Living the Fictional Dream

Happy April 1st! Nope… no April Fool’s jokes from me. I think I’ve outgrown the pranking phase of my life. I was never very good at it anyway, LOL!

I like April, because it feels as if the new year is finally here. It’s hard to get excited about a new year when it is cold, drizzly, and gray outside. By the time April gets here, the weather is finally turning toward spring. We’ve had a few great days so far this year, but it keeps cooling off again. I see every cool snap, though, as a slight delay for the oppressive Texas summer.

There is something about the crisp air warmed by the spring sun and the sparkling days of this time of year that tends to inspire my muse. I hope the same will be true this year, as it has been in year’s past. My poor muse needs a kickstart — she has been very absentee thus far in 2009. I also need to kickstart my motivation to get my butt in the chair and write. That is a big part of productivity, as well. I can’t blame it all on my long-suffering muse.

Happy April, everyone. I wishyou all great weather and inspiring story ideas.

Sometimes, it’s really hard for me to turn off the editing portion of my brain and just read. I’ll be reading along, be it a novel or the latest offering from one of my favorite online fiction venues, and I’ll come across some bit of language and think how much better it would have been if they’d edited just a little more closely — eliminate that passive voice or not say the same word twice so close together, things like that.

Now, of course, if it’s a style thing, that’s totally different, but a lot of the time, it reads to me like it’s just a be verb or whatever that the author didn’t notice, as opposed to a conscious choice to stick with the passive.

I was reading a story recently that said something like, “Her dress covered her like….” (The quotes have been changed, because I don’t want to point fingers.) I thought the similie that the author used to describe the outfit was lovely, but the sentence would have been so much more impactful to me if the author had written, “The dress covered her…” instead. Having the same word twice so close together bumps me out of the story and has me thinking about repetition and redundant word choice instead of marvelling over the similie and description.

Then, not much farther down in the same story, there was an intrusive be verb — something simple like, “He was walking down the street.” Again, I was thrown out of the story to wonder why the author didn’t just say, “He walked down the street.” Why put in that passive voice, when the active voice flows so much better and creates a more vivid picture?

It’s like, now that I search for these things in my own work with such a critical eye, I can’t shut my brain off when I see these things elsewhere. And then I wonder why the author didn’t see them. If only he or she had taken a few extra minutes to edit — perhaps do a search for be verbs. Such a small thing can make a story so much crisper and cleaner!

Is it the mark of a writer who has not spent as much time honing his or her craft? I know that I used to fling passive voice, repeated words, and complicated verb constructions around with abandon. I go back to some of my earlier work and wonder how I ever didn’t see that! It’s thanks to the efforts of my writing group that I’ve learned to go through my first drafts with a fine-toothed comb, searching for better, more active, more descriptive ways to say things.

(A quick shout out here to writing group mate Jens for his nazi like devotion to marking complex verb constructions in crits, and to writing group mate Virginia for doggedly pointing out each and every repeated word! And, heck, to all of Writer’s Ink in general — I’ve learned so much from you guys!)

An author blog I read once recommended reading a book about screen writing and the three-act structure as a way to help develop novel plots. The caveat I remember this author mentioning was that after she read the book and understood the formula used in movie scripts, it made it harder for her to simply lose herself in a film. Instead, she was always looking for the catalyst, the denouement, and the other traditional parts of the screenplay.

Sometimes I feel that way about reading. The more I hone my craft and the better I get at this writing thing, the harder it is for me to be forgiving of other work out there. Especially published work, and especially work that is published in novel format. I’m much more apt to set a novel down and not pick it up again if the writing is sloppy than I ever used to be — even if I like the plot and the characters.

The mark of a really good book to me is one that sucks me in as a reader and totally short circuits the editing brain. If I look up an hour later, and I haven’t thought about word choice, grammar, or passive voice once, it’s a good story.

Take the Twilight series as an example. People give it a hard time because it’s not quality literature (I’m not sure it’s supposed to be, but people judge best sellers harshly, I suppose). And it’s true — there are many books that are better written than Twilight (though, I do think that Meyer’s craft improved over the course of the series). But when I jump into the world of Bella, Jacob, and Edward, I am totally sucked in. Hours can go by, and I don’t even notice until I start getting a crick in my neck or the phone rings.

