This weekend I went to see the LA Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program opened with Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2, followed by his Piano Concert No. 2, performed by the very kind-looking Emanuel Ax. The second half of the show was a contemporary piece called "Sirens" by Anders Hillborg.
Hillborg's piece was interesting because, although Salanen was conducting in a very regular pattern throughout the entire performance, I don't think I would have been aware of any rhythm at all if I had closed my eyes. It was an atmospheric piece with rushes of sound followed by long sections of eerie singing and humming and whirring. I admired it for it's free form, but I kept asking myself if I was enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the Beethoven earlier.
Comparing the two made me think about rhythm and patterns, not only in music, but also in writing. I wondered how necessary they were.
After all, our lives as living things are full of rhythms and patterns: the seasons change fairly regularly, the sun sets and rises, we sleep and wake, we breath in and out, our hearts beat. Maybe there is something about regular patterns and rhythms that feel more natural to us.
In writing we often break up our stories into chapters and paragraphs and sentences. The regularity of starts and stops, at least for me, serves as a rhythm that helps me to rest and catch and my breath. Is that required for me to enjoy the book, or is it just something I'm used to? Possibly, something more free form would be just as cool once I got the hang of it.
More and more when I write I work to have variety in my paragraph lengths and my sentence structures. But sometimes a rhythm will just feel wrong. It'll bug me until I change it to suit some inner metronome that I don't really understand. It could all be random. I'm not sure.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Queries, Schmeries
I have begun sending out queries to agents, pitching my latest novel The Last Guest. Unlike my first bout of querying back in 2009, I am having a good time. Three years ago I was intimidated by literary agents but now that I've worked with two of them I realize that they're just people and the best way to talk to them is to treat them like rational, intelligent folks and not like mysterious alien beings. Also, during the last three years I've gotten comfortable with writing pitches of my novels so I'm not wigging out at that. I'm not wigging out at all. It's actually easy and fun. Though I'm not querying anyone who asks for a synopsis. I don't like synopses. I'll write one for a book that's going on submission, but I won't write one for use in querying an agent.
This is all time consuming, though. That's the annoying part of this: even with such swell tools as AgentQuery, there's a lot of slogging through useless websites (and can I just say that for people who work in publishing, representing professional writers, a lot of literary agents could really use an editor to work over their awful, awful, poorly-written and ungrammatical business websites) and guessing as to what people really mean in their lists of genres that interest them. Seriously, literary agents of America, most of the material that represents you to the public is vague to the point of meaninglessness. And your websites are eyesores, too. Do something about it, please. Spend a little cash. Hire a professional.
But I digress. As I say, agents are just people and so--as someone who writes business letters every day at the office--I'm just writing business letters and that's not anything to get flapped up about. I like the pitch I've written for The Last Guest and I like the book a lot, too. I'm not going hog-wild and querying every agent I can find. In 2009 I wrote eight query letters before hooking up with Jeff and since then I've met a few agents and possibly I'll contact them soon about the new book. Some of my author friends have offered to introduce me to their agents, too. So I am sort of awash in agents.
I'm also working, though slowly, on a new novel that I think has great potential if I can ever finish it. So things are looking pretty good as I move into the end of 2011. How are things for you?
This is all time consuming, though. That's the annoying part of this: even with such swell tools as AgentQuery, there's a lot of slogging through useless websites (and can I just say that for people who work in publishing, representing professional writers, a lot of literary agents could really use an editor to work over their awful, awful, poorly-written and ungrammatical business websites) and guessing as to what people really mean in their lists of genres that interest them. Seriously, literary agents of America, most of the material that represents you to the public is vague to the point of meaninglessness. And your websites are eyesores, too. Do something about it, please. Spend a little cash. Hire a professional.
But I digress. As I say, agents are just people and so--as someone who writes business letters every day at the office--I'm just writing business letters and that's not anything to get flapped up about. I like the pitch I've written for The Last Guest and I like the book a lot, too. I'm not going hog-wild and querying every agent I can find. In 2009 I wrote eight query letters before hooking up with Jeff and since then I've met a few agents and possibly I'll contact them soon about the new book. Some of my author friends have offered to introduce me to their agents, too. So I am sort of awash in agents.
I'm also working, though slowly, on a new novel that I think has great potential if I can ever finish it. So things are looking pretty good as I move into the end of 2011. How are things for you?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving Tomorrow!
Hey there, Lit Labbers! I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
I know the relationship between bloggers is sort of strange since, really, very few of us end up actually meeting one another in person, but this year I do feel particularly grateful for the friendship I have with many of you. I feel very lucky that so many people took the time to e-mail me while I was down, to read my book, and just to be supportive of me and my writing in general. Thank you!
