True Artists

True artists can inspire you with the oddest things, such as a kid's TV show.

Everyone who helps produce the Backyardigans must love their job, and it shows. Each show has a musical and dance "theme" and each song helps tell the story of the episode, which in turn is often a take on a well known story such as Zorro. So, you might end up with a hippo singing a song that sounds like "Be my Baby" and talks about escaping from a dungeon. And the animated dances? Dance moves performed by real dancers to aid the animators. This blows my mind.

If they can make an episode where aliens use pancakes to power their ships, I can write about anything.

If my roommate can make a quilt that looks like the embodiment of halloween, I can finish that 30k novella.

If people can sneak out at night and crochet over parking meters, I can submit my work to publishers - and get published.

What inspires you?

Pantsing: Scene by Scene

Usually I outline the plot from beginning to end before I set pen to paper (or...fingers to keyboard?). The outline might only exist in my head. It might be short, or vague, or sport a few large holes, but it will contain at least a beginning and an end. I like to know where the story’s headed so that I have a goal to shoot towards and so that I have some idea of how long it’s going to take me to get there. It’s these two things that keep me slogging through to the end of a first draft. At least, this is what I tell myself. Part of my success with outlining is just that I’ve made it a habit, and habits are maintained by, well, by doing them.

Then I took a six month break from writing fiction. I had just been through a move and it had completely obliterated the forward momentum I’d had on a large writing project. I switched to editing a short story and had to abandon that, too. I was suffering morning sickness and “looking forward” to moving some time before the baby was due. Frustrated, I decided that it would be better to take a purposeful break than to feel ashamed for accidentally not getting any thing accomplished*. But now that the break is over, I find myself writing... differently. It’s a bit like how I used to write before I decided to take writing seriously and develop My Way of Doing Things. But that’s not necessarily bad. It feels good to rediscover my roots.

My root is the scene. I used to think that my writing root was the characters, but it’s not. The characters are like the little tendrils that break when you mercilessly yank that pansy out of the pot for replanting. They grow to fit the container you put them in, and they regrow after you brutalize them like the heartless, character-murdering god you are. The scene, on the other hand, is how you present to the reader not only the characters but all the other good stuff, like car chases. And the Big Idea. You know, whatever there’s room to include.

The interesting thing about my scenes is that I also plan these in advance, even if “in advance” is only ten minutes beforehand. Envisioning scenes in my head is simply how I think about my stories most of the time, and although details such as exact wording will change once it’s actually written, I never find myself staring at the proverbial blank page. I do this because I can’t stand the idea of wasting time, so I’m brainstorming through scenes when I’m doing things like getting ready for bed or waiting at the doctors. If I give up on a story, it’s always at a scene break. That part hasn’t changed.

But now, instead of these scenes following an outline, they follow what I can only describe as developing action. I’ve got a basic world idea, a main character, and a theme. The more scenes I write, the more characters and events I have to draw from for following scenes. I think of two characters together, or a theme like, what would this character think about such-and-such? and from that come the scenes in my head. Then, before I actually write the scenes, I try to eliminate any that don’t have enough forward action. By forward action I mean any kind of discovery, decision, or action that has significance for the theme of the story and/or the main character. Compared to my usual method, this is flying blind. This is writing [i]too early[/i], before I know how the story will end or even who all of the main characters are. Example? After writing in it for a week, I finally have bad guys.

Part of me is screaming - how can I possibly finish a story like this? Won’t I paint myself in a corner at some point, or run out of ideas? But then the rest of me is enjoying myself. I’m banging out 1000 words a day after 0 words a day for six months. And since I naturally tend towards short fiction writing, 1000 words a day is a pretty good haul for me**. 2000 words is when I go buy myself (and my toddler) ice cream.

I suppose I won’t know how I feel about this New Way until I see how the project turns out. In the mean time you can take bets on if this hobbled-together method will have me cursing myself by Christmas, or if I’ll turn out with a workable first draft. If I do, maybe I’ll find some way to refine the method or explain it in more detail.

Does this sound like any thing you do? What works and what doesn’t, for you? Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of you will give me a heads up for what NOT to do when writing by the seat of your pants. Ready, set, COMMENT. Do your good deed for the day.

