Musing about fiction - WHO

So since I am a writer and I hear some people like to hear about writing, I figured I'd throw some random writing-related musings out there.

I started typing some stuff and it came out sounding a lot like the old reporters' guidelines: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. So I'm gonna step out on faith and hope that I can get 6 entries out of those topics...

So, what's up with WHO? A few ideas:

WHO are YOU?

You need to write about something you're passionate about. I don't consider this exactly the same as "write what you know" (if everyone did that we'd have a lot of really boring stories, IMO). But write what you LOVE is fair. If you despise researching history, you maybe shouldn't try to write straight-up historical fiction (though you could definitely consider steampunk or another speculative genre).

This has been a challenge for me because I wanted to go back and finish a novel I mostly wrote in college, currently titled Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack. I was something like 20 (and very into Anime) when I wrote it. I'm rather older now, and I haven't been able to get back into the young adult mindset of the POV character. Doesn't mean I couldn't get there, but it's not working so well for me right now. I'm not sure I can finish it unless I just take what I've written, edit lightly, and finish it. I just can't make it mesh with 2011 Julie.

WHO are your characters?

The more you know about your characters, the better your story will probably be. You also need to have characters who are flawed enough to be interesting--but in my opinion, they don't need to be too realistic, and personally, I'd rather they aren't too realistic.

Regarding "The Time Traveler's Wife", the concept of a man who randomly slips backward in time was absolutely brilliant. The reason I couldn't finish it was because the characters read to me like college students (and rather shallow ones at that). Part of my problem was expectations; I may have liked it better if the book jacket hadn't called the male lead Henry "dashing." This dashing character spent a fair amount of the novel shaping a young girl toward being an atheist or agnostic (which I found disturbing). But the point I gave up was where he joked with his true love Claire that if she didn't perform a certain sexual act with him, he would wither away and die. (Page 230 in my paperback which I got from Paperbackswap.com) I don't know; maybe I have a different definition of "dashing" than most.

Some of the questions the book raises are interesting--what would you do if you went back in time as an adult and met your significant other when they were a child? and you were naked?--but IMO just because a question is interesting doesn't automatically mean it should be considered at length.

So anyway, is Henry the librarian realistic? Possibly--it's hard to say what someone would do in his situation. (Although I'm not sure how many "dashing, adventuresome librarians" exist!)

Is Henry likable? The huge number of copies sold would say so; a romance author in a panel I went to at the Tucson Festival of Books even cited Henry and Claire's relationship as one she remembered and loved. (And it was an author who I would have expected to share my conservative biases, by the way.)

Would I rather read about a dashing thief with a heart of gold, even if such people are almost impossible in real life? Absolutely!

WHO is the story filtered through?

I started writing a short story recently (in the universe of my novel "Flight from Endwood") and it wasn't quite working. I had one POV character in mind, even though the other main character is the one who experiences change and who is involved in a couple integral scenes.

Captain Obvious says, why not make that character the only POV character? Problem solved? Well...I'll let you know how that goes. At least I'm excited again!

Do you have any WHO ideas?

Pictures for Chosen

I'm 2.75 hours ahead on my 2.5/40, with 98 hours, with 74.5 hours spent on planning, writing, and editing in just under 40 days. Not awful at all. I'll probably post one last (?) update next week.

As for writing...here are a few pictures I took as inspiration for my work in progress (formerly and perhaps currently titled "Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack").





What was that, anyway?



It's actually an agave in bloom, right by a huge tree. Looks pretty unearthly.



It's amazing the difference sunlight makes.







It was a windy day and the leaves were moving, so the trees almost looked alive. I feel like some of that came through in these later pictures!









OK; back to work!

Story Jenga

Sorry if this is kind of loopy; I'm pretty sleepy.

The 2.5/40 is going fine; I'm at least 1.75 hours ahead as of Tuesday night. (Except, I'm strongly considering more or less reverting back to my previous draft of Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack. That would mean more or less ignoring most of my painstaking outline/snowflake. There's a whole lot of passion in that earlier draft, though I've of course made some good changes...hm. JENGA!)

So if you're not aware, Maggie Phillippi and I have been editing "The Healer and the Pirate." We're through with Draft 2 and editing our way to Draft 3. Then, God willing, it will be one quick read-through and then we'll likely put it out as an eBook.

ANYWAY. We're having some troubles with what I call Story Jenga. You ever play Jenga? Where you have to pull out wooden blocks and if you pull the wrong piece, the whole tower collapses? That happens a lot in my writing. I make a change somewhere and those changes affect later parts until I end up making major revisions throughout a chapter, or even farther. Kind of like going back in time and smashing a butterfly.

