Living the Fictional Dream

Wrimos all over the world are gearing up for the 2009 installment of National Novel Writing Month  (NaNoWriMo). It boggles my mind that it’s almost that time again already. Where did the time go? Weren’t we just doing that?

Of course, NaNo 2008 was the last big thing I did before finding out I was pregnant, so maybe that’s why it feels like it just happened. The time between here and there is a blur of nausea, labor, the NICU, having a newborn at home, and then leaving her at home as I transitioned back into my fulltime tech writer job. So, definitely some big events since last year.

My writing group is preparing to help our Wrimo members who will be competing in NaNo this year. It looks like we’ll have at least three participating. Go Wrinkers!

Sadly, I will not be amont them this year. Last year, I was able to juggle busy season at work and writing 50,000 words. It was hard and it aggravated my carpal tunnel, but I made it through. This year, though, doing all that with a baby in the mix? Yeah… there’s just no way.

However, I’m hopeful that I will be able to take advantage of at least a few of the write-ins that will abound in November to make progress on some of the stories I’ve been working on. I have a zombie flash piece that is almost finished. There is that rewrite request that I got, so I want to readdress that story. And some of my more recent rejections deserve a polish and another send-off into the world.

Lately, the only time I get to do writing-related things is when I’m at a writing group function (so, basically the monthly meeting and the monthly write-in). Those are the times when Hubby takes the little one and I can selfishly devote myself to my own interests for a few hours. I’m sure that will improve as the little one gets older and more self-sufficient, but that is quite a ways away.

Here’s hoping that the NaNo spirit will infect me in November and lead me to finish a few of my works- and revisions-in-progress. And I hope that my writing group mates, and any other Wrimos who might be reading this, have a great month full of thousands and thousands of words.

The premier of The Vampire Diaries on the CW this month led me to pull all my old L.J. Smith young adult novels off the back shelf where they had been collecting dust and give them a re-read for the first time since the ’90s. Strangely enough, I don’t actually own a copy of The Vampire Diaries book trilogy, but I have copies of what (in my opinion) were Smith’s better trilogies — Dark Visions, The Secret Circle, and The Forbidden Game.

It’s been fun to journey down memory lane by rereading these old books. I loved them when I was the right age for them. In fact, Dark Visions was one of several inspirations for one of my novels-in-progress.

But, reading them now, with much more writing experience (and life, too) behind me, I can recognize their flaws much more readily than I could back then.

I may come back and address other flaws in these books, as I can think of several, but today I wanted to talk about eye color.

For some reason, writers love to take liberties with eye color. Why have boring old brown or blue eyes when youre characters can have aquamarine, violet, or amber colored eyes?

Now, I will admit to having done this on occasion. One character in my urban fantasy ‘verse, a werewolf, has the distinguishing characteristic of ice blue eyes. Though, I did do some research — there are a few wolves who have blue eyes.

But these L.J. Smith novels take eye color way over the top. One heroine has pine green eyes. One hero has blue-gray eyes that, every time they are described, are comparied to the sea. A villain has eyes that are bluer than blue — described as the blue that you see when you close your eyes, an unearthly blue (though, he is a Shadow Man from an evil dimension, so maybe he has a right to crazy colored eyes). A villainess has eyes alternately described as amber and golden, which are paired with honey-colored skin and a mane of black hair. A supporting character is always described as having emotionless or cool gray eyes.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that character descriptions are a powerful tool for drawing your reader into your world and for helping them to remember a character. All characters really do need one feature that is uniquely there’s so that the reader can distinguish that character from all the rest.

However, that distinguishing feature does not always have to be the eyes. And if you use too many crazy eye colors in one story, it starts to feel absurd and/or cliche. Maybe just give one character unique eyes, and let other characters have something of their own — a unique hair color, thick eyebrows, unusual stature (tall or petite), large hands, etc.

Now I have the urge to revisit my young adult novel in progress and see how many crazy eye colors I put in there. I remember emerald green and violet off the top of my head. Uh-oh!

