So there's this 24-hour stomach flu going around. I thought I had evaded it.
Turns out, not so much.
So in lieu of a post with actual thought, organization and planning, you get links to some websites (with thought, organization and planning) that have helped me become a better (fiction) writer.
The rant on putting your characters through absolute hell
Though it appears on Livejournal, one of two major sources of amateur (and immature) writing on the internet, this piece is actually quite thoughtful. It describes some ways to create conflict for your character and how to bring out your character's flaws. Every main character must have flaws to be relatable. Every main character must be relatable or your story flops.
The Simple Novel-- 9 Questions for 25 Chapters
I actually do not agree with this approach at all, which is why I'm posting it. I never outline a novel like this; I never start with a set number of chapters and "fill in" which part of the story should fit into which chapters. This is too much like writing your first, second and third drafts all at once. But the 9 questions in the beginning are well worth a think, and for a person who's never written a novel before, the 25-chapter outline will definitely help you get the feel for how a story should flow.
Writingworld.com's Guide to Fiction
This is everything that's taught in high school and lower-level college creative writing courses. This is also fourth on my bookmark list, right below Gmail, Facebook and Questionable Content. For every writer, new and experienced, young and old, I specifically recommend "Getting Started VII: Being Realistic About Your Work". I read it thrice or so a month. I also recommend the section called "Victorian Advice for Modern Writers". For everybody. But specifically for those with any kind of background in Victorian literature and culture, it's a jaunt. A wordy jaunt. But when has Victorian literature NOT been wordy?
The most important writing lesson I ever learned:
"Nobody wants to read your shit."
Mythical Creatures List
This is where I go when I need an overdose of inspiration. Some people write stories from prompts; I write stories from descriptions of Crom Cruach and the Lumakaka. This is a fantastic source of inspiration for those with fantasy-inclined minds.
How to Finish What You Started
Though it's written for writers, the wisdom in this article applies to other projects as well, no matter what your goal is; be it a novel, your thesis, a scrapbook, a sweater, a house. This succinct, no-nonsense treatise on and guide to finishing what you started gives you five easy steps to follow. And four of those steps don't even involve DOING any projects at all! It's all about reassessing, prioritization, and holding yourself accountable. I have used this method, with success, on several projects lately. Hopefully it will work for you.
I promise I'll put some effort into tomorrow's entry. After my guts stop their impromptu revolution.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
1/6/12
9/10/09
So Fresh and So Clean Clean
It's hard to believe I started my blog three years ago. I was still in college three years ago, Lord bless me.
I decided to lay it to rest for several reasons. First, its original purpose was to be a public diary for those homebound to read while I was abroad in New Zealand. I wanted to give my friends and family a taste of life over there, filtered through the unique and sometimes humorous lens of my writing. I had intended to delete it after I got back home and save the archives. After I got home, though, I kept at it for a more selfish reason.
Second is the selfish reason. I wanted to keep myself verbally lubricated; I wanted to use it so I wouldn't lose it, but a blog just wasn't the place to do it. A blog, being in a public place like the internet (hard to imagine somewhere more public), should contain material that is tangentially, marginally, slightly, obliquely of interest to the public. My blog, after New Zealand, was not that. It had its moments; in its last year I tried to restrict entries to humorous vignettes and works of semi-fiction.
Third and probably most important was my realization that I was writing freely about events at my place of employment that, if found and connected to the company, would get me in big trouble, despite their truth. So from here on out, I won't mention anything about my work other than in the vaguest terms, because I do not want this blog to appear whenever someone Googles my place of employment.
That being said, welcome to the new blog!
There are yet three more reasons why I'm starting this one: First, even though I haven't done any real writing in a while, the itch never really goes away.
Second, I wanted this one to be a throwback to my last one. I started that one for New Zealand and I'm starting this one for New York. I will be moving there at the end of this month, not for a visit or for a study abroad, but for actual real.
Most of you know that I'm moving upstate, right on lake Ontario, to a college town called Oswego. It is home to SUNY Oswego, which is home to Nu Chapter of Mu Beta Psi. By no coincidence, SUNY Oz is Garrett's alma mater, and his new teaching job is in the next town over. He's taught at Mexico High School before, so of course all the school knows him and he was given an interview and then a job in two days. Because that's how he rolls.
The third purpose of this entry really is to just flail with glee and proclaim to all the world that I am officially ending my current employment in 12 days. I would have posted something on Facebook, but my boss recently got an account there. Oh what is this world coming to.
Handing in my two weeks' notice usually wouldn't be worth more than the breath it takes to say it, but compare this situation to retiring honorably from a year and a half service in the Revolutionary War, rather than dying (not from your leg being shot off by a six-pounder but) from a botched surgery and gangrene or blood poisoning.
