Tag Archives: writing

October 23, 2015 · 6:45 am

#flashficfriday: TED (a drabble)

large dragon courtesy www.wallpaperfreehd.com

large dragon courtesy http://www.wallpaperfreehd.com

Drabbles are little short stories of 100 words in length, and writing them is good exercise.

Each time you write a drabble, you create possibilities that could evolve into larger stories. In 2013 I participated in a challenge to write a drabble every day for the month of May. The original prompt went as follows:

Write A 100 Word Story (“Drabble”) . . . although a 100 word story will probably take longer than expected, it can be done in a manageable amount of time.

To make a drabble work,
-Choose one or two characters
-Take one single moment/action/choice and show us how it unfolds
-Give one or two vibrant details in as few words as possible
-Hint at how this moment/action/choice is more significant than the characters probably realize in the moment

Here is my first drabble, written May 1st, 2013:

TED

Edna stirred her coffee and looked out the window toward the shed.

“Did you feed the chickens?” Marion always asked, despite knowing Edna had.

Edna tore her gaze from the shed. “Of course.” Her eyes turned back to the small building. “We won’t be able to keep him in there much longer. He’s growing too big. We should have a barn built for him.”

“Ted was always a greedy boy.” Marion stirred her coffee. “I warned him he behaved like a beast, and now look.”

A rumbling bellow shook the shed. A long green tail snaked out of the door.

>><<<

I love that scene. I keep wondering about the two ladies, and also Ted. Who is he in relation to them, who are they in relation to each other, and what is their life like, apart from the secret in the shed?

Ted will become a longer short story in November, as part of my NaNoWriMo project. I will be writing a book of short stories this year, as I need to build my repertoire. I hope to have fifteen or twenty new short tales of 2000 to 5000 words in length by November 30.

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Filed under #FlashFictionFriday, Humor, Literature, Uncategorized, writing

Tagged as #amwriting, #Flashfic, Carlie M.A. Cullen, drabbles, fantasy, humor, indie publishing, writing

October 12, 2015 · 6:45 am

#amwriting: Theme: chaos or stability

A common theme in fantasy is the juxtaposition of chaos and stability, or order. Good versus evil is a trope of the genre, and evil is usually portrayed by taking one or the other of these concepts to an extreme.

Author L.E. Modesitt Jr. has taken the theme of chaos and order and built his Magic of Recluce series around the comparison and contrasts of the two, with each side being given the protagonists’ POV in different books as the series progresses. He has been able to really explore the way each side’s magic is expressed, and the moral and ethical values that each side holds dear.

Both sides consider themselves morally superior, and both sides are wary of those who walk that gray path in the middle, which allows Modesitt real opportunities to put his protagonists through the wringer.

The late Roger Zelazney’s brilliant Chronicles of Amber series also details the distinctions between Chaos and Order, and moral and ethical challenges of those who travel from reality to reality through the shadows, with each shadow growing more radical depending on the distance from Castle Amber (which represents Order).

In several of his works, elements of each are combined freely and interchangeably. Jack of Shadows and Changeling, for example, revolve around the tensions between the two worlds of magic and technology, or order and chaos.

But what is chaos, and what is order ?

Google defines Chaos as

Google also defines Order as:

Either side of the coin, when taken to an extreme, can be truly evil.

Consider chaos, or Anarchy. When a culture descends into anarchy, you have an absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual. While this frequently begins as an attempt to allow for individual freedoms without state interference, history shows that what follows is the emergence of a violent culture that is beyond the reach of law. There is no law and no one capable of enforcing it. The strongest, most violent thugs rise to the top and frequently war with each other, while the common person is caught in the middle. Followers of each warlord are rewarded with the spoils of conquest, which are often goods taken from the common citizen who must somehow survive under that tyranny.

Now let’s look at order: totalitarianism, or total order can also be a form of tyranny: everything is static and nothing changes. There is centralized control by an autocratic authority, combined with the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority. No divergence from the norm can be tolerated, and good, obedient citizens are rewarded, while deviants who are seen to be free-thinkers, intellectuals, and artists are persecuted and imprisoned, or killed.

Anarchy=instability and a breakdown of society. Totalitarianism=lack of growth and stagnation of society. For most people’s comfort, a good society allows for both law and creativity.

