So I'm done novel writing for the summer, between broken computers and lost jobs and all kinds of shit life has thrown at me I managed to write 145 pages rounding out the writing at the end of Chapter 8. I've been done for about a week now and I've been working on my webcomic project (lord knows I can never just exist or anything) and I've come to find that I actually miss writing the novel. Don't get me wrong I love Black Dogs (Webcomic in the making), but I feel like I've been trapped in a room with a sibling I didn't know I had all summer and now that we're free I kind of miss them.
Writing the novel hasn't been easy as stated in my previous posts, Ch 7 and 8 turned out to be pretty difficult but overall it's been a crazy love hate relationship. Sometimes I would go out of my way not to write, just to back off but I always went back, I almost stopped writing earlier, but I was drawn back, I feel like I loved the writing and hated it to. The process of writing it had become like a living thing, not just the story, but everything that came with writing it too, it's an interesting almost mystical experience.
Writing Black Dogs isn't very different, well it is since Black Dogs is a steampunk, fantasy, epic and Publicity Tour is a Crime Thriller, but conceptually they're pretty similar when it comes to actually writing it. Working with a decent sized cast of characters and working out the plot while dealing with character relationships and interactions and subplots and all that good stuff, pretty much the same thing you do writing any big story...and yet I still find myself missing Publicity Tour, and a little sad that it has to go on the shelf while I go back to school. I've had other fiction students suggest steeplechasing it, but honestly I think steeplechase would only hinder the process, at this point I know where the story is going, changing perspectives and first to third person and putting it in script form, that's only necessary when you don't know where a piece is going, I never have that problem so it's not that useful for me. Though if I'm lucky I'll be able to do some writing on it in fiction seminar, who knows.
Either way, Publicity Tour is probably going to be on the shelf for the semester, and my blog title is going to become a lie because I'm going to blog about Black Dogs too, which is a project I'm really really really excited about and will go into on my next post, hopefully sometime before school starts on the 7th.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The Gift That Gives (all over your shoes)
So I came to a realization a couple days ago not only am I writing my first novel, I'm writing the beginning of a series that could be between 5 and 7 books long, it doesn't seem to be able to decide and I apparently have no say in the matter. I think working on the beginning of a series is different from trying to write a stand alone piece, at least it is for me since I'm such a picky and specific bastard.
First off I'm a huge anime and manga fan, every nerd has their pillars of geekdom and anime and manga would indeed be mine, especially manga. In Japan unlike America most manga is published weekly instead of monthly, this puts a lot more strain on the writers/artists who are in most cases only one person working with some assistants, as much as I love manga they suffer because of their scheduling. Most manga-ka have no time to really plot out a story and just run headlong into the mess generating characters and story arcs as they go with only the vaguest sense of continuity. Nothing pisses me off more than a random character that we're suddenly supposed to accept has some sort of history with the main character when they were never mentioned or even hinted at before that moment, one of my hugest peeves in manga writing, and writing in general.
So I went into book one of this series and I've been establishing a vast network of characters and relationships to be further explored at later dates. One of the things I love about a well done series is the vastness of the world the author creates. It's easier to do in comics than in novels I'd argue, but Series like Dragon Lance, Harry Potter and The Lies of Locke Lamora do a good job of creating an interesting world and filling that world with interesting people, even if you only see them once. I was once told that you should never name a character if you don't need to; I disagree with this assessment. I read Richard Price's Lush life about 8 months ago and he names a lot of characters and those characters matter, he managed to give them a sense of realism that's hard to encapsulate in such a short time. I think J.K. Rowling did that in the Harry Potter series creating a cast of secondary and third(dary?) characters that made the world feel real.
I think secondary characters that can potentially carry future stories, and play more vital roles down the line are integral to the realism of a world, especially in a series. I've heard mixed reviews of Terry Brooks but I read one of his Shannara books a while back and I hated it, the story itself wasn't bad, the writing was so-so but what I really disliked was how empty this VAST fantasy world felt. There was never any sense of bigness and I don't think he was quite going for the empty desolation of The Road, and because I knew he wasn't trying to do it, it made it all the worse when that's what I felt.
The first couple of books in a series should be the foundation, if I was writing a series like the Dresden Files or Sookie Stackhouse or something it'd be different, most of the times the books have the same characters but the story's aren't always arcing. But I'm writing a set story arc over 5 (or 7) books and I need a good solid foundation of characters to exploit, maim or kill along the way. I feel like I've been building my network of characters with the future in mind. That's all for now...
First off I'm a huge anime and manga fan, every nerd has their pillars of geekdom and anime and manga would indeed be mine, especially manga. In Japan unlike America most manga is published weekly instead of monthly, this puts a lot more strain on the writers/artists who are in most cases only one person working with some assistants, as much as I love manga they suffer because of their scheduling. Most manga-ka have no time to really plot out a story and just run headlong into the mess generating characters and story arcs as they go with only the vaguest sense of continuity. Nothing pisses me off more than a random character that we're suddenly supposed to accept has some sort of history with the main character when they were never mentioned or even hinted at before that moment, one of my hugest peeves in manga writing, and writing in general.
