Category Archives: Writing

Friday Flash: Land Grave

flash friday, Short Story, Writing, , , , ,

So . . . yeah I had speeches on the brain today. Don’t ask me why.

Greetings, my people

I come to you today fresh from the land grave of my beloved daughter.

She has surpassed all expectations. She has left this world, but she took with her many hundreds of the enemy. Hundreds more of them may yet follow, as their frail mortal flesh deteriorate in hardship.

Her forward waters and winds caused such damage to the enemy as to make recovery a long, costly affair. Their homes are destroyed and most mortals in the vicinity are left without life’s essentials.

We do not intend to allow the enemy such time as they need to recover.

To this end we have sent our youngest son to their shores, to coat their world in ice and darkness.

For the first time in her life, our second daughter knows joy. The poison the enemy slips into our waters has crippled her limbs, but in the wake of our enemy’s destruction, she knows joy. As do your children.

Our people who are poisoned, we shall starve the enemy in turn. Our people who are dying, you shall be avenged! We will poison their earth, as they have poisoned our waters.

And we shall live! We will move forward as the true heirs of this world.

Our waters will rule.

We will rule.

Friday Flash: A Wish for Power

flash friday, Short Story, Writing, , , ,

I don’t believe this flash has a story or even constitutes a complete scene. Maybe a complete scene. But it’s the only thing in my head right now. That’s probably a sign of exhaustion. I am posting due to encouragement from Twitter. :) Go Twitter!!!

Someone’s groin pressed too close, but there was no room to twitch away. The crowd was too close, noisy, and upset voices called out: “Move in, move in, move in.”

If only there was space to move in.

The bus driver shouted: “Let them off. Get off and get back in.”

No one moved, but instead held fast as the departing shoved themselves a clear path.

The bus crawled along, bypassing hordes of waiting people. Someone, exhausted, crouched on the floor. Her hands moved from purse to her folded legs, caressing many other calves, knees and ankles in the process.

People sped past on bikes and skateboards and their own legs. Below, the river was as calm as sunlight.

And then – freedom. People disappeared like flung droplets to the trains, the taxis and the still-dark streets.

A hard plastic chair never felt so good.

 

First Day of National Novel Writing Month 2012

Writing, , , , ,

I have decided to do National Novel Writing Month. Thank You to all my friends who encouraged me.

So I loaded Scrivener and started a new short story project. Stared at the empty screen. Panicked when I realized I couldn’t remember any of my ideas for a short story. Took a deep breath and calmed down enough to recall I have been wanting to write a short pre-writing sort of story about the death of the character’s grandmother.

I have thus far written one sentence and I don’t know what else I am going to write. Maybe I should have decided I was going to do this earlier, did a bit more planning. LOL

But I am less panicked now and I know some of what I want to write. I am not going to do the traditional sort of NaNo. Instead I want to write five 10,000 word stories.

According to some people, that makes me a NaNo rebel. I don’t think I agree. I am still going to write 50,000 and I disagree with people who think 50,000 words worth of short stories is easier 50,000 words worth of a novel. It’s still 50,000 words.

Related articles

Friday Flash: Bleed for your Beloved

flash friday, Writing, , ,

My first Friday Flash in more weeks than I can count! Feel the joy, people! It is complete at 184 words.

They say in this business you need to open a vein and bleed for your beloved, but I surely never imagined anyone would shoot me dead right next to her. Certainly not a character I created! A character I nurtured, raised her up like she was my own child and this was how she repaid me? The nerve!

She should have been grateful I allowed her to arise out the books. She should have been overjoyed with how many people enjoyed her. She should have been happy enough to do anything I asked of her.

That was the bargain. She promised she would do anything, be anything, if only I would allow her the freedom so many of my peers allowed their beloved characters.

She – No no no! No!

She threw the last dregs of the lighter fluid on the typewriters, threw a match on it and cackled joyously. “Take that! Use me, will? Sell me, will you? No more!”

I patted at the flames frantically, but my hands just passed through the fire like smoke.

Still laughing, she sauntered out of the room.

 

Changing Character’s History

Writing, ,

So I just realized the major I’d chosen for my character’s college years was entirely wrong. Oh, it never felt right in that bone deep where you just know something is correct. It was the Romance Language program at Harvard, in case anyone was wondering. But I thought it would suit.

I realize now that it really doesn’t. I know more about his life and his passions than when I decided that (a year ago). Now I know a degree in the fine arts will suit him much better. It won’t affect his job much. But I thinking it will be a much better match for the rest of his life. In fact, it might make his work easier (it involves a fair amount of art-ish stuff.)

This is the third time I changed his major on him (first was lit and than law). But it feels right now. Really it does. It feels right in a way it didn’t before.

Fortunately, I haven’t mention it too many places, so changing it will be easier. Working other mentions of it in the text should be relatively straightforward, too.

Perfect Way to Describe Clothing

fantasy, General, Writing, , , , , , , ,

I am reading Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh. It takes place in India. What part of India, I am not sure. But somewhere in India, somewhere close to the desert.

I am overjoyed. Nalini Singh has Indian characters, but I don’t think she’s ever set almost all of one story in India before.