In extreme types of societies, power is everything, and drawing negative attention to yourself is dangerous. Thus chaos-based societies are usually represented in literature as having an underlying order that holds them together, and order-based societies are often represented as requiring the ability to grow and change, but within certain parameters.

The theme of order and chaos can really power a story-line, and the way you perceive them will not be the way another author sees them. L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and Roger Zelazney couldn’t be more different in the way they portrayed these concepts.

If you haven’t read Zelazney’s works, I highly recommend them.

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Filed under Fantasy, Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

Tagged as #amwriting, L.E. Modesitt Jr., Order and Chaos. Anarchy, Roger Zelazney, theme, Totalitarianism, writing

September 18, 2015 · 6:45 am

#amwriting: Write like a pansy

My favorite books are written by fearless writers. These authors dare to write because they have something to say, not because they have something they think will sell.

So how does that concept of fearlessness tie in with the title of this blog post? It does say “pansy,” right?

Don’t sell pansies short.

Pansies are fearless plants. They thrive in the strangest places–at least in our yard they do. My husband is an avid gardener, but he really doesn’t plant a lot of annuals. He does get a few hanging baskets and sets a few pots on the front steps for color. Other than that, our yard has large shrubs, lilacs and hydrangeas.

But it wasn’t always that way:

This story began ten years ago, when we bought our house. It was just a brand new tract-house, sticking out of the rocky, Northwest mud. No grass, no plants, nothing but mud everywhere. What we didn’t know then is that we sit on glacial till—lots of rock, and very little soil.

The house came with no landscaping, although a month after we moved in, the builder did spray hydro-seed over the scant inch of topsoil where our front…lawn…would attempt to grow. We were a little strapped for funds, so we bought $100.00 worth of annuals, and a few perennials, and had a few yards of topsoil for berms brought in so at least the front of the house would look decent.

Some of those annuals that made our yard look okay that year were pansies.

Ten years and a professional landscaping later, those few pansies that were just for fill that first year are still going strong, reseeding themselves and expanding their reach every year.

During those ten years, we have had deep freezes, we’ve nearly been flooded, and this year we have had an unprecedented drought.

And every year, those pansies have grown bolder, and stronger. They’ve thrived when nothing else did, and this year they have staked out new territory–our driveway.

Yep! The soil they like the best is the driveway gravel. It’s harsh and dry, with few nutrients. Apparently pansies are like authors: adversity makes them strong.

My husband and I like our free-range pansies–and we’re pretty much treating them the way we do our grand-kids:

If that’s where they want to grow, fine. Just don’t break anything.

That is pretty fearless, setting down roots where a Subaru Forester is regularly parked by a man who may forget you’re there and park on top of you.

And what does this tale of resilience and free-range gardening have to do with writing?

Be fearless in your writing. Write because you have a story to tell, and only you can tell it. If the story takes you to uncomfortable places, but you can’t stop writing it, just go with it. Sometime the best work is a little edgy, and a lot scary to write.

What you do with your work after you’ve written it is up to you, but I’ve always been glad that the bold writers dared to publish their work.

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Tagged as #amwriting, creative writing, indie publishing, johnny-jump-ups, Pansies, volunteer plants, writing

September 16, 2015 · 6:45 am

#amwriting: keeping short stories short, when all your stories want to be long

Autumn Landscape With Pond And Castle Tower-Alfred Glendening-1869

Over the summer I posted several times about why we need to write short stories, and each time I’ve talked about writing them to build stock for submissions to magazines, anthologies, or to enter into contests. Today, I want to talk about the art of keeping a story short.

First, decide what length you want to write to–if you have no specific contest in mind, 2000 to 4000 is a good length that will fit into most submission guidelines.

For those of you who have trouble writing short works for contests and anthologies with rigid word-count limits, this is where mapping your story becomes really important.

Let’s say you want to write a story that can be no longer than 2,000 words. You know what the story is, but when you sit down and begin writing, it’s like there is way too much story for only 2,000 words. You need to map it out.

Short-stories are just like novels, in that they have an arc, and you can make it work for you. By looking at it from the perspective of the story arc, you can see what you have to accomplish, and how many words you have to accomplish it in.

