was to use telepathy. It's an easy and well established method in fantasy novels so I certainly wouldn't be confusing any readers. However, I also wouldn't be doing anything original. I didn't like this possibility because I felt that this was one of those situations where taking the super easy route would hurt the story. All those italics would make it very obvious that there was dialogue on the page, which may cause the reader to skim, and that would be bad. That doesn't make this option weak -- in fact I've read books where it was used really well -- it's just not a device that I can use heavily.
What I finally decided to use was body language and to treat that the same way I would dialogue. Everybody uses non-verbal cues to communicate -- a nod, a wink, a shrug of the shoulders -- and it's something that's already incorporated into my stories. Granted, I'm more accustomed to accentuating dialogue with it, not replacing it. Non-verbal cues also have a similar problem to ASL in that I have to quickly and clearly describe the gesture or expression, while making it unmistakable what he said.
Describing the non-verbal cues succinctly was easy enough since it's typically one or two motions. As for the rest, I discovered that the dialogue was easy enough to understand because we already know what certain cues mean. A wink = I'm being playful. Slumped shoulders = disappointment. A nod = I agree. I didn't need to add anything to it. It's clear enough on it's own. The one thing I have to be careful of is to not sacrifice his strength for a conversation. Every non-verbal cue that I can think of is used in reaction to something, whether it be something someone said, or a situation, it's still a reaction. I have to walk the fine line of having a reactionary character without making him weak. I may have to incorporate some selective, magical telepathy in order to give him an opportunity to be an instigator. We'll see. For now this method works well enough.
Monday, July 15, 2013
The magic of the moment
Magic systems have never been my strong point and I tend to avoid enchanted items for similar reasons. Perhaps it's because I'm so enthralled by the plot that I can't keep my hands still long enough to think up of one. Or maybe it's because I didn't play enough D&D as a kid. I don't know. Either way it's a problem.
Now, I 'm not asking for help on the subject. I know there's a lot of different ways to build magic systems, I just haven't found a method that I really like yet. It's something that I'm going to have to play with a bit.
Anyway, this week as I worked on F&F I got a cool idea for a magic item. It's an item that I'd already worked into the scene and intended to only feature this one time before it disappeared with a little smoke and mirrors. Maybe some fancy hand waving too. But the item is really, really cool. It would be a shame to let it disappear so quickly. That was when it occurred to me that if I gave the item a magical compulsion, I could combine a character's weakness for said item and use it against them.
I don't know if this is a sign that I have more of a magical (for lack of a better term) way of creating magic systems or if this was more of a brilliance of the moment type of thing. Considering how much I have on my schedule right now it's not something I can experiment with in depth right now. But it is something for me to consider in the future. It's also a good reason not to completely avoid creating systems/items in the first place. Having a magical item in F&F is going to add more complexity to the plot and it'll probably open a few doors for more magic in the story. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out as I work more on the book.
Now, I 'm not asking for help on the subject. I know there's a lot of different ways to build magic systems, I just haven't found a method that I really like yet. It's something that I'm going to have to play with a bit.
Anyway, this week as I worked on F&F I got a cool idea for a magic item. It's an item that I'd already worked into the scene and intended to only feature this one time before it disappeared with a little smoke and mirrors. Maybe some fancy hand waving too. But the item is really, really cool. It would be a shame to let it disappear so quickly. That was when it occurred to me that if I gave the item a magical compulsion, I could combine a character's weakness for said item and use it against them.
I don't know if this is a sign that I have more of a magical (for lack of a better term) way of creating magic systems or if this was more of a brilliance of the moment type of thing. Considering how much I have on my schedule right now it's not something I can experiment with in depth right now. But it is something for me to consider in the future. It's also a good reason not to completely avoid creating systems/items in the first place. Having a magical item in F&F is going to add more complexity to the plot and it'll probably open a few doors for more magic in the story. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out as I work more on the book.
Monday, July 8, 2013
The masochism chapter
Last week I started writing in earnest the first chapter of F & F. At the moment it's just going to be a novella but that may change once I really get into it. Provided this chapter doesn't kill me first.
I know some of you are thinking "If the first chapter is that hard, then scrap it/change it/find your muse" and any other time I'd agree with you. When my brain doesn't want to focus on a story or a scene it's because there's something not right with it. That's not the case this time. This time the reason I'm having problems is that I'm writing in a gender neutral third person.
