I've been rather quieter than I would prefer to be on this blog, because other life stuff keeps getting in the way. This is due in no small part to my being manically busy in the day job at present. In the middle of a horrendous week, the only thing that's keeping me going is the knowledge that it ends with FantasyCon.
FantasyCon was the first Con I started going to, and as such it holds a special place in my heart. Contrary to the title it's not just for fantasy writers. FantasyCon is the official convention of the British Fantasy Society, which embraces horror, science fiction and fantasy and all of their sub-genres. And indeed, it was through joining the BFS, through my love of horror, that led me to discover FantasyCon in the first place.
It's also the Con where I run into the most people I know outside of the Convention world, as a significant proportion of the writers' group go. This year's FantasyCon is at Brighton, and the weather forecast is unseasonably balmy this weekend, with temperatures forecast for the high 20s. So if we want a break from the panels, the schmoozing and the boozing, a walk by the sea front in the fresh air will be an attractive option.
The Con is offering a reading programme, which is rather being hijacked by my writing group since no fewer than eight of us are reading over the course of the weekend. My reading is at 3:30pm on Friday, and I will be giving my audience a sneak preview of my forthcoming anthology SOUL SCREAMS, reading a story from the collection. At least, I hope there will be an audience. If you're at FantasyCon this weekend, please stop by Room 134 at 3:30 on Friday to offer some moral support!
This is the last Con I'm booked for this year, which is all the more reason to relish it. Next years' Con schedule is uncertain at this stage - not on the part of the Cons, as they're all confirmed and taking bookings. But I have yet to make up my mind which ones to go to. If only I had the funds - and the leave allocation - to go to all of them...
I'm counting down the hours now until I depart for Brighton, but in the meantime I have a great deal of work to do for the day job, not to mention the Con-related things such as practising my reading and that all important decision of What To Pack. If you're attending FantasyCon I hope to see you there - if you're not, I'll give a full low down next week!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
My Black Journal
Today I thought I'd share some of my writing techniques. Please realize these are still in the experimental stages and I'm in no way suggesting you should follow what I do.
What prompted me to start keeping a notebook on the Zaphkiel Project, my current WIP, was the amount of research I accumulated on the Transit of Venus, planetary harmonics, and pentacles. Rather than shove printed copies into a file or binder, I decided to tape them into a journal I'd picked up at my local Barnes and Noble. Not only were my references organized, I had room to jot any notes.
During this time, I also worked on the plot and characters using yWriter, a free writing software. Again, rather than let loose sheets of paper get misplaced in files or shoved into bulky binders, I decided to cut and tape the pages I printed into the black journal. These included chapters and scene breakdowns and character profiles.
Part of my reason for compiling notes is I have a terrible time with character motivation. (I can see my editor nodding. "Yes. Yes.") By doing extensive character profiles, including GMCs (goal, motivation, and conflict charts), I hope to spot any potential plot problems in the preplanning stages.
The character sheets are courtesy of Anne Olwin. I've filled out several such worksheets but I think these are my favorite by far. I also use Josh Lanyon's techniques in creating unique characters via The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, a blog post on Romance University.
Seems a lot of prep work, doesn't it? Next month I'm participating in BIAM_Writathon and hope to compile another notebook for my vampire Victorian paranormal. That's my proposed NaNo project. Of course, it'll probably take more than one journal.
Will I keep this technique? Good question. Right now I like it, even if I do use a lot of tape. I suppose there's rubber cement. :-)
Here's the way I see it. Whatever helps me write a damn good story works for me.
What prompted me to start keeping a notebook on the Zaphkiel Project, my current WIP, was the amount of research I accumulated on the Transit of Venus, planetary harmonics, and pentacles. Rather than shove printed copies into a file or binder, I decided to tape them into a journal I'd picked up at my local Barnes and Noble. Not only were my references organized, I had room to jot any notes.
Seems a lot of prep work, doesn't it? Next month I'm participating in BIAM_Writathon and hope to compile another notebook for my vampire Victorian paranormal. That's my proposed NaNo project. Of course, it'll probably take more than one journal.
