Thoughts on Writing

I was recently loaned a copy of "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card.  As someone who enjoys writing and has read many of his novels I figured I would love to read what he had to say. I've enjoyed Stephen King's "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" and found David Farland's "Million Dollar Outlines" to be a great learning tool.  Going into this new book I secretly wanted to read more about Ender's Game.

I can honestly say that I haven't been disappointed and have learned something early on about the series I love.  The idea for the battle came to him in the mid-late sixties yet he didn't write it until the mid-seventies.  How many of us can't remember where we put our keys? How often do we misplace something we were just using? Yet to remember and develop an idea for over almost ten years is amazing.

I've had a few ideas which have stuck with me and developed for a while. The idea for the villain of my serial "A Wolf in Patchwork Clothing" came to me while I was driving to Oregon almost six years ago.  The villain, which started off as a truck driver/serial killer, felt stagnant.  It was an observation which came to me about the Twilight movies which gave the idea roots.  It was a complaint that I had due to the lack of variety in some of the classic horror movie monsters.

At that time the major horror bad guys seemed to be zombies, vampires (twilight being an exception to the horror part), and ghosts. As an avid D&D player I know that there are many different types of undead.  Ghouls, wights, liches, and other spectral menaces. This seemed to work well with the traveling serial killer, someone who was afraid to stay in one place for fear of being discovered.  A creature moving among us that none of us would like to meet in a dark alley. I was struck at how well his own ideas seemed to mirror my own, the idea needing time to get its own legs and develop before becoming a story.

Another thing which he said, and something that I can really agree with, is that you have to define the rules of your world. If there is something which can kill your villain, then you need to know it.  If there is a fantastic element whether it be magic, super science, or some perpetually reappearing monster, you need an explanation of how it works.  If you don't pay attention to these details the story won't hold water or carry the readers attention.

I have a novel which is currently unfinished with the working title Legacy.  In Legacy, there is a fantastic element that I was developing as I was writing.  I never sat down and defined it, I said it was a "trickster spirit" or a "creature of chaos" and left it at that.  Now I'm at a fulcrum point into the story where I will be building into the final climax of the book but it's stalled.  The problem is, these spirits were still fuzzy to me. It is hard to write what you don't understand.

It wasn't until I was reading this section of his book that I realized this was the problem. It has been two or three months where I've been unable to work on that and I couldn't figure out why.  But my writers block is due to my own negligence. Had I put my ducks in a row at the beginning of the story, then I wouldn't have suffered this now so close to the end.

The overall point that I was going for in this blog is a lesson I seem to need to learn again and again.  Sometimes we need to read something we normally wouldn't.  I consider myself a horror writer, so reading a book about Science Fiction and Fantasy didn't seem like a fit.  Yet by reading a book that a friend handed me I was able to solve a problem. It doesn't hurt to get out of your comfort zone, to take advice that you didn't know for certain if you'll need. I think I'll take this advice and look for other words of wisdom from other sources.  Perhaps read some non-fiction, or a cook book, or perhaps even some classic literature.  Something new to add to take me out of my comfort zone, who knows what I'll learn. Hopefully it will be something I can apply to make myself a better writer.

An overdue post

I haven't posted on the blog in a while because I've been busy working on the serial short story that I've been posting. There has also been editing and rewriting on the novel I'm working on right now.  I realize that some people care more about the stories than about the thoughts of a writer but I feel that I have neglected it.

What I'd like to address is that I've had several people point out typos in one of my stories that I published in Escaping Sanity.  The story is called, "Rapture" and it is the second story in the anthology.  I don't want to give spoilers but I wrote the story after I had just experienced a loss.

While I was dating the woman who is now my wife she adopted a dog.  The dog was just a beautiful animal and one that I came to love.  She was a part of our life in a way that I wouldn't have expected.  She was there for us during our wedding, for the birth of our first child, and she was an integral part of our family.  That was when she got sick, that was why that story is so hard.

I've tried reading through the story with intent to edit but it brings me to the verge of tears.  It is surprisingly hard to edit something so emotional, many friends have felt depressed after reading it.  There is something about the story which carries emotional weight I hadn't intended.  I want to go back, to fix the typos, but to open that story brings memories to light that I want to keep buried for now.

I'm happy that my writing was able to bring such emotion to a story.  I was able to present a story which could change a mood, even if it was to make someone sad, which was flattering.  But try as I might I'm not sure I'm willing to go fix it.

Also, I understand that i'm late on last weeks story.  I apologize for this, but I discovered that a sinus headache from a head cold is horrible for concentration. To make up for this expect two stories in the next week. I'll be cranking it into overdrive and hope to have the first up by Tuesday at Midnight MST.  So look forward to that.  If you haven't read any of "A Wolf in Patchwork Clothing" then start at the beginning and enjoy.