Category: Thoughts and Ramblings

Reinventing the wheel…

At a certain point in every editing experience, it feels like you’re just staring at static words. You’ve so carefully reviewed the material so many times that it all starts to blend together into a mess of letters. As someone who edits a lot of their own work, it’s inevitable that things get missed. But recently, I found a technique that works really well for me and I’d like to share it with you!

It works like this. I have my most recent version of my piece that I’m working on open to the right of my screen and a blank document to my left (for those of you with two monitor rigs, good for you). From there, I rewrite the entire pieces. Word for word.

What do I like about this technique? For a start, I feel like I have to be very careful and it makes me focus. I catch words that I glance over in previous edited versions (either that are the wrong word or just completely missed due to ‘static editing’). I have a chance to reconsider grammar that I missed initially. When I’m rewriting the words, I hear them as I’m reading them, so I can reconsider my word choice.

Rewriting also gives me a chance to look beyond just basic word choice. I can examine entire sections and change them. I can expand sections or cut passages to improve the pacing. Without having to think about ‘What Comes Next?’ I get to focus purely on how things sound and can change them accordingly. I can focus more on pacing, descriptions, and incorporating details into dialogue.

Is it time consuming and tiring? Absolutely, but I think it’s important to find a method that works and embrace it. What are some of your favorite editing tricks and tips?

Coming together…

Hello from the land of Sickness! I’ve got a bad case of Jazz Voice (when your voice drops an octave and gets all raspy), so it’s been a quiet weekend over here. That being said, this will be a short update.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about writing community. Since I spend a lot of my time working on projects alone, I think it’s important to have a community that I can check in with. While organized workshops are valuable and important, it’s also important just to have other writers to talk to.

Like milling around the water cooler at an office, having a writing community is like have regular coworkers that you can check in with and talk to. I have a group of friends that are also writers that I talk to frequently when I’m stuck or struggling with a scene. We motivate each other, write with each other and talk about the things in our projects that frustrate us. Sometimes, we’ll just sit in the same space and write at the same time. It’s like the quietest party you’ve ever been to.

We also celebrate our successes! Whether it’s 500 words written or a book that’s getting published, it’s very important to have a group of people you can be excited with! Friends and family will get excited about big milestone, but the little ones are also important to keep in mind.

Do you have a writing group that you talk with? How do you support each others goals, big or small?

New Year, New Words

Last year, I started with a simple goal: 365 words a day, every day, for the entire year. The goal was to build up stamina and be consistent in forming writing habits. My goal was to go an entire year Raptor-Free (meaning that I don’t miss any days) and I actually managed to pull it off!

New Years Resolutions are always kind of hit and miss. I’m used to having a strong star followed by a slow decline. However, this resolution went very well! Below are some more elaborate statistics and facts.

Average Words Per Day: 1,092 Words
Best Day: August 20- 5,837 words
Worst Day: January 22- 376 words
Total for the year: 398,443 words

I feel like I learned two main things from the project. Firstly, I learned that consistency is a skill. Having accountability, in the company of other writing groups or personal family, was actually crucial in building my writing stamina.

The second thing is that there’s a difference between “Finding the Time” and “Making the Time” when it comes to writing. Even when I working full-time, I would wake up early to get my writing time in before going to the office. I know myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t want to write after working a full day. Waking up early to write was sometimes the best part of my day.

This year, I’m planning on doing more editing and submitting (gulp!) and I’m attempting to do all three things (Writing, Editing and Submitting) in a slightly more even distribution than just writing nothing but new material. I’m calling it the W.E.S.T. (Writing, Editing, Submitting Tally). I have a lot of raw ‘Novel Fodder’ to work with and I’m looking forward to tackling the new year with new opportunities to put my writing out there! If there are any other writers who want to join me in this (or attempt their own 365 for 365), feel free to let me know!

Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me for 365 of 365! Stick around for more fiction, more thoughts and a lot more excitement in the coming year!