*Technically I wrote a couple thousand words during this break. That’s kind of like saying that you exercise at work by walking to the water cooler.
**Seriously. The first draft of this post was 1000 words and it felt like the longest thing ever.

Why "The Hunger Games" Trilogy Is Excellent

... It made me cry. So very few things make me cry. Out of all the books I've ever read, the only other ones that have brought tears to my eyes have been "Bridge to Terabithia", despite already knowing the ending, "Stranger in a Strange Land", and (cough) "The Lord of the Rings," although I'm not quite sure why for that last one.

To give some perspective: Other things that have made me cry include the beginning of the movie Up, but not the ending of Grave of the Fireflies. Meat Loaf's song "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" is banned in my household because it makes me break down EVERY TIME, but I can hear "Seven Spanish Angels" (Willie Nelson and Ray Charles) and "The Little Girl" (John Michael Montgomery) without batting an eye.

And then of course there are plenty of non-comedic things that are excellent but don't make me break down into tears. You probably already know that the Thomas Covenant series is one of my all time favorites,* but that never elicits any tears. Neither did "A Boy Called It" despite it being a true story about horrendous abuse. I still hold these books in high esteem, but there's something special about the ones that actually make you sniffle (...or sob). So, what makes something a tear-jerker? What's the difference between a novel that has sad, dramatic scenes and one that actually makes your bottom lip tremble?

And why am I SUCH a girl? (Just kidding!)

*If you don't already know this, then you haven't been listening to Pendragon Variety (.com)

And Now for Something Completely Different!

After a month of just Star Trek (and a baby picture or two), I'm going to back to the previous once-a-week schedule, and on top of that, post about anything else. Like, that #flashfriday thing that I like to participate in? Or Pendragon Variety? Or Theory Train? Pendragon Express? All of those things that you haven't heard about in at least a month.

In fact, I've got a piece of micro-fiction for you now:

Birds chirped sweetly in the gray morning air, stirring a rumble from underneath the roots. "Who dares wake me?" demanded the tiny dragon, practicing.

Questions for Writers: Cool Accents

I know that most published fiction doesn't emphasize the character's accents, but then of course we have our famous examples of stories that do. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, at the very least. There are many different reasons to emphasize an accent. Most of them come down to wanting to emphasize socio-economic status or foreign backgrounds. Whatever. I'm sure you have your reasons, and if you don't, pretend you do for a minute.

If you were going to write a story where one or more of the characters have a pronounced accent, what would that accent be? What would be fun to write? What would be realistic for your story? If you decided to go all out and mimic the accent in your spelling, would that change your answer? Would some accents be too dang hard for you or your readers?

Questions for Writers: Different Colored Masks

So let's say you have a character that's doing a little bit of superhero work, even if they're not a superhero in the strict, power-wielding sense. Maybe they're stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, or attending clandestine meetings that help save the world. Whatever it is, your hero wants to hide his true identity with, at the very least, a mask. What colors might be interesting for your character to wear?

I mean, sure, there's always the black mask. The bad guys always seem to have them. And Zoro. And Westly from the Princess Bride. Yeah, there's a lot of black masks going around. I'm sure that's because their wearers can hide better in the dark, or want to present an ominous front, or blah blah BORING.

Give me MAROON. Give me FOREST GREEN. Give me CHARTREUSE. But not necessarily in all caps.

What could your character wear to give them a little, well, character?

Questions for Writers: Useless Talents

Real people have useless talents. What about your characters?

If a talent is truly useless plot-wise, do you even mention it in the story? Lets assume we're working with a novel, where there's more room for character development and backstory. Still, even in a novel, you don't want to ramble and risk boring or confusing your readers. How could you work a detail like this in appropriately? What would be the wrong way?

And then of course there is Chekhov's Gun. A character might have a talent that seems useless, or even a liability, until the climax. How do you pull that off believably? There might be some middle ground, too. Like, a talent that's useful a few times but doesn't come into play when beating the bad guy. That kind of detail can make a character seem more rounded, if you pull it off right.

This is kind of like two questions, unless you think about it as a question of balancing details. So sue me.

