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.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
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.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Awkward Romance
So, NaNoWriMo is coming up, and like many years I have a pretty bare-bones type of plan in mind for it. One that could go anywhere, has potential to be silly, and, most importantly, does not compel me to believe the resulting novel will actually do anything for my writing career. (This last condition is the trump card against my inner editor.)
The way it does this? By blurring the line between fan fiction (something based in another creator's work) and originality. My novel, tentatively titled "The Lifey Thing," is rooted in an intellectual property that is now not only a story but an entire culture. This culture, which can now be seen filling conventions everywhere, is where the main character resides.
Yes, like me, my character Aaron is a big fan of the hit hybrid-media webcomic Homestuck. Actually, he's a bigger fan. Instead of just buying some cards and throwing together a cheap Halloween costume to show his love for it, he discovers it and then immediately becomes obsessive. To the point where he starts taking all the quizzes out there to find what character role fits him, and then does everything he can to follow it.
Not only that, but he gets into things like "troll romance," in which love is divided into four quadrants that are symbolized by playing card suits. Hearts is pretty much what you expect, while diamonds and clubs are more or less platonic. It's spades that makes this really weird stuff. Spades represents the kismesis, a person you hate passionately but are somehow still very attracted to. Aaron believes that he'll only be satisfied if he can somehow get both a traditional romance (which he never had any success with in the first place) and a kismesis.
Needless to say, the people around him have no idea why he's acting the way he does. It makes no sense. He may throw away reason and the things that are best for him just to get into this. Is there even the slightest possibility that his extreme attitude would ever pay off? That's what I'm setting out to explore this November.
The way it does this? By blurring the line between fan fiction (something based in another creator's work) and originality. My novel, tentatively titled "The Lifey Thing," is rooted in an intellectual property that is now not only a story but an entire culture. This culture, which can now be seen filling conventions everywhere, is where the main character resides.
Yes, like me, my character Aaron is a big fan of the hit hybrid-media webcomic Homestuck. Actually, he's a bigger fan. Instead of just buying some cards and throwing together a cheap Halloween costume to show his love for it, he discovers it and then immediately becomes obsessive. To the point where he starts taking all the quizzes out there to find what character role fits him, and then does everything he can to follow it.
Not only that, but he gets into things like "troll romance," in which love is divided into four quadrants that are symbolized by playing card suits. Hearts is pretty much what you expect, while diamonds and clubs are more or less platonic. It's spades that makes this really weird stuff. Spades represents the kismesis, a person you hate passionately but are somehow still very attracted to. Aaron believes that he'll only be satisfied if he can somehow get both a traditional romance (which he never had any success with in the first place) and a kismesis.
Needless to say, the people around him have no idea why he's acting the way he does. It makes no sense. He may throw away reason and the things that are best for him just to get into this. Is there even the slightest possibility that his extreme attitude would ever pay off? That's what I'm setting out to explore this November.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Ready for NaNoWriMo?
Oh, boy. This is going to be a tough month.
As you all already know, I've got college and work going on, and it's been a tough juggle. Trying to update this blog and make even a little bit of effort on The Third Face each day has been about all I could do.
So basically, when November rolls around, I will never have a spare minute.
If you're new to my blog and you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, back up a bit. Read this a sec. I'm trying to write a novel in a month here. Craziness by itself, but I've done it before. (You should too.) It was tough every time. I didn't have this kind of workload back then, though.
The problem is finding those spare hours, every day, and actually having the will to use them. It's about still wanting to work on something when I've already been at work all day. It's about still being able to type after doing homework for hours. It's about still having some energy after taking classes until 9 at night and driving home. Every. Single. Day. For 30 days.
Can I do it? We'll see. You'll definitely know whether I do or not. As usual, when I'm in the midst of something big like this I can't help but share what's going on with it through this blog. In fact, next time I'll tell you exactly what I have planned for this year.
As you all already know, I've got college and work going on, and it's been a tough juggle. Trying to update this blog and make even a little bit of effort on The Third Face each day has been about all I could do.
