Geez, I have a lot of things on my non-work-related to-do list:
- Finish writing the two blog drafts currently waiting in the queue
- Write up the handful of new entries that are sitting in my head
- Update my other blog
- Read issues 9 and 10 of Apex Digest (yes, I’m a bit behind on things)
- Read issue 5 of IGMS
- Read Damned Nation
- Read Goodbye, Darwin (courtesy of Cavan Terrill) and write up a little review
- Write a story for a flash challenge at Liberty Hall to get back into the swing of things
- Work on my fantasy short story and finish it up
And that’s just the short list. Of course, I’ll be going back to work for a half day on Monday to see how I do and will be slowly working regular daily activities and physical therapy into my routine, as well. Not to mention copious amounts of sleep, since I’m sure all this ‘new’ activity will wear me right out for awhile until I get back up to regular strength again. Looks like the ‘busy’ just found its way back into my life again. Should be fun.
Tags: apex-digest, cavan-terill, damned-nation, fiction, goodbye-darwin, igms, liberty-hall, reading, Writing
Sheesh, has it really been three days since I last updated? I didn’t really think the weekend had been that busy, but I suppose it was. How about some highlights?
- Friday night was Halo night. Terrible night for me. I have absolutely zero game. Dunno what happened. I guess we all just have our off nights.
- Saturday involved guests over in the morning and early afternoon, followed by carriage driving downtown for the evening. Nasty little thunderstorm made for a shorter night, so we were home early, horses fed, and in bed by 2AM. Quite nice by comparison to most Saturdays.
- Sunday was my day to complete my third flash challenge at Liberty Hall. It’s funny how being able to complete one of those challenges always gives me a sense of accomplishment and productivity for the weekend, no matter how badly other things go. Over 1000 words for this one, and another story that, with some expansion and polish, may be submission worthy. I’m starting to get backlogged on stories that need polishing…
- Then, of course, this morning everything gets wacky. How is it that Mondays end up being the days where so many things go wrong? The horse feed this morning was done in the pitch black, in the pouring rain, with thunder and lightning all around. Plus a large tree branch fell while I was out there and sprawled across my car. I had to move it before we could leave for work this morning. And wouldn’t you know it? Just when I go inside to get cleaned up for work, the rain stops.
Busy week ahead. Much to do today and tomorrow. But the bonus is the upcoming 3-day weekend. That’ll be a nice relief.
Tags: carriage-driving, halo-2, liberty-hall, xbox, xbox-live
I’d like to do a weekly write-up of writing techniques and tips learned from each Liberty Hall challenge I take part in. That means I’m now two weeks behind, since I had intended to do a write-up for last week’s challenge and never got around to it. I touched briefly on some aspects of the creative writing process in my goals entry and in my interview for Flood. What I’d like to do now is be a bit more specific.
Flash Challenge #1 – Fervor (904 words)
Somehow, the trigger for my first challenge inspired visions of a cathedral and a bloodbath. Horror of the guts and gore variety is not generally my cup of tea; I usually tend toward a much more psychological brand of horror. But with only 90 minutes to write something, you don’t generally have the luxury to ruminate for long. So I went with it and did the best I could.
Probably the first thing I was reminded of in this challenge is the importance of having a specific viewpoint character. As it turns out I somehow missed this ‘little’ aspect of my story, and it suffered as a result. The perspective in the story was a very far removed third person. It was like looking down on the scene from somewhere far above through the eye of an impersonal camera. There was no connection with any of the characters, nothing at all to make the reader care what happened. The events might have been interesting to an extent, but if there is nothing to draw the reader in, then the outcome of the events is rendered meaningless. The reader can simply shrug when it’s all over, walk away, and promptly forget about what happened. The rewrite on this story will involve putting the perspective with one of the characters rather than the distant viewpoint I originally gave it.
It’s also very difficult to introduce story elements in the 90-minute time frame and give them proper explanation. I’ve discovered that most readers don’t really like having to fill in the gaps with their imaginations. Questions get raised, and they want answers before the story concludes. And in this challenge I raised far too many questions and provided far too few answers. So, something I want to focus on in future challenges is purposeful writing – if I introduce an element, I want to provide enough information that the reader will have his answers and understand better what is happening and why.
Over-description is also a weakness in my writing. The narrative part of story-telling has always been my strongest point, so much so that I use it much too heavily in my writing. Too many adjectives equals language that is too flowery and cumbersome to read. One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Jason Evans’ writing contests is that the 250-word limit forces you to cut the unnecessary, to work on really polishing the content and maximizing the punch of the story in as few words as possible. It’s a technique that I think would also prove invaluable in writing longer stories. The problem for me is that when I have no set word limit, I get sloppy and let myself fall into a habit of just flinging words about willy-nilly. Heavy narrative means sloppy writing.
Flash Challenge #2 – These Dreams Shall Take You (1240 words)
This challenge was a dramatic improvement over the first, and I knew almost as soon as I submitted it. I actually felt good about the way it turned out, and I had ideas for expanding it into a longer story. The feedback received validated that.
