Writing Advice

This has got to be some of the best advice I've read. Never mind "write what you know" and "believe in yourself" and all the other snippets anyone contemplating writing hears from well meaning friends and relatives. This here is the stuff . http://www.nanoedmo.net/xoops2/modules/article/view.article.php?24

And in its own way, this too is good advice. If you read between the lines, it says "be yourself - some welcome a look at your slick and moldy innards".
http://indarkness.darkicon.com/2008/06/24/ten-tips-for-writing-horror

Word Count Trackers

Please be patient -- the word count trackers on the right are talking live to the NaNoWriMo website every time this page loads, and being dynamically re-generated. This is very slow, and their site is going to be very heavily loaded during November. If the images don't load, please be patient. =o)

ZERO HOUR!

And as always, at the last moment I realize I'm committed, and that I ought to be! Zero Hour is tonight at midnight and I have performance anxiety. My plot line is in place, I know what feel I want, and I'm getting panicky.

And why? This is not required work. This is for fun and mental exercise. Its not supposed to make me nuts.

Or is it? To me, this seems the first step toward finding out if I have what it takes. Can I be dedicated enough? Can I stay the course? Can I keep from pulling my hair out when I hear that "Mo-om! Can I (have, see, go, get, etc)?" in the middle of a sentence? Can I refrain from kicking Paul when he giggles and reads me a line from his work right in the middle of a crucial train of thought? (You know I love you Paul, but you do manage to break into my easily scattered thoughts pretty regularly).

Bring on the wine and chocolate. Its time to separate the doers from the dreamers.

The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley

So, last night in preparation for a month of novelling I cleaned out my old dead files (a task for which the scanning took an absurdly long time), freeing up over 111kb, and then told my computer to defragment the hard drive. It wasn't badly fragmented, but I like to keep it clean. I set it working and went to bed.

This morning it was stuck, apparently having unsuccessfully rebooted. It can't read the hard drive. My desktop is dead. Looks like I'll be using my laptop from work and flying largely by the seat of my pants after all.

This isn't really a major setback; that's how I usually write anyway, and I've done lots of preparatory thinking, so I'm ok. There's a whole chapter laid out pretty thoroughly in my head, several days' worth of writing without even having to fall back on the bigger picture, which is of course still evolving anyway. I am undaunted, lol....

Even so, wish me luck.

( And for those of you who don't recognize the title reference, its from "To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough" by Robert Burns -- http://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml )

Three days till the starting gun

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

Yes, my wife and I have opted to try out Randy Ingermanson's rather systematic methodology. No, we're not following it religiously, but we're working pretty hard on the gist of it. It almost feels like cheating, since we're not supposed to actually start writing for our NaNoWriMo stories until November, but we're being good. It *is* actually getting a lot of groundwork done, and getting us inspired, and working out a lot of kinks that would otherwise have ended up drifting off into dead ends.

It also strips away some of the fuzzy stuff that gives depth to a novel. Read a Stephen King -- he doesn't plan, just writes by the seat of his pants. His plots generally suck, but his characters truly blossom, and that's what any decent story is really about, the characters. His books get a little fuzzy, but they're rich. On the other hand, I like Michael Crichton: his research is consistently good for all I can tell, and he writes solid stories about really interesting topics, to me anyway...but his characters are sticks. They have no soul, no depth, and incite no real empathy. When they suffer (if you even notice) it's like lines from a newspaper article. I think Crichton maybe uses some method like this. His books are like assembly-line products, sturdy and clean and dependable, but not the hand-crafted pieces (with the commensurate flaws that prove it) turned out by those more commonly referred to as the masters.

I'm pretty sure Tolkien didn't use a "method". I've seen few books that make me cry every time I read them like "Lord of the Rings". It's a nightmare of a design, but I wouldn't change a word.