It's more difficult than composing a dialogue scene with no blocking or tags, more difficult than writing an argument between five people (AKA tag hell), and more difficult than getting through a Japanese business party scene without the American pissing off the company president.
Most of my writing is in third person, so that's not what's hanging me up. It's the gender neutral part. I like having the choice between using the character's name and the myriad of gender specific addresses (he/she, his/hers). Variety is the linguistic spice of a story and the spice must flow.
Well, in this chapter the spice is flowing like mud because this time I can't use any of the above. Hell, I can't even use the character's name because that's a dead giveaway too. I have to use their professional nickname instead. The same word, over and over again. I spend half of my writing time wracking my brain for other ways I can phrase a sentence so I don't have to use their nickname again and even then, three times out of five I end up using it anyway. It's driving me crazy (I know, short drive). I'm seriously tempted to use ______s instead. It would be a lot easier. What do you think? No? Is that your final answer? You still have three lifelines...
*sigh*
Yeah, you're right. It would look pretty stupid to have ________ in every third or fourth sentence. That means I'm stuck slogging through the spicy mud that I want to be a half melted chipotle chocolate bar but is in fact, just mud that I have to shape into something appealing. Doing the difficult thing now will make the later reveal much, much stronger. I have to keep reminding myself that the effort will be worth it.
I know some of you are thinking "If the first chapter is that hard, then scrap it/change it/find your muse" and any other time I'd agree with you. When my brain doesn't want to focus on a story or a scene it's because there's something not right with it. That's not the case this time. This time the reason I'm having problems is that I'm writing in a gender neutral third person.
It's more difficult than composing a dialogue scene with no blocking or tags, more difficult than writing an argument between five people (AKA tag hell), and more difficult than getting through a Japanese business party scene without the American pissing off the company president.
Most of my writing is in third person, so that's not what's hanging me up. It's the gender neutral part. I like having the choice between using the character's name and the myriad of gender specific addresses (he/she, his/hers). Variety is the linguistic spice of a story and the spice must flow.
Well, in this chapter the spice is flowing like mud because this time I can't use any of the above. Hell, I can't even use the character's name because that's a dead giveaway too. I have to use their professional nickname instead. The same word, over and over again. I spend half of my writing time wracking my brain for other ways I can phrase a sentence so I don't have to use their nickname again and even then, three times out of five I end up using it anyway. It's driving me crazy (I know, short drive). I'm seriously tempted to use ______s instead. It would be a lot easier. What do you think? No? Is that your final answer? You still have three lifelines...
*sigh*
Yeah, you're right. It would look pretty stupid to have ________ in every third or fourth sentence. That means I'm stuck slogging through the spicy mud that I want to be a half melted chipotle chocolate bar but is in fact, just mud that I have to shape into something appealing. Doing the difficult thing now will make the later reveal much, much stronger. I have to keep reminding myself that the effort will be worth it.
Monday, April 29, 2013
By the power of ink, I banish thee
"We interrupt your regularly
scheduled writing session for a bit of personal drama."
This message has been running
through my mind for the past two weeks. Usually when there’s drama that
interrupts and/or postpones my WIP it’s something that has happened to someone
else and because I care about that person, I feel obliged to help. I don’t mind
helping out and I never resent them for it. It’s not their fault that a monkey
was thrown into their plans. However, when the drama is mine and it’s caused by
a personal demon, I take exception.
I’m not going to go into specifics
since the persons involved have no idea that their words and actions raised an
old demon – and I don’t want them to know. The issue is mine and since our
paths rarely cross it’s unlikely that something like this will happen again.
Besides, I thought I’d banished this particular demon a long time ago.
Fortunately, re-banishing this
demon is a simple matter. It involves some cathartic writing. The first time I
tried this method I had mixed feelings about it. The cathartic story succeeded
in helping me work through the anger and angst that attracted the demon in the
first place, but the story itself ended up in the trash because it was too emo
to see the light of day.
That was several years ago. I’m a
better writer than I was then and I’m hoping that when I’ve worked through this
that the end result will be something respectable. I don’t care if it’s
publishable. While that would be nice, that’s not what I’m aiming for in this
regard. What I’m aiming for is a return to normalcy so I can resume work on the
Cyberfunk. The strong emotions this drama has affected make it hard for me to
concentrate on anything else. Even though I really should be working on the
Cyberfunk today (I have two weeks to finish it) I need to take a short break
from it so I can clear my head. If I don’t the negative emotions running around
my skull will sour the story and that’s the last thing I want. By channeling it
into a random short story that I don’t particularly care about, I can exorcise
my psyche and move on.
