Writer at Large

Yes, faithful readers (all three of you :) ), it's time once again for Script Frenzy. Brought to you by the folks you organize NaNoWriMo, it's the chance to terrorize your muse by writing a script of any kind—screenplay, stage play, teleplay, anything.

(For those of you who followed along last year, I'm going to treat that attempt as a practice run disrupted by a plethora of real-life events. Pay no attention to the bound muse stowed behind the curtain.)

The goal is 100 pages by the end of April.

The math breaks down like this: 3.34 pages per day needed to meet that goal. My personal goal: a minimum of 4 pages per day. That's a definitely achievable goal if the muse cooperates.

What's my story concept for this event? As of this moment, I have no freaking idea . . .

If you wish, you can watch the progress here.

"Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but they are wrong. They know less, that's why they write: trying to find out what everyone takes for granted."

Margaret Atwood

One of the most challenging tasks a writer faces when telling a story is getting into the heads of all of the characters involved. I've heard many writers claim (myself included) that every character in our stories contains at least some small fragment of ourselves within it—no matter how ignoble, debased, heroic, gullible, naive, stalwart, whatever. Although we try to individualize our characters, we remain limited by our own experiences and perspectives.

There's a game a lot of writers play. I do this myself at times. As part of people-watching (particularly when bored to distraction), I wonder to myself, "What's his story?", "Where did she get that pink hat?", "Why did she choose that tattoo?", and so on. In my head, I make up the stories of these people's lives, trying to determine what brought them to this time and place. Do I know for certain? Would I ever dare ask them? No. But it's an interesting and pleasant way to exercise one's creative energies.

A variation on the game is to think out what the a likely story is and then to derive one that is far less than obvious explanation, but not one that is so fantastic as to be unbelievable. It's a way of thinking a bit outside the usual track. Rather than "He wears that sweatshirt because it's his favorite team", it becomes, "He wears that sweatshirt because that's where the long-lost love of his life went and it's the other way he can remember her." From that single conjecture, I can weave an entire story about who he is, who she was, what she might have looked like, what their relationship was like, and how it ended.

These little snippets can often help me fill in gaps in existing stories I'm working on. It can also help me further develop existing characters by casting them into these new roles. Even small incidents can provide a great deal of insight into a character.

There is a reason so many writers are also people-watchers by nature. We have only our eyes through which to examine the world. Trying to see it through someone else's eyes (no matter how fictional) can open it up in ways we might not have expected.

In the context of a friend's references to Digital Natives in her blog, I got to thinking about the recreational pursuits of members of that generation. Online gaming is a big part of the digital revolution. I think there is little argument over the pervasive influence that MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft have had on the recreational landscape. Certainly, there has been much press over their purported detrimental influences on people of all ages. While I cannot entirely dismiss some of the claims, it does seem that many of the positive effects have been either overlooked or given little notice.

I'm not a World of Warcraft player myself. I find City of Heroes a more interesting premise, but to each their own. So, my points here will be based here on my experiences with that game, but I don't believe I'm too far off the mark in reference to many of the others.

• Mathematics: both simple and intermediate. How many experience points do I need to make it to the next level? If I add this enhancement, by what percentage does it increase my powers over this one?
  
  
• Economics: supply and demand, buying and selling of goods and services. The addition of the auction and consignment system for buying and selling items provides a tangible insight into real-world economic forces.
  
  
• Logic and Strategic Thinking: These enemies have these kinds of powers. If I attack them this way, what will happen? If I use these other powers, what will happen? What's the best way to deploy my team members? Should we split up or stay as a group?
  
  
• Teamwork: City of Heroes in particular is structured in such a way that you will succeed more quickly--and be more likely to succeed on challenging missions--if you work as part of a larger team. Part of the challenge can also be finding the optimal combination of characters and powers to achieve your objective. (Refer back to Logic and Strategic Thinking.)
  
  
• Social Skills: Unless you participate in these games as a solo player--which is possible, but seems to me would greatly diminish the overall enjoyment of the game--you constantly interact with other players, both in and out of character. As such, most of the social forces you encounter outside also come into the play. The chief difference is that it's a whole lot easier to walk away from people who don't like.
  
  
• Creativity: The basis of these games involves creating a character with a particular appearance and attributes. The level to which this can be expanded is usually limited only by the player's imagination. The games also provide tools that give players a virtual playground of options. City of Heroes, for example, has an absolutely amazing design center for characters, including not only basic body appearance, but costume elements as well. For those drawn by visual design, many, many hours can be lost in playing "dress up" with your characters. For those of us with less visual talents, it's possible to create complex stories for your characters, stories that can often be played out and expanded within the game.

I offer these chiefly as points of discussion and items for further thought. And, I guess, a note to parents that your kids just might be learning something useful during all those hours online.

"I will maintain that the artist needs only this: a special world of which he alone has the key."

André Gide

World building has long been a part of science fiction and fantasy writing. Creating a consistent and believable world is absolutely necessary to having readers accept the setting of a story. There are entire books and seminar sessions on this topic. Not only is it important, but it's often downright fun to do in its own right. The process of writing then becomes sharing the wonders of your world with your readers. (This can, of course, be done to excess. I'll refrain from suggesting specific authors here, but I'll bet that you can create a personal list of your own.)

