I Now Know Why You Should Work on 5 Books at Once

The reason?

Because if your baby of a manuscript suddenly becomes un-writable you find yourself stranded in a no man's land of repetitive thought and daydreams that only change in the details.

It's even worse when you know you cannot use these thoughts because they border-line on plagiarism or fan-fiction due to the influence of the number of t.v. shows you watch to fill the empty chasm that used to be your creative cauldron.

Music and socializing used to be my muses. I'm trying a new one to get my brain out of the gutter of "well-that's-dumb-idea" thought. I think a year of editors brain has nearly killed my creative vine. But, as I've learned recently from a collapsed grape arbor and an afternoon of pruning, vines are hard to kill. So long as they have a root, a "trunk" and maybe a few shoots, it'll always grow back. All it needs is time, patience, guidance, and a sturdy support.

So anyway, my new idea. I've discovered the perfect formula for dreams. Sleep, wake up early, preferably after maybe five or six hours. Do something productive, go back to sleep. THEN when you wake up, instantly recall and write down what you were dreaming. I'm getting some pretty crazy dreams from this exercise. But at least they're fresh ideas instead of the stagnant ones that have been plaguing my waking hours. How did I discover this formula? Newspapers, my friends, delivering newspapers in the cold, wet, morning to grumpy people who haven't had their coffee yet. Oh the things we put up with to earn money for college.

It's weird to not have a book to work on during my "summer" time. I've always had some kind of project since middle school. This break I have nothing. It could be that I need time from the shock of my last effort. But three months should be enough time right?

Maybe the scariest part of anything we do happens in the moment before. The uncertainty of success, the fear of the plunge, the desperation to know that you are doing the right thing and the hope that you're not the only one who believes in your dreams.

I think I get too caught up in the dream of my own freshly printed, wonderfully covered novel when I hit on a good idea that I instantly kill it. I wonder if it's possible for me to just write for fun anymore. That's how I used to do it. I came up with such wonderful adventure stories to. And it all started in a backyard with my sisters and my neighbors playing orphans, heroes, cat-creatures, and wolves. No one was critiquing us. We just wanted to act out a fun story.

Maybe I should just do Brother Babcocks method of closing my eyes and writing none stop until I run out of time. Scrape that document, and then write again. Just to get out of this block.

The adventure music I'm listening too right now makes this feel like an epic idea.

Here's the plunge.

Go.




Incidentally, here are my recent favorite works. The ones that made my eyes pop and mouth call out, "Brilliant!"

TV

Castle
NCIS
Doctor Who
Dororo (2007)

Books

Bridge to Terabithia
The Obsidian Trilogy
Pride and Predjudice (Ok, not all of it, but some things are pretty remarkable)
Agatha Cristie's books
Patricia C. Wrede's novels

...and that's about all I can come up with off the top of my head. Basically I liked all these for their plot twists, unexpected endings, feelings heroism, and really brilliant characters. To me, anything that makes my soul sing is a good work no matter what any other critic says.

MM Shelved

MM is officially shelved. There are some fundamental problems with the plot that make it impossible for me to feel comfortable working with. It's not the creepy factor. I love the creepy factor. It's the unhealthy relationship coupled with the creepy factor that bothers me. No matter how I hammer at it, it's not going to get fixed with this kind of issue.

So until I feel like pulling it apart and mostly starting over. MM is shelved.

Random Notes That are Mostly about Dialogue

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while because my notes become more jumbled from the seven rules on. I've been trying to decide whether to post everything in the rambling confusing way of my current notes or just post the things that are clear and make sense. Honestly, it would be less of a headache for me to keep it clear.

But there's too many bulleted gems to ignore. So this post is entirely dedicated to them with some edits to help with clarity.

What is style?

Words/Diction/Limited Vocabulary (be precise to your character)
Prose/Sentence Construction/Linguistic Patterns (For an example compare Faulkner to Hemmingway)

Above all don't use your own voice in a narrative. Create one for your character that lends authenticity to the piece.

