me: *looking over at Sam sitting next to me on my nest of blankets on the floor of my bedroom* dude.
Sam: *looking down at one hand while chewing on the fingernails of the other* what?
me: where've you been? it's been two weeks since i've written anything that wasn't a typo fix or a line added on to the previous scene that might make sense.
Sam: i'm not the one writing this, you know. you are. aren't you supposed to be able to get past these dry spells?
me: not if i don't know what's going on. did you ever have that talk with your mom?
Sam: *glares at me from her spot next to me, still chewing on her nails*
me: you ever think she would've been happier if when your dad died she died, too??
Sam: are you asking me if i think Mom's suicidal??
me: not really. like, if they'd died in the same accident.
Sam: *looking out the window* well, she wouldn't be in the giant depressing hole she's in now. i don't know. for all i know, i would've gone nuts without her after Dad died. you thinking of killing her off??
me: *glancing off into the opposite corner* it's crossed my mind.
Sam: you think it would make for a better story?? there are a lot of single parent family deals out there, like that Hush, Hush book. Nora's dad died, too.
me: yeah, but from what the summary of the next book says, there might've been a reason for that. i don't think someone wanted your dad killed. not even your grandparents.
Sam: *scoffs*
me: no, really. sure, they're manipulative jerks and need to get the sticks out of their butts, but he was still the prodigal son and everything.
Sam: and now i'm the prodigal granddaughter.
me: sorry about that.
Sam: *waves it off* so.
me: so. *giant pause while i try to find a better song to listen to* do you like the title i came up with??
Sam: yeah, even if you did steal it from that song.
me: it's not stealing if i say where i got it, like when i wrote all those papers and had to quote sources.
Sam: *fake snoring sound*
me: *giving her a dirty look* bitch.
Sam: damn right. *nibbles on her thumbnail* what're you going to do?
me: something. i need this scene, even if i haven't quite figured out your mother's state of mind and motivation and all that crap. and my butt's falling asleep.
Sam: sit on the bed.
me: *waving it off* nah. *sighing* why can't the first draft be perfect?? i've got craploads of edit ideas.
Sam: you're the writer, not me.
me: i hate you.
Sam: then why're you writing about me?
me: self-torture??
Sam: *chuckling* probably. *makes a face* i don't like this song.
me: *glancing over at her* it's not your song, is it?? so, deal with it. i could make you end up with Gabe.
Sam: *cringing* i'd have to scrape off the slime every morning.
me: yeah. sometimes i wish you liked him a little more, like you'd shoved him right into the friend zone instead of the don't like him zone. would've been interesting.
Sam: *drilling her finger into my shoulder* edits.
me: maybe. i don't like him, either. it's kinda hard to make you sort of like him.
Sam: make me?? *giving me a look*
me: you know what i mean. *looking at Sam out of the corner of my eye* you just want to pump me for info about Jack.
Sam: *turns her face away after i catch a glimpse of her blush* you're the one who's got him talking to me.
me: that's cause he wants to. why else do you think he asked about that project thing?
Sam: *shrugging* is his mom going to hate me?
me: hate you? no.
Sam: *glancing out from under her lashes to look at me* but?
me: but what? *rolling my eyes when i get what she's asking* oh, i don't know yet. look, dude, you're like if Romeo and Juliet had a kid. the purists from both sides see you as a smack in the face. not everyone's going to like you. besides, i thought you didn't care.
Sam: *making a growling noise* i don't. i just don't want the whispers to continue.
me: me, too.
Sam: it's not fair to Mom. maybe it would be better if they'd both died in some kind of accident.
me: then everything would get dumped on your shoulders, you know, and then i'd have to come up with some cousin or aunt or uncle, and i'd have to re-write a bunch of stuff before i could continue. i hate making big changes when it's still a work in progress.
Sam: i know, and you've written that intro chapter like, 4 times already.
me: i'm going to do it this way, and when it's done i'll see if i like it with your mom there. if i don't, then i'll change it.
Sam: *nodding while we both sit there as the song changes* is it still raining out there?
me: don't think so.
Sam: darn. i like the rain.
me: me too.
