I've noticed that a lot of authors, particularly those that write in many different genres and dabble in both original fiction and fanfiction, have Livejournals to post the entire body of their work.
I have a question for all of you that read this (sporadically updated, I know) blog:
Should I make one?
I already post my work on many, many, many other websites (fictionpress, Academy of Bards, Athenaeum, fanfiction, P&P...), so I'm wondering, would a well-organized livejournal with EVERYTHING I've ever written EVER be worthwhile?
Vote in comments or whatever.
A) Yes!
B) No, I don't think you need one.
C) No, I hate LJ.
D) No, I hate you. (Why are you reading this blog?)
E) All of the above
F) I hate multiple choice questions and polls...
Monday, September 6, 2010
Aspirations
Every once in a while, you will read something that absolutely blows your socks off. If you're lucky, reading other people's writing inspires you and gives you a flood of new ideas, but more often than not, it just leaves you feeling like a horse's ass.
Sometimes, they are in your genre, and reading their work makes you think, "damn, they just took the craft I spent years developing to the best of my ability and made it 100 times better. Why on earth would anyone bother reading anything I write when this great writer is out there publishing new material?"
Sometimes, they are in a completely different genre, and reading their work makes you think, "oh God, now I have to abandon my humorous romantic comedy and write something dramatic and angsty if I ever want to have even the slightest chance of being as good as this person..." (These are the thoughts I'm having right now).
The sad truth is, there is always going to be someone who writes better than you. There, I said it. No matter how many years you spend writing, now matter how many books you sell, and no matter how many gallons of blood, sweat, and tears you collect (I don't really like that group except for 'Spinning Wheel'...), there is always going to be someone better.
This isn't just true of writing. This is true of musicians, artists, neurosurgeons, quilters, horseback riders, or anything else you can think of.
On the bright side, there is always going to be someone worse than you, too. Unfortunately, having a hundred people worse than you doesn't make up for that one person that's better. Sometimes it can be fun to have talented, professional colleagues to collaborate with, but once in a while, the green monster pops up, and you think, "dammit, why couldn't I have written that!"
It's frustrating, unhealthy, and ought to be dismissed from your mind (I know, easier said than done). Although I am still searching for a way to circumvent this envy as a musician, I have found one as a writer. Different people are in different moods for different things at different times. Even if someone writes the best crime fiction novel you have ever read, there are going to be people out there who want to read your romantic comedy. Maybe they just had a bad break-up and need something lighthearted. Besides, if only 'the best book in the world' was ever published, what would all the avid readers out there do with their time? There doesn't have to be just one winner.
My chorus teacher used to have a poster on the wall of her classroom that was really cheesy, but kind of inspiring at the same time. "The forest would be very quiet if no birds sang except the best." Bear with me and move the cheesy metaphor over to the writing world for a moment. The shelves of libraries, book stores, homes, and computer hard-drives would be very empty if no authors wrote except the best.
If you think no one could create a masterpiece half as good as the author of the book you just finished, look at the other books on the library shelf. There's going to be at least one other book that tops the one you just read. For every person that's better than you, there's going to be someone better than them, too, so really, we're all in the same boat together.
Somewhere in the world, someone is going to read your work at exactly the right moment and enjoy it immensely. It's always worth it to put your writing out there for that reason alone, but also because, as writers, we have to do it. We need to do it. We have to reach out and touch others (especially our fellow writers). Who knows, you might be the inspiration someone else is looking for (or maybe even the standard of excellence that tortures another writer).
... it's okay for you to feel a little smug about that. Really. Schadenfreude is a normal point on the large spectrum of human emotions.
Sometimes, they are in your genre, and reading their work makes you think, "damn, they just took the craft I spent years developing to the best of my ability and made it 100 times better. Why on earth would anyone bother reading anything I write when this great writer is out there publishing new material?"