Not that working under my boss is as life-threatening and disease-ridden as marching on the front line of an 18th century battle, but it's just as nerve-wracking and maybe a bit louder.
Soldiers in my department get mown down too soon more often than not, most for no good reason. One quite literally has to keep one's ass down or it will get shot off. That is the philosophy under which I have been operating for these past 17 months. It's paid off for me, but sometimes that's not even enough. I won't try to psychoanalyze her because to attempt it would surely send me down a spiral into madness. But I have known good soldiers, honest soldiers, hard workers with good hearts that she pink slipped out of the blue. Since that is the only thing, I repeat, the only thing about which my boss is tight-lipped, we have to rely on the extensive ant-tunnel spiderweb root system other nature metaphor network of gossipers to get any sort of answer or story about why they were fired. And the only story for some of those folks is a shrug and a tenuous speculation diluted by its frequent use.
But I have survived. I have survived 4 a.m. shifts, three different buyers, a major store renovation, a promotion, a new assistant team leader, a new store manager, two new assistant store managers, several cycles of employee turnover, two summers of slow sales, hundreds of angry customers, an economic meltdown, a personnel meltdown, and most importantly, I have survived the slow and inevitable decline of our department.
And in case you're wondering, yes, it was worth it. I made friends and money. That's one more thing than I was expecting to get out of it.
I decided to lay it to rest for several reasons. First, its original purpose was to be a public diary for those homebound to read while I was abroad in New Zealand. I wanted to give my friends and family a taste of life over there, filtered through the unique and sometimes humorous lens of my writing. I had intended to delete it after I got back home and save the archives. After I got home, though, I kept at it for a more selfish reason.
Second is the selfish reason. I wanted to keep myself verbally lubricated; I wanted to use it so I wouldn't lose it, but a blog just wasn't the place to do it. A blog, being in a public place like the internet (hard to imagine somewhere more public), should contain material that is tangentially, marginally, slightly, obliquely of interest to the public. My blog, after New Zealand, was not that. It had its moments; in its last year I tried to restrict entries to humorous vignettes and works of semi-fiction.
Third and probably most important was my realization that I was writing freely about events at my place of employment that, if found and connected to the company, would get me in big trouble, despite their truth. So from here on out, I won't mention anything about my work other than in the vaguest terms, because I do not want this blog to appear whenever someone Googles my place of employment.
That being said, welcome to the new blog!
There are yet three more reasons why I'm starting this one: First, even though I haven't done any real writing in a while, the itch never really goes away.
Second, I wanted this one to be a throwback to my last one. I started that one for New Zealand and I'm starting this one for New York. I will be moving there at the end of this month, not for a visit or for a study abroad, but for actual real.
Most of you know that I'm moving upstate, right on lake Ontario, to a college town called Oswego. It is home to SUNY Oswego, which is home to Nu Chapter of Mu Beta Psi. By no coincidence, SUNY Oz is Garrett's alma mater, and his new teaching job is in the next town over. He's taught at Mexico High School before, so of course all the school knows him and he was given an interview and then a job in two days. Because that's how he rolls.
The third purpose of this entry really is to just flail with glee and proclaim to all the world that I am officially ending my current employment in 12 days. I would have posted something on Facebook, but my boss recently got an account there. Oh what is this world coming to.
Handing in my two weeks' notice usually wouldn't be worth more than the breath it takes to say it, but compare this situation to retiring honorably from a year and a half service in the Revolutionary War, rather than dying (not from your leg being shot off by a six-pounder but) from a botched surgery and gangrene or blood poisoning.
Not that working under my boss is as life-threatening and disease-ridden as marching on the front line of an 18th century battle, but it's just as nerve-wracking and maybe a bit louder.
Soldiers in my department get mown down too soon more often than not, most for no good reason. One quite literally has to keep one's ass down or it will get shot off. That is the philosophy under which I have been operating for these past 17 months. It's paid off for me, but sometimes that's not even enough. I won't try to psychoanalyze her because to attempt it would surely send me down a spiral into madness. But I have known good soldiers, honest soldiers, hard workers with good hearts that she pink slipped out of the blue. Since that is the only thing, I repeat, the only thing about which my boss is tight-lipped, we have to rely on the extensive ant-tunnel spiderweb root system other nature metaphor network of gossipers to get any sort of answer or story about why they were fired. And the only story for some of those folks is a shrug and a tenuous speculation diluted by its frequent use.
But I have survived. I have survived 4 a.m. shifts, three different buyers, a major store renovation, a promotion, a new assistant team leader, a new store manager, two new assistant store managers, several cycles of employee turnover, two summers of slow sales, hundreds of angry customers, an economic meltdown, a personnel meltdown, and most importantly, I have survived the slow and inevitable decline of our department.
And in case you're wondering, yes, it was worth it. I made friends and money. That's one more thing than I was expecting to get out of it.
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