I recently received my first rewrite request from an editor. The story I submitted was a flash piece about a selkie. I would love to place this piece, so I will definitely attempt the rewrite. I wonder if I can get a first pass done before my maternity leave is over next week?

I appreciated that the editor’s request explicitly stated what they think the problem is with the piece so I know what needs to be addressed. And, I must admit, I agree with the editor. The basic problem is that the main character needs to have more at stake, more conflict, in the story. As it stands, the main character is more reactive than proactive — something I have to watch for in my writing. I did go back and try to give the main character in this piece a character change after her selkie encounter, but apparently that was not enough.

Now, I must ponder where to go next with this story… At least there is no restriction to keep it flash. The market in question accepts stories up to 4,000 words. I don’t plan to use that many, but adding more to the main character will probably require more words than I have left for it still to be considered flash.

Murphy’s Law strikes again. I haven’t gotten a story accepted in a few months (mostly because my submission and writing output have been down due to pregnancy and baby-related things), but, of course, during the time that our little girl has been in the NICU, two acceptances arrived.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to be accepted, but, for one of them, the timing turned out to be disappointing.

First, though, let me say that a superhero flash piece that I wrote, “Frigid,” is going to appear in Every Day Fiction on August 21. And, look, my name is mentioned in the Table of Contents blurb. That’s a first! I’m excited to be back in EDF, as it’s one of my favorite short fiction publications.

The other acceptance didn’t work out so well. I won’t mention the name of the publication, but they emailed me on July 22 to accept my story for the August issue. To appear in that issue, I had to return the contract to them by July 29.

Maybe it’s just me, but what a short response window! Maybe I’m just used to most publications who accept you for months in advance? If only they’d accepted me for the September issue or something…

I won’t complain about their editorial policies. I understand, they have to do what’s best for their publication. And, I’m sure that they deal with story acceptances where they author disappears on them on a regular basis. I’ve read policies for dealing with that in many publications’ guidelines. So, from the editor’s perspective, I understand why they had to rescind their acceptance of my story.

On a personal level, though, I’m bummed. It’s frustrating that one of my few acceptances this year was rescinded because I was spending so much time at the hospital with my little girl that all my writing stuff (and most of my email in general) got left by the wayside. (Not that I would change a decision that I made — Summerlyn is the most important thing right now, and she’s doing really, really well. We’re hoping she’ll be home soon!)

The other thing that’s disappointing is the particular story in question that was rescinded. This story is cursed, I think. It was nearly accepted several times, but not. Then, the first time it was actually accepted, the ‘zine folded before they could published it. Now, it’s accepted again and then due to timing will still not be published. **sigh** Maybe I should give up on it!

While I have no hard feelings for the publication in question, I will say that this experience has made me appreciate EDF’s contract-on-submission method a lot more. It makes things so easy at the end of the process. There is no question that the story can be included in the issue in question and acceptances go off without a hitch.

In one of the SED stories that I wrote last week, my main character was the reluctant queen of a kingdom that was getting overrun by civil war. She and her daughter’s life were in danger after the king’s death.

For some reason, when I wrote this story, the queen did not have a name. I just referred to her throughout as “the queen” or by various pronouns. I don’t know why… maybe because it was such a short piece — under 1,000 words. Maybe I just hadn’t had enough time to get to know her yet and learn her name?

Then again, I have read some storie where the main character (sometimes stories where none of the characters have names) and I have enjoyed them. The technique lends a certain amount of mystery to the story. Not having a name is a barrier between the reader and the character, and sometimes that barrier can be put to good use.

But, sometimes I’ve read nameless stories and just been irritated by them. So, as with many writing techniques, it probably depends most heavily on the skill of the writer who created the story and character in the first place. What some writers can pull off, others can’t.

Ultimately, this is a choice that I would not make in too many stories. Overuse of the nameless technique would not be a good thing. Also, I think it’s something better limited to shorter stories. Too much “the queen” would get really old — in an 8,000 word story, no way! (Of course, there is an exception to every rule — I could see writing a longer story about some kind of anti-social character and not using a name because he doesn’t attribute one to himself. It would have to be well done and it would have to be a compelling character detail).