Sometimes, they are in a completely different genre, and reading their work makes you think, "oh God, now I have to abandon my humorous romantic comedy and write something dramatic and angsty if I ever want to have even the slightest chance of being as good as this person..." (These are the thoughts I'm having right now).
The sad truth is, there is always going to be someone who writes better than you. There, I said it. No matter how many years you spend writing, now matter how many books you sell, and no matter how many gallons of blood, sweat, and tears you collect (I don't really like that group except for 'Spinning Wheel'...), there is always going to be someone better.
This isn't just true of writing. This is true of musicians, artists, neurosurgeons, quilters, horseback riders, or anything else you can think of.
On the bright side, there is always going to be someone worse than you, too. Unfortunately, having a hundred people worse than you doesn't make up for that one person that's better. Sometimes it can be fun to have talented, professional colleagues to collaborate with, but once in a while, the green monster pops up, and you think, "dammit, why couldn't I have written that!"
It's frustrating, unhealthy, and ought to be dismissed from your mind (I know, easier said than done). Although I am still searching for a way to circumvent this envy as a musician, I have found one as a writer. Different people are in different moods for different things at different times. Even if someone writes the best crime fiction novel you have ever read, there are going to be people out there who want to read your romantic comedy. Maybe they just had a bad break-up and need something lighthearted. Besides, if only 'the best book in the world' was ever published, what would all the avid readers out there do with their time? There doesn't have to be just one winner.
My chorus teacher used to have a poster on the wall of her classroom that was really cheesy, but kind of inspiring at the same time. "The forest would be very quiet if no birds sang except the best." Bear with me and move the cheesy metaphor over to the writing world for a moment. The shelves of libraries, book stores, homes, and computer hard-drives would be very empty if no authors wrote except the best.
If you think no one could create a masterpiece half as good as the author of the book you just finished, look at the other books on the library shelf. There's going to be at least one other book that tops the one you just read. For every person that's better than you, there's going to be someone better than them, too, so really, we're all in the same boat together.
Somewhere in the world, someone is going to read your work at exactly the right moment and enjoy it immensely. It's always worth it to put your writing out there for that reason alone, but also because, as writers, we have to do it. We need to do it. We have to reach out and touch others (especially our fellow writers). Who knows, you might be the inspiration someone else is looking for (or maybe even the standard of excellence that tortures another writer).
... it's okay for you to feel a little smug about that. Really. Schadenfreude is a normal point on the large spectrum of human emotions.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Random Updates
So, I counted up all the Law and Order fanfiction I've written in the past two months, and ended up with a grand total of: 56,596 words. That's the better part of a novel! I should be finishing TWD, but that will come in time. Right now, I am wandering around in Alex/Olivia land and LOVING it. If you are an original fiction writer and feel the need for a break, by all means, take one. It can be some of the most productive time you've ever spent.
In other news, I bombed my audition, but scraped together enough pieces so that I'm not last chair. Like writers, musicians have to have thick skins and get used to rejection. Not every day is going to be your best day. I have an excuse, sort of. It's one that paints me in a bad light, but I'll share it anyway...
So, I was feeling pretty confident when I went in to the room with the screen all set up so the judges (my teachers) couldn't see me. They gave their usual speech: "Play your Mozart exposition in D and then your excerpts in any order." I smiled, looked down at my music, and my heart tripped when I realized my Mozart wasn't tucked safely into my excerpt book. My mouth fell open, I paused a few seconds, blinked, then RAN off stage like the hounds of hell were at my heels. Once I was backstage, I started swearing like a construction worker or a sailor, whichever mental image you prefer, and scrambled to my bag to find my Mozart. Panting like crazy, I ran back on stage and tried to calm down my racing heart. I was gulping like a fish, couldn't breathe... somehow, I started to play.
I'm stuck in the lower band this year, but since they only took the top six players out of the whole studio for combined Wind Ensemble and Orchestra (something that they have never done before now), I do not feel too bad. Hopefully, my parents will not disown me. They can be almost Asian, I swear... "Bring home an A or you are banished from the family!"
