Category: A – Z Challenge

That Low Point You Feel

Published by Jessica on April 14, 2014

Sometimes it’s just hard being a writer. You pour yourself into the stories you’re writing, mold the worlds, craft the characters, and give it your all. Then you set that little story out into the world, hoping that maybe…just maybe it’s good enough to do something. And inevitably, someone will dislike it. Someone may hate it. Or…perhaps the one that hurts the most, they’ll read it, and they just won’t care one way or the other.

And often it seems that those readers and their comments show up on the same day when everything else is going bad. When your car breaks down. When a pay check gets lost in the mail. When you accidentally slam your pinky finger in the door because you weren’t paying attention.

And at that low point, you may find yourself wondering, why do I try? And it’s a fair question. Artistic individuals pour their souls into their work. It is a labor of love.

So what do you do? You pick yourself up. You remember why you write what you write. At this point, the desire for fame and fortune alone aren’t going to be enough to carry you through. Not at the lowest point. Not when you’re fighting depression or anxiety or fear. So write it down. Put it somewhere you will see it.

And now comes the hard part. Look at that comment or feedback and determine whether it’s a fair assessment. Is it a true weakness of the story? Is there something that you have failed to do? While it could be that the reader just wasn’t in your target audience, you should at least consider it. And if you realize it’s a weakness, then you fix it.

It’s hard. But when that low point hits, you have to keep going. Maybe you’ll need to take a little break, or perhaps even a longer one. But you need to make sure that you get back and you get going. The low point won’t last forever. One day, it will leave.

Engaging the Senses

Published by Jessica on April 7, 2014

It took me quite awhile to realize one of the secrets for engaging prose, and it turned out that the secret was to engage all the senses. In storytelling, sight and sound often feature heavily in the descriptions. After all, they are the primary senses used in absorbing a new situation. Particularly if you’re telling someone about them.

But one of the big things in memory and sensory connection involves the other three senses: scent, taste, and touch. In terms of overall effect, I’ve found that scent is probably one of the most powerful to introduce. In many respects, it’s changed the way I even look at scenes. I find myself asking what would be the first thing I would smell. It makes an enormous difference, and those little details tend to make the scene so much more vivid.

It’s tricky to do this in fantasy sometimes. The fruits, flowers, vegetables, spices, and so forth may not be the same as the ones here on Earth. In fact, in a good fantasy world, there will probably be a number of new scents. It’s important to work these in with other scents that the readers will recognize. After all, who would know what yen blossoms smell like? I know what they smell like in my head, but the truth is my readers won’t. I have to make sure that I convey this to my readers. That means I have one of two options. I can either describe the scent in detail when it’s appropriate, or I can use a scent that my readers will be able to imagine such as pumpkin spice or rose.

Obviously, you don’t want to overindulge on the olfactory. After all, it can only do so much, and it’s hard to find synonyms for smell, scent, and so forth. And it’s important not to filter the narrative. But with the proper balance, scent can be a powerful asset.

Death of a Beloved Character

Published by Jessica on April 4, 2014

For me, one of the hardest things to do is kill off a beloved character, but sometimes, there’s just no other choice. Sometimes the plot simply demands it.

This isn’t giving away too much of Tue-Rah Identity Revealed but there is a minor spoiler. Cohsaw dies. He actually dies in the second chapter, and…guess what…he stays dead.

For a lot of readers, this is probably more of a sad event. It’s not that big of a deal. The fact is that they don’t really know him at this point. They’ll get to know him more as the story goes along, but at the point of his death, he’s a casualty of the villains. But for me, killing off Cohsaw was heartbreaking. I sobbed.

See, as a writer, I know everything about Cohsaw. I know that his favorite color is blue. I know that he hates eating carrots and ibza roots, but he does because he believes it makes him stronger. I know he has a crush on Opali, a Machat girl who is three years older than him. And I know that the thing he wants most is to make his dad, one of the most proficient and well known prophets of the Machat, proud. He’s a young man of deep principles and convictions, and his commonsense doesn’t always shine through. When he believes that something needs to be done, he does it.

All of these little things add to his character for me. I know that he has a little scar on the inside of his elbow from when he tried to cut out some of his Machat markings and failed. And the reader is never going to know most of these details.

But I don’t think that that makes the details wasted in any sense. After all, I know these things about him, and, even if I don’t explain them, they’re implied. Little details tend to work their way into a story without the writer even realizing it. They provide information for the overall flavor. They say that only 90 percent of the worldbuilding ever goes through. That may be the case.

The one thing that is true is that when you invest so much in the creation of these characters, their deaths become so much more intense and painful. I wanted to save Cohsaw. I wanted him to be able to have that happy future that I wanted for him. But he never will. He needed to die to move the plot forward. And just because it’s painful doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to happen. So here’s to Cohsaw and all the other beloved characters that writers have to off. It’s one of the hardest things, but may it always improve the story.

