I went to another write-in tonight. At first it was quiet, and I typed silently along with everyone else. Then, a couple more people arrived, and suddenly we were all talking. Amazingly, I still got a day's work in, even though I felt like I spent more time there talking to everyone than anything else!
It's even more amazing because, for the first time, I hit a roadblock. Aaron is currently in a coma and neither his dreams nor the actions of anyone else are really that interesting--they're just filler right now. Of course that filler has gotten me up to 20,000 words already, so when I complained about my problems people looked at me funny. Oops! It sounds kind of arrogant that way, doesn't it?
Anyway, I wanted to stay longer, but I didn't have internet, and I really wanted to make sure my word count was updated before midnight. So I left at 11:00... and immediately got lost. Soon I was driving by a school I'd never heard of and through a residential area with no sign of where I was. I thought I'd never get home!
Then I had a sudden epiphany: I had my phone! I parked somewhere for a minute, pulled it out, and found to my relief that I had 3G. Quickly I rushed onto the NaNoWriMo site and updated my word count from there. Success! Oh and then I also looked up directions to get home.
Yup. I clearly have all my priorities straight.
Constantly spewing ridiculous amounts of information about my life and my work as a science fiction and fantasy writer. Keep up with my new novels, what I've been reading, and more!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Sudden Fiction
The crazy thing about this November is juggling NaNoWriMo with work, school, and my other responsibilities. For one of my classes, I've been asked to write a short piece of "sudden fiction" based on the prompt: "Your character reveals his or her secret." I then got a second part to that prompt, the secret itself. Hopefully that will come through when you read the story below (which has no title at the moment).
The writing revolves around the concept of body language as a big part of communication. I wanted to see if I was capable of using that effectively. If I was successful, then you should be able to piece together a couple of things that the characters aren't actually saying.
The writing revolves around the concept of body language as a big part of communication. I wanted to see if I was capable of using that effectively. If I was successful, then you should be able to piece together a couple of things that the characters aren't actually saying.
“Why are you telling me this?” he said.
She stared at his eyes, which were fixed on the window. His mouth was covered by his clasped hands, muffling his words.
“Because I thought…” She choked on her words.
She looked down and drew back, hugging herself. She let out a breath, and brought one back in. One more time she looked up at him. Eye contact.
“I thought you would give me a chance,” she said. Her tight fists trembled.
He held her gaze for a long time. “Why would I?”
“Maybe I could be better for you. I know she’s making you happy, but maybe I could...”
When she said she’s making you happy, he finally looked away, down to the side.
There was a long silence, and her gaze fell too.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Huh?” She leaned close towards him.
He didn’t respond for a minute, lost in thought, it seemed. Then he stood up, looking down at her, frowning. “Don’t throw the word love around. It’s a mistake.”
With that, he turned away and walked out the door.
Once he had left, she let go and cried.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
First Milestone
In my last full-length post, I talked about how my experience and techniques helped me to increase my word count dramatically. In fact, I've consistently gone into half-hour chunks of time and come out with close to 1000 words--and now, on Day 3, I've already hit the 10,000 mark.
This is where I have to start to think about something. You see, according to the structure workshop I mentioned in an earlier post, my "first plot point" should be somewhere around the 20%-25% mark of the novel. Assuming I finish the novel in 50,000 words, that means it's roughly somewhere between now and about 12,500 words.
The "first plot point" is where you transition from illustrating the character's normal life to getting into the actual conflict and subject matter of the book. In fact, I spent this entire 10,000 words illustrating just how bad Aaron's life is, and why he's so depressed. Actually, I have to wrap that up pretty soon, because I want it to culminate in a low point. That's when he'll discover Homestuck, as I mentioned in my summary.
So what's the situation so far? Starting from a massive breakup (which draws heavily on my own experience), Aaron already feels pretty worthless. Worse, another girl that he thinks is interested in him turns out to already have a boyfriend, and when he asks her on a date they go as "just friends." This is awkward and reinforces the idea that nobody likes him that way.
That's when things get complicated. Aaron finds himself with Anise Black, a girl that's much too young for him, to the tune of 13 years old to his 17. Ouch. She's about as depressed as he is, and the two of them become close by reassuring each other and helping build one another's self esteem. This may seem like a good thing, but Anise is very interested in getting sexual, and Aaron is not.
Meanwhile, because of their age difference, their relationship is secret. In order to help cover it up, Aaron starts a "fake" relationship with Shelly, an old friend of his, who's in a similar situation. As you might suspect, he becomes closer to her than he planned, and Anise is extremely jealous. She gets angry, and in turn Aaron shares that problem with Shelly, since she's the only one who knows about Anise. Things are spiraling out of control, and in my next scene it's all going to come crashing down.
