1 Aug 08 - 614 Words of a Rough Draft of the First Giant Armors Novel
"We've had a stroke of luck," Toreas said. "Someone reported some suspicious activity near Roc Sarat, a ruined fortress not that far from here. Turns out, a lot of carts have been going in and out, some containing weapons. We think this is a major storehouse for the rebels. You all will attack it today.
"So," Michael said, his voice neutral but clear, "how do we smash them?"
Toreas's eyebrows shot up. "We will not smash them. We cannot."
"You want this over, right? So why shouldn't we?"
Toreas sighed. "Because you'll be fighting our own people. Smash them and they'll hate Duke Suranta forever."
"They won't fight back ever again, though."
"Maybe, maybe not," Toreas said. "Can you predict the future?" Michael frowned, sensing an insult. "Even if they never rebel, they'll talk about Duke Suranta's handling of this rebellion until the day they die. Break a man's hand, and he'll hate you. Block his fist, and he respects you."
"I get it," Sam said, a quick grin on his face. He began to hop in place, as though his energy had nowhere else to go. "So we do just enough to keep them from hurting anyone. Should be fun to try in a big robot." Michael looked forward to seeing Sam in his Armor, working out some of that energy.
"Impossible," announced Dirk. Everyone looked with surprise at the dark-haired boy, who was scowling at the map. It was his first word all day. "Those Armors are siege weapons. They're meant for large-scale annihilation, tearing down walls and throwing boulders at armies. All we have to do is take one wrong step and one of these rebels becomes a red puddle."
"I can handle it," Sam said, meaning every word. "Didn't you feel how well we can control those things? Inch by inch. We'll be fine."
"Maybe you," Michael said. He was more firm than he intended, so he softened his tone so he wouldn't offend Sam. "Look, you can control your Armor really well. What about the rest of us?"
Dirk waved a hand over the map. "This whole thing will be even worse a year from now if we go out in those Armors," he said. "No matter what we do, it'll just get worse." Henrietta's big eyes got bigger.
Michael gave Dirk a hard look and said, "What, can you predict the future?" Dirk gave him a poisonous glare, but he shut up. Michael didn't want to tick him off, but he had to shut him up before everyone got too discouraged.
Sam looked back at Toreas. "I'm not afraid. So what do we do first?"
Toreas paused to collect his thoughts. Michael and Dirk stewed. Toreas opened his mouth, and Kayla interrupted, "Wait a minute." All eyes turned to her. "If we can't just do anything to the rebels, what can we do? How much is too much?"
Toreas nodded, acknowledging the wisdom of her question. "Destroy their resources. Prevent them from hurting others. Herd them like frightened sheep. They may not move easily, but they will move." He paused. "The Armors will frighten them. Take advantage of that, but don't provoke them. A cornered animal will fight to the death."
Michael's frown deepened. Sam was listening with half an ear, waiting for the cue to leap into action. Dirk didn't seem to be listening at all, just brooding over the map. Kayla and Henrietta were paying attention, but how much of this would they truly understand, out on the battlefield? When they look down at a crowd of angry, frightened peasants, would these girls really "herd" them?
There was only one way to find out.
Posted in Writing
17 Jun 08 - How to Critique Fiction
I'm just back from writer's group, in which I received critiques on a fantasy short story of mine.
Scott, the critiquer, always gives great critiques. Here's why:
If you ever have to critique someone else's writing, please emulate Scott. I look forward to critiques partly because of him.
Posted in Writing
27 May 08 - Ratliff
Let me tell you about Ratliff.
Stephen Ratliff wrote fanfic (fan-written stories) about Star Trek: The Next Generation. I have nothing against fanfic. Most of it is bad, but most of anything is bad (Sturgeon's Law). Fanfic's a good training ground for writers.
Ratliff's stuff, in comparison, was cheesy in a way that rivalled the worst movies used in Mystery Science Theater 3000. His stuff had poor spelling and grammar, simple characters, and some of the most unrealistic situations imaginable.
For example: His recurring characters comprised the "Kid's Crew," a set of nine-year-olds who pilot and crew a starship. Yes. Nine-year-olds. And they do very well; they quickly rise up the ranks of the Federation and resolve major political standoffs.
I mentioned MST3K. Online MST3K fans learned of Ratliff and pounced. His works were perfect fodder for riffing.