Every word in a 2000 word story is critical and has a specific task–that of advancing the the plot. To that end, in a story of only 2,000 words:

No subplots are introduced
Minimal background is introduced
The number of characters must be limited to 2 or 3 at most
Every sentence must propel the story to to the conclusion

Lets say you are writing a fantasy, titled, A Song Gone Wrong. Because he was a bit too specific when a putting a local warlord’s fling with another man’s wife into a song, our protagonist is now a wanted man. Divide your story this way:

Act 1: the beginning: You have 500 words to show these plot points

setting: the village of Imaginary Junction,
the weather is unseasonably cold
In an alley, a bard, Sebastian, is hiding from the
Soldiers of the lord he has inadvertently humiliated

Act 2: First plot point: You have 500 words to tell how

the soldiers surround and capture Sebastian
he is hauled before the angry lord and
thrown into prison, sentenced to hang at dawn, but now you are at:

Act 3.: Mid-point: You have 500 Words to explain how

Sebastian meets a dwarf, Noli, also sentenced to die
Noli is on the verge of managing an escape, but needs help with one last thing
Noli and Sebastian manage to complete the escape route
but the guard seems suspicious, hanging around their cell door, hampering their escape

Act 4: Resolution–you have 500 words to show how

The smart guard finally is relieved by a less wary guard, which
allows Sebastian and Noli to squeeze through the escape route
They are spotted at the last minute, but Noli’s friends are waiting, and
they are whisked to a dwarf safe-house, leading to Sebastian’s next short-story adventure

Once you have parsed out what needs to be said by what point, and in how many words, you can then get to the nitty-gritty of turning that far-fetched tale of woe into a good short-story.

You will see that in order to keep to the strict limit of words, you will have to choose your words carefully. You will have to find words that really convey what you want to say, concisely in one or two sentences. Sebastian can’t give Noli a recap of his troubles in your hearing–all that will have to be off-stage. On-screen conversations are critical–they will convey the personalities and the minimal backstory of the piece.

After a few times of creating short stories this way, you won’t need to think about it. When you know the length a given tale has to be, you can mentally divide it into acts and just write for fun.

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Tagged as creative writing, How to write short-stories, indie publishing, short-story arc, Story Arc, writing, writing craft

September 14, 2015 · 6:45 am

Elements of the story: when the novel is not a novel after all

In the rough draft, the goal is to get the work out of your head, and the concepts onto the page. To that end, I advise you to just write, and try not to self-edit as you go, because you may lose your train of thought.

If we let ourselves drop into the zone, in the first draft we are in story-teller-mode, which is where our best work happens. Yes, our prose is uneven and may contain things we wish had been written by someone else, but all we were doing was getting the idea down:

T~~hus it was that~~ On departing Billy’s Revenge ~~on this particular job~~, Lackland and Mags ~~had~~ kept the conversation cordial and polite, but little of substance passed between them. ~~Oh,~~ They joked and laughed~~, and said all the things~~ ~~that~~ as they would ~~say to~~ with any Rowdy ~~that~~ they were ~~on a job~~ working with, but it felt all wrong. ~~Still,~~ Even so, Lackland did not press for anything more ~~from Lady Mags~~, although he was full of questions and desperate for answers.

It’s okay write crap when you are just getting it on to paper. You have to get the basic ideas down before you can craft them into a proper novel or short-story. (That drivel was from the rough draft of my 2010 nanowrimo manuscript. I can get rid of at least 24 words in that paragraph, and although I did replace several words, losing the fluff made it stronger.)

Remember, the rough draft–the first draft–is the proto-story, the just-born infant that is the child of your creativity. You do the shaping when you come back to it in the second draft. Some will stay, and some will go.

This weekend I discovered that one of my works in progress is not really a novel after all.

It was at 85,000 words, but it has occurred to me that it is a novella, because in the first half of the book, 4 chapters don’t advance the protagonist’s story. When I am done weeding it out, the ms may only top out at about 50,000 words. In some circles that is a novel, but in fantasy, it is half a book.

Still, I’m not going to try to force it to be any longer than it is, because I have nothing of value to add to the tale. I would much rather be known for having written a strong novella than a weak novel. So, now at the end of the rough draft, this book must become a novella.