In talking with other writers, one of the common experiences is getting caught up in one's own world. Even if the story takes place in the present, with established locations, there is a whole other universe encapsulated in the viewpoints and actions of your own characters. When the muse has a particularly firm hold, many of us find that we merely become the reporter at the scene, chronicling the events as they happen.

It's a particularly heady sensation, in many ways far superior to getting lost in a really good book or movie. Unlike those examples, these characters come from our own mind—even if they demonstrate volition of their own. The world they live in is one of our own creation, no matter how familiar the surroundings.

People who are not writers do not fully understand. And they often wonder why we snarl and snap when forced back into the "real world" around us. To quote from Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, "There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized." While I'm not certain that the sentiment is entirely true, it is a warning to other well worth considering.

"The novel may stimulate you to think. It may satisfy your esthetic sense. It may arouse your moral emotions. But if it does not entertain you it is a bad novel."

W. Somerset Maugham

When I am stuck for something to ramble on about here, I crack open The Quotable Writer to a random page and use whichever of the quotations on the two facing pages strikes a chord. Today is such an event. The quotation above resonated strongly with me, as it echoes a thought that I have often found myself struggling with.

Over the years, I have attended in several Creative Writing classes, attended workshops, and been part of writing groups. The first seem to generally focus on technique, structure, and style. These are all good and useful things to know. However, when taught in an academic environment, they tend to get overly concerned with literary elements and less on getting a story told.

When I sit down to write, first and foremost, I strive to present an entertaining story. I want my readers to feel that their time and money are both well-spent. I think it's only a small percentage of readers who will remember the literary style or attention to the properly extended metaphor. My goals is to have the maj0rity of readers finish the story feeling that they've been on an enjoyable voyage getting from the first page to the last (and hopefully wanting more).

This is not to say that I don't hope to present intriguing ideas or pose questions of ethics, morality, or spirituality. It is the characters' journeys as they explore these issues—whether internally or externally—that I find make a story particularly compelling and memorable. This isn't to say, of course, that a good dollop of action isn't nice too.

There are too, I know, who scoff at any media produced solely with the intent to "entertain". I can recall very few of these that did not also try to accomplish at least one of the other three goals that Maugham mentions. The issue really is which of these was a priority for the author. For most readers, it's really about entertainment value. Value, as measured in dollars and hours. Writing and publishing are, in the end, businesses. The ideal situation is to reach as wide an audience as possible with one's work.

Solid entertainment will nearly always sell better than superb craftsmanship—although sloppy work will always get you notice (and probably not the kind you want). Unlike other merchandise, people don't tend to return books to the seller as "defective" because the quality writing was below their expectations. (There might be people who do this, but I don't know anyone who has ever done it.) The long-term result, though, is that those readers will most likely not look for that author's name again the next time they're looking for something to read. They will, however, remember those who showed them a good time—gave them value for their time and money.

Isn't that what we all want?

Well, let's see how I did this year . . .

2007 Accomplishments

Here are my 2007 writing-related goals and how well I did during the year:

1. Finish the first draft of "Battlefield".
   Completed on 12/10/07.
2. Finish a new draft of "Building Baby Brother" and submit it.
   Sadly, no. I did start giving it some thought, but no real writing work was done.
3. Participate in NaNoWriMo 2007.
   Yes. And I'm very pleased with my performance this year. You can read the posts specific to this if you're interested.
4. Participate in Script Frenzy.
   Participated: Yes. Won: No. I get partial credit for trying?
5. A page a day. If nothing else: a page a day.
   Yes. Even not counting NaNoWriMo, I am pleased that to report that I managed to accomplish this.

2008 Goals

These are my writing-related goals for the year:

1. Finish a new draft of "Building Baby Brother" and submit it.
2. Begin work on the second draft of Battlefield.
3. Participate in NaNoWriMo 2008.
4. Participate in Script Frenzy 2008.
5. A page a day. If nothing else: a page a day.

Yes, it's done. The story itself is not yet finished--far from it, in fact. But November has come to close and, with it, NaNoWriMo 2007.

This year was in many ways a similar experience to last year, and in some ways quite different. In looking back at last year's reports, I see the same complaints of difficulties with the muse during approximately the same periods. This year, though, I knew better than to believe that I could start slow and catch up later. With a specific daily goal, and a strong goad of discipline, this year was a much more satisfying experience. I spent less time worrying over how much I'd fallen behind my needed word count (which I never did this year) and more about the progression of the story.

[For those of you interested in the statistics: To reach the 50,000-word mark requires an average of 1,667 words/day. I set a personal goal of 1,700 words/day to give myself a very small buffer. Had I maintained that, I would have reached 50,000 words on the 29th--only one day early. My average was slightly more than 1,800 words/day. What a difference an extra 100 words make!)

I believe this year's story is much more structured than last year's effort. Although I had to do some literary tap-dancing a bit here and there, it generally adheres to the overall structure I set out for it. I do recognize that there are gaps that I need to fill in order to complete the overall story, but I think that as it is, it works (or will work, when completed) as a sufficiently self-contained story.

It's nice to know that I can learn from my mistakes. :)