I’ve spent all month working on Sweetheartcatalyst. I now have an agglomeration of wordage that I’m calling “Chapter 1″. It’s been very slow going, like wading through molasses. I realized that part of the reason for this is… um… apparently, I’m actually writing [...]]]> Whoa, it’s June. How the frell did that happen so fast?

I’ve spent all month working on Sweetheartcatalyst. I now have an agglomeration of wordage that I’m calling “Chapter 1″. It’s been very slow going, like wading through molasses. I realized that part of the reason for this is… um… apparently, I’m actually writing a crime novel. Something I have zero experience with, LOL. (OK, I still consider the story to be science fiction, but… it’s actually both.) My lack of knowledge and experience causes a phenomenon where sometimes it seems like, every damn sentence I write, I become stymied with “Wait.. would the cops really do that? Before or after? How many times? Who would do it? How long would it take?” This then necessitates sitting & racking my brain, or a trip down Research Rabbit Hole Lane, or even getting frustrated and knocking off for the day in disgust at my inability to write more than 12 words per 24 hours. However, it *is* getting better, because I’ve been researching my @$$ off. I created my “story bible”, which helped a lot. And my fuzzy grip on How Things Work is becoming sharper.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten an @$$load of incredibly helpful feedback on “The Collapsing Hills”. Of course my impulse is now to immediately jump back into editing that story and sending it out somewhere. If I do that, though, it could easily take me another month. (Yes indeed. I’m just that slow.) Then when I’m done I’ll have to spend more time getting my head back into the novel. I read somewhere that when you are deep into a task and your brain is focused, and then somebody interrupts you and breaks your concentration, it can take 20 minutes to get your head back to where it was before the interruption. I don’t want to do that to myself by constantly switching writing projects every month. My attention span is ADD enough as it is. Therefore I’m going to hold off on editing, and keep plugging away on this novel for another month or two, at least.

One more thing: Inspired by this episode of K.M. Weiland’s Wordplay podcast, I started keeping a writing journal. She has a lovely pic on her web site of a handwritten journal; I just have a text file, because writing longhand makes my paw hurt. But anyway, every time I sit down to write, I make a new journal entry with the date, what I’m working on, & what I’m hoping to get done. I try to keep it fairly short, log book style. So far it’s been really helpful to focus my thoughts on the work ahead, as well as being able to look back and see my progress.

In the wake of the destructive tornadoes which ripped through Alabama on April 27th, 2011, Southern Fried Weirdness Press is proud to present the charity anthology, Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction. This collection of poetry and short fiction features 46 pieces from 40 different contributing authors. It spans multiple genres and presents an eclectic [...]]]>

In the wake of the destructive tornadoes which ripped through Alabama on April 27th, 2011, Southern Fried Weirdness Press is proud to present the charity anthology, Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction. This collection of poetry and short fiction features 46 pieces from 40 different contributing authors. It spans multiple genres and presents an eclectic mix of voices.

It’s only $2.99 and all profits will be donated to The American Red Cross to aid disaster relief efforts.

Now available at Smashwords in multiple formats.

Also available on the Kindle.

I first heard Mr. Maass speak at the Surrey Writers Convention in 2007. It was an hour-long workshop [...]]]> Well, this post is long overdue, but better late than nevah! Back in March, I attended a three day workshop in Madison, WI (“The Fire in Fiction”) with superagent Donald Maass and bestselling author Nalo Hopkinson.

I first heard Mr. Maass speak at the Surrey Writers Convention in 2007. It was an hour-long workshop entitled “Three Types of Tension”; my first introduction to the phrase “tension on every page”, and to the colossal difference between (a) polishing the prose that already exists on the page, and (b) putting better, more awesome prose on that page; the kind of prose that fundamentally changes the power of your story. It was a giant eye-opener for me and the other members of my writing group (we attended Surrey together in a small herd). Seriously, you could see the light bulbs going on in our heads as we “got it”.