This is where I have to start to think about something. You see, according to the structure workshop I mentioned in an earlier post, my "first plot point" should be somewhere around the 20%-25% mark of the novel. Assuming I finish the novel in 50,000 words, that means it's roughly somewhere between now and about 12,500 words.
The "first plot point" is where you transition from illustrating the character's normal life to getting into the actual conflict and subject matter of the book. In fact, I spent this entire 10,000 words illustrating just how bad Aaron's life is, and why he's so depressed. Actually, I have to wrap that up pretty soon, because I want it to culminate in a low point. That's when he'll discover Homestuck, as I mentioned in my summary.
So what's the situation so far? Starting from a massive breakup (which draws heavily on my own experience), Aaron already feels pretty worthless. Worse, another girl that he thinks is interested in him turns out to already have a boyfriend, and when he asks her on a date they go as "just friends." This is awkward and reinforces the idea that nobody likes him that way.
That's when things get complicated. Aaron finds himself with Anise Black, a girl that's much too young for him, to the tune of 13 years old to his 17. Ouch. She's about as depressed as he is, and the two of them become close by reassuring each other and helping build one another's self esteem. This may seem like a good thing, but Anise is very interested in getting sexual, and Aaron is not.
Meanwhile, because of their age difference, their relationship is secret. In order to help cover it up, Aaron starts a "fake" relationship with Shelly, an old friend of his, who's in a similar situation. As you might suspect, he becomes closer to her than he planned, and Anise is extremely jealous. She gets angry, and in turn Aaron shares that problem with Shelly, since she's the only one who knows about Anise. Things are spiraling out of control, and in my next scene it's all going to come crashing down.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Quick Announcement
Just wanted to note--my word count, as updated on the NaNoWriMo site, is now featured on the right side here. There are a couple of other minor changes I made to make the blog more accessible to people who want to keep up with it, too.
Since I'm here--things haven't slowed down. It's going great!
Since I'm here--things haven't slowed down. It's going great!
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Expertise
The kickoff party last night was amazing! There was a lot of talking and sorting things out as midnight crept up, and we exchanged a lot of advice. The energy was high, probably due to the presence of LOTS of Halloween candy.
There was one thing that happened that felt strange to me, though. A new novelist came in and asked how many people were doing NaNoWriMo for the very first time. Of course, a couple of hands went up. Then people started sharing how many years they'd done it, and how many wins they had accumulated.
Confidently, I said that this year would be my fifth. Everyone stared. I might have been the youngest person there, but suddenly I commanded a strange respect, the quiet guy that hardly anyone had noticed before. People started asking me questions, like whether it got easier the more times you did it. I said no, it's always difficult. Which, in my experience, has always been true. You can't get through this without a fight. It was the most honest answer I could give. Or so I thought.
One other thing I did, which I feel is relevant: I confessed that this year would probably produce my worst novel yet. And I was okay with that.
As midnight approached, someone began to count the minutes. With thirty to go, I had my first sentence in my head and my fingers above the keyboard. I channeled my inner insanity: tilted my head, widened my eyes, and made a giant grin. My brain got the message.
The instant I heard zero I was on the rampage that I had anticipated, my keyboard the machine gun, with no worries of running out of ammunition. Oh, and there's no doubt that I did indeed massacre that kickoff: after half an hour we stopped and compared word counts. I heard 250, 300, 500, 800. I didn't want to tell them mine, but I did. It was something like 1100 words.
I had spent that entire time recounting events from my own life, skimming them and deliberately leaving out the happy parts to leave a picture of a very depressed young man to begin with. I was sure it was the wild anticipation that had done it, but once again I channeled my crazy, and by 1AM my total word count was 2276. I managed yet another half hour just this evening, with similar results.
Who knows? Maybe I am really good at this now after all. Obviously part of it was my statement, my worst novel ever, which killed all quality control outright--something we're told to do time and time again. But I think just as important were the madness that drove me, and the method of listing things very specific and personal to me. I think everyone can do those things, at least. We're all a little crazy. Otherwise we wouldn't be doing this. And putting in a bit of yourself comes with the trade--it might be tough if your novel is really "out there," but you can always find a way.
Whew! Too bad this blog post isn't part of my novel--I spent another half-hour working on it. Ah, well, I'm off to do more of my absolutely insane writing--and you should, too!
BwaHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAhahahahahahhahaaHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
There was one thing that happened that felt strange to me, though. A new novelist came in and asked how many people were doing NaNoWriMo for the very first time. Of course, a couple of hands went up. Then people started sharing how many years they'd done it, and how many wins they had accumulated.
