Guns & Magic

 

I want to improve my writing and my storytelling skills. To that end, I’m now looking for a critique partner.

 

Ideally, I find someone who:

 

The idea is that I provide feedback and critique for their work, and they do the same for me. Both of us learning from each other and the back-and-forth process.

 

I’ve posted quite a few examples of my recent writing on this blog. If any or all of that falls within the scope of your tastes–or if you just think you know what I need to do to improve–please feel free to contact me, either in the comments here or email me.

 

-David

 

 

Missed yesterday entirely. Squeezed in a bit today, though, in the afternoon.

 

In the past, I’ve been most productive when I get my writing in first thing. By “first thing” I mean “first thing after my shower”; AKA the “first real work of the day”, before development work and customer support and the other overhead of running a business. This is the schedule I’m re-instating (or am in the process of re-instating).

 

Unfortunately, yesterday and today both had outside responsibilities that sat on my day “first thing”. So it goes sometimes. Life and kids and whatnot.

 

Some people advocate “punishing” themselves when they miss a day of their writing schedule. Usually by setting a higher target word count on the next day. That doesn’t work for me. I respond very negatively to punishment.

 

Once, though, some years back, I lost a couple day’s work through a fluke database restore issue. First I was stunned at how stupid I could be. Then I was pissed at how stupid I had been. Finally, for the next several weeks I tripled my daily output. That more than made up for what I had lost, and had the added benefit of helping me stretch beyond what I had thought possible before then. And it shows that I can be motivated by failure.

 

Most of the time, though, I prefer to just avoid dumping guilt and recrimination on my own head and realize that tomorrow is another day. Missing one day isn’t failing. Never starting again–that is failing.

 

-David

 

 

I’ve been following Dean Wesley Smith’s “motivation” posts on his blog. I’ve also been doing a lot of reading around other blogs and the Web in general, gathering information, tips and inspiration. I’ve stewed it all down and come up with my writing goals for 2010.

 

In 2009, my primary goal was “Finish The Journal 5″. I achieved that goal (eventually), and I will, of course, continue working on The Journal during 2010 (it is, more or less, my “day job”). But for 2010, my primary goal is:

 

 

(more…)

 

For the stories this month, I had been selecting a painting the night before, giving it a bit of thought, and then going to bed.

 

And then getting a lousy night’s sleep as my brain kept trying out story ideas.

 

It was like my brain got into a cycle, running round and round in tight little circles, keeping me up when what I really wanted to just get to sleep. It was, in a word, tiring.

 

So last night I deliberately didn’t pick a painting. I got a wonderful night’s sleep.

 

I picked a painting this morning, and ….

 

I refer you to the first line of this post.

 

Total blank.

 

So I spent the afternoon working on some minor new features for The Journal. Overall, I got quite a bit done. More than I expected.

 

Except for the lack of writing.

 

Tonight, I had the idea that I would pick out a handful of paintings (3 or more) and give them all some pondering, get the mental juices going with the seeds of stories–but hopefully without the OCD-induced-insomnia aspects.

 

We’ll see how it goes.

 

-David

 

-David

 

…must be, more than anything else, familiar. If the lyrics are also in a foreign language, that’s a bonus (I wrote The Indie Game Development Survival Guide listening almost exclusively to Rammstein).

 

Anything new and different distracts me.

 

“Mood” or tone of the music and lyrics isn’t that important. Or maybe it is (I wrote The Summoning Fire while listening to a lot of Blue October; there’s a lot of self-hatred in both my book and their music). But I suspect that, more than anything else, I select music based on my mood more than that of the book I’m working on. Usually the mood of the book  is established in development, long before I start working on the main text.

 

So, yeah, no breaking in new bands while writing. There’s plenty of time for that in the afternoons when I’m working on software.

 

-David

 

 

My round #1 story for the Creative Writing Championships Flash Fiction 2008 has been submitted:

 

 

Time for a bit of reflection.

 

 

1. Mission Accomplished! I wrote and submitted a <1000 word short short story in less than 48 hours. On the other hand, I never doubted I could.