So... I'm using a Method to prepare, and will likely apply it when editing in December (assuming I'm done by then), but please feel free to slap me if it seems I've completely "sold out" and am bowing purely to word count and marketing. This story isn't one I really *feel* the way I usually do with things I write, but it's a challenge, and a fabricated plotline for that specific task...so I'm going to think of it as a litmus test. If I can make these "Mary Sue" me-on-paper characters come alive and get personalities of their own without overly complicating the work, I'll believe I can actually have a chance of switching careers and becoming a professional writter, something I've always wanted to do.

Wish me luck...and inspiration.
We'll probably start writing after all the trick-or-treating is done. =o]

Hush one line synopsis

As per Paul's request, here is my one line synopsis for Hush.

In a devolved and subdued society, a soldier’s role becomes the protection of children from terrors born within and without.

thesis sentence for Drift

A brillaint but haunted programmer reinvents Magic and struggles to master its infinite perils.

(Comments and refinements welcome.)

On Content

NaNoWriMo is basically about word-count. Yes, you always
want to write well, but the point here is to generate
quantity that can later be edited into quality.
If you don't have content, no amount of editing can ever
help anyway, right?

But word count still isn't the only issue here.
I want readability even on the first rough draft.
I want people to want to read it, even unedited.
I want an editor to forget that they are supposed to be
looking for corrections until they find something
glaringly wrong that reminds them. I want interest.

The story of Drift happens mostly inside Michael's head,
though. The huge preponderance of the story flow, the
word count, if you will, is going to come from the
ruminations and recollections and observations of the
central character. There will be long passages of
stream-of-consciousness flow, which will turn some folk
off right off the bat. How do I fix that? I dunno.

It's also a contrived situation, created specifically
for NaNoWriMo. It's not likely to resolve into a really
elegant ending. I have a plan, but I hope to do better.

In the meantime, I'm considering it pretty much what it is:
a writing exercise. It's an effort to practice my craft,
to create interesting reading without worrying about having
a moral or a twist or a truly cathartic involvement from
the reader....

The problem is that even now, before I've officially
written the first word, it has a twist, and it's developing
a cathartic vein, and it's kicking and squirming it's
wriggly way toward espousing a heavy-handed moral against
all my pre-developmental efforts.

So...when I do get around to posting segments, please
feel free to offer suggestions from the peanut gallery.
I make you the same promise I make everyone who gets to
read my unpublished works: I'll pay earnest attention to
what you're trying to say, and honestly attempt to learn
and to improve my writing from your opinion, but to quite
thoroughly ignore it when I feel like it. ;0]

Let There Be Fiction

We love to hear from you (whoever you are -- do I know you?) Please feel free to make comments. They're moderated, so be nice, but input puts us in...well usually a good mood, lol....

Feedback is fun, for me anyway, so I'll try to at least post little pieces now and then. I look forward to hearing from you all...as if anyone was out there, lol...

I'm the shoulder-reader =o)

Personally, I'm drooling over the chance to read what my lovely wife is writing, and I damned-sure don't want to wait till it's done! I try not to literally read over her shoulder (that really annoys her), but I bet I'll be able to convince her to let me read sections and chapters as she goes, since that's the only way I'll really be able to offer suggestions once we get into it. You know, everyone hits dry spots (NaNoWriMo is all about dealing with writer's block) and it often helps to have someone offer random ideas.... *smirk*

Personally, I'm looking forward to the idea of posting bits and having folk comment, but we *do* want to publish this stuff one day, so it's not like we should really be putting it all out for the world to see for free, lol!

Drift

Michael Damien Glass is a talented programmer, widely read with diverse interests. He used to teach Latin, does weekend stage magic shows for charity, and is active on internet philosophy groups. He's got a nice house with some land, a gorgeous and intelligent girlfriend, and a respectable nest egg for retirement. He would be happy, but he's also got a hobby people find a bit wierd, and he's starting to get obsessed.
Mike's studies the paranormal because of hauntings since childhood. He's developing a theory of actual magic, and his thinking is starting to shift. Maybe only the mad can accomplish the supernatural....
Now if he can just separate sanity from method, he might just be able to change the world.

Over the shoulder readers

I was discussing the upcoming nano madness with Paul, and he mentioned he's likely to post his work as he writes it. I thought I'd list the reasons I'm opposed to posting more than the occasional excerpt.