If I got back to this SED story, I think I will give the queen a name and move on from there. She has more of a story to tell, and I think she could be a very personable character given a chance (and a name!). But the idea of writing without one on occasion is intriguing.

…14 more to go.

I was thinking this SED contest required 14 stories total, then I realized, since we start and end on a Wednesday, it’s actually 15 stories total. Wowzers.

I’m just glad to have one written!

Six members of the group turned in a story for yesterday, which is awesome turn-out, in my opinion. Congrats to all of y’all!

And now I must find an idea for today’s story. There is something pecking at the back of my brain about a superhero ball, but I can’t quite suss out what the plot would be.

The sad thing is that I kept having these little story ideas recently, but I was saving them for the SED contest. But now the ideas all seem to have flown away. I knew I should have made a list! Curses!

I didn’t end up actually writing at my writing group’s write-in last night (hmm… how many times can I get a form of the word “write” into one sentence?). But, I’m pleased with the way I spent my two hours.

I dug back into my pool of rejected stories and found new markets to target them to. My writing group makes goals for writing-related tasks that we will hold each other accountable for accomplishing between meetings. My goal for the next meeting was to submit a story. I did one better last night and submitted two. Go me!

Lack of writing (be that because of work, the baby, or just a stellar lack of motivation) is one reason that my publications have tapered off so since January. But, the other reason is that I have not kept on top of my rejections. The best thing to do is get a rejection and send the story right back out again (or, if needed, revise and then submit again, depending of the story). It’s important to keep stories in circulation!

Add these two stories to the two that I submitted at the end of May, and now I have four stories making the rounds again. It’s definitely progress! Perhaps the end of the year will hold a few more publications for me than the beginning has. If one of the four were accepted, I would call it a win.

And, in the meantime, no matter what happens with those four stories, I do have two upcoming publications to look forward to. I will have a story (”The Last Ball at Concord House”) in the first issue of 10Flash later this summer, and one of the later issues of A Thousand Faces this year will feature a superhero short story that I wrote last year (”Dinner for Three” — a story that can loosely be termed a sequel to “Bridge Club”).

Oh, and speaking of superhero fiction, the new issue of A Thousand Faces is available, and it features an amusing flash piece from writing group mate, Jens. It is even set in Fort Worth! Give it a look when you have some time.

Happy writing and submitting, every one!

I think writers walk a fine line when they create dialog. You want dialog that sounds like something people would actually say, but you don’t want to get too bogged down in the realism, either.

Shows like My So Called Life that really get into the “realistic” dialog (complete with a full complements of ums and stutters and run-on sentences) get on my nerves before too long. And reading such things instead of just listening to it would be even more irritating. Dialog is such an important part of a story, that if it irritates me, I’m very likely to get thrown out of the fictional dream and not care about fighting my way back in.

I like dialog that is crisp and clear and that portrays important information. I want it to be realistic, but in the best way possible — realistic for someone who’s into public speaking or has had training. Forget “uh” and “um,” and also forget boring dialog that, while we might say it in real life, has no bearing on the actual scene at hand. We don’t have time for that in our fiction today!

Writers have to be careful about information portrayal in dialog, though. Too much is just as much of a faux pas and dialog that is not relevant enough.

I get turned off when I read a conversation between two characters where they tell each other stuff that they would already know. For example:

Joe: When are you coming home tonight, honey?

Jane: Well, I work in a law office, so I have to stay until all the other partners are gone for the night. I probably won’t be home until 9.

If Joe and Jane are close enough that he would call her honey, they are close enough that he would already know she worked in a law office, so Jane would not feel the need to say that. The information was just thrown in so that the reader would get it. If that’s the only reason the information is in the dialog, cut it right out of there. If it’s that necessary to the story, find a way to get it in through narration or naturally in a scene. Don’t shoe-horn it into dialog.

