There is a certain assertiveness that comes with writing.
You have a vision in your head, you describe that vision the way it comes to you as clearly as you can without any tricks. Just that.
That's the story.
Take it or leave it.
In other words, second guessing while writing isn't useful. It blurs the vision.
That isn't to say you can't make changes. The changes also have to be assertive.
It's amazing how often I ignore the little doubting thoughts and go ahead and write something and find that it's just fine. Sometimes it's better than fine.
It's the sureness of voice the reader picks up on. This is a confident voice, one that knows the story its telling. This is what happened.
What happened may not be interesting to you. It may not happen fast enough. But you have to give it proper respect. The story is what the story is.
Now then...
Once the story is down, then you can fuck with it all you want. There are so many ways that a thing can be said, and sometimes you can improve on it.
But I've found that sticking to my original assertive voice is usually best. Smoothing it out is fine. Adding or subtracting is fine. But changing the voice, changing the way it is told too much, and it looses all cohesiveness.
You have to allow the confidence of the story to manifest.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
The enthusiasm level is what chooses next to write.
It took me 4 days to write the first 30K words of "Fateplay." (I've gone back to this title, rather than "Time In/TimeOut, because I like the sound of it.)
It's taken me 23 days to write the next 30K words.
I'm feeling my way and it's slow. I've spent entire days just trying to eke out 1000 words. I'm not writing until something clicks, but I'm also not letting up until something clicks. But I'm sticking to it, I'm going to finish. At 60K words it's a "book" even if I just tack on an ending.
After my initial excitement, I've cooled on its prospects. I still like the book quite a lot, but there are a couple of problems built into the beginning that if I had it to do over again, I'd change. I've even thought of simply putting it aside and re-writing it with what I know now, but boy would that require a lot of discipline.
Does the book have enough heft to warrant that treatment? That is, would it significantly improve the story?
I dangled this idea with an agent and a publisher--100 "kick-ass" pages. No response. So that let a little of the steam out of my enthusiasm. If the book is for my own amusement, then I like it fine the way it is.
There are some thematic questions the novel raises that I don't really address, that if I was to do the end-to-end re-write I would be very conscious of. It would lend the novel some depth, but I'm not sure depth is what I'm after. I'm after fun and entertainment.
If I was going for depth, my model would be more "Brave New World" than "Ready Player One." I wikied BNW and was amazed by how little of the plot I remember. (Finding that to be true to a ton of novels--I remember almost nothing about them even though I know I've read them.)
As I always say, I discover plot by writing. Which means I often go down wrong roads and have to make up for it. Sometimes that works out fine, sometimes I write myself into a corner.
The other possibility that my re-write ideas are significantly different enough to warrant an entirely different novel altogether. A novel that would deal with the same subject (cosplay and Larping) but in a totally different direction.
With any novel there is a certain amount of enthusiasm for me to carry through to the end. I've started several novels that lost steam along the way and were abandoned halfway to two-thirds of the way through with the thought I'd come back to them. I never do.
The enthusiasm level is what chooses what to write. I never know until I've finished one book which idea I'll be most enthusiastic about next. I have at least three or four ideas that I think are strong enough for the next book. But I probably won't know which one I'll do until it starts appearing in my brain.
It's taken me 23 days to write the next 30K words.
I'm feeling my way and it's slow. I've spent entire days just trying to eke out 1000 words. I'm not writing until something clicks, but I'm also not letting up until something clicks. But I'm sticking to it, I'm going to finish. At 60K words it's a "book" even if I just tack on an ending.
After my initial excitement, I've cooled on its prospects. I still like the book quite a lot, but there are a couple of problems built into the beginning that if I had it to do over again, I'd change. I've even thought of simply putting it aside and re-writing it with what I know now, but boy would that require a lot of discipline.
Does the book have enough heft to warrant that treatment? That is, would it significantly improve the story?
I dangled this idea with an agent and a publisher--100 "kick-ass" pages. No response. So that let a little of the steam out of my enthusiasm. If the book is for my own amusement, then I like it fine the way it is.
