The Beauty of Clean Tight Lines… In a Book

Adrian

The curve of a sports car.

A silhouetted woman’s form. Or man’s.

A whippet in motion.

Strength, simplicity, power. It comes from tight, focused, and uncluttered composition. It is that wow factor, that comes from seeing something that seems almost effortless, but comes from a lot of behind-the-scenes work, whether that’s Tesla’s engineering department, a person’s well-used running shoes and weights, or the many squirrels that a whippet pursues in its joyful life.

We should aspire such an outcome in our writing too.

I’m not saying I’ve achieved that plateau. Or that it’s easy. In fact, it’s hard. It shouldn’t be so hard, but it takes a lot of polishing to get that kind of effortless perfection. And lots of false starts. Kind of like my early dating life. 🙂

But as my significant other is small and wonderful, so too should be your paragraphs.

(That should get me in the good books for an hour or two. At least until the mess by the kitchen sink is discovered…)

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This image is a 30 minute doodle while I was watching the Voice. 🙂 Of a whippet obviously, which was the breed of our last dog. They are beautiful to watch in motion.

On the personal life side, I got swamped with house selling and buying and work, to the point little creative stuff was happening, but managed to tidy up an entry for Writers of the Future yesterday, and I also finally finished binge reading Robert Parker’s Spenser series. All 40ish books in about 3-4 months, I think. 😀 So I am hoping to have a bit more creative time this summer, maybe even do some drawing.

I’m a bit torn on StoneDragon, as I’m not feeling much creative drive to work on it, but I do want it finished, in the best shape it can be, or else I’ll feel even worse for leaving it half-finished. So I’ll try to kick my butt into gear on that too… It’s a good story, but I’ve lost perspective on it, and it’s a grueling thing to do so many edits. Oh well, hopefully I look back on it one day as a worthwhile exercise, one way or the other.

 

What makes a good Fantasy Story

Adrian

Not that it’s easy to do, but this is what I think is needed, as I hammer up from little to big (not the way you’re supposed to learn, but in writing, it’s like catching fireflies to get all the writing advice you need, so in some respects, it is the only way to learn). So big picture, I think you need:

  1. A sense of wonder (an emotional reaction, created through: premise, which in turn encompasses: setting, big picture conflict, magic system, character types and attributes)
  2. A cool plot, that catches interest early, picks up speed, and ends in a crescendo (plot, obviously)
  3. A song of emotion, through the story (have the character FEEL intensely, see the story through an emotional lens, have it tie together consistently and have clear backstory to create it, and clearly share it to the reader in your scene and POV choices).

Three things. Simple, in a way.

Execution, however, is incredibly difficult and complicated. And, of course, execution is 90% of the battle. But that first 10%, getting the big picture right, is essential. If you miss that, you miss it all…

(I might have to revisit my writing mountain and refresh the top layer. It seems to tie into that thinking)

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This is another sketch from StoneDragon (Broken Cowboy), for one of the characters which dances along the line between good guys and bad guys. I apologize for slowness on my progress here (or should I? Some days this seems like a big assumption that anyone cares. 🙂 ) But even for me, it’s quite discouraging that I’m still early in the most recent structural edit. I’d give a lot to be working on a new, fun and exciting story instead, instead of something that is feels so chewed over. But anyway, I will finish it. One day. One way or another! 

If you haven’t guessed, I’m feeling a bit run down, and (evident from the less frequent posts) very stretched for time. We have been house hunting, just bought a new house (after several auctions), and now have to sell our home. Work is still crazy, to the point that the older kid wants to know why I’m working so much more, and why I don’t find another job, and it’s not easy to fit writing and art into what is an exhausting schedule already.

But I’m trying. It may just be slow. Hopefully the rest of the stuff slows down and my battery recharges…

You don’t sand a tree to get a table (Priorities)

Adrian

My first job was in a woodworking company, which made custom cabinets and furniture. We lived in a small town and I was fifteen and wanted to save up for a car, so I walked around town, handing out my carefully thought out CV (grass-cutting for allowance money, etc). The family-run woodworking shop must have had the same cutting edge attitude as I did, because they said ‘sure’, and put me to work right away—literally. I dressed up for what I thought was an interview in a nice sweater and they put me to work on a big belt-sanding machine right away. At the end of my efforts, they hesitantly told me to dress more appropriately for the next shift.

