Writer at Large

The NaNoWriMo 2007 Report: Week 3

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 1 comments

This week has been only slightly less painful than Week 2. I've gotten a much better feel for the characters who I felt were not that well developed before, and most of them have taken some interesting turns in terms of their insights and actions. The story itself has started picking up in its pacing, but at this moment I don't know who did it or why. (I remember now why I don't write straight mysteries . . .)

Despite the muse's reluctance, I have managed to average more than my personal goal each day, so I should be in really good shape for the home stretch next week. (I also looked at my progress last year and I had reached this week's word count on the 28th, so things are progressing much, much better this year.)

I can see now that this will turn into a much longer novel than last year's effort (in the end). At the 40,000-word mark, things are only now starting to get interesting--and one of the sub-plots has barely been explored. It feels better structured than last year's effort, but I'm also finding that I'm getting bogged down with the same sort of issues as last year in terms of keepinig the plot advancing. I think it's a side effect of having to write, write, write without being able to take the time to really plot things out, so I resort to more inner examination of the characters. (It's also, as I told a friend, a way of making notes to myself of things to remember or explore later in a future draft or story.)

Okay, okay, I will admit that it is much nicer this year to not be 8,000 words behind my goal, and it's very nice to be 5,000 words ahead of where I should be.

We'll see what next week brings . . .

Labels: NaNoWriMo, Writing

The NaNoWriMo 2007 Report: Week 2

Thursday, November 15, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 0 comments

Groan.

I've (somehow) managed to keep up the pace this week, staying well ahead of my personal goals and where I realistically needed to be in order to complete 50,000 words by November 30.

It was a tough week. The muse seemed determined to sit there with her arms wrapped tightly around each sentence, unwilling to surrender them to me. Each one that she gave me, she did so grudgingly. I'm sure the writing reflects it, but the goal is words, words, words--quantity over quality. (Yeah, sure, just try to tell a Virgo that!)

There's been a few interesting twists and turns this week, both in terms of plot and character. More than once, I've thought back and wondered, "Why did she decide to have that happen?"

Over the past two days I've also hit upon an interesting insight: even "evil" characters have hopes, fears, and dreams, just like the good guys do. The difference, sometimes, is only the context in which they occur.

Okay. Back at it for Week Three . . .

Labels: NaNoWriMo, Writing

The NaNoWriMo 2007 Report: Week 1

Thursday, November 8, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 0 comments

It has been a good week!

I set myself a goal of a minimum of 1,700 words a day as a hedge against those days when the muse balks and decides to give me the silent treatment. So far (and I choose that phrase with great care), I have managed an average of more than 1,800 words each day.

I ended up doing the project this year that I really wanted to do, but needed the insistence of a friend and the toss of a three-sided die to settle on. It's a bit of an experiment for me, as I don't think I've ever tried to sustain something with this tone and perspective before. (I find it mildly disturbing how well most of it is flowing, but that's an issue for therapy, not here . . . or perhaps next year's NaNoWriMo. Hmmmm.)

Stay tuned to this station for next week's report . . .

Labels: NaNoWriMo, Writing

Fright Night

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 0 comments

So, today is Halloween and the last day of October. Tomorrow is the first day of November. *gulp*

Yes, NaNoWriMo 2007 begins tomorrow. I have several concepts in mind, but haven't chosen the one yet that I will go with. In a all likelihood, I won't know for certain until I sit down to write tomorrow. (One thing for certain, I have no desire to repeat last year's 9,000 words in 72 hours sprint to the finish. We'll see . . . )

On the writing front in general, the supposed "next to last" chapter in Battlefield evolved into six chapters as I realized that it was longer path to get from here to there than I had originally anticipated. I really do believe that there are only two chapters left now. I had hoped to complete the first draft before NaNoWriMo began, but such are the demands of the muse.

Stay tuned for this year's weekly reports. If you're curious enough to watch on a daily basis, here's the link: NaNoWriMo 2007: SFWriter13.

Labels: NaNoWriMo, Writing

Disciplinary Actions

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 0 comments

Okay, yeah, yeah, I've been slacking lately . . .

Ever since my all-too-brief vacation in Hawaii, the muse has decided that she and I are no longer on good speaking terms. As a result, I have stopped waiting for her to snap of her current snit and use more direct methods. (Many of my characters have gone silent. It's been kind of spooky. I don't know if she didn't like Waikiki, or if she didn't want to leave.)

A page a day . . . write a page a day . . .

For the past two weeks it's been working. The first draft of Battlefield is coming to a close, albeit more slowly than I would like. I know where it needs to go, but it's been a struggle getting there in a way that makes rational sense in terms of the overall plot and characters. What I thought was going to be one more chapter is likely to be two, but that's how it goes sometimes . . .

For those who read this blog (all three of you ;) ), I wanted to give a brief explanation of the frequent lengthy gaps between posts. With limited writing time, my priorities are generally:

Paying (or potentionally-paying) work. (The aforementioned page a day.)
New ideas that might lead to the above.
Posts for the gaming group forum (some of which will lead to the above).
This blog.

