When I first pick up the book of an author I've never read before, I can be rather critical. My instincts are to pick at the writer's style and story-telling abilities with skepticism. My judgments can be harsh, sometimes unfair, and are often made before I am fairly into the author's piece. I guess, you might say, I can be a Critic with a capital C. My mind naturally wants to compare and contrast; to rank authors in my mind on a scale of from most-liked to total crap. As a writer, I find this process abhorrent; writers and their styles are as varied and unclassifiable as any other art form. As a reader, on the other hand, I only want to experience the best and don't want to waste time on a book that is not entertaining and that I'm not getting anything out of. It is a good lesson for writers, because the popularity and success of your own work will be determined by the readers who will be comparing your work with that of other authors they have read, many of them with more notoriety and success. It's a frightening concept for the fledgling writer (like me!), but it's also a challenge and a place to aspire to. My point is: if you are a burgeoning writer (like me!) it is important to be yourself, be creative, and write about the kind of things you would like to read. If you try to write like, say, Ernest Hemingway (which I have seen people attempt) just because people say he is a good writer and you want to be good too, you're writing is going to be wooden and lackluster. I did this in college; I tried to be "literary" and write like Joyce Carol Oates or something, because that's the way I thought I was supposed to write and it never worked out. I'd end up with 10 pages of prose without any real story arc and without any kind of interesting premise. I could pinpoint small passages that I thought were "really well written" and that I was rather proud of, but when I went back to try and "edit" my stories I was quickly bored with my own work and lacked the motivation to do much more than fiddle around with them. It wasn't until after college, as I reached that dreadful point in my life where I had to decide what I was really going to accomplish with my time, that I began to write what I really wanted to write. The sad thing is, for me, it should have been obvious from the beginning; I was reading Stephen King voraciously by middle school; I read Tolkien's trilogy for the first time in the 6th grade; I enjoyed (even wrote a couple) stories about werewolves, and vampires, and lost buried things as a child (I was beyond fascinated with "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark"-all those twisted pictures...). Why did it take me so long to figure out what I enjoyed writing about? I guess what I'm trying to say is: be true to yourself; be proud of who you are and what you like. I like horror stories; they speak to me; I believe the genre to be one of the most honest and intriguing out there (when the writers hit the mark). Pretentious writing, with overly-flourished metaphors and high-falootin language, is not what makes a piece literary. Writing is literary when it has something important to say about the human experience. It's very simple. The writer who comes to mind when I think of literary, but with simple, poignant language is Richard Matheson. I am Legend, I believe, should be read by every aspiring horror author (Please don't be discouraged by all the awful movies based off it that have been made over the years; none of them follow the book, even the Will Smith version, which has some merit but lacks Matheson's heart and vision). It is inspirational and a perfect example of a brilliant work that keeps language simple and out of the way of the story. A writer who comes to mind when I think of literary-horror literally is Ray Bradbury. His language is poetic, and beautiful; sometimes sublime; and sometimes, honestly, a little oppressive. You have to put yourself in the right state of mind to read Bradbury; it's hard to simply pick up Something Wicked This Way Comes and read it casually for a couple of minutes and put it down. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Ray Bradbury is known as a science fiction guy, but he is actually a fantastic writer of the macabre. Horror can be literary, just like any other genre of fiction, speculative or otherwise. Anyway, I've really gone off track. The reason I admire Matheson and Bradbury so much, is because their writing is true to them personally and always has been, even when publishers and the reading market refused to give horror fiction the attention it has always deserved, they wrote what they wrote. We all need to write what we wanna' write and read what we wanna' read. We should be inspired and encouraged by the things we read; we should be enriched by the entire process. When I began this blog entry, I'd intended to discuss how critical I was when I began to read Fritz Leiber's novel Conjure Wife, recommended by the Horror Writer's Association. I'd intended to begin by discussing how I felt the novel was dated and even anti-feminist (it was published in 1943, after all), and how much my opinions changed by the time I'd finished the book, but I'll have to get to that a little later... is engaging and has a very interesting message; it also has some amazingly suspenseful and horrific moments. [Check Out It Out Here]
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If you're a writer of fiction like me, the most important thing you do is write. The biggest problem we all face lies in finding the time and focus to pursue ideas and get the true 'meat and potatoes' kind of writing done we strive for with all the distractions, formatting issues, and grammatical hiccups that get in the way of what we really want to do: express ourselves artistically! Being a young writer, I grew up with computers and digital media; I was in high school when the interent became mainstream and, since I went to a technical-minded kind of high school, I learned right away to respect the power and influence of the internet revolution and the technology that surrounds it. As I've learned to take my craft seriously, I've naturally been on the lookout for technology that can help me with research and with my productivity (after all, that's what it's supposed to be for). Below you'll find some important things I've found, some obvious, others not so much.
