Number One Rule

It's been a while. I'd like to say I haven't been idle, but I sort of have. I found a new TV show to watch. It was great fun, but my poor stories lay forgotten. And now that I've finished said TV show (an anime called Fairy Tail, if you're interested), I've re-learned the most important rule there is to becoming a writer. The Number One Rule of writers is...drum roll please...WRITE! Let me restate that.

The absolute, Number One Rule if you have any prayer at all of becoming a writer is to WRITE. 

Even if it's absolute crap, even if you have no idea where you're going with it, even if all you can manage at a time is two or three sentences: WRITE! 

I recently (like, this week recently) looked back at an old story I've been working on for literally years. I had twenty-six typed pages. I started with a short paragraph, written on my phone's note function during a break at work. Later that day, I took it and ran with it. Suddenly, as of last night, I had somehow written ten pages! And the inspiration is flowing again, almost too fast for me to keep up.

Now, I can't promise that will happen with every few sentences you write on a stagnated story (or even just a neglected one). In fact, at one point I had a story sitting for over a year, and every now and then I'd go and write a few sentences or do a little revision. But it took a long time for me to figure out where I was going with the story and wrap it up. It needs heavy revising, but at least it's done. Sort of. But the point I'm trying to make is, even if you have nothing to say, WRITE!

Now, in the spirit of that, I'm going to motivate myself to post more often on this blog and get my muse working full-time again. How? Online writing prompts. I'm going to research them and on a hopefully regular basis I'm going to pick one and post my response right here, for your joy and pleasure. Most of it will probably be raw, only revised for glaring errors, but it will get me writing more frequently again. And you'll probably get a kick out of my novice mistakes.

You writers out there are also more than welcome to post your own response to any and all of the prompts I respond to and post them in the comments below. I'd love to read someone else's writing for once—I get bored of my own. Go on. It'll be good for you.

Additionally, if you have any prompts you'd like to see me do, post it in the comments and I'll do my best to get to it. If your prompt request involves a certain fandom (like Harry Potter, for instance) the response will be on my FanFiction page. Though I won't make promises, since I'm less cultured than I'd like to believe. There are any number of books, movies, shows, etc. that I've probably never heard of. And there are certain genres I simply won't write.

Let's get writing!

The Muse Always Wins

After nearly a week not having written anything in a particular story, I got a vague idea. I sat down at my computer and started typing, and...suddenly I'd written six pages! I hadn't planned anything beyond character bonding, but somehow I ended up with a genius sequence of banter and teasing mixed with worry and concern for an injured member of the group. And somehow I'd accomplished my objective far better than I'd expected.

This isn't the first time I've sat down and just started typing, only to suddenly find my story going in a whole different direction than I'd planned but somehow being better than anything I could have done in advance. And I certainly hope it won't be the last. If there's one thing I've learned that is absolutely vital to writing anything, from a poem to a novel to a short story, it's don't fight your muse.

I know, it sounds a little juvenile and a little too simplistic. But it's important. There have been times when I did try to fight my muse. I didn't like the direction something was going, so I tried to backtrack and start over, only to hit the same roadblock at virtually the same place. So finally I just let the muse do the work and, what do you know? I got past that roadblock and the story started to make sense again! I'm convinced this is because the story already exists, and you're just bringing it to life by tapping a keyboard or wielding a pen. So the moral of that story is, the muse will always win. So don't bother to fight in the first place.

There's also not really any such thing as writer's block, because there's always something that wants to be written. Just sit down and start typing, and you'll be surprised at what comes out. The best thing for your writing is just to let it flow. This might take you into uncharted territory, or it might be very uncomfortable for you, the writer (or you, the character). But what comes out of your foray into the unknown is almost guaranteed to be better than what you had initially planned.

You might protest, wanting to get everything exactly right. But there will be time for editing later. Just let the words flow off your fingertips, serve the meat, however un-garnished and messy it appears on the page at first. Then you can go back and shape it, add a little more spice, shift things around, add some sides, dab up some of the extra juices, and sprinkle a little garnish over it all. Then you'll have a finished product that looks almost too good to eat. Almost.

Writing Villainy

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie where you liked the villain more than the hero, or at least sympathized with him? I have. I also watched an anime where the hero became the villain, and wasn't that interesting? It's called Code: Geass if you're interested. But the point I'm trying to make here is that it takes just as much work to create a good villain as it does to create a good hero or heroine.

I don't have a lot of practice writing villains, because a lot of my stories are based around internal conflict, rather than external (or, in the case of my Harry Potter FanFiction, the villain is already established). But I decided to take a shot at it. Because villains are people, too, with goals and reasons for the means to achieve said goals. In fact, you could even say that villains are even more complex than the hero, because something had to happen to make them that way, and then they had to delude themselves into thinking they were in the right.

For my first attempt at writing a villain, I didn't start a new story. Instead, I created a D&D character! (Yeah, I'm a nerd through and through. I was ecstatic to use my new dice on Friday.)

