Today is October 31st, and you know what that means. People watching! Okay, so candy and pumpkins and costumes too, but it is yet early in the day and the best I can do is sit here in my costume no one gets (is Clara Oswin Oswald that obscure?) and watch out the window at the other students passing by in their costumes. It's more fun than it probably should be. I like Halloween because it's interesting to see who comes as what and how awesome their costumes look. So, here's a list of what I've seen so far today:
- The Doctor (11), both male and female
- The Doctor (4), male
- Aang
- A Kyoshi Warrior
- Dr. Horrible
- The Magic School Bus (functional, will take you where you want to go)
- The Men in Black
- Batman
- Superman
- Spider-Man
- Steampunk figures of all kinds
- The Knights of the Round Table, without horses but with a servant and coconuts
- Snow White
- Little Bo Peep
- Flynn Rider
- Rapunzel
- Jack Frost
- Various Harry Potter characters
- An Asian farmer
- Two Russians
- Charlie from "Lost"
- Finn the Human
- The fandoms (3 girls dressed as "Doctor Who," "Sherlock," and "Supernatural." They wore colors, clothes and motifs from the shows. I ran after them, but lost them.)
- Waldo
- Velma
- Carmen Sandiego
- The Dread Pirate Roberts
- Inigo Montoya
- Hard-core leather-clad bikers
- Peter Pan
- Buddy the Elf
- Gandalf
- A banana
- A gorilla
- A Stormtrooper
- A Jedi
- A character from "TRON"
- Rosie the Riveter
- A zombie
- A French girl
- Link
That's all I can think of now, and I'm sure I will continue to see awesome costumes as the day progresses. Last year I saw an excellent Zuko costume at a late-night Halloween party. Anyway, looking over this list, I'm starting to think that Halloween is becoming a holiday where you can let your geek flag fly. So many fandom characters. So many.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
A "Huh" Moment
The thesis is moving well, and I've started dreaming about my characters. The climax in in full swing and I'm not sure I'm handling it well (that's what revision is for, right?) but the characters keep surprising me and they feel real. Hence the dreaming; I don't usually dream of my characters until they become real enough that I can't control them anymore. IT'S ALIVE!
Anyway, I workshopped the first story of my thesis last week and I've been looking over comments. One of the compliments I got - and yes, there was plenty of criticism; I'm working on it - was that I'm good at setting. A classmate commented that in this piece and another story I wrote the setting felt real. Nebraska feels like Nebraska and Alaska feels like Alaska. I've gotten this comment before about other works. I've been told that my stories make people feel like they're there. They see and smell and feel what that location looks and smells and feels like.
This was weird to me. I don't practice setting like I practice pacing (my weakest skill) and character (the most important skill, to me). But I don't think it's inherent. I've traveled a lot, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the written word. I thought about it, and I think I know why this is working.
I'm a fantasy writer. I need to be able to build a world and then inhabit it. I need to be able to describe everything in a fictional world, from the smells of the food to the feel of the rocks and wood, to how the people speak. I need to be able to sit in my world and watch. This is translating to stories I write in the real world; I sit and watch the people in my memories of these places, in the facts I read about them, in the pictures I look up. I worldbuild the real world.
Huh.
I bet I'm not alone. I bet other fantasy writers are also finding setting easy or more colorful than expected. I hope so; that means that there is a technical benefit to writing speculative fiction. Worldbuilding translates well to any kind of writing. You can bet I'm going to teach my creative writing students worldbuilding.
Anyway, I workshopped the first story of my thesis last week and I've been looking over comments. One of the compliments I got - and yes, there was plenty of criticism; I'm working on it - was that I'm good at setting. A classmate commented that in this piece and another story I wrote the setting felt real. Nebraska feels like Nebraska and Alaska feels like Alaska. I've gotten this comment before about other works. I've been told that my stories make people feel like they're there. They see and smell and feel what that location looks and smells and feels like.
