“I see structure…”

Okay, not quite the impact of M Night Shyamalan’s “I see dead people” (Sixth Sense), but my life is a bit tamer than that, admittedly. 🙂

But do you remember when I posted about ‘leveling up’ in your skills, just like a computer game (here). You know what? I think I might have just done it.

I’ve been writing a couple of short stories, polishing up some older ones and doing a new one. And what struck me was something interesting. I now see structure. It’s hard to describe exactly what that means. Before, I’d look at the story and see words, dialogue, sentences, all the little pieces that added up to a story. But not in the context of the building blocks of reader experience. Not with a sense of purpose for each paragraph, the ability to see why those pieces were there at that time.

Some of this may come with time and distance, looking at an older more story more clinically, but I don’t think that that’s all of it. I now tend to think of stories in terms of blocks of scenes, and how they might impact the reader’s experience in their order and purpose. I think that this is a critical advancement in moving the story telling to the next level (see being ‘god of your story’, as per here).

Now I look at work I’ve written and have a sense for what each paragraph is intending to do, and what lines are extraneous and can be cut, or shifted, or… whatever.

I see structure. This explanation may not help you at all (I am sure that I saw this type of post well before I actually felt this way).

But it makes me happy. 😀

Stepping Stones to Greatness. And the Big Splash.

When I was a kid, we had a stream in the field behind our house, where we would creep around when the cows weren’t let out (watching our footsteps!) and occasionally we would cross the stream. What you realize is that rocks just under or over the water, wet and dark, can be slippery. You need to be careful where you step (especially when it comes to avoiding cow deposits, but that’s a different post…)

In writing, the first chapter is your first few steps out into that stream. To get a reader to keep turning the first pages, whether agent or book buyer, you need an intriguing first line, an intriguing scene question that drags them at least a few more paragraphs in, a character doing something interesting, wanting something with some emphasis, and having a conflict to their achieving it. You want to hint at the main character’s personality, you want to promise to the reader the tone and style of your story, you want the reader to keep reading. Desperately.

And it’s not always easy, especially as not every person is really our target audience. Which makes it only that more imperative that we don’t lose those who are.

You are standing on the side of the stream, one foot outstretched, swaying, half-submerged rocks all around. You can wander any direction you want, but not all of those rocks lead to the other side of the stream. Some leave you sitting waist deep in frigid water, wondering how all those darn frogs make it look so easy.

(I think I just called published authors frogs. He he. Done in love…)

_______________________________________________________

Work remains challenging, but slowly inching along on my writing and even (fractionally) my art. I’ve done a fun Sherlock Holmes fantasy short story (3k words-ish) that was for an anthology call. Likely low chance of making it in, but the story got some good feedback on OWW, and I enjoyed it considerably. And I’m trying to keep forward progress on my adult fantasy major edit. I’ve done all the editing, chopping, and reworking. So now I’m at the rewriting stage, which is a a bit daunting, as I know that this will be over 100,000 words with the new POVs I’ve put in. I like this story and want to finish it, but it is not a small task. Oh well. 🙂 I should get it done before the kids get to university. Or if I get laid off, it might go faster! 🙂 Kidding. Kind of. Work is still crazy and some days the life of a writer does beckon. But we all have good days and bad days, so I’m sure things will get better…

Happy Canada Day / Fourth of July weekend! Best.

Oh, nearly forgot, the image here is a close crop of an old image I’ve shown on the site before, and which I think is in the gallery, of a woman near a pool. A mood experiment at the time…

 

Early Manuscripts, Depressing is Thy Name…

I am on my third manuscript, beyond dozens of picture book stories and poems that I worked on prior to that. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of work, over multiple years (my SCBWI membership shows me joining in 2006, although I didn’t start writing novel-length manuscripts until 2012). I think that my first three novel-length manuscript all had solid pieces to them, more than solid even. Humor in the first, atmosphere and world-building in the second, premise and magic system in the third. And yet, the struggle remains: are early manuscripts from a writer to be seen or hidden? It is becoming a more significant question, with the rise of self-publishing.

I am not complaining about the time invested, I love writing, although rejections have been hard. But the question is: when is the work worth showing to potential readers, even if a traditional publisher doesn’t want it? When do you decide that self-publishing is a good marketing tool, instead of a bad one? Because there is the risk of showing your work too early, before you have all your skills and polish in place, and scaring off readers that might have otherwise loved your books, and aren’t likely to give you a second chance.

I don’t know the answer to these questions. I have heard ten books in some places, a million words in others (this is a common one). Brandon Sanderson noted that his sixth book sold, similar to another author that he knew. Others have mentioned earlier. But Jay Yasher, author of the top selling Thirteen Reasons Why put in twelve years, if I remember correctly, before rocking the YA world with his break-through effort. Not to mention the fact that those people probably started off in different places in their writing skill sets, making it even harder to judge ‘when’ is right.