As a writer, I take building a new D&D character pretty seriously. I actually write out the backstory, instead of just trying to summarize it. Doing this helps me get to know my character so I can role-play effectively in the future. In the case of this character, I built a rogue drow elf─in every sense of the word. For anyone out there not familiar with the high fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons, drow elves are basically the opposite of elves─they live underground, they have legitimately black skin, and they're mostly evil and depraved and hate everyone that isn't also a drow (and even that's negligible). A rogue in D&D is basically a thief or a criminal of some fashion.

Now, my character is a little more mellow than most drow elves (he doesn't murder just because he thinks it's fun), but he's still more of a villain than a hero. He's a hardened criminal, for heaven's sake! And in writing out his backstory I had to get in touch with my evil side─that is, I had to set aside my values and attempt to embrace his. The hard part was defining said values in a way that makes sense to the character and then figuring out how to write it. For me, being an decent person, it was very difficult to justify things that I normally wouldn't even consider, like murder just because someone was no longer useful to "me"─my character. (And the rough draft of that backstory still needs a lot of work, because I didn't do so great with that.)

But, that's part of being an author─you have to step out of your comfort zone, your little box of "me", and to an extent actually become someone else.

With writing heroes, that's the fun part. You get to go on adventures the majority of humanity can only dream about, become a much more interesting person than the one who sits around all day waiting for her dream to come true just because she wills it, etc. You get the drift. But when writing villains, it's the opposite. You don't want to be the bad guy (well, maybe some of you do), but you have to be the bad guy if you hope to write a story, novel, script, play, etc. that someone else will actually want to read.

Good luck writing villainy!

PS: Don't forget to check out my Inkshares project, and my FanFiction. I want reviewers, feedback, sponsors. Pretty please?

World-Building: Tougher than Legoes

So, I'm one of those people who likes playing Dungeons and Dragons just for the sake of designing a character, and who starts a new story just so I can invent a new world. But as I've learned through my efforts over the years, designing a whole new fantasy world is hard. You have to think of everything, from geography to history to lore, not to mention coming up with names for all the cities, rivers, mountain ranges, and forests, and don't forget the world itself.

I used to think I was doing pretty good at it. Then I showed my newest story to my brother, who tore my world apart—literally. Forget correcting my spelling or my storytelling (which is what I wanted him to do). He poked holes in everything, even the little nit-picky details, like, where did the main character learn to use a bow if she lives in a mining town in the mountains? I was devastated—that world was my baby, I'd worked hard on it for a long time, and it was the best I'd ever done. But I realized my brother was right. I did have holes that needed filling.

So, I'm here now to give a few basic guidelines, questions to answer, etc., for any other fantasy authors out there like me who are trying to design a new world and just can't tell how much is enough.

1. What is your world's origin? Who started civilization there? These questions will help cover any basic lore your world needs—legendary heroes, the birth of a kingdom, etc. This also covers magic, if you choose to include it—what is its origin? What is its reputation? And so on.

2. Use what you know. This is a basic rule of thumb for any writing, but especially in world-building. If you don't know what it's like to live in an arctic tundra, you probably shouldn't set your story there, unless you plan to do hours and hours of research. That doesn't mean you can't have an arctic tundra as part of the geography. It just may not be the best idea to have it be your character's origin.

3. Your characters are in part defined by the environment they grew up in. You can't just decide your character is going to be a bard and a sailor, and grow up orphaned in a port town, and for some reason can use a sword as well. (I tried to do that with one of my D&D characters. It took a lot of explaining before my DM was satisfied with my backstory.) You have to explain your character in terms of their background, which in turn means you have to figure out where and how they grew up, the geographic and societal climate, etc.

4. Speaking of society: What types of people/races populate your world? Is it high fantasy, with elves and dwarves and wizards? Where does each one fall in the societal hierarchy? What is the current political climate? This may not seem like a big deal, but when your character is at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak, you have to explain why. What is it about that character or said character's parents, ancestors, etc., that makes them so low?

Lastly, pay attention to the little details. You may not realize it, but naming the river near your character's hometown (even if it's an unofficial name) brings the world to life. It will take a lot of thought, especially if you're like me and won't settle for just any old name, but it will be worth it.

Unfortunately, there's no way to make the world-building process go any faster. But if you want your new fantasy world to come to life, to seem real to whoever's reading, you have to spend just as much time explaining the world as you do building each character and planning out the plot events. If you have a good, solid framework in the world your story takes place in, the plot should come naturally.

So, go out there and start stacking your Legos of world-building. It's harder than it looks, but it is so much fun.

PS: Don't forget to check out my Inkshares contest entry! If I get enough people to pre-order my book (and pre-orders are as low as $10), it will get published!

Looking for a Topic

Stop. Look around. What do you see? Dirty sneakers by the door, muddy from your morning run? A closet full of boxes full of useless papers you just can't throw away? An old jacket you don't wear anymore? Chipped paint on the wall? Everything you see has a story attached to it. Even the bruise on your knee that you can't remember where it came from.

