Saving

I had wanted to share one of my short stories on this blog but when I went to find it I realized that I hadn't saved the file, I had only printed it out. Though it's annoying since I'll have to re-type the entire thing I'm still glad that I have a copy of it. Back when I was younger I received a piece of advice and now I'll pass it on to anyone out there who is interested in the arts- SAVE EVERY THING YOU DO! It doesn't matter if you never get published, or if your art never gets shown, it's still a good idea to save all of your work in one place. Years ago I was very interested in drawling. Each day I would come home from school and I would draw characters from my stories in my notebook. I wanted to be a comic book artist. All of those notebooks are stashed in my closet now, from my first attempt to draw to my most recent. Though I no longer wish to make a profession of it I'm glad that I kept all of those things. It makes me happy to see how much I was able to progress in those few years.

The same principal is true for writing. Even if the piece sucks, or if it's not finished, or if you have no idea where you were heading in it, just save it somewhere. You have no idea when you might want to go back to those characters and ideas, or build on them. That, and it's a lot of fun going through old works. You get taken back to a time when you thought differently about things and, no matter how embarassing it is, it's nice to pay homage to your past self.

Writing for your audience

With any piece you're working on it's important to keep your audience in mind. Who exactly do you intend to read your work? Friends? A professor? Children? You must maintain a balance between staying true to what you wish to say and what your audience wants/ is expecting to read. For example, I recently was writing a review for a play that I had seen. This was a class assignment, and the professor to whom the review was to be given had directed the play in question. Now there were some major things wrong with the play that I noticed but I certainly was not going to be the one to say them- I value my grade. No matter what they say the messenger always gets shot, right? Still, I have an honest/ blunt streak in me that's very hard to ignore. So, using the prettiest, nicest phrases possible I praised the play for its brilliance and tossed in some subtle criticisms.  In conclusion, be careful of your word choice especially when there's the possibility of your writing back firing on you.

Due Preparations for the Plague

I read this book last year and recently came across it when I was cleaning off my book shelves. Aside from being a homage to Camus' "The Plague", "Due Prep" is a commentary on the interconnectedness of human beings and the brilliance that we can display in the most desperate of times. The book begins with the artistic and mysterious introduction of Lowell, one of "Due Prep's" many protagonists. He is bequeathed a duffel bag filled with confidential files and tapes after the death of his distant, ex-CIA agent father. The book goes on to follow Lowell as he discovers the horrifying truth of the what really happened to flight 38, the plane his mother was on prior to her death. After much backtracking and other character examinations "Due Prep" enters a section called the "Decameron" in which the reader learns the fate of several characters who were taken from the flight by a radical terrorist group. This section, though horrifying, is one of the most touching, well written pieces of literature I've had the privilege of reading. The characters- though faced with death- each sacrifice themselves in a way that they either buy more time for the others who are trapped, or inspire the others to not give up hope.

Though "Due Prep" is an amazingly well written book it is difficult to find and criticisms of it have been harsh due to the premise of terrorist antagonists and CIA cover ups. However, I would recommend this book to anyone who asked.

Day Dreaming

The other day I had a really neat moment. As I was driving to school I was thinking of my stories. Now, you may think this would be a bit dangerous but I assure you that, being the experienced day dreamer that I am, I was quite capable of paying attention to what was going on in my head and on the road. Anyway, as I was driving I had a really neat moment where the world in my head and the real world seemed to mesh together. I was driving around a bend and there were leaves falling towards me. They seemed to slow as I was getting closer to them and, almost, I could see them falling in the field that my characters were sitting in. I'm not sure what else to say about the moment other than that it was really neat haha...

Unexpected Inspiration

Inspiration for story ideas can really come from anywhere. It was over the Summer that I got the idea for the story I'm working on now and it was unexpected to say the least. Not to pull a Stephanie Meyer ( creator of Twilight, who I have little respect for), but I had an unusually vivid dream. There was a nation at war with unknown, unseen enemies. The creatures were so overwhelming that the nation was forced to ask for aide from a neighboring empire that had conquered all of the other nations around it. I've never been very good at describing my stories but, as I was having this dream, it was like a movie was playing. The themes of the story, the character relationships, and the overall tone were all played out (and consistent) to the end. Most surprisingly I remembered everything when I woke up and, with filling in some holes here and there, I had a book that just needed to be written. So, as long as you're willing to pay attention to it, inspiration can come from the oddest places.