So what has this got to do with writing? Well, what I quickly learned was that you do things in a certain order. The company would get great big sheets of wood, then plan what the pieces they would need to cut out, cut it on a great ban saw (I saw that saw fling a chair across the room once, when someone wasn’t holding on properly, so cool), sand it, dowel it, seal, and stain or lacquer it. And that sequence never changed. Because it would be a waste of time or materials to do it any other way. You measured and planned what pieces you needed first, so you didn’t waste the great sheets and people’s time experimenting with different sizes and seeing how they looked. You cut the wood down before sanding, because why would you sand what you never planned on using? And in fact, I once got in trouble for sanding a part of a table that no-one would ever see or touch. Why waste the time they were paying me for to do that? It was a waste of money and time. No-one would ever know the difference.

It’s taken me a while, but it’s finally sinking in that it’s the same with writing. It’s very tempting to write the chapter of a first draft, then go back and polish the language. Make the dialogue better, correct the grammar, tighten words. It makes me happy. But it’s also wasting time. My time has an opportunity cost. If I was paying me by the hour, like my old woodworking boss did, I’d be livid. Because the scenes are not yet cut to size, or attached in the right order. It’s like I’m cutting down a tree, giving it a few swipes of sandpaper, then taking out the chain saw. It’s the wrong order. It doesn’t hurt the project, but why on Earth am I wasting the energy and time? There are better uses for it.

So when you’re writing: plan, write, do big picture edits (chopping, resizing, shuffling things around) and THEN polish. Tighten your words, dialogue, and shine at the end, not the beginning.

And if you do get an interview at a small woodworking shop, you may not want to wear your nicest sweater. 🙂

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An oldie but goodie image. I like this little dragon a lot. If I had more time, I’d do more art like this (posed more dramatically), but work is very consuming right now, as I may have mentioned. Not that it’s bad, just a lot to manage, so I’m struggling even to keep my StoneDragon edit going. Art has unfortunately taken a backseat. Hopefully that will change at some point…

 

 

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…

Your Package. Your Short Package. Your Short-Story Package.

Adrian

I knew I’d get the wording right eventually. 🙂

I don’t consider myself an expert on short stories, symptoms sickness even though I have one published. A few months back, buy sale before I got that one story accepted, visit this I tried to make a list at how I looked at them. I figure it would be interesting to review.

I think that an effective fantasy short story should have the following elements, in the following priority:

  1. A cool idea, whether based in plot, character, world-building, or theme. Something that people might want to talk about afterwards.
  2. Clean tight writing. It’s with a bit of surprise that I realize I haven’t got a post on this topic yet to link to. Important in all writing, but even more so in a short story.
  3. A clear emotional goal for the reader. What do you want the reader to FEEL at the climax of your story. Maybe the answer is relief from tension, as you have a high-octane action story, maybe it’s a pang of loss or nostalgia. But whatever it is, it’s worth considering. There are tricks to creating reader emotional reaction, if you know exactly what you’re trying for.
  4. Some kind of surprise, whether plot reversal, story revelation, or character action. But while surprising, the seeds of the reversal need to be hinted at earlier in the story (the ‘rule of three’).
  5. Goals and obstacles. Really, no post on this one either? I seem to be roaming around on cool topics, but skipping over some essentials. Will try to remedy! But anyway, clear character goals and obstacles in a scene creates tension.
  6. An early hook. A first sentence and early paragraphs that intrigue and raises interesting questions, without creating confusion (a fine line, as I’ve talked about here). This is often tied to your ‘cool idea’, above, and why reading widely is a help. If your cool idea has been explored by a well known story, it’s not cool anymore, but derivative. Boo!
  7. A meaningful resolution that ties all the major elements of the story together as a package(thought-provoking is a bonus).
  8. Nothing extra. No extraneous characters, setting, world-building, or other elements that distract or are not contributing to that overall package. See Egg or Wiffle Ball, where I talk about my occasional struggles with this concept, as I am often more intrigued by a first chapter than a short story, which therefore means I often have unrelated stuff that would only be explored later. A fine line to walk.

That’s it for my package today! No tip for delivery required (mailman joke there, not anything else, for people who’s minds have sunk so far into the gutter that they can’t see their way out! He he. Shame on you.)

Here’s to a productive and successful 2016!!

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The art is a first and VERY quick character sketch for Bernetta Brogi, a young lady who swings a couple of mean axes, in StoneDragon. I’m polishing up my world building wiki in this draft, and doing a bit more character work. I may polish up the character sketches more later, but you may also see some other quick charcoal pieces in the coming months. It just helps me to visualize and keep the details consistent.

This took about fifteen minutes this morning, with some interruptions as I was summoned to the Little Prince’s room. 🙂