Frankly, when it happens in "The Healer and the Pirate," I've gotten to the point where I just type JENGA! to Maggie.

The Arizona Ren Faire has a large Jenga tower for kids to play with. I couldn't find a picture of it, but here's a stack of French fries and I think a plank of fish. If you took the wrong fry down, I'll bet it'd topple.

Interestingly, the Internet says that "Jenga" is actually Swahili for "build." And I do think that often times, these changes that result in story collapse can eventually make the story stronger. But it sure is annoying to pick up all those pieces.

Enchilada, Miscommunication and 2.5 for 40 update

Thought this story was kind of funny.

For lunch Tuesday, I had a Lean Cuisine Chicken Enchilada Suiza. What is that, exactly? Google says that "Suiza" refers to the creamy sauce...but it also says "Suiza" means "Switzerland." Swiss Chicken Enchilada? Really?

Note to self, ask Spanish speaker for translation before purchasing low-priced, suspicious-sounding "Mexican" food made by a company from Switzerland. (To be honest, I've eaten worse, though. 2.5/5 stars.)

Anyway, you have to cook it for 9 minutes at 50% power. Those instructions worried me--I struggle to tell that microwave to cook for any time that doesn't end with :00 or :30. So I tried to hit power level, and the microwave said no, I needed to choose the time first. After an error or two I managed to enter the time of 9 minutes and got to the power level entry screen. I entered 5.

What did it say?

PWR LVL PLS

I'd evidently done something wrong, but at least it was politely asking me to input the power level, please. So I hit 5 again. Nothing happened, and it just flashed at me. I gave up and hit start, with no idea if it would turn my food to ash or what.

Even after I hit start, it STILL said PLS!

Only then did I realize the microwave wasn't being polite. It was displaying Power Level 5 (PL5).

So if I ever say something stupid or offend you, I apologize in advance. The microwave and I don't even understand each other, and I don't understand my lunch.  And people are a lot more confusing than machines and frozen meals.

Onward! To my surprise and delight, my 2.5 for 40 is actually going well, thank God! I worked pretty hard last weekend, especially Saturday (8 hours of writing and planning!). By Sunday I was caught up. It's hard for me to make the time to work during the week, even though 2.5 hours isn't really that much--it's still a big chunk of my time once I get home.

Totaled, up through 10:30 PM Tuesday, I've got 14.5 hours on Chosen/Bonnie Greenfield, Priestess of Plants/whatever that WIP is going to be titled, and 18.5 hours (!!!) on Kinyn/The Healer and the Pirate. Have also been more conscientious about my prayer and Bible reading time. For 17 days, I should have 42.5 hours and I've got 43.75 hours. I'm actually AHEAD...and trying to get farther ahead. I've got a few family get-togethers and the like in the next few weeks. I'm hoping to put in a lot more work this weekend too, to get ahead for those things that might come up later. (Like not having any time to write during lunch this Wednesday. Little things like that tend to throw me off.)

I'm not sure it's quite accurate to call the 2.5/40 a "tithe" per se, except in the sense that "tithe" means "tenth." I'm spending most of the time working on things that, eventually, might earn me a small amount of money. But it is still really refreshing to have this time devoted to accomplishing things that I think matter to God.

When I'm through the 40 days, I'll compare it to NaNoWriMo.

Writing Wednesday - Isolation

My 2.5 for 40 was going great until last weekend. With Mother's Day, I didn't spend much time working (or praying). So I'm between 3 and 4 hours behind the 25 hours I should be at as of the end of Tuesday night.

But when it comes down to it, I've done over 7 hours of editing Kinyn, over 7 hours of planning and writing my newest novel, and almost daily Bible reading (got off-track one day). That's not too bad for 10 days, but I'm going to try to "catch up" this weekend.

One thing I will say--today we celebrated a (wonderful) co-worker's birthday at lunch, so I wasn't able to write. That threw me off for the whole evening. Not an excuse, but kind of a warning....sometimes changes in schedule can cause challenges.

Another writing post I drafted while on vacation! How funny that it's about focus.

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So while stuck in a small seat along with like 130 (?) of my closest friends, with absolutely no Internet or even cell phone, and while being kicked from behind by a child sitting in someone's lap, I accomplished about 1.5 hours of planning for my novel. Unfortunately, I was in the air for about 3.5 hours. It got boring so I ended up stopping. I probably could have WRITTEN for longer but I find planning so draining and dull...but if I hadn't brought a book along I reckon I would've done another hour of planning (or, perhaps, started writing a new novel or short story!).