You can imagine how stoked I was when I found out about this March’s workshop (and the fact that it was being held in the Midwest, in roughly my neck o’ the woods). Writer buddy Enjae and I reserved our spots something like a year in advance… then waited in anticipation.

And the wait was definitely worth it. This was three days, 8 hours a day, of quality time. It was a really packed program. The first two days were the Fire in Fiction workshop, taught by Donald Maass. Here are some of the things we worked on.

• Protagonists. The three types of protagonists (regular joes, heroes, & dark/supernatural types). What is a “standout” character, and how do you turn your protagonist into one?
• Antagonists. We often think of antagonists as the “bad guy”, but an antagonist could also be the love interest in a romance. How do you avoid the trap of the “muahaha-type” villain, and make an awesome antagonist?
• Voice; how we experience the character, through POV. How do you bring out the character’s voice?
• Worldbuilding. Not the usual “go through and answer this list of 100 questions” type of worldbuilding–but how to get emotions into the description, through the eyes of your character.
• Turning points in scenes. How to make the character’s emotional journey stronger. Emotions & dialogue in scenes. How to go beyond stating the obvious. How to give “punch” to your big climax scene.
• Microtension. How to create tension on every page, scene by scene and line by line, via dialogue, action & exposition. How to keep your reader turning the pages.
• Theme. Not just the story’s premise or something to be tacked on later, but an expression of what matters most to you.

We did a lot of exercises. We asked a lot of questions. Not the usual character-sheet questions. Donald Maass type questions. The kind that are provocative, striking, even weird. The kind that will cause you to look at your character & story sideways, upside-down, backwards & inside-out. This was advanced stuff (to me, anyway), but not completely unfamiliar, and not too advanced for my writing brain to handle. Not at all. It made me realize that in fact, I have come a long way as a writer since 2007. Back then, I was not ready for all these concepts, not by a long shot. Just “tension on every page” was enough to blow my mind. I could have tried to pour more stuff in there, but it would have just rolled off. Maybe in another year or two I’m going to look back at 2011 with the same thought–well, not the *same* thought. I’ll never be that much of a newb again =D

So, the third day was the Master Class in Science Fiction/Fantasy, taught by Mr. Maass and Nalo Hopkinson. In preparation for this class, we had all read Ms. Hopkinson’s The New Moon’s Arms, a spec fic book which not only appealed to genre readers, but was able to cross over to mainstream appeal. In other words, “out of category” fiction. Why would you want to do this? Simple; you want more people to read your books, right?

We dissected every aspect of the story, with the following questions in mind: How do you take a story that contains speculative elements, and make it interesting and accessible to readers outside the genre, not just genre fans? How do you make your story powerful and universal? Ms. Hopkinson took us through her creative process, from the first inkling of the story idea, the first draft, & beyond. We worked on a technique that she called “sensory mapping, or the ritual possession of your reader”; a way to let the reader live inside not just the character’s head, but also their body.

This was when I came up with a great light-bulb moment:

My character has an “extra” sense that most people don’t possess. The problem is that the way I’m telling the story, I’m assuming that he knows what it feels like *not* to have this sense. And then I’m explaining to the reader what the difference is. But really, my character’s way of perceiving the world is the only way he has ever known. To him, this sense is not “extra”, and therefore he can’t explain how “differently” he “sees” things.

This ties in to another important point discussed by Maass & Hopkinson: Science fiction/fantasy/genre writers love to create systems and explain them. And generally speaking, genre readers tend to like the explanation, while mainstream readers don’t care that much about the explanation. They want the human element, the emotions, the universality of the characters & story. Well, actually everybody wants that. A spec fic story that wants to broaden its appeal to non-genre fans, does not need to go into detailed explanations of its fantastic elements. It doesn’t mean that the writer doesn’t still need to know the system and do all their research. For example, for The New Moon’s Arms, Ms. Hopkinson researched the possible scientific basis for mermaids, things such as what physiological differences an aquatic humanoid would have compared to us land-dwellers. But in the story, it’s not all explained in detail. Sure, there are hints, but when it comes down to it… we accept that there are mermaids, and the focus of the story is much more on the (non-mermaid) main character’s emotional journey. The human element.

