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Les Writing blog, with tips, advice, and my own writing... And Nanowrimo obsession.

Fictional Worlds - July 2008

Sorry

July 31st 2008 09:08
I haven't been in a mental state to post. Yesterday I was mentally... I don't know what, but something was wrong and it was frustrating. And today I'm just plain out of it from sleep deprivation. I probably won't have any time to post until late Friday night, just so you all know.

But hopefully by then I'll be a little more awake.



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Worldbuilding

July 29th 2008 02:22
Every writer does varying levels of worldbuilding. Fantasy and Science Fiction writers especially. Currently, I'm struggling with my own worldbuilding, so I've decided to post a series of blog posts about, well, worldbuilding.

Why? Because I really don't have much else to talk about right now. I will, eventually, post a series of links to some wonderful worldbuilding sites that I've seen-and there are quite a few of them-but for now, I'll describe the three basic levels of worldbuilding that I myself do. Each one is meant to be alone, but each is just the one before it with additions.


1-A map with some locations and a few ideas about those locations. I did this for East Wind Road, because with the spontaneous insanity feel of the story, details and map after map would just bog the story down. For me. With a story like this I need a lot of wiggle room to create any random stuff I like as I go along. But a map is necessary so I have some clue of how many times I can actually legitimately have her say 'I've been here before'.

This is ideal for stories with a lot of spontaneity and a lot of oddities. Things that are so out there as to be almost unbelievable. Why? Because of the wiggle room. It's beautiful.

2-A map with locations, ideas, and cultures. I use this for a lot of Nanowrimo projects because I started planning um... two days early... or halfway through the month, depending. I don't have time to go into too much detail, but I need to have some idea of what the world looks like and the people. Sometimes the culture is even just implied with the character sketches, but not always. It varies.

I use these when I NEED more background, but don't have the time to invent everything before I start writing. I did this for Moonshadow's Guardian. And in Moonshadow's Guardian, the history pretty much wrote itself, and more details, because of who Riana was. It might not happen that way in all the stories, and you'll have to fill in later. But it seems to always work out one way for me.

3-A map with locations, ideas, cultures, and history/mythology. This is for when I have plenty of time to plan in advance-and need a world. I do enjoy writing this. Normally this excludes minor details-those are done in the story or the aftermath. But worlds are fun to build, and I use it for stories where I need a sturdy background and have time to make a really well detailed one. I haven't done much of this in the last year or two, but I'm doing it right now for two of my Nanowrimo novels.

The history isn't really coming to me, but the maps have been good so far and the basic ideas for the cultures seem pretty well done. I have all the proper prejudices in place that I need for my stories to work. I haven't done the Vampire culture or the Werewolf culture yet, but those are somewhat-integrated with human culture and I have a fair idea of them. I just haven't written it down.

Worldbuilding can be fun. In the next few posts, I'll show some example notes and review some really useful sites, articles, workshops, and the like.
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Dear...

July 28th 2008 18:24
Yesterday was Daddy's birthday. I didn't have the motivation to do much of anything, but I went out and had dinner in his honour. Today I will follow up with a tradition I have tried to uphold; it's been an on and off thing.

I try to write Daddy letters as often as I can, or as often as I think about it. Today I will post one on my blog-and challenge you to write a letter of your own. It can be to anyone-an ex, a loved one, a friend, a former friend, anyone-you can send it or not, as you so choose. Or as the person it is meant for so dictates by their status of livelihood.

Here is mine.

Dear Daddy,

Happy birthday! I wish that I could be with you right now, but it is not to be just yet, I suppose; I will see you again someday, I promise. A lot of crap has happened, but I'm sure you've been watching. Because it's been hard to miss.

I guess then you'll have come to understand my mental state right now. To tell you the truth, Daddy, I am on the fringe of despair. I'm just on the OK side of the line. I'm standing with one foot on the line and one just inside that 'all right' range.

Anything, any slightest thing, can set me off. It wouldn't take much to send me spiralling back into depression and despair. I've gotten used to that. This is the best I've been in over a month, but I'm here right now, so I'm okay.

