Writing Work In Progress

A hard weekend. Unreasonable expectations. A writer’s life.

Adrian

I love to create. Art and writing. Even at my work, this I enjoy crafting a good report, a clean spreadsheet. I like building things. I love a good story. So it stands to reason that I always wanted to write. Not that I always have, but it’s always been a dream. But except for the lucky few (maybe), it is a difficult, fairly thankless road. My wife thinks I’m crazy to have a hobby that makes me depressed on a regular basis, as rejections come in for stories that I have spent hours, days, months, or even years on (I’m not always the most productive, granted, so my years might be another’s weeks). I crafted a fun story late last year, with a cool world, cool ideas, and cool character (I think). It had a neat twist, and had reasonably good reception at OWW. And it was rejected for the anthology it was written for.

And that hurts.

It was a crazy high profile anthology, for full disclosure, with high profile authors. New York Times best sellers anchoring it. Only a few slots open. I knew, even before the response, that it was unreasonable to believe that the story would make it in. Yet… I kind of did. I think it was a good story. Sigh.

I know the motto you have to submit to get accepted, that 100% of stories that aren’t put into the world never get published, that you should have a rhino thick skin and play the numbers. But getting rejected also throws off my writing confidence and enthusiasm. It can stall me for days, or longer. I got rejected Friday night and haven’t completely shaken off my depression. Granted, a tough day at work didn’t help and I’m feeling a little under the weather, too.

So forgive my whining, my lack of fortitude, my bad weekend. But I think it’s unrealistic to assume that no one has them. Most writers do. It comes with the writing life. I just wish it didn’t.

Tonight I’m doing some art instead. Still creating, but not trying to drum back up that writing confidence. Waiting for that bruise to fade, and the well of confidence to fill back up (warranted or not!) 🙂

Hope your weekend went better.

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The featured image is a sketch I made for the StoneDragon book, which is slowly plodding along. I actually really like having the art to go along with, even to inspire me as I’m writing. I’d like to do some more coloured pieces, but we’ll see what time allows. This image is Karen Waters, the daughter of a sea god, a god who is losing a battle and hiding from his enemies. Karen will take a foolish but brave action which sets everything in motion…

Arrows in the River (Giving the Reader Time to Absorb)

Adrian

I think I might be going too fast in the beginning. There I said it.

I read other short stories in the ‘Improbable Truth’ anthology and compared them to mine. Then I skimmed the old opening of the original StoneDragon draft, the last full version I wrote, and I found fast dialogue and action, but not a lot of setting, backstory, or context, at least in the first few pages. I dropped the reader into a fast moving stream and expected them to start swimming, without help. And maybe with a few arrows falling around their head (my featured image was boring until I added the arrow, which I have to tie in somehow!).

But seriously, I think I need to aim for slightly longer paragraphs early on, of adding something that isn’t fast moving action or dialogue, at least in the first few pages. Setting, mood, detail. Something to allow my reader’s mind to settle in, pick up the point of an individual paragraph and absorb it, before being assaulted by a new and completely different idea, every sentence or two. Or at least not until the pacing is intended to pick up and the reader is comfortably ensconced in the scene.

I should probably note that this flaw is probably better than the reverse: being too slow and predictable, which is the kiss of death, but I still have to write down my flaws when I see them–and I think I see one.

Hopefully, I’m not be as bad as I used to be when I first wrote that early StoneDragon draft, and I definitely don’t want to swing completely to the other side of the pendulum, and have a pedantically boring opening, but I think that I will probably add this question to my checklist of items when I’m editing a story. I’m still going to try having an opening that grabs you, but hopefully not at a speed where you are lost.

A fast moving stream can shock you, wake you up, and get your heart rate racing. All good things for a chapter. But if the water’s too fast and deep, you’re just going to drown…

Especially if you get shot by arrows. 😉

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A new sketch for the post. I also have a hockey injury tonight: a slapshot to the little finger. A lot of blood and the nail is mottled black. So not much extra typing going on. 😉 Most of this post was done beforehand. Before ‘hand’, he he. Okay, maybe a bit light headed from blood loss and a single beer. Hope your night went better!

On the WIP front, I’m finally shockingly happy with the outline and am cleaning up my world-building references into organized files in Scrivener before tackling the rewrite. Which will be followed by a paid edit and possibly a copy edit. So still quite a ways from complete. But I’m getting excited by it again, which is a nice change!