Creating Worlds in Stories (Just Rambling)

Published by Jessica on April 3, 2014

One of my favorite parts of writing fantasy and science fiction is the creation of the world. It’s nothing like what God did, obviously. But just trying to envision this world, the different people who will live within it, the fauna, the flora, and so much more.

Often it feels like a conflict between being logical and creative. The creative part of my mind wants to go abstract and flowing, throwing together all of these different concepts and images for the overall look and feel. But the logical part demands that they make sense.

For instance, in Tue-Rah, I have several invented races including the Vawtrians, Machat, and Neyeb in addition to humans (referred to in the series as Awdawms). The Vawtrians are a race of shapeshifters, but the trickiest part was evaluating what kind of world they would come from that would lead to the culture that I want them to have. They are brutal and fierce, but at the same time, they hold civilization and law in high regard because they are determined to avoid the appearance of animals in as many respects as possible. Shapeshifting forms the core of their culture.

So this is just a rambling post looking at what I love with it. It’s not just about feeling and beauty, but logic can have its place. I’m still getting used to this whole posting and just getting in the habit. I guess the takeaway would be have fun creating and don’t be afraid to ask the questions for why things are the way that they are in your fantasy world.

Bitterness

Published by Jessica on April 2, 2014

Bitterness is one of the things I hate to see in writers, both as a reader and as a fellow writer. It’s a thousand times worse when it’s combined with ego.

Lately, I’ve been seeing a number of writers bemoaning the standards in the writing world, the state of the publishing world in general, and the overall stupidity of readers. Everyone needs a place to vent. The risk of venting online is that those ventings can last forever. The other risk of perpetual venting is that resentment and bitterness may start to grow. Rather than purging the negative emotions, it can sometimes cause them to fester. By letting them out, these negative feelings are then reinforced and brought back in.

Here’s the deal. The writing world is not fair. I can’t think of any place that is fair. The publishing world has developed a series of standards that are intended first and foremost to bring in money. While that might seem to some like it’s spitting in the face of the art form, it’s actually not. Publishers want to make money, sure. But they have to have money to get the books out there. And while on the author end, I get why it’s so frustrating that a publisher isn’t willing to take a chance, no writer deserves to be published without earning it. And someone has to care for the business.

The problem comes when bitterness sucks the joy from the writing process. Writing is hard work. Finding an audience is a hard work. Most writers will never be recognized for their abilities, and not everyone with a platform deserves one for the quality of her writing. But bitterness does nothing more than weaken us as writers. When I let bitterness take hold of me, it does nothing but ruin my enjoyment of the craft.

From a reader’s perspective, it makes me uneasy about connecting with that author. The writers whom I am most loyal to, aside from the greats, are those writers who I have connected with personally. Whether their works will stand the test of time like Lord of the Rings or Treasure Island remains to be seen, but I am loyal to them because I have gotten to know them as individuals. Bitter people make me uneasy because they are often just looking for someone to spew their venom on. And so if I am reading a writer’s blog or commentary on a site, I sometimes take note if they seem excessively bitter, and I make it a point to avoid those individuals. That sort of sentiment typically bleeds through into the writing itself, and it can be remarkably offputting.

Again this isn’t meant to criticize those who need to vent. It hurts. It’s painful. Writing is so difficult. And sometimes we just need to let that out. But don’t let the bitterness remain. It can be devastating.

Day One of A – Z Challenge: Introduction Authentic Writing

Published by Jessica on April 1, 2014

So I heard about the A – Z Challenge, and, since I’ve been putting this off long enough, I decided to do it.

This is a huge step for me because I’m such a perfectionist that I didn’t want to start writing regularly on my blog until I had the site all up and developed the way I wanted it to be. And it certainly isn’t. Every day, I’m working on it a little bit, though I’m getting to the point where I may just need to hire someone. Still, I’d really like to learn how to do it.

Perfectionism is one of my weaknesses. It’s not so much the fact that I am a perfectionist as the fact that I allow that desire for perfection to derail my goals and projects. I have revised some short stories more than 40 times. I get frustrated because I keep finding mistakes. Having a desire to do my best isn’t a bad thing. Most people have that. But when the determination to do the best and to be perfect becomes a roadblock, it has to be stopped.

I have to accept that I sometimes make numerous mistakes that I can’t catch. No matter how many times I check. Perhaps it’s there to keep me humble. Perhaps I’m just blind to a certain number of errors, lol. I don’t know. But the good thing is that mistakes can be corrected. I’ll still do my best, but I’ll recognize that doing my best does not necessarily mean that it is going to be perfect on the first go through.

So the theme for this month’s posts will be on authentic and organic writing, writing that reads as if it comes straight out of the soul while still being understandable, creative, and engaging.