So I'm still alive. Nothing in real life has slowed down since my last post, and I've been completely absent from my digital life for weeks now. And I miss it.
But, I am about to embark on a holiday. Which is exciting. I don't travel often... in fact, I believe I've crossed the Canadian border twice in my entire life. Yup. I did the family trip to Disney World when I was in grade eight, and I drove into Minneapolis some time in high school to see a concert.
With that in mind, planning a ten-day trip through San Fran, L.A. and Vegas has been a bit of a whirlwind.
And while I am really, really excited to go, there is that part of me that's excited to get back, to settle into some kind of normalcy in my life again. By mid-November all the major trade shows are over, so life at the office is going to slow down, at least until January. I have two knitting projects to complete before Festivus, and other than that I can get back to... writing!
So this is it until I get back... see you in a couple weeks!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Real life.
Real life, it sure gets in the way of digital life, eh? I've been barely more than a ghost on here, fb, twitter, aw, and authonomy for the past couple weeks. First I was knocked over by the first cold of the season, then my mom came out west for a week-long visit here, and now I'm scrambling to get ready for Halloween, another season of teaching knit class, and my ten-day trip through California that starts in... 19 days! Ah!
Which also means I haven't had much time to write. Which sucks, because I hate putting down the first draft once I get rolling. Dang.
What I have been able to get done with this first draft in the past couple weeks is... interesting. I think I was on about chapter eight or nine, when I realized that I needed to make a major change to the characters. Essentially, I had two female characters that were so similar to each other (both happy little friends of the protagonist) that I knew I could condense them into one character to move the plot forward faster. Which seemed like a great idea, until I held the idea up to my character grid and saw that I would be left with only two female characters and about eight male characters. Bit of an imbalance that I wouldn't be happy with.
So I brainstormed another solution. I can cut one of the men (who I already had some issues with in terms of character development) and use one of those two females in his place. It changes her essential purpose completely, yet still leaves her character intact. Instead of being a happy little friend, she's now a happy little friend with a seriously evil ulterior motive. Which makes her way, way more interesting and solves my initial problem. I'm happy with the idea.
Good thing I can at least brainstorm while ill / visiting with mom.
Normally, I'd just push forward with the story from here and worry about reworking those characters in the first edit. This time I think I'll go back and change it (rough and dirty though the changes may be) before I continue. It's a pretty major change, and I'll feel better about moving on if I just fix it now.
So if I can find some time to get back to writing before California, that's what I'll do...
Which also means I haven't had much time to write. Which sucks, because I hate putting down the first draft once I get rolling. Dang.
What I have been able to get done with this first draft in the past couple weeks is... interesting. I think I was on about chapter eight or nine, when I realized that I needed to make a major change to the characters. Essentially, I had two female characters that were so similar to each other (both happy little friends of the protagonist) that I knew I could condense them into one character to move the plot forward faster. Which seemed like a great idea, until I held the idea up to my character grid and saw that I would be left with only two female characters and about eight male characters. Bit of an imbalance that I wouldn't be happy with.
So I brainstormed another solution. I can cut one of the men (who I already had some issues with in terms of character development) and use one of those two females in his place. It changes her essential purpose completely, yet still leaves her character intact. Instead of being a happy little friend, she's now a happy little friend with a seriously evil ulterior motive. Which makes her way, way more interesting and solves my initial problem. I'm happy with the idea.
Good thing I can at least brainstorm while ill / visiting with mom.
Normally, I'd just push forward with the story from here and worry about reworking those characters in the first edit. This time I think I'll go back and change it (rough and dirty though the changes may be) before I continue. It's a pretty major change, and I'll feel better about moving on if I just fix it now.
So if I can find some time to get back to writing before California, that's what I'll do...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Good Reads: Cast in Ruin
A good read is such an evil thing.
I took yesterday off work for two reasons: to clean my house and to write. House cleaning happened, which was good, because I started first thing in the morning. Then I stepped out onto the deck to run a quick errand and BAM! there was a book in my mailbox.
Michelle Sagara's CAST IN RUIN had finally arrived! So I devoured it. That was just barely afternoon, and I then proceeded to lose my entire afternoon and evening to reading. I'm not sure I put the book down once until I finished it, ten hours later.