What Makes Up Characterization?

Dialogue (All chatter must advance the plot)
Appearance
Action
Thought

Concerning Dialogue

Dialogue must advance the plot and actively move it forward. Reveal characters, plot, or symbols (note that in First Novel book that ONLY advancing characters is strongly discouraged or at least should be limited.) That being said dialogue should always do more than one thing.

Example: "You're the most ideal item yet spawned." - William Shakespeare. My teacher had challenged a past class to tell a perfect stranger this line. One guy who was taking the class for the second time had taken up the challenged and was proud to announce that he was now engaged to the girl. Impressive, huh?

Subtlety is Key

It is a higher form of writing to have your characters suggest rather than blatantly express how they feel about others and themselves.

Example, say you have a boy going on a mission. His girl-friend wants them to get matching tattoos before he leaves. Moral taboos aside, what she's really saying is, you better marry me when you get back. This idea of characters telling each other something (like no) over and over again without actually saying it is called No Dialogue

Narration Practice Example

Narrations are the parts that surround the dialogue. Using narration you can create completely different characters that say the exact same things but display different intentions. This is also another form of no dialogue. Bare in mind that my examples are not the best, but they do the job.

Here's the the dialogue "I'm going to get you baby. No doubt about it, you will be mine"

A) Flirty

"I'm going to get you baby," Jake whispered as he held her in his arms, "No doubt about it, you will be mine."

B) Creepy
(Two versions here because I just remembered on that my classmate wrote one that made every girl in the room shiver.)

(mine) I'm going to get you baby," He picked up a photograph from his collection and lightly stroked it with a rough finger, "No doubt about it, you will be mine."

(his as best as I can remember) "I'm going to get you baby," he said. Then moving closer her ran a finger down over her chest, "No doubt about it, you will be mine.)

C) Serial Killer

"I'm going to get you baby," He said as he shaved the last dobs of cream off with his razor blade. "No doubt about it, you will be mine."

Real Dialogue vs Good Dialogue

There should be verisimilitude to dialogue. Or similar to truth, reality. Don't right down every um, well, so on, but cut to the chase with the dialogue and make each line matter significantly.

Don'e over-use tags

He said, he yelled, he cried, he yelped, he screamed, he sang, he sobbed, he.....yeah

Avoid slang fads and phonetic spellings

Why? Dude, you should try understanding ripping it whirling it and tucking it when you live miles from the ocean. Or gag me with a spoon, why would you even say that? Some is ok, but over doing it would kill your piece simply because your readers would be less concerned with your story and more concerned with if they understood it.

Avoid Informational Dialogue

It's unnatural chatter to talk about things the characters naturally already know about. And it's boring to read real time information through speech that can be more quickly obtained through a single paragraph reflective summary.

Let the words and actions communicate how something is said



OK, so this turned more into a dialogue post. But at least I finally got through that tangled mess of notes. Until next time.

MM Update

So I'm spending way less time than I wanted to on my story. I did finish the research stage and now I'm in the "finish plotting the plot" stage.

Winters are decidedly hard. Mom says it's totally normal for people to get a little depressed during the winter months because there's less sun. Now I'm starting to look at tanning beds as something other than cancer slates. There may be something to aging your skin and emotional happiness. Oooo, brain wave, so then aging is actually good for your emotional health while trying to look 20 for 30 years is actually bad for you. Hmmmmm food for thought.

Away, researching myths and urban legends is fun. I've discovered that if you want to find something truly creepy you need only look to history books. A book called, "Dreadful Fates," by Tracey Turner is full of little gruesome gems of untimely demise that actually happened. I invented a whole knew character because I liked the story of, "Doctor Death," so much.

Sometimes, all you have to do is look at recent history. In England there's a murder case going on right now involving a teenage dead girl on the Queen's Sandringham's estate. No conclusive details yet apart from the fact that girl had been dead four months previous to the royal holiday and that they were hunting just yards from the body. It wasn't discovered until after they left and the park is open to the public. Mysterious....my Agatha Christie bones are all a shiver!