That is the point that character, setting, and good, old-fashioned story-telling trump the mechanics of writing. Twilight transports me into the fictional dream and doesn’t let me go without a fight. To me, that’s the mark of a good novel that’s worth reading, no matter what the nay-sayers think. (Though, I can see how someone who’s not into young adult romance or vampires might not be sucked in the same way — subject matter is subjective.)

So, from the reader’s perspective, I guess I would have to say that the editor’s brain is a detriment. It is harder to enjoy reading certain things than it used to be — I’m much more selective than I used to be.

But, from the writer’s perspective, the editor’s brain is an asset that you simply cannot do without. The better your craft, the better chances you have of selling it — case closed. Sure, sometimes less well written stories get published, but I prefer to think that’s because the person who bought it was swept away by the story and the characters so much that they didn’t mind a few mechanical flaws.

I don’t think I would give up my editing brain, not even for all the reading enjoyment in the world. There are enough books out there that still suck me in and there are books with issues that I still enjoy (remember the clavicle thing from the Luxe series?), despite being knocked out of the fictional dream every once in a while. There is a wide world of books to choose from out there — I’ll keep my editing brain and let it have a field day with all of my first drafts.

And then all you guys can laugh at me when you read something of mine where I missed a glaring instance of word repetition or passive voice!

Every month, my writing group has a prompts contest. People who are interested buy in for the year, and every month the person who writes the most prompts gets a $10 gift card. We started doing it a few years ago to inspire ourselves to write.

Typically, I’m pretty particular about prompts. I don’t get inspired by them easily. But, when I stretch myself to write them anyway, sometimes I get some really good stuff out of them.

I’m waiting right now to hear back on one that I wrote in our February prompts contest (which I won!), but I’m fairly certain it will get rejected. It’s sort of weird and gross — it’s about vomit! And superheroes, if you can imagine that! I liked it, though — I was experimenting with an unreliable narrator (a mentally unstable, OCD-ish woman), which was a challenge to write.

I will be my writing group’s prompt contest facilitator for April, and I’m looking forward to it. Back in the day, I used to think that I had to find writing prompts other places — websites, writing books, etc. But, over the years, I’ve realized that I can write just as good writing prompts as those other guys — and I tend to like the ones that I create (and the ones that my writing group mates create) even better than the overly formal ones you can find in writing books.

I got on a role creating writing prompts this morning. I had to cut myself off at lucky 13. Hopefully, the group will find at least a few of those inspiring next month!

Once I’ve sent them out to the group, perhaps I will post them here, in case they are of benefit to anyone else out there.

Prompts are an interesting passtime. On the one hand, one might wonder what the point is when there are so many ideas floating around in the writer’s brain already. But, on the other hand, it can really do a writer good to stretch their craft in a new or unexpected direction.

The folks over at Every Day Fiction and Every Day Poets have started a writing blog specifically devoted to flash fiction. If the quality of the blog is anything like the quality of fiction and poetry these publications offer us on a daily basis, the blog should be a must read.

Today’s entry was written by my writing group mate Alex, and discusses the effect of exposition and world building on flash fiction stories.

Here’s the link so you can go check it out:

… my writing group mate, Judy, has published her first poem, “The Dumb Doctor.” It is the poem of the day today at Every Day Poets. I helped her crit this one, and I think it is a really powerful piece. The emotion in it is really impactful — especially to me as a woman, but I think it would be to anyone.

If you have time, pop over and give it a read.

I’m always fascinated by stories that approach time in something other than a linear fashion. The movie Memento is a stellar example of this. The main character has a condition where he can’t make long-term memories, so once they leave his short-term memory, they are gone forever. To illustrate this, the movie progresses in reverse.

Another example of stories that play with time well is the TV show How I Met Your Mother. I truly believe that this is the best-written sitcom that I have ever watched. Their grasp of continuity is amazing. Something is mentioned in a throw-away line in season 1, and it comes up as a huge plot point in season 3. And the stuff that they put in for viewers with a sharp enough mind to catch it makes the show really fun to watch.

But I especially like it when HIMYM plays with time. They’ve done several episodes where they tell stories out of sequence. Sometimes they’ll split the plot between the characters — do one or two characters’ stories from start to finish, then rewind and go to the next one. Other times, they will throw in flashbacks in creative and amusing ways (my favorite was once when they put in a flashback to 30 seconds ago — and it worked).