But damn, it was worth it. If you haven't checked out the Cast series, do it now. The characters are beautiful, the humour frequently makes me laugh out loud (much to Husband's annoyance), and the fantasy world is so well developed it should serve as a lesson point for all little fantasy writers like myself.
If you're already well into the series, you'll love this one. Kailyn learns and grows magically (which usually happens) but this time around she also matures somewhat in terms of the men in her life, and has a bit of an epiphany in terms of growing up in general. And while this book answers a whole lotta questions about the Dragon Court and the Empire, it opens up a plethora of new mysteries. The egg? Bellusdeo? There wasn't enough Nightshade for my liking, but I'm sure we'll see plenty of him in the next installment, CAST IN PERIL, since they're heading to the West March—ostensibly together.
Because I read the thing so damn fast, I'm going to go back and re-read. Maybe at a sane person's pace. But once I've done the re-read... let the countdown to PERIL begin!!
I took yesterday off work for two reasons: to clean my house and to write. House cleaning happened, which was good, because I started first thing in the morning. Then I stepped out onto the deck to run a quick errand and BAM! there was a book in my mailbox.
Michelle Sagara's CAST IN RUIN had finally arrived! So I devoured it. That was just barely afternoon, and I then proceeded to lose my entire afternoon and evening to reading. I'm not sure I put the book down once until I finished it, ten hours later.
But damn, it was worth it. If you haven't checked out the Cast series, do it now. The characters are beautiful, the humour frequently makes me laugh out loud (much to Husband's annoyance), and the fantasy world is so well developed it should serve as a lesson point for all little fantasy writers like myself.
If you're already well into the series, you'll love this one. Kailyn learns and grows magically (which usually happens) but this time around she also matures somewhat in terms of the men in her life, and has a bit of an epiphany in terms of growing up in general. And while this book answers a whole lotta questions about the Dragon Court and the Empire, it opens up a plethora of new mysteries. The egg? Bellusdeo? There wasn't enough Nightshade for my liking, but I'm sure we'll see plenty of him in the next installment, CAST IN PERIL, since they're heading to the West March—ostensibly together.
Because I read the thing so damn fast, I'm going to go back and re-read. Maybe at a sane person's pace. But once I've done the re-read... let the countdown to PERIL begin!!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Good Morning
Morning again, my favourite time of day. Yesterday we had a wildly beautiful sunrise, which I snapped a couple crappy photos of on my way into the office. Here:
So that was yesterday. Another dawn, another day. Today I've got to run around Calgary, errands, errands, and more errands. In fact, "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."
You do know where that quote is from, right? Right?!?!
I'm probably not going to get any writing in until later this evening, because it's supposed to be something like 29°C today, and I refuse to coop myself inside during the very last of the summer weather. It's just wrong.
Maybe I'll bring my Air outside and write...? We'll see.
So that was yesterday. Another dawn, another day. Today I've got to run around Calgary, errands, errands, and more errands. In fact, "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."
You do know where that quote is from, right? Right?!?!
I'm probably not going to get any writing in until later this evening, because it's supposed to be something like 29°C today, and I refuse to coop myself inside during the very last of the summer weather. It's just wrong.
Maybe I'll bring my Air outside and write...? We'll see.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Growth: Why I hope writing is like designing
Last post I talked about character development, and then I disappeared for a few days. Because I was busy busy developing characters ;)
Now I've got a full cast of well-rounded, multi-dimensional characters to work with, a solid 25K outline that covers everything right up to climax of the story, and I'm ready to start writing!
This is, of course, the best part of the project. And this time, I'm facing the challenge of a main character who interacts with—but doesn't speak to—any of the other characters until a third of the way through the story. Yes, challenge indeed.
Speaking of challenges, I'm also in the midst of learning how to critique others work. I'm beta'ing novels from two different writers and I've already found that it's a very different thing from critiquing my own work. Another interesting thing that's come up, is when one of the writers was worried I'd be offended by her comments. I assured her that I wouldn't be, but it led me into some further connections between my day job as a designer and my evenings and weekends as a writer.
I've mentioned here and elsewhere some of the similarities between the two. There is another aspect of writing that feels like design (and probably like many other jobs, but hey, this is my experience): Growth.