And, I also want to thank the wonderful Michelle Davidson Argyle and the super Scott G. F. Bailey for continuing to be my Lit Lab co-authors and anthology co-editors. Really, both of you inspire me every day. Thanks also to the very special Becca Brown for doing everything she does for our anthologies.
I know the relationship between bloggers is sort of strange since, really, very few of us end up actually meeting one another in person, but this year I do feel particularly grateful for the friendship I have with many of you. I feel very lucky that so many people took the time to e-mail me while I was down, to read my book, and just to be supportive of me and my writing in general. Thank you!
And, I also want to thank the wonderful Michelle Davidson Argyle and the super Scott G. F. Bailey for continuing to be my Lit Lab co-authors and anthology co-editors. Really, both of you inspire me every day. Thanks also to the very special Becca Brown for doing everything she does for our anthologies.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Re Re Research
My local indie bookstore just phoned me to say that a book I ordered (Dancing in the Glory of Monsters by Jason K. Stearns) is in and maybe I'd like to come pick it up today at lunch. It's a nonfiction title about the ongoing warfare in the country now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo for short). During my youth we called it Zaire. Before I was born it was the Belgian Congo. The ongoing war in DR Congo is said to be the deadliest conflict since World War II. [Thanks to BK Broyla for pointing out my original misstatement comparing the two wars.] It's an unbelievably horrific story that most people have never heard.
I'm reading up on this horror show because part of my work-in-progress is based in eastern DR Congo, where the fighting has been the worst and where atrocities and war crimes continue to this very day. In fact, as you read this, something unspeakable is likely happening in DR Congo. DR Congo also has the distinction of being the rape capital of the world. Isn't that nice?
This is all part of the research for my current novel. I had no idea things were so utterly hellish in DR Congo when I started writing; this is all stuff I've discovered along the way.
My WIP is set, unlike my other novels, in the present day. I did this so I wouldn't have to do a lot of research, but once I decided that my female lead was going to live for a while in a third-world country and for a variety of innocent reasons I chose DR Congo, I was back into the work of doing research. Mostly, you know, I wanted enough facts and enough of a feel for the place that I could create the appropriate verisimilitude in my reader. I did not want to become an expert in equatorial African history and politics. I just wanted to be able to believably write my setting and my supporting cast, but the situation in DR Congo is complex and so I'm doing more reading than I'd originally intended.
This always happens to me. In order to write a couple thousand words of description and setting, I end up reading a couple thousand pages of nonfiction. I have to know, apparently, a great deal more about the real historical place and time than I actually use in the novel. And, of course, I have to know more or less what's true so that I know how far I'm comfortable distorting that truth. The facts are always less important to me than the unity of my narrative. I don't write history books; I write fiction.
Still, I always wonder how much of the discovered history to include into the novels. I could have put a bunch of interesting facts about America in the Great Depression into the detective novel I just wrote. I could have worked a lot of interesting trivia into the Colonial American book I wrote last year. But most of the stuff I learned stayed out of the narratives, and likely most of the things I'll learn (or have already learned) about African small hold farms and Rwandan armies and Hutus and Tutsis and the UN relief efforts will remain outside of the book.
I'm aware that there is a genre called Historical Fiction that has its own set of tropes and expectations, but I don't really read this genre so I don't really know how my works compare to actual historical fiction. I want my readers to feel like they're wherever I'm sending them in space or time, but I don't want to teach history and I have little patience for books that attempt to recreate, brick-by-brick, a lost time or place. I want characters and humanity, darn it. Everything else is set dressing and costuming to me.
Does anyone here write historical fiction? How do you decide how much of your research to put in? What's the purpose of your research? Do you write because of the history, or is the history because of the story, if you take my meaning?
I'm reading up on this horror show because part of my work-in-progress is based in eastern DR Congo, where the fighting has been the worst and where atrocities and war crimes continue to this very day. In fact, as you read this, something unspeakable is likely happening in DR Congo. DR Congo also has the distinction of being the rape capital of the world. Isn't that nice?
This is all part of the research for my current novel. I had no idea things were so utterly hellish in DR Congo when I started writing; this is all stuff I've discovered along the way.
My WIP is set, unlike my other novels, in the present day. I did this so I wouldn't have to do a lot of research, but once I decided that my female lead was going to live for a while in a third-world country and for a variety of innocent reasons I chose DR Congo, I was back into the work of doing research. Mostly, you know, I wanted enough facts and enough of a feel for the place that I could create the appropriate verisimilitude in my reader. I did not want to become an expert in equatorial African history and politics. I just wanted to be able to believably write my setting and my supporting cast, but the situation in DR Congo is complex and so I'm doing more reading than I'd originally intended.
