The Madness Begins!

As I write this, I have already begun this year's NaNoWriMo project.  Against The Ropes (working title) is going to be a murder mystery story based in the wild world of pro wrestling.  On the surface, it seems a little ridiculous, but having been a wrestling fan though high school, I know that the crazy personalities of wrestlers lend themselves to a story of murder and intrigue.  I am excited to be writing again, and looking forward to the adventure of a new novel.
I have a new source of support and encouragement in a very special lady who I've now been seeing for close to a year.  She has already done all kinds of great things for me in preparation for this month of craziness, and I love her for it.  I'm hoping I get done ahead of schedule so I can have some free time to spend with her.
Also, for those of you who are also taking part this year, I found a few writing rules from one of my heroes, Neil Gaiman.  I hope they inspire you all to make good work, and enjoy what you do.

Seasonal Reading

The leaves are beginning to change, and as the seasons change, so too do my reading habits.
Spring and summer are more lively times of year, and I tend to go for shorter, more amusing stories.  Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, or a good old fashioned pulp detective novel are my most common material.
Fall and winter are different.  I find there's a sort of seriousness in the air, and that leads me to read novels which are more 'dense'.  The sort of stories that take time to consider, that you read slowly and digest the fine details.  Things like Hemingway novels, or Peter Straub are perfect fall reading.  And of course, Halloween was made for reading Ray Bradbury shorts.

Do you have your own seasonal reading patterns?

Farewell, Dutch

It is my sad duty to inform you that Elmore 'Dutch' Leonard, has died.  Full details can be found here.

In my own experience, Elmore Leonard was the greatest dialogue writer I've ever read.  His words had the flow and rhythm of regular people, which is harder to do than it seems.  It was as if he picked out snatches of regular people's conversations, and put them into his novels.  His talent for crafting complex mysteries and criminal schemes was unmatched.  In all honesty, I never always understood what was going on in an Elmore Leonard novel, but it didn't matter, because his dynamite dialogue and action packed stories made it worth the ride.  To this day, LaBrava is one of my favourite of his novels.  Even if you're not a fan, it's well worth checking out.  I think I will read it again soon, and pay close attention.  I would like to write someone else's LaBrava one day.

Chipping Away

To those of you who may have noticed my absence:  I am currently working on editing Jumpsuit and becoming weird and reclusive.  What I hadn't anticipated is that the editing process is time consuming, and there's little to say about the act itself, thus my lack of anything interesting to say here.  However, I will include a few notes on editing from the professionals, so as not to waste your time entirely.

“The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.” - E.B. White

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between fire and the firefly." - Mark Twain

"It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short.  The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics." - Ernest Hemingway

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” - Stephen King

“Editing might be a bloody trade, but knives aren’t the exclusive property of butchers. Surgeons use them too.” - Blake Morrison

 

Better Writing Through Gaming

Recently, I purchased the indie game Thirty Flights of Loving.  (if the above trailer doesn't intrigue you, you probably have no imagination at all)  It's a game that takes only about fifteen minutes to play through, and it doesn't have a single line of dialogue, and yet, it's one of the most entertaining games I've played in a long time.  Even if you're not much of a gamer, I still recommend you play this.  This is in large part because of how the game goes about telling its story. It's told out of sequence, and there are a lot of subtle visual cues that allow the player to figure out what the game world is all about.  It's a very mature and inventive way to make a game, and that's a big part of what makes it so great.  I've played multiple times, and I'm still not completely sure how everything fits together, but that's why I love it!
These same principles can apply to fiction writing.  Sometimes, a writer forgets that their audience is smart.  This leads to unnecessary exposition, which, in effect, means talking down to the audience.  When you use the old 'show, don't tell' method, things become a lot more interesting for the reader.  It allows them to draw their own conclusions about the workings of your world.  They won't be 100% right every time, but as the story goes along, their knowledge will be improved and corrected, so there's no need to throw all of the information at them on page one.
The same results can be had by unconventional plotting, like telling the story out of sequence.  When done right, it works beautifully.  For instance, films like Pulp Fiction and Memento would be far less memorable if they'd been done in sequence.  I've never tried this method with a story before, but it may do the job for your own work.
In short, you can learn a lot about writing from just playing a short game.

The NaNo Logs - Vol. 2, Chapter 7

ATTENTION ONE AND ALL!  I WROTE A NOVEL!

It drove me crazy at times, the plot didn't always work, and there were even days where I felt like giving up, but I wrote it, and by God, it feels amazing!  For those of you who are really serious about writing, I suggest you do the same, because there is nothing quite like this feeling I have now!!

The NaNo Logs - Vol. 2, Chapter 6

As of yesterday, I officially surpassed my previous NaNo word record.  This was my minimum goal for this year's project, and I'm happy to have gotten this far.  Thankfully, I still don't hate my novel, and if I keep up with things, I should be able to finish this time around.  My only worry at the moment is how to go about ending things.  I'm already rocketing towards my ending, and I fear I'll get there too soon, and have to have a lot of boring post-climax filler in order to get to 50k.