What’re you workin’ on?

Anyone who’s a creative (visual artist, writer, musician) dreads and fears this question. How do you consolidate weeks, months or years worth of work into a few sentences? It’s daunting, especially when you’re trying to justify all the time and effort spent making your art.

For me, answering this question results in a few vaguely connected sentences about what I’m currently working on. Usually, it ends with ‘…or something like that, I’m still working on it.’ This year in particular, with my goal to write four hundred words a day, I have three or four projects cooking at any given time. Either short stories or novel length projects, drafting has been my main goal this year. The answer to this question changes so often, it could be one thing during one week and something completely different not long after. So, I usually try to mention whatever project I’m working on: Dinosaur Westerns, Endless Summers, Werewolves, Fauns in the Modern World, or whatever else might draw someone’s interest.

As much as I’m enjoying my writing streak (which I plan to go more in depth about in January), I’m also looking forward to being able to sit with what I’ve written and really make sense of it all. I think a lot of artists feel this way at some point: so many rough ideas, sketches or tunes that you need to just get out on paper. In a way, it’s freeing to do it, but there’s so much going on that it’s hard to make sense of it all at once.

Hitting the Books…

Recently, I’ve been doing some subjects that require some substantial research. Pirates, cowboys, space travel…I’m willing to bet my search history looks like an eclectic hummingbird buzzing from article to article for an information high.

I’m always a fan of using libraries and will usually check out a few books on new subject when I first start working on a story. I’m also a big fan of documentaries and YouTube videos from historians. A favorite channel of mine is ‘It’s History’. Seriously, if you have an afternoon, jump on down that rabbit hole.

I love talking with other writers about things they’ve searched for for the purpose of a story. Below are a couple of examples of questions I or my writer friends have researched for in the pursuit of fiction.

“How much does an elephant cost?”
“What bones could you lose in your hand and still have it work?”
“How much is a human liver worth?”
“What poisons can be transferred by touch?”
“How did pirates get their peg legs?”
“What’s the cost of cocaine in 1975?”
“How long can a person survive in subzero temperatures?”
“How to survive a bear attack?”

I always feel like I should end every search with “it’s OK, I’m a writer!” What’s some of the weird questions that your research has brought you to?

These are few of my favorite fiends…

It’s October! That means horror movies, discount candy and so many monsters! Now, I am one of the biggest scaredy cats out there when it comes to horror movies, but I love a good monster! But, before you get lost in the corn maze , let’s weigh the pros and cons (coming from the perspective of trying to survive one) from some of the classic monsters that have appeared in movies over the years:

  • Swamp Monsters:
    Pros: Has a specific place it can survive and stays there, can’t wait for you to leave safety cause it dries up too quick.
    Cons: Can’t be rationed with, has a clear upper hand if you try to boat out into his lair (also very smelly).
    Tragically underused, swamp monsters are one of those ‘classic monsters’ that only really got a few times in the spotlight over the years. Our water monsters tend to trend towards alligators and sharks. Apart from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, I feel like the only time it’s been used was in the short lived Swamp Thing series from DC Comics. I think that Swamp Beast has a lot of untapped potential, especially given people’s fear of the water and drowning.
  • Mummies:
    Pros: Historically slow and only come after you if you wake them up (which…same, honestly).
    Cons: Doesn’t need to eat, sleep or stop until the job is done.
    Mummies are another one of those film monsters that don’t get as much light as they deserve. Apart from the Brandon Fraser series and the classic Boris Karloff movie, I can’t think of any ‘Big Mummy’ media. The culture of mummies is rich with tradition and history that has so many different stories to tell.
  • Vampires:
    Pros: Classic, sophisticated, and attractive (if you’re gonna die, you might as well enjoy it).
    Cons: Older, smarter and probably cleverer than you.
    OK. I know what you’re thinking. “Vampires are old news, everyone’s done vampires, they’re boring and inconsistent!” And you’re right! Vampires have been done to death…or rather un-death. However! There’s something to love about a classic monster that’s done well. Vampires have become the subject of not only horror movies (like any of the Dracula movies) or comedies (see What We Do in the Shadows), which means that have a potential to be just as versatile as we make them.
  • Werewolves:
    Pros: Loud, tactless, and not very bright. Easy to trick and well established solution: Silver Bullets!
    Cons: Sucks if you have pet allergies.
    Anyone who knows me, knows I love some werewolves! It probably comes from my love of dogs and wolves, but–as far as monsters go–the werewolf is a powerful opponent for both the humans fighting the werewolf and the human who is the werewolf. The classic conflicts of Man vs. Nature and Man vs. Self packed into one leads to some really interesting characters, especially when the story is told from the perspective of the werewolf.