This always happens to me. In order to write a couple thousand words of description and setting, I end up reading a couple thousand pages of nonfiction. I have to know, apparently, a great deal more about the real historical place and time than I actually use in the novel. And, of course, I have to know more or less what's true so that I know how far I'm comfortable distorting that truth. The facts are always less important to me than the unity of my narrative. I don't write history books; I write fiction.
Still, I always wonder how much of the discovered history to include into the novels. I could have put a bunch of interesting facts about America in the Great Depression into the detective novel I just wrote. I could have worked a lot of interesting trivia into the Colonial American book I wrote last year. But most of the stuff I learned stayed out of the narratives, and likely most of the things I'll learn (or have already learned) about African small hold farms and Rwandan armies and Hutus and Tutsis and the UN relief efforts will remain outside of the book.
I'm aware that there is a genre called Historical Fiction that has its own set of tropes and expectations, but I don't really read this genre so I don't really know how my works compare to actual historical fiction. I want my readers to feel like they're wherever I'm sending them in space or time, but I don't want to teach history and I have little patience for books that attempt to recreate, brick-by-brick, a lost time or place. I want characters and humanity, darn it. Everything else is set dressing and costuming to me.
Does anyone here write historical fiction? How do you decide how much of your research to put in? What's the purpose of your research? Do you write because of the history, or is the history because of the story, if you take my meaning?
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday Filler with Canelés
These are my little canelés cooling. They turned out quite to my liking, although they weren't perfect. The darker ones were a little crispier on the outside, which made them wonderful. The really light colored ones, which were in the middle of the baking mold, were a bit too soft. I guess I was trying to make too many at once. One of the eaters of these canelés asked me if I would make them for her Christmas party! I didn't really set up any milestones when I decided I'd learn to bake this year, but having my food go public should be one. :)
So, it's Friday. How is everyone doing? How is your writing going? I've had a pretty bad week to tell you the truth. I had applied for a writing fellowship and made it into the top 6. Then I had an interview that I thought went unbelievably well. I find out shortly afterwards, though, that I did not get it. And I was so pathetic I even assumed the notification was a joke and I waited for another two hours for the phone call telling me so. It was no joke. I didn't get in.
Initially, I didn't want to write anymore. I hated Cyberlama. I decided that I would never ever ever have an audience again. I started writing a project plan to start my own press so that I could celebrate other people's good writing instead of suffering with my own miserable writing.
Today I'm still feeling a little depressed, but more at peace. It really helped that Donna Hole put up a review of WG and Jason King sent me a picture of my book on his summer vacation. Other people's birthday wishes helped too. So thank you everyone!
I'll probably write fiction today, which is a good step forward. I do like Cyberlama, and I'm guessing that some of you might like it too. That's enough to keep me writing, and that's what's important to me right now.
I also have to remind myself that I have specific goals and not getting into the fellowship does not keep me from reaching those goals. My actual goal was not to get into the fellowship, but to be able to learn from good writers, which is something I feel has been lacking lately. I realize now that I can still get that if I'm willing to ask people for more help. I want more feedback on my writing. That's something I can get!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Are These The Only Truths I Believe?
I tried to write this post last week but it didn't work so I deleted it and now I try again, taking a shot at my topic from a slightly different angle. We'll see how it goes this time. The difficulty seems to be that I don't know where to start this discussion.
I'm working on a new book, which is no surprise because I'm always working on a new book. The big theme of the book seems at this point to be doubt. Self doubt, I guess. The male lead is having a sort of middle-age crisis of confidence and he takes steps to combat his self doubts, steps that have tragicomic results. Nobody gets dead in this one, though, which is a real departure for me. More on that anon. The female lead is having a crisis of faith, which I also see as a sort of problem of self doubt, as in possibly when people lose religious faith, they don't doubt the religion so much as they doubt their own relationship to that religion.
So clearly the conflicts in this one are not the sort of man-versus-man or man-versus-society conflicts I've been writing about, and the plot developments aren't going to involve a lot of violence. As I say, that's a change for me. Is this post going anywhere? Yes, but slowly. Hang on.
One of the important questions I ask myself while writing is "What am I thinking about that makes me write this?" Another way of saying that is "What about this material interests me and/or makes me uncomfortable?" I always look for that stuff and try to relentlessly follow it through the narrative, because that's always the best stuff in the book. So for the male character, I'm following threads that have to do with disappointment and fear and pride and a sort of American machismo. For the female character, I'm following threads that have to do with ambition and hope and community. I see that the guy has doubt about his past while the woman has doubt about her future, sort of. Though it's more complicated than that.
Anyway, I am struggling with how to present this material, with how universal the themes are or how idiosyncratic and therefore requiring a lot of explanation to the reader. I'm also struggling with the idea of truth in a story.