Then Ratliff got wind of this. His reaction should be a model for anyone who finds this happening to their work: He sent them his work. He notified MST3K fandom every time he released a new story. He even read the riffs.
And he paid attention.
As he produced stories and the kids grew into their teen years, they started acting up. They got weirded out. They became troubled, even depressed. And one character reflected that this was because they rose too far, too fast; that all this adventure and pressure was too much for children to handle.
Ratliff's spelling improved, his characters deepened, and his stories became progressively less ridiculous. By the time I stopped reading his stories, he was producing solid fanfic. Nothing professional-quality yet, I'd judge, but he'd improved greatly.
How? By listening. By being a pro. He read a lot of stinging criticism, and he didn't take offense at it. He extracted the important meaning from it and applied it to his work. And he kept writing.
I have tremendous respect for the man.
Posted in Writing
24 Feb 08 - Four Thousand Words
I'm four thousand words into a very rough draft of the next Giant Armors novel. I'm trying something different this time.
With my last novel, I wrote progressively longer summaries. I started with notes, then wrote a half-page summary, then a three-page summary, then a twelve-page summary, then the whole novel. I called this my shellac method, of adding flesh to skeletons.
With this one (randomly titled The Green Dawn), I started with notes, then wrote a three-page summary. Now, I'm writing a full-length draft that I plan to completely rewrite. I want to get this down, in detail, even though the details will all change as I identify themes and find apt descriptions. With this, I'm working out implications in real time. I can see a lot more at once, oddly, even though I'm working in the weeds.
This keeps my momentum going. I don't worry about getting every word right; if a phrase bothers me, I add a footnote and forge ahead. So I'm creating a fairly complete body as I go, even though it'll need extensive cosmetic surgery.
Well, I'm four thousand words in, and it's working thus far. I'm about a third of the way through, which means I need to create some subplots in the middle of the book if I want to keep this from being a novella. But I can do that, I think, as I find themes.
The most important thing, I find, is to just keep going. Get in a few hundred words a day. I set a soft goal (an ideal that I measure myself against while knowing I probably won't hit it, to see how close I'll get) of 1,000 words a day this week, and obviously didn't fulfill it. So I'll aim for 500 words a day this week.
Posted in Writing
6 Nov 07 - 6 Nov 07
Writing is difficult, which is strange, because writing is easy.
Typing is easy. Putting words on a page or a screen is easy. It's keeping at it that's hard.
There are numerous potholes on the road to a complete story, and many psychological Jersey barriers. I write a few hundred words, then feel a strong urge to research, say, map making. Useful, but an obvious detour, so I stare at the page some more. Repeat until I'm Googling overstuffed armchairs.
Still, the point is what you do, not so much what you feel. For me, after ten long hours at work, I got home, cooked up some pasta, and wrote eight hundred words of fiction. Can't say I'm disappointed in myself.
Posted in Writing, Self-improvement
3 Sep 07 - 3 Sep 07
Accomplished less than I'd hoped, but plenty today.
Lack of progress is due primarily to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I "took a break" to read, then paused when my stomach told me I was very late for dinner, four hundred pages later.
In reading it, I've identified four primary dimensions of fiction writing:
Frank Herbert was a master at dimension 1, Terry Prachett's amazing at dimension 2, Ray Bradbury's a perfect example of dimension 3, while J.K. Rowling's real strength is in dimension 4. Some of the descriptions are bland, her world can feel generic, and I'm occasionally confused by characters' behaviors. But I just can't put down her books.
Why? A few thoughts come to mind:
There are undoubtedly others.
Posted in Writing
28 Aug 07 - 28 Aug 07
Thanks to my parents, I caught ImaginAsian TV's Tuesday anime block tonight. Very interesting. Briefly:
A fun night, despite the late hour getting back home.
Posted in Writing
23 Aug 07 - 23 Aug 07
I just finished watching Gravion Zwei, a modern twelve-episode giant robot series.
It's ridiculous. It's over-the-top. It's full of maids, giant robot combination sequences, fanservice, teenagers screaming their attack moves, and bickering teens who really love each other.
It is a perfect example of its genre. It is clearly pushing every genre convention to its limit. It's entertaining. It's trying so hard to be entertaining. It's great, great fun.
And it's gratifying to experience a creative work that knows what it's trying to do, and does it completely and fully through to the final frame. Even if it's "just" a cheesy giant robot show.