PS, I have a guest blog coming soon, which is a first for the blog and pretty exciting, And which will also hopefully give the little finger a chance to recover! 🙂

Egg or Wiffle Ball (Short Story vs First Chapter)

Adrian

I’ve written a few short stories recently and I’ve struggled with the difference between a short story and a first chapter. This debate comes partly because I have so many ideas, and I love the creative bursts that come with first chapters. I also like the idea of writing a whole novel, using my short story ideas as seeds, so I’ve tended towards writing short stories that could be expanded into novels if I had the urge (i.e. they could double as either a short story or a first chapter).

I’ve also had some degree of success in my recent writing, with acceptance to an anthology (An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, out later in October) and an honourable mention in the Writers of the Future contest. I am not sure how much of it is improved writing skill and how much from better understanding the short form of fiction.

So I’ve thought about the difference between short stories and first chapters a bit, and one of the main differences in my mind, that I think is less well discussed and maybe worth considering, is the difference between an egg and a wiffle ball.

Confused? 🙂 Let me explain…

An egg is completely self-contained, everything inside circular, trapped, self-reinforcing. A wiffle ball has a bunch of holes that air spins in and out of. It is connected to the larger world around it, even though its basic shape is the same. How does this apply to writing?

A first chapter can introduce many cool things very briefly, the start of threads that will be explored a chapter or two down the road. It doesn’t have to have much significant meaning right away. But with a short story, you are trying to amplify the impact on the reader of a small story segment, and that story segment will be more powerful if more of the elements reinforce each other. If more of the peripheral details, whether part of setting or plot, reinforces the main story idea or theme. You are better to examine every element of a short story and see if you can bend it to reinforce that section of writing, rather than leaving something to build until later.

An example, you ask? Certainly.

In “Time’s Running Out, Watson,” (my to-be-published short story) I originally had the villainess holding a futuristic weapon, beyond the time device that the story revolves around. I figured an evil scientist-type would have more than one trick up her sleeve, right? But eventually I took the extra weapon out and had her threaten Watson and Holmes with the time device instead. That way, the focus was razor-sharp on a single cool idea, the time device, rather than something broader. If I had been writing it as a novel, maybe I would have wanted to include a second device, to show people that my villainess wasn’t a one-trick pony and develop her character and backstory more. In fact, I’d probably want more loose ends within the first chapter, to twig reader curiosity, and lead to a greater and deeper finale at the end. But in a short story, I have to be more careful.

Egg or wiffle ball. Short story or first chapter. There is a line you can dance in the middle, where something could be read as either a short story or first chapter, but it is indeed a dance, and the most important thing to know, as a writer, is what can go wrong. At least then, you’re making a conscious decision on how to address it and whether the risk is worth taking. So now you can think about it too.

I’m off to play badminton. Neither egg nor wiffle ball it shall be. 😉

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The featured image is a quick pencil sketch done for the post, maybe forty five minute’s work. Enjoy. On the personal front, I’m actually not getting much writing done, sadly, as work pressures and sick kids (the THIRD time my older boy has got hand foot mouth, gah!) have sucked all my free time into the abyss. But I have people critiquing a short story I finished on my recent cruise, which I quite liked and got good feedback on, and I’m hoping to submit it to an anthology call at the end of the month. It was a fun effort, and dances the line between short story and first chapter, inspiring the post above. We’ll see how I do in walking that line. 🙂

Stepping Stones to Greatness. And the Big Splash.

Adrian

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…)

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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…

 

Cover Sketch for Dead Dragon Cowboy

Adrian

I am starting to revamp my older novel, buy which I am now calling “Dead Dragon Cowboy”, there my first fantasy manuscript, with the current intention to self-publish it (as I’ve mentioned before, it did the agent rounds, and didn’t attract much interest). One major step for that endeavor is the cover, a step that I can obviously do myself, given my art skills, and should enjoy. So I did a charcoal sketch of one image that I had in mind for the cover, which is the featured image of this post. I’ve also showed a progression shot here, from an even earlier sketch:

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I kind of like the charcoal look, even for the actual cover, but I know that many of the fantasy books are done in water-colour or ink, so I may do a second, more polished version in water-colour, see what it looks like. I want my book to come across as professional as a traditional publisher’s, and there is a line between originality and confusing reader expectations. So we’ll see what that version looks like, and if this rougher sketch still has some appeal.

To give an idea of what the actual novel is about, I’ve redone a short blurb, below:

In a world nothing like his own, a dark-spirited gunfighter must battle devils and gods to reclaim the girl who looked to him for protection. He won’t fail twice. Even if he triggers a battle that threatens to rip the world apart…

I hope that you enjoy the journey and at least some of you enjoy the book! At the moment, I’m thinking I might be done all the required steps by the end of 2015, but we’ll see how things go….