If only they knew their lovely daughter spends her free time writing naughty lesbian stories... Oh well, let's hope they never find out. They might suspect, actually, due to an 'incident' when I was twelve and another when I was fourteen, but here's to hoping they leave well enough alone.
A rather self-centered post, but it does have some use for writers. Don't let anything faze you. Never give up. Develop a thick skin by sharing your work with as many people as possible. It's okay to be afraid. Everyone has faced failure at one point or another, and it never stopped them. The only thing that can really stop you is yourself.
(Edit: Sara, you're totally right. Dang, even us busy writers occasionally mix up our words. Curse you, spell check!)
In other news, I bombed my audition, but scraped together enough pieces so that I'm not last chair. Like writers, musicians have to have thick skins and get used to rejection. Not every day is going to be your best day. I have an excuse, sort of. It's one that paints me in a bad light, but I'll share it anyway...
So, I was feeling pretty confident when I went in to the room with the screen all set up so the judges (my teachers) couldn't see me. They gave their usual speech: "Play your Mozart exposition in D and then your excerpts in any order." I smiled, looked down at my music, and my heart tripped when I realized my Mozart wasn't tucked safely into my excerpt book. My mouth fell open, I paused a few seconds, blinked, then RAN off stage like the hounds of hell were at my heels. Once I was backstage, I started swearing like a construction worker or a sailor, whichever mental image you prefer, and scrambled to my bag to find my Mozart. Panting like crazy, I ran back on stage and tried to calm down my racing heart. I was gulping like a fish, couldn't breathe... somehow, I started to play.
I'm stuck in the lower band this year, but since they only took the top six players out of the whole studio for combined Wind Ensemble and Orchestra (something that they have never done before now), I do not feel too bad. Hopefully, my parents will not disown me. They can be almost Asian, I swear... "Bring home an A or you are banished from the family!"
If only they knew their lovely daughter spends her free time writing naughty lesbian stories... Oh well, let's hope they never find out. They might suspect, actually, due to an 'incident' when I was twelve and another when I was fourteen, but here's to hoping they leave well enough alone.
A rather self-centered post, but it does have some use for writers. Don't let anything faze you. Never give up. Develop a thick skin by sharing your work with as many people as possible. It's okay to be afraid. Everyone has faced failure at one point or another, and it never stopped them. The only thing that can really stop you is yourself.
(Edit: Sara, you're totally right. Dang, even us busy writers occasionally mix up our words. Curse you, spell check!)
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Borrowing Ideas...
Sorry I haven't updated a lot recently, but I've been preparing to go back to school. That involves seating auditions, so wish me luck! In other news, I've started posting my fanfic at The Academy and The Athenaeum, which will hopefully mean more readers. I am a total comment whore, so the more readers the better! Now, on to today's topic...
Today, I'm going to talk about "borrowing", a not-frequently-talked-about-but-very-frequently-used practice. It is an especially helpful tool for beginning writers. This might sound a little bit like "cheating", so you need to be extremely careful how you use this particular tool. Writers can steal, tweak, and publish each other's ideas, but unless you have original material to substitute for most of the stuff you stole, doing this is worthless.
1. Stealing an idea
Only one idea per work, please. Don't steal the entire concept of a novel or you'll be found out. Pick and choose carefully, and then try and use the idea in a completely different way than the original writer did. Most of the best basic ideas are hundreds of years old anyway and have been used so many times that no one author has a claim to them.
2. Stealing a word or phrase
I have done this, but usually for descriptive adjectives to use during sex scenes. If a particularly vivid image strikes me, I open a word document and copy down something similar (but not identical). Because I like to come up with my own ideas as well, I usually only "steal" one (or maybe two) metaphors or images per sex scene.