For two weeks I sat in my crappy apartment. I spent half of my time daydreaming, or sleeping, to try and escape it. I don't want to go back there, Daddy. The memories haunt me. Only by being away from that place can I even be okay. So long as I am there, I am in so much pain.

I kept imagining the phone ringing at three in the morning, like it had so many times back then, when I was happy. When I was OK. Before all this. I'd imagine that he was calling me again, to say he was sorry. To try to make up for all of it; to say that he still wanted me. But clearly, it's too late. The monster destroyed it all.

Here I am safe, I am free from the memories. Some of them are there, but they aren't as concrete, as real or as numerous. I remember all the times I was on the phone here-but here I can at least live with it. Here the one most haunting memory isn't.

I cannot be haunted by the end of everything here. The end of what might even be my life, because it eats me up from the inside out. It isn't here, it wasn't here, it has not touched this place. This place is pure and unharmed. For that I am grateful. It is my safehaven in a world where everything has crashed down around me.

Who knew it would be so easy to lose myself? Who knew it would be so easy to lose everything and everyone I cared for?

I've lost it, Daddy. All of it. There is no longer any light in the dark. But as long as I'm here, I can stand that. Because the darkness is just empty darkness. Not a darkness filled with cold, despairing memories.

I miss you.

~Dianna
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Writers Read

July 26th 2008 10:06
The advice you'll most often see from a writer on writing is to read and write. Why? Because only if you read can you see truly amazing fiction. And only if you write can you get anything accomplished. By reading, you see what works and what doesn't-and discover what you love.

So here's a list of particularly good books, mostly fantasy, or horror, and good authors


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Psychological and Physical torture

July 25th 2008 14:16
I'll admit. I torture my characters. Mostly psychologically, although I have been known to delve into the realms of extreme physical pain every once in a while. About, oh, once a year-Nanowrimo is always an ideal time to test out every method in the book, if only because it's tried and true for word count purposes.

The torture method that I am most fond of, though, involves solitary confinement. Or, almost solitary confinement-and the only visitors are violent and take it out on you. Something that leads to utter, and total despair


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Out Of Control Characters!

July 25th 2008 05:18
Meet Nimara. She's the psychopathic mother of one of my RP characters, a vampire, who is getting way out of control. She plans on conquering a world.

And is demanding that I write a story about her. Well I am flat out refusing-I'm mad at her and besides, I have other stories to write. But this isn't the first time a character got out of control


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I have no idea who said that first. Nor do I really care. It makes the point I'm trying to get across, and that is the important thing.

Last year I wrote a story, had it critiqued, and edited it a fair bit-almost rewriting it completely. I sent it to seven markets and was rejected by all of them. For a while, I didn't submit it anywhere, because I didn't have any good markets to submit it to


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Determination: A Writer's Asset

July 23rd 2008 08:32
I was reading through (please don't shoot me) Nanowrimo Newbie Tips, in a thread, to see what other people thought. I've actually decided to try to mentor a couple newbies this year as well as Going Utterly Insane With Word Count.

A lot of people have mentioned the idea of competition helping them. I'll tell you something about my first year doing Nanowrimo


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Website Review: Critique Circle (LINK)

July 23rd 2008 07:06
I so rarely point out any website that isn't Nanowrimo on this blog that I'm not sure if it's more sad, funny, or just plain obsessive. Well, I have another website that's just plain excellence for writers.

Critique Circle is an incredible site. The people there are friendly, and most often return the favour when you give them a crit. (Whenever I'm unable to return a critique, I feel a little bad; I do return them unless the story isn't in a genre I like.) In fact, people are so eager to return the favour that people have actually asked me when I was posting my next story on the site-they wanted to return the favour


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I'm afraid I will have to claim defeat for my day of writing; I was aiming for thirty five thousand-to
beat what had, so far been my best-and I have been defeated by an evil, evil malfunctioning
Italics function, which has so far succeeded in nothing but driving me insane


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How much can you write in a day?