Will I keep this technique? Good question. Right now I like it, even if I do use a lot of tape. I suppose there's rubber cement. :-)
Here's the way I see it. Whatever helps me write a damn good story works for me.
Monday, September 26, 2011
New challenge: short stories
Having recently finished my sixth book of either novella or novel length, I've now got short stories on the brain. I'm of the opinion that writing short stories can actually be harder than writing longer length stories. It requires a kind of precision and laser focus that helps you cut down all the extraneous stuff and get right to the heart of a story, like packing for a three-week vacation and fitting it all in a small carry-on bag. That's some serious skill right there.
I've written short stories, though I don't know how many right off the top of my head. It's not something I've put a lot of effort into, though. For one thing it can be hard for me to stick to what I think is the number one rule of plotting a short story: keep it simple. I also have trouble connecting with characters that aren't going to be around long. The best shorts I've written so far are two that feature characters from my novel Mojo Queen. Slipping into that world for a short story felt much more comfortable than visiting a place to which I might not return.
The fact that it's difficult for me is exactly why I want to make a serious effort at writing short stories. To kick off this new goal I'm going to do two things: go through all my old short stories, dust them off, and see if there's anything worth salvaging by applying any new skills I've learned since; and write some new stories. For that I'm going to start by seeing if I can come up with something to enter in the Bloody Parchment Anthology short story competition. If you write horror or dark fiction you might want to take a look at the guidelines and see if you've got anything you can submit. To be honest, other than this anthology I don't know much about the short story market. I'm not going to worry about that too much unless I'm able to write some stories I think are good enough to submit.
Note: my Write Club posting day has moved from Friday to Monday. So Happy Monday everybody!
I've written short stories, though I don't know how many right off the top of my head. It's not something I've put a lot of effort into, though. For one thing it can be hard for me to stick to what I think is the number one rule of plotting a short story: keep it simple. I also have trouble connecting with characters that aren't going to be around long. The best shorts I've written so far are two that feature characters from my novel Mojo Queen. Slipping into that world for a short story felt much more comfortable than visiting a place to which I might not return.
The fact that it's difficult for me is exactly why I want to make a serious effort at writing short stories. To kick off this new goal I'm going to do two things: go through all my old short stories, dust them off, and see if there's anything worth salvaging by applying any new skills I've learned since; and write some new stories. For that I'm going to start by seeing if I can come up with something to enter in the Bloody Parchment Anthology short story competition. If you write horror or dark fiction you might want to take a look at the guidelines and see if you've got anything you can submit. To be honest, other than this anthology I don't know much about the short story market. I'm not going to worry about that too much unless I'm able to write some stories I think are good enough to submit.
Note: my Write Club posting day has moved from Friday to Monday. So Happy Monday everybody!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Writers on screen
Since writers tend to be nerdy and meta, most of us love stories about fictional authors. It's not all that unusual to find books where the main character is a writer. I think most of Stephen King's books are like that. Making your main character a writer might straddle the line between meta and jumping the shark, and it's easy to blame it on the adage write what you know. This is, after all, what we know. It can work really well as long as you don't make that character too much of a Mary Sue, but that can be said for any and every character. It's more unusual to see writers portrayed in TV and movies so it's always kind of neat when it happens, especially when it's something popular. There are two TV shows right now where the main character is a writer. One of them I like, one of them I love.
Bones - Dr. Temperance Brennan - is a forensic anthropologist who works with the FBI to solve murders, and she's also a best-selling crime novelist. That premise is no more of a stretch than any other TV show so okay, fine. My problem with Bones is that I have a very hard time accepting her as a writer. She displays very little empathy or basic understanding of human emotions and motivations. That's part of who she is, and that's fine, but it makes me glad they rarely mention her books. It's barely a part of the show, which is a good thing because it's completely unbelievable to me that she could write books anyone would want to publish, much less read. If you're going to write you have got to have empathy. There's no way around that. It's so important, the subject needs it's own post. Anyway, Bones is an interesting character but I'm glad they don't delve into her writing too much or it might distract from my enjoyment of David Boreanaz. Don't get me wrong, I like the show and the character, but I wouldn't want to read a book by Bones.