3. Using models
The best writers read good books. This is less of something you "steal" than something you "absorb". Pacing is difficult to learn unless you have read a lot of books. If I am struggling with a scene, and see another scene that resembles the idea I'm going for, I will occasionally "model" my scene on that one in terms of pacing, but I DO NOT steal any words or phrases from that scene. My thought process is more like -entrance two paragraphs - argument three paragraphs - rapid dialogue - first physical contact - self-deprecating inner dialogue - sex begins.... something like that. Also, I try to completely change the location, characters, and genre of the book. For example, if I am using pacing ideas from a romance novel, I'll put it in a fantasy world. If I'm stealing pacing ideas from an epic fantasy battle scene, I'll turn it into a courtroom drama.
The 'models' idea can actually be used for entire novels (or sections of novels), but this is tricky. In theory, you could copy down the entire ratio of scenes (filler - action - humor - plot development - sex - ect) that fill one of your favorite novels and try to achieve the same ratio.
This might sound very confusing, so if you have any comments (especially on the 'models' part of the article), please chime in. I'm probably going to expand on this topic, because this particular post is a hodge-podge of rambling information in no particular order.
Now, I have to go pack away my entire wardrobe for school. Ta-ta
Today, I'm going to talk about "borrowing", a not-frequently-talked-about-but-very-frequently-used practice. It is an especially helpful tool for beginning writers. This might sound a little bit like "cheating", so you need to be extremely careful how you use this particular tool. Writers can steal, tweak, and publish each other's ideas, but unless you have original material to substitute for most of the stuff you stole, doing this is worthless.
1. Stealing an idea
Only one idea per work, please. Don't steal the entire concept of a novel or you'll be found out. Pick and choose carefully, and then try and use the idea in a completely different way than the original writer did. Most of the best basic ideas are hundreds of years old anyway and have been used so many times that no one author has a claim to them.
2. Stealing a word or phrase
I have done this, but usually for descriptive adjectives to use during sex scenes. If a particularly vivid image strikes me, I open a word document and copy down something similar (but not identical). Because I like to come up with my own ideas as well, I usually only "steal" one (or maybe two) metaphors or images per sex scene.
3. Using models
The best writers read good books. This is less of something you "steal" than something you "absorb". Pacing is difficult to learn unless you have read a lot of books. If I am struggling with a scene, and see another scene that resembles the idea I'm going for, I will occasionally "model" my scene on that one in terms of pacing, but I DO NOT steal any words or phrases from that scene. My thought process is more like -entrance two paragraphs - argument three paragraphs - rapid dialogue - first physical contact - self-deprecating inner dialogue - sex begins.... something like that. Also, I try to completely change the location, characters, and genre of the book. For example, if I am using pacing ideas from a romance novel, I'll put it in a fantasy world. If I'm stealing pacing ideas from an epic fantasy battle scene, I'll turn it into a courtroom drama.
The 'models' idea can actually be used for entire novels (or sections of novels), but this is tricky. In theory, you could copy down the entire ratio of scenes (filler - action - humor - plot development - sex - ect) that fill one of your favorite novels and try to achieve the same ratio.
This might sound very confusing, so if you have any comments (especially on the 'models' part of the article), please chime in. I'm probably going to expand on this topic, because this particular post is a hodge-podge of rambling information in no particular order.
Now, I have to go pack away my entire wardrobe for school. Ta-ta
Monday, August 23, 2010
Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, Running, and Other Metaphors
Sure, there are some days where the words pour from your fingertips in a waterfall of creativity and prose, but those days are exceedingly rare. As Holly Lisle, one of my favorite writers (especially when she writes about writing), says in one of her helpful articles: novelists are the long-distance runners of the writing world. Unlike sprinters or milers, long distance runners have to have a lot of endurance. Speed isn't necessarily the most important skill. It's all about pacing yourself. It doesn't matter how fast you go, only that you reach the finish line.