I went to college to study graphic design. My profs taught me the how-to and the rules of design, and then sent me off to give it a go. I laid out my ideas, thought they were amazing, only to have the Profs turn around and tear them apart. They showed me -- either gently or ruthlessly -- what I was doing wrong. Sometimes the feedback was bad enough to nearly put me in tears.
So I tried again.
For three years.
By the time I received my diploma I could hardly bear to look at the work I'd done in my first year--it was so hideous! I'd come a long way since then, and I never would have if I didn't have my professors and colleagues ripping my ideas and my work to pieces.
Then I went out into the Real World. I picked up a job in Calgary almost immediately after I finished school, designing trade show booths. That was four years ago. When I compare my early days there, to the work I do now, so much has changed. I've really learned to separate my ideas from myself—when someone hates my work, it's the idea they hate, not me. Thick skin, that was a big change. Also:
I'm faster. A job that would have taken 8 hours of design four years ago now takes me 2 or 3.
I'm better. I used to have to work through five or six different concepts with clients, making radical changes, before I got what they wanted. Now the design is usually signed off in two or three proofs, covering only minor revisions.
I'm smarter. Four years ago I struggled to see the problems in my own designs, what I could do or change to make the client happy. Now if a client comes back to me feeling unsure about how something works in the layout I can see immediately what I need to change to fix it.
What I'm saying with all this rambling is that I hope, when everything is said and done, that my writing evolves the same way my design has. I spend a lot of time writing, and I think what I write is good. Now I'm having beta readers tear it apart, and that can only be a good thing. I hope I learn a lot from seeing my work from their viewpoints. And I hope in a few years I'll be able to look back on my early writing and cringe.
I hope that, with time and effort, I'll be a faster, better, and smarter writer.
Has that happened for you? Or are you like me, looking ahead and just hoping?
Now I've got a full cast of well-rounded, multi-dimensional characters to work with, a solid 25K outline that covers everything right up to climax of the story, and I'm ready to start writing!
This is, of course, the best part of the project. And this time, I'm facing the challenge of a main character who interacts with—but doesn't speak to—any of the other characters until a third of the way through the story. Yes, challenge indeed.
Speaking of challenges, I'm also in the midst of learning how to critique others work. I'm beta'ing novels from two different writers and I've already found that it's a very different thing from critiquing my own work. Another interesting thing that's come up, is when one of the writers was worried I'd be offended by her comments. I assured her that I wouldn't be, but it led me into some further connections between my day job as a designer and my evenings and weekends as a writer.
I've mentioned here and elsewhere some of the similarities between the two. There is another aspect of writing that feels like design (and probably like many other jobs, but hey, this is my experience): Growth.
I went to college to study graphic design. My profs taught me the how-to and the rules of design, and then sent me off to give it a go. I laid out my ideas, thought they were amazing, only to have the Profs turn around and tear them apart. They showed me -- either gently or ruthlessly -- what I was doing wrong. Sometimes the feedback was bad enough to nearly put me in tears.
So I tried again.
For three years.
By the time I received my diploma I could hardly bear to look at the work I'd done in my first year--it was so hideous! I'd come a long way since then, and I never would have if I didn't have my professors and colleagues ripping my ideas and my work to pieces.
Then I went out into the Real World. I picked up a job in Calgary almost immediately after I finished school, designing trade show booths. That was four years ago. When I compare my early days there, to the work I do now, so much has changed. I've really learned to separate my ideas from myself—when someone hates my work, it's the idea they hate, not me. Thick skin, that was a big change. Also:
I'm faster. A job that would have taken 8 hours of design four years ago now takes me 2 or 3.
I'm better. I used to have to work through five or six different concepts with clients, making radical changes, before I got what they wanted. Now the design is usually signed off in two or three proofs, covering only minor revisions.
I'm smarter. Four years ago I struggled to see the problems in my own designs, what I could do or change to make the client happy. Now if a client comes back to me feeling unsure about how something works in the layout I can see immediately what I need to change to fix it.
What I'm saying with all this rambling is that I hope, when everything is said and done, that my writing evolves the same way my design has. I spend a lot of time writing, and I think what I write is good. Now I'm having beta readers tear it apart, and that can only be a good thing. I hope I learn a lot from seeing my work from their viewpoints. And I hope in a few years I'll be able to look back on my early writing and cringe.
I hope that, with time and effort, I'll be a faster, better, and smarter writer.