This was weird to me. I don't practice setting like I practice pacing (my weakest skill) and character (the most important skill, to me). But I don't think it's inherent. I've traveled a lot, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the written word. I thought about it, and I think I know why this is working.
I'm a fantasy writer. I need to be able to build a world and then inhabit it. I need to be able to describe everything in a fictional world, from the smells of the food to the feel of the rocks and wood, to how the people speak. I need to be able to sit in my world and watch. This is translating to stories I write in the real world; I sit and watch the people in my memories of these places, in the facts I read about them, in the pictures I look up. I worldbuild the real world.
Huh.
I bet I'm not alone. I bet other fantasy writers are also finding setting easy or more colorful than expected. I hope so; that means that there is a technical benefit to writing speculative fiction. Worldbuilding translates well to any kind of writing. You can bet I'm going to teach my creative writing students worldbuilding.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Thesis Rush
It's been a busy week, but I'm still going to try to post weekly. This may be a short post today. First off, I finished reading the novel Yesterday Again by Barry Lyga, the third book in the Archvillain series, and it was awesome. It was a good example of the ending being both unexpected but inevitable - I didn't see it coming, but once it came, it made sense. It changed the entire dynamic of the book, made it more serious and changed the direction. I like it, and I hope the series continues because I SO want to keep reading.
The reason the week's been so busy is due, primarily, to the fact that my master's thesis proposal is filed and now I need to focus my energy on writing the thesis. I got a start in September, but stopped for a while to focus on the prospectus. Now that's done and I need to get back to the thesis.
Not much to say on this, other than I'm working hard to write at least 1,000 words a day (about an hour's work, on an average day. I type fast), which means that on days I revise I need to make sure I'm still adding 1,000 words total, even after deleting some work. It can get long. But I'm happy with the direction of the plot right now, the pacing (sort of), and what my characters are doing.
The trouble is, my protagonist is evolving and I'm not sure what to do with it. When I started writing her, the biggest obstacle I thought she'd need to overcome would be external. I thought she'd need to manage her relationships with people and eventually escape from danger. Physical danger. Now, she's showing me that her greatest vulnerabilities are internal. She's haunted by her past to the point that it is speaking to her, preventing her from healing and moving on. It's good, I like it when my characters take over and show themselves for who they are, but it's going to cause some knotty problems later when I try to revise.
I'll keep you posted on writing developments and publishing. Nothing conclusive to say there, but I can tell you that I think it's going well.
The reason the week's been so busy is due, primarily, to the fact that my master's thesis proposal is filed and now I need to focus my energy on writing the thesis. I got a start in September, but stopped for a while to focus on the prospectus. Now that's done and I need to get back to the thesis.
Not much to say on this, other than I'm working hard to write at least 1,000 words a day (about an hour's work, on an average day. I type fast), which means that on days I revise I need to make sure I'm still adding 1,000 words total, even after deleting some work. It can get long. But I'm happy with the direction of the plot right now, the pacing (sort of), and what my characters are doing.
The trouble is, my protagonist is evolving and I'm not sure what to do with it. When I started writing her, the biggest obstacle I thought she'd need to overcome would be external. I thought she'd need to manage her relationships with people and eventually escape from danger. Physical danger. Now, she's showing me that her greatest vulnerabilities are internal. She's haunted by her past to the point that it is speaking to her, preventing her from healing and moving on. It's good, I like it when my characters take over and show themselves for who they are, but it's going to cause some knotty problems later when I try to revise.
I'll keep you posted on writing developments and publishing. Nothing conclusive to say there, but I can tell you that I think it's going well.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
After My Vacation, Superheroes
I didn't really go on vacation. I just haven't posted in a while. I'm neck-deep in the semester and am trying to teach 1 1/3 classes (it makes sense, I promise) and stay on top of my own while finishing my thesis prospectus AND get a move on with my thesis. I hit writer's block with it, and it doesn't help when my fiction workshop takes a short story I wrote and asks that it become a novel.