The best thing about stories that experiment with time is how the normally linear element is twisted and used to give the reader/viewer a unique A-Ha moment — that moment when everything you knew about the story is flipped on its head and you see it all from a whole new light.

I’ve always wanted to expirament with non-linear time in my stories, but I have yet to really do so. I’m not sure why… Part of it may be that I’ve just never had an idea that seemed like it would work well in such a structure. And part of it might be that I seem to have a bias in that a more visual medium seems more appropriate for these types of stories.

I know that second limitation is all in my head, though. I’ve read print stories that did a fine job of twisting time. There was one in particular that I remember enjoying at Every Day Fiction — sadly, I have long since forgotten its name. I just remember it was a story about a guy in prison that was told backwards Memento style, and it was pretty good.

I will have to put my mind to this time twisting conundrum and see if my muse has anything to say about it. It would definitely be a challenging project.

What about you guys? Any recommendations for good time twisting stories/shows you want to share? Have you ever tried your hand at such a story? If so, how difficult was it?

I don’t have a big blog topic to talk about today, so I thought I’d turn the spotlight around on you guys.

What is your absolute favorite part of writing? Why do you return to the keyboard day after day? It’s a fairly frustrating job — lots of work for little to no money (unless you make it big with a novel, and even then midlist authors are having a hard time squeaking by these days).

I answer that last question easily. I write because I have to write. I would be making up stories in my head anyway. I might as well write them down. And if I’m going to bother writing them down, then I should make them the best they can be, and see if anyone else out there thinks they are worth sharing. I don’t expect to get rich or famous of off it (though I’ll take it if it comes!).

My favorite part of writing, though, has to be that escape. I love disappaering into someone else’s world, seeing that world through their eyes, and yet also having a hand in creating that world. Getting into the creative zone is an amazing feeling. Nonwriters don’t understand when I say I’m not making all this up — the characters tell me what’s going on. But it’s true, and any writer knows it!

I also really love creating characters and world building and all the intricacies there-in. Those are my favorite parts of the creative process itself, but my favorite thing about writing, the escape of the creative zone — definitely!

I recently sat down with my husband and watched all of the Lost episodes that have aired this season. This show is quite the conundrum — both from a viewer’s perspective and from a writing perspective.

A lot of people gave up on the show in seasons 2 and 3, when it had a bit of a downturn. I still thought the episodes were good, but (to me) it just started to feel like the writers didn’t know where the heck they were going. However, I still enjoyed watching, so I stuck with it and was rewarded by the second (and longer) half of season 3 and all of season 4, which I thought were excellent. To me, season 5, so far, has lived up to its promise. I think that the secret was the creators of the show making a deal with the network so they knew in advance how many seasons/episodes they were going to make. Ever since that point the show seems to have purpose and direction.

Lost is, of course, fairly famous for ponderous plot twists that seem to go nowhere. Look at the tailies from season 2 — we spent all this time with them, and now all of them are dead except for Bernard. What was the point, then?

And look at Walt. In season 1, he was quite a fixture, and the way that his mind seemed to control the world around him was fascinating (OMGWTFPolarBear, anyone?). And then he disappeared, only to be briefly seen in cameos hence forth (luckily, the show is now 3 years later than it was, so in this season’s cameo, it was OK that the kid is tall now). And there were other things, too. I won’t go to the trouble of listing them all out here.

I think the point that a writer should take away from all this is that you have to be careful of rabbit trails and loose ends. They just frustrate the reader/viewer and turn them off of your concept. I think if the Lost writers had had a clearer vision of the end game from the beginning, we would have had a much more satisfying journey through their world, sans loose ends. From a novel perspective, these are the kinds of things that happen in a first draft — then you get people to critique your work and weed all the unnecessary stuff out on the second draft.

I also know some people who feel like Lost has gone too far out there. They were OK with smoke monsters and random polar bears, but huge initiatives with compounds on the island and time travel? That was too much for them. Personally, I’m a genre nut to the core, so I can suspend my disbelief. I haven’t been bothered on that account.