Brother Allen's 7 Rules to "Show Don't Tell"

1.) Write IMAGES instead of GENERALIZATIONS, ABSTRACTIONS, or JUDGMENTS.

Example: I will do all I can to fight this ruling. VS "I will fall like an ocean on this court." -
Arthur Miller The Crucible (Feeling deja vu? You are not crazy, I quoted this two posts ago. If it works why change it? This quote was my teachers favorite example.)

2.) Value SCENE over SUMMARY.

A scene is in real time while a summary is review. A balance of both is good to have in any piece of literature, but when it comes to showing something, scenes are always better.

3.) Write images that are CONCRETE (use the 5 senses) and SIGNIFICANT (show emotion).

Example A: "She has a face of a cabbage."

This carries specific details with a significant emotion. How would you feel about someone who had the face of a cabbage?

Example B: "350lb man" (concrete) VS "350lb man chasing me" (concrete/significant)

4.) Remove FILTERS.

A filter is anything that blocks the readers ability to experience a scene or emotion with the focus character.

Beginning authors often make the mistake of telling the story "at" the character as apposed to telling a story "through" the character. Audiences love to BE the character. So let them. Don't write phrases that put the audiences at arms length from the characters. Watching people kiss is no fun. Kissing, however; very fun.

Example: "John walked faster. He could sense someone was behind him." VS "John walked faster. Someone was behind him."

5.) Emphasize ACTIVE over PASSIVE.

This is where grammar becomes the writers best friend. Linking verbs have a habit of being very passive. Be verbs make it too easy to use non-discriptive words.

Example: "Tina was angry." VS "Tina's face turned red."

VERBS TO AVOID IN CREATIVE WORKS

am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, have, has, had, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, etc, etc, etc.

6.) Use SPECIFIC words over GENERAL.

Not just for "images" anymore. (Fighting that deja vu again huh?)

This is where the Thesaurus becomes your best friend.

Eating = garble, devour, munch, num, num, num
Danced = leaped, cha-cha'd, waltzed
Walk = march, canter, wander, strut

Remember, the mind goes to the laziest place first. Try to use the most specific words possible. Some slight variance in the definition makes each of these examples perfect for unique situations. This is where just writing a scene, becomes writing craft.

FINALLY

7.) We control the SPEED of our prose.

This is more of a "how to write a good scene" tip. Generally in writing you want to carry the suspense or tension for as long as possible (a.k.a the moment before the train hits.) but once you hit a certain point it's much better to speed things along (a.k.a. the moment after the train hits.)

RECAP

Slow = before impact Fast = after impact
before the kiss after the kiss

Cinema Example : Inception

Slow = before the van hits the water Fast = after the van hits the water

My Bonus Rule

This should be common sense, but if you bother to show it (scene it), it needs to have some kind of significance. Some bearing on the overall plot. If a scene doesn't move the story forward, it's not worth anyone's time. And no, simply adding to a character's ...well...character is not enough reason to write a scene.

Example: A chance encounter leads a detective to a key clue/observation that helps to solve the murder. This happens a lot in Agatha Christie novels.

Baboons Need Coffee Breaks Too

One part I liked about having two writing classes this last semester is that I got to have such a wide perspective of my field in such a short space of time. From craft to publishing, I experienced it all. In Brother Allen's 318 class I learned about the birth and creation of writing. In Brother Babcock's 418 I learned about the sweat and trouble of the publishing world.

By far the scariest day of last semester was when I had to read a piece out loud in 418. I've never read something of mine out loud before. My face quickly became hot and bothered and I lost my nerve half-way through the reading. Maybe it was because I knew that it was the most wonderfully ridiculous piece of nonsense I had ever written? When I was composing it I had thought it was the perfect opportunity to practice humor. What could be the harm? It was late at night, and the piece was due early the next morning. Why would he call on me the one time I didn't put my heart and soul into the work? He never called on me before and with twenty other people in the class I should have been fairly safe. Who would have guessed that my roommates choices between hamburgers and baboons would be put on public display?