Those four cut chapters total about 16,000 words. Add to that the words that will be weeded out in the second draft and I would say its going to lose a lot more weight–perhaps another 8,000 to 10,000 words. But why do I think this? Because I am just finishing the rough draft and I have realized several things:

Besides the four chapters that must go since they don’t belong there anymore, 3 more chapters are mostly background that doesn’t need to be in the finished product. When I went in and removed large chunks of exposition I was able to condense those 3 chapters into 1 that actually moved the story forward.
Add to that the fact that in the rough draft we will always have a lot of words we can cut (or find alternatives for), words and phrases that weaken our narrative:

There was
To be

I will also make some contractions, ‘was not’ becomes ‘wasn’t,’ ‘has not becomes hasn’t,’ etc.

It’s amazing how many times we can simply cut some words out, and find the prose is stronger without them. Many times they need no replacement.

Sometimes we use what I think of as “crutch” words. You can really lower your word-count when you look at each instance and see if you can get rid of these words. These are overused words that fall out of our heads along with the good stuff as we are sailing along:

so,
very,
that,
just,
so,
literally
very

But back to one of my current works-in-progress: why am I cutting an 85,000 word MS down to 50,000 or so words?

A lot of what I have written is good work, but as I said, several long passages don’t advance my protagonist’s tale. They pertain to a different character’s story set in that world–so they were a rabbit-trail to nowhere in the context of this tale. However, those passages will come in handy later if I choose to write that character’s story, so I am saving them in file labeled “Out Takes.”

The fact is, you must be willing to be ruthless. Yes, you may well have spent three days or even weeks writing that chapter. But now that you are seeing it in the context of the overall story arc, you realize it is bogging things down, and NO–Sometimes there is no fixing it. Just because we wrote it does not mean we have to keep it.

In genre fiction, no matter how much you like the prose you have just written for a given chapter, if the chapter does not advance the story, it must go. The story arc must not be derailed, and sometimes amputation is the only cure.

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Tagged as #amwriting, books, creative writing, Elements of a story, humor, novel or novella?, self publishing, The second draft, writing, writing craft

September 4, 2015 · 6:45 am

Marilyn Rucker, Nick’s, and September

Albert Bierstadt – Autumn Landscape PD|100 via Wikimedia Commons

September is the month that always sneaks up too fast. This year we had a long drought, with 80 and 90 degree weather (that is 26.7 and 32.2 degrees Celsius) and well above from the first of May through most of August.

Then, just about the time we took our vacation to Cannon Beach, the weather turned cold, and a little rain finally began to fall. Over the last week it has been cold and rainy here, so much so that I have had to wear socks in the house, and long-sleeved jammies for work. (!!!) And the rain–in the last two weeks we have had more than in the prior four months.

The unwatered lawns are turning green again in our less-than-affluent suburban neighborhood–it’s likely to be a bad year for hay up here in the Northwest.

Last evening my dear old hubby and I met in Bellevue with well-known musician and author, Marilyn Rucker, who is up from Texas to perform at Tumbleweed Music Festival in Richland, Washington. Marilyn wrote Sax and the Suburb, a hilarious and entertaining band-geek murder mystery. Marilyn is an awesome performer, and her music has been featured on King of Queens, and many other television shows. She plays with both The Studebakers and the Hootchcakes Band, but is performing solo in Richland.

If you love hilarious, witty music, give her solo album, Interstellar Pirate Queen a spin. It’s full of wry wit and fabulous, entertaining music to write to.

But we did have an amazing dinner at a place we had never been to, as we are rarely in Bellevue, and we discovered this little jewel in the culinary crown of the Puget Sound region by accident. The place is called Nicks Greek and Italian Cuisine, and all I can say is “Ooh, baby.”

And Nick himself is quite the character with his lovely accent and genuine, welcoming way.

My hiatus from contract editing is over, and I am back at work once again. Writing has to assume the secondary position in my pantheon of tasks. I have a wonderful fantasy novel by Carlie M.A. Cullen currently in my editing pile. I’m also editing an anthology for my publisher, Myrddin Publishing. The work I have received for this anthology so far is outstanding–Myrddin has some fine authors under its banner.

I will take another break from editing in November, as that is NaNoWriMo month.

This year I plan to use that as my opportunity to write a 2000 to 4000 word short-story every day until I have my 50,000 words, and then I will wing it, until November has ended. I am currently building my list of prompts.