The show I love that's about a writer is of course Castle. Another best-selling crime novelist, Richard Castle used his connections with the mayor to score himself a permanent ride-along with NYPD detective Kate Beckett so he can use her as inspiration for his new series. He's got charm, he's got brains, he's got a bullet proof vest labeled writer, and yes, he has empathy. Loads of it. He's also obsessive, which may be as important a requirement as empathy. The show is mostly light-hearted and built around the characters rather than the cases, though the ongoing investigation into the murder of Beckett's mother is proving to be a heavy hitter. Those episodes are always intense and now because of that case Castle has his own version of what I call a murder wall. You know that trope in movies and TV where somebody is obsessively investigating a crime they're not supposed to for whatever reason and they've got a big whiteboard or a wall or in Castle's case a huge digital screen with all of the evidence and leads on it? I know it's a cliché but I don't care, I love it. What's really great about Castle is Nathan Fillion, who is thirty-one flavors of awesome as the eponymous character. I might cringe when they show him signing the cover of a book instead of the inside, but Fillion makes me believe Castle really could have written that book. In fact, I found the first Nikki Heat book at the library and read it. Nikki Heat is the series Castle writes about Beckett and the book was just like the show, only with sexytimes between the Castle and Beckett characters, and good grief that's meta. (Castleception!)
Do you have any favorite fictional authors?
 |
| What to get the writer who has everything: a bullet proof vest. |
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
"Write What You Know"
Sooner or later, the novice writer is given these words of advice: "write what you know". To a certain degree, it's sound advice. If you can get inside the head of a character, they are more believable. A scenario reads as more 'real' if it appears the author is writing like they know what they're talking about.
But if you start writing young, this advice can seem a bit daunting. At 16, you don't know much (even if, at the time, you think you know everything).
I do have a tendency to write about what I know, but it's largely down to a very literal nature and being too lazy to do research. When I started writing stories as a child, I was writing about myself - literally. I enjoyed writing stories about the wonderful - and extremely fictional - adventures of myself and my best friend Helen and our respective younger sisters. I guess I thought my real life was far too ordinary, so I made up something far more exciting.
When I got to about ten or eleven, I started writing stories about fictional characters. But they were still largely about me - they were always girls the same age as me, with the same character traits. At the time this seemed a perfectly natural thing to do. I had no experience of how someone who wasn't me might react in a given situation, so all I could do was write about the character in the same way I would react to the situation.
As a writer, you have to learn how to put yourself in someone else's head. You might react in a certain way, but someone with a different background, with different personality traits, might not. That was a lesson I found difficult to learn, as a young writer. One of the most frequent criticisms I received about my writing when I was in my teens and early twenties was that my male characters came across as flat and unbelievable. Even now, I sometimes have trouble writing men. Well, having never been one, I find them hard to understand sometimes. But I digress...
"Write what you know" is an important lesson. But part of that lesson is learning to understand what you don't know, so you can write about it effectively. Reading other writers can often help, especially reading in genres you might not necessarily be drawn to. Talking to people is a valuable source of information. I see parties as more than just social occasions these days. Sometimes I get chatting to someone I've just met and find out they work in a career that might actually be a useful source of information. If it turns out they are a police officer or coroner or even undertaker, for example, chances are I'll try and get their email address before I leave the party.
I still get nervous about straying outside my comfort zone as a writer, but sometimes it's necessary to stretch one's writing. When I wrote SUFFER THE CHILDREN I had to get inside the head of a young woman who'd been brought up by a neglectful mother addicted to drink and drugs, on a grotty council estate, repeatedly abused by a variety of men who passed through her mother's life. This was all daunting stuff, way beyond my own sphere of experience. But most people who've read the book and fed back on it have told me that Leanne is a believable character. I worked hard to make her so. Research helps, talking to the right people is even more helpful, and of course the writer's imagination can help fill in the gaps.
"Write what you know" is good advice. But "know what you write about" is even better advice.
But if you start writing young, this advice can seem a bit daunting. At 16, you don't know much (even if, at the time, you think you know everything).
