Charlie ‘Skid’ Moore ran leisurely in traffic, easily keeping up with the forty mile an hour pace. His bright suit of red shirt and blue pants stood out in the traffic. He’d originally gone for a dark grey and black, thinking it looked cooler, but after four very near misses with hurtling vehicles, he’d opted for a brighter, more visible color combination. While it kept him from more near misses, it also created it’s own problems. People, especially those in the news business, and fanatics on both sides of the ‘superhero’ argument were prone to following him around. It made … [READ MORE]
Much ado about not writing
How to not write? Simple, just stop. Once you get in the habit of stopping there’s nothing to stop you stopping except to get back up and write. You have to choose, writing or not. You can cry to the world that you love writing, but it’s all empty air until you sit down and break your habit of sitting. Writing can be fun, and is it ever rewarding. However, there are many days when writing isn’t convenient, or a struggle to develop a scene or step through the awkwardness of writing about something deeply personal or uncomfortable. That’s when … [READ MORE]
On success
How do I measure success? With the metric system.
Seriously, success is difficult to describe, which in part is why we’re writing about it here. My own personal measure of success is not by sales or publishing, though, those are great perks of the job. My measure of success is finishing. Yes, I want people to read my stories, enjoy them and even re-read them. But, to me, that’s validation, not actual success.
Success is starting a project, and seeing it through to the end. Did I have the perseverance to finish a story and the belief that it should … [READ MORE]
On characters
In my admittedly thin writing experience, I’ve found that creating characters is akin to hitting a constantly changing moving target. I never really take notes about the story. I just tend to dive in and let things evolve.
I like thinking about the main characters. My first view of them is almost always not what they end up as. I’d originally thought that Fern, in ‘Best Intentions’ would be a larger than life character. I first thought of her as the Amazon of the two sisters, but as I started writing, I realized that I’d reversed the view. Fern was … [READ MORE]
The creative process, an example.
The creative process is different for everyone. How I think of things is not how you will at all. The following example is some of the things I see in word association.
To show what I mean I’ll use a random word generator to get three random words to start with, and try to build ideas from those words.
I got match, celery, look. Pretty darn random.
To take the words in order:
Match could mean an identical thing, a romantic joining, or a matchstick.
Celery is a lot more narrow. It’s not really slang for anything, and is a … [READ MORE]
My wall
If you’re curious, that’s my wall in the picture. To explain what you’re looking at is a story.
This one’s called ‘No Fury’ the pale yellow card is a background character who has a professional grudge with one of the main characters described on the neon orange card it’s directly above.
The purple cards are significant background characters whose actions impact the main protagonists and the world.
That white quote over the headphones is from Groucho Marx, and reminds me it’s my choice that determines how I face the day.
The big 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper are tasks … [READ MORE]
Another thought on writing
I don’t know how someone else gets ideas for stories. I’ll guess that something triggers an idea that ‘something’ is a good story. In my case, there is a trigger. It’s not always the same. As an example, I may read an article about Fuel cells, and that becomes a cascade of linked ideas, such as a fuel cell made of paper ( don’t laugh it’s actually been done) which grows to what about making a paper airplane with whose kind o fuel cells, which goes to why not a regular plane, or a dirigible which uses humidity in the … [READ MORE]
On Collaborative writing
Collaboration is one of the most fun ways for me to write. I like the sharing of ideas, and story. It’s a good way to make characters unique, as your writing partners each have a unique style and voice to bring to the project.
The down side is if there’s a delay, you’re either stuck waiting, or stuck feeling like you’ve let your partner down.
I’ve tried two styles of collaborative writing, and each has pluses and minuses.
The first style is where you trade writing chapters. This works well for plot and storyline, as doing a complete chapter, including … [READ MORE]
MIPAV
In writing, I’ve found that sometimes characters walk fully formed out of my imagination, and they take me for the ride. Other times, the story develops without characters and I have to figure out how to make the personalities. A man named Thom Beck showed my b/f a method of creating a quick personality for acting, and I’ve found it works for my characters as a good starting point for personalities. It’s called MIPAV, which stands for Motivation, Intention, Preoccupation, Animal Imagery, and Visualization. Each helps me get an idea of what the character is like.
Motivation is that,
Red, Black, White – Part 12
“We”, Summer and Winter said in unison, “want to ask if you’re ready to make a choice.” They looked at him steadily. Wally returned their calm gaze.
“You asked me that before. My answer’s the same now as it was then. No. I’m not going to choose a side.” Pain flared suddenly in his chest. The searing pain cut off as both Summer and Winter stepped to him, and lay a hand on his shoulders. He could feel the pain roll out of him to them. Their faces showed no change, no reaction as they took the last of the … [READ MORE]