Autumn Landscape With Pond And Castle Tower-Alfred Glendening-1869

September is the month I enjoy the least. It represents the end of fun, the last hurrah of the summer. It means playtime is over and work begins in earnest. I hope the weather will turn nice again for a week or so, to give us those final few days of sunshine and 75 degrees (23.3)–that is the perfect, ideal summer day, the kind of day we were denied this year because of the unusual, San Diego-style heat.

I want to sit on my back porch with my kindle and enjoy the last bits of sunshine before the monsoons close in. I want to sit there, watching the birds and planning my next writing adventure, and I will, if only the rain would relax for a week or so, and allow me that little pleasure.

My wish for this winter is that it snows prodigiously in the mountains where it belongs, and rains frequently here in the lowlands. Then, promptly on July 5th as is expected, may our allotted six weeks of summer begin anew with temperatures in the low 80s. Please, may we have a “normal” year, if normal can be measured in our ever-changing world.

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Tagged as #amwriting, humor, literature, Marilyn Rucker, Nicks Greek and Italian Cuisine, writing

September 2, 2015 · 6:45 am

Elements of the story: making effective revisions

There is no feeling of accomplishment like that of having completed a novel, or a shorter piece. Once that final sentence is written, there is that happy-dance moment, where we are shouting and the world is singing.

Following that, we have the urge to immediately look the finished manuscript over and see where some revisions could be made.

I know it’s tempting, but don’t do it. We need to gain some distance from our work in order to see it more clearly, so put it aside. If you work on something else for a couple of weeks, or even a month or two, you will gain a better perspective on what you just finished, and your revisions will bring out the best in your work.

But when we do get back to it, where do we start?

Stephen King said it so eloquently in his book, On Writing: “I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this note: ‘Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.’ — Stephen King, On Writing, 2000

This means we must cut the fluff. If your 1st draft is 100,000 words, try to cut 10,000 words out of it, making it 90,000. The following is a list of things to consider:

Dialogue pitfalls: Search for clichés. Speaking as a reader, do a global search for the word alabaster. If you have used it to describe a woman’s skin, get rid of it, and find a different way to describe her. It’s an overused word that has become cliché. Find different ways to say what you want, unless you have a character who uses clichés–if so, he’d better have a good reason. Even then, don’t go overboard. Click here for a looooong list of common clichés: ProWriting Aid.
Try to make your sentences do without these words: very, that, just, so, and literally. There will be places where they are the only words that will work, and you will use them in that instance. Usually just cutting them out of the sentence and adding nothing makes the sentence stronger. Fluffy, over-blown prose weakens the narrative.
Flowery prose, even in a medieval setting, is off-putting to a reader. Do a global search (Cntrl F) for two letters: ly. This will bring up all the ~~adjectives~~ (oops adverbs, thank you David Cantrell) because they end in ly. Look at each instance and if it is possible, get rid of them. Often the sentence is stronger without that extraneous word. Find a way to show the idea without flowery prose. This is where you grow as a writer–you give visual clues that enhance the story.
Examine the ms for conversations that are opportunities for info dumps. Info is good, but don’t dump it–dole it out as needed, and only when needed.
Are people long-winded, and ranting on and on, with nary a pause for breath? Decide what is really important in what they are saying and cut everything else. Conversation in literature must have a purpose, or it is as boring as hell. Cut those marathon speeches down to where they sound like normal people talking, not like orators.
Conversation must pertain to and advance the story. Small talk and verbal tics are obnoxious, and should be avoided at all cost. DO NOT have your characters preface sentences with “Hmmm…” and DO NOT have them use the name of the person they are speaking to, unless there are more than two characters in the scene. You can avoid things like “Well, Bill, it was like this…” just by having the speaker turn to Bill, and say it.

