Brain seepage indeed

There's nothing to say. This does not just apply to me but everyone everywhere. As a species we spend all our time talking, expressing ourselves and our greatest advancements have been in the field of communication.

All our time, all those minutes. But is there really anything else for us to do but watch talking images, go to events where we can do much more talking with many more people or define our world with words.

It is wrong for anyone to mourn the loss of books. It's as if they believe it's the end of words. Books and words have expanded and spilt into the ether of the internet.
Words define our age. Now, if only there were advanced filters to find the meaningful stuff...

But it is like brain waves. The important filtering still has to be done by humans. There are no algorithms good enough to pick out ones with meaning.

Writing Exercise: The Three Character Bond

Fairly straightforward recipe today:

1) Make up three characters. I know this is just an exercise but give them great names and go all out on their history and attitude. You might just like 'em enough to use again.

2) Give each a very good reason to hate one other character. Again, the wilder and more abstract the better. Have fun.(Some words to inspire ideas, in case you're stuck: troll, plough, appeal, rabid, escape, wriggle.) Reveal this for each character anyway you like but it has to be before they meet.

3) They meet. Tempers flare.

4) One of them turns against the other two, who put aside their differences to defeat the 'most evil' of the three.

Guys Can Read

Although the title of the program befuddles me somewhat (behold my bemused emoticon! :S) since I've never heard anyone claim guys can't (or don't) read, this podcast, available on iTunes, is something of a treat.

Perhaps it's the rock I live under, online and offline, but what I usually find by way of podcasts are disappointing at best. But this show is witty and gives real food for thought, talking about books intelligently but without snobbery. A bit like the discussions from my English degree tutorials... only interesting.

I think the best way to decide is to listen for yourselves. I just wanted to point you in the direction of something I thoroughly enjoy, particularly the after-shows, where the discussion becomes a lot freer.

It's something to get you siked in the mornings while you inhale your coffee before you go wherever you have to go.

[Completely irrelevant: I also like to wake up to 'News in Briefs' - the news read by two radio presenters in their briefs, where the updates on the news (and their boxers) are short but sweet.]

Nano

Right. Despite the minor setback of a major assignment due in, I'm all work, work, work! Things are racing along on all fronts!

Today's song:  Breaking News by Mads Langer
Today's fuel: packet of powdered soup + banana bread
Mission: 5,000 words  (to make up for yesterday and get a little ahead)

NaNo: day 1

It's practically midnight of day one! Did I get anywhere, yes! Did I reach 1667? No. Oh well. It's a start. And I promise to work really really hard this time. I swear. *crosses fingers*

Dead Fox

If you ever come accross that book, please do not associate me with it. I don't even feel I wrote it. It's entirely alien to me and the only reason I'm pushing it is to try and get some return on it. Otherwise it truly was a waste of time... which it probably was. I should have been writing my big one, my big idea. Instead I was trying to be generic... this is what I get for it. Something Dan Brown-esque in style... Eugh. Perhaps I'll become a multimillionaire.

Dreams: Pain or Pleasure?

For some of you this might be an easy question.

Writing Exercise: Music Maker

Where do you see music that you shouldn’t? In the way a garment moves? In the way a person smiles? How they laugh?


Music by *marva78 on deviantART

This is how you will mould your plot: around the falls, twists and lifts of a song. It has to be about character who oozes music in everything they do. Not necessarily Chopin, it could be smooth Jazz or Pop. The incessant pulse of electro might make for a less interesting story but you might be able to work with it.
This character cannot be the narrator, although they are the protagonist.
Include an item which is not meant to be musical but the protagonist plays like an instrument. This sets the chain of events in motion.

Your Perfect Environment

Now, I saw something intriguing and my immediate instinct was to turn it into a prompt, but on second thoughts I just want to dispense it as a little tidbit of something interesting.

There is a club in London that plays only power ballads. ONLY power ballads. 'Ultimate Power.' And people go mad for it, singing their hearts out to songs of self-indulgence. Good on them. Its a place to indulge in less sordid guilty pleasures and I wish there were more places like this, quirky, specific, a congregation of people with the same thing on their mind.

