Back in December I started a new project. I started writing guides on writing. I wanted to put in writing all the things I have learned over the years and make it clear for me and for others. I wanted to present practical, experience based advice on how to write a book or any other kind of fiction.
Writing is hard but anybody can do it if they take the time to learn.
I've written some more writing guides since then, aimed at the pre-writing work you should do. They are available on my deviantArt but I've also put them together as a project on figment. You can follow them here:
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
The Most Important Lesson
I like teachers. Teachers are cool. I have a lot of respect for teachers and the teachers I've had, especially the good ones, are the people I generally remember the most fondly.
I had a lot of teachers, growing up. Some bad, some good. Some were excellent and they had a huge impact on me. I'm thinking of one in particular.
But I do wish that somewhere along the line, one of them had said to me...
"Hey, you ever notice just how amazing EVERYTHING is? All this stuff we're trying to teach you is just to help you fully comprehend how absolutely awe inspiring both the universe and human condition is. Just the chance to be alive, even once, and get a chance at seeing a fraction of all there is to see is a huge pleasure and you'll be able to appreciate that, the more you know about, well, anything.
"This knowledge isn't just so you can get a job when you graduate, work for sixty years, retire and die. Education is so you can look at everything that's around you and understand the context of existence and be constantly mind-blown by what has happened to bring the world to this point, what is happening now to propel the world to places we can scarcely even imagine. And also by the trillions of little social, mathematical and scientific principles that are at work just to sustain a universe and a planet and a people that is here for seemingly no other reason than it can be.
"That is why you should pay attention and that is why everything - EVERYTHING - we go over in class is important and will be applicable to your life no matter who you are, where you live or what you do."
Actually, I don't mind if it was a teacher but SOMEBODY should be saying this to our children early and often
I had a lot of teachers, growing up. Some bad, some good. Some were excellent and they had a huge impact on me. I'm thinking of one in particular.
But I do wish that somewhere along the line, one of them had said to me...
"Hey, you ever notice just how amazing EVERYTHING is? All this stuff we're trying to teach you is just to help you fully comprehend how absolutely awe inspiring both the universe and human condition is. Just the chance to be alive, even once, and get a chance at seeing a fraction of all there is to see is a huge pleasure and you'll be able to appreciate that, the more you know about, well, anything.
"This knowledge isn't just so you can get a job when you graduate, work for sixty years, retire and die. Education is so you can look at everything that's around you and understand the context of existence and be constantly mind-blown by what has happened to bring the world to this point, what is happening now to propel the world to places we can scarcely even imagine. And also by the trillions of little social, mathematical and scientific principles that are at work just to sustain a universe and a planet and a people that is here for seemingly no other reason than it can be.
"That is why you should pay attention and that is why everything - EVERYTHING - we go over in class is important and will be applicable to your life no matter who you are, where you live or what you do."
Actually, I don't mind if it was a teacher but SOMEBODY should be saying this to our children early and often
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Belated New Years
Happy new calendar, everybody!
I'm still working hard on my next novel. It's at 42,000 words at the moment but I'm taking a break to say hi and check how things are going for all of you.
Sorceress' Blood, by the by, was 50,000 words. That's short for a novel. My current novel is nowhere near it's climax so that's kind of exciting for me. I'm probably 1/2 to 2/3 of the way done on the first draft. I really hope I can get it all out by early February.
So how's things? Looking forward to 2013 and all it has to offer? I know I am. This is going to be a very good year for me. How do I know? Because I've already decided it will be.
I don't usually go in for new years resolutions. I think every time of year is the right time to be resolute and make changes and commit to new plans. As it happens, though, the new year coincides with the resolutions I would have made, regardless so I'm calling them my new year's resolutions! Yay!
So, here's what I'm planning for 2013:
Write more, talk less. It is so easy to get distracted for anybody who is passionate about something. You just want to talk and talk and talk about what you love. But sometimes I find I am spending all my time talking about writing that I stop writing. So I need to shift that ratio around a little bit. I'm not abandoning dA or the forums and I'm still going to work on my series of writing guides but I just plan to spend more time actually writing.
Finish two novels. I've set my goal to be two completed novels by the end of this year. That's a huge leap from doing one novel in three years but I think I can do it. Hell, I'm half way done on the first one! Okay, so I started that before this year begun but I'm still counting it. When I say finished I mean written, edited and ready to publish. The second novel I plan for this year is in the planning stages but I already know what it will be. That makes it easier and gives me reason to be confident.