Question for Writers: The Superpower Reveal

In the majority of superhero stories, the superhero wants to hide his or her power, but they also want to use their powers to save others. The superhero is constantly in danger of being exposed, whether they use their powers to fight crime or they keep to themselves as much as possible. At some point, the hero is confronted with a choice: expose themselves to save someone, or don't. Protagonists usually chose to save that someone, and maybe they don't actually get found out by the whole world, but they took that risk because "With great power comes great responsibility."

But what if they didn't? What if they were a coward, or the person who needs saving wasn't so dear to them? What if they weren't The Hero? Or maybe their exposure carries higher stakes and there is no "right" answer. So, they let the kid die. Or their husband. Or a bus full of refugees.

What happens then? How does that change the themes of the story? How does it change the character? Would you write an antihero? Is it even possible to avoid anti-hero vibes if your character knowingly lets someone die?

Sorry, bus, but we just put the (anti)hero's life above yours. Cue evil author laugh!

Question for Writers: Ice or Fire?

Say you need to kill off a character, maybe in an elemental battle, or maybe on a lonesome journey of them versus nature. Would you rather write a character dying by the cold - frozen in a magical blast of ice, slowly freezing to death in a snow storm - or by heat - like in a house fire, or in the desert? Is there one you feel you could pull off better? Do you think one is scarier than the other?

Would it matter whether or not the character was the protagonist? How might the themes of the story affect your choice? Would you chose fire for a fast, sure death? Is ice necessarily slow, or less certain? Can you unfreeze someone and save their life? Can you magic ashes back to life?

Question for Writers: BFF! Genders?

Say your protagonists are best friends, or that your protagonist has a best friend. Potato, potata. You could say there's something unique about a best friend relationship, but they're not one-size-fits all even in fiction.

One big factor in a best-friend bond is gender. Would you want these friends to be the same gender, or opposite? If the same, are they M-M or F-F? What different themes could you explore, and what plot devices could you use based on gender? If nothing else, their genders would affect how others percieve their relationship and whether or not it is socially acceptable.

Crime-fighting women? Boys who discover a magical other-world? Or perhaps a boy-girl team who save a mistakenly convicted felon from the electric chair?

And while your best friend team is off saving the world, is there anything that would challenge their relationship? Do they grow apart? Fall in love? Does one decide to fall in with the bad guys?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Best friend team GO!

Question For Writers: Alternatives to the Evil Monologue

Question For Writers: Alternatives to the Evil Monologue

In the movies, the bad guy often monologues at the end, just in case you or the protagonist missed some important fact from the last 2 hours. Written fiction rarely relies so heavily on the monologue because readers hate to read the same thing two, three, or four times in a novel. Short stories run into the same problem as movies, where a lot happens in a short time, yet I rarely see the monologue there, either.

So, what do you do instead of the monologue? How and when do your characters discover the bad guy's plans? What sort of confirmation do they get that they're correct?

One device you might find useful is to have your character overhear something that other characters are trying to hide from them. Or maybe they find a note, or follow the money trail, or even receive a confession from a minnion. Even for protagonists who have to guess most of their way through the book, you want to throw them tidbits to let them know (or think) that they're headed in the right direction. Even Thomas Covenant sometimes gets to talk to dead people who used to work for Lord Foul.

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set - Anti-monologue device, activate!

Question For Writers: Spy or Turncoat?

Say you need a character who is going to do something unexpected, like turn their friend in to the enemy, or suddenly stick up for that guy who's about to be pulverized by the big baddie. Would you rather have a character who has secretly been for the other side all along, or one who changes their mind at a critical moment? Would it make a difference if the character was your main protagonist or antagonist, versus a side character?

Both ways can get the OMG factor. Both can have the reader re-examining the character's past actions for clues. But one represents a change in the character, and another a change in the circumstances. One is the character saying "I was wrong to build this popsicle stand in the middle of the diabetic unit" and the other is the character saying "time to blow this popsicle stand. With bombs."

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Well-knit Group or Complete Strangers?

Say your characters have to go on a long trip together. This could be your opportunity to force characters together who'd otherwise never stick around each other, or your chance to go all soap opera on some characters who thought they liked each other. Strangers might learn that one of them is a serial killer, while friends might learn that the village idiot isn't such a big dummy afterall. All while facing starvation, cabin fever, etc.

What it comes down to is, which group would you rather screw with?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Canine or Feline Sidekick?