There are some thematic questions the novel raises that I don't really address, that if I was to do the end-to-end re-write I would be very conscious of. It would lend the novel some depth, but I'm not sure depth is what I'm after. I'm after fun and entertainment.
If I was going for depth, my model would be more "Brave New World" than "Ready Player One." I wikied BNW and was amazed by how little of the plot I remember. (Finding that to be true to a ton of novels--I remember almost nothing about them even though I know I've read them.)
As I always say, I discover plot by writing. Which means I often go down wrong roads and have to make up for it. Sometimes that works out fine, sometimes I write myself into a corner.
The other possibility that my re-write ideas are significantly different enough to warrant an entirely different novel altogether. A novel that would deal with the same subject (cosplay and Larping) but in a totally different direction.
With any novel there is a certain amount of enthusiasm for me to carry through to the end. I've started several novels that lost steam along the way and were abandoned halfway to two-thirds of the way through with the thought I'd come back to them. I never do.
The enthusiasm level is what chooses what to write. I never know until I've finished one book which idea I'll be most enthusiastic about next. I have at least three or four ideas that I think are strong enough for the next book. But I probably won't know which one I'll do until it starts appearing in my brain.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
I still want to believe there are canals on Mars.
My current book is a seriously silly book. I can almost visualize most readers rolling their eyes.
But my twelve year old self is having a grand time writing it.
I think probably my first love is retro science fiction. It wasn't retro when I first read it. The Lensmen series, Heinlein, Asimov, Andre Norton, Jack Vance (the Great Jack Vance). Burroughs and Howard and Zelazny.
All terribly dated now. But so much fun.
I still want to believe there are canals on Mars.
As long as there is internal logic, anything goes. So, obviously, it wasn't really the science I was after--it was the adventure. The science just sort of gave it some kind of underpinning, but when fantasy came along (and believe it or not, it came along--it didn't much exist when I was younger) I realized I didn't need the science to have the adventure.
But I still like all the dressing of spacesuits and rockets and robots.
I've convinced myself of this fictional future I'm writing where everyone lives their adventure lives everyday by dressing up in Cosplay and going to Larping events. That holograms and VR are readily available and can produce anything the imagination can come up with, and that everyone has access to it.
The question of, if holo decks really existed and you could live in Middle Earth, why wouldn't you? has always been something I think of when I watch STNG.
This isn't a cyber future (is cyber still used as a term?) like Neuromancer and Snow Crash and Ready Player One, but more physical, more real, yet still containing all the elements of a completely fictional world.
It's nerd culture carried to its logical conclusion. Not just nerds and cosplay on weekends, but every day. Getting up and dressing as Aragorn and going to work, and meeting Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and Spock.
So it's silly, and I'm probably including too many retro references (not just the 80's like Ready Player One, but all the way back to the 50's and earlier, as far back at the black and white movies that played late nights on TV when I was a kid.)
I suspect no one will ever read it. I loved my little fantasy roadtrip, Faerie Punk, and it had a similar vibe, and absolutely no one picked that up, so...
But over the last few months I've moved irrevocably into the idea of writing exactly what I want without any regard whatsoever to what I think the marketplace will accept. No one knows that anyway.
Way back when I first started writing, I constantly included anachronisms in my stories, and was told by everyone, writer's groups and teachers and friends and professionals, that I couldn't do that. I didn't understand why not.
Over the 25 years I didn't write, this became not only acceptable, but standard. I was ahead of my time, dammit.
But even now, I probably mix it up more than is acceptable. I mean, I don't mix it up more than Zelazny did in Lord of Light, but he's Zelazny and I'm McGeary, and...well, who am I to be messing with things.
Actually, I'm probably caught somewhere in-between. I venture off the path, but maybe not as crazily as would make it truly effective.
Anyway, it's happening, and I'm having a great deal of fun. It probably is such a hodge-podge of my own particular tastes that no one else is going to like it. Except Linda. Bless Linda, she likes what I write.
But my twelve year old self is having a grand time writing it.
I think probably my first love is retro science fiction. It wasn't retro when I first read it. The Lensmen series, Heinlein, Asimov, Andre Norton, Jack Vance (the Great Jack Vance). Burroughs and Howard and Zelazny.