And now for my pet peeve: People do not smile, snort, or smirk dialogue. I mean really: “That’s a lovely dress,” snorted Clara. (eeew. ) Stick to simple dialogue tags, such as said and replied. In fact, it is often best to do away with speech tags (attributions) altogether for a few exchanges every now and then, if: A. you have only 2 speakers, and B. you have clearly established who is speaking. You can also show who is speaking in other ways:

Miss a few beats. Beats are little bits of physical action inserted into dialogue: John fell quiet and stared out the window. Halee turned and walked out the door. Used sparingly, these pauses serve to punctuate the dialogue, to give the scene movement, and to maintain a strong mental picture in the absence of description. They’re best placed where there is a natural break in the dialogue, because they allow the reader to experience the same pause as the characters.
Don’t over do the action within the conversation. If your characters are rattling pans, slicing apples or staring out the window between every line of dialogue, the scene becomes about the action and not the dialogue, and the impact of the conversation can be lost entirely.

In our first draft we are trying to make our point, and we inadvertently repeat ourselves. A good way to find where you are repeating yourself is to read a chapter from the bottom up, one paragraph at a time. My editors frequently tell me, “You said it once, that’s enough.”

In my own work, I hear repetitions and other things I need to cut, if I read it aloud to someone else. I think that’s because when another person is listening, we are more aware of how a given passage sounds.

Also, consider not including a prologue. About half of the readers see the word “prologue” and assume it will be a boring info dump, so they skip it.

This begs the question, “Why go to the trouble of writing it if they aren’t going to read it?” If you must have a prologue, consider calling it Chapter 1– and make it clear that is occurring twenty years before the present day (or whatever). Make it immediately exciting, make it a true first chapter. And don’t do an excerpt from a Holy Book as your prologue. I did that once, and it flew like an iron kite. So I moved my Holy Book to the appendices, and if a reader is interested, they can read it there.

These are just a few things to look for when you begin revisions. And just so you know, revisions are not editing, they are rewriting. If you are “editing” your own manuscript, you have a fool for a client. There is no such thing as self-editing–the best you can do is make revisions and admire your work. You may do very well at that–some people do.

You must make revisions before you hire an editor. Then, ask other authors who they might recommend as an editor and see if you can work well with that person. Your editor will likely point some things out that you didn’t see, but that a reader will. At that point, you will make revisions again. But the results will be so worth it!

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Filed under Humor, Self Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

Tagged as #amwriting, creative writing, indie publishing, On Writing, revisions, self publishing, Stephen King, writing, writing craft

August 31, 2015 · 6:45 am

Mapping the Story

I was worried I wouldn’t have a blog post for today. The power was out most of Saturday due to a large storm here, and there have been times when that lasts three days here. When that happens I have no way to post my blog, although I hear you can post them from cell phones if you know the magic words.

I’ll just say that if I have to key my blog on a cell phone, it will take 5 years to get it ready for posting. I am the world’s slowest text-message-er. Of course, if you have predictive texting set up, and make good use of auto-fill, you could have some real fun, and do it quickly! But that was another blog post.

After the power outage, my printer/scanner was not speaking to my computer, so I couldn’t print or scan. I did behave, no temper tantrums here. My IT man, (a.k.a. my beloved, long-suffering husband with the patience of a saint) took the time to rectify that situation. I was at the limits of my endurance with that thing.

So, because our power was out, I worked on a pencil sketch of a new map for an upcoming novel, Billy’s Revenge. On Sunday, I digitalized it. It isn’t complete, and is out of proportion in some places but when it is finished, it will tell me everything I need to know about Limpwater.

I always have some sort of map to work with, even if it’s just scribbled, when I am writing in a world of my invention, and they all start out as pencil sketches. Eventually, they become the digital versions you see in my books.

That book will consist of 1 novel and 4 short stories that all revolve around the inn known as Billy’s Revenge. Huw the Bard returns, as does Julian Lackland. Billy Ninefingers has a few misadventures that threaten his career, mess with his chances to convince Dame Bess to marry him, and set him on a path he never thought he would find himself traveling.

In the opening short story, we meet Eddie, Billy’s father, and see the origins of the Rowdies. Eddie’s story sets the stage for Billy’s trouble with Bastard John. Several short stories that were cut from The Last Good Knight will be included at the end of Billy’s novel, as they don’t pertain to Julian Lackland as much as they do the entire group of Rowdies, Billy Ninefingers included, and they are fun stories.

I’ve had the sign that will hang over the porch in front of Billy’s inn ready for quite a while–hanging it is going to be the trick.