Games that are Narrative Based

A while back I played a game called "Indigo Prophecy." The main story line gets a bit convoluted towards the middle, but the way in which the story line drives the game play is truly an interesting experience. The game begins with your character, Lucas, committing a murder. Lucas wasn't in control of his body at the time though, and when he is back in control he has a corpse at his knees and evidence to his involvement all around the scene. As Lucas, you must hide the evidence and then escape the scene. Then, after you've escapes as Lucas, you take control of the two cops who arrive at the scene and with them you must find all of the evidence that you hid as you were playing Lucas. The game progresses in this way until the end, making you play a game of cat and mouse with yourself while trying to uncover the truth of the murder.

Dialogue Trees in Video Games

In the last decade one of the greatest developments I've seen in video game writing is the use of dialogue trees. A dialogue tree allows the player to respond to a NPC (non-player character) in nearly any way they would want. For example, your character approaches an NPC who seems angry. Your character will have a number of ways to respond to said NPC, from politeness to violence, or in between. These dialogue trees are most commonly seen in American RPGs, role playing games, such as Fallout 3 and Knights of the Old Republic. What really makes these dialogue trees interesting is when the way your character acts actually influences how other NPCs react to you. This not only makes dialogue trees fun, but it also allows customization into your character's personality.   

NaNo Failure

So this year I failed my NaNo... I was only able to complete 1/5th of it, but I still feel that I accomplished something. It's been a long time (well, not THAT long) since I actually sat down with the sole purpose of writing a story. Since I switched stories halfway through I had very little planned for what I was writing (a very bad idea) but I still like how the characters turned out. Now that I've stepped back from it, I realize some of the personality descriptions I would tweak- who would be less forthcoming with their feelings, mostly- but I'm still very happy with it. During break I hope to set up a schedule to finish the story with. 

Revising What You've Written

When I find that I'm just not in the mood to work on adding to a story but still want to work on it I find that that is a good time to revise what you've already written. I start from the very beginning and work my way up to the last thing I have written (of course, in the case that the manuscript has surpassed 20,000 words this would be very time consuming so I suggest starting from where you began writing two days prior). When you're re-reading your work try to 'watch' your characters. If you can picture your writing as a scene right in front of you then chances are that your doing something right.

Also, it always helps to have your work read aloud. No matter how many times you read a sentence you can still miss a forgotten letter or misspelled word. With my last manuscript of 54,000 words I went online and downloaded a free text-to-voice reader. This allowed me to clean my room for a few hours as I listened to my book being read aloud by the electronic voice.

Competition

Is it bad to be motivated by competition? My cousin is also participating in NaNo this year. She's a few years older than myself and she's majoring in editing. If I had not found out that she was participating this year I might not have bothered to join at all and left the novel at the "I'll get to it" stage. I just wanted to finish NaNo before her so I got my butt together and started.

Currently I'm at 7,115 words. The NaNoWriMo page has a neat chart that displays all the stats for your project- how many words you have, how many you should write per day to reach the goal, how many words you're behind, and so on so forth. At this stage in the game it's recommended to be at 28,334, so I'm more than a little behind. Still, I just passed my cousin's word count and I couldn't help letting out a little "ha, ha!" as I did. Well, as long as I don't tell her that it's fine....

NaNo story picks

Sometimes, even if you really like an idea, if you can't get into you just can't get into it. It's never a good idea to force yourself to work on a story when you're not enthusiastic about it. In the end the reader can tell when your heart wasn't in something you wrote. So, for the first half of November I kept trying to work on a story but no matter what I did, no matter how any out lines I wrote I just couldn't get into it. Then, two days ago, I decided that I needed to pick a different idea to work on. Lo and behold, I've gotten to 3,000 words and I can't wait to keep working. Wish me luck!