There are only so many hours in the day, after all. (And, no, I don't believe that sleep is overrated. :) )

Labels: Writing

Playing in Boxes

Thursday, August 30, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 0 comments

Boxes have always been an effective tool of the imagination. Who among us has not spent hours as a child using an empty box (large enough to climb into, of course) as a race car, secret fortress, spaceship, or just a comforting place to sit and relax?

Several months ago, as part of a department-sponsored training exercise, I once again took the Myers-Briggs personality questionnaire. (This was the second time I had done so; the first time had been about eight years earlier.) For those of you who care, this time around I was determined be of type ISTJ. One of the things that the facilitator said when summarizing the traits of this type was that ISTJ types don't tend to be as good at thinking "outside the box". However, if you want to know everything about the box and what you can do with it, we're the people to ask.

Several days ago, this came back to me (I don't really recall why), but it got me thinking about the ways that I explore characters and situations in my fiction (also including, this case, my gaming characters). I like to create what I like to refer to as a context that the characters exist in--essentially the world they live in and some of the people they regularly interact with. For two of the characters, I have also created their "evil" mirror images.

It has been suggested that I've limited myself by dipping back into the same pool over and over again. There might be some truth to that. Thinking about it now, though, I think it has more to do with wanting to learn everything about the box. I have a good sense of who the original characters are, but what would they be like if they walked the other side of that often ambiguous moral line? (Consider the persistent fascination Star Trek fans have with the crews' Mirror Universe counterparts.) As discussed somewhat in a previous post, after creating Hope's Fury, what else is there to know about Aerians? How did they and humans meet for the first time? What was that like? What other aliens are there?

As you can probably tell from this, the "box" can sometimes become galactic in scale (think Star Wars or even The Lord of the Rings). The broader the context, the greater the potential for a larger box. The kind of stuff that long-running television and movie series are made of.

I was also thinking about this in the context of when I was writing "Building Baby Brother". As I wrote that story, and it grew, I found myself wanting to explore all of the possibilities and implications raised during the course of the story. Hence, what started as a 2,000-word short story eventually became a 21,600-word novella. I had found a new box, and--darn it!--I wanted to explore it! (This might also explain why so often when I start a writing new novel, ideas for potential sequels come unbidden to mind not long after the original one is started.)

Have you found any good boxes today?

Labels: Gaming, Writing

Oceans of Consciousness

Monday, August 13, 2007 Posted by SFWriter13 0 comments

Tonight I watched a sunset from one of the beaches on Waikiki. What is it that drives us toward the sea? Is it some primordial memory stored deep within our cells that calls us back to the place where we spawned all those countless millennia ago? Is that why the sea so often brings us peace and solace?

As I watched, my turned to thoughts of how others might view such sunsets, not only real people I have known, but also how fictional characters I have created might each react to one. I also thought of my own life, the choices I've made, the decisions I have both faced and avoided, and of the events that might still lie ahead. Even in my own life, I find that it is as much a vision of future fantasy as much of my fiction. What of it will come to pass will largely be the result of chances I am willing to take, of prices I am willing to pay, and whether I eventually I decide that the costs are worth the accomplishments.

In the majority of my stories, it is the villains who are petty and selfish, willing to achieve their goals at the expense of anyone who might oppose them. The heroes are brave, noble and—while having their own flaws—are not willing to sacrifice their ideals or win their battles at the sacrifice of those they hold dear—nor at the cost of their souls.

I find that I seek such a balance in my personal life as well. But such a fantastic view of real life does not hold up to scrutiny under the harsh light of reality. Those who should be allies will—on occasion—succumb to pretense and pettiness. Those who have been cast as evil may provide the salvation we seek. It is because they are human and because they are real.

Writers can (sometimes) control the actions of the characters they create, casting them from specific molds, forcing them to perform explicit roles. Real people, being products of their own volition, possess no such limitations. They assume whatever roles they choose at the moment, regardless of the ones that the rest of us have chosen for them. Each of us, it seems, sits in constant judgment of those around us, weighing each word or act within the context of our own beliefs.

In a seemingly vicious cycle, when such judgments are given voice, we then react with judgments of our own on the correctness of such opinions. We often forget what the original purpose was, so caught up in the need to express ourselves, particularly when we perceive that we have been, in some way, wronged. We often to fail to recognize that our context is not necessarily any more right than anyone else's, but it seems that most of us have an innate need to win—to prove that our beliefs are the correct and proper ones.

Does victory necessarily make one the hero of a story? While it is true that it is generally the victors that write history, it is equally important to note that many of those who have won have later been reviled by history. Words and deeds have a habit of catching up with us when we least expect it—unforeseen costs to acts we have committed. Like the fine print of a loan document, not all costs are evident at the time of signing.

Labels: Writing