Writing about Writing

I haven't exactly been sticking to my schedule as of late. Most of that is due to the busy-ness that becomes the "holiday season," beginning with Halloween and stretching through my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and part of it is due to a lack of "newness" to the whole venture.

You see, here I write about writing. My journey is unique to me, of course, and a lot of the my greatest "hits" are personal reflections on something-or-other. It's when I start talking about the general things that I trip; similar to in my Writer's Group, where I've been attending so long that I should either be the best writer evarrr by now or just have pretty much "heard it all."

Writing is probably the only capitalist practice where there is so much "how to" documentation available both for free and at cost. Part of this is innate; for a writer to write about writing is a natural connection. And yet, I've realized lately that it goes against logic in a way. When you think about it, why would someone like me want to tell someone like you how to write a novel? I am, by doing so, encouraging "competition."

It could be that the market for books is so immense that I probably wouldn't notice if the people who read this blog started churning out books like mad. I might even feel kind of proud, but it's likely that I wouldn't necessarily be negatively impacted. Then again, I don't think this is realistic. While brick-and-mortar stores can only contain so many books on their shelves, online retailers have unlimited capacity to "list" books to buy... but in either case there is only so much a consumer can look at, especially before making a decision.

So why do so many writers want to instruct other people in the craft of writing? Perhaps it helps us writers to do so, both by the practice of composing our thoughts on our craft and by (by some awesome psychology) convincing ourselves that we actually know what we're talking about.

It's become clear to me, over a protracted amount of time, that there is no "right way" to write a novel. Therefore I must conclude that a lot of this "instruction" is merely for confidence purposes. To turn someone into a "writer," all you honestly need to do is convince them that they're a writer by having them write. Note I didn't say "good" writer, because that takes editing and time, but the act of putting pen to page is ultimately all it takes to write (by definition).

There's also a sense of solidarity reading someone's "instruction" about writing; the fact that all of us struggle with this from time to time is heartening. Even Stephen King and the other bestsellers have slumps, ruts, and failures mixed in with their triumphs. That's the personal aspect.

The impersonal aspect, when how-to-write people launch into "this is how it's done" messages (which I am quite guilty of myself, lately) is probably more for their own edification than it is for a selfless act to support the throng of aspiring writers clamoring for assistance out of the forest of ideas and into the civilization of authorship.

"Anything" and "Everything"

Final Fantasy Tactics is a roleplaying game for the Playstation (PSX) wherein you play Ramza, a youngest-brother of a noble family who matures just enough to command and manage a squad of soldiers all on his own. It is critically acclaimed as [one of] the best Strategy RPG's of all time, and thought of fondly whenever a game from that genre is produced or reviewed.

I, myself, have gained hundreds of hours or enjoyment/entertainment from "FFT," though not always from the story/campaign mode (the normal plot-advancing sequence of events). Rather, I generally take the game-breaking approach and use the Accelerate/Frog/Chakra method to level up my Job Points in each Class until the myriad options I have confound the strategic side of my brain.

Yes, I know that sentence is confusing. Please allow me to elaborate.

When most of us were young (at least, those of us who grew up in the 80's), the creed from Upper Management (aka Our Parents) seemed to be, "You can be anything you want when you grow up." Of course, this presupposition has proved semi-false so far, as we've failed to elect a female President (but we're getting there). Regardless, that use of anything served to spark our imagination.

Firefighter. Astronaut. Video Game Designer. Whatever our goals were, it didn't matter--ANYTHING was possible. Sadly, Upper Management failed to explain the slight, subtle difference between "anything" and "everything."

Surely you've heard the two used in the same sentence, even connected by "and."
He did anything and everything he possibly could to save her life.
The Chiefs threw anything and everything they could at their opponent, but ultimately lost by 40.

Unfortunately, these two words are sort of like "new and improved." If you have one, it's mpossible to have the other. (If something is new, that means it can't be improved because no one has seen it before. Likewise, if something is improved it can't be new, because we've seen it before)

For example, in Final Fantasy Tactics you have the option of leveling up any of the numerous character classes available. White Mage, Black Mage, Samurai, Ninja, Squire, Calculator; there are many at your disposal. However, when it came time to enter a battle, your choices were basically set in stone. What you brought into battle was the limit of what you could use. Therefore, even thought you could level up any class you wanted (even every class you wanted), you could only use ONE per battle. Not to mention you go into the battles blindly--you have no possible idea which classes will give you the advantage.