Stay optimistic and don't forget to be awesome The saying "Don't forget to be awesome" is the catch phrase of John and Hank Green - internet personalities I stumbled across this year and am immensely impressed by. It's not only their work that impresses me but their unstoppable commitment to being positive and optimistic and wanting the world to be more amazing. I think creative people are prone to being insecure (or maybe insecure people are prone to being creative) and the only cure for that is positivity. External affirmations are all well and good but the best kind of optimism is the kind you breed in yourself.
Those are my commitments from here on out. And you know, if I can do them then so can you! I'd like to see all my fellow writers striving towards a positive attitude, further dedication to their craft and the completion of a couple of big projects in 2013.
All the best, my brothers and sisters and don't forget to be awesome
I'm still working hard on my next novel. It's at 42,000 words at the moment but I'm taking a break to say hi and check how things are going for all of you.
Sorceress' Blood, by the by, was 50,000 words. That's short for a novel. My current novel is nowhere near it's climax so that's kind of exciting for me. I'm probably 1/2 to 2/3 of the way done on the first draft. I really hope I can get it all out by early February.
So how's things? Looking forward to 2013 and all it has to offer? I know I am. This is going to be a very good year for me. How do I know? Because I've already decided it will be.
I don't usually go in for new years resolutions. I think every time of year is the right time to be resolute and make changes and commit to new plans. As it happens, though, the new year coincides with the resolutions I would have made, regardless so I'm calling them my new year's resolutions! Yay!
So, here's what I'm planning for 2013:
Write more, talk less. It is so easy to get distracted for anybody who is passionate about something. You just want to talk and talk and talk about what you love. But sometimes I find I am spending all my time talking about writing that I stop writing. So I need to shift that ratio around a little bit. I'm not abandoning dA or the forums and I'm still going to work on my series of writing guides but I just plan to spend more time actually writing.
Finish two novels. I've set my goal to be two completed novels by the end of this year. That's a huge leap from doing one novel in three years but I think I can do it. Hell, I'm half way done on the first one! Okay, so I started that before this year begun but I'm still counting it. When I say finished I mean written, edited and ready to publish. The second novel I plan for this year is in the planning stages but I already know what it will be. That makes it easier and gives me reason to be confident.
Stay optimistic and don't forget to be awesome The saying "Don't forget to be awesome" is the catch phrase of John and Hank Green - internet personalities I stumbled across this year and am immensely impressed by. It's not only their work that impresses me but their unstoppable commitment to being positive and optimistic and wanting the world to be more amazing. I think creative people are prone to being insecure (or maybe insecure people are prone to being creative) and the only cure for that is positivity. External affirmations are all well and good but the best kind of optimism is the kind you breed in yourself.
Those are my commitments from here on out. And you know, if I can do them then so can you! I'd like to see all my fellow writers striving towards a positive attitude, further dedication to their craft and the completion of a couple of big projects in 2013.
All the best, my brothers and sisters and don't forget to be awesome
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Christmas Give Away
For the next week, Sorceress' Blood is FREE on the Amazon Kindle store. You get it free and keep it forever. Consider it a Christmas present from me to you. Just click below...
Merry Christmas
Thursday, December 20, 2012
A New Lesson
For everyone who is interested in the writing process and some ideas on getting better, there is a new Lesson In Being Better. This one is on developing concepts.
A Lesson In Being Better: What If...
A Lesson In Being Better: What If...
Saturday, December 15, 2012
The Breadth of Human Experience
I live in a city with a beach. At the end of the week I will be going to another city that also has a beach. The majority of Australians live near the coast. The further towards the middle of Australia you go, the less fun it is to live there. So a lot of Australia's population is based in large coastal cities. When I was younger I lived in a city that did not have a beach but the beach was not far away because I was in Tasmania and nothing is far away in Tasmania.
I don't like the beach very much but I often take for granted the fact that it is right there and always has been. Meanwhile there are people living in in the US - a country only a little bigger than Australia - who not only live in a city with no beach but to go to the beach they need to travel interstate. Some of them can't go to the beach without going through many states.
Austria is a country with no beaches. For everybody living in Austria, a trip to the ocean means travelling i
I don't like the beach very much but I often take for granted the fact that it is right there and always has been. Meanwhile there are people living in in the US - a country only a little bigger than Australia - who not only live in a city with no beach but to go to the beach they need to travel interstate. Some of them can't go to the beach without going through many states.
Austria is a country with no beaches. For everybody living in Austria, a trip to the ocean means travelling i
nternationally. But for people in Austria an international trip also means a car ride. There are no international road trips in Australia unless your car is a boat and the road is the ocean in which case you need to start reading the dictionary more often.