Time on my hands

Some people may know that I recently quit my office job. I took a week long vacation in Oregon to reset myself and spend some time with family. When I got back, I started focusing on getting a new job and focusing on my writing. The easiest way for me to do that has been to make a schedule.

My day usually starts around 6:00 with breakfast, a run and showering. Then I write until noon. Sometimes, I’ll do this in my apartment or head to the downtown library to focus on my work there. Then I’ll figure out something for lunch and take a quick break (usually practicing French or ASL). Then I’ll take some time to submit, either to agents or short fiction magazines. Afterwards, I tend to edit–either what I’ve written earlier that day or one of the short stories I’m planning on submitting in the near future. Around 5, I apply for a day job or two before it gets too late. In the end, I tend to close up shop around 5:30 or 6:00 and spend the rest of my night decompressing.

Some days obviously go better than others when it comes to my word count, but with time and space to focus on my writing, I’m getting a pretty frequent 2,000 words a day. It’s comforting to have the schedule in place and it gives me a reason to get up in the morning. Like any job, the schedule is a little bit flexible. Still having a usual, established writing time that people don’t interrupt me and I don’t have to squeeze it in the hour before leaving for work.

Do you have a regular writing schedule? Do you have a usual schedule that you dedicate to your writing or art? If you work on your art full-time, do you have a specific schedule that you try to adhere to?

Workin’ for a Living

“Don’t quit your day job.”

Every artist, comedian, musician or other creative has heard this at some point. It’s well-meaning advice in some cases, but sometimes given in a less friendly tone. This coming week, however, I am not taking that advice.

Yes, I’m leaving my current place of employment. Without going into too much detail, it was a good run, but there’s a time when things come to a natural stopping point and I felt that I was there. And while I’m not the first desk jockey with dreams of leaving their office with dramatic flair, I haven’t been the first writer to also shuffle papers during the day.

So, both as inspiration and a little brain storming for myself, here are some famous writers who started out pushing the 9-5. I stumbled on this interesting article, but here are some of my favorites!

Arthur Conan Doyle started his career as a surgeon. This actually makes a lot of sense considering Holmes’s famous sidekick was a surgeon as well. According to some lore, Holmes was actually based off of another surgeon that Doyle met who could analyze people and learn things like their hobbies, professions and living conditions.

Jack London was a self-proclaimed Oyster-Pirate, stealing oysters from oyster farms and selling them himself. Eventually, his piracy turned to honest sailing work that probably inspired his many adventure stories at sea.

Charles Dickens was a factory worker for a period of time. And by “period of time” I mean when he was 12-Years-Old and working in a factory. I can’t help but feel like this inspired the dynamic to the group of orphans in Oliver Twist. By the way, the name of one of his coworkers? Bob Fagin.

Jack Kerouac had a number of odd jobs, including dishwasher, night guard, fire lookout, deck hand and rail brake operator.

Stephen King– Famously, Steven King was a high school janitor while writing Carrie, what would become one of his classics.