What amazes me is that it's so successful when there is a very clear limit to their playlist. The only other example I can think of is the English church.

You could certainly use it as a prompt and as an indulgent 'what if': What if you ran a business providing people with your ideal environment and it became a phenomenon? What is it you wished everyone else could share? Peaceful serenity? Loads of noise? Labyrinths of wonder? Jungle climbing? Swimming pools with fresh river water? And what would be the worst thing to jeopardise your perfect place?

Posting Because I Ought To

It's summer. And although I never intended to take a holiday, this is apparently what I am doing. I've finished editing my novel and I am exhausted! I can't face writing these days, let alone talking about writing. Meanwhile I've been keeping busy with my crafts and learning how to make my own clothes. (It's coming on well.)

I know this sickness is temporary and already some ideas are itching at me to be written down and given birth. I doubt I'll be gone another month. There's just too much to do.

Meanwhile, here's my online shop of crafts:

(In the righthand column.)

Writing Exercise 13: The Water At Night

I know I did a water one recently but as I just finished an impressionist painting of the sea at night I found some beautiful online art, each very similar but different. Each of them hold a fantasy character (well, a victorian can be part of a fantasy) by the sea at night. And so I thought the perfect exercise would be to connect the characters. A bit of connect the dots fun. Each of them somehow knows, or runs into, the others. Each visits the sea at a different time in the same night.

The questions for you to answer are:
Why do they each need to visit the sea?
How are they connected?

I have my ideas but I'm going to keep them to myself. Let's just say there are some fun possibilities, involving romance and intrigue. :P


By the Sea by *QueerAngel8900 on deviantART


where sea meets sky by ~xxbloodyknuckles on deviantART


Bride of The Crimson Sea by *fallen-angel-24 on deviantART

Longer than expected

You may have noticed the sudden decline in my posts, even with the vague promise of returning. The truth is I have never edited any piece of writing so much in my life. Once, twice, possibly three times. Then I get bored and give up. This time I'm bored but not giving up. It feels like the five hundreth draft and there's still more things to fix. The only thing motivating me is that I have come too far to stop. Far too far. And what might happen if I finally produce something that is well and truly polished beyond my regular spit-shine? I am afraid. It's another thing slowing me down. What if it I can't make it better? What if at the end of all my efforts it still won't be polished?

This is a bit more personal than I like to get but it is the truth of the matter. And by acknowledging it I hope to banish it and move on, send it out and forget about it while throwing myself into the joy of creativity once more.

"If you don't make mistakes, you don't make anything," - said some guy on a bbc business program. He's right.

Writing Exercise 12: Damsels with Balls

Cassandra by *mari-na on deviantART

As the title suggests, this is about a strong female character. The theme is 'Greek Myth'. Options for potential stories include a modern retelling, making a female the lead, or (this is my favourite) creating a new one where the heroine's pride leads to her downfall. Some confident gesture puts her in peril. Perhaps she spurns a king and is banished? There are a lot of familiar trials to put on your character to struggle free from.

That's the plot pretty much taken care of. Too formulaic for you? Then use this exercise to focus on creating a sympathetic character, despite her flaws, and creating reader empathy. Most importantly, focus on creating a gripping beginning. There'll be time for atmosphere later. (And isn't atmosphere the easy part for most of us? You'd hardly be stretching yourself to practice what you're good at.)

Good luck!

Where have I been?

It has been a while... Longer than I thought, actually, since I posted here. It's a shame but here I am again. Where have I been?

Writing by hand. Yup. I printed off a novel draft and have been spending the last month pouring over it with a pen and a biscuit. I really believed my computer was my oxygen until then. I've hardly used the web for anything other than emails and the occaisional episode of Homes Under the Hammer (my guilty pleasure).

I must say, since I used scribophile my editing has vastly improved. I was in the habit of just letting my first drafts lie, mistakes and all, because I was aware there were plenty of faults but they were just too daunting to tackle. No longer.

