This week's been somewhat of a drag due to a terrible bug. And during the weekend I went to a wonderful volunteer event, and and the end of next month I'll be going to BristolCon 2018. So here's a bit of a quick rundown of what's happened since the beginning of July.
Recently finished proofreading the second volume of The Leviathan Chronicle, and updated the text of the current volume with new corrections. Despite recent changes caused by the merger of Kindle and CreateSpace , I'll hope to still publish during the final months of this year.
Finished my latest project, a sci-fi take on Dumas's immortal tale The Count of Monte Cristo, but with less nobility and more honesty about what people really do when they're driven by pure vengeance. Hope to get down to a proper proofread soon.
Started two new and promising projects. One a fantastic thing with a non-human cast and a light tone, and the other my own contribution to Lovecraftian lore with my own particular twists. Figurative and otherwise.
Completed a promising short story based on my recent interesting reading of "We Purchased People". Hope it goes down well if/when people see it.
Cleaned up myself by editing out milk, which has been causing unnecessary mood swings impacting my writing and productivity.
Hope I'll have something a little larger for you all next week. Have a good week!
Sunday, 30 September 2018
Sunday, 23 September 2018
What is a productive day?
A question that can get raised about authors is "how much writing makes a productive day"? This question can be a prickly issue as many authors may not like discussing their working habits, or whatever stimulants are used to fuel the creative maelstrom.
My personal work regime is this. Up and assess my condition, then to the computer to start up and check email. Then do writing throughout the day broken by other activities such as computer-based leisure, walks out, housework, and of course eating and drinking to keep myself from falling over. Through all this, on good days, I can manage between three and five pages. On bad days, such as when I'm distracted or not feeling myself, that comes to two pages. On very good days I can be upwards of seven pages. My stimulants are limited to tea, and then only three or four cups in a day so I don't send myself into a tizzy.
My writing day can vary. It can be over and done in a morning, drag on until the wee small hours, or be finished between the classic 9-5 working day. This is my routine for six days in the week, with Saturdays being days off. And of course I take days off when I'm really under the weather, such as down with a bad bug or in too much pain from some injury or other to focus properly. I also sometimes need to rest my hands. Typing is hard on the hands.
Personally, I consider three pages of writing, or one chapter of proofreading, a productive day. The writing averages out to between 1000 and 2000 words. Without large interruptions, I can complete a full-scale novel in about half a year or less. I did once set myself an interesting challenge; write one chapter every three days until the book was completed. And I succeeded. It was a very long book, with each chapter between ten and twelve pages on average, and it had quite an engaging story for my 2014 period. Though it was rambling, and I now consider it in need of a complete rewrite before being published anywhere.
Things do ebb and flow, depending on whether I accidentally eat or drink something for which I have an intolerance. Sometimes that can last a day or two, sometimes it can last weeks or even months. It's been hard, but I think I'm walking the right path.
What are your working habits?
My personal work regime is this. Up and assess my condition, then to the computer to start up and check email. Then do writing throughout the day broken by other activities such as computer-based leisure, walks out, housework, and of course eating and drinking to keep myself from falling over. Through all this, on good days, I can manage between three and five pages. On bad days, such as when I'm distracted or not feeling myself, that comes to two pages. On very good days I can be upwards of seven pages. My stimulants are limited to tea, and then only three or four cups in a day so I don't send myself into a tizzy.
My writing day can vary. It can be over and done in a morning, drag on until the wee small hours, or be finished between the classic 9-5 working day. This is my routine for six days in the week, with Saturdays being days off. And of course I take days off when I'm really under the weather, such as down with a bad bug or in too much pain from some injury or other to focus properly. I also sometimes need to rest my hands. Typing is hard on the hands.
