Squiggly Lines

Here's what I've been up to lately. I built a fire of creativity, and I stuck every iron I had into it. I have this new story I'm planning for November, and I have at least three old stories I'd like to revise. I have all this stuff, and I'm not really doing anything with anything on a daily basis.

I need to pick one project and go with it. My next NaNo novel is the obvious choice. Everything else can wait until December. Cold Blooded (the vampire one) will probably be the first revision project, because it has the most usable material to work with. After that is done (yes, done, not just half-done and abandoned), then The Long Road (the road trip one) and Cape Nowhere (the Victorian X-Files one) can get their chance.

But in order to make any of these stories really work, I'll need to do some planning.

Mostly Dead

It always happens that I'll be in the midst of one project, and already I'm thinking about the next. At the moment, I'm supposed to be plotting my upcoming NaNo novel, I haven't even started it, and instead I'm thinking about revision.

It's been brought to my attention that my 2016 vampire NaNo novel, Cold Blooded, is not half bad. It's readable, even. So it might be prudent for me to try to revise that one, as opposed to The Long Road, which still needs most of a plot.

Now, I haven't reread Cold Blooded in a while. I'm not sure if I've read it since I finished the first draft. But I remember it being a lot of fun to write. I did a lot of research on vampires in various works of fiction, picking out the attributes that I wanted to use.

Reading is Fundamental

I haven’t done a ton of writing lately. I've actually been doing some reading.

Most recently, in that's it's ongoing, I've read Hank Green's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I started it last night, and I'm almost done with it. It. Is. Fantastic. Narratively, it's fascinating. It has a habit of telling you about things before they come up in the story, but it doesn't make it any less exciting when it does come up. Like, something will be mentioned, and it piques your interest, and you want to know what on earth that's about. Then it gets to that point, and it's still all, "Oh shit! That happened!" I'm explaining this terribly. But it’s fucking great. And it includes all these elements of modern culture, like the internet and social media, that makes it all seem kind of… possible.

Seriously, if you are a fan of… books that are good, read it.

The other thing I read recently was not a book. Not a real one. Not a complete one. I had opened it up when I was looking for excerpts for my last post. It's Cape Nowhere, my 2012 NaNo novel.

Finding a Voice

Sorry there was no post last week. I had a lot going on.

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Narrative voice. That's why we're here today.

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but A) I'm too lazy to verify that, and B) it's an ongoing problem, so it bears repeating.

What I mean is the voice that the narrated bits (not the dialogue bits) are in. If you're writing in first person, then that's one of your characters. Otherwise, it's just this nebulous narrator figure. But just because they don’t have a body or a face doesn't mean that they don't have a personality and a voice.

My problem lies in the fact that my narrative voice tends to have no personality. It's just this flat, clinical description. And when it's not, then it's… wrong. Like a lack of cold professionalism is childish.

The Horror!

Unrelated to absolutely everything I've been up to lately, horror is hard to write.

I mean, I guess The Long Road has horror-ish elements (like whatever the fuck the sheriff of Maranatha is), but I wouldn't call it horror.

Horror movies are easy. Shitty horror movies, anyway. You throw in a creepy soundtrack, some jump scares, and you're done. Startling, at any rate, is easy on film.

You can't startle with a book. Words don't jump out at people. With a book, you've gotta be all atmospheric and build tension. With words! It's hard.

What About Everything?

I've started rewriting The Long Road again. I haven't got very far, but it feels… good, just to be working on it again. I figured out how and where to start it, that introduces the characters without being all info-dumpy.

That being said, I'm thinking a lot about backstory.

Obviously, these characters have history, both of their own and with each other. I've been doing a lot of research into how to incorporate that into the story. And let me tell you, the internet is god damn useless. "Work backstory into the narrative in bits and pieces." No shit. You don't want to stop the action to explain how your characters know each other, or how they got where they are now. Some sites recommended the use of a prologue. As far as I know, prologues should really only be used when there's some crucial worldbuilding that needs to be done up front. Usually that's a sci-fi/fantasy thing, where the reader needs to know something about the world in order to not be completely lost. This is not that kind of story.

Making Promises

I haven't been working on anything lately. I have all these things I want to do, all these grand plans… all these murders to commit. Fictionally, speaking, of course. Of course…

That's the downside of all this. It makes me sound like a psycho something.

Anyway, I have the ideas. I just don't have the motivation. I could barely get the motivation to write this post.

The question, then, is what do I do about it.

Much like inspiration, you can't just wait around for motivation. You just have to do it. You have to make it a habit, a routine, and just sit down and do it, even when you don't want to.

As you can see, I haven't mastered that yet.

The Triumphant Return of Steve

This post is unique. It may not look it, but it's very different from anything I've ever done. It was written entirely on a smartphone. That's right, I've finally joined everyone else in the future.

You know, Fifty Shades of Grey was written on a BlackBerry, I've heard. And look how that turned out.

I certainly type a lot slower using this tiny keyboard, so I'm not going to be using this all the time, but it's a little something different and... what's the adjective form of novelty? Oh. It's "novel." I'm an idiot.

Well, speaking of novels, I guess, I might as well tell you all my upcoming plans.

Where to Start

I'm back on The Long Road. Maybe I never really got off of it. Maybe I'll always be here. Maybe no one ever gets out.

But that's not why we're here. We're not aiming to get off the road, we're trying to get on it.

I've began this story twice. And both times, it began just before our heroes set out on their trip. And both times, I've had to slog through some boring shit to get them on the road and started on their adventure. I get caught in a dialogue trap, where everyone just talks and nothing happens. It's like… conversation quicksand.

It's one thing to have dialog that enhances what's going on, and propels the plot forward. But this… it's not that. Much as I like Tony's coffee story, it's not really contributing to the story as a whole.

So I've come to the conclusion that the story needs to start later.

Well-Contained Plots

Bottles. Great for cramming messages into. Also great for stories you want to keep contained.

That's right, we're talking about bottle episodes, or bottle movies. Or bottle stories in general. Terrarium fiction, I once said. You take all your plot, characters, and conflict, and you stick them in a confined space and sit back to see what happens.

Bottle stories are not necessarily bound to the bottle. There is nothing keeping the action there. It just happens to all take place there. Personally, I think it's more interesting if the bottle's been corked.