Lazy. But not really.

I haven't updated this blog in a while, but I've had some good reasons. Well, maybe not good reasons, but they were reasons. I have been writing constantly, both for myself and for my clients, struggling to meet deadlines. You know, the usual work stuff.

But I've had a lot of excitement. For NaNo, I made a serious effort and finishing my first novel. I made a lot of headway: 40,800 words. About 2/3 of a complete manuscript. But maybe 10K of those words were forced and the story didn't flow right to me. With a week left in November, I gave up on it. It was a cool concept; a mafia/fantasy thriller with a few really unique twists. I like the overall concept a lot, and might use it in the future, but for now it isn't working.

That leads me to my December project. I started outlining a short story at the beginning of the month. Then I realized that this was a really complex suspense novel that I could easily stretch into 20k words. It wasn't going to be a short story, then. It was a novella. But the more I wrote of it, the more I realized that it wasn't a novella, either. I cannibalized a few fragmented ideas and stories I had written, including the main plot of my Annuity novel, and threw them all together. I have a full blown novel on my hands now, I figure this out about 4 days ago and I already have 1/4 of a novel down on paper.

So have I been lazy when it comes to blogging? For sure. But that's about it. I'm really happy with this story and if I keep working at this pace, I will have a completed first draft in a few weeks. Pretty exciting.

I've never actually completed a whole novel. Right after college, I attempted an epic fantasy, and I got it up to about 45k words. It was a good story, actually, but it wasn't a good novel, if that makes sense. It had an exciting plot, but the characters were lifeless and the main character was so unlikable by the end of the book that it disgusted me. There's some stuff in it that I've included in the graphic novel I'm working on, but that story is long gone. It was good  practice, but it wasn't good, if that makes sense.

I've rambled a bit here, but my point is this: writing something good requires a lot of time and a lot of false starts. I'm still working on it, but I'm getting better and learning every day. You can't expect to write a good novel on your first try. It's like training for a race. The only way you can become a better runner is by running. The only way you can become a better writer is by writing. Will you win your first race ever? Probably not. There's always a few freaks with the natural talent to excel on little training, but the vast majority of us need time to develop the skills to be successful.

Forced Products

I read an interesting forum post this morning that editors and agents tend to stay away from joint-produced graphic narratives as they are usually a forced and contrived final product. This makes sense, but I wonder how skewed this viewpoint actually is? I am a horrible artist, and when I did do the illustrations for my own stories, I felt that they were extremely contrived.

Now, I don't want to take away from what these professionals do, but in my opinion, a good graphic narrative, novel, etc. starts with a good story. The art, of course, should not take away from that story. But for many, the art can make or break the end product. If you have a good story with a good artist backing you up, how can the product not be good? The art needs to complement the story, of course, but a quality artist can do this without problems.

So this brings me back to my original point. Good artwork is definitely a necessity, but do these professionals mean that the "forced" final product an issue with poor art or poor storytelling? If anything, I would think that a good writer, if they are not an extremely talented artist, needs to outsource this position since their own poor renditions of the characters would take away from the final product. Whether this is "forced" or not, it is an important part of putting together the best product possible.

Contest

The only writing contest I have ever entered was for a chapbook of poetry I put together several years ago. I didn't hear anything from the people who organized the contest, so I assume that my chapbook did not win. But I came across a short story contest a few days ago that intrigued me. It's a science fiction/fantasy contest that must include an element of a new real-life scientific development. Without giving out too much information, I revolved my story around new information concerning the visualization of black holes. It took me only 2 days to write the rough draft; I have yet to begin editing.

You can find info on the contest here: I Like a Little Science in My Fiction

Writers are Not Alone

Writing is not a solitary act. True, it might begin as a need for one individual, but when you are done your finished product is cast out into the world. It is no longer yours to control. A piece of writing becomes open to interpretation; it is no longer in the original writer’s power to change the message that it portrays. Good writing will more closely mirror the author’s intent, but a story is only as good as the words behind it, and words are severely limited. 

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the legendary Lord of the Rings trilogy was a linguistics professor before he became a household name. His ability to use language to conjure up the images that he wanted to is perhaps one of the best examples of how language can be used to its most effective level. Mordor, for example, is a dark word; its similarity to the word “murder” cannot be taken as accidental. As you can see, mastery over words will give your readers an experience as closely correlated to the one intended as possible. 

But each individual will ultimately need to interpret a piece of writing for themselves. What Jung called arch-types will provide a basic framework of understanding, but the specifics come down to individual experiences. For example, a murder scene in a book will be widely viewed as a deviant act, but if a serial killer reads your work, he will necessarily have a different interpretation and visualization of the scene than someone whose family member was murdered in front of them will. These are extreme examples, of course, but the point is still the same: different people will see things differently. Your story no longer truly belongs to you once it is published—it becomes your readers’ and is completely open to their interpretations.