Personally, I consider three pages of writing, or one chapter of proofreading, a productive day. The writing averages out to between 1000 and 2000 words. Without large interruptions, I can complete a full-scale novel in about half a year or less. I did once set myself an interesting challenge; write one chapter every three days until the book was completed. And I succeeded. It was a very long book, with each chapter between ten and twelve pages on average, and it had quite an engaging story for my 2014 period. Though it was rambling, and I now consider it in need of a complete rewrite before being published anywhere.
Things do ebb and flow, depending on whether I accidentally eat or drink something for which I have an intolerance. Sometimes that can last a day or two, sometimes it can last weeks or even months. It's been hard, but I think I'm walking the right path.
What are your working habits?
Sunday, 16 September 2018
The "Non-" Human Problem
A while back, I wrote a post about future projects. Out of them all, I decided upon the one I referred to as "strange blend of sci-fi and fantasy" revolving around pirates. I got into writing the third draft of the first chapter when I made a decision. I didn't want to write another story revolving around human protagonists in a science fantasy world. I wanted something different. And since I've always had a soft spot for canine/lupine characters in fiction, I decided upon that; a world where the dominant species are humanoid lupine creatures called the Okaru.
This gave me much liberation, but also presented multiple problems. I'll do the problems first.
Problem A: They're not human. Obvious, but still a problem. So using human pronouns in a world without humans as a reference is asking for trouble. This extends to terms like "mankind" or "humankind", but also less obvious ones like gender nouns. Using "he" and "she" can't really be avoided if you want to avoid rampant confusion. But unlike a previous experiment with this, using "male" and "female" seems too clinical for what I want to do with this story.
Problem B: Making it both relatable and alien. This compounds and is compounded by the above problem. You need to use some terms because otherwise you risk leaving the reader completely at sea. Conversely, using several terms from the human world can help with translation, but use them too much and the illusion of otherness is broken. Striking the balance between the fantastic and the mundane is something any fantasy or sci-fi writer worth their salt has needed to come to terms with at some point.
Problem C: They're not human, physically. Having these non-humans running around means you need to create something that's not the strictly ape-based bipedal form humans have had for so many millions of years. But the general fiction-reading public is still having a hard time grasping the wilder aspects of the non-human. As proved in Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar, and virtually every other popular sci-fi story, humanoid characters not only provide easy roles for human actors, but allow viewers to empathise. Some stories such as Solaris and The Uplift War break this mould, but have human or humanoid characters to balance that out. My aim with this story was to create characters who couldn't be played by people in suits and masks.
And now for this story's liberations!
Liberation A: Gender noun freedom. Yes, I earlier cited this as a problem. But it also liberates me from the restrictive letter box style of the English language when it comes to gender. It very much limits based on sight and sound of voice. Someone can changed from he to she or she to he, but what about those who don't identify as either? There are terms for such people in languages other than English, but they haven't actually carried over. Dropping human gender nouns allowed me to substitute them with versions that sound alien, but are based on an existing language other than English. This also provided me with a word that covered people who didn't identify as either. For these people, as suggested by my sister, I used the terms "them" and "they". There is also a better understanding an tribal-style acceptance of these people within Okaru society.
Liberation B: Characters with more potential. As its a non-human society, the world of the Okaru is in some ways less restrictive than our human world. While it has a real-world base (the late 16th to early 17th century period known as the Golden Age of Piracy, where following the Seven Years War, Britain had become the dominant naval world in the world) it needn't follow real-world history too closely. This means it can use an established structure for characters to grow in or rebel against without too many of the usual restrictions. Just so long as it doesn't resort to the get-out of pulling stuff out of thin air. For instance, my lead is a pirate on a mission independent from the usual pirate fraternity, while her antagonist is a military leader determined to wipe out piracy.
Liberation C: Commentary opportunities. Something about the Okaru is that they are distinguished by their fur rather than the human equivalent of skin and hair colour. This offers opportunities to use the Okaru equivalent of ethnicities while also creating striking images for the main characters that the reader can hold in their minds. This gives opportunities for commentary in aspects such as stereotyping and even racism in a context safer than using actual humans. Still hot topics, but with a slight buffer zone allowing them to be an introduction for younger readers.