Takeaway? I am (and maybe you are) most likely to get work done when it becomes the most appealing option. I love writing, but honestly, I love going down Internet rabbit holes more (that's bad). I also love typing to friends and family more (that's fine--people are more important than books--but still needs to be monitored). But I strongly prefer writing fiction to my day job. So it is comparatively easy to get some writing done in the lunch room every day. On the other hand, when I was unemployed I initially got LESS writing done, because goofing off is more fun than writing.

That's why I adore writing with Maggie. I can combine my love of writing with my love of 'hanging out' with a friend online. And together we wrote the best book I've ever had a hand in.

How do you get motivated to write?

Writing Wednesday - Retyping

How's my crazy plan going? So far I've done 2.75 hours of editing on Kinyn and 3.5 hours planning my next project. Not bad.

This section typed on my cell phone a month or two ago:
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I struck upon this trick by accident. I never bring my laptop to work. One lunch break, when I wanted to edit my Step 3 (?) of my Snowflake for Chosen, I only had a handwritten copy. With my scrawling, the handwritten copy is not condusive to editing! I had written it quite a while ago, but lazy evening (and weekend!) Julie didn't type it for lunch Julie to edit.

Long story short, I was lacking motivation, so I typed the whole thing on my not-entirely-dumb phone (Samsung Comeback) and emailed it to myself. And as I typed on my thumb keyboard I had plenty of time to think about each sentence. If a plot idea was stupid, no way was I going to take the time to type it out by thumb! Whereas when I pencil-edit a typed draft, I might hesitate to change things around too much (more retyping!) and evwn when I make changes, sometimes I miss typing them in later. So I ended up with a stronger outline than when I started. It also felt more 'fun' because it was more like texting than work (90+ percent of what I write by hand is related to my writing which, while fun, is still work).

So again, the main takeaway seems to be to do something a little different if you have to. I think my challenge with Chosen is that I wrote this novel already, 1.5 times at least! So it's hard to keep planning interesting.

I don't know how broadly retyping with thumbs can be applied. With a full manuscript, it would take ages...and would likely introduce a substantial number of typos. But with a page-long outline it doesn't take long, and the outline's plot almost certainly trumps form. I found it worthwhile, but I'm not even sure I'd do it for a 4-page outline.
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So, what do you think? Not TOO many typos... Looking back, I still think it's good advice, but I'm not sure I can take the time with my 7 (!) page outline, which is where I am now.

The Physics of Magic - Tucson Festival of Books

For my own writing--my outline isn't perfect, but I'm now on the "spreadsheet" portion of the Snowflake Method. That's where you (basically) take your outline and write it into scenes. The only thing that annoys me about that--I actually LOVE spreadsheets (and rankle a bit at the implication that writers are scared of spreadsheets...I once created a PTO calendar for about 30 employees in Excel!). But can't find a good free spreadsheet program for my old laptop running Mac 10.4. I have NeoOffice, but it is SO slow. I've tried using Google's but it's not great for big blocks of text. So I'm just doing tables, which is sad because I adore spreadsheets. :( I'm slowly saving for a new computer but at this rate, it will be another year (unless this one dies first).

OK, just a couple more reports from the Tucson Festival of Books! This panel was on The Physics of Magic, with Dennis McKiernan and Timothy Zahn. Again, this is posted for the ideas these men convey, and isn't necessarily an endorsement of them. A few notes from me in (())s.

Dennis McKiernan says, "In physics, there's no such thing as a free lunch." He says it's not like in Harry Potter, where all you need to know is Latin. There, you don't pay anything to cast a spell..."You need a stick."

Timothy Zahn says the cost can be emotional/physical, or energy like real physics, or even moral costs like Lord of the Rings (Sauron was cast out because of the rule that wizards cannot dominate the world). He also says that in the real world, any equipment must work in a specified way. You must "put a box" around your magic so you know what you can do, and so your reader knows what you can do. Think of "costs and limitations." ((My dad in particular hates when people can do ANYTHING with magic--that turned him off of Lost, and he does mention it as a problem with Harry Potter.))

Dennis later says, "Never pull anything out of your hip pocket that the reader is not prepared for." This means a lot of foreshadowing. He also says, "Never make it easy on your hero."