When the power went out, I had Photoshop open and was working on the cover for Valley of Sorrows. But while I know how the graphics will be and I am happy with their layout, I’m not really happy with the art I have located so far, but it’s still early days. I will keep searching, which I enjoy doing.

Anyway Saturday was not as productive as it could have been.

And Sunday was a busy, catch-up day. Fortunately, it rained off and on all day, so I was able to finish a lot of what I needed to get done. Today will be as crazy as any Monday ever is, and I will simply have to make time for revisions. All I need is an hour here and there. I am close to having it ready for editing. I will have Valley of Sorrows published in the spring of 2016, if all continues to go well.

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Tagged as #amwriting, Art, creative writing, humor, Huw The Bard, indie publishing, writing

August 26, 2015 · 6:45 am

The clock, groceries, and a new thesaurus

At times the world seems to be conspiring against me. I have to drop what I’m doing, load up the van, and head up to town for something as mundane as groceries. Food should order itself, deliver itself, and put itself away.

But no. Where is my android butler and why is he not doing the shopping? Just like the flying car I was promised when I was child, my android butler is in the Jetsons‘ style garage of my imagination.

But sometimes I get two or three pages of writing done in the 20 or 30 minutes before I have to leave the house for an appointment. There is something about the pressure of knowing I will have to quit at a certain time that forces me to be more productive than I would ordinarily be.

Why is this? When I am pressed for time I use every second to get those ideas out of my head. I don’t stop and research on the good, old, time-wasting internet, and I don’t worry about whether or not I am overusing a word in the narrative. This is a rough draft–all of that can be ironed out when I have more leisure–the next day usually.

Some of my best ideas have come about under a time crunch. Normally when I am writing on a stream-of-consciousness level, I can key about fifty words a minute–paltry compared to today’s young-uns who grew up keying their homework rather than writing it in cursive.

I do admit that just because I can key those words does not mean they will all make sense, or be worth reading. But that again is why we are driven to look at what we just wrote the day after we wrote it–did it say what I meant? How many times did I use the word “noose” in that particular chapter and where am I going to find six different alternatives for such a unique word?

A little rephrasing here, cutting there, and voila! It looks like a poodle!

It’s a jungle in my head sometimes, and my ancient student edition of Roget’s Thesaurus is my friend. But neither the old student version of the thesaurus from 40 years ago, nor the modern, online version is cutting it for me right now.

I need more synonyms. Lots, and lots more!

I have just now invested in a bigger, better, hardcover thesaurus. Thus I now have the Oxford American Writers’ Thesaurus winging it’s way to my doorstep. I expect the drone to drop it on Saturday.

Some references have to be in hard-copy–such as The Chicago Manual of Style, which is the most comprehensive style guide geared for writers of essays, fiction, and nonfiction. Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is a good beginner style guide, but I found it hard to navigate and couldn’t always find what I wanted. The Chicago Manual of Style is written specifically for writers, editors and publishers and is the industry standard.

Just as a side note–if you are using AP style you are writing for the newspaper, not for literature–two widely different styles with radically different requirements. AP style was developed for expediency in the newspaper industry and is not suitable for novels or for business correspondence. For business, you want to use the Gregg Reference Manual.

Eternal Clock, Robbert van der Steeg CC|2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

All in all, I like the way being forced to produce words in a short time helps me lay down a rough draft. But being short on time is big pain when I am trying to revise and iron out stubborn, repetitive wrinkles in a narrative.

Summer is nearly over, and with that comes the long, dark days of the northern winter. I won’t be going as many places (I hope). But with the advent of September I will be spending longer hours editing for clients. My personal productivity will drop in regard to my own work, but I will still find time to write.

And I will also find time to revise. I am nearly at the end of two books written for the World of Neveyah series. Valley of Sorrows will wind up the Tower of Bones series–it is completed and is in revisions. The Wayward Son is nearly complete. While The Wayward Son is not actually a part of the Tower of Bones series, much of it does run concurrently with Forbidden Road, as it is the story of John Farmer’s redemption.

Today will be busy–groceries can wait until tomorrow. Today I am working as hard as I can, trying to get Valley of Sorrows ready to be edited, so that the ToB series will be complete, and also to get John’s story out there too.