Sam: *reaches up to fiddle with the ring on her necklace* am i going to change soon?
me: soon. i have to write everything in order.
Sam: cause you're neurotic and anal-retentive that way??
me: pretty much. i know what i want to happen. i think i'm better off writing what i want to happen without caring about word count, even though it's hard not to care. then, when all the basic stuff is done, i can fill in the little gaps and do the edits i want to do.
Sam: is everyone going to be the same in the edits?
me: *sighing* i don't know. Evie's good at being normal. you need normal.
Sam: yeah. could you kill off Morgan?
me: no.
Sam: why not?
me: because if you want a sequel, Morgan probably should exist. i don't think she'll be around a lot, except for an argument or two, and then that big fight at the end.
Sam: *nodding* that'll be fun.
me: yup. *looks outside while both of us don't say anything for a minute or two* you think you're ready to talk to your mom now?
Sam: if you turn on the light and sit on the bed. and get rid of that song. it sucks.
me: *sighing* i'll get rid of the song, okay?
Sam: deal. should we do that spitting in the palm handshake thing?
me: no. eww.
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Me on Novels versus Short Stories
Since I prefer novel writing, I enjoyed what Hodgins wrote in his “Structure” chapter in A Passion for Narrative. There’s always been something about novel writing that appeals to me more than short story writing. You have to limit yourself in short stories, you have only one or two points to discuss, and you have a few characters to introduce. In a novel, you can introduce many characters, have more than one setting, and have a variety of ideas and plot points to show the reader.
I don’t mind reading short stories, especially ones that are connected to other stories I’ve read or ones that end with a joke, but I don’t think I like writing them. I could write and write for pages and pages, but with short stories there’s usually a word limit, maybe 5,000 to 10,000 words. Novels are often upwards of 90,000 words long, with a number of chapters. Novel writing makes more sense to me. I can tell a story for a longer period of time, drag it out, tease the reader with twists and turns and red herrings, and end it with a satisfying ending (that might hint a sequel).
What bugs me about short stories is that I always have the ‘what happens next’ question after I read them. Sometimes they end abruptly with only solving the main problem, and I always want them to continue on with the story so the plot can keep on moving.
With novels, just about every question is answered at the end, satisfying the reader, and what isn’t answered can lead to a continuation of the series.
I think I’ve got a strange fascination, or obsession, with writing and reading series of novels. There’s one big story that involves all the same people with different personalities, and in each book there are little stories that move the big story along. It’s like watching a TV show, only there are words and no pictures. Well, often no pictures.
i hope you people are enjoying these forays into my brain. i can be odd at times, but i hope these bits make sense.
I don’t mind reading short stories, especially ones that are connected to other stories I’ve read or ones that end with a joke, but I don’t think I like writing them. I could write and write for pages and pages, but with short stories there’s usually a word limit, maybe 5,000 to 10,000 words. Novels are often upwards of 90,000 words long, with a number of chapters. Novel writing makes more sense to me. I can tell a story for a longer period of time, drag it out, tease the reader with twists and turns and red herrings, and end it with a satisfying ending (that might hint a sequel).
What bugs me about short stories is that I always have the ‘what happens next’ question after I read them. Sometimes they end abruptly with only solving the main problem, and I always want them to continue on with the story so the plot can keep on moving.
With novels, just about every question is answered at the end, satisfying the reader, and what isn’t answered can lead to a continuation of the series.
I think I’ve got a strange fascination, or obsession, with writing and reading series of novels. There’s one big story that involves all the same people with different personalities, and in each book there are little stories that move the big story along. It’s like watching a TV show, only there are words and no pictures. Well, often no pictures.
i hope you people are enjoying these forays into my brain. i can be odd at times, but i hope these bits make sense.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Me on Setting
Sometimes it’s hard for me to describe the setting of a scene when I write. I can see where the characters are in my head, and I can write what they’re thinking, saying, and doing, but describing their location is often an afterthought. I forget that not everyone can see all the little details I can see in my head.
In regards to my workshop assignment (my current WIP), I imagine not everyone saw the posters taped to the walls inside the school, the papers tacked to the cork board of the classroom, and the grey clouds, heavy with rain, hanging in the air outside the building.