I particularly enjoyed this line describing the traditional salwar gurta:

Though styles varied, the pants sometimes loose and sometimes tight; the tunics high-necked scooped, flaring out in a full skirt or cut neatly to the body; and most often worn with long, gauzy scarf, it was attire he’d seen many a time in this land, as common on laborers and servants as it was on courtiers. The difference was in the fabrics, the cut, and the depth of embellishment. It wasn’t unusual to see one of the court butterflies in a piece hand beaded with tiny pearls or where the embroidery had been created using fine threads of pure silver and gold.

This describes the salwar kurta pretty perfectly. This description is clearly meant for non-Indians. See, I read this and thought: perfect way to describe ethnic clothing. It references fashion, while also mentioning similarities across fashion and differences in price. And it does all that in three sentences.  Personally, I think that’s fantastic.

One reason it works because the POV character is not Indian; the scarf description, well, yeah, that’s how you would describe it for non-Indians. But that’s okay. It’s short and clear and fairly accurate. Plus, considering the location of the book and the female main character, it was necessary.

It’s stuff to keep in mind when I am writing – or rewriting, as the case may be – my own descriptions of clothes. I mean, in the fantasy worlds I make up, odds are good the clothes don’t actually exist anywhere. I will be making it up out of whole cloth, unlike here, but still. Something to keep in mind.

Related articles

Writing Again

Writing, , ,

 

I am writing again. It feels good.

I finally seem to have exhausted the reading urge. Not completely; I am going to get the new Nalini Singh book soon. It came out today. (Sadly, it doesn’t star Bluebell. He’s a fiercely beautiful angel, if anyone cares.) But I don’t want to read to the exclusion of everything else.

So yesterday I opened the work in progress, read some dialogue and realized immediately that it could be better. Shorter. Sharper. I realized I didn’t actually need all the words I was using. It was a freeing discovery. Makes me feel like my weeks of non-writing weren’t a complete waste of time. Maybe I needed to absorb how other writers – writers I like! – do stuff.

Plus, my TBR list is a lot shorter.

Related articles

 

On Lassitude and Not Writing

reading, Writing, ,

Writing is the one of those you need to keep doing or you lose the knack of it. Me, I just haven’t been feeling it this past week. It’s a long time for me to go without writing so much as a single line. It’s odd.

I am more interested in reading than writing. The rewrite is going well enough and I know what I want to change, I just haven’t been motivated to do it. I don’t know why.

Maybe I am just tired. I don’t feel flat-out exhausted. Just more of a continuous low level sort of tiredness. Which is not an excuse – if I have the energy to read three full length novels this week, shouldn’t I have the energy to write a couple pages?

Yeah, three novels. I’ve gotten more reading this week than the last few weeks. Which is good in one way, but not so good in others.

But I am starting again. I am going to take this week start from where I left off last time and get closer to the end point. I will find the energy. Somewhere. This feeling of lassitude will go away. I dislike lassitude.

Related articles

NYT Rules on Writing

Writing, , , ,

 

So the NYT published a How To Write article recently. There are 11 rules:

  1. Show and Tell.
  2. Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you.
  3. Write what you know.
  4. Never use three words when one will do. Be concise.
  5. Keep a dream diary.
  6. What isn’t said is as important as what is said.
  7. Writer’s block is a tool — use it.
  8. Is secret.
  9. Have adventures.
  10. Revise, revise, revise.
  11. There are no rules.

I especially love rule number 8. Also, rule number 11. The rules are secret and there are no rules. LOL

I have heard of most of these before. Show and Tell is a classic. Be Concise is a classic, too. Revise, Revise, Revise is also an often repeated bit of advice.

Write What You Know is less often repeated, but when it is, people usually add good research will let you know everything you need to know. But the writer seems to be talking about emotional truths instead of factual, which is always good to have.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Have Adventures before. And I don’t think I’ve heard of Don’t Go Searching For A Subject before, either. That’s like saying you need to wait for the muse to show up, but I’ve heard the opposite more often. That you should write anyway and sooner or later you will have a subject, and the muse will show up. The muse is trainable.

 

Related articles

 

Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells: You Are A Writer

General, science fiction, Writing, , , , , , , , ,

I was reading The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova and this quote from Ernest Hemingway jumped out at me:

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that it all happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.

I think this is the best idea of what makes a writer that I have ever seen. That it comes from a writer whose works I don’t usually enjoy strikes me as odd.

I think this is the ideal. You want all that, you want the reader to feel the story so deeply that they don’t forgot, so deeply that they come back to the story over and over again.You want the reader to get lost in the story and never want to leave. You want the reader to care deeply about the character’s sorrow and joy.

I also think it’s incredibly rare and that stories that do this won’t be the same from everyone. It’s too subjective.

Even so. I think to feel that way, you need a character you really connect to. I mean, as a reader I know I do. If a book doesn’t have a character I like, it’s very hard for me to read it. (This is why Game of Thrones remains unread on my kindle.)

And by connecting, I don’t mean the reader has to see themselves in the character. I really, really don’t see myself in Eve Dallas, Jaenelle Angelline or Miles Vorkosigan – three characters I love most and series I reread frequently. But I still connect, I still sympathize with them and I still like spending time with them.

Related articles