Okay, that was flattering, I'll admit. But now I'm thinking about this story when I should be thinking about my thesis. And I am, thinking about my thesis, I mean. I'm just not anxious to work on it because I think I've got some serious revision ahead of me. Ah, who am I kidding, it's not going to be that bad. I'm just lazy and impulsive. The new idea involves superheroes, though.
Without giving too much away (my story, my idea, MINE, PRECIOUS!), my story features superheroes. I look at the superhero genre in a new way, one that apparently doesn't come to mind. The short story undermines some expected tropes of superhero-ness, and my class liked that. They also want a novel, which made me think in terms of novel, and now, guess what, the story has metamorphosed into a novel. I'm worried about keeping up the fresh view of superheroes.
I figure that in order to keep undermining and twisting superhero cliches I need to know them. So, today, I am using my blog as prewriting and am going to list superhero cliches so I know them and can undermine them...NOW:
- Colorful costumes and masks
- Love interest is not a superhero and often not all that bright
- Many villains per one hero
- Heroes use brawn, villains use brains, brains lose
- Superheroes are young, fit, and beautiful
- Superheroes are created through accidents, an act of fate
- Superheroes are noble and selfless
- Technology is very advanced and not well understood
- Things fall from space. A lot. With ghastly consequences.
- Scientists are prone to test experiments on themselves
- Lab accidents happen all the time
- People are always falling from buildings
- Heroes live in a big city
- Superheroes always seem to mutate/get powers that are helpful and don't cause medical trouble
- Superheroes work for newspapers, are scientists, or are independently wealthy
- Hero backstory often contains some traumatic event that caused hero to fight for justice (or revenge, or whatever)
- Secret identity remains hidden to the world at all times (not even families know)
That's all I can come up with now. If you have any other superhero cliches I'm not thinking of, I'd be very grateful if you could tell me in the comments.
Also, anyone else watching "Agents of SHIELD"? I greatly enjoy it!
Okay, that was flattering, I'll admit. But now I'm thinking about this story when I should be thinking about my thesis. And I am, thinking about my thesis, I mean. I'm just not anxious to work on it because I think I've got some serious revision ahead of me. Ah, who am I kidding, it's not going to be that bad. I'm just lazy and impulsive. The new idea involves superheroes, though.
Without giving too much away (my story, my idea, MINE, PRECIOUS!), my story features superheroes. I look at the superhero genre in a new way, one that apparently doesn't come to mind. The short story undermines some expected tropes of superhero-ness, and my class liked that. They also want a novel, which made me think in terms of novel, and now, guess what, the story has metamorphosed into a novel. I'm worried about keeping up the fresh view of superheroes.
I figure that in order to keep undermining and twisting superhero cliches I need to know them. So, today, I am using my blog as prewriting and am going to list superhero cliches so I know them and can undermine them...NOW:
- Colorful costumes and masks
- Love interest is not a superhero and often not all that bright
- Many villains per one hero
- Heroes use brawn, villains use brains, brains lose
- Superheroes are young, fit, and beautiful
- Superheroes are created through accidents, an act of fate
- Superheroes are noble and selfless
- Technology is very advanced and not well understood
- Things fall from space. A lot. With ghastly consequences.
- Scientists are prone to test experiments on themselves
- Lab accidents happen all the time
- People are always falling from buildings
- Heroes live in a big city
- Superheroes always seem to mutate/get powers that are helpful and don't cause medical trouble
- Superheroes work for newspapers, are scientists, or are independently wealthy
- Hero backstory often contains some traumatic event that caused hero to fight for justice (or revenge, or whatever)
- Secret identity remains hidden to the world at all times (not even families know)
That's all I can come up with now. If you have any other superhero cliches I'm not thinking of, I'd be very grateful if you could tell me in the comments.
Also, anyone else watching "Agents of SHIELD"? I greatly enjoy it!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Back on the Market
It's a week after "The Email," and I am doing much better, thank you for asking. (Read last week's post if you want the full story.) I'm still picking up the pieces, but my mood is improved and I am moving on. I have queried 4 agents and 1 publisher with The Shifting, so we'll see what happens with that. I am officially back on the market.
