If you’d had me in your blog reader or as a friend on Facebook or whatever, you might have noticed I’m back to writing again after a very long silence. So, I’m sure someone who has been checking for activity so long might wonder what I’ve been up to. Well, a lot, actually. And I’ve got a very good reason for why my blog writing and novel writing went to a trickle, really.
Category: Literature and Writing
It got posed to me earlier today by a friend about the issue of refusing to read the works of an author whose personal opinion you offends you deeply. Basically it goes like this: Orson Scott Card, the famous (some would say infamous) author of the bestselling “Ender’s Game”, has made many statements which are fairly homophobic. He’s referred to gay marriage as marking “the end of democracy in America”, and supports laws banning homosexual behavior to make an example of people who engage in it, among other things. A friend of my friend asked her to try reading some of Card’s works, pointing out that his fictional works have nothing to do with his political statements, but my friend refuses to give him a chance, because his public statements have been deeply hurtful to her.
So, for those who care about the novel I’m working on, I’ve managed to decide on a title; “Valkyrie in Progress”. Now, naming a book is no small feat and I’m pretty pleased with how this one’s come out. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d have one this soon, but inspiration struck me while walking back to my dorm from class late last week. I tossed it around in my head a while and then finally settled on it. The thing is, I figured I couldn’t really name the thing until I’d actually finished writing it, like I’ve had to do with my short stories.
Well, I’m pretty proud of myself now. I got another chapter done on the novel. I feel like I’ve got a good pace going for once and might actually get this thing done someday. I’m really starting to see the characters shape out and see how they work with each other, and it’s really an exciting process. It’s been a good while since I wrote a complete story where I was writing all the characters (I’ve been writing collaborative works with others of late, mostly involved in online roleplaying communities and fanfiction type of things, rather than doing my short stories which I was known for years ago), and getting into the practice of it is something new.
Well, I actually sat down and hammered out a rough draft of the alternate version of the prologue to put the reader in the middle of the action of the story. I’m not sure how it clicks, and to be honest, I’m probably going to stick to the original prologue unless the feedback for the alternate is overwhelmingly positive and the majority prefers the new prologue.
I’ve gotten the nickname in the offices of The West Georgian of “Crime Time”, because of my work writing crime-related articles, particularly the police blotter articles. In the past, on my facebook, I produced a short and sweet guide to writing crime stories for The West Georgian. I summed up the steps and laid out a few guidelines for anyone who wished to follow in my footsteps at the paper. This next year I will likely continue at my post, but I do hope that when I do move on, that the person who follows me does a good job and finds my guidance to be useful in carrying out the job. I don’t mean to say that I’m the definitive word on writing crime stories, but I take great pride in my work, as I think I do a rather thorough job of it.
Well, the reviews so far for the prologue are all very popular. Several came back with nothing negative to say, and the few who did say something negative all said something different, so I know they can’t be big problems, though I’m still likely to tweak those problems down. But one of the criticisms kind of shook me a bit and brought back something that I consider even more pernicious and problematic than the dreaded “Writers Block”; Writer’s Doubt. What Writer’s Doubt does, quite simply, is inject into your mind the voice of the “Little hater” as described by Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine: View full article »
After a long brainstorming period, I’ve finally begun work on a novel that’s been some time in the making. The hardest part for me about writing something like this, even with my short stories, has always been to get started. Once I get rolling, it’s generally pretty easy, provided that I manage to start the process and finish a good first couple parts. The story seems to write itself from there, so I always agonize over the beginning. Last night, after consulting with my literature-loving friends about the issue of whether to include a prologue, or to just jump in to the first chapter without any backstory and just have it revealed during the course of the story, I decided to write up a prologue. View full article »
To say that I enjoy writing would be to put it extremely mildly. Writing for me is a therapeutic exercise, much like talking to a shrink; it’s a way of putting all your ideas out there, not just for others to see, but for one’s own personal benefit– to better structure them. Writing is not the product of thinking, it’s a first step in full-dimensional thinking. It’s not just a process of creation, it’s a collaborative process between the writer and the reader; the book is an intermediary for something bigger. The writer has grand ideas and concepts, and must structure them to convey those ideas, but what the reader does with the ideas is something new entirely. Every reader’s mind is another context for what is read, which is why reading comments on what I write is so exciting. View full article »