The reason that I’m asking this question is that I think that my writing is getting close to a point where it might be half-decent, and the topic or premise of a book the marginal factor in whether an agent or editor gets excited. Not that my skills won’t improve further. Of course they will, as long as I stick to it. But I think that I’m closer to the point where I might catch hold of readers with my writing, rather than scare them away. At least I hope so!

In any event, I think it’s interesting to consider what a thankless job it is, being a writer early in their journey. Even the three books I’ve written (still shy of a million words, just for the record) have been an enormous task, with little external reward. Writing is different than other performing arts, like drawing or piano, where people enjoy a few minutes of exposure and often give positive feedback. Not many people want to read a 80,000-word early manuscript from an amateur writer.

Early Manuscripts, depressing is thy name. But without them, we wouldn’t get the later ones. The ones that readers see and love. The ones that make it all worthwhile. Hopefully.

Here’s to hoping we all make it through. Happy writing!

Adrian.

Everything I know, I learned from Street Fighter IV

I’m not talking about a triple spinning uppercut–although I’d love to be able to do that in real life. But let’s start with some context

When I was eighteen and in college, there wasn’t much to do on breaks and lunch. So myself and a boy I hung around with would play arcade games. Street Fighter, as I recall. I’m dating myself horribly, but I have a point. I played for weeks. Maybe three or four. And got thrashed continually by my friend. There was a lot of specialized moves, hand eye coordination, and understanding of the game’s patterns of movement. Certain moves were called for at certain times, certain moves of your opponent needed certain defences, and some things you could do were simply unstoppable (a glitch in the system, and super annoying to the uninitiated). Anyway, I got beat. A lot.

Then one day, I didn’t. My mind and body clicked, and suddenly I was winning. In fact, I was thrashing my friend, because I’d found a couple of moves that were difficult to defend with the character he liked to use the most. I remember he looked at me and said. “It’s about time.”

I think a lot of things are like that. You learn and you try, and you learn and you try, and if anything, you seem to get worse. Then one day, something clicks, and suddenly you’re better than you were. Not that you’re the best yet, but you’re a level up. And it shows.

I believe that it’s the same in writing. I’ve felt it. Not in everything (I don’t have a book deal yet, and may never), but I found a year or two ago that my story pitches were getting more attention on website competitions. It had clicked with me how to write one. Not that my story ideas were always somebody’s cup of tea, but they were getting more attention. I’d leveled up.

I’m not sure if this is a craft tip, but maybe it’s a bit of hope for writers who are new and finding things frustrating. You can get better. You WILL get better. You just have to keep getting thrashed first. 🙂

_______________________________

It’s close to one of my birthdays, and I have to admit to feeling a little bit of the blues the last week. On the writing journey, there are no signposts or guarantees that you’re going to get to the promised land, or even a friendly rest-stop. But I hope to shake this mood off soon and remind myself that I take joy in the writing, the creating, and getting better.

And maybe one day my ‘level up’ will be something more significant…

This image is a quick effort in Prismacolor. I tried to stay true to the low pixel original screen images, but I’m not sure how well it came out. A fun effort in any event.

Claws Around the Cage

I learned something after 2 years of hanging out on the SCBWI discussion boards. And the Blue Boards (when they were still separate). And occasional contests and… well, you get the idea. This is what I learned.

I was no longer learning much.

Because I wasn’t a newbie writer anymore. I was weighing in on random topics, gossiping, and helping people new to the boards. But not really improving my own craft. So I shelled up, became a hermit crab, and started making sure my limited free time either improved my writing, or WAS writing in some fashion*. It doesn’t replace writing. And hopefully never will.

So this is what I learned:

Limit your online time.

Limit the number of blogs you follow. Prune.

And limit the time you spend aimlessly wandering discussion boards and getting sucked into heated debates and critiques. Especially once you’ve moved up the learning curve and would benefit more from the insight of industry professionals (those who spend time on a professional polish, rather than the basic foundations of writing). You don’t have to cut it out entirely, but be careful it doesn’t suck up all your time**.

So build a cage, and put the laptop in there with you.

Then Write. Ruthlessly guard your time, and the value you get out of any writing activity. Learn new things. Don’t get stuck in a rut.

So what are you waiting for? Write!

_____________________________________

*yes, yes, I know that I have a blog on the topic of writing, which contradicts all this with great irony, but my blog has a stated purpose and time allotment each month, which I’m pretty firm about keeping.

**Fair warning: opinions vary, and this is just mine. The optimal approach to writing discussion board participation depends on what your priorities are. If fun and social interaction is what keeps you going down this thankless road, feel free to disregard! 🙂

For a general update, my short story is now up on OWW and I opened all my files on the Broken Detective (new title forthcoming), the old unloved story that I want to spruce up and put out into the world. A bit exciting and daunting, but hopefully this will be a fun detour for a few months. I still think it’s worth doing. We’ll see what the rest of the world thinks. 🙂

The featured image here is ink and black Prismacolor. I’m experimenting a bit to see if I can figure out a low maintenance style that would work well on the go, as I might consider a little bit of art in the Broken Detective manuscript if so. If I can make it convenient, it would make it a lot more likely!