Some of you already know that earlier this month my literary agent and I parted company. We had two novels out on submission this year and neither of them sold to publishers, and when I sent her my most recent book my agent declared that she has no idea how to sell it so perhaps she's not the best agent for me. Fair enough and no hard feelings, but it of course gets me thinking. Possibly the reason my novels that were on submission weren't picked up is because the truths I was illuminating in them aren't particularly welcome truths. After all, both books are pretty bleak because I don't have a particularly cheerful outlook on life. We all end up dead, after all, and lots of horrific things are happening all around us and most of the things we attempt will be failures, most relationships don't work out, etc. I think those are true statements.
But are those the only truths I believe? Don't I believe other, less determinedly grim truths? Why don't I write about those, too? I'm reading a book of short stories by Thomas Mann, and one of the stories, "Disorder and Early Sorrow" is, despite the title, one of the most luminous, beautiful and love-filled stories I've ever read. Why don't I lean a bit more in that direction and a bit less in the direction of such bloody-minded works as "Hamlet?"
I'm also reading the collected letters of Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being. It's fabulous stuff because O'Connor could write a good letter and she's bluntly honest and funny and thinks deeply about writing and reading. It's also got me thinking that perhaps Ms O'Connor had a very narrow field of vision in her work; she was trying to do essentially one thing and one thing only in her stories, and if you don't like her subtext you won't like her work and pretty much I think that you either love or hate O'Connor's work as a whole. This is the danger of having only one or two truths you are pursuing in your work. Maybe. This is all provisional, as usual.
Anyway, my whole writing world is in flux. I see that as a good thing, because one likes to grow and surprise oneself, yes? I don't quite know how I'm going to handle any of the themes of my new novel and I don't quite know any more how I feel about my previous work, but I keep writing and I'll just see what I write when I've written it. This post doesn't do any of you any good at all, I know. But it's what I've got today while Davin recovers from his post-birthday hangover.
I'm working on a new book, which is no surprise because I'm always working on a new book. The big theme of the book seems at this point to be doubt. Self doubt, I guess. The male lead is having a sort of middle-age crisis of confidence and he takes steps to combat his self doubts, steps that have tragicomic results. Nobody gets dead in this one, though, which is a real departure for me. More on that anon. The female lead is having a crisis of faith, which I also see as a sort of problem of self doubt, as in possibly when people lose religious faith, they don't doubt the religion so much as they doubt their own relationship to that religion.
So clearly the conflicts in this one are not the sort of man-versus-man or man-versus-society conflicts I've been writing about, and the plot developments aren't going to involve a lot of violence. As I say, that's a change for me. Is this post going anywhere? Yes, but slowly. Hang on.
One of the important questions I ask myself while writing is "What am I thinking about that makes me write this?" Another way of saying that is "What about this material interests me and/or makes me uncomfortable?" I always look for that stuff and try to relentlessly follow it through the narrative, because that's always the best stuff in the book. So for the male character, I'm following threads that have to do with disappointment and fear and pride and a sort of American machismo. For the female character, I'm following threads that have to do with ambition and hope and community. I see that the guy has doubt about his past while the woman has doubt about her future, sort of. Though it's more complicated than that.
Anyway, I am struggling with how to present this material, with how universal the themes are or how idiosyncratic and therefore requiring a lot of explanation to the reader. I'm also struggling with the idea of truth in a story.
Some of you already know that earlier this month my literary agent and I parted company. We had two novels out on submission this year and neither of them sold to publishers, and when I sent her my most recent book my agent declared that she has no idea how to sell it so perhaps she's not the best agent for me. Fair enough and no hard feelings, but it of course gets me thinking. Possibly the reason my novels that were on submission weren't picked up is because the truths I was illuminating in them aren't particularly welcome truths. After all, both books are pretty bleak because I don't have a particularly cheerful outlook on life. We all end up dead, after all, and lots of horrific things are happening all around us and most of the things we attempt will be failures, most relationships don't work out, etc. I think those are true statements.
But are those the only truths I believe? Don't I believe other, less determinedly grim truths? Why don't I write about those, too? I'm reading a book of short stories by Thomas Mann, and one of the stories, "Disorder and Early Sorrow" is, despite the title, one of the most luminous, beautiful and love-filled stories I've ever read. Why don't I lean a bit more in that direction and a bit less in the direction of such bloody-minded works as "Hamlet?"
I'm also reading the collected letters of Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being. It's fabulous stuff because O'Connor could write a good letter and she's bluntly honest and funny and thinks deeply about writing and reading. It's also got me thinking that perhaps Ms O'Connor had a very narrow field of vision in her work; she was trying to do essentially one thing and one thing only in her stories, and if you don't like her subtext you won't like her work and pretty much I think that you either love or hate O'Connor's work as a whole. This is the danger of having only one or two truths you are pursuing in your work. Maybe. This is all provisional, as usual.