Timothy also notes that the moral element can add another "box" for the hero--that they have to win against bad guys in a specified way. ((That would be a bit like the real world, where suicide bombers can kill and destroy indiscriminately but the good guys are hopefully derided for doing so.)) But the Nazis are a real-world example of how following the moral code can be advantageous--refugees from occupied countries helped develop the nuclear bomb. ((Or as my dad simplifies, "Our Germans were smarter than their Germans."))

Timothy thinks that you should set things up so that the reader remembers the setup later. The reader should understand it no more than two paragraphs before it's revealed. He also notes that in the real world, with weapons technology, someone is always looking for a counter. When he asked a 4th grade class about limits to magic, a child suggested "When you cast a spell, a dog appears and tries to bite you." ((We all laughed at that!)) He said if magic has been going around for 10 or 15 years, people have figured out all the ways to use/abuse it, and how to counter it.

Dennis notes that magic should be fairly rare or it gets too mundane, common, and boring.

But Timothy countered that Harry Potter has a lot of one-of-a-kind devices. In the real world, the knowledge that it has been done is enough to make more people make them. So if you have one-of-a-kind devices in your world, you have to figure out why someone hasn't made it yet. (Some options include guarded secrets--no one knows it exists--or that it's very hard to make.)

Dennis says that even in fantasy worlds, trees and rivers must act like trees and rivers. The fastest river, he says, is 30-40 miles per hour, with most running at 2 or 3 miles per hour. Things with some real-world basis should work like they really work. He notes that in most fantasy worlds--including his own, he admits--thousands of years pass without technological advances.

Timothy notes that for hundreds of thousands of years, things overall didn't change much. War speeds development. If the land is peaceful, things may not progress much, especially if wizards don't want peasants to get these developments.

One fascinating tip that Dennis had was that he is careful to place "red slippers" in his work. The idea is, what if a Sherlock Holmes mystery started out saying "We had just solved the case of the Red Slipper when..." someone came in and another random adventure started. They'd never actually describe the case of the Red Slipper, but someday, the author might come back to it for a new adventure. Those are the kind of hints you can scatter throughout your work--leaving a ton of things you can come back to when you write more stories.

If the archive link still works, you can read about red slippers in more detail at http://www.oocities.org/mithgarpedia/rs.html

Writing Wednesday - Progress Report

Taking a break from the Tucson Festival of Books reports this week, but I should have a lot more notes in the next few Wednesdays.

I found this blog post on Seekerville very interesting; it's about "Rewards Per Page." The idea is to write a book with something on every page to "reward" your reader--a joke, a fact, a fun interaction. The idea is a good one for people (like myself) who write with a goal of entertaining. At the very least, it served as a reminder to write what you'd love to read, and don't be afraid to tweak the story or even do something that might seem gratuitous (random kidnapping, anyone?), if you (and the readers) will find it compelling.

As to my writing progress, I'm working on finishing my 25-paragraph outline. Lately I think God's given me more of a passion for the work, which is exciting. I spent two hours planning Monday...considering I work full-time, that's not bad.

Though my outline wasn't at all as polished as I would have liked, I ran the first five paragraphs or so past my sometimes-co-author Maggie, who has an absolutely brilliant mind for finding inconsistencies and noting what just plain doesn't make sense. Her prodding questions made me rethink my introduction (paragraph 1 of 25), which I will now consolidate into fewer scenes, which should greatly strengthen the story. (Come on. Why does the lead need to start sobbing in a bathroom stall, anyway?)

Maggie has also shown me I'm going to need to figure out some big-picture stuff--since I'm more of an "idea" person, those specifics can really trip me up. Her advice is always invaluable and I have a lot of editing/thinking/working ahead of me! With her help on the big picture, this may very well turn out to be my strongest novel yet.

I think every writer could use a Maggie. Do you have one?

Writing Wednesday - Tucson Festival of Books - Grace Lin; Candace Fleming; Louis Sachar

So for me this week, I'm winding down my 25-paragraph outline for my WIP. Hooray! I'd love to have it done by Saturday, but I know myself and it's not that likely. Once it's done, I'm going to go through a few times to make sure it's coherent, perhaps run it past my favorite writing partner, and then if the Lord allows, I hope to WRITE!

Though Louis Sachar would probably advise not to talk about it...

Back to the Tucson Festival of Books AGAIN! I went to this panel to see Louis Sachar because I read and liked the Sideways Stories from Wayside School books when I was a little kid, and I missed the panel that was dedicated to just him. The other panelists were Candace Fleming and Grace Lin. The panel was ostensibly something about cross-genre something something, but it didn't really turn out that way, IMO.