Every writer works at their own speed. My personal writing speed is completely erratic. Sometimes I can barely get down a couple hundred words, and other times I glance down at the word count and realize I've done five thousand in only a couple of hours. Being a fast writer is definitely nice, but not necessary. In the end, it isn't important whether you write faster than a Harlequinn romance novelist with two books out every year or spend what seems like forever on the same gigantic fantasy novel.
Right now, I am not very inspired to finish The Witch's Daughter, maybe because of the rejection from Bold Strokes, and I really want to work on my newest project, which is about an FBI agent and a closeted politician (I posted an excerpt already). However, I'm not giving up.
In order to inspire myself, I posted the first two parts on the websites I submit to for some comments and feedback. That always makes me write faster. My fanfiction is proof of that. The more reviews I get, the faster I write. If you are ever stuck on a project (make sure it is one that you really DO enjoy and want to finish), I suggest posting it half-finished instead of waiting. Although many people hate being left at a cliffhanger, myself included, it can be a personal motivator. (If you are one of those people who can NEVER seem finish a project, however, don't heed that advice and wait until you finish, or you might end up with a lot of disappointed fans.)
Dividing my attention between multiple projects also seems to be an effective way to unclog the writing tubes when I feel like I will never finish my novel. Again, this technique is not the best one to use for beginners that have trouble finishing what they start. If you fall in to this category, the only advice I can offer is to slug through the mud until you get to the finish line. There's no shortcuts, no easy way around it. You just have to finish. The more projects you complete, the easier it gets.
Being a writer is a lot harder than most people think. It requires a lot of stamina, a lot of determination, and a thick hide. But it is also very rewarding to sit and stare at a full word document that means something to you... and will, hopefully, mean something to others.
On another note, Rome cannot be built without help. Today (or tomorrow, since it's late tonight), take the time to thank all the wonderful people in your life that read your work and help you while you're running the novel race. It will make both of you feel good, and maybe it will also garner you some extra support and inspiration.
Every writer works at their own speed. My personal writing speed is completely erratic. Sometimes I can barely get down a couple hundred words, and other times I glance down at the word count and realize I've done five thousand in only a couple of hours. Being a fast writer is definitely nice, but not necessary. In the end, it isn't important whether you write faster than a Harlequinn romance novelist with two books out every year or spend what seems like forever on the same gigantic fantasy novel.
Right now, I am not very inspired to finish The Witch's Daughter, maybe because of the rejection from Bold Strokes, and I really want to work on my newest project, which is about an FBI agent and a closeted politician (I posted an excerpt already). However, I'm not giving up.
In order to inspire myself, I posted the first two parts on the websites I submit to for some comments and feedback. That always makes me write faster. My fanfiction is proof of that. The more reviews I get, the faster I write. If you are ever stuck on a project (make sure it is one that you really DO enjoy and want to finish), I suggest posting it half-finished instead of waiting. Although many people hate being left at a cliffhanger, myself included, it can be a personal motivator. (If you are one of those people who can NEVER seem finish a project, however, don't heed that advice and wait until you finish, or you might end up with a lot of disappointed fans.)
Dividing my attention between multiple projects also seems to be an effective way to unclog the writing tubes when I feel like I will never finish my novel. Again, this technique is not the best one to use for beginners that have trouble finishing what they start. If you fall in to this category, the only advice I can offer is to slug through the mud until you get to the finish line. There's no shortcuts, no easy way around it. You just have to finish. The more projects you complete, the easier it gets.
Being a writer is a lot harder than most people think. It requires a lot of stamina, a lot of determination, and a thick hide. But it is also very rewarding to sit and stare at a full word document that means something to you... and will, hopefully, mean something to others.
On another note, Rome cannot be built without help. Today (or tomorrow, since it's late tonight), take the time to thank all the wonderful people in your life that read your work and help you while you're running the novel race. It will make both of you feel good, and maybe it will also garner you some extra support and inspiration.