(for those who don't know, sometimes creative blocks can be over-come by asking a second party to pick between two unlikely objects. They have to be physical, and you only need to ask as many combinations as you need to get juices flowing. Then you have the write the piece including the chosen objects. Once the work is done, you don't have to keep the object.)

The whole thing was a spoof on heroic journey stories. Basically I got to make fun of the chosen one (or my name for it) the fate weaver. Anyway, while trying to read this piece I could feel my face growing steadily hotter, my words became more shrill. I had written perfect crap and I knew it. It was supposed to be funny, but because I was so bothered I wasn't even aware if anyone was laughing. I found myself praying that the teachers timer would go off but no such luck. I was reading so quickly that I almost skipped over a simple typo.

fat weaver

The class busted their guts all over the floor. It was messy. I think some even shed a few tears. Then my teacher praised it because he said sometimes typos are the things that our make pieces brilliant. Especially if you're trying to capture humor.

Here's the strange part. My teacher only picked pieces to be read in class that he liked (aka thought was worth our time/liked the best.)

So why did he pick my ridiculous piece about baboons and Jimmy Johns employees? He put this question to the class and we were all puzzled. It was obviously not a piece of good literature. It was so bizarre and random and so unlike the serious deep pieces he'd chosen before. Why mine?

Students guessed "good culture references" or "good character voices" before he finally told us.

Sometimes, he said, he got so sick of reading the same kind of story over and over again that my humor piece was a much needed breath of fresh air. Not all good literature has to be about abusive fathers or dead babies and dogs. Not all of them have to be lyrical comments on the morality of mankind either. Some good literature is simply entertaining.

What saved my piece he said (because it did need a lot of work) was the movement. While deep pieces have their place they tend to be boring, slow, nothing really actually happens physically to the characters. While my piece managed to move from a sandwich shop too another dimension full of goblins, castles, and sacrificial alters, and back to reality with-in ten pages. Furthermore, it compelled him to keep reading because he wondered what happened next.

Normally, he said, he hated the fantasy stuff. To him it was blah. He did prefer real stories. Then he got this light in his eye. You know the kind people get sometimes when they're having a realization and they can't wait to share with someone even though they don't know how to say it until they've said it? That's the face he had.

He said that being a good writer was easy. You could please your typical audience that usually liked your style of work. It takes a great writer to create something that's enjoyable for someone who doesn't usually read that type of work.

Oh yes, I was happy. Being embarrassed was totally worth that kind of comment. I knew I had a decent grasp for action. But to be good enough to interest a teacher in something that even I consider a bad piece of fantasy? Awesome!

Brother Allen's Ten Rules to Good Fiction

1.) GOOD FICTION IS ABOUT DESIRE. Desire adds tension to the story. If you're struggling with you characters desire simply follow this formula.

Once upon a time there was a __________ and what (they) wanted more than anything in the entire world was _________.

A good character is someone who WANTS.

Class example of a BAD desire.

Once upon a time there was a lame squirrel and the thing he wanted more than anything else in the world was to climb up his tree.

This alone does not make a story, thus we have rule 2.

2.) GOOD FICTION IS ABOUT TROUBLE. Simply add this sentence to the formula.

But there was a problem. They couldn't have what they wanted because_____.

Class example of a now good desire.

Once upon a time there was a completely whole and healthy squirrel and the thing he wanted more than anything else in the world was to climb up his tree. But there was a problem. A big fat squirrel lived in that tree and he would eat anything that came near it. Dogs, mailmen, cats you name it, but especially other squirrels. Cannibal Squirrels! (And just then another teacher walks in and wanted to know what was going on. Classic, had to be there.)

3.) GOOD FICTION IS CAREFULLY STRUCTURE. If you haven't seen this formula before you've obviously never had to take an English class. All stories follow a basic structure.