I don't write children's books (the WIP I'm planning is Young Adult) but it was pretty interesting to go to a panel in a different genre than you're used to every so often.

I believe the first question was, why do you write "cross genre"? Louis Sachar noted that when he was younger, he remembered the world as a kid, but now that he has a 24-year-old daughter, he has trouble seeing 4th graders as anything but cute little darlings.

Candace Fleming was after my own heart. She has many interests (she mentioned that she wants to research Amelia Earhart and also bunnies). She called this her "adult ADHD." and thinks it "makes life interesting." Every day she goes to her desk and decides which topic to write about. (As an aside, I tried to take this idea to heart and have two projects going at once. Except I've got my co-authored novel, playing around with my co-author, and how many other ideas...!)

Grace Lin found that she was writing a picture book and tried to cut it down, but it wouldn't work as a picture book, so she had to write a novel.

Sachar noted that it always amazes him when someone comes up to him and says, "What happened to this character at the end?" He'd say, "I don't know. The book ended."

As for how long it takes to work, Fleming noted that it takes 3-5 years to research biographies--but she doesn't research every day. She visits big libraries and does big chunks at one time, like three weeks at a library.

Sachar said it took 6 drafts of a book and he does not talk about it until it's done. "If you talk about it, you never do it." "Not talking about it focuses me just on wanting to write it." He prefers rewriting, and says the first draft is like pulling teeth.

For motivation, he said, "I'm never going to write as good as Tolstoy; why bother?" But you're not trying to top anybody; you're trying to write the best you can write and hopefully people will read it. "The object is to try to write something that's really, really good. My belief is if you do that, you will get published."

Lin added that she realized she was never going to be a master painter, but that's OK. She said don't become an author to impress people, but because there is something in you you want to share with the world.

(Lin also some really interesting stories, noting that her mom kind of was like the Tiger Mom, and strongly discouraged her from being an artist. But, she said that actually drove her more, in that she had to be very successful to prove herself.)

For historical fiction, Fleming said to research as much as you possibly can and then hope you get it right. At the end of the day, it's about the character, and emotion stays the same throughout time. Fill it in with imagination and educated guesses.

My biggest disappointment of the panel, by far, was to find that Sachar only started liking reading in high school, when he read JD Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut. O_O

As for eBooks, picture book author/artist Lin focuses on how to make the book special so people will want to own it versus having it on a screen. It was mentioned that people may actually buy more eBooks, instead of going to the library.

Writing Wednesday - The Tile Method?

OK, so I continue to struggle with the Snowflake Method. I'm not sure if it's because it doesn't work for me, because we never see snowflakes in the southern half of Arizona, or because I actually wrote one entire draft (and about 1/3 of a substantial rewrite) before I actually sat down to try to plan how I was going to do the third (and, God willing, close to final) draft.

For myself, Step 3 seems to be the hangup (to date). Sure, I have my novel envisioned (more or less) in 5 sentences, which is basically the story told from the lead character's POV, since the novel is first-person. But to tell that same story in 5 sentences from the point of view of each of my other characters? Characters who may or may not be present during every significant scene? I eventually got paragraphs of some sort done for everyone, but with very a substantial amount of overlap. In other words, the paragraphs are really boring and not very insightful.

Then I had an idea. Why not do a timeline or a grid explaining what happens during each major plot point that the main character goes through?

That...actually led to a repeat of the overlap problem!

So out of sheer boredom and desperation, I ended up writing what major thing a character does or experiences in each major segment of the novel. Once I had one segment written out, I realized that if, read in the right order, it sounded almost like a story. So I numbered the events in order before proceeding to the next major plot point. While the end got cramped and muddled, I got the first 3/4 figured out more solidly than I'd anticipated, and even figured out the ending. It also helps greatly if you want characters to have parallel or mirrored journeys.

Don't look TOO closely if you don't want spoiled, but otherwise, thank you, cell phone camera and sloppy handwriting!


So the more I think about it, the more I doubt its usefulness in any story that's not clearly anchored by one main character. But once I was done I was able to go and fix some of those weak "5-sentence character journey" paragraphs to be...somewhat less weak. If I find it helps me long-term, I'll try plotting out a well-known story and post it up here at some point.

Still, it's also quite possible that the real lesson was that if you're stuck, try something different...or just sit there bored until your subconscious works it out. Me, when I see little blank squares I just want to fill them in, but a blank sheet of paper is more intimidating.