Anyway, my whole writing world is in flux. I see that as a good thing, because one likes to grow and surprise oneself, yes? I don't quite know how I'm going to handle any of the themes of my new novel and I don't quite know any more how I feel about my previous work, but I keep writing and I'll just see what I write when I've written it. This post doesn't do any of you any good at all, I know. But it's what I've got today while Davin recovers from his post-birthday hangover.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Happy Birthday, Davin!
I hope you have a fantastic day, Davin!
By the way, below is a picture of Jane Choi holding a tray of caneles in the best restaurant in Atwater Village--Canele. (If any of you cool peeps ever come visit me, this is very likely where I'll take you.) I got the picture from here.
Jason King of Genre Wars fame also just sent me this cool photo! Thanks, Jason. And, yes, my book is an alcoholic. Buy it. Rescue it.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Let me refresh your memory
Happy Monday, everyone!
On the recommendation of my new boss, I recently read Writing with Style by John R. Trimble. I hate to admit this, but I approached the book thinking I probably already knew everything it was going to try and teach me. And, you know what? I'm about 80% of the way through the book now, and I do know everything it's trying to teach me so far. After all, I've taken a lot of classes, I've read a lot of other books about writing, I've read a lot of fiction, I've written a lot, and I've learned a lot from fellow writers like many of you.
Still, an unexpected thing happened. Even though I didn't learn anything new, I noticed that the writing on my most recent stories and reports were better. This confused and frustrated me! I mean, I didn't learn anything new! Why was my writing getting better? I guess I had something to learn after all. Darn it.
Then, last week, a painfully obvious thing dawned on me. I think it came about after I spent the morning reading about neuroplasticity, which has to do with how our brains learn and retain short-term and long-term memory. It occurred to me that reading Writing with Style didn't necessarily teach me anything new, but it helped me to remember the things I already knew. It helped me to recall the information in a more conscious way so that I could make smarter decisions in my writing.
I think as writers one of the hardest things we have to do is to remember our own writing rules. (Our own rules--not necessarily the rules other people tell us we have to follow.) Most of the time we end up internalizing everything, and our writing feels more intuitive because of it. But there's some benefit in being able to recall what we're doing in a conscious way. I always feel a little pang of delight when I remember something I learned a long time ago. Our brains can't always recall everything immediately the way we wish they could. It's probably even more challenging for writers of long fiction. At least I know I've never been able to hold a whole book in my head at one time. I'm constantly rereading what I'm working on.
So, I guess I'm understanding the importance of reminders, the importance of relearning those things that we already know. It's probably a good thing that the community of bloggers often stumbles upon the same problems. Sometimes they probably serve as valuable reminders for other people. As for me, I'm resolving to take a more active role in refreshing my memory. I think I'll try and go back to basics on a more regular schedule.
P.S. Thanks to my mom making me sort through the old junk I was storing in her garage last night, I found about $200 worth of gift cards. Woohoo!
On the recommendation of my new boss, I recently read Writing with Style by John R. Trimble. I hate to admit this, but I approached the book thinking I probably already knew everything it was going to try and teach me. And, you know what? I'm about 80% of the way through the book now, and I do know everything it's trying to teach me so far. After all, I've taken a lot of classes, I've read a lot of other books about writing, I've read a lot of fiction, I've written a lot, and I've learned a lot from fellow writers like many of you.
Still, an unexpected thing happened. Even though I didn't learn anything new, I noticed that the writing on my most recent stories and reports were better. This confused and frustrated me! I mean, I didn't learn anything new! Why was my writing getting better? I guess I had something to learn after all. Darn it.
Then, last week, a painfully obvious thing dawned on me. I think it came about after I spent the morning reading about neuroplasticity, which has to do with how our brains learn and retain short-term and long-term memory. It occurred to me that reading Writing with Style didn't necessarily teach me anything new, but it helped me to remember the things I already knew. It helped me to recall the information in a more conscious way so that I could make smarter decisions in my writing.
I think as writers one of the hardest things we have to do is to remember our own writing rules. (Our own rules--not necessarily the rules other people tell us we have to follow.) Most of the time we end up internalizing everything, and our writing feels more intuitive because of it. But there's some benefit in being able to recall what we're doing in a conscious way. I always feel a little pang of delight when I remember something I learned a long time ago. Our brains can't always recall everything immediately the way we wish they could. It's probably even more challenging for writers of long fiction. At least I know I've never been able to hold a whole book in my head at one time. I'm constantly rereading what I'm working on.
So, I guess I'm understanding the importance of reminders, the importance of relearning those things that we already know. It's probably a good thing that the community of bloggers often stumbles upon the same problems. Sometimes they probably serve as valuable reminders for other people. As for me, I'm resolving to take a more active role in refreshing my memory. I think I'll try and go back to basics on a more regular schedule.