The biggest goof I made in this story was trying to add a little character to my villian’s speech patterns – I overdid it. Suggestions included scaling the odd patterns back by at least half to make it easier to read her dialogue or eliminating them altogether. I’m probably going to go with scaling them back since most seemed to like the idea, just not the execution.
Once again, my over-descriptive narrative style found me, though it was much improved to the first challenge. Sometimes, simple words and light descriptions really are the best way to go.
Naturally, there were some unanswered questions and a couple of unclear plot points. Those will also get tidied up in the rewrite.
What may have been the most valuable bit of feedback I received was the suggestion, much like in challenge one, to make the narrative more personal. Again, I need to work on doing more showing, rather than telling, in my writing. This is something I have a very difficult time doing, in large part because a lot of my telling feels like showing to me. I’m not sure if the distinction between the two is really that difficult to see or if I’m still just that inexperienced in my writing to be able to consistently tell the difference. Hopefully, the more I write the more I’ll be able to see this naturally and easily and correct for this tendency.
On the upside, this writing challenge netted me three awards in my group – one for Best Setting Development, one for Best Story Arc, and a tie for Best Characterization. I missed by one vote the nomination for the Best of the Best vote. Improvement has been made, and I believe I also have the story for my August submission goal. A little polish here, a little expansion there, and then I will look for home for These Dreams.
We’ll see how that goes…
Tags: flood, liberty-hall, Writing, writing-techniques
I’m at a point in my writing where I think I need to establish a more specific set of goals. I feel like I’ve stagnated a bit where I am, so it’s time to raise the bar a little. In no particular order:
- Submit one short story a month. The only way to get published is to send those stories out. I’m somewhat limited due to budget contraints, since ideally I should purchase at least one copy from each magazine I’m interested in, but I’ll deal with that obstacle as I can. For now, I simply need to write something and send it out to the one of the magazines that I am familiar with right now.
- POV. While I can paint very vivid scenes, my point-of-view writing continues to suffer. I’ve always had a hard time getting inside the heads of my own characters and bringing them to life. It’s time to write less narrative and focus more on developing the human side of each story. It might mean less robust scenery for a while until I start to get a grip on POV, but the end result should be worth it.
- Tying up the loose ends. This may be more of a problem with flash fiction, where there simply isn’t enough time or room for full development, but I need to work on tying up the loose ends in my stories. If I name an attribute of a character, group, or location, I need to be prepared to provide some sort of explanation for that attribute’s existence and relevance to the story. As much as I may enjoy a few loose ends, I’m finding that a lot of readers don’t.
- Critique. I need to work on my critique, both of my own works and of the works of others. This will likely develop as my own writing skill grows, as I begin to understand all the elements that go into a full, robust story. I still tend to focus too much on the mechanics and not enough on the artistry itself, so it’s time to start paying more attention to the gestalt view of the story.
Those are my primary focus points for now, all of which have come to my attention as a result of this my first flash challenge at Liberty Hall.
Tags: critique, goals, liberty-hall, submissions, Writing, writing-technique
I have discovered that being critiqued (and edited) is a bit like being caught with your fly down. Someone else is pointing out what should have been obvious, and it’s profoundly embarrassing. It’s amazing how much comes out of a critique, things that you know you should have seen on that first draft that you still somehow missed. It makes me want to just pull the whole thing back and refuse to let anyone else look at my paltry attempt at writing. I suppose it should be comforting to know that everyone else is experiencing similar kinds of criticism on their stories, but it only helps a little bit. I just know that it stings, that I want to make excuses for why such-and-such point was less developed than it should have been or for why this event happened this way rather than that way. I want to say, “But it was only 90 minutes! I didn’t have time!” But of course, everyone was equally limited, so that excuse won’t pass, either.
Ultimately, I have to remind myself that this is exactly why I joined Liberty Hall – I need and desire the criticism. I know that my writing has a LOT of weak points, and it is this criticism from other writers that will help me identify those places and make them better. These are, essentially, growing pains. These are the aches and the hurts that go along with growing up, and I am grateful for them because it means that I will, in time, get better at this whole writing thing. It just takes time.
And I have already learned a few things and have started to develop a better sense for what direction to take my writing. I’ll be making a list of goals later, things I want to work on specifically and improve. I’ll share those when I get the list made up.
Tags: critique, liberty-hall, Writing
Here’s my pattern for today so far – get some work done, take a break and critique a story, take a break from that and get some more work done, go back and critique another story. This is a weekly pattern I can expect to repeat for some time into the foreseeable future. It’s kinda nice, actually. More immersion into the world of writing, now with a bit more emphasis on improving my craft and helping others improve theirs.
If you haven’t already checked out Liberty Hall Writers, I highly recommend you do so.
Tags: health, liberty-hall, Writing
I’m curious – how many other Liberty Hall Writers do we have here? I just joined up and am looking forward to bettering my craft.
Tags: liberty-hall, Writing