As I said earlier, I am a better
writer now, so I have a small hope that the cathartic story will be something
worthy of submission. If it’s not, it will have served it’s purpose so
it’s still a win in the end.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Sage wisdom
Last month I had one of those "I hate this story it sucks" moment. It's not the first and I doubt it'll be the last. This one was particularly significant because of what happened a couple days later.
I was chatting with Lee Moyer after an event and as usual I received some unexpected advice. If you haven't met Lee, I should explain that not only is he an amazing artist, he's one of the sweetest men on the planet. He also has a habit of giving out unexpected advice and the occasional psycho-analysis to those he cares about. No really, he does and it's not annoying at all. He's says it so sweetly that it's impossible to be offended (which is good because what he says would be hard to hear under other circumstances). On this particular night his advice concerned the real reason as to why I hated my story.
I was being stupid.
That's not what he said per se, but that was his point. Lee explained to me that many artists, regardless of medium, reach a point about halfway to three-quarters through a project where they hate everything about it. They hate the flaws, they hate how much time it's taking to complete, they hate the concept...and when that happens, you have two choices.
1) You can give up.
2) You can press on and finish the project.
Obviously, option two is the right choice because no one wants to buy an unfinished project. So how does a frustrated writer get out of this mess? This was Lee's answer:
"Write the fucking sentence."
I have to admit, this made me laugh. He was so sweet when he said it, it was hard not to. (Did I mention that he's a sweetie?) I was also a little sad that I'm not a romance writer. If I was than I could take his advice literally.
But all levity aside, he's right (as usual). I needed to get over myself and "write the fucking sentence". I was wasting too much time and energy grousing about what the story wasn't when I could have been using that time and energy to make it what I wanted. The "if you polish a turd, it's still a turd" mentality wasn't going to get me anywhere and (as Lee also pointed out) may be crippling me. During the course of our conversation I mentioned that I felt pressured to write as perfect a first draft as possible. I know, that's a ridiculous expectation, but I only have a few hours a day in which to write and I've never been able to compose faster than 250 words an hour. Seriously. That has been my pace since high school. However, wonderful Lee pointed out that if I just wrote the fucking sentence, my pace may increase considerably.
So, with an optimistic mindset, I'm going to do my best to implement this from here on out. I've got nothing to lose but some old bad habits. There's no reason why I should continue to hamstring myself with an "artistic temperament". Besides, if I don't knuckly down and "write the fucking sentence" Lee will scowl at me and we can't have that.
I was chatting with Lee Moyer after an event and as usual I received some unexpected advice. If you haven't met Lee, I should explain that not only is he an amazing artist, he's one of the sweetest men on the planet. He also has a habit of giving out unexpected advice and the occasional psycho-analysis to those he cares about. No really, he does and it's not annoying at all. He's says it so sweetly that it's impossible to be offended (which is good because what he says would be hard to hear under other circumstances). On this particular night his advice concerned the real reason as to why I hated my story.
I was being stupid.
That's not what he said per se, but that was his point. Lee explained to me that many artists, regardless of medium, reach a point about halfway to three-quarters through a project where they hate everything about it. They hate the flaws, they hate how much time it's taking to complete, they hate the concept...and when that happens, you have two choices.
1) You can give up.
2) You can press on and finish the project.
Obviously, option two is the right choice because no one wants to buy an unfinished project. So how does a frustrated writer get out of this mess? This was Lee's answer:
"Write the fucking sentence."
I have to admit, this made me laugh. He was so sweet when he said it, it was hard not to. (Did I mention that he's a sweetie?) I was also a little sad that I'm not a romance writer. If I was than I could take his advice literally.
But all levity aside, he's right (as usual). I needed to get over myself and "write the fucking sentence". I was wasting too much time and energy grousing about what the story wasn't when I could have been using that time and energy to make it what I wanted. The "if you polish a turd, it's still a turd" mentality wasn't going to get me anywhere and (as Lee also pointed out) may be crippling me. During the course of our conversation I mentioned that I felt pressured to write as perfect a first draft as possible. I know, that's a ridiculous expectation, but I only have a few hours a day in which to write and I've never been able to compose faster than 250 words an hour. Seriously. That has been my pace since high school. However, wonderful Lee pointed out that if I just wrote the fucking sentence, my pace may increase considerably.