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Filed under Books, Humor, Literature, Publishing, writer, writing

Tagged as #amwriting, #WhereIsMyFlyingCar, creative writing, Editing, humor, indie publishing, where is my flying car, writing, writing craft, Writing Process

August 21, 2015 · 6:45 am

Elements of the story: identifying and crafting a strong theme

The Plaza After Rain, Paul Cornoyer PD|100 via Wikimedia Commons

“Theme” is an idea or message that flows through a story from beginning to end. Theme is what readers think the work is about but it is also what the work itself says about the subject.

It is ephemeral in that theme is only an idea, but it is like the moon–it is there and the world is greatly affected by it through the pull of gravity: witness the tides.

In a given work the theme might never be mentioned outright, but the characters’ actions are motivated by it and the plot revolves around it. Here is a link to a list of 101 common themes in books.

How do you make something as hard to get a grip on as a theme central to your story? The theme was an idea about the plot, a notion you had about your story when you first began to write it, no matter what the setting you placed it in was, or whether the genre was fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, or contemporary fiction.

Perhaps you are writing a tale where a group of people face heroic challenges in a war. On the surface this looks like it it is all about the action, but in reality it is is not. It is about relationships, the bonds of friendship, and the way the events of this war bind a group of soldiers together and also the way events test those bonds, perhaps breaking them. The theme of this tale is the way fighting a common enemy binds strangers from all walks of life together: creating brothers- and sisters-in-arms.

The way I look at it, the theme is as important as the main character. You spend as certain amount of time creating strong characters. Perhaps you are like me and make personnel files for each new character so you know who they are, how they think, and how they will react in a given situation. Or not, but you know your characters the minute the enter the story.

I try to identify my theme early on, and write a short paragraph to myself to remind me of what that central idea was so I stay on track. During the initial writing process I regularly refer back to that little note, to ensure I have not lost my way. I want to write in such a way that I emphasize and exploit that idea throughout the book or short-story.

Initially, when I first started writing full time, I was not always good at sticking to my original idea. At times the core themes became mushy, which, when you read these stories, takes away from the cohesiveness of what otherwise could have been good work. Theme is glue that binds your plot and characters.

The best way to get a grip on both identifying and solidifying the theme is to practice writing with a specific core theme in mind. Write a short story, just a piece of flash fiction. Make every paragraph represent some aspect of that central concept.

I tend to think of themes and then write stories set in fantasy worlds, but not always. Take this piece of Flash Fiction I wrote in 2013:

It is set in a contemporary environment with no fantasy elements. The idea came from the painting at the top of this post by Paul Cornoyer, and the action is minimal–an elderly woman staring out a window. But the theme is grief, and everything in these short paragraphs points to and represents her sense of loss.

How do you identify your theme? Sometimes it’s difficult, unless you start out with one in mind. Most of my books are based around the hero’s journey, and how the events my protagonists experience shape them. Alongside the theme of good vs evil are the sub-themes of brotherhood, and love of family.

These concepts are important to me on a personal level, and so they find their way into my writing. Ask yourself what is important to you? When you look for a book, what catches your interest?I am not talking genre here, I am speaking of the deeper story. When you look at it from a distance, what do all the stories you love best have in common?

Political thrillers: Set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. Political corruption, terrorism, and warfare are common themes.
Romance Novel: Two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel are directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters’ romantic love.
Literary fiction focuses on the protagonist of the narrative, creating introspective, in-depth character studies of interesting, complex and developed characters. Action and setting are not the point here, although they must also be carefully developed in such a way they frame the character, and provide a visual perspective.
Science Fiction: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method. Science and technology are a dominant theme, but based on current reality. Characters are still subject to sub-themes such as morality and love, but setting and science are the main themes.
Fantasy: Often set in alternate, medieval, or ancient worlds, common themes are good vs evil, hero’s journey, coming of age, morality, romantic love. Can also be set in urban settings with paranormal tropes.

On the surface these types of books look widely different but all have one thing in common–they have protagonists and side-characters. These people will all have to deal with and react to the underlying theme of the book. Morality, love, coming of age–these ideas can be found in nearly every book on my shelves or in my Kindle.

In my mind, the genre and the setting in which these characters react to the wider concepts are just a backdrop. The world they are set in is the picture-frame, a backdrop against which the themes of the story play out, and characters are shaped by a force beyond their control–the author.