Confidently, I said that this year would be my fifth. Everyone stared. I might have been the youngest person there, but suddenly I commanded a strange respect, the quiet guy that hardly anyone had noticed before. People started asking me questions, like whether it got easier the more times you did it. I said no, it's always difficult. Which, in my experience, has always been true. You can't get through this without a fight. It was the most honest answer I could give. Or so I thought.
One other thing I did, which I feel is relevant: I confessed that this year would probably produce my worst novel yet. And I was okay with that.
As midnight approached, someone began to count the minutes. With thirty to go, I had my first sentence in my head and my fingers above the keyboard. I channeled my inner insanity: tilted my head, widened my eyes, and made a giant grin. My brain got the message.
The instant I heard zero I was on the rampage that I had anticipated, my keyboard the machine gun, with no worries of running out of ammunition. Oh, and there's no doubt that I did indeed massacre that kickoff: after half an hour we stopped and compared word counts. I heard 250, 300, 500, 800. I didn't want to tell them mine, but I did. It was something like 1100 words.
I had spent that entire time recounting events from my own life, skimming them and deliberately leaving out the happy parts to leave a picture of a very depressed young man to begin with. I was sure it was the wild anticipation that had done it, but once again I channeled my crazy, and by 1AM my total word count was 2276. I managed yet another half hour just this evening, with similar results.
Who knows? Maybe I am really good at this now after all. Obviously part of it was my statement, my worst novel ever, which killed all quality control outright--something we're told to do time and time again. But I think just as important were the madness that drove me, and the method of listing things very specific and personal to me. I think everyone can do those things, at least. We're all a little crazy. Otherwise we wouldn't be doing this. And putting in a bit of yourself comes with the trade--it might be tough if your novel is really "out there," but you can always find a way.
Whew! Too bad this blog post isn't part of my novel--I spent another half-hour working on it. Ah, well, I'm off to do more of my absolutely insane writing--and you should, too!
BwaHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAhahahahahahhahaaHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
New Beginnings
While I try not to let on in this blog--due to the fact that it's really not the subject of this blog to discuss such things--I've been in kind of a slump. There are reasons for that, and most are emotional, and rather personal, in nature. I won't get into it too much, but it slowed my writing to a crawl, nearly a halt.
The kicker was the other night when my primary computer shut off, permanently. I'll survive, but that kind of prevents the Halloween art I was going to post up here as a fun little thing. My characters were going to be in costume and it was going to be great. Ah, well. One of these days I'll upload it anyway, though the surprise will be ruined.
Anyway, back on subject here, today was kind of a turning point for me. Again, getting a little personal, but I'll just say that my to-do list is a heck of a lot shorter than it was yesterday. That helps a lot, because I was getting to where I just didn't think I could do it. I considered dropping out of NaNoWriMo for the first time in 5 years.
Pfft! What was I thinking. Back down now? On the very brink of what promises to be another insane, amazing, fun, silly, harrowing adventure of a month?! Now that I'm going it with a lot more friends than ever before?! When I already made plans to make it to the kickoff at midnight, despite working at 10 AM the next morning?!
I think not. No way. If there's one thing I know I'm capable of, and that's yet still a really impressive feat, it's finishing a NaNoWriMo. Where else am I going to get my confidence back? Also, because my character this year has a few shades of my inner self, it'll be therapeutic in that sense, too. Once I come out of my day-long coma December 1st, I should have my drive back in full force.
The kicker was the other night when my primary computer shut off, permanently. I'll survive, but that kind of prevents the Halloween art I was going to post up here as a fun little thing. My characters were going to be in costume and it was going to be great. Ah, well. One of these days I'll upload it anyway, though the surprise will be ruined.
Anyway, back on subject here, today was kind of a turning point for me. Again, getting a little personal, but I'll just say that my to-do list is a heck of a lot shorter than it was yesterday. That helps a lot, because I was getting to where I just didn't think I could do it. I considered dropping out of NaNoWriMo for the first time in 5 years.
Pfft! What was I thinking. Back down now? On the very brink of what promises to be another insane, amazing, fun, silly, harrowing adventure of a month?! Now that I'm going it with a lot more friends than ever before?! When I already made plans to make it to the kickoff at midnight, despite working at 10 AM the next morning?!
I think not. No way. If there's one thing I know I'm capable of, and that's yet still a really impressive feat, it's finishing a NaNoWriMo. Where else am I going to get my confidence back? Also, because my character this year has a few shades of my inner self, it'll be therapeutic in that sense, too. Once I come out of my day-long coma December 1st, I should have my drive back in full force.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Look at Me!