P.S. Thanks to my mom making me sort through the old junk I was storing in her garage last night, I found about $200 worth of gift cards. Woohoo!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tutorials
You know, I like art. I do a lot of it in Photoshop - at least my visual art. Outside of writing, photography and design-work are what I love, so it's no surprise that I spend a lot of time online going through Photoshop tutorials. Over the past eight years that I've been learning photography, and the past five years of learning Photoshop, I've picked up some really awesome skills that I don't share much anymore since writing has kind of taken over my life. Still, today I plan on spending a good portion of the day learning some new techniques in my visual art category. Why? Because it's 100% relaxing for me. It helps me focus my creative energy elsewhere, and when I step away to do some writing, I can think more clearly.
The interesting thing about Photoshop, though, is that there are tricks to learn (I'm not sure there's really any true tricks in writing). There are so many things you can do in that program - in fact, I've heard even the creators don't know everything it can do. It's up to the artist to either figure out what works for them on their own or go online or look in a book or magazine to see some ways other artists get a certain look or technique in their artwork.
For instance, I just discovered Andrzej Dragan. His work is stunning, and there's a technique out there called the Dragan Effect named after his style. I want to learn how to do it, and that's what I'm hoping to today - or at least start. Here's some of his work.
It's hard to pinpoint what Dragan does that's so stunning, but it's the amount of detail, the way the picture pops that really seems to be the technique. As an artist, I know how much work goes into this - and it begins with a good photograph first and foremost.
Also, it's not that I want to copy another artist. It's that I want to master a certain technique so I can build it into my own personal style. I tend to do this with my writing, as well. There are tutorials out there for the Dragan Effect - clear, step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the effect, but it still takes the touch and skill of the artist to pull it off, which is why nobody can get that Dragan Effect exactly. His style is his own.
I think with writing, there are "tutorials" out there on how to write a specific way, but if you're a true artist, you'll realize there may be things that sound like tricks (in Photoshop, there really are some), but eventually you'll move beyond anything even remotely resembling a "trick". You will have learned your own skills and how to incorporate them into your unique style.
So, have you ever relied on tricks and tutorials in your art form? Have you done so in the past?
The interesting thing about Photoshop, though, is that there are tricks to learn (I'm not sure there's really any true tricks in writing). There are so many things you can do in that program - in fact, I've heard even the creators don't know everything it can do. It's up to the artist to either figure out what works for them on their own or go online or look in a book or magazine to see some ways other artists get a certain look or technique in their artwork.
For instance, I just discovered Andrzej Dragan. His work is stunning, and there's a technique out there called the Dragan Effect named after his style. I want to learn how to do it, and that's what I'm hoping to today - or at least start. Here's some of his work.
It's hard to pinpoint what Dragan does that's so stunning, but it's the amount of detail, the way the picture pops that really seems to be the technique. As an artist, I know how much work goes into this - and it begins with a good photograph first and foremost.
Also, it's not that I want to copy another artist. It's that I want to master a certain technique so I can build it into my own personal style. I tend to do this with my writing, as well. There are tutorials out there for the Dragan Effect - clear, step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the effect, but it still takes the touch and skill of the artist to pull it off, which is why nobody can get that Dragan Effect exactly. His style is his own.
I think with writing, there are "tutorials" out there on how to write a specific way, but if you're a true artist, you'll realize there may be things that sound like tricks (in Photoshop, there really are some), but eventually you'll move beyond anything even remotely resembling a "trick". You will have learned your own skills and how to incorporate them into your unique style.
So, have you ever relied on tricks and tutorials in your art form? Have you done so in the past?
I Write Because I Would Like To Live Forever
This statement of intent by the late Reginald Shepherd is well worth reading. It's long, but every word of it rings true for me.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Friday Filler! Pictures and Literary Elements!
I am beating Scott and Davin to the punch this morning. Not too hard since I'm an hour earlier than they are in the time zone. Scott can kill me later. He sent me the best picture EVER...
Scott, I love the way you're looking at the book, as if you're sizing it up. "Are you going to be good, Monarch? Because you'd better contain literary elements or I will have nothing to do with you!"
No worries, though, since Scott read the book long before it was published and liked it. I think the best thing about being part of the Literary Lab is the relationship we've been built between the three of us. I'll admit that a few months ago we were wondering if we wanted to keep everything going on over here. I was super busy with getting Monarch launched with my publisher, Davin was moving, and Scott was knee-deep in work and writing. I wasn't even posting anything over here. But then we stopped to think about it, we realized we'd miss what goes on over here - even if a post mostly contains conversations between the three of us.