Has that happened for you? Or are you like me, looking ahead and just hoping?
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Characters are people too.
I really, really love character development. I've written a solid outline (sitting at 22K words, still needs a bit of tweaking) and now I've moved on to some world-building and character development. For me, this works best because I know how the story goes, I know who does what and why, and I'm starting to have a good feel for what these people—characters—are really like.
But it's not quite a complete picture. Not yet.
To really flesh out my characters I use photos and character sketches. I try to cram as much detail into those sketches as possible: nicknames, meanings, relationships, dates, physical descriptions, strengths, weaknesses, internal and external conflicts, history, special abilities, distinguishing marks and personal items, habits, likes, dislikes, etc. I usually pull a photo off the web of someone who looks similar and use Photoshop to make a few quick and dirty changes to the appearance, where it doesn't mesh with what I have in mind for that character.
***fyi, the Mac program Scrivener is AWESOME for this kind of stuff. Go download the free trial right now. I'm not kidding.***
I like to start with a character's history. In life, I always find that the best way to understand a person is to understand their history, their background, where they come from. It can tell you so much about why they do what they do, or think the way they think. Once I have a history in place, other details fall in line. A unique twitch, habit or scar resulting from something in their past. A personal trinket or token they carry around from someone or some time in their life story. What drives him or her? What secrets is he or she keeping?
At the end of the day, I've got more than a name paired with a personality. I've got a person.
Because characters are people too!
But it's not quite a complete picture. Not yet.
To really flesh out my characters I use photos and character sketches. I try to cram as much detail into those sketches as possible: nicknames, meanings, relationships, dates, physical descriptions, strengths, weaknesses, internal and external conflicts, history, special abilities, distinguishing marks and personal items, habits, likes, dislikes, etc. I usually pull a photo off the web of someone who looks similar and use Photoshop to make a few quick and dirty changes to the appearance, where it doesn't mesh with what I have in mind for that character.
***fyi, the Mac program Scrivener is AWESOME for this kind of stuff. Go download the free trial right now. I'm not kidding.***
I like to start with a character's history. In life, I always find that the best way to understand a person is to understand their history, their background, where they come from. It can tell you so much about why they do what they do, or think the way they think. Once I have a history in place, other details fall in line. A unique twitch, habit or scar resulting from something in their past. A personal trinket or token they carry around from someone or some time in their life story. What drives him or her? What secrets is he or she keeping?
At the end of the day, I've got more than a name paired with a personality. I've got a person.
Because characters are people too!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Tuesday Tunes
Today's tune is Heads Will Roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! It keeps finding its way onto my one-song repeat... and the video is pretty cool. Love the end!
I'm completely new to this band, but so far I love what I hear. A little bird told me that Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross were getting together to do the soundtrack for the new Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This was pretty exciting news, because I loved their work on The Social Network soundtrack, I'm a huge Reznor fan, and because I really liked Larsson's Dragon Tattoo trilogy.
Then, that same little bird told me that one of the songs on the new soundtrack was going to be a compilation between Trent and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. At the time, I had no idea who these Yeah people were... but that was soon rectified. I think I must have heard Dull Life somewhere before, but they've got a handful of really awesome tracks to go along with it. I'm no music guru, so I'm not going to get technical here. Whatever it is, the energy in their songs just really hits me and the word count skyrockets. Which is always a good thing.
Great writing tunes... I especially love Dull Life, Maps, Date the Night, Gold Lion, and Y Control. Check them out!
I'm completely new to this band, but so far I love what I hear. A little bird told me that Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross were getting together to do the soundtrack for the new Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This was pretty exciting news, because I loved their work on The Social Network soundtrack, I'm a huge Reznor fan, and because I really liked Larsson's Dragon Tattoo trilogy.
Then, that same little bird told me that one of the songs on the new soundtrack was going to be a compilation between Trent and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. At the time, I had no idea who these Yeah people were... but that was soon rectified. I think I must have heard Dull Life somewhere before, but they've got a handful of really awesome tracks to go along with it. I'm no music guru, so I'm not going to get technical here. Whatever it is, the energy in their songs just really hits me and the word count skyrockets. Which is always a good thing.
Great writing tunes... I especially love Dull Life, Maps, Date the Night, Gold Lion, and Y Control. Check them out!
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