Elaboration complete.

Now, imagine you are just finishing High School, about to decide what to pursue in College/University. You have the basic option of anything you might be interested in. However, you do NOT have the option of everything you might be interested in. The time we have is finite. Just like the battles in FFT, you are granted the option to choose which skill(s) to pursue/take with you on this particular portion of the journey. If, once this "battle" is complete, you decide to change course and pursue something else, you begin anew while time has moved on. Therefore, while you initially have the option of being anything you want to be, you do NOT have the option of being everything you want to be.

Sure, you can pour yourself into the greatest Firefighter/Astronaut/Author/Game Designer/Hair Stylist humanly possible, but at what cost? Will you sacrifice time with your wife, your children, your aging parents, your friends, your pets, your fans; the maintenance on your house, your car(s), your friendships, your relationship; improving your craft?

I do think it's important to establish early on in your life that you CAN be and do anything you want, should you apply yourself hard enough, but I think it just as important to stress you CANNOT be or do everything you want. And, rather than a message that steals budding hope, this should be an opportunity to focus energies on productivity rather than frivolity. Spend time leveling up Summoner rather than Mediator, since summon attacks are far more effective than talking.

Find what you're good at, and pour your energy into it. Don't waste time wondering what you "might" enjoy.

No one will ever be able to do everything, but anyone can do anything.

Why Writing Fantasy is Difficult: Names

Albus Dumbledore. Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Ash March. Flint Fireforge. Frodo Baggins. Gollum. Jon Snow. Raif Sevrance. Robb Stark. Rubeus Hagrid. Sandor "The Hound" Clegane. Severus Snape. Tanis Half-elven. Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Vaylo Bludd.

A tool or a scourge? You decide!

Do any of these sound familiar? Some of them might because they've been in numerous major motion pictures in the past few years, while others are a little more obscure. If you can can tell me how many different books that series of 15 names draws from, I'll even be a bit impressed.

Yes, today we're talking about Fantasy Names. As a writer, I can tell you that naming people (and places) in Fantasy is quite a challenge. For one thing, you want people to be able to pronounce the names you use, and for another you want them to be believable.

If you're still holding onto that "you can do anything you want in Fantasy" belief, please allow me to burst your bubble.

Fantasy Names aren't just regular names with apostrophes thrown in for the hell of it. While it might be fun to call myself T'dd N'ton, as an Irishman might do aloud, it wouldn't make very much sense. The same goes for fantasy societies--particularly the Elven ones.

In speaking about Elves, let me just say before you bring it up that J.R.R. Tolkien was a linguist. Language was his business, so, if he wants to create a language, that's something I'm willing to accept (even if I can't read it). Never is what I'm talking about today more present than in his names of Elven things. Look it up.

The ears are a dead giveaway.

Regardless, I have a deep-rooted love for words and names. I enjoy naming my characters and places, but that doesn't mean it's simple or easy. Names are labels and, as such, they signify things. Since in literature all you can do is describe what a character or place looks like, its name is incredibly important. When you hear your friend Jessica's name, you recall what she looks like because you've seen her, but when you read something like "Belharad the Mighty," your mind might conjure just about anything.

The other difficulty with Fantasy Names is that there are usually so many to keep track of. Frankly, this is one of the major turn-offs people have about the genre. Too many difficult to pronounce names can make a challenging book even harder to read. This is one reason I think George R.R. Martin has become so successful with his Song of Ice and Fire books--the names are easy to pronounce because they're quite similar to real-life names (and, in some cases, they are real-life names).

And yet, knowing all of this doesn't keep us from taking chances when we write. In The Ninth Avatar, for example, my original name for what became The Burning Men was The Flaming Jews. Something about the latter combination of words just spoke to me, sounded right, and had the potential to raise a few eyebrows. But, rather than labeling this special race of sorcerers after what sounds like a very fervent and solid race of people, they ultimately were named after an obscure yearly festival in Black Rock Desert.

I decided to push forward with taking my chances by naming the villain character Zion; this label means so much to so many religious cultures that it becomes a fierce juxtaposition when read.

No, not THAT kind of "fierce."

Not only is my Zion quite certainly evil, but he is also on a mission to acquire a semblance of godhood. The actual reason I chose this name for a villain, though, is because it is visually appealing.