Obviously, some of these aren’t very practical for me (though, Oyster Pirate sounds like a great career choice). But in a very real way, it’s comforting to know that there’s no one singular path in life. Whether that means you drop out of an Ivy League school and become a teacher like Robert Frost or start your career as a Theatre Critic writing in his spare time like Bram Stroker, if you have drive–and a lot of luck–you’re only a few steps away from the job of your dreams. For now I’ll just have to keep sending out resumes and keep writing in the early hours before the rest of the world wakes.

Of Sins, Virtues and Humors

Whenever I start a new piece of fiction and start experimenting with the characters, I tend to try to think of a few different defining factors. Obviously these get modified as I go deeper into the characterization process, but I don’t always want my characters to be carbon copies of each other. So when I start to think about who they are I try to decide three things: their humor, their virtue and their sin.

Whether it’s the Ninja Turtles, The A-Team or the gals of Sex in the City, the four humors are cornerstones of any ensemble. They’re different enough that they sometimes get at each others throats, but at the end of the day they all need each other to be balanced. The Four Humors as a medical practice is outdated and inaccurate, but the idea of using the temperaments represented by these humors is a practical method to make sure that your ensemble is well balanced. While having a group comprised of “No-Rules Anti-Heroes” sounds fun, it gets a little stale when there isn’t a more rational, moral brain to try and balance their habits out. Facing off against the Big Bad is good conflict, but fighting within the group is a good chance for character growth.

Is your character charitable? Are they kind? The less popular cousin of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Principle Virtues are a good starting point for defining your character. These often coincide (to an extent) with the humors above, but it’s nice to figure out what your character tries for. Even villains believe they’re doing things for the right reasons, so why shouldn’t your hero have a defining trait that drives them?

And, on the other side of the coin, each character I make tries to incorporate a sin. No one is perfect, nor should your characters have to be. Maybe your Anti-Hero has a problem with Wrath. Your great hunter takes their reputation a little too seriously and suffers from pride. Figuring out the fault that your character has creates conflict not only within the group, but within the character. It gives them something to overcome or something to hinder them on their journey.

With these building blocks in place, you can start to flush out your character by asking ‘Why?’ rather than ‘What?’. These help you to ask more questions and ultimately find the characters in an organic way.

What do you look for in a character? Where do you start?

Spoilers (A Subject, Not Content)

If you’ve been near the Internet in the last few months, you’ve probably seen posts along the lines of “No Spoilers about XYZ” or similar. People do their very best to avoid ruining the big plot twist of a book, movie or TV Show. We’re all guilty of walking into the office and covering our ears to keep people from blabbing the big reveal. Reasonably, how long can we demand this as the standard?

Firstly, as soon as something comes out, you have to give at least as long as the media itself takes to absorb. A movie? Give it a couple days. TV show? At least a day. A book? Better be prepared to wait awhile. Even after these time durations, you’re only allowed to ask if someone has seen something. The most I tolerate after this period is “Oh, let me know when you’ve seen/read it!” I encourage excitement, but would much rather experience why I’m excited about it myself. This is the usually the first week. 

The second week gets a little fuzzier. By now, more people have viewed whatever media you’ve worked so hard to avoid. By this point, people still have to ask if anyone has seen it in the room before talking about it. At this point, it’s up to you to inform others of your intent and the responsibility they have in preventing spoiling your view experience. Don’t expect conversations to come to a screeching halt, but feel free take a walk about so people can share their excitement. Brace yourself, here comes the doozy…

Week three. Somehow, you’ve done it. The minefield that is the speed of Internet has not taken you out with a misplaced article title or untagged blog post. You’ve bobbed and weaved through conversations with friends and family and managed to stay spoiler free. Still, you better hurry. If you haven’t made time to see that movie/episode or made the time to read that book? You’re deep in the trenches of Spoiler Mountain. 

That, for me, is a good guideline for when you talk about new media. For books, I give it a little bit longer, but if you’re complaining about me spoiling Star Wars or Dark Knight Rises? You knew the risk going into this game.