So, with an optimistic mindset, I'm going to do my best to implement this from here on out. I've got nothing to lose but some old bad habits. There's no reason why I should continue to hamstring myself with an "artistic temperament". Besides, if I don't knuckly down and "write the fucking sentence" Lee will scowl at me and we can't have that.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
All is fair in Love and NaNo.
First off, my Halloween costume was a huge success! No one recognized the uniform but I expected that. It's an oft overlooked show. Some of the finishing details on the great coat weren't completed in time but I'm ok with that. It's still pretty darn awesome.
As for my NaNo, so far so good. I've set a bit of a crazy goal this year. I want to write 10K on the WIP (which shall be henceforth known as the Cyberfunk book because cyberpunk-that-wants-to-be-a-thriller is far too long) and a complete first draft on a novelette (I estimate that it'll be around 13K) that's been brewing in my brain since July. The novelette is in part a sequel to the piece I submitted to Writers of the Future but it's also the completion of that same piece. I'm not going to go into detail as to why that is because I can't talk about it freely until the judging for that quarter has finished. What I will go into more detail on is my NaNo process.
I know I've talked before about setting goals and that I like to do my own thing when it comes to NaNo. What I haven't spoken about yet is how I break it down. On November 1st I write my starting word count at the top of my calendar so I know exactly what mark I have to hit. Then I break down how many words a week I need to complete in order to make my goal. Since I have two projects this year I've got two benchmarks to reach every week. I haven't set daily word count goals just because I know that with the holiday season starting, if I have a crazy day at work I won't have the energy to get much done. I also have a few fun things planned this month that'll cut into my writing time: a much needed makeover, black friday sales, and attending book signings for Brom and Jim Butcher. With the exception of work day fatigue, I can budget my time in advance in order to get it done.
That may make me look like an anal retentive control freak -- which I'm not -- but that's what I do. I like being (somewhat) organized and knowing where I stand in every aspect of my life. Why should my writing be any different?
Some of you have added me to your NaNo circles on G+ and for that I thank you. I love being a part of the writing community and hearing about everyone's struggles and successes. I need a steady stream of reminders that it's not just me that's having a hard time with ___________ on any given day. If you, dear reader, haven't added me on G+ or FB, feel free to post updates about your NaNo progress in the comments of this or any post for this month. I'd like to know how you're doing.
As for my NaNo, so far so good. I've set a bit of a crazy goal this year. I want to write 10K on the WIP (which shall be henceforth known as the Cyberfunk book because cyberpunk-that-wants-to-be-a-thriller is far too long) and a complete first draft on a novelette (I estimate that it'll be around 13K) that's been brewing in my brain since July. The novelette is in part a sequel to the piece I submitted to Writers of the Future but it's also the completion of that same piece. I'm not going to go into detail as to why that is because I can't talk about it freely until the judging for that quarter has finished. What I will go into more detail on is my NaNo process.
I know I've talked before about setting goals and that I like to do my own thing when it comes to NaNo. What I haven't spoken about yet is how I break it down. On November 1st I write my starting word count at the top of my calendar so I know exactly what mark I have to hit. Then I break down how many words a week I need to complete in order to make my goal. Since I have two projects this year I've got two benchmarks to reach every week. I haven't set daily word count goals just because I know that with the holiday season starting, if I have a crazy day at work I won't have the energy to get much done. I also have a few fun things planned this month that'll cut into my writing time: a much needed makeover, black friday sales, and attending book signings for Brom and Jim Butcher. With the exception of work day fatigue, I can budget my time in advance in order to get it done.
That may make me look like an anal retentive control freak -- which I'm not -- but that's what I do. I like being (somewhat) organized and knowing where I stand in every aspect of my life. Why should my writing be any different?
Some of you have added me to your NaNo circles on G+ and for that I thank you. I love being a part of the writing community and hearing about everyone's struggles and successes. I need a steady stream of reminders that it's not just me that's having a hard time with ___________ on any given day. If you, dear reader, haven't added me on G+ or FB, feel free to post updates about your NaNo progress in the comments of this or any post for this month. I'd like to know how you're doing.
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