 

2. I Cut 1100 Words. My first draft was 2100 words long. Which is also covered below in “What Went Wrong”. So I had to cut 1100 words to meet contest guidelines. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it. Not and retain the same essential story. But I think I managed it. In fact, I think the story might be better now. Every sentence has been gone over time and time again and I tried to make them all contain as much exposition, plot and character as I could shoehorn in.

 

3. I Turned the Story In On Time. I was sitting downstairs watching TV, letting my third draft “cool off” before final editing and submission. And almost forgot that the deadline wasn’t midnight for me (CDT here). So I had only 40 minutes to do a final edit and write a “brief synopsis”.

 

4. The Story Came Easier Than Expected. When I first saw the story parameters (romance, on a rollercoaster, with a straw), I shook my head and hoped for the best. Romance and rollercoaster weren’t that big a deal (though, frankly, a ferris wheel would’ve been easier). The possible sticking point was the straw. People don’t share drinks, as an example of how a romance might include a straw, on a rollercoaster. Not more than once, anyway. And if it was a straw that broke something (like a rollercoaster track), that wouldn’t be much of a romance. The idea of chewing on a straw came to me as I was building the present-day-plus-flashback structure. That both the ex and the son chewed on straws (and that it annoyed Jo both times) seemed like a workable bit of characterization, and a nice set of “bookends”.

 

5. I Edited My Opening. Something I’ve struggled with in my writing is editing/revising the opening. I’ve tended to keep the opening I first wrote. And in the past year or so I’ve noticed that I needed to stop doing that. The opening of this story underwent major changes. Not the least because I had to get the story going faster–and with fewer words. So, good practice.

 

 

1. 2X Too Long 1st Draft. It says “Flash Fiction” in the name of the contest. And a month or so ago I actually read that. Yesterday, while writing, I forgot. Silly me.

 

2. Did I Really Write a Romance? It’s not a genre I’ve tackled before, not even during A Short Story a Day back in 2006. 1000 words doesn’t offer a lot of time and space to follow the traditional romance arc of girl-meets-boy/girl-hates-boy/girl-fucks-boy/girl-loses-boy/happily-ever-after. My take on flash fiction is that you focus on one decision. And you try to provide as much useful and entertaining context for the decision as possible. So I tried to do that within the context of a romance. Two romances, maybe. One failed and one that might happen. Maybe it worked.

 

That’s about it, I think, for what went wrong.

 

Overall, I’m pleased with the story. Even if I did edit it to within a comma of its life and now have a hard time reading it. I don’t often edit stories this much. So I guess it’s good practice.

 

Feel free to leave comments on the story itself, or about this post-mortem.

 

If you also participated in the contest, I’d love to hear from you. If your stories are online, drop me the link.

 

-David

 

I cut 1100 words. Mostly adjectives and exposition. Hopefully, the story still makes sense.

 

I’ll do one more draft before I submit it to the contest. In a bit. Need to let things cool.

 

-David

 

NOTE: Originally posted 23 August 2006 on A Short Story a Day.

 

“Omit needless words.” –Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style

 

Damn straight.

 

I started out to write a longer article, articulating several points (example: “surprise endings” usually aren’t [*]), but decided that all of it distilled down to the title:

 

 

Don’t write boring endings. Don’t write boring middles. And for the love of all things holy, don’t write boring beginnings.

 

If you can kick the boring habit you can write anything and people will read it.

 

I’m not there yet. But it’s a goal, and I like to think I’m on my way. (When I get there, I’ll send you a postcard. And you’ll be blown away by it!)

 

One more time, because even Strunk & White repeated their mantra:

 

 

-David

 

[*] I’m not kidding about the surprise ending thing. Give it up. At best, your (and by “your”, I include “my”) story comes across like a Twilight Zone episode. At worst…no one even makes it to your oh-so-surprising ending. Because you tried so hard to preserve the Big Moment for the ending that the rest of the story is a real snoozer.