Writers like analogies because, well, we're writers and analogies to us are like gold thread to an embroiderer or wildflowers to a gardener: they add spice to the work. One analogy I've heard about sending work out is that it is like dating, falling in love, and marrying. Big, scary analogy, I know. But it fits.
Querying publishers and agents is a lot like the first stage of dating. You contact multiple people at once with a brief introduction and a plea for attention. You ask these people to spend some time on you. And most of them say no. Now, that may mean that they think you are bad and creepy and not worth their time, but much more likely it means that they already have someone who has what you're offering or they're not looking for what you have. Read through this. It applies to both querying and dating. And if you know you're good, remember that there are a hundred reasons you won't get tapped.
But then you do get tapped, and you start looking a little more closely. You present more of your work, and you start looking into the publisher/agent. Is this someone you can see yourself working with for an extended period of time? Maybe it doesn't work out, and there's a breakup. Maybe, though, it does. You edit. You work together, and you create beautiful books that you send into the world.
This analogy is really all I have to say this week. I'm "dating" again and I'll keep you posted on any developments. (Following this analogy, what happened to me and my publisher may be comparable to the first wedding scene in Jane Eyre, except that there wasn't a preexisting problem and no one wronged anyone.)
Writers like analogies because, well, we're writers and analogies to us are like gold thread to an embroiderer or wildflowers to a gardener: they add spice to the work. One analogy I've heard about sending work out is that it is like dating, falling in love, and marrying. Big, scary analogy, I know. But it fits.
Querying publishers and agents is a lot like the first stage of dating. You contact multiple people at once with a brief introduction and a plea for attention. You ask these people to spend some time on you. And most of them say no. Now, that may mean that they think you are bad and creepy and not worth their time, but much more likely it means that they already have someone who has what you're offering or they're not looking for what you have. Read through this. It applies to both querying and dating. And if you know you're good, remember that there are a hundred reasons you won't get tapped.
But then you do get tapped, and you start looking a little more closely. You present more of your work, and you start looking into the publisher/agent. Is this someone you can see yourself working with for an extended period of time? Maybe it doesn't work out, and there's a breakup. Maybe, though, it does. You edit. You work together, and you create beautiful books that you send into the world.
This analogy is really all I have to say this week. I'm "dating" again and I'll keep you posted on any developments. (Following this analogy, what happened to me and my publisher may be comparable to the first wedding scene in Jane Eyre, except that there wasn't a preexisting problem and no one wronged anyone.)
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
A Dream Deferred
I'm sorry I haven't posted for a couple weeks. I really am trying to get into the habit of writing every week. I'm even sorrier that I am posting now to bring bad news.
I got an email yesterday from my publisher that they are shutting down and thus my novel, The Shifting, is not going to be published. All rights revert back to me, so legally I am free and clear to start shopping it out to publishers and agents, but still, I'm back at square one with one year wasted. I don't know where or how to start again.
Honestly, I'm not doing too well right now. I'm hurt and angry and extremely disappointed and looking to blame someone. I don't blame my publisher, because bad business happens and it's not like they were trying to hurt me. So the blame is landing back on my own head: I should have farmed out the book to bigger publishers or found an agent. I should have sent other things out so the year wouldn't have been wasted. I should never have gotten my hopes up, because I should have known happiness couldn't last as long as it did without a huge fall coming.
This is a downer post, I know. But it's my blog and I have to talk about how I feel. This is worse, to me, than rejection. Rejection means "work harder and try again." Rejection means "we don't have space for your work here, but try something else later," if you're lucky. Rejection is a bump in the road. What I have here is a stalled car on the wrong road, and now I need to figure out how to fix it and find my way to where I should be.