If your protagonist had a sidekick or familiar, would you rather they had a feline or a canine? Would the animal be your typical house pet, or something bigger? Or even something modified - smarter, cybernetic, humanoid? If so, what animalistic qualities qould they keep?

What would make them a good/bad sidekick? Would the relationship benefit your protagonist or their sidekick more?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Emotional or Physical Trauma?

The climax of the story will probably involve both physical and emotional challenges for your protagonist. She'll likely face death and the knowledge that she failed to save her son. He'll likely face torture and the inability to warn his comrades that the enemy is coming. That sort of thing.

But for the rest of the story, for all those little bumps in the road that accumulate against your protagonist, do you focus on physical or emotional threats? If you could only utilize one kind, which would you chose?

How does the genre impact your decision? Romantic comedies are usually sans explosions, while action-adventure usually simplify getting the girl. So, would you rather write the guy who feels guilty because he betrayed his ally, or the gal who has to escape kidnappers?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Very Alien Aliens, or No?

Usually in science fiction, if aliens are going to be our enemies, they're very unlike us in appearance, language, and social mores. If they're going to be our friends, they look like us with pointed ears. The same thing happens in fantasy often enough - again with the pointed ears versus bat-like demons and so forth.

Lets say your aliens, or your fae, or what have you, are going to be fairly neutral. They aren't going to blow us up, but they aren't going to kiss us either. So what kind of aliens would you want? How much would they be like us? They'd have to have something in common with us, for instance a desire not to be blown up, but how far would you take that?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Too Tall or Too Short?

Would you rather write a character that had too much of an attribute, or two little?

Say that in your story the characters keep needing to get items off of high shelves. (Work with me here.) Would you rather have a protagonist that can easily reach the items and be the go-to hero, or one that has to get a ladder or ask for help each time?

Or, lets go with smarts, since smarts are pretty important in our society. That's what Flowers for Algernon was all about. Would you rather have the character that has to struggle to figure out what other people are saying, or the one who has trouble connecting emotionally because he's just that much smarter than everyone else?

You get the underdog affect one way, but the other way you get McGyver. Chose, but chose wisely.

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Lost Chameleon or Master Spy?

Imagine a character who is a social chameleon. They're one of those people that everyone likes, when they want to be liked. They pick up easily on accents, lingo, mannerisms, and all that good stuff. Not only that, but they appreciate the value of their talents and use it to get ahead in life. Perhaps they pull scams, or perhaps they work for the CIA.

If this were your character, would they have a stable central personality, or serious identity issues? A character with a stable personality might have more to lose, like a significant other, while the lost chameleon might have more trouble choosing between two dates. Both can easily get tangled in their own web of lies. Which would you write?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: What Makes a Surprise too Big?

Let me lay out a scenario for you, one that you may have seen before. The heroes are flying their spaceship through enemy forces, far out numbered, dodging strikes left and right. With luck and the skill of their awesome pilot, they make it through and crash land on the planet below. It's near the end of the movie so you're sitting on the edge of your seat wondering if they're all going to make it through the crash - and they do, coming to a complete stop. But before they and you can finish cheering, the pilot is interrupted mid-sentence by a flying projectile. He's killed on impact, and he's one of the main characters.

Poor Wash. The Serenity crew didn't even realize that they were still in super immediate danger, and neither did I. In that moment I felt bewildered, perhaps a little betrayed, but I couldn't say that it wasn't realistic. It was a surprise, but was it too much?

What makes a surprise too big? Is it when it happens, who it happens to, how it effects the story, or a lack of forewarning? What's the biggest gotcha you'd be willing to pull on your readers, and what would you do to prepare or console them? Would you risk being the writer that the reader hates to love?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

Question for Writers: Mother Nature is What?

Say your protagonist has a resource issue. Maybe there isn't enough food, or transportation, or medicine for that dying relative. Would you rather write a protagonist who views nature and the universe as helpful or competitive? Would their views be reflected in their society, or go against the common paradigm? In the end, would your protagonist be correct or incorrect? Would the tastey deer appear just in time for the hunter, or would the train he can finally afford a ticket on break down?

Would an unhelpful universe necessarily mean a sad ending? Would providence necessarily equal a happy ending?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.