And, now I’m off. A long weekend at the cabin. No internet — I hope I manage to get some writing done. Perhaps I’ll work on dialog! Either way, I expect to enjoy a relaxing weekend, which is probably the most important thing!

Naming is such a tricky thing. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, a character will spring to mind with his or her name already in place. Sarah Kirby from “The Widow and the Stranger” was like that. Some of the characters from my novel-in-progress — Caryn, Sean, Brilynn — as well.

And then there are the ones I have to struggle for. I flip through name books or name websites, looking for the perfect name. Sometimes I’ll pick a letter of the alphabet and go through all the names for the appropriate gender that start with that letter. I’ve always believed that characters should have names starting with different letters so it’s easier for the reader not to get them confused. In a novel, you can have a couple with the same initial, but the shorter the story, the more strictly I try to adhere to this rule.

I always thought that my experience naming characters would be helpful when it finally came time in my life to name a child, but now that my first little one is on the way, it’s not proving such an easy task. Of course, for the baby, my husband and I actually have to agree on a name. (Well, I guess that’s not always true, but it’s important to me — I want him to love what we name our child just as much as I do.)

The problem is, we have very different ideas about what makes a good name, especially for girls. We had our boy’s name totally picked out, but since the ultrasound said girl, we’ve been wrangling back and forth for months.

I love plant names… Sage, Holly, Rose, Laurel. He thinks that those names are too sissy, and has outlawed all plant names. Left to his own devices, he chooses many names that I think are too common or boring.

And, as if we didn’t have enough trouble between the two of us, there are always plenty of other people to offer suggestions and opinions. My sister loves the trendy names, like Piper and Taylor. My in-laws prefer more traditional names, like Ann — and they especially dislike names coming from the natural world (like Sierra) or names that would have nicknames. One friend told us that we should be sure to name our baby something that you can find on those racks of keychains in souvenir shops, because the child would be disappointed all of her life if she couldn’t be a part of that. Another friend tends to point out negativity in the meaning of a name (Leah was the unwanted sister in the Bible, Sage is a big ugly bush).

Now I understand why some people don’t tell anyone the name until the baby is actually born and the name is on the birth certificate, LOL! But a lot of times, the comments are helpful and encouraging, and sometimes other people see something that we didn’t see before. My husband especially gets a kick out of announcing the “name of the day.” I think it amuses him when people don’t like it!

We still have several months to go, and I have faith that eventually my husband and I will settle upon the perfect name for our little one. We have three top girl names that haven’t really changed in a while. And, of course, if the ultrasound proves wrong about the gender, we still have that boy’s name all ready. I suspect that, at this point, we need to meet our little one before we can decide on the perfect name.

But all this drama and back and forth over names has made me appreciate how much easier it was when I was just naming characters. Sure, those characters are very real to me, but if you’re writing along and suddenly the name isn’t working for the character, it can always be changed. And, when it comes to a character’s name, there is only myself to please.

Whether for a real person or a character, names are important. Names are identity. Names say a lot about who a person is. Nothing tells everything about a person, of course — I’m sure there could be an assassin or a ninja out there named Ethel or Maude — but names send a certain impression out into the world, and, for both my baby and my characters, I want to make sure that impression is a good one!

I’m working on another flash piece right now… it started with one of the prompts from my writing group’s April prompts writing contest. The prompt challenged me to write a story about ice. I wanted to do something different than just have the story take place in an icy setting or have an ice cube as an object. So, instead, ice is the main character… in a way.

Now I just need to buckle down and do revisions after my writing group was so helpful as to send critiques to me. I don’t know why I’m having such troubles making myself sit down and write or revise these days. Maybe my group should have more write-ins… I find myself being more productive at planned writing activities than in finding time on my own. When I’m at home right now, there is always something else to do — usually baby prep.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and we’re going to stay at my parents’ cabin for the holiday. It is usually so quiet and peaceful out there — also, there is no internet or cable to distract me. Perhaps I will find some good writing time while we’re there — when we’re not at my friends’ pool party!