Posted in Writing
20 Aug 07 - 20 Aug 07
Aaand I come down with a cold. Just in time to affect work. Great.
So I spent the day watching clips on YouTube. Wish I didn't; this evening, I changed my hosts file to block YouTube. I enjoyed myself, but I could've just as easily spent my time watching anime, which rewards watching.
I did catch a few episodes of Loonatics, the "Looney Tunes meet Batman Beyond" series currently airing. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when it was announced, and the end result is actually quite entertaining.
It's not Looney Tunes, and it's clearly not meant to be. It's a fun, light superhero show told with The Tick-like takes on Looney Tunes characters. I laughed out loud at times, and was generally entertained throughout.
Not the desecration that many feared it would be.
Posted in Writing
17 Aug 07 - 17 Aug 07
I sat down tonight to assemble chapter one of Grave Thoughts, and got myself thoroughly confused and frustrated. I didn't keep track of which drawings correspond to which line of dialog, and I think I'm either way ahead or way behind. I'll probably have to work my way backwards from the end.
All because I scribbled down notes as I went, and apparently threw away my notes. Arg. I feel like I should just keep everything. On the other hand, I have so much stuff now, I feel like I should give away everything.
Which is a petty complaint, really. I have a cool little creative project here; I'm just having a tough time with it right now.
So maybe I can just sit down and finish assembling it over the weekend. Can't do it tomorrow, as I insist on having one day a week when I really relax. But maybe on Sunday.
Maybe.
Posted in Writing
4 Aug 07 - 4 Aug 07
Saturday. My Media Fast is finished, so I spent much of the day catching up on anime: Mushi-shi, Pani Poni Dash, Infinite Ryvius, and Gundam Seed Destiny.
They were all excellent, in different ways. Mushi-shi is a set of Twilight Zone-style dramatic episodes, but with positive endings. Pani Poni Dash is a spastic, fast-paced comedy that manages to retain its speed and entertainment value throughout. Infinite Ryvius was tough to watch, because it was so dramatic that I didn't want to see bad things happen to the characters, but to my relief I was completely satisfied by the ending. And Gundam Seed Destiny I'm rewatching so I can loan it to friends. And it's just so good (except when it's not, which is rare).
Then, after making a batch of cookies, I was off to meet a friend and watch Harry Potter. But the theater changed their showtimes, so we saw The Simpsons Movie instead, and it was utterly entertaining throughout. A solid flick. I was gratified to see that the theater was completely full. The film deserves it.
Posted in Writing
2 Aug 07 - 2 Aug 07
I've discovered a downside to this week's media fast: as a single guy who lives alone, it's lonely. I come home from work, and I'm tired, and all I have are my projects. Oh, I could go for a walk. But even that's lonely.
Not that I'm complaining; just commenting. I was a little depressed this morning, but that passed when I got to work. And I had a good day at work; purposeful and interesting but not stressful.
In fact, there was so little stress that I went out for lunch, toting my laptop with me, and watched two episodes of anime. (Okay, okay, yeah, it's a break from my Media Fast. There are no MF Police.) Watched Lucky Star episode 16, and the second episode of Goodbye, Professor Zetsubou.
Lucky Star continues to get better. The first seven or so episodes were merely enjoyable; after that it just kept getting funnier with each episode. As funny as the Comiket episode was, this was fantastic.
And I'm even more impressed with Goodbye, Professor Zetsubou as of its second episode. The first established a terminally depressed, suicidal teacher and his perpetually chipper female student. It was a highly stylish comedy which seemed to establish its duo. But the second episode introduced half a dozen other students, created a very complicated set of relationships, and didn't resolve any of it. Apparently this won't just be individual episodes of zany hijinks. Nice, for a change.
Anyvay. After a long, slow afternoon, I stopped by my parents' house for the evening. After a brisk swim and a light dinner, we spent the evening bouncing between the foreign-language channels on the TV, mocking an impenetrable Dutch (?) film (almost as bad as Jay Sherman's student film) and trying to translate the Cantonese and Japanese news programs and dramas. Great fun.
So now, I'm laying on my bed at 11:30 P.M., typing this blog entry. On balance, I like this day.
Posted in Writing
15 Jun 07 - 15 Jun 07
Final reminder: I need your comments on Giant Armors by midnight tonight, if you're going to send them. Thanks!