Write-ins

Today I went to borders with my cousin Heather and our friend Josh. The intent was to sit in the cafe and participate in a mini write-in  since all three of us are participating in NaNoWriMo. For those who don't know, a write in is when a group of writers get together to, you guessed it, write. It wasn't entirely productive, but we still ended up having a lot of fun. We ended up taking over the children's section and giggling more than we actually typed. But at least I had people to brainstorm with. I asked what object could be used to describe olive-toned skin. Their answer? A Mediterranean bread loaf.... They were a really big help. Even if you barely keep any of the work you do while in a write-in it's still a lot of fun.

Characters in Video Games

Ah. THIS topic. If you see me walking down the street do not get me started on this. I'll go on and on about how the writing in video games has progressed over the years, citing examples from countless characters and story lines. Because I'm a little strapped for time right now, I'm going to keep this short.

The past few days I've been playing a game called "Deadly Premonition." Sounds cheery, right? Well I've played my fair share of the survival horror genre and from the moment I picked this up I knew it was an odd one. For starters it was a budget title, only $20 (compared to the usual $60) on the day of it's release. The low price could be chalked up to the abhorrent graphics but, even still, DP has turned out to be a brilliant game if only for the characters in it.

You take control of FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan. But just call him York. Everyone calls him that. Normally a survival horror game would start with some serious opening scene in which the main character gets trapped in a spooky alternate world. This does in fact happen to York, but he is trapped while making cryptic references to the Tom and Jerry show to an unknown person on the phone. Flash past some average game play against some creepy zombie-like things and you've brought York back to the normal world and to the forest town of Greenvale. But don't worry about it. His coffee warned him that morning so he was prepared.

Greenvale is where DP really shines. The inhabitants of Greenvale are just plain wacky. In a good way. From Thomas, the shy, biscuit-making assistant sheriff, to Wandering Segourny with her pot full of mysteries, the characters are never a bore to interact with. They always have something to say and, most often, it'll leave you laughing on the floor. The fact that the game developers were able to mix this humor into a survival horror title- and still manage to keep some creepiness in tact- signifies a well written game to me.

NaNoWriMo

This month is National Write a Novel Month. The goal is to motivate writers into starting a novel on the first of November and getting to 50,000 words before the end. I have an idea that I would like to try but I really need to focus! Whoever can actually complete the challenge will get a pin as a trophy. For reasons beyond my understanding I REALLY WANT THAT PIN. However, to get to that, it would help if I got started on page one...

Endings

Clearly the ending of a book/story is super important. When it comes down to it, the last words on the final page will give the reader their ultimate judgment of the story. I've read endings that were bland and chalky in flavor, endings that tried to put a crazy, unnecessary spin on things, and fluff endings that are nice in their own way but don't offer any actual substance. These three types are typical of the books I've read. The entire rest of the series before the end is usually good, (otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with it), but the end just ruins it for me. However, every once in a blue moon, an ending to a book ruins a series for me in an entirely different way. When an ending makes you upset, just for the simple fact that it is 'The End", you know you've truly fallen in love with a book.

For example, a few months ago I read the final 70 pages of the sixth and last "Adventures of Tiger and Del" series. The reason I put it like that is because I had actually read the other novels in the series two years before. It took me two whole years to work up the courage to just read that ending. I knew it was one of the best series I'd come across and that meant the ending had to be perfect. It's a older work, from the 80's if my memory serves me, so it's clear that there will be no other book relating to those two particular characters. After those 70 pages there would be no more Tiger, with his manly-man attitude, and no Del, with her forceful determination. But then- after I'd finally ripped that band aide off and finished the book- I sat back against my headboard and smiled. There was nothing else I could do. The ending was- in every way that I could have dreamed it- perfect. And though I'd never be able to follow on another adventure of theirs again I was content. 

Endings, to me, are the portion of the book that should be perfected most, over and over, throughout the entire writing process. The final sentence is the author's last chance to give the reader a glimpse into their world before they shut that door and bar it from view.

Creating a Character

When writing any story it's important to know your character. Even if half of the things you know about them never make it into the final draft, knowing all their little idiosyncrasies will make them come alive in your writing and in your reader's eyes. When you're first starting out it's good to ask yourself how would Character A respond in Situation A? Situation B? Visualize their expression when they look at everyday objects. What things hold significance for them? What do they like and dislike? When you get down to it, there's a heck of a lot that needs to be considered!

