So with Citizen in the Wilds now in the revision process, I thought it might behoove me to take a look at some other fantasy literature, maybe examine what works and what doesn’t. Since most of what I’m doing involves the defiance of most fantasy conventions, I’m curious if anything I’m aiming at hasn’t already been hit on the mark by another, more prominent writer.
For example, floating cities aren’t anything new. Look no further than Dalaran in World of Warcraft. However, I don’t know how often the ‘ruling power’ in a given land has been one ruled by mages and defined by the use of magic – ‘magocracy’ is the term I’ve used previously. Everybody has elves in their stories, and most of the time they’re dying out, but I’m curious as to how often they’re shown as very upset at this state of affairs, rather than quietly accepting their fate and loading up on ships to sail into the West.
That said, I own most of Tolkein’s works, a full set of Narnia, and somewhere in this mess are my copies of A Wrinkle In Time, a collection of Conan stories and even Eragon. I’ve taken Tigana out of the library before and would do so again, mostly because I didn’t finish it before returning it. What else would you recommend me to read, oh wise Internets?
I spent a little extra time at the office last night printing out Citizen in the Wilds. Technically it’s now in its second draft, as I rewrote the first three paragraphs before printing. I think the opening is a bit stronger, now. The plan is to do a little revising and editing on the first chapter or two today, and transcribe those change into a Google document tomorrow. If you want an invite, let me know. The more the merrier.
In addition I’m looking to enter Blizzard’s fiction contest. They want a short work of fiction between 2.5k and 7.5k words in length. I’m shooting for the middle, around 4500. It has to be set in the universes of Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo. In the interest of staying original, and veering away from self-insertion by channeling one of my Warcraft characters (which might actually be against the rules of the contest, to boot) I’ll be writing a story set in Starcraft’s worlds. Tentative title is The Haunting of Pridewater. Should make for an interesting sci-fi “war is hell” yarn.
So that’ll be my day, Internets. How’s yours shaping up? How are folks doing at Origins? Anybody else excited for the US/Ghana match his afternoon?
I am in the unfortunate position of not getting paid to do what I love.
I know, that doesn’t make me special. A lot of people are passionate about things that are very different from what they do. I doubt that most people that work for, say, Bridgestone or Michelin are passionate about making tires. Your average folks get up in the morning, put on some clothing that allow them to conform to the expectations of peers and coworkers, and commence a commute to some sort of job during the day that pays the bills, keeping the family feed and the lights on.
I’m glad to have people in my life who’ve broken this mold. They do what drives them, what fuels their imaginations and haunts their dreams. I know that sometimes the money that comes in from this lifestyle can be a bit more sporadic than the steady day job paycheck, and that bill collectors sometimes need to be dodged or placated. It might seem glamorous at first, but going for long periods of time with little to no income is no picnic.
I’ve been there. I was unemployed for quite a long time not too long ago. And even now, with this steady job I hold, things easily become strained. The combination of my pay rate with the necessity of supporting what I support takes a toll. But before I degenerate into self-indulgent whining, let me get to my point.
I need to make time to write. You might, as well, and here’s why it’s so important to do.
Nobody else can write what you’re going write.
The original idea, the seed from which your work is going to grow, is all yours. You might look to write it yourself, it might become a collaborative work or you may feel the need to hire a ghost writer. But however you plan to do it, there’s a big yawning gap between shaping the core of your idea and coming up with a finished product that’s capable of being sold. One of the biggest components of that gap is time, and to get across it you need to take time away from other things.
I say, when you get right down to it, sometimes you have to shut the world away. Disconnect the phone. Unplug the television. Turn off the Internet. Yes, believe it or not, you can turn off the Internet! Tweets, blogs, memes and streams will still be there when you’re done. Set goals for yourself, be it to write a few hundred words or a few thousand. Then, stick to those goals. Sometimes I have trouble with this, myself, so I’ll be struggling right along with you.
If you have any other tips on how to make the most of the time you try to set aside to write, please let me know. Because as much as guys like to project a “lone wolf” image, I know that until I reach that point where I can roll out of bed, amble over to the home office and flip on the espresso machine, I’m going to need all the help I can get.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World is all about being awesome. The mix of rocking music, video game mentality and an unbridled love for both those cultures gives the graphic series and the upcoming film a lot of appeal. Since it’s visual media in both cases, the writing isn’t just concerned with being awesome, it’s got to be awesome in as few words as possible.
“Brevity is the soul of wit.” “Pity the reader.” “Don’t waste my time.” Especially when it comes to things like comics and movies, the more story you can tell in fewer words, the more awesome the story will be overall.
This applies to novels, as well, though. You need to grab a hold of your reader and tell them they’re in for an awesome time. Chuck goes into detail about this, and it’s been driven home for me as I’ve examined the opening of Citizen in the Wilds in preparation for what I hope will be a rapid but thorough revision. There’s things about it I can already think of that need to be changed, and moments that I will try to preserve. But all of that’s for naught if I can’t hook the reader right away.
The problem with my opening paragraph is that it’s too wordy. Like the aforementioned visual media, in the case this opening, the writing needs to be succinct and punchy. I got some feedback on the first sentence in the aforementioned Terrible Minds post, and I’m taking it to heart as I re-examine that opening paragraph.
A novel is a long form of fiction. There’s lots of room in there for character development, world building, and the building of tension and complication ramping up to the climax. You’re not limited by word count. However, if you don’t hook your reader in the first 100 words, the rest of the 100,000 might as well be “watermelon” over and over again. It doesn’t matter if the later chapters in a book are awesome. When a reader picks up the book and opens up to Chapter 1, it needs to be awesome now.
If nothing else, watching LOST from the beginning has been a help. Good openings, good character development, etc. My wife is watching them for the first time. I’m studying them for clues on how to make my opening hook one that grabs a reader by the soft tissue of the cheek and doesn’t let go for the twenty chapters that follow.
If I can do that, the rest of this revision will be a snap. And it will be awesome.
A lot of my anxiety from pushing forward with a series of Lighthouse stories comes from the fact that there’s paranormal stuff out the wazoo out there. I mean, there’s a part of me that’s interested in getting a slice of that action, because apparently people suck it right up (insert vampire joke here), but I also know that a lot of the ground has been pretty trod. It’s a part of the speculative fiction market littered with Robert Pattinson posters from J-14 or whatever magazine caters to his fangirls this week, and love notes to Anna Paquin from her fangirls.
Then I remember something I thought was said by Marc Schuster, but consulting my notes I see it was spoken by Larry Kane, legendary Philadelphia newscaster and himself an aspiring novelist:
“Don’t believe that just because something has been written about that you can’t write about it.” (“They didn’t necessarily do a good job,” he added a few sentences later.)
So yeah, plenty of stories out there involving vampires and werewolves and wizards and angels and demons and stuff. Some of them even involve paranormal investigators, like the B.P.R.D. or Fringe division. Okay, Fringe division is more about pseudo-science so close to the supernatural it might as well be the supernatural, but I’m going full supernatural instead of the Fringe route. I can’t compete with Walter.
Seriously. Nothing I do will be this cool.
But I’m trying to go at it from a new angle. I have some history and mechanics laid down. So I need to work on setting and characters, find ways to distinguish why they’re different and why readers should care. I need to engineer the ways in which readers will be captivated by these folks, be they humans or otherwise, and might even fall in love. This will involve collecting my disparate attempts at putting this together and, well, putting it together.
I’m still in the brainstorming stages. Please forgive my ramblings.