That's really all I'm prepared to say about my new project for the moment. I hope it can be read someday. And I hope you enjoyed reading about it.
This gave me much liberation, but also presented multiple problems. I'll do the problems first.
Problem A: They're not human. Obvious, but still a problem. So using human pronouns in a world without humans as a reference is asking for trouble. This extends to terms like "mankind" or "humankind", but also less obvious ones like gender nouns. Using "he" and "she" can't really be avoided if you want to avoid rampant confusion. But unlike a previous experiment with this, using "male" and "female" seems too clinical for what I want to do with this story.
Problem B: Making it both relatable and alien. This compounds and is compounded by the above problem. You need to use some terms because otherwise you risk leaving the reader completely at sea. Conversely, using several terms from the human world can help with translation, but use them too much and the illusion of otherness is broken. Striking the balance between the fantastic and the mundane is something any fantasy or sci-fi writer worth their salt has needed to come to terms with at some point.
Problem C: They're not human, physically. Having these non-humans running around means you need to create something that's not the strictly ape-based bipedal form humans have had for so many millions of years. But the general fiction-reading public is still having a hard time grasping the wilder aspects of the non-human. As proved in Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar, and virtually every other popular sci-fi story, humanoid characters not only provide easy roles for human actors, but allow viewers to empathise. Some stories such as Solaris and The Uplift War break this mould, but have human or humanoid characters to balance that out. My aim with this story was to create characters who couldn't be played by people in suits and masks.
And now for this story's liberations!
Liberation A: Gender noun freedom. Yes, I earlier cited this as a problem. But it also liberates me from the restrictive letter box style of the English language when it comes to gender. It very much limits based on sight and sound of voice. Someone can changed from he to she or she to he, but what about those who don't identify as either? There are terms for such people in languages other than English, but they haven't actually carried over. Dropping human gender nouns allowed me to substitute them with versions that sound alien, but are based on an existing language other than English. This also provided me with a word that covered people who didn't identify as either. For these people, as suggested by my sister, I used the terms "them" and "they". There is also a better understanding an tribal-style acceptance of these people within Okaru society.
Liberation B: Characters with more potential. As its a non-human society, the world of the Okaru is in some ways less restrictive than our human world. While it has a real-world base (the late 16th to early 17th century period known as the Golden Age of Piracy, where following the Seven Years War, Britain had become the dominant naval world in the world) it needn't follow real-world history too closely. This means it can use an established structure for characters to grow in or rebel against without too many of the usual restrictions. Just so long as it doesn't resort to the get-out of pulling stuff out of thin air. For instance, my lead is a pirate on a mission independent from the usual pirate fraternity, while her antagonist is a military leader determined to wipe out piracy.
Liberation C: Commentary opportunities. Something about the Okaru is that they are distinguished by their fur rather than the human equivalent of skin and hair colour. This offers opportunities to use the Okaru equivalent of ethnicities while also creating striking images for the main characters that the reader can hold in their minds. This gives opportunities for commentary in aspects such as stereotyping and even racism in a context safer than using actual humans. Still hot topics, but with a slight buffer zone allowing them to be an introduction for younger readers.
That's really all I'm prepared to say about my new project for the moment. I hope it can be read someday. And I hope you enjoyed reading about it.
Sunday, 9 September 2018
Review - Short Story - We Purchased People
In recent days, I've been acquainting myself with some of the classic science fiction present in our family bookshelves. Among them is a large volume of short stories written by masters of the craft. The one that caught my eye was "We Purchased People" by Frederik Pohl. I read it, and it's not one I can keep to myself.
The premise is a world where humanity is in trade with several different alien races. As FTL travel doesn't yet exist, this trade is done via advanced communication technology which allows the various species to exchange information for various trinkets and resources from Earth. Their agents are the dregs of humanity, implanted with technology that allows their "owners" to control them for any length of time. The protagonist is one such "purchased person", a man whose past is extremely shady and whose life is quickly thrown into utter chaos due to the innocent inquisitiveness of his owners.
