Update

14000 words and counting... :)

Evoloution and Adaptation, a writers best friends?

It is funny how you can have a plan on how the story is to go. You write away, merrily humming, then, without warning, your character does something that you did not anticipate. This changes the direction of your story, it adds a previously un-thought of (though, now obvious and correct) dimension to that character, and totally changes your plan! You find yourself needing to adapt to something that your character did all by themselves! I am an advocate of the school of thought that the story already exists, and we as the story tellers are the tool's of it's will, not the other way around. I am discovering as I write, the depth, humor, and emotion of real people having real experiences. This may sound somewhat schizophrenic, but the more I write, the more real these characters become. So, adapting and evolving based on the unexpected things that your characters do. Is it a good thing? Should a writer allow their characters the freedom of agency in their actions or should a writer exercise tyrannical control over the actions of their characters? What is your opinion? The quote for this entry comes from (I hope originally) the story that I am writing, "Time is the enemy of memories." Anyway, leave your comments and questions below. Is there any aspect of writing that you would like me to address in this blog? Any good ideas for amateurs like me? Give me feedback. Let me know that I am not simply spewing words into the endless depths of cyberspace. Until next time...

I wish for fish with my Ish Wish Dish!

Here is life how I envision it. I am sitting in my office one sunny afternoon with the light comming in through windows that afford a beautiful view of a forested valley. I am working on my latest best seller. My faithful dog Charles lounges at my feet and growls softly every time I make a grammatical error. (He is a magical grammar dog). My son pops his head in to discuss a particular point from his studies of Plato, or Socrates. I of course give him the answer he needs and then get back to work. After a few minutes my daughter starts to play Mozart on the piano in the living room. She is, after all, a very accomplished pianist. The music is soothing and helps me to come up with more ideas for my manuscript. Just then my manager calls "Congratulations," he says, "we just hit the one million mark for pre-orders on your new novel!"
"Wow!"I say, "I have not even written it yet!"
"Well," he replies, "Your fans just love you THAT much!"
Thrilled I go to tell my wife the good news. "That's great!" she says, "We should eat the home made pecan pie that I just made to celebrate!"
Yeah. That's pretty much how things will go on a daily basis. What? I can dream can't I? Can I at least have the pie?

November? Write a novel month?

So, apparently November is national write a novel month. How anyone expects to finish a novel in a months time is beyond me. Maybe an unemployed person who has no other obligations could do it, but those people tend to be lazy. Anyway, I'm stoked to find myself already in the midst of writing a novel when November hit. I decided that the best option for my little conundrum is to just write through it. The editing process is a wonderful thing. You can just whisk away pages of pointless material if you want. As I am writing the pointless stuff I am getting ideas and the pointless is slowly gaining shape and becoming...err...pointed? Anyway, on a different note, I have an mammal identification class tomorrow in my animals class and we are in the rodent section. Let me tell you, Mice All Look The Same. Maybe I'll write something about that. But I digress. Well, Yay November! So here is my challenge to you. Anyone want to join me in the quest for literary greatness? Send me your experiences. We can inspire each other.

Until next time
-Me

Small victories, small annoyances

So I bet all two of you thought that I had given up already. Ha! I did not! I have been writing. Albeit a sentence here, two sentences there. At the bus stop, on the bus, at the transit center, sometimes even sitting at home. It adds up. I have discovered one of those little things that writers don't really think about when setting off on the journey to produce a 300+ page piece of literary genius. When I think of my story I see all of the main events, the big action scenes, the turning points, and so on and so forth. The difficult part that I have discovered so far is this: How the heck do I get my characters from big important event A to big important event B without boring the readers to death with endless pointless minutia. The solution: write pointless minutia until I figure something out later (It will work itself out in the editing process). So, writing has been kind of boring lately (But I AM doing it). What is it that they say? Writing is 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999 percent perspiration? and 0.000000000(well you get the point)1 inspiration? Oh yeah, the pointy system is out. It's just depressing. I will figure out some other way to be accountable to myself. Quote of the week: (From my favorite poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep."
Anyone have a suggestion to help me with my "inbeteweenbigeventsisalongstreamofboringnothingness" conundrum?
I'm all ears..err...eyes...unless you send me an audio or video message.
Until next time,
Catchy sign off tag line.

-Me