Which led me to a corollary light-bulb. My character actually *is* a mermaid. OK–not really. He’s a genetically engineered person with extrasensory abilities. I spend a lot of time explaining his strange origin & upbringing, and all the things he can do that normal people can’t, and how in many ways this makes him *not* a real human being. But really, I think every human, at some time or another, in some way, has felt alienated and isolated from the entire human race. I want to make the story more about that.

Anyway, the workshop came to a close all too soon. I had never been to something like this, where you literally work on writing all damn day, and did not anticipate how mentally exhausting it turned out to be. A whole weekend of light bulb moments and pushing our craft relentlessly to the next level! It actually kind of broke my brain… but in a good way.

So my official word count is now a little over 16K. Yay! It helped that I was able to copy and paste a few scenes [...]]]> I started spelling the title of my WIP as Sweetheartcatalyst, all one word. It looks better to me that way. I dunno, maybe I’ll change it later. Maybe not.

So my official word count is now a little over 16K. Yay! It helped that I was able to copy and paste a few scenes from the old draft of the story. I think when this is done it ought to be 70 or 80K-ish. So that means I’m 20 – 22% done. Not bad. Not good, but not bad. I picked a difficult project, I don’t have that much spare time to begin with, and I’ve allowed myself to become easily distracted which has made me inefficient in using the time I do have. Henceforth I’m making a concerted effort to use my time properly and not allow it to be eaten by internet fluff.

One more thing: I’m super excited for next weekend! I’ll be attending a three day workshop, The Fire In Fiction Workshop And Master Class In Science Fiction/Fantasy with agent Donald Maass and author Nalo Hopkinson. *squee*

First of all, I had a scene where my main character and an important secondary character have to visit a mother and [...]]]> So in the past week or so, I’ve managed to freak myself the *hell* out, twice, with my own writing, specifically with some situations I’ve chosen to put in my current WIP.

First of all, I had a scene where my main character and an important secondary character have to visit a mother and tell her that her daughter has died. And not just died–she was murdered. This brought my writing to a screeching halt, first because I didn’t know how they deliver the bad news, and had to learn. So, to the internets, where I read up on death notification, the most dreaded duty that a police officer, doctor, nurse, paramedic, social worker, priest, etc. must perform. What to do, what not to do, what to say, what not to say, what happens next, and how much it sucks. After reading articles, handbooks, training materials, and so forth, I now knew the specifics of how my characters would break the news of the daughter’s death… and the ways the mother would react… and was now only stymied by the “how much it would suck” part. Because jeezus! Could I do that? Could I look the mother in the eye and tell her that her beloved daughter is dead? Well, I have to (sort of), ’cause it’s me writing this story. See, it’s my secondary character who is the experienced one and actually does all the talking in this scene. So at one point I considered having my main character, who can “hear” other people’s thoughts, actually not be able to handle the whole situation, and slip outside the door instead. But really, this was a sign of me, the author, not wanting to “go there”. So yeah, obviously neither my character nor me will be allowed to avoid the situation. Although I kind of still am–because I still haven’t finished writing the scene.

The second item involves me figuring out a time line for what my bad guy was doing and when and where… so that my main character and company can figure it out, and eventually catch him. See, this is the guy who kills the daughter. He doesn’t just kill her–he hoodwinks her into going back to his place, then detains her there for several days, then spends an entire weekend doing things to her that shall not be named here, which eventually result in her death. So she suffers. She suffers horribly. And then dies. By the time I figured out the sequence of events, I was seriously disturbed by the fact that this all came out of my head. Because jeezus, could I do this stuff to somebody? Well, OK, maybe not quite… but I can imagine it being done. I can imagine very well indeed. I have to, ’cause it’s me writing this thing… but first I had to just put it down and walk away for a day or two. It was like having a very bad taste in my brain.