This story isn't the typical sci-fi fare. It doesn't shy away from extremely mature subject matter, yet doesn't have a single severe expletive in it. The main character is the most extreme type of anti-hero, if any term including the world "hero" can be used for him. He's sullen, twisted, and his suffering doesn't elicit any sympathy at all. This is an analysis of how the cast-offs of humanity are used for some purpose.
On the whole, I would recommend this to true sci-fi connoisseurs. It's well-written, and has an interesting and twisted take on human-alien relations. It also shows up many elements of human prejudice and reminds one of some of the more disturbing elements of mental programming experiments from the 20th century. And yes, this story was written after people became fully aware of the CIA's Project MKUltra.
10/10
Sunday, 26 August 2018
Advice from Authors - Or Not?
Over the years, I've seen plenty of articles written by other authors. Two articles I saw were from Erica Verrillo's blog; one set of tips from Stephen King, a key one from Frank Herbert and one from Ray Bradbury. Advice is all very well, but if you let it begin corrupting your own style, it's stops being helpful.
My advice came in the form of emails from Frances Hardinge, an author who had just entered the scene when I was introduced via a family friend. Her criticism and appraisal of my work helped me get a good idea of where I wanted to go and what I needed to improve. Hardinge's advice was far more helpful than a lot of things my family and friends were saying at the time. But while her advice was helpful through and through, others have not been.
The quote from Herbert above is hugely significant for me, as my stories are driven by characters and a set progression inspired by many things from television series to Herbert's own work. I find his advice valuable and insightful. I'm still aware of the industry's pitfalls in this regard, but Herbert's advice helps me see past it towards making my hopeful career.
Verrillo's article on King's advice. It focuses a lot on story-telling style, and advocates a streamlined style which is short and snappy, but leaves little-to-no room for going mad with things like poetic expression and deep description. As I've seen plenty of authors make successfully careers out of that style, I don't find his advice entirely convincing. But I also see the merit of keeping it in mind. Being able to do both gives an author an edge; they can switch markets when needed, increasing their readership by at least double. There is a different piece of advice she extracted from the writing of his debut Carrie, which basically boiled down to revision and never throwing away old drafts in case they might be useful. That I agree with.
Bradbery's advice boils down to "write, write, write". To quote:
All of these little bits and pieces have helped inform my approach to pushing at the industry's iron-clad walls. And I hope these may help others in the same position as me. Just make sure you take these pieces of advice as they are offered, and remember their context. You'll take more away from it if you do.
My advice came in the form of emails from Frances Hardinge, an author who had just entered the scene when I was introduced via a family friend. Her criticism and appraisal of my work helped me get a good idea of where I wanted to go and what I needed to improve. Hardinge's advice was far more helpful than a lot of things my family and friends were saying at the time. But while her advice was helpful through and through, others have not been.
The quote from Herbert above is hugely significant for me, as my stories are driven by characters and a set progression inspired by many things from television series to Herbert's own work. I find his advice valuable and insightful. I'm still aware of the industry's pitfalls in this regard, but Herbert's advice helps me see past it towards making my hopeful career.
Verrillo's article on King's advice. It focuses a lot on story-telling style, and advocates a streamlined style which is short and snappy, but leaves little-to-no room for going mad with things like poetic expression and deep description. As I've seen plenty of authors make successfully careers out of that style, I don't find his advice entirely convincing. But I also see the merit of keeping it in mind. Being able to do both gives an author an edge; they can switch markets when needed, increasing their readership by at least double. There is a different piece of advice she extracted from the writing of his debut Carrie, which basically boiled down to revision and never throwing away old drafts in case they might be useful. That I agree with.