Here's a brief insight into my naming mechanism. When naming characters, expecially "evil" or "gray" ones, I use letters with "stiff angles." There's no other way to put it than that. In Avatar's universe, I use DaVille, Zion, Xymon, and Drakkaram to fit this definition. Hard lines and stiff angles in V, X, Y, Z, and K tell me something about the characters.

Circulosa, on the other hand, uses two C's and an S; rounded letters, making it harder to say just what the character name is saying about him. Cairos (the wizard hero) is similar in this way. This name became humorous to me after a member of my Writer's Group asked why I used it, since if you drop the S it becomes "Cairo," a city in Egypt. This never entered my mind when I decided on the name, so it makes me laugh a little.

If you know what to look for, you might be able to pick out my patterns fairly easily. Obscure letters (Q, X, Z) become my favorites for characters I want you to notice. And yet, there is something to be said for simplicity. Many writers name characters after things (flowers, etc.) or use names from other languages to help portray their vision for that character. Whatever you use as your guidepost, it's often helpful to write down names that you invent for use later, and label your characters well.

Do I think there's an inherent challenge with Fantasy Names? Honestly, I think that's the nature of the beast we're working with. Maps help. Using a "dramatis personae" may help, if people dare to look through them (but I've found a glossary or DP only helpful after I've read the novel).

Oh, and the list at the beginning? Three names from each of the following:

The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Harry Potter and the [insert rest of title here] (J.K. Rowling)
Dragonlance: Dragons of [season] [time of day] (Weis and Hickman)
[Object] of [Color] Ice (J.V. Jones)
ASOIAF (George R.R. Martin)


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Why Writing Fantasy is Difficult: Setting

I've always done things the hard way. It's basically become part of my personality at this point, and something I've tried to embrace over the last few years.

Frankly, I think it's why I chose to start writing Fantasy above all other genres. It is an ungodly challenge. Now, I'm not saying it is the most difficult genre to write, but it certainly is for me. To be successful, one must create a living breathing world full of differing cultures, interesting characters, and--above all else--rules.

Yes, it's a Boris Vallejo.

Many people think writing Fantasy is easy (if not simple) because it's all fictional and you can "do whatever you want." Some people think this about fiction in general, which makes me chuckle a bit. Let me be the first to assure you that this is not the case. For one thing, "doing whatever you want" implies that things don't need an explanation. Things can just "pop into being" at any time, with no history and no purpose. If you want fairies, *bang* there are fairies. Unicorns? Why not! A magic sword that talks and cupcakes that sing? Sure.

I believe this stems from Fantasy being pointed to as a "childish" genre. Of course, this has changed in the past decade-or-so, with many "gritty" fantasy titles that clearly appeal to a more adult audience. But, still, there seems to be a stigma attached to the genre in general that can't be cast off through a bit of blood and gore.

At any rate, even the Disney "fantasy" movies have rules. Ariel doesn't just happen to be a mermaid; there's an entire mythology behind her existence. Belle's boyfriend in Beauty & The Beast adheres to a strict backstory, as well. It's important to note that, even though a "magic" concept is present in both worlds, it isn't used to supplant an actual storyline and plot. Even though magic is present, there are many things the hero and villain can't "just do" to make everything okay. Whether the good guy is destined to win or not, they have to follow the world's rules to do so.

Flounder ruins another Family Picture.

Rules in Fantasy are part of the setting. Far from just names and places, the setting is what produces your characters. They have to come from somewhere, therefore the culture they originated from leaves its mark on them. Ariel is a mermaid princess, therefore she must act like a mermaid princess. No matter how much of a rebellious streak she has, she grew up in a palace under the sea and therefore comes with all the trappings that entails. Frodo Baggins comes from The Shire, and he begins the story every bit as simplistic and myopic as all the other hobbits there.

This is what makes those characters so interesting--despite their sources, they are distinct from their peers.

With that being said, the setting in Fantasy is probably the most important initial piece. Where does the story take place? How do you define what can happen there? No matter how interesting your characters are, if you do not define the parameters in which they life, you can't possibly push them toward their next part of the hero's journey.

With The Ninth Avatar, I had a very clear picture of the world that my characters lived in. Thanks mostly to having originally planned it as a video game, of course, I had sheets and sheets of character drawings, place descriptions, and other intricasies of a "fantasy" world. I even had a map (which, I found later, was sort of inadequate... but at least I had one).

The problem I'm running into with Scions of the Shade is that I did not begin with this solid framework. I took a few very good ideas and began running with them, as far and as fast as I could. But now, even though I'm almost at 50,000 words in the initial draft, I have basically written myself into a corner. The story is not going where I want, the characters are not doing what I want, and there's very little I can do about it with the MS in its current form.