Writing a descriptive paragraph, or paragraphs, isn’t hard, but I have issues in terms of selecting geographic locations as my setting. It’s difficult writing about a place I haven’t been to before, and so when I have to guess it feels awkward in my head. I tried setting a novel I wrote in 2006 in Dublin, Ireland, but I had to guess a lot in terms of building size and street layout because I hadn’t ever been there. I actually made it to Ireland in 2008, and it wasn’t at all what I expected. Of course, I probably should’ve looked online for pictures of the city, but at the time, that never crossed my mind.
At a writers’ conference last October, I overheard two women talking about one woman’s manuscript. She had set half the novel in the US and half in Thailand, but she’d never been to Thailand. When she pitched the manuscript to a literary agent the year before, the agent asked if she’d been to Thailand, and the woman said she was going in a few months. When she returned from the trip, she rewrote almost everything and set the entire novel in Thailand.
I think you have to have been where you set any piece of writing, whether it be an apartment, a house, a farm, or a different country. Unless you’ve seen the buildings and smelled the air of the location, you can’t describe it accurately enough when you establish setting.
happy Easter weekend. enjoy the chocolate.
In regards to my workshop assignment (my current WIP), I imagine not everyone saw the posters taped to the walls inside the school, the papers tacked to the cork board of the classroom, and the grey clouds, heavy with rain, hanging in the air outside the building.
Writing a descriptive paragraph, or paragraphs, isn’t hard, but I have issues in terms of selecting geographic locations as my setting. It’s difficult writing about a place I haven’t been to before, and so when I have to guess it feels awkward in my head. I tried setting a novel I wrote in 2006 in Dublin, Ireland, but I had to guess a lot in terms of building size and street layout because I hadn’t ever been there. I actually made it to Ireland in 2008, and it wasn’t at all what I expected. Of course, I probably should’ve looked online for pictures of the city, but at the time, that never crossed my mind.
At a writers’ conference last October, I overheard two women talking about one woman’s manuscript. She had set half the novel in the US and half in Thailand, but she’d never been to Thailand. When she pitched the manuscript to a literary agent the year before, the agent asked if she’d been to Thailand, and the woman said she was going in a few months. When she returned from the trip, she rewrote almost everything and set the entire novel in Thailand.
I think you have to have been where you set any piece of writing, whether it be an apartment, a house, a farm, or a different country. Unless you’ve seen the buildings and smelled the air of the location, you can’t describe it accurately enough when you establish setting.
happy Easter weekend. enjoy the chocolate.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Me on Types of Prose in Fiction
so, here's the continuation of my thoughts on writing. who knew homework would be so helpful?? :D
Hodgins describes the different types of prose in fiction and gives examples of them, but I’ve found that when I write I can’t separate them out in my mind. Everything is written the way is happens in my head, whether that be exposition, narrative, or a scene. It’s all a bizarre, and fun, mixture of showing and telling.
I need all of them, though. Exposition is great for back story, for informing the reader, for bringing the reader into an alternate reality that I’ve created. Narration is helpful, especially because I often write in first person. Sometimes I have an issue with how time moves in what I’m writing. I could easily write what happens to my narrator and characters one day and then the next and then the next, but it gets a little boring after a while. Being able to gloss over a few days with some of the narrator’s random thoughts mixed in is helpful.
I think I like scenes the most. Very often, I start either a chapter or something new with dialogue because it’s easy to use dialogue as a source of humour when writing. Sometimes jokes in the narrator’s thoughts don’t always work, but when someone is saying the joke, it seems to be funnier. You can be so informal with dialogue, fiddle with words and maybe even add an accent so when someone reads it, it’s even funnier.
I once heard that young adult fiction is written in scenes, but I think it’s more like young adult fiction is written in sections. There’s often one main idea occurring in every chapter, which is why in some I’ve read recently chapters can be five pages long or twenty-five pages long.
Chapter length doesn’t seem to matter, but it all has to flow with that correct mixture of exposition, narration, and dialogue, that correct blend of showing and telling so often found in good fiction.