All terribly dated now. But so much fun.
I still want to believe there are canals on Mars.
As long as there is internal logic, anything goes. So, obviously, it wasn't really the science I was after--it was the adventure. The science just sort of gave it some kind of underpinning, but when fantasy came along (and believe it or not, it came along--it didn't much exist when I was younger) I realized I didn't need the science to have the adventure.
But I still like all the dressing of spacesuits and rockets and robots.
I've convinced myself of this fictional future I'm writing where everyone lives their adventure lives everyday by dressing up in Cosplay and going to Larping events. That holograms and VR are readily available and can produce anything the imagination can come up with, and that everyone has access to it.
The question of, if holo decks really existed and you could live in Middle Earth, why wouldn't you? has always been something I think of when I watch STNG.
This isn't a cyber future (is cyber still used as a term?) like Neuromancer and Snow Crash and Ready Player One, but more physical, more real, yet still containing all the elements of a completely fictional world.
It's nerd culture carried to its logical conclusion. Not just nerds and cosplay on weekends, but every day. Getting up and dressing as Aragorn and going to work, and meeting Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and Spock.
So it's silly, and I'm probably including too many retro references (not just the 80's like Ready Player One, but all the way back to the 50's and earlier, as far back at the black and white movies that played late nights on TV when I was a kid.)
I suspect no one will ever read it. I loved my little fantasy roadtrip, Faerie Punk, and it had a similar vibe, and absolutely no one picked that up, so...
But over the last few months I've moved irrevocably into the idea of writing exactly what I want without any regard whatsoever to what I think the marketplace will accept. No one knows that anyway.
Way back when I first started writing, I constantly included anachronisms in my stories, and was told by everyone, writer's groups and teachers and friends and professionals, that I couldn't do that. I didn't understand why not.
Over the 25 years I didn't write, this became not only acceptable, but standard. I was ahead of my time, dammit.
But even now, I probably mix it up more than is acceptable. I mean, I don't mix it up more than Zelazny did in Lord of Light, but he's Zelazny and I'm McGeary, and...well, who am I to be messing with things.
Actually, I'm probably caught somewhere in-between. I venture off the path, but maybe not as crazily as would make it truly effective.
Anyway, it's happening, and I'm having a great deal of fun. It probably is such a hodge-podge of my own particular tastes that no one else is going to like it. Except Linda. Bless Linda, she likes what I write.
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Fanboy paradise.
The writing of "Time In/Time Out" seems to be mostly about maintaining tone.
Linda's comment when I said this: "Aren't all stories?"
Well, yes, I suppose but that isn't usually the first thing I think about when I write a book. Plot, characters, action; all kinds of things come to mind first.
With this book, the first concern is the keep the breezy, irreverent tone, the character's voice. Zachary Spence, otherwise known as the mysterious Que, an average guy who also happens to be the world's richest man.
He's got to keep his humility at the same time he grows into the power he is given. What keeps him sympathetic is his ethical grounding, his always looking for the moral high ground, his unwillingness to simply buy what he wants.
It's probably stupid to have such a character--a guy who wins the lottery. I suspect that publishers get this kind of fantasy all the time.
But at the same time, plot-wise, it opens the story up to anything I can conceive of. The fact that so much is at stake, that anything can happen.
I make a comment in the book about how limitations are what make art, with the example of George Lucus and the first Star Wars and how his limited budget and the state of special effects forced him to make decisions that benefited the story.
And yet, here I'm doing the opposite. It's twenty years in the future, Que and the other characters have unlimited resources, and so if I can imagine it, it can be done.
Which is very freeing and fun. Wish-fulfillment in a big way. Fanboy paradise.
At the same time, though, I'm bringing a lot of writing experience to this book so I think the plot and all is working.
At least, I'm having fun imagining it all.
Linda's comment when I said this: "Aren't all stories?"
Well, yes, I suppose but that isn't usually the first thing I think about when I write a book. Plot, characters, action; all kinds of things come to mind first.