Perhaps the most important thing the internet has done for us is to make research so readily available. I was an English major in college and avoided library research as much as I possibly could. How? By using interent resources. Now, you have to know how to negotiate the credible sources from the bullshit ones, but, in the case of simple fiction writers like us, a quick wikipedia search can make our lives way easier. For example, I was trying to flesh out one of my stories with a suble allusion to the vampire myth, but wanted my details to be as realistic as possible; I wanted to go further than Bram Stoker. What I found, with a quick and simple search, was information on Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian countess from the early 15th century who is reported to have tortured hundreds of girls and drank their blood because she believed she could stay young forever this way. Bam! This turned out to be the detail I needed (and also perhaps some of the very same source material Stoker used for his own ideas). I keep an internet browser open and ready to go when I'm writing; you never know when you might need a reminder about something, or a bit of history, or name idea, etc. Also, if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend getting a smart phone; having Google there in your pocket to look things up whenever they spring to mind is absolutely brilliant! The internet is also great for the technical stuff. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for reporters to get their quotations right before digital recording; I also can't imagine having to find the exact place in the book of the famous person you're trying to quote correctly. It is very easy to find excellent quotes from all kinds of public figures with a quick online search. Besides quotations, you can also easily find information on how to cite your sources correctly (If you've ever writen an academic article you'll know there are several ways to do this and the rules are complex - MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.) and how to format your manuscript. When I finish a story, the first thing I do is put it into standard manuscript format. You'll still have to very carefully read over each publication's specific formatting guidelines and make a few tweeks before submitting your work, but it helps to have a starting point. Which leads us to getting published. The Internet has made the submission process WAY easier! There are still publications that require the traditional submission method -print on this kind of paper, mail this special way, wait 6 months and you might get a reply, blah, blah, blah - but most publishers, at least in the Speculative market, accept email or electronic form submissions. I have submitted work both ways and, let me tell you, I much prefer to submit electronically. It is also much easier to find places to submit to on the internet then picking up one of those 'Writer's Market' books and leafing through all the places that may or may not be still in business or accepting submissions or even looking for the kind of stuff you write. Electronic submissions has made the world a much kinder place for both us writers and publishers alike. Did I mention smart phones yet? A lot of the mobile devices out there can be a great asset for the 'writer-on-the-go.' For starters (and this is huge!), start saving your work on some kind of a server program. I'd recommend Google Docs, or you can use DropBox, or Mobile Me, or whatever. Save your work in the "Cloud." At least back-up your work this way. I have my entire life's work of writing, notes, text conversations, and everything saved into Google Docs; that way, if my computer crashes, and my house burns down, and my work computer blows up, and my phone falls in the duck pond, and all of my printed manuscripts spontaneously combust - all in the same day - I still haven't lost any of my work. All I have to do is sit down at any ol' computer and pull up my documents. I know, some of you might be a little wary (especially those of an, shall we say, 'older' generation), of putting your work into such a system, but believe me, it's all very secure. Worst case scenario: someone does manage to hack into your account and somehow publish something of yours under their name - well, you own the rights to your own writing as soon as you write it and now you get to sue the pants off someone! Hell, you'll probably make a lot more money suing someone for plagiarism then you would for actually publishing it yourself! Anyway, saving your work in the 'cloud' can make it really easy to open it anywhere so you can bang out a couple hundred words at lunch or whenever. Try using an app like 'My Writing Nook' on your smart phone to pull up your work and get a little writing done while riding the bus or in the waiting room at the dentist's office. I've done it. Besides, we don't all have these huge chunks of time to sit down at our desks at home and type away. If you really have the drive to write, you'll find the time to write no matter what. I write during my lunch breaks or during slow periods at work. You might find that a lot of your best writing is done in quick, passionate spurts anyway. A lot of us dream of being locked up in a big, quiet mansion somewhere for several months without responsibilities or interruptions so we can write the 'Great American Novel'; the real world just doesn't allow us (most times) to do this sort of thing. Remember what happened in "The Shining," the supposed "perfect" situation for the aspiring writer; Jack Torrance sure didn't get much writing done, did he? Anyway, here are a few links you might find helpful: Writing.com — It can be really helpful to be a part of an online writing community. Some useful tools and excercises. Style Guide — Every writer is going to need this thing at some point. An excellent and easy to use reference for when you have style questions. www.mywritingnook.com/ — This is that App I was talking about earlier that allows you to save your writing and access it from any computer and any mobile device. I use it to write on the go. docs.google.com/ — Google Docs! Save all your work on this site and access it anywhere. Yay! www.writing-world.com/basics/manuscript.shtml — This page will give you all the basics when it comes to proper manuscript format. Seventh Sanctum — Do you have a difficult time