The end result though, is that after figuring out my timeline-of-bad-things-done, I feel extra motivation to do well on the death notification scene. I read somewhere that if you are going to kill off a character in a story, you’d better make their death matter. Don’t just make them an anonymous stand-in who only exists to get killed by the bad guy, to prove to the reader how bad the bad guy is. Make their life count for something more than that. Even though this character never gets a line of dialogue, or a paragraph of “screen time” while she’s alive, I feel determined to do right by her. That’s why finishing this scene properly is so important to me… and why it’s kind of like pulling teeth.

I know, there’s no law that says I have to write stuff like this. I could write something else, something less unpleasant, something that doesn’t freak my sh*t out. And I will. Certainly not every scene in the book will be like this one, nor should it. But I believe every scene has a “there”, to which a route must be found. There is no skirting around allowed, nor slipping outside the door.

February – I worked on detrilogization.

March – I received word that “Algae” had been accepted! Continued work [...]]]> January – I submitted “Algae” to an anthology of novella-length science fiction. I also decided that for my next project, I would condense a pre-existing, old sucky trilogy into a single volume, titled The Free City.

February – I worked on detrilogization.

March – I received word that “Algae” had been accepted! Continued work on detrilogization, then switched gears to write an “Algae”-related bonus story. Finished that, and was about to jump back into detrilogization when I got bit by the Sweet Heart Catalyst plot bunny.

April – Completely abandoned the detrilogization project to work on SHC. By the middle of the month, I had 12,000 words of utter tripe. I also refluffed my official writing blog.

May – I came to the realization that I’d bitten off a big chunk to chew with SHC. I began to split my time between the research rabbit hole (reading about cops and serial killers), and the worldbuilding rabbit hole (inventing new forms of telepathy). I also started a short story, “Wallwalker: Encounter on Planet 352″.

June – I worked concurrently on SHC and “Wallwalker”. Gave the first draft of “Wallwalker” to my writing group for crit.

July – After a short period of unmotivation after returning from Mexico, I jumped back into SHC. Received some feedback on “Wallwalker”. Also started another short, “Desert Walker”, but I didn’t really know where it was going, so I put it aside and began writing yet another short, “Bright Light”.

August – With about 20,000 words on SHC, I realized that I needed to start over from scratch. Also, I finished the first draft of “Bright Light” and gave it to my writing group for crit. Giant home improvement project is competing for my attention.

September – Small amounts of SHC work done, but the giant home improvement project is still cutting into my writing time. Finally received edits for “Algae”, so switched gears to work on that.

October – Sent the “Algae” edits back to my editor. Started revising “Bright Light”. SHC on back burner.

November – Still at work revising “Bright Light”. Then I received the second round of “Algae” edits, so I broke off to work on those, and managed to send the final version back to the editor by the end of the month.

December – Finished the second draft of “Bright Light” and gave it to my writing group for crit. Now getting ready to jump back into SHC.

Looking back at this, it could also be read as the chronicle of my slowness and easy distractibility. I kept switching projects, and I only managed to submit one story in 2010. I was hoping I might be able to have “Bright Light” ready to submit before the end of this year, but that’s looking pretty unlikely.

Alternatively, it could be seen as an accomplishment that I’ve managed to get any writing done at all, what with all the other stuff I’m doing (two jobs, playing in a band, various fitness pursuits, home improvement projects, and travel). I’m honestly not sure which one it is.

Anyway, Sweet Heart Catalyst is the next project. Part of me thinks I should return to my detrilogization of The Free City, but that will have to wait. I feel more inspired to work on something new, and I also think that writing a new thing to completion (even if technically, I’m starting over on it) will be easier and less time-consuming than refribulating an existing thing. I still think The Free City is worth doing (at some point), but I can only work on one novel at a time, or my brain will explode.