Bradbery's advice boils down to "write, write, write". To quote:
If you can write one short story a week, it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start – at least you’re practicing. At the end of the year you have 52 short stories. And I defy you to write 52 bad ones. It can’t be done. After 30 or 40 weeks, all of a sudden a story will come that is wonderful – just wonderful. That’s what happened to me...He also emphasises the importance of absorbing the works of the masters. Personally, I feel a little conflicted. While I'm certain many of the story ideas I create wouldn't make good novels, and I could write a story per week, he's writing from a very different position. In fact, all of these authors seem to be speaking for a perspective that isn't mine; a self-employed writer trying to break into a competitive market, where the industry is in the midst of the e-book revolution, which in turn impacts the conflict between short fiction and longform works.
All of these little bits and pieces have helped inform my approach to pushing at the industry's iron-clad walls. And I hope these may help others in the same position as me. Just make sure you take these pieces of advice as they are offered, and remember their context. You'll take more away from it if you do.
Sunday, 19 August 2018
Let's Play the Ten-Word Game
Anyone here know the ten-word game? If you don't, here's a basic explanation. Take a story - any story - and condense the plot into ten words or less. It's really quite fun, and throws some interesting revelations on how derivative or formulaic some stories can be. Including mine.
So for this post, I'm going to do some ten-word summaries of several stories, and the answers will be blacked out. Just highlight them after you've thought about it for a while, and see if you were right.
("E" stands for example, and "A" for answer)
1E; Person makes journey to destroy lethal object. Succeeds. World saved.
1A; The Lord of the Rings. And a few other stories.
E2; Two people from different groups meet. Form a bond. Conflict.
A2; This could be a wide range of stories as the theme is present in much of fiction. To my mind, this is Romeo and Juliet, How to Tame Your Dragon, Disney's Pocahontas and Avatar.
E3; Bad person gets redeemed. Fights crime. Battles adversary. Finds love.
A3; Once again, this has many parallels, particularly in the superhero genre. My personal pick would be The Shadow. The movie version, that is.
E4; Person cruelly wronged. Survives and returns to seek retribution. Succeeds.
A4; Any descent revenge story follows this pattern, with The Count of Monte Cristo being the most famous example in modern literature.
That's just a very few. There are endless possibilities for describing any story in ten words or less. What stories can you describe? You don't even need to show their titles. Just describe it to someone, and wait to see if they get it.
Go on. Try.
So for this post, I'm going to do some ten-word summaries of several stories, and the answers will be blacked out. Just highlight them after you've thought about it for a while, and see if you were right.
("E" stands for example, and "A" for answer)
1E; Person makes journey to destroy lethal object. Succeeds. World saved.
1A; The Lord of the Rings. And a few other stories.
E2; Two people from different groups meet. Form a bond. Conflict.
A2; This could be a wide range of stories as the theme is present in much of fiction. To my mind, this is Romeo and Juliet, How to Tame Your Dragon, Disney's Pocahontas and Avatar.
E3; Bad person gets redeemed. Fights crime. Battles adversary. Finds love.
A3; Once again, this has many parallels, particularly in the superhero genre. My personal pick would be The Shadow. The movie version, that is.
E4; Person cruelly wronged. Survives and returns to seek retribution. Succeeds.
A4; Any descent revenge story follows this pattern, with The Count of Monte Cristo being the most famous example in modern literature.
That's just a very few. There are endless possibilities for describing any story in ten words or less. What stories can you describe? You don't even need to show their titles. Just describe it to someone, and wait to see if they get it.
Go on. Try.
Sunday, 12 August 2018
Choices, Choices
NOTE: Many apologies for my lack of activity between Saturday and Thursday. I was on a camping holiday in Herefordshire with three other generations of family. Not entirely nice due to my inexperience with camping, but enjoyable enough that I'll remember it.