My favorites, though? That the Lab has become something beyond the three of us. And I love learning more about you, our readers. Some of you have been hanging out here since we began two-and-a-half years ago (or even longer if you hung out here when Davin ran the blog by himself). We love that! I think that's what Davin first envisioned, and I hope we continue to gain friends over here. The Internet cannot lose a blog dedicated to literary elements in writing. It. Just. Can't.
So, as far as filler goes today, that's that. What do you love about the Lab?
Scott, I love the way you're looking at the book, as if you're sizing it up. "Are you going to be good, Monarch? Because you'd better contain literary elements or I will have nothing to do with you!"
No worries, though, since Scott read the book long before it was published and liked it. I think the best thing about being part of the Literary Lab is the relationship we've been built between the three of us. I'll admit that a few months ago we were wondering if we wanted to keep everything going on over here. I was super busy with getting Monarch launched with my publisher, Davin was moving, and Scott was knee-deep in work and writing. I wasn't even posting anything over here. But then we stopped to think about it, we realized we'd miss what goes on over here - even if a post mostly contains conversations between the three of us.
My favorites, though? That the Lab has become something beyond the three of us. And I love learning more about you, our readers. Some of you have been hanging out here since we began two-and-a-half years ago (or even longer if you hung out here when Davin ran the blog by himself). We love that! I think that's what Davin first envisioned, and I hope we continue to gain friends over here. The Internet cannot lose a blog dedicated to literary elements in writing. It. Just. Can't.
So, as far as filler goes today, that's that. What do you love about the Lab?
Thursday, November 3, 2011
T-shirt
Happy Thmonday, everyone!
As I write this I'm sitting at home but dressed up in my ironed button-down shirt and slacks, trying to decide if I should go into work or just work from home and skip the commute. Either way, I'll probably be spending most of time learning how to write a case statement.
But! This week I have been doing an awful lot of non-non-fiction writing. I had been stuck on the last section of Cyberlama and so had decided to go back to the beginning and work on another draft as I collected more clues about where the story should go. Well, the clues have been collected, and last night in the shower I figured out where I want the story to go. Thinking about the next section of events gives me the chills because I get to dip into the dark side of human nature and show my character's desperation, and so I'm excited to try and write it. And, a new character that I had just introduced, a Belgian scientist, is going to play a rather important role whereas before I thought she was perhaps just a pointless person who I would end up editing out. Now I see her clearly, and she helps to bring the story full circle in a way.
After I realized where I wanted to go, I thought again of a possible title for the book. First, ideas I didn't like came up: sands of time, the last grains, stuff like that. Then, I re-examined my two titles that I at least sort of like, The Monuments and Jacaranda. Then. Then! I thought of a title I liked. Only it wasn't for Cyberlama, but instead was for my other untitled novella that Scott wants me to call The Whole Wide Open. This is the story about a man who abducts a young girl and keeps her locked in the basement for many years. The title that came up amid the steam was The Aging House, or Old House, and I think it can work, but maybe Scott with all of his opinions will disagree with me.
Now I have to decide if I will change back into a T-shirt.
As I write this I'm sitting at home but dressed up in my ironed button-down shirt and slacks, trying to decide if I should go into work or just work from home and skip the commute. Either way, I'll probably be spending most of time learning how to write a case statement.
But! This week I have been doing an awful lot of non-non-fiction writing. I had been stuck on the last section of Cyberlama and so had decided to go back to the beginning and work on another draft as I collected more clues about where the story should go. Well, the clues have been collected, and last night in the shower I figured out where I want the story to go. Thinking about the next section of events gives me the chills because I get to dip into the dark side of human nature and show my character's desperation, and so I'm excited to try and write it. And, a new character that I had just introduced, a Belgian scientist, is going to play a rather important role whereas before I thought she was perhaps just a pointless person who I would end up editing out. Now I see her clearly, and she helps to bring the story full circle in a way.
After I realized where I wanted to go, I thought again of a possible title for the book. First, ideas I didn't like came up: sands of time, the last grains, stuff like that. Then, I re-examined my two titles that I at least sort of like, The Monuments and Jacaranda. Then. Then! I thought of a title I liked. Only it wasn't for Cyberlama, but instead was for my other untitled novella that Scott wants me to call The Whole Wide Open. This is the story about a man who abducts a young girl and keeps her locked in the basement for many years. The title that came up amid the steam was The Aging House, or Old House, and I think it can work, but maybe Scott with all of his opinions will disagree with me.
Now I have to decide if I will change back into a T-shirt.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
I Am So Writing That Story Soon...
I'm REALLY good at procrastinating. I'm also really good at telling myself things are going to be a certain way and then I go out of my way to make things work against that. Why do I do that? It's like I'm two different people. This should come as no surprise to people who know the real me. The real me likes to listen to Britney Spears. No joke. I enjoy a lot of her music while I'm writing because she's upbeat and catchy and my brain can concentrate with the repetition and brainless mind-candy. Oh well. You can laugh. Go ahead.