So this is a note to say thank you scribophile and hello to the internet once more. :)

Writing Exercise 11: Water

The elements are open to much interpretation. This exercise is about focusing on the aspects of water. It's inspired by the video for We Want War by These New Puritans, below. 

The only requirement of this exercise is to write about a character obsessed with water. Narrated directly or indirectly, you choose. He/she could be suicidal, considering drowning, could be rabid and terrified of water, could be a health nut or obsessed with cleanliness or just someone who loves water. The possibilities are endless.
But there should be one particular character that draws you more than the others you come up with and one aspect of water that best appeals to you: fluidity, clarity... etc.

Final ROW update: Ha Ha! Just!

I believed yesterday that I had nearly finished! Just one small scene to go, and actually spent the day celebrating rather than finishing! But just this minute have finished my first draft. I already have a list of issues to revise in the second draft but it shouldn't be half as challenging to edit than my NaNo, which sits, looking daunting, on a shelf.

Im off to have it printed and spiral-bound tomorrow! With an extra wide margin for red-pen notes.

Congratulations to everyone else who made it, and everyone who tried!

Writing Exercise 12: Funny Pic-Turned-Idea

I saw this comic and just had to laugh:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1vrwMu/cartoonist.name/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bizzaro-1.jpg

But then I thought that there are probably lots of crazy unconsidered theories for the death of the dinosaurs.

This prompt is not so much about creating prose, as brainstorming ideas. (If you've read my conclusions on Wolf Hall, you'll know how it upset me that poor prose is acceptable if it supports a good idea. Let's learn by example. The idea is more important than the quality, in the eyes of an agent, so it's definitely an area that we can all work on.)

So go, and bring back insane but convincing theories as to who killed the dinosaurs. Mass suicide perhaps? The rat-like beings that preceded us tripped them all up? I'm sure you'll think of something better.

Characters: What Made the Greats Great?

Real life characters.

I'm mentioning reality because isn't it the aim of most writers to take great believable characters, even if they can be a little exaggerated, and putting them into neat little plots of our own malicious devising?

The BBC gives a list of resources with a very brief history tied to each name. You may be a learned scholar but I doubt that you'll know every person on this list. For example I didn't know Edward Jenner, pioneer of immunology.

These are the people that have stuck, the ones that are remembered (even if we're not as brushed up as we should be).

From the examples there's a lot of raw material to work with. Take one character and inverse them? Cross them with another? Adjust and tweak and I feel this may be the perfect source for strong characters.

If you have an eye you may pick up on a trend amongst them. It may be all you need for your own infinite source of majestic and long-lasting characters. (Notice that I never said 'good'. Check out Anne Boleyn. I had forgotten the end to her tale.)

Here's the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/j.shtml

Row Update: the Winding Path to Victory

It seems I must always have highs and lows in writing - two days of absurdly fast scribbling followed by two days of wanting to write but constantly deleting each line written.
Today ought to be an up day! I keep thinking about the deadline. It has made my good days even more productive and my low days even less.
There's only so much self-slapping I can administer. =P

By the way, did you catch the moon illusion last night?

Row Update - Late

I had a day, I'm sure everyone gets this, where I took one look at my work and thought: 'Crap. I can't bring myself to work on this. It's awful.'

I've had them before. They go away with a good nap or a good outing. But that day I picked up my next book to read, Wolf Hall, got three pages in and thought: 'Crap! It's not just my imagination.' Then I picked up another potential book, written by a nobel prize winner in literature, and also found it crap. I think that, right there, shows I was having an off day.

Reading on with Wolf Hall, I realised I had reason, though it didn't occur to me at the time: half the time 'he' refers to the protagonist, who is names all of two times in every ten pages, other times it refers the rest of the rather massive cast of male characters. I could never tell who was speaking. Even so, the story's interesting. I suppose it proves a point: the idea of the book is more important than the quality of the prose. Yet I feel a constant itch to critique it a la scribophile.

So, back to progress, it's creeping forward, happy to say, and I'm starting to be happy with  half-finished query letter.