The hardest thing about this is that I had a glimpse - a glimpse - of my dream coming true. I've wanted to be a writer since I was 11. Since then, I've wanted to see my work printed. Having a novel published was my big dream since before I had the skills to make it happen. And then, on one miraculous day, it happened. For one year I saw my dreams coming true, and now suddenly it's gone. I feel like Cinderella might if, while sitting in rags and weeping, she had her fairy godmother come to her, only to disappear again. I wonder if it would have been better if I never had my hopes up at all. It feels like too much, right now, to ask for another miracle, a permanent one this time.
I don't know how many people read this blog, but if you're reading it and know of any publishers or agents who might be interested in my work, feel free to leave me a tip. I need all the help I can get right now.
I got an email yesterday from my publisher that they are shutting down and thus my novel, The Shifting, is not going to be published. All rights revert back to me, so legally I am free and clear to start shopping it out to publishers and agents, but still, I'm back at square one with one year wasted. I don't know where or how to start again.
Honestly, I'm not doing too well right now. I'm hurt and angry and extremely disappointed and looking to blame someone. I don't blame my publisher, because bad business happens and it's not like they were trying to hurt me. So the blame is landing back on my own head: I should have farmed out the book to bigger publishers or found an agent. I should have sent other things out so the year wouldn't have been wasted. I should never have gotten my hopes up, because I should have known happiness couldn't last as long as it did without a huge fall coming.
This is a downer post, I know. But it's my blog and I have to talk about how I feel. This is worse, to me, than rejection. Rejection means "work harder and try again." Rejection means "we don't have space for your work here, but try something else later," if you're lucky. Rejection is a bump in the road. What I have here is a stalled car on the wrong road, and now I need to figure out how to fix it and find my way to where I should be.
The hardest thing about this is that I had a glimpse - a glimpse - of my dream coming true. I've wanted to be a writer since I was 11. Since then, I've wanted to see my work printed. Having a novel published was my big dream since before I had the skills to make it happen. And then, on one miraculous day, it happened. For one year I saw my dreams coming true, and now suddenly it's gone. I feel like Cinderella might if, while sitting in rags and weeping, she had her fairy godmother come to her, only to disappear again. I wonder if it would have been better if I never had my hopes up at all. It feels like too much, right now, to ask for another miracle, a permanent one this time.
I don't know how many people read this blog, but if you're reading it and know of any publishers or agents who might be interested in my work, feel free to leave me a tip. I need all the help I can get right now.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Writer Quotes
So, it's been a slow week, writing-wise. I did start work on my thesis novel, and that's going well enough, but there's not enough there to comment on yet. Suffice it to say, I understand my main character well, so that's good. At least, well enough to stop myself twice because "she wouldn't act like that."
I've also learned that I have become so used to rejection letters that when one says, "Thank you for sending us your work. Unfortunately, we have no place for it in our magazine. Please remember us in the future," I feel all warm and tingly because that means THEY LIKED IT! They just couldn't use it.
Because it's a slow week, I decided to list a bunch of fun writing quotes I found lately, both funny and inspiring.
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
—George Orwell
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet."
“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.”
—Peter Handke
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”
—Stephen King
"The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result."
“Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at 15 to write several novels.”
—May Sarton
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Only a mediocre writer is always at his best."
"Writers don't get mad. They just write you into their next novel (as the victim)."
"If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing."
And last but not least,
"I write fiction. What's your superpower?"
I've also learned that I have become so used to rejection letters that when one says, "Thank you for sending us your work. Unfortunately, we have no place for it in our magazine. Please remember us in the future," I feel all warm and tingly because that means THEY LIKED IT! They just couldn't use it.
Because it's a slow week, I decided to list a bunch of fun writing quotes I found lately, both funny and inspiring.
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
—George Orwell
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet."
“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.”
—Peter Handke
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”
—Stephen King
"The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result."
“Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at 15 to write several novels.”
—May Sarton
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Only a mediocre writer is always at his best."
"Writers don't get mad. They just write you into their next novel (as the victim)."
"If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing."
And last but not least,
"I write fiction. What's your superpower?"
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