Believe me when I say that writing a novel is one of the hardest things a person can attempt. This goes double for Speculative Fiction (Fantasy and SF). There's so much you have to keep in mind at any given time, so much you have to know; about a world that doesn't even really exist; about characters who you invented out of thin air; about a plotline that ties these two together with threads sometimes as weak as spidersilk. On top of all that, you have to make sure your style is coherent, your characters are believable and sympathetic (if not likeable), and that the story arc is clear.

One example of a great fantasy setting is in the books I've been re-reading lately: The Coldfire Trilogy. Many of you know this is my favorite series of books (which isn't a small thing for me to proclaim, particularly with so much great Fantasy under my belt) and during this latest re-read I have really discovered why. C.S. Friedman's style is a little repetitive, as she tends to remind you of a character's feelings in chapter after chapter, and constantly reminds you what happened previously in the story, but these things are minor in comparison to how rich and deep her setting is.

With a brilliant mixture of SF and Fantasy, she created a planet called Erna that a group of Earth colonists traveled to and settled on. We get hints of the result of that in the first book, Black Sun Rising, but it's not until the prologue of the second book, When True Night Falls, that we see what really happened after the Landing.

Erna is similar to Earth in that it has a breathable atmosphere, natural processes (weather/earthquakes/volcanoes), and native species. But what it also has is a "magical" force called the fae. This is really the twist that sets Coldfire apart from its peers, as the fae is not just your run-of-the-mill magical force.

Humans landed on Erna, but they don't belong there. Therefore, the fae reacts differently to them then it would a native species. This manifests, usually, by bringing the humans' greatest fears to life to feed on them. It reacts to their emotions, this intangible force that they cannot even see at the outset, and I don't just mean in small ways. Sure, it summons demons out of their nightmares, but the changes are much more broad than that.

Imagine a world where your own thoughts can actually cause things to happen. Fearing that a gun will misfire will make it misfire. Believing in a deity will make it manifest and feed on that faith. With how fickle and fearful humanity is, we were doomed to failure before even landing there. Ah, but there's one other thing: to give humans the ability to utilize the fae, one of the colonists sacrifices a few hundred of his shipmates (and the ship, itself) in a huge explosion. So they're stuck there.

Of course, all of that happens in centuries past. What the setting entails "today" is how humanity adapted to their conditions with the constant presence of the fae. There are cities, semi-safe havens, but walls cannot truly protect against the faeborn creatures. Basically what you have is a "middle ages" of sorts, where people use swords and the like, since the fae can influence the unpredictability of gunpowder, and numerous religions and sects who consciously or subconsciously utilize the fae.

Do you see how deep this goes? What could possibly come of these "rules?" And I haven't even gotten to the characters borne of them, yet. The world Friedman created is incredible--so rich that I have barely scratched the surface here.

So, it's with this in mind that I "go back to the drawing board" [fully] with Scions. I can't abandon the project outright, my mind won't let me, but I can start over with a better plan in mind and draw on what I've created and written already to feed this process.

Wish me luck.


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My yearly bookmark

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. I'm still staggering, having realized this some time in advance, but I thought I should share a bit of my experience of what this meant.

My birthday usually means three things. For one, now that I live in Colorado, it means that snow is either coming (or, in the case of this year, it's already here). Two, people tend to send well-wishes and give me gifts--both of which I appreciate immensely. And three, I celebrate my "anniversary" of moving to Colorado.

Four years ago, I moved here, just a few days before I turned 25. Since then, I've wanted to commemorate the occasion each year by doing what I did the day I arrived. Micah was working downtown at the time and, since I had nothing to do that day (having not started my job yet), I spent all day walking around the 16th Street Mall. Ultimately I ended up at the Barnes & Noble, purchasing a bookmark.

Since then, every year without fail, I have set aside a day to make the same (or at least a similar) trip. This may seem like an insignificant thing to many, but I tend to be a semi-sentimental guy... especially with material possessions. Nowadays I have moved into more of a minimalist mentality so it's become doubly important that the possessions I do keep mean something to me. The yearly bookmark ritual is one of those things, and I expect to be doing it for a long time... at least until I move out of Colorado, in which case Micah and I will have to invent a new tradition.

Also, I got an iPhone (finally!), cementing myself firmly as a 21st century individual.

Watch out, world.