First, Nano month is not all about quality, its about quantity. A deadline without hope of publishing lets a writer let go and write whatever comes to mind without hindrances to the muse like spellcheck and content editing. The story may come out in disjointed chunks with thin characters and a thinner plotline. I can almost guarantee there will be plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. The end result is a story in place, if lacking elegance and cohesion. There's a finished project in place of the all too common "someday."

That's great, but its not the way I want people to remember my writing. Most of the people reading the chunks will never see the finished product, which will bear little resemblance to what I turn out during Nano week.

Reason number two. Though I love feedback, this month I'm basically blocking. The ideas are not fully formed. If I receive too much feedback while writing, it will effect my story, no matter how hard I try to avoid this. Its like a hairdresser showing off half a haircut. It looks pretty nasty and may lose the hairdresser business. An artist starts fixing the pieces before the total idea is blocked and becomes bogged down.

Last, I'm a little vain. If my husband sees the stray hairs I missed shaving and even helps clean them up, its all to the good, promoting togetherness and keeping us both humble. Let a stranger or someone used to seeing only my fully clothed and unrumpled self have a look at my unkempt curly locks, and that look on their face is more likely to be disgust or amusement than loving tolerance and understanding.

All this says is you're likely to have a lot more fun reading Paul's posts than my own. I'll discuss what I'm doing and post the occasional excerpt...I may even request feedback. But show off my inept and incomplete grooming??? I think not ;-).

Plot Synopsis for Hush

It started more like a daydream than a full-blown story. It’s the briefest of images, breaking into the middle of thoughts of laundry, shopping lists, vengeance, or innocent rambling down memory lane. A young woman sits on a horse at the edge of a clearing, a watchful eye on a group of playing children.

It seems idyllic, until you note the set of her shoulders and the lumpiness of her outline. She’s armed to the teeth and the soft, dreamy look of a relaxed mother feeling a moment of contentment, or perhaps pride, is absent from her face. Instead, there is an intent listening, scenting, watchful look of predator and prey all rolled into one. Her imposing image mingles with the scent of honeysuckle, the buzz of bees, birdsong, and the nearly silent play of children.

Over time, I came up with this:

The world has been torn apart by an illness that literally devolves humans, making the affected into an almost mindless, violent majority. Those who are left develop an agrarian based society, shunning the trappings of the old ways, including motorization and modern communication. Soldiers in special units defend children as mankind’s most lasting legacy and hope of continuity. Lauren is one such soldier, facing disillusionment as she must turn against one man who epitomizes the worst enemy of mankind-a predator of children.

Futhark Farm's NANoWriMo Adventure: So It Begins

Futhark Farm's NANoWriMo Adventure: So It Begins

So It Begins

So I've gone and done it.

A few people, a very few, know I like to write. They may also know I am mostly unpublished. Ok, a few articles and a short satire were published in unknown magazines. I don't count them because they are not anything special, at least not to me.

I've never completed more than an occasional short, satires, fan fiction, and little things one might called vignettes. But my ideas are getting bigger, my muse is getting more insistent, my cojones are getting smaller.

I think I may have found a solution for that last.

I ran across National Novel Writers Month and was intrigued. Then I was hooked. Now I'm involved. Beginning next month, I'll begin writing each and every day, without editing, and hope to churn out an unedited novella by the end of November. No, it won't be worthy of more than a passing glance. In fact, it'll be crap. But it will be there, and I can put it away for later editing, or later scrapping, whatever the case may be. But I will have completed a project, and that is the first step, in my humble opinion.

I'm also taking the NaNoWriMo facilitators advice and telling people because, as they put it, the potential humiliation of failure may well keep me on track. No one wants to say they couldn't quite make it.

Just as he joins me in most of my ventures, Paul is joining me in this. He is also a writer, and a good one, if I am any judge. He writes in a very different style and his choice of genre is not mine, but the two of us ought to be able to encourage each other. We already edit each other, give feedback, and even contribute to each other's stories. A fresh perspective can be a beautiful thing. So why not go crazy together?