Starting a new project is never easy, but the hardest part is picking what to write about. Should you write about your older brother's ex-girlfriend and their tragic break-up story? That weird dream you had two months ago that you only remember in fragments? Or the presidential race? I'm not here to tell you which topic or subject matter will sell a poem, short story, or book. Rather, I'm here to show you that inspiration can come from anywhere. Remember that pair of dirty sneakers? Well, here's a short—a very short—story of how they came to be muddy (whether it's true or not is for me to know and you to only guess ☺):

Drip. Drip. Drip. I can't see anything. I only hear the echo of a cloudless and sky-less rain. I have no idea what I'm stepping in. It could be anything. For all I know, this could be the esophagus of a giant space worm. My breath fogs in the dimness of the only light I have—a dying yellow glow stick. Crunch. A shudder runs down my spine from the crown of my head to my toes. Squish. Eew...

See? And if you wanted to, you could take that even further. You'd think a pair of sneakers would be boring, right? But if you do it right, you can turn even the most boring day of your life into something interesting, something so controversial it's almost taboo (like modern politics) into a comedy. Or, if you want to get really adventurous, you could turn a comedy like the old TV show "Tom and Jerry" into a horror story.

The great thing about being a writer is that you get to invent the new reality. You can twist facts or make something up entirely, or you can be so precise and factual that people think it's made-up anyway. But whatever you pick, go with it. Even if it seems ridiculous. You never know—you may end up writing a modern version of Poe's "The Raven." You could call it "The Sparrow."

PS: Speaking of topics and writing and books, I've entered the Geek and Sundry contest on Inkshares for fantasy. Check it out and help me get published!

A Novice's Guide to Great Writing (I Hope)

So, I recently graduated from college and find myself faced with a dilemma: spend hours searching for a job, or write, since I haven't had time to dedicate to my writing for nearly a year thanks to school, homework, final projects, etc. By the way, I'm looking for an editing job, if anybody knows anyone or of anything. I'm trying to split my time between job search and writing, though writing almost always takes first place. 

But anyway, as a recent graduate, I was going through some of my school papers from my last semester, trying to decide just how much of it is actually worth keeping, and rediscovered the jewels of advice I learned in my creative writing class. I'm trying to apply them to my writing, and I thought I'd share some of the ones that have been the most helpful or motivational for me as a writer, for any aspiring writers out there that are looking to improve, in no particular order. I hope it's of some use to you!

1. To "prove" any short work, including poems, cut out the first and/or the last few lines or paragraph (or stanza). If the work still says what you want it to say and still makes sense, leave them out! You could even do it with a sentence or paragraph that seems too long.

This one has been especially helpful to me, since I tend toward wordiness when I write. I've recently tried my hand at writing flash fiction using scenes from stories I've written, and I learned through that process that you really can say something significant and have an entire plot in less that 500 words. Crazy, right? Another, related piece of advice is start the party in the middle and leave before it's over—in other words, start in the middle of the action or conflict, and end the chapter or whatever before things have really been resolved. It keeps the reader engaged and anxious to find out what happens next.

2. Follow the "triangulation" method of writing: dialogue, exterior description, and inner reflection. And don't stay on one for too long—jumping between them keeps the reader's attention.

This one has also been useful in helping me remember that I can't just describe my main character's monologue of self-pity while they're walking down the street. I have to remember to describe the surroundings, too. And you might even try describing things through the lens of self-pity, to make the emotion even more powerful.

3. Failure is a good motivator. Be grateful for it.

To be frank, I've probably learned the most about writing by all the ways I've messed up. When I first started writing and my stories didn't turn out the way I wanted them to, I put them away as failures, basically, and started something new. But now, I look back and see, not a bunch of failed stories, but tons of potential for a masterpiece. Once I figure out what I did wrong in the first place. And going along with that idea, it's better to write crap than not to write at all. You'll never improve if you give up after only a few tries. And then you can see that old adage come to life, the one that says "one person's trash is another person's treasure." Though in this case your own trash becomes your treasure.

4. Give your audience exactly what they want—but don't you dare give it to them the way they want it.

This one is a big one that I'm still trying to figure out. You have to think as a reader to be a writer, but when you do that, you think you want everything tied up in a neat little bow at the end, when really it should be a hasty granny knot with uneven ends and the question: when did that happen? It's hard to surprise someone when they see it coming. You just have to think outside the box, I guess. And push your reader out there too.

And now a few one-liners that are more or less self-explanatory:

Show, don't tell (but don't forget to tell when it's necessary).

Pursue the path you're on, even if it makes you (and the reader) uncomfortable.

Say it like it is. Readers want the meat, not the garnish.

Your job as a writer is to destroy people's lives as thoroughly and as rapidly as possible. (But please, only do it through your keyboard.)

If you're going to write, then write.

Good luck!