Everyone on the internet wants attention. That's just how it is, right? Whether you're an author scrounging for an audience or just some random person posting your thoughts somewhere, it's all turned into a complicated popularity contest. Luckily, it's perfectly fine--even a good thing--to share victory. Now, I don't exactly have any victory to go around, but we all start somewhere, right? Maybe it's the same for you. Either way, I think we can all learn something from each other if we just share our thoughts on the matter. So here are mine.
The way I see it, attracting people who consistently look at your content, time after time (the most valuable kind of attention you can ask for) is a bit of a balancing act. Yup, time to roll out the three-point system, bane of essays and speeches everywhere.
First, you have to have some kind of general subject matter that you stick to pretty consistently. In my case, that's writing, specifically sci-fi and fantasy (what else do you expect?) It's a continuous look at what influences my work day-to-day and how I respond. I pretty much never deviate from that. That's the easy part, to me at least.
Building on your subject, you then need to offer content that's either useful or entertaining in some way. Entertaining might mean you have a short story or video every week or two that keeps the people's attention (this is how most YouTube channels get their followings.) As for being useful, I think that's the thing that a lot of people have trouble with. They think they don't have any new or interesting information to present to the world. I certainly haven't done a good job at this aspect up until now, but I think that because everyone has a unique take on everything, it's a matter of getting creative.
Finally, make sure to add a personal touch. Nobody wants to read something written by a faceless robot (except maybe to see how faceless robots write, but once the novelty wears off they'll lose interest.) If you're a writer and you have a developed voice in your work, by God please use it. I've had enough boring reading. Yes, think about how you write, and also, find places where you can hint about other aspects of your life.
Okay, now in case you're not exhausted of all blatantly working too hard to take my own advice, it's example time. In fact, this is what got me thinking about this topic. I was reading my philosophy textbook for college, and all of a sudden the author brought up his dog. Apparently the dog's growing and shedding of fur perfectly illustrated the theory we were talking about. We were still on the topic of philosophy, it turned out, so he didn't violate that. Not only that, but it helped in understanding what I was trying to learn. And, of course, I now know a little bit more about the textbook author (who I didn't really think of as a person before.)
Funnily enough, I pretty much did the same thing by citing that example, didn't I? But if I bring that up then I have to point out that I'm still doing it and now we start getting into an infinite loop and okay I think it's about time to wrap this up! It was kind of a long post but I wanted to not only tell you guys what I think but also have lots of chances to use those techniques myself. Thanks for being so patient, and for actually reading my blog in the first place for that matter. I'd love to see what you guys think about this, too, so please feel free to comment.
The way I see it, attracting people who consistently look at your content, time after time (the most valuable kind of attention you can ask for) is a bit of a balancing act. Yup, time to roll out the three-point system, bane of essays and speeches everywhere.
First, you have to have some kind of general subject matter that you stick to pretty consistently. In my case, that's writing, specifically sci-fi and fantasy (what else do you expect?) It's a continuous look at what influences my work day-to-day and how I respond. I pretty much never deviate from that. That's the easy part, to me at least.
Building on your subject, you then need to offer content that's either useful or entertaining in some way. Entertaining might mean you have a short story or video every week or two that keeps the people's attention (this is how most YouTube channels get their followings.) As for being useful, I think that's the thing that a lot of people have trouble with. They think they don't have any new or interesting information to present to the world. I certainly haven't done a good job at this aspect up until now, but I think that because everyone has a unique take on everything, it's a matter of getting creative.
Finally, make sure to add a personal touch. Nobody wants to read something written by a faceless robot (except maybe to see how faceless robots write, but once the novelty wears off they'll lose interest.) If you're a writer and you have a developed voice in your work, by God please use it. I've had enough boring reading. Yes, think about how you write, and also, find places where you can hint about other aspects of your life.
Okay, now in case you're not exhausted of all blatantly working too hard to take my own advice, it's example time. In fact, this is what got me thinking about this topic. I was reading my philosophy textbook for college, and all of a sudden the author brought up his dog. Apparently the dog's growing and shedding of fur perfectly illustrated the theory we were talking about. We were still on the topic of philosophy, it turned out, so he didn't violate that. Not only that, but it helped in understanding what I was trying to learn. And, of course, I now know a little bit more about the textbook author (who I didn't really think of as a person before.)
Funnily enough, I pretty much did the same thing by citing that example, didn't I? But if I bring that up then I have to point out that I'm still doing it and now we start getting into an infinite loop and okay I think it's about time to wrap this up! It was kind of a long post but I wanted to not only tell you guys what I think but also have lots of chances to use those techniques myself. Thanks for being so patient, and for actually reading my blog in the first place for that matter. I'd love to see what you guys think about this, too, so please feel free to comment.
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