Whatever your criticisms about Lost, they do a lot of things right, too. Their story-telling is compelling and the whole story is so detailed that it amazes me. You see an actor who had one or two lines in season 1 and he comes back in season 5 with a mysterious agenda. Characters who seem unrelated turn out to cross paths in many mysterious ways. A throw-away line of dialog in one episode, turns out to be of great importance later on.

And then there are the characters. Sure, the show isn’t all perfect (I still hate how they maligned poor Charlie!), but other characters are written spot on. And I love the story-telling technique that uses flash backs and flash forwards to flesh out the character while giving impact to whatever plot is currently going on in the present day.

As a writer, some of the lessons I take away from the good elements of Lost are (1) give characters a detailed backstory and use what you can to enhance the story (but don’t over use — just because you know what your character ate for lunch every day in middle school, don’t tell us unless it affects the current story), (2) pay close attention to your plots — an intricately plotted story that works is much more fascinating that a story with a lack of plot or plot details that contradict each other, and (3) following on number 2, be consistent — know those small details and bring them back to make the world feel more real and distinct.

As a viewer, though, there is one worry that I have regarding Lost. I want the ending to be worth it. After all these years of build up, wrong turns, recoveries, and plot twists, the ending pretty much has to be spectacular to satisfy the viewers and to pull the story together. Now, I don’t want the writers to simply pander to viewers — I want them to stay true to their vision and give us the real story. But, after all this, expectations are high, so it has to be spot on. And that can be a problem in the land of television. No one can please everyone — but, keep in mind, that just because you’re not pleased or it wasn’t what you wanted, that doesn’t mean it’s not a good story.

The problem is, if the ending doesn’t work, then it will basically cast everything that came before in a negative light. We’ll all be thinking, “Why did I invest six years in this show and put up with all the twists and turns if this is what I got for it?”

Hopefully, though, we will at least be able to remember that, no matter what, Lost was a fun, exciting ride. And the journey is the thing — especially in television.

I have been having the craziest dreams the past few months. I wrote about a month ago about a vivid dream I had that was a scene from a novel — it happened again last weekend.

The new dream was somewhat of a mish-mash of plot elements from two different movies — Go! and The Prestige, if you can imagine that combination. But the weird thing was that the combination worked. And with enough fleshing out, those plot elements would combine into something really different.

It would be a Y/A novel — probably either sci-fi or more of an adventure story, depending on the angle I took on a certain element. There would be some mystery thrown in, also.

I’m not sure which one of these novel dreams excited me more. Maybe the first (the mythological creatures/fantasy world one), but only slightly.

I wonder if this is how Stephanie Meyer felt when she dreamed the dream that became Twilight?

I tell you, it would be so nice not to work full-time. I’ve got all these novel ideas buzzing around in my brain, and little to no time to actually work on something. It’s a lot easier to work on short fiction when you work full-time — or, at least it is for me. Getting into that novel mindset requires more time and energy that I can come by easily when 40 hours of the week or more are devoted to technical writing.

Of course, the catch-22 is that to justify quitting your job to write full time, you really need to have a novel deal in the works.

So, in February, I turned my attention to my writing group’s monthly prompts contest in an attempt to get myself writing again. Writing has been slow (which is putting it generously) since NaNo and the holidays. All in all, it was a good choice and helped me break out of that no-writing rut I was stuck in.

I’m pretty picky about prompts as a rule, but it was fun to stretch myself to address some of the prompts that Stephanie picked out for us (check out her blog to see some of the crazy prompts that she thinks up — I love ‘em).

The bad part about doing one of these contests is when the result of the writing isn’t anything I’m proud of, nothing that I want to pursue or groom into something I can submit. And, that does happen when you stretch yourself to write prompts that maybe weren’t something that truly inspired you.

But, on the whole, this month’s prompts worked out pretty well for me. I wrote five, and two of them I will definitely be working on more. I’m pretty sure that those two will be ready to submit somewhere with only a few light edits. They are a little wacky, but I think they have promise. And one of the other three I think could, with some more intense work, also have promise. The final two, I don’t think will go anywhere, but even they were fun to write — it was good to stretch those muscles.

So, that’s better than half, which is a really good turn out as far as I’m concerned.

I think I’m done with prompts for a bit. Hopefully, this got me warmed back up again, and now the ideas will flow a little more on their own. But I think it was a good goal to pursue for February.