With this book, the first concern is the keep the breezy, irreverent tone, the character's voice. Zachary Spence, otherwise known as the mysterious Que, an average guy who also happens to be the world's richest man.
He's got to keep his humility at the same time he grows into the power he is given. What keeps him sympathetic is his ethical grounding, his always looking for the moral high ground, his unwillingness to simply buy what he wants.
It's probably stupid to have such a character--a guy who wins the lottery. I suspect that publishers get this kind of fantasy all the time.
But at the same time, plot-wise, it opens the story up to anything I can conceive of. The fact that so much is at stake, that anything can happen.
I make a comment in the book about how limitations are what make art, with the example of George Lucus and the first Star Wars and how his limited budget and the state of special effects forced him to make decisions that benefited the story.
And yet, here I'm doing the opposite. It's twenty years in the future, Que and the other characters have unlimited resources, and so if I can imagine it, it can be done.
Which is very freeing and fun. Wish-fulfillment in a big way. Fanboy paradise.
At the same time, though, I'm bringing a lot of writing experience to this book so I think the plot and all is working.
At least, I'm having fun imagining it all.
Friday, May 4, 2018
A little research goes a long way.
"TIme In/Time Out" continues to surprise me.
I want every chapter to click. Which means that I'm not writing if nothing clicks.
What seems to be happening is that a few days pass, but when I do finally click I write more than usual, so it almost evens out.
I have five Larping scenarios to write.
I woke up this morning with one of them firmly in mind. Completely out of left field.
I recently read a book about the Eiger and mountain climbing and that's the scenario I woke up with. (Funnily enough, I was using the "random knowledge is helpful to a writer" point when I mentioned the book--to be followed by that exact thing happening.)
So spent four days not writing, but then came back yesterday with 4000 words, which makes up for at least one of those days.
This is a totally wish-fulfillment book, starting with the protagonist winning the lottery and going from there. I don't care. It's loads of fun to write and hopefully that fun transfers to the page.
I'm not really as conversant with Larping or Cosplay or gaming as much as I probably should be to pull this off, but I decided by setting it 20 years in the future I can make up my own rules.
Plus I'll do some research when I'm done.
I'm listening to "Led to the Slaughter" and I'm amazed by how much historical detail is in the book. I mean, I don't remember over-researching it. A couple of pioneer accounts and some Googling. But it rings true.
In other words, a little research goes a long way. Imagination can do the rest. I don't have to be hanging off the side of Eiger to imagine how it feels.
I want every chapter to click. Which means that I'm not writing if nothing clicks.
What seems to be happening is that a few days pass, but when I do finally click I write more than usual, so it almost evens out.
I have five Larping scenarios to write.
I woke up this morning with one of them firmly in mind. Completely out of left field.
I recently read a book about the Eiger and mountain climbing and that's the scenario I woke up with. (Funnily enough, I was using the "random knowledge is helpful to a writer" point when I mentioned the book--to be followed by that exact thing happening.)
So spent four days not writing, but then came back yesterday with 4000 words, which makes up for at least one of those days.
This is a totally wish-fulfillment book, starting with the protagonist winning the lottery and going from there. I don't care. It's loads of fun to write and hopefully that fun transfers to the page.
I'm not really as conversant with Larping or Cosplay or gaming as much as I probably should be to pull this off, but I decided by setting it 20 years in the future I can make up my own rules.
Plus I'll do some research when I'm done.
I'm listening to "Led to the Slaughter" and I'm amazed by how much historical detail is in the book. I mean, I don't remember over-researching it. A couple of pioneer accounts and some Googling. But it rings true.
In other words, a little research goes a long way. Imagination can do the rest. I don't have to be hanging off the side of Eiger to imagine how it feels.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Writers are such a strange mix of ego and uncertainty.
Four days of not writing and BOOM! The first page is ready to go when I wake up this morning, and by noon I've written 2500 words and I'm pretty sure that's not all.
"Time In/Time Out."
If I could count on this kind of inspiration every time I wait four days, I might use that as a technique. Heh.