It's easy to forget just how monumentally enormous the breadth of human experience is and the things that are around us every day, even little things like the coast line, that seem like a constant might be totally alien to somebody else. In fact, what we call normal is certainly very alien to a lot of somebodies.
I hope, one day, I get to live in a city where going to the beach is a lot of travel and effort so I can increase my understanding of what the human experience might be and not just what I think it is.
It's easy to forget just how monumentally enormous the breadth of human experience is and the things that are around us every day, even little things like the coast line, that seem like a constant might be totally alien to somebody else. In fact, what we call normal is certainly very alien to a lot of somebodies.
I hope, one day, I get to live in a city where going to the beach is a lot of travel and effort so I can increase my understanding of what the human experience might be and not just what I think it is.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Lies, all of it, lies!
People are always saying "If you want to write, you have to read a lot." This comment usually is followed by "If you don't read a lot, then you can't be a writer." Augh.
I hate statements like these.
But are they true? Is it a requirement of being a writer that you have to read a lot, all the time and never stop and do no more? Well, let me assure you, that the answer to that question is an resounding and undeniable... Kind of. I suppose. Sorta. Well it depends.
As you've probably come to expect if you've been paying attention since... Well, since you started to have a conscious stream of thought, things are very rarely universally true or solely on one side of an issue. You've all head this before: The world is not black and white but many shades of grey. Well that's true and the more you scrutinize that statement, the more you will see that its truth applies even to itself. Think about it... Later. We're on this topic now.
So let's assume you're a writer, and I just naturally assume you are because half of everybody I ever meet is a "writer" of some sort. What are you trying to write? Probably a novel. Everybody wants to write novels. It's the go-to form of writing for writers the world over. Well, I suggest you learn from the best and read novels. But not just any novel will do, I'm afraid. After all, what is there to be learned from bad writing? Well I guess one lesson to take from bad writing is "DON'T DO IT!" and that can be a valuable lesson. But this is tricky because good and bad are subjective. So let me clarify just what I mean by good and bad:
The lessons that you will best learn from reading novels, as an aspiring novelist, will come from reading the kinds of novels that you want to write. If you want to write in first person, read books that are written in first person. Should you sights be set on writing period romance, then read period romance. If you want to write children's humour novelettes then that is what you should read. BUT it gets MORE specific than that. Everybody writes a certain way and you will find that other people write in a way strikingly similar to how you write. Find who it's working well for and read that. Be very discerning in what you read and what lessons you take. So good books, for you as a writer, are helpful books and the most helpful books are good books.
(Also, note, that there are some things you just shouldn't do as a writer. A lot of these you will learn for yourself the more you write second drafts. Other writing mistakes generally accepted to be bad are TYPING DIALOGUE IN ALL CAPS using... ellipses... Too often and having too many exclamation points at the end of your sentence!!!!!! Also, really, using the word really (I mean really!!!!!) too much is really bad. And ending a sentence with the phrase "Or something like that" is a no no.)
But what if you don't want to write novels? Should you still read novels? Well, you probably think you know the answer to that and the answer is yes.
BAM!
Blew your mind, right? Watch me do it again.
People who want to write novels should watch a lot of movies.
BAM!
Now you don't know what the angle is, do you? You see, this is where I take the biggest issue with this lie (Half lie) about writing. There's this subtext of the novel as being the last bastion of high art in fiction and good writing can only be learned from written literature. The truth is, fiction is fiction is fiction is fiction. If you want to learn, then there are a lot of places to learn. Whether or not you're writing screen plays, stage shows, comic books, novels, basically anything that forms a narrative, then you can learn a lot from how people form narratives across a whole range of mediums. The people who wrote Magnum Force know their fair share of telling a story, building characters, creating drama and EVERYTHING that you need to know as a writer. The best thing is, they put it all there on the screen for you to review and learn from. You'll learn a whole lot more from Magnum Force if you want to write for cinema and even more if you want to write crime drama and action films, but regardless, there's still a lesson to great deal for you to learn from watching a movie. If you want to learn then you WILL learn. Even if you're not writing for cinema, not writing action and not writing crime drama you should still watch Magnum Force because other than being a good movie, it's an excellent example of how you build tension by raising the stakes. That's important just about every kind of fiction. So you see there's a lot to learn from watching films.
Or going to the theatre. Or reading a comic book. Or even (yes I'm serious) playing a video game. If somebody is telling you a story, then it is in your best interest to listen and learn from them.