So we at the Literary Lab have this thing coming up called an anthology. We are offering CASH prizes to three winners. Also, me and Davin and Scott will be including our own short stories in the anthology. No, we don't get a shot at the cash. We just want to play.
I have yet to write my story, but I'm gearing up to it and I wanted to talk about how procrastination gets my creativity going. Isn't that odd? It does! Because as I've been procrastinating this short story, my subconscious has been working hard on some ideas. I hope when I sit down to write the story, it just flows out. That usually happens when I procrastinate enough. Does this happen to you at all? Am I crazy? Well, I listen to Britney sometimes. I must be, but at least I'm a happy crazy while I'm writing after all that procrastination. *smile*
So we at the Literary Lab have this thing coming up called an anthology. We are offering CASH prizes to three winners. Also, me and Davin and Scott will be including our own short stories in the anthology. No, we don't get a shot at the cash. We just want to play.
I have yet to write my story, but I'm gearing up to it and I wanted to talk about how procrastination gets my creativity going. Isn't that odd? It does! Because as I've been procrastinating this short story, my subconscious has been working hard on some ideas. I hope when I sit down to write the story, it just flows out. That usually happens when I procrastinate enough. Does this happen to you at all? Am I crazy? Well, I listen to Britney sometimes. I must be, but at least I'm a happy crazy while I'm writing after all that procrastination. *smile*
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Abandoning The No-Plan Plan
I have been working on a new novel for a couple of months now, and I've been attempting to write it without an outline, without any idea of where the story or the characters go. The idea is to discover all of this as I go along. It's an experiment in creativity, wherein I attempt to mimic the techniques of our own Davin Malasarn in the hopes that I'll stumble across the sort of surprising narrative turns that he has in his stories.
I really really (really) am hating it. In fact, I hate it so much that whenever I think about working on the story I get angry. I have no idea what it is so I have no idea what to do with it. In the last week or so, I have managed to write one sentence and it's not a particularly good sentence, either. I look at my notebook and my stack of reference materials and I think about all the other books I could be writing instead, the books where I have outlines and knowledge of the plot and the purpose of the characters. The books that I would enjoy writing.
Because I really really (really) am not enjoying the work on this current project. Yes, some of the bits are the best passages I've written, but I put that down to my having grown as a writer, not to my having no idea what I'm doing on the page. I don't see myself ever getting a finished novel-length draft out of this book, not writing it the way I am. There is nothing compelling me to move forward with the writing because I'm not going anywhere. I am not one of those people who can just go on a wander to see what I'll see; when I go for a walk, I like to know what the destination is and how long the walk will take and where I'll have a pint at the end of the walk. This wandering around through my manuscript is making me terribly nervy and that nervy quality is finding its way onto the page and I don't like that, either.
To make a long story short, I have decided that my plan to write this one without a plan is a bad sort of planless plan. I throw up my hands. I throw in the towel. I throw off the shackles of this prisonless prison, et cetera. Today I'm going to figure out what the hell the story is and what happens when my two main characters meet and how the book ends and why all of it takes place. So there. Otherwise I'm going to throw what I have of this book into the fireplace. Grrr. Argh.
Also, Happy New Year!
I really really (really) am hating it. In fact, I hate it so much that whenever I think about working on the story I get angry. I have no idea what it is so I have no idea what to do with it. In the last week or so, I have managed to write one sentence and it's not a particularly good sentence, either. I look at my notebook and my stack of reference materials and I think about all the other books I could be writing instead, the books where I have outlines and knowledge of the plot and the purpose of the characters. The books that I would enjoy writing.
Because I really really (really) am not enjoying the work on this current project. Yes, some of the bits are the best passages I've written, but I put that down to my having grown as a writer, not to my having no idea what I'm doing on the page. I don't see myself ever getting a finished novel-length draft out of this book, not writing it the way I am. There is nothing compelling me to move forward with the writing because I'm not going anywhere. I am not one of those people who can just go on a wander to see what I'll see; when I go for a walk, I like to know what the destination is and how long the walk will take and where I'll have a pint at the end of the walk. This wandering around through my manuscript is making me terribly nervy and that nervy quality is finding its way onto the page and I don't like that, either.
To make a long story short, I have decided that my plan to write this one without a plan is a bad sort of planless plan. I throw up my hands. I throw in the towel. I throw off the shackles of this prisonless prison, et cetera. Today I'm going to figure out what the hell the story is and what happens when my two main characters meet and how the book ends and why all of it takes place. So there. Otherwise I'm going to throw what I have of this book into the fireplace. Grrr. Argh.
Also, Happy New Year!
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