Picture a triangle reading these words left to right while climbing and then descending the triangle. Conflict, Exposition, Rising Action, Crisis Action/Climax(peak, one final choice), Falling Action (very short), Resolution.

"Good literature doesn't happen to characters, but because of characters." - Brother Josh Allen

At this point we talked a little bit about character chance vs character choice and how the best stories are less about fate and more about characters taking responsibility for what happens to them. All good fiction has a balance of chance (opportunity) and choice (reaction).

Example of an all chance: Worm Boy story. Guy with a miserable life is sitting in a bar drinking, a girl walks in, most beautiful girl he's ever seen, straight from his dreams, she sits down next to him and starts talking to him. He doesn't even say hello, watches her walk out of the bar, now curses his crummy life. NEVER WRITE A WORM BOY STORY, IT'S A STORY ABOUT SOMEONE WHO DOES NOTHING. THEREFORE, IT ISN'T A STORY AT ALL.

4.) GOOD FICTION EARNS IT'S CLIMAX'S. Usually because the characters final choice causes the climax. The character created their destiny, it isn't thrust upon them. Even if the bad guy is the one causing all the trouble the character must be the one to decide if he/she is going to do something about it.

Avoid Deus Ex Machina, or the God out of the machine who fixes everything. It makes a very unsatisfying end to otherwise thrilling story.

5.) GOOD FICTION DEMONSTRATES REBIRTH. In other words the character changes or grows into a new character in someway.

Example: Flynn Rider from the Disney movie Tangled. (Which PS, was a princess movie made for dads. The story is totally more about Flynn Riders growth, not the princess. He becomes Eugene Fitsherbert.)

6.) GOOD FICTION BELONGS TO ONE OF THE CHARACTERS. The whole story revolves around them and gives a focal point for the action/tension/story to take place.

7.) GOOD FICTION PRESENTS AT LEAST ONE ROUND CHARACTER. Meaning a character that doesn't exactly fit into a High School drama or stereotype. Someone who has more facets and angles than you'd expect.

For Example: Southern man in the country sitting on his front porch with a gun across his lap and a dog at his feet. When he speaks, he had a very clear British Accent. Suddenly he becomes a lot more interesting, yes?

8.) GOOD FICTION PRESENTS AT LEAST ONE DYNAMIC CHARACTER. Meaning a character who is flexible and changes through the story. Somehow he has to grow either positively or negatively. He's not a worm boy who walks out of the bar as the same guy who walked in. Something has to change, some tiny thing has to change. Or the climax becomes meaningless, pointless, unimportant because the experience had no effect on the characters soul.

9.) GOOD LITERATURE COMMUNICATES THROUGH CONCRETE IMAGES, NOT ABSTRACTIONS. The classic rule of "SHOW, DON'T TELL." A child will put his world into his mouth, so the audience needs to put the characters world into their mouth. In any powerful moment you need at least three senses on the page.

Example: "I will do everything I can to fight this ruling."
vs "I will fall like an ocean on that court." - Arthur Miller "The Crucible"

10.) GOOD FICTION AVOIDS CLICHES. Duh, cliche's are boring because we know how the story ends. Remember the squirrel who wanted to climb his tree vs the squirrel who couldn't get into his tree because of the cannibal squirrel? Cliches are the deja vu's of the literary world. And because of that they kind of kick your reader out the story your trying to write and back into the real world where they remember where they've read that sentence before. It's much better to be new than ordinary.

Example: Once upon a time there was a college freshman girl and what she wanted more than anything else in the entire world was....

Cliche
- To get married
- To be invited to that party
- To impress parents
- To get a 4.0

These are Better
- To drive alone across the country
- To be free of her religious teachers advances
- To cut down the tree that endlessly scratches at her window at night

Remember

"Your mind goes to the laziest place first." - Brother Josh Allen.

SO FIGHT IT!

His advice. Write ten obvious things down so that by the eleventh thing you are no longer writing cliches.

Coming up, more notes from Creative Writing 318.