I do have a tendency to write about what I know, but it's largely down to a very literal nature and being too lazy to do research. When I started writing stories as a child, I was writing about myself - literally. I enjoyed writing stories about the wonderful - and extremely fictional - adventures of myself and my best friend Helen and our respective younger sisters. I guess I thought my real life was far too ordinary, so I made up something far more exciting.
When I got to about ten or eleven, I started writing stories about fictional characters. But they were still largely about me - they were always girls the same age as me, with the same character traits. At the time this seemed a perfectly natural thing to do. I had no experience of how someone who wasn't me might react in a given situation, so all I could do was write about the character in the same way I would react to the situation.
As a writer, you have to learn how to put yourself in someone else's head. You might react in a certain way, but someone with a different background, with different personality traits, might not. That was a lesson I found difficult to learn, as a young writer. One of the most frequent criticisms I received about my writing when I was in my teens and early twenties was that my male characters came across as flat and unbelievable. Even now, I sometimes have trouble writing men. Well, having never been one, I find them hard to understand sometimes. But I digress...
"Write what you know" is an important lesson. But part of that lesson is learning to understand what you don't know, so you can write about it effectively. Reading other writers can often help, especially reading in genres you might not necessarily be drawn to. Talking to people is a valuable source of information. I see parties as more than just social occasions these days. Sometimes I get chatting to someone I've just met and find out they work in a career that might actually be a useful source of information. If it turns out they are a police officer or coroner or even undertaker, for example, chances are I'll try and get their email address before I leave the party.
I still get nervous about straying outside my comfort zone as a writer, but sometimes it's necessary to stretch one's writing. When I wrote SUFFER THE CHILDREN I had to get inside the head of a young woman who'd been brought up by a neglectful mother addicted to drink and drugs, on a grotty council estate, repeatedly abused by a variety of men who passed through her mother's life. This was all daunting stuff, way beyond my own sphere of experience. But most people who've read the book and fed back on it have told me that Leanne is a believable character. I worked hard to make her so. Research helps, talking to the right people is even more helpful, and of course the writer's imagination can help fill in the gaps.
"Write what you know" is good advice. But "know what you write about" is even better advice.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Writing Your Heart Out
Many writers know the meaning of BICHOK: "Butt in chair, hands on keyboard." And many writers have every intention of starting or finishing that novel. Sure, there's National Novel Writing Month, but the prospect of writing 50k words in one month is daunting. Not to mention it's the holidays and your relatives have designated your home as Turkey Central.
So you're not quite sure about NaNo (although I'd encourage you to try it), but you need a push to get your creative juices flowing. You need encouragement. You just need to get that damn story started.
Maybe you need BIAM_Writathon, an online writing challenge that occurs every April and October. Organized by AnneMarie Novark, BIAM_Writathon is a chance for writers to lock their internal editors in the closet, give their muses free reign, and write their hearts out. The good news? No restrictions. Write a short story or a novel. Edit a work in progress or plan for the NaNo challenge.
I've done BIAM_Writathon a few times now and I don't always succeed in completing my goal(s). Nevertheless, I enjoy the group and look forward to it. This time, I hope to rewrite my werewolf novella and finish a vampire short story. That plus preparing for my NaNo project.
Interested in BIAM_Writathon? The Yahoo group is by invitation only. To learn more, http://annemarienovark.com/?p=151
So you're not quite sure about NaNo (although I'd encourage you to try it), but you need a push to get your creative juices flowing. You need encouragement. You just need to get that damn story started.
Maybe you need BIAM_Writathon, an online writing challenge that occurs every April and October. Organized by AnneMarie Novark, BIAM_Writathon is a chance for writers to lock their internal editors in the closet, give their muses free reign, and write their hearts out. The good news? No restrictions. Write a short story or a novel. Edit a work in progress or plan for the NaNo challenge.
I've done BIAM_Writathon a few times now and I don't always succeed in completing my goal(s). Nevertheless, I enjoy the group and look forward to it. This time, I hope to rewrite my werewolf novella and finish a vampire short story. That plus preparing for my NaNo project.
Interested in BIAM_Writathon? The Yahoo group is by invitation only. To learn more, http://annemarienovark.com/?p=151
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)