naming your characters? Check this site out. I think it's especially useful for writers of fantasy, but it offers a variety of name generators for people, things, places, organizations, etc. AutoCrit Editing Wizard — This program searches for overused words, repeat phrases, and sentence length variation. Anything greater than 800 words and you'll have to pay, but it is pretty helpful. Web-Chops — If you do a lot of research online, this tool might help. It lets you collect information from different places around the web and place it in one place. I haven't used it too much, but so far it seems pretty useful. Here is an author I've been meaning to read for a while: Ramsey Campbell. He is regarded very highly in the horror genre community and Stephen King praised this book when it was originally published in 1980. "The Parasite" is one of Campbell's early novels. Campbell has a uniquely visual and imaginative prose style. His language is often metaphoric and his descriptions are detailed and interesting. He excels at stringing the reader along through a multitude of images, transitioning subtly from the ordinary, to the unusual, to the horrible. There are many scenes where protagonist Rose walks through the city, or down a street in the bad part of town, or along a path through a park. These 'walking' scenes mount and mount as Rose goes from watching the everyday to seeing creepy strangers watching her or amorphous horrors chasing after her. The biggest problem with this novel is that there are just too many of these scenes. Chapter after chapter, Rose is going somewhere and she begins to see things and she struggles internally to control herself and her emotions and it looks like she's going to be caught by something or see something, but then she escapes, and the reader never recieves the true confrontation (the payoff) he/she was looking for. Personally, I enjoy a scene that builds and builds upon itself until you are dying to know what is about to happen, but when the scenes builds and then fades, without that big payoff, it can be frustrating. Despite its sometimes ponderous flow from chapter to chapter, "The Parasite" is still a very good book; it opens with a bang and concludes with a bang; it's the middle portion of the book that becomes a bit tedious. The book opens with Rose as a little girl trapped in a room with something horrible, something her friends summon with an oijaboard; it concludes with Rose's final confrontation with this dark being. The ending is fantastic, beautifully written and constructed, if a little predictable. I found I was bored with the book at points and worried it would have a less than satisfying ending, but I was excited when the "good stuff" finally came. The conclusion was perfect and made the book worthwhile. "The Parasite," in its entirety, feels like a short story that has been extended into novel length, with the real heart of the story split between the beginning of the book and the end. All in all, "The Parasite" is a novel of internal struggle and self-discovery. The problem with any work of writing that spends too much time with a single character's internal and emotional struggles is that there is less story movement and action taking place than there probably should be. The cardinal rule of writing has always been "show, don't tell" whenever possible and Campbell does less characterization and plot advancement through action than he does through Rose's confused thoughts. I recommend this book to hardcore fans of horror fiction, but not to your average reader. It has a predictable story line and the characters are not too interesting. It pays off through its element of psychological horror, but this element alone is not enough to hold your general readers attention. I enjoy writing. For me, there is an excitement, an energy, a literal adrenaline burst that comes every so often as I write that makes all the drudgery of editing, and re-writing, and trying to get published worthwhile. The problem is, the part I enjoy the most about the writing craft is the initial burst of creativity and inspiration that comes with the epiphany of a particular idea, or when that beautifully constructed sentence reaches that point of perfection. For years, I called myself a writer and studied the craft without really being a writer. I generated ideas and I even wrote a lot of them down, but I only actually sat down to write when I got one of those bursts of inspiration. It took me years to develope the discipline necessary to become a 'real' writer.
I can't tell you how many notebooks, pages of looseleaf, and other random scraps of paper I have with furiously jotted-down ideas on them. When I look at some of the older notes, they almost appear to be the ravings of a mad man. This method works for me. I scribble ideas down as they come to me, however simplistic they may be, on a daily basis. Often times these notes are little more than images from my mind's eye that struck me while in the shower or eating lunch or something. This is my process; I work from my notes, to a very basic outline, to the computer to write the prose. The amazing thing I discovered as I began to hunker down and force myself to write even when I didn't feel 'in the mood,' was that the simple act of putting words to the page itself could be inspirational. However uninspired you feel, once you get over the initial hump, your mind will begin to churn and the words will begin to flow. It's incredible, really. I highly recommend it to anyone struggling to get themselves to write. Simple advice: if you find it difficult to write when you're 'not feeling it', just write; just do it - write! I write almost every day now and that's what makes me a Writer. Not everything that comes out is all that great, but you might be surprised, even when you don't think what you're writing is any good, it might not be as horrible as you thought it was when you return to it later and read over what you've written. You might also be surprised, as I was, how naturally the editing process is once you learn the basics and get into the flow of things. I'll talk more about editing in a future post. |
"Unrelenting Horror"- FREE!An award-winning author known for blending elements of fantasy with horror in his surreal, literary style. Author of WITHIN, A GAME FOR GODS and VIOLENT HEARTS.
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