On the path that you are carving to become the writer you want to be, it is in your best interest to explore, open doors and study everything available to you. Different forms of story telling will teach you different lessons that you need to know and the more that you absorb, the more you are going to learn. The key is to do everything thoughtfully and to actually stop and consider what is in front of you. So read lots of books, watch lots of movies, enjoy a whole range of fiction and media and learn from it. This is the choice you made when you sat down and said "I am going to be a writer." The rest of your life is one big text analysis assignment and it's due in with every book you write. So you'd better hope you pass.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
I hate statements like these.
But are they true? Is it a requirement of being a writer that you have to read a lot, all the time and never stop and do no more? Well, let me assure you, that the answer to that question is an resounding and undeniable... Kind of. I suppose. Sorta. Well it depends.
As you've probably come to expect if you've been paying attention since... Well, since you started to have a conscious stream of thought, things are very rarely universally true or solely on one side of an issue. You've all head this before: The world is not black and white but many shades of grey. Well that's true and the more you scrutinize that statement, the more you will see that its truth applies even to itself. Think about it... Later. We're on this topic now.
So let's assume you're a writer, and I just naturally assume you are because half of everybody I ever meet is a "writer" of some sort. What are you trying to write? Probably a novel. Everybody wants to write novels. It's the go-to form of writing for writers the world over. Well, I suggest you learn from the best and read novels. But not just any novel will do, I'm afraid. After all, what is there to be learned from bad writing? Well I guess one lesson to take from bad writing is "DON'T DO IT!" and that can be a valuable lesson. But this is tricky because good and bad are subjective. So let me clarify just what I mean by good and bad:
The lessons that you will best learn from reading novels, as an aspiring novelist, will come from reading the kinds of novels that you want to write. If you want to write in first person, read books that are written in first person. Should you sights be set on writing period romance, then read period romance. If you want to write children's humour novelettes then that is what you should read. BUT it gets MORE specific than that. Everybody writes a certain way and you will find that other people write in a way strikingly similar to how you write. Find who it's working well for and read that. Be very discerning in what you read and what lessons you take. So good books, for you as a writer, are helpful books and the most helpful books are good books.
(Also, note, that there are some things you just shouldn't do as a writer. A lot of these you will learn for yourself the more you write second drafts. Other writing mistakes generally accepted to be bad are TYPING DIALOGUE IN ALL CAPS using... ellipses... Too often and having too many exclamation points at the end of your sentence!!!!!! Also, really, using the word really (I mean really!!!!!) too much is really bad. And ending a sentence with the phrase "Or something like that" is a no no.)
But what if you don't want to write novels? Should you still read novels? Well, you probably think you know the answer to that and the answer is yes.
BAM!
Blew your mind, right? Watch me do it again.
People who want to write novels should watch a lot of movies.
BAM!
Now you don't know what the angle is, do you? You see, this is where I take the biggest issue with this lie (Half lie) about writing. There's this subtext of the novel as being the last bastion of high art in fiction and good writing can only be learned from written literature. The truth is, fiction is fiction is fiction is fiction. If you want to learn, then there are a lot of places to learn. Whether or not you're writing screen plays, stage shows, comic books, novels, basically anything that forms a narrative, then you can learn a lot from how people form narratives across a whole range of mediums. The people who wrote Magnum Force know their fair share of telling a story, building characters, creating drama and EVERYTHING that you need to know as a writer. The best thing is, they put it all there on the screen for you to review and learn from. You'll learn a whole lot more from Magnum Force if you want to write for cinema and even more if you want to write crime drama and action films, but regardless, there's still a lesson to great deal for you to learn from watching a movie. If you want to learn then you WILL learn. Even if you're not writing for cinema, not writing action and not writing crime drama you should still watch Magnum Force because other than being a good movie, it's an excellent example of how you build tension by raising the stakes. That's important just about every kind of fiction. So you see there's a lot to learn from watching films.
Or going to the theatre. Or reading a comic book. Or even (yes I'm serious) playing a video game. If somebody is telling you a story, then it is in your best interest to listen and learn from them.
On the path that you are carving to become the writer you want to be, it is in your best interest to explore, open doors and study everything available to you. Different forms of story telling will teach you different lessons that you need to know and the more that you absorb, the more you are going to learn. The key is to do everything thoughtfully and to actually stop and consider what is in front of you. So read lots of books, watch lots of movies, enjoy a whole range of fiction and media and learn from it. This is the choice you made when you sat down and said "I am going to be a writer." The rest of your life is one big text analysis assignment and it's due in with every book you write. So you'd better hope you pass.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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