So I went into book one of this series and I've been establishing a vast network of characters and relationships to be further explored at later dates. One of the things I love about a well done series is the vastness of the world the author creates. It's easier to do in comics than in novels I'd argue, but Series like Dragon Lance, Harry Potter and The Lies of Locke Lamora do a good job of creating an interesting world and filling that world with interesting people, even if you only see them once. I was once told that you should never name a character if you don't need to; I disagree with this assessment. I read Richard Price's Lush life about 8 months ago and he names a lot of characters and those characters matter, he managed to give them a sense of realism that's hard to encapsulate in such a short time. I think J.K. Rowling did that in the Harry Potter series creating a cast of secondary and third(dary?) characters that made the world feel real.
I think secondary characters that can potentially carry future stories, and play more vital roles down the line are integral to the realism of a world, especially in a series. I've heard mixed reviews of Terry Brooks but I read one of his Shannara books a while back and I hated it, the story itself wasn't bad, the writing was so-so but what I really disliked was how empty this VAST fantasy world felt. There was never any sense of bigness and I don't think he was quite going for the empty desolation of The Road, and because I knew he wasn't trying to do it, it made it all the worse when that's what I felt.
The first couple of books in a series should be the foundation, if I was writing a series like the Dresden Files or Sookie Stackhouse or something it'd be different, most of the times the books have the same characters but the story's aren't always arcing. But I'm writing a set story arc over 5 (or 7) books and I need a good solid foundation of characters to exploit, maim or kill along the way. I feel like I've been building my network of characters with the future in mind. That's all for now...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Writing (AGODDAMNNOVEL) IS WAR
This is at once symbolic and long overdue. Figured it'd be a good time to update since I hit 200 pages today (YAAAAYYYYY). It's been a long summer of writing, joblessness and computer problems. I'm on my sister's old comp as of now which is way better than The General, an Acer Relic from 2001 with 128 MB of RAM....yeah that was painful. But on to something relevant. Novel Writing is War.
I mean writing a real novel, if you're being formulaic for the sake of money, or essentially jerking off onto paper, that's something different, but writing something you love and have faith in...is fucking war. What sucks the most is that you're fighting it from every imaginable perspective too. The General(overall story planning and plot development) The Strategist (detailed plot planning, character development and growth and how the two interact with the plot, continuity, being true to your characters) The Lieutenants,Sergeants and Captains in the field (Individual plot planning and how it relates/is relevant to the whole) And of course your Privates, and Corporals doing all the work on the ground. (THE FUCKING WRITING and everything that comes with it). Not to mention the war of attrition that is writing a prolonged piece in general...and lemme tell you, it's fucking hard. It's hard to get up every day and agonize over if this thought is true to the character, or if this scene is too long or the biggest fear of all...will anyone even CARE about the book. It's hard not to just throw it away and go back to tossin out short stories or flash fiction instead...but it can be worth it.
When you finish a really good scene and you can think about it in context of where it fits in the storyline and really see it stand out in your mind, and you feel that you've done a good job and you show some unbiased person and they say the same thing. That shit feels great, downright addictive. So to all my fellow novel writers, don't give up because it's hard, swallow your tears, clean off that blood and get back to fuckin work.
The past three chapters of my novel Publicity Tour (Chapters 6, 7, and 8) have been some of the most grueling things I've ever written in my fucking life. I've been writing since I was 13 and I've written a LOT but this idea is easily one of the most complex plots I've ever come up with. There are all kinds of twists and turns in the story itself as well as in the personal growth of the main character and they're inseparably intertwined; this is good for the book as a whole but complicated to write. If I were to ever get famous for this novel and someone wanted to see my notes, they would see the notes for a completely different story. Much like soldiers in the field, I've found that some of the initial ideas I came up with when writing the outline for the novel had to be changed when it came time to actually write the scenes, so I had to adapt on the fly, completely altering character motivations, how certain scenes played out, adding subplots...it's been a wild and fun ride and it's only half over.
I've intentionally broken some of the rules of writing I've been taught at Columbia in certain scenes because I feel like it HELPS...but at the same time I've used a lot of what I've learned as well. Combining plots that weaves together the story and the character development almost seamlessly is something I learned in Pop Fiction, really getting that emotion into is something I learned in Prose Forms, and not writing awful parodies is something I learned in Fiction 2 (a joke for columbia fiction majors only). But above all I'm really leaning about my process, this is my first novel undertaking and since I hate people who take for fucking ever to write one novel (no matter how good it is) I really want it done quickly while still putting out the best work possible (which I seem capable of somehow...think it's all that meth my brain seems to produce). My process is simple...come up with an idea, fuck with it until you like it...lay down the foundation...then us some sort of physics gun to completely alter the molecules of said foundation into that of a living creature and continue to fuck with it until I have something completely different but still awesome. I started out with a house and now I have a tree...that is also a house. That's how I've been writing and I fucking love it.