So, with that in mind, I'm going to try and make up a trait chart for a few of the main characters in my story. I'll separate it into "Likes" "Dislikes" and "Other". For example: Serica- other- She sings when she's nervous, she can't say something mean without feeling bad, and she scratches her head when she's lying.

Those are just some of the things I'm starting with, but I'd like to get at least 100 different traits to give to each of the main characters. If you have any interesting traits in mind feel free to leave them as a comment!

Cast in Courtlight

The other day I finished Cast in Courtlight, the second book in Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series.Again I was blown away by how expertly it functioned as a bridge to the preceding novels. Now, I'm not saying that Courtlight didn't have it's own engaging history and storyline, but it brought to light many of the themes and central ideas that the series has since focused on. In Cast in Silence the power of words is touched on but nothing more than that. Courtlight's entire plot, however, is centralized on the importance of words or, to be more specific, names themselves. To the Barrani, a race that inhabits Elantra along with humans, their true names are things of power and literally define who they are. To tell another person your name is to give away a piece of your very soul and, if they wished, the ability to control you. Kaylin's struggle throughout the novel is in completing the name of a dieing Barrani lord, and in discovering what her true name was.

I'm not quite sure why, but the Sagara's concept of a name really appeals to me. At any rate, I'm interested to see where Sagara will take the theme of words and power in her future novels. I want to reread the other four novels that follow Courtlight to see if I missed anything that might give away a hint or something!

Cast in Silence

     Back in 2006 I picked up a book called Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara. Thinking back four years ago I can't remember what originally drew me to the book, other than the neat name itself, but it certainly wasn't the bland cover. ( It's bad, I know, but usually a book's cover determines whether I'll bother to read the synopsis on the back). One of the things I do recall from back then is that I wasn't very impressed when reading the book. I didn't dislike it, but I think I felt a bit lost in all the information that had been thrown at me. Nevertheless, I became fond of the very colorful characters and picked up the second book of the series when it was published. Then the third. Then the fourth. And again with each passing year. ( The yearly publication schedule is one of the many things that makes me love the series and the author). I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line I really fell in love with Kaylin, the main character, and the city of Elantra.
     The sixth book of the series, Cast in Chaos was published this September and I devoured the book in a few days. It was brilliant, as expected, but I also found something else. I COULDN'T REMEMBER WHAT THE HELL SOME OF THE THINGS THAT WERE REFERENCED WERE. Naturally, I was bugged.  So I decided to go back and re-read the series again starting with Cast in Silence. I finished it today and- to put it simply- I was astounded. Knowing the characters and events from the later novels, I watched as Ms. Sagara placed the framework for them. A seemingly inconsequential phrase here, a brief character introduction there, all point to hints at important story arcs and developments in the later novels. It was also amazing to see Kaylin for the first time again, and to know just how much her character (and the others, for that matter) will grow.
     All in all, seeing just how carefully Ms. Sagara planned out her novels, it makes me realize just how much I have to grow as a writer. Lesson learned: Don't just sit at my laptop and write! Make a gosh darned framework first! If I get confused with my own character motivations how the heck are my readers going to feel? So it's back to the beginning for my book until I have a proper set up for it.

CNWC (current novel word count): 1,073

Introduction and First Thoughts

     Hello there! Just thought I'd start out with a general introduction of who I am and why my ramblings would be interesting to you (if at all!). Currently I am a freshman college student. My life pretty much revolves around reading, writing, and playing video games ( and family, friends, work etc.,). I've been trying for as long as I can remember to write a novel. It's the one thing in life that I know I have to do. Through all the ideas, all the random scraps of writing, so far the furthest I've gotten to my goal is 52,000 words of my most developed idea. And I've come to the realization that it needs to be scrapped. Well, not completely. The characters need more dimension, the writing needs to be more fluid, and, to be frank, I've just gotta pull my crap together.
    With that said, I'll be writing about the books I read (which are mostly in the Fantasy/ Scifi genre), the writing in the games I play, and my love/hate relationship with my novel. Enjoy!