Hodgins describes the different types of prose in fiction and gives examples of them, but I’ve found that when I write I can’t separate them out in my mind. Everything is written the way is happens in my head, whether that be exposition, narrative, or a scene. It’s all a bizarre, and fun, mixture of showing and telling.
I need all of them, though. Exposition is great for back story, for informing the reader, for bringing the reader into an alternate reality that I’ve created. Narration is helpful, especially because I often write in first person. Sometimes I have an issue with how time moves in what I’m writing. I could easily write what happens to my narrator and characters one day and then the next and then the next, but it gets a little boring after a while. Being able to gloss over a few days with some of the narrator’s random thoughts mixed in is helpful.
I think I like scenes the most. Very often, I start either a chapter or something new with dialogue because it’s easy to use dialogue as a source of humour when writing. Sometimes jokes in the narrator’s thoughts don’t always work, but when someone is saying the joke, it seems to be funnier. You can be so informal with dialogue, fiddle with words and maybe even add an accent so when someone reads it, it’s even funnier.
I once heard that young adult fiction is written in scenes, but I think it’s more like young adult fiction is written in sections. There’s often one main idea occurring in every chapter, which is why in some I’ve read recently chapters can be five pages long or twenty-five pages long.
Chapter length doesn’t seem to matter, but it all has to flow with that correct mixture of exposition, narration, and dialogue, that correct blend of showing and telling so often found in good fiction.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Me on First Drafts
i'm taking a creative writing seminar right now as part of my B.A. in English lit, and every week we talk about the readings we have to do. they're all about fiction and writing, filled with examples and tips and advice and prompts. since i'm not sure what to talk about here, i figured i'd post them here for you people (if you exist) to read and comment on. the next one will be up in a couple of days.
While doing the readings for this week I found myself enjoying Hodgins’ A Passion for Narrative more than the others. I think it’s because I found it more accessible, and the language, to me, is a lot less formal than Wood’s How Fiction Works. With A Passion for Narrative, it feels like the writer is speaking directly to me and not to a general sense of ‘everyone.’
I was fascinated by Hodgins’ comments on the first draft, and how you should “[w]rite the first draft for no one by yourself. Write to find out what you’re writing about” (38). I heard someone say this at a writers’ conference, and I thought it was an interesting concept.
There’s something special about first drafts. You’re taking an idea, which may or may not be good, and you’re turning it into a story. It’s becoming something far more tangible than just an idea circling around inside your head, and it’s on its way to becoming an actual short story or novel.
When I first start writing after finding an idea that’s excited me enough to want to write about it, I do get emotionally involved. It’s something I created, something I had to search hard for inside my head, and it becomes important to me.
Hodgins’ idea is one I hope to use for all my future fiction writing. I hope it’ll help me distance myself from what I write, which will hopefully make self-editing easier. Keeping the first draft for myself lets me write it just for me, and then when I finish it, I can go back, look at it, and hopefully find areas to change that will make more people enjoy it.
While doing the readings for this week I found myself enjoying Hodgins’ A Passion for Narrative more than the others. I think it’s because I found it more accessible, and the language, to me, is a lot less formal than Wood’s How Fiction Works. With A Passion for Narrative, it feels like the writer is speaking directly to me and not to a general sense of ‘everyone.’
I was fascinated by Hodgins’ comments on the first draft, and how you should “[w]rite the first draft for no one by yourself. Write to find out what you’re writing about” (38). I heard someone say this at a writers’ conference, and I thought it was an interesting concept.
There’s something special about first drafts. You’re taking an idea, which may or may not be good, and you’re turning it into a story. It’s becoming something far more tangible than just an idea circling around inside your head, and it’s on its way to becoming an actual short story or novel.
When I first start writing after finding an idea that’s excited me enough to want to write about it, I do get emotionally involved. It’s something I created, something I had to search hard for inside my head, and it becomes important to me.
Hodgins’ idea is one I hope to use for all my future fiction writing. I hope it’ll help me distance myself from what I write, which will hopefully make self-editing easier. Keeping the first draft for myself lets me write it just for me, and then when I finish it, I can go back, look at it, and hopefully find areas to change that will make more people enjoy it.
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