The life of someone trying to get published as an author is hard. You finish one work, and immediately think about moving on to another one once you've recovered. But is there any point? You're not published yet. Yes, there is a point! There is absolutely a point! Stopping at one work won't cut it. Some authors can tenderly refine and improve their work over so many years and strike lucky with an agent or publisher. But that's not my way. You can still refine and polish one work while writing another. And that's not counting short stories, and posts like this.
Right now, I've got between three and four possible large projects to pursue. By large, I'm talking about novels. Short stories can be completed in around a week, though that's without taking editing and proofing into account.
My first possibility is a strange blend of sci-fi and fantasy, inspired by two things; that amazing trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2, and pirate stories ranging from On Stranger Tides and Treasure Island to contemporary offerings such as Laputa and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Basically the romping tale of one woman's selfless search for a wish-granting island, it's something light and friendly I can do after completing an extremely weighty sci-fi revenge story.
The second is slightly darker, and comparatively easier. A take on Lovecraft where the Eldritch monstrosities he described are simply how we appear in a simultaneous parallel "Other" realm crossing the prose of Lovecraft with the fleshy weirdness of Cronenberg. I'm setting it around North Wales, particularly Anglesey - my home, and consequently the perfect setting for me to describe a place with native detail and twist it using the filter of the Other.
The third is something that occurred to me on holiday, while I was playing the card game Once Upon A Time with my mother, sister and niece. I'd long had the idea of creating a grand adventure in a "classic" fantasy swords-and-sorcery realm which would help question many of the genre's accepted tropes. The role of the hero and "princess", what evil is, the sometimes-contrived events that happen along the way. Combined with the card game's premise of telling and influencing a story based on the cards in your hand to reach your "Happily Ever After" inspired this concept. A grand fantasy world where the hero's actions and events encountered were influenced by a group playing a game in the real world. The only one conscious of this at first is a single player expelled from the game that has entered the world controlled by the cards to tilt the game in favour of winning its freedom from control.
Those are the best contenders. And so, as the title of the post says.... Choices, choices.
The life of someone trying to get published as an author is hard. You finish one work, and immediately think about moving on to another one once you've recovered. But is there any point? You're not published yet. Yes, there is a point! There is absolutely a point! Stopping at one work won't cut it. Some authors can tenderly refine and improve their work over so many years and strike lucky with an agent or publisher. But that's not my way. You can still refine and polish one work while writing another. And that's not counting short stories, and posts like this.
Right now, I've got between three and four possible large projects to pursue. By large, I'm talking about novels. Short stories can be completed in around a week, though that's without taking editing and proofing into account.
My first possibility is a strange blend of sci-fi and fantasy, inspired by two things; that amazing trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2, and pirate stories ranging from On Stranger Tides and Treasure Island to contemporary offerings such as Laputa and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Basically the romping tale of one woman's selfless search for a wish-granting island, it's something light and friendly I can do after completing an extremely weighty sci-fi revenge story.
The second is slightly darker, and comparatively easier. A take on Lovecraft where the Eldritch monstrosities he described are simply how we appear in a simultaneous parallel "Other" realm crossing the prose of Lovecraft with the fleshy weirdness of Cronenberg. I'm setting it around North Wales, particularly Anglesey - my home, and consequently the perfect setting for me to describe a place with native detail and twist it using the filter of the Other.
The third is something that occurred to me on holiday, while I was playing the card game Once Upon A Time with my mother, sister and niece. I'd long had the idea of creating a grand adventure in a "classic" fantasy swords-and-sorcery realm which would help question many of the genre's accepted tropes. The role of the hero and "princess", what evil is, the sometimes-contrived events that happen along the way. Combined with the card game's premise of telling and influencing a story based on the cards in your hand to reach your "Happily Ever After" inspired this concept. A grand fantasy world where the hero's actions and events encountered were influenced by a group playing a game in the real world. The only one conscious of this at first is a single player expelled from the game that has entered the world controlled by the cards to tilt the game in favour of winning its freedom from control.
Those are the best contenders. And so, as the title of the post says.... Choices, choices.
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