So basically, when November rolls around, I will never have a spare minute.
If you're new to my blog and you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, back up a bit. Read this a sec. I'm trying to write a novel in a month here. Craziness by itself, but I've done it before. (You should too.) It was tough every time. I didn't have this kind of workload back then, though.
The problem is finding those spare hours, every day, and actually having the will to use them. It's about still wanting to work on something when I've already been at work all day. It's about still being able to type after doing homework for hours. It's about still having some energy after taking classes until 9 at night and driving home. Every. Single. Day. For 30 days.
Can I do it? We'll see. You'll definitely know whether I do or not. As usual, when I'm in the midst of something big like this I can't help but share what's going on with it through this blog. In fact, next time I'll tell you exactly what I have planned for this year.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Novel Planning: How Much?
If you're as serious about novel writing as I am, then you've probably gone out of your way to find the best advice there is. How can you write a novel that people will love, and that will actually sell?
There are a lot of different opinions on it. I see a pattern where some writers call for a lot of planning. One site claimed that you should outline your novel so thoroughly that you have a paragraph explaining every single chapter, and then write the actual thing as fast as you can with minimal editing. Yeah, I'm SURE that will solve everything.
More recently I had a look at Storyfix.com, a blog by author Larry Brooks that suggests there are certain areas of any novel (or film) which all need to work together to make it great. Like many others, Larry Brooks advocates a planned structure: four parts with their own specific functions, and several key points that either highlight or separate them. It's a very involved, disciplined way of looking at things.
The question is, is this overdoing it? Is it going to kill the novel-writing process? I guess that depends on what you want most out of it, and how close you feel to having it right yourself. I know I'm still not happy with the way mine is written, so to me, it's worth a try.
Still, there's a full-page checklist on there and after an hour's concentration I'm still working on the opening sequence here. This thing is asking a lot! But it seems to me that there's a lot of merit to at least answering these questions, and using them to write the novel--whether I decide to actually go with the structure prescribed or not.
Basically what I'm saying is, I'm going to give the techniques in that blog a try. Some day I'll let you guys know how that came out. First, though, I have NaNoWriMo--look out for talk about that next time.
There are a lot of different opinions on it. I see a pattern where some writers call for a lot of planning. One site claimed that you should outline your novel so thoroughly that you have a paragraph explaining every single chapter, and then write the actual thing as fast as you can with minimal editing. Yeah, I'm SURE that will solve everything.
More recently I had a look at Storyfix.com, a blog by author Larry Brooks that suggests there are certain areas of any novel (or film) which all need to work together to make it great. Like many others, Larry Brooks advocates a planned structure: four parts with their own specific functions, and several key points that either highlight or separate them. It's a very involved, disciplined way of looking at things.
The question is, is this overdoing it? Is it going to kill the novel-writing process? I guess that depends on what you want most out of it, and how close you feel to having it right yourself. I know I'm still not happy with the way mine is written, so to me, it's worth a try.
Still, there's a full-page checklist on there and after an hour's concentration I'm still working on the opening sequence here. This thing is asking a lot! But it seems to me that there's a lot of merit to at least answering these questions, and using them to write the novel--whether I decide to actually go with the structure prescribed or not.
Basically what I'm saying is, I'm going to give the techniques in that blog a try. Some day I'll let you guys know how that came out. First, though, I have NaNoWriMo--look out for talk about that next time.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The Man in the Brown Bandanna
Today you get a free short story that doubles as an introduction to The Third Face. Enjoy!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Art Attack
The more strange or abstract that world is, the more it helps to have backup for the words on the page. Usually that means art.
Needless to say, I like drawing. I don't consider myself a great artist, but all the character illustrations that went with the release of The Third Face were mine. To the left here is another drawing of those characters that I did a bit more recently.
Other than this, though, I haven't drawn a thing in months. Time to fix that! There's another major character I want to introduce that way, and a bigger project that would be great to have done by Halloween.
So yes, expect images on blog posts to be a much more common thing from now on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)