Posted in Writing
10 Jun 07 - 10 Jun 07
If you have a copy of my YA novel to review, please send me any comments by this Friday so I'll have time to incorporate them. Thanks, as usual, for all your thoughts.
Posted in Writing
5 Jun 07 - 5 Jun 07
Just returned from the writer's group, where I received lots of feedback on draft three of Giant Armors. I have a few minor changes to make now, and will incorporate any changes I receive from other readers by mid-June.
Felt great. They said that this was a significant improvement, and they look forward to reading any other changes. They had excellent advice for how I can tweak it.
Life's good. I need to remember how much I need community.
Posted in Writing
26 May 07 - 26 May 07
It's been a long, busy week. Events at work have sapped my strength, as have a few personal issues. Little to do with all of you, though.
I finished the third draft of Giant Armors last weekend, and sent it out to friends for review and critique. If you want to look it over, drop me a line. I plan to make one final pass after June 15th, so please send any comments by then.
I feel good about Giant Armors. I wish it were better than it is, but I think it's a fun adventure that makes a few important points. And that's all I wanted it to do, really.
Who cares if it's not perfect? Nothing is. At some point, you have to let go.
Posted in Writing
8 May 07 - 8 May 07
Another BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) today:
When I come home tired, cook a meal, and realize that I don't feel like I have any energy to write...
...I can choose to write anyway.
Posted in Self-improvement, Writing
24 Mar 07 - 24 Mar 07
I've posted The VR Story to this site and Lulu.com, so you can read it for free online or buy a paperback for $10.
I'm proud of the VR story. It was a writing experiment that went 25,000 words out of hand. I wrote some lovely bits, just by chugging away every day.
Posted in Writing
12 Mar 07 - 12 Mar 07
My favorite book is still Frank Herbert's Dune, a sprawling tale of politics, prophecy, knife fights, religion, ecology, and duty (among other things). I envy Herbert's consistency and fearlessness in telling such an ambitious story with such vivid, strong characters. Every character speaks in absolutes--rare in modern fiction.
After spending too long on Wikipedia, I stumbled on Wikiquote and its archive of Dune quotes. And I came across this:
| Frank Herbert in Heretics of Dune: | When I was writing Dune there was no room in my mind for concerns about the book's success or failure. I was concerned only with the writing. Six years of research had preceded the day I sat down to put the story together, and the interweaving of the many plot layers I had planned required a degree of concentration I had never before experienced. It was to be a story exploring the myth of the Messiah. It was to produce another view of a human-occupied planet as an energy machine. It was to penetrate the interlocked workings of politics and economics. It was to be an examination of absolute prediction and its pitfalls. It was to have an awareness drug in it and tell what could happen through dependence on such a substance. Potable water was to be an analog for oil and for water itself, a substance whose supply diminishes each day. It was to be an ecological novel, then, with many overtones, as well as a story about people and their human concerns with human values, and I had to monitor each of these levels at every stage in the book. There wasn't room in my head to think about much else. |
Posted in Writing
9 Feb 07 - 9 Feb 07
From my sixth grade creative writing textbook:
That's really good advice.
Posted in Writing, Self-improvement
24 Jan 07 - 24 Jan 07
As I knocked the sodden mass of tea leaves out of the strainer this morning, I realized I had unconsciously done so to the rhythm of "Shave and a Haircut." I must be feeling better.
| Meanwhile, Saalon writes: | Creative people - writers, painters, musicians - put a lot of work into their early projects. There's a fire and a passion that goes into them that's easy to find. You've been carrying that passion around your entire life, so it just forces those first stories onto you. Then you get that out, put it on a page, and a danger arises. The danger that the next project you choose will be...well, arbitrary. |
True. Beyond that, if an artist writes her first story at age twenty-five, then that story has spent the past ten to fifteen years building in her head. The next story will have a much shorter gestation period. New stories will feel less powerful.
But that's okay. Real artists (those who actually produce art) know the importance of daily work. The Muse will bless your work, provided you do it.
In The War of Art, Pressfield describes his first novel, and the nearby friend that he'd sit with every day to discuss problems with and generally be encouraged by. When Pressfield finally finished his novel, he walked to his friend's house and told him. "Good for you," his friend said, not looking up from his paper. "Start the next one tomorrow."
Posted in Writing