Got the edits from Lara yesterday for "Shadows Over Summer House." I went through all of them yesterday. Took the whole day, but got it done. I've still got some editing of my own to do, but it's more or less ready to go. She found almost no structural problems to the book, which is unusual for me. Partly, I think, because I set aside the first 25,000 words and rewrote them from scratch, thus avoiding my early missteps.
So it's done and it reads well.
Thing is, I just sent a 125 page proposal for "Time In/Time Out" to the publisher I was intending to send Shadows to, so now I need to wait a week or two before I pile on.
This is my last hurrah with mainstream publishers or agents.
If these two books don't catch their attention, then nothing will. I mean, what the hell?
Listening to "Led to the Slaughter." Feeling like it's very solid, even good. Writers are such a strange mix of ego and uncertainty.
After I'm done trying this last time to sell to the mainstream, I'm going to let things fly. Just put the stuff out I've finished, edit what isn't finished and put it out, write new stuff, put it out. No concern over timing or any of that. I've probably been too cute by half with all that. Mostly because I was concerned about stepping on my publishers' toes.
But at this point, Crossroad has told me the more books the better, and the other publishers have books that are already established, so I have a clear field ahead of me.
Get on with the writing.
"Time In/Time Out."
If I could count on this kind of inspiration every time I wait four days, I might use that as a technique. Heh.
Got the edits from Lara yesterday for "Shadows Over Summer House." I went through all of them yesterday. Took the whole day, but got it done. I've still got some editing of my own to do, but it's more or less ready to go. She found almost no structural problems to the book, which is unusual for me. Partly, I think, because I set aside the first 25,000 words and rewrote them from scratch, thus avoiding my early missteps.
So it's done and it reads well.
Thing is, I just sent a 125 page proposal for "Time In/Time Out" to the publisher I was intending to send Shadows to, so now I need to wait a week or two before I pile on.
This is my last hurrah with mainstream publishers or agents.
If these two books don't catch their attention, then nothing will. I mean, what the hell?
Listening to "Led to the Slaughter." Feeling like it's very solid, even good. Writers are such a strange mix of ego and uncertainty.
After I'm done trying this last time to sell to the mainstream, I'm going to let things fly. Just put the stuff out I've finished, edit what isn't finished and put it out, write new stuff, put it out. No concern over timing or any of that. I've probably been too cute by half with all that. Mostly because I was concerned about stepping on my publishers' toes.
But at this point, Crossroad has told me the more books the better, and the other publishers have books that are already established, so I have a clear field ahead of me.
Get on with the writing.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Maybe I really am a writer. Listening to audio of Led to the Slaughter.
My publisher for the Virginia Reed Adventures has done an audio book of "Led to the Slaughter."
It's been a number of years since I wrote that book, so it's an interesting experience. Linda and I are listening together, trying to catch mistakes so that they can be corrected before the audio is put up for sale.
This was the first book out in this, my latter career. The book I chose to try to publish first, even if it was fourth book I wrote that year.
So I remember how diffident I was about the book. I mean, I thought it was good, but what do I know? I couldn't be sure.
It got a good response and excellent reviews.
I don't know if I've gotten more egotistical in the last few years, but my feeling about the book now?
It's good. It's very, very good.
It's as good or better than a lot of the books I'm currently reading by well-known authors.
The story of the Donner Party is inherently interesting, so it has that going for it. But my take on it is effective and believable.
And Virginia is a really wonderful character.
Maybe I really am a writer.
It's been a number of years since I wrote that book, so it's an interesting experience. Linda and I are listening together, trying to catch mistakes so that they can be corrected before the audio is put up for sale.
This was the first book out in this, my latter career. The book I chose to try to publish first, even if it was fourth book I wrote that year.
So I remember how diffident I was about the book. I mean, I thought it was good, but what do I know? I couldn't be sure.
It got a good response and excellent reviews.
I don't know if I've gotten more egotistical in the last few years, but my feeling about the book now?
It's good. It's very, very good.
It's as good or better than a lot of the books I'm currently reading by well-known authors.
The story of the Donner Party is inherently interesting, so it has that going for it. But my take on it is effective and believable.
And Virginia is a really wonderful character.
Maybe I really am a writer.
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