My biggest hurdle so far in writing this book was catching myself. Okay that needs some context. There are two big villains over the course of the novel, and figuring out HOW to catch the first one nearly drove my ass crazy. That was Chapter 6 and 7, because not only were the characters trying to catch a badguy, they were also trying to prove ANOTHER guy was innocent WHILE fending off a higher-up who was trying to take credit for their work which was all pretty complicated, almost mind bogglingly so. Everyone who knows me heard me bitch, well bitch more than usual anyways. But in the end I LOVE the result and hopefully you reader people will to...when it's done...eventually.
But yeah man, this noveling shit isn't easy, not that I expected it to be. But I love it, I love writing and this is the biggest challenge I've ever had and I'm taking it headon. Keep reading and keep writing.
(P.S.: I'm going to try and update more I swear)
(P.P.S.:Seriously)
I mean writing a real novel, if you're being formulaic for the sake of money, or essentially jerking off onto paper, that's something different, but writing something you love and have faith in...is fucking war. What sucks the most is that you're fighting it from every imaginable perspective too. The General(overall story planning and plot development) The Strategist (detailed plot planning, character development and growth and how the two interact with the plot, continuity, being true to your characters) The Lieutenants,Sergeants and Captains in the field (Individual plot planning and how it relates/is relevant to the whole) And of course your Privates, and Corporals doing all the work on the ground. (THE FUCKING WRITING and everything that comes with it). Not to mention the war of attrition that is writing a prolonged piece in general...and lemme tell you, it's fucking hard. It's hard to get up every day and agonize over if this thought is true to the character, or if this scene is too long or the biggest fear of all...will anyone even CARE about the book. It's hard not to just throw it away and go back to tossin out short stories or flash fiction instead...but it can be worth it.
When you finish a really good scene and you can think about it in context of where it fits in the storyline and really see it stand out in your mind, and you feel that you've done a good job and you show some unbiased person and they say the same thing. That shit feels great, downright addictive. So to all my fellow novel writers, don't give up because it's hard, swallow your tears, clean off that blood and get back to fuckin work.
The past three chapters of my novel Publicity Tour (Chapters 6, 7, and 8) have been some of the most grueling things I've ever written in my fucking life. I've been writing since I was 13 and I've written a LOT but this idea is easily one of the most complex plots I've ever come up with. There are all kinds of twists and turns in the story itself as well as in the personal growth of the main character and they're inseparably intertwined; this is good for the book as a whole but complicated to write. If I were to ever get famous for this novel and someone wanted to see my notes, they would see the notes for a completely different story. Much like soldiers in the field, I've found that some of the initial ideas I came up with when writing the outline for the novel had to be changed when it came time to actually write the scenes, so I had to adapt on the fly, completely altering character motivations, how certain scenes played out, adding subplots...it's been a wild and fun ride and it's only half over.
I've intentionally broken some of the rules of writing I've been taught at Columbia in certain scenes because I feel like it HELPS...but at the same time I've used a lot of what I've learned as well. Combining plots that weaves together the story and the character development almost seamlessly is something I learned in Pop Fiction, really getting that emotion into is something I learned in Prose Forms, and not writing awful parodies is something I learned in Fiction 2 (a joke for columbia fiction majors only). But above all I'm really leaning about my process, this is my first novel undertaking and since I hate people who take for fucking ever to write one novel (no matter how good it is) I really want it done quickly while still putting out the best work possible (which I seem capable of somehow...think it's all that meth my brain seems to produce). My process is simple...come up with an idea, fuck with it until you like it...lay down the foundation...then us some sort of physics gun to completely alter the molecules of said foundation into that of a living creature and continue to fuck with it until I have something completely different but still awesome. I started out with a house and now I have a tree...that is also a house. That's how I've been writing and I fucking love it.
My biggest hurdle so far in writing this book was catching myself. Okay that needs some context. There are two big villains over the course of the novel, and figuring out HOW to catch the first one nearly drove my ass crazy. That was Chapter 6 and 7, because not only were the characters trying to catch a badguy, they were also trying to prove ANOTHER guy was innocent WHILE fending off a higher-up who was trying to take credit for their work which was all pretty complicated, almost mind bogglingly so. Everyone who knows me heard me bitch, well bitch more than usual anyways. But in the end I LOVE the result and hopefully you reader people will to...when it's done...eventually.
But yeah man, this noveling shit isn't easy, not that I expected it to be. But I love it, I love writing and this is the biggest challenge I've ever had and I'm taking it headon. Keep reading and keep writing.
(P.S.: I'm going to try and update more I swear)
(P.P.S.:Seriously)
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