July 22nd 2008 10:12
Well today I got myself a plot. And I decided that I'm going to see how much I can write in one day.

Here's my plot


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The Hardships of Character Death

July 22nd 2008 09:48
I role play. Somewhat obsessively. All right, very obsessively. And I grow very close to my characters, in role play and in writing.

One of them died today; I cried. Actually cried. Killing characters that I'm fond of is something I do because I have to, not because I particularly want to. And it can hurt


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Character: Marcus

July 21st 2008 06:38
Name: Marcus
Age: 18 and a half
Appearance: dirty blond hair, ragged, untamed&just past chin length, 5'8, skinny, dark eyes


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Character: Robyn

July 20th 2008 20:00
Name: Robyn
Age: 19
Appearance: long, braided black hair, brown eyes, five foot seven


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Publishing is the dream of many, many writers. Including myself. Publication can be difficult; to be a successful writer borders the 'pipe dream' line. It isn't quite a pipe dream-it's doable with enough work, persistence, and talent-but it isn't easy or for the weak of heart.

Take, for example, JK Rowlings. She's an incredible success story, worth billions upon billions of dollars. She was a single mother who submitted to over thirty different publishers. And now she's a rich woman known the world over for her books. I'm not going to comment on their quality; this post isn't ABOUT quality of writing. It's about determination


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Planning

July 20th 2008 08:50
Planning. Something some writers do, others don't, others do sometimes...

When I plan at all, it's usually a very rough outline to give me an idea of what could happen, not of what neccesarily will. Some of the larger events, of course, HAVE to happen, but most of the time I start off with a basic idea and make stuff up as I go along


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East Wind Road

July 19th 2008 03:57
This is the basic premise for my AugNoWriMo (August Novel Writing Month, a spinoff of NaNoWriMo). I'm going to be talking a lot about AugNoWriMo, as I'm incredibly hyped up about it, and excited. And when I'm not planning AugNoWriMo, or updating about it, I'll be updating about NaNoWriMo, or planning that.

So here's my idea so far


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An Admirable Cause

July 18th 2008 07:26
I'm. Not. Getting. Excited. About. Nanowrimo.

Yes, I am. And I just thought of something. I love Nanowrimo more than anything, I really do, and I have a question to ask. In hopefulness. You see, for the entire five years of my Nanowrimo career, I have been statistically broke


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AugNoWriMo

July 18th 2008 06:36
By now, everyone who even bothers to read my blog on a sort-of frequent basis must understand that I have a deep, intrinsic love of blogging.

I just realized I've been blogging here for over a year! Nevermind that. We have more important things to talk about. Like writing goals


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Write What You Love...

July 18th 2008 05:35
Some people say 'write what you know'. But if I recall correctly, Stephen King and I have the same belief-that it is best to write what you love.

Because we can all write about what we learned in school, but most of us wouldn't want to. We know it-but we do not love it. And if we are forced to write something we do not love, it is by far a lesser product than what it would be if we loved it


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A very very short poem

July 15th 2008 18:46
I was genuinely proud of myself for this poem. I love it to bits because of what it means: I'm learning Japanese! I love Japanese, I have an appreciation for the culture, the anime, the manga, the language. The religion. To me Japan is a place of beauty-culturally if not physically.

And this is why putting this in my novel felt like such an accomplishment-it comes with translation, of course


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Fanfiction. That which writers of varying quality from all over the web write. That
which all professional writers have extremely varying opinions on. Nobody can deny its existence; it's practically everywhere. And there is fanfic for almost everything.

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Adopt-A-Plot: Nanowrimo Love

July 14th 2008 02:00
Nanowrimo. Yes I do talk about it a lot. Why? Because it is one of the most fun writing challenges I have ever encountered. The challenge itself can be amazginly fun. Fifty thousand words... Encouraging people to reach the finish line, seeing how quickly you can reach it, is so much fun.

And not only that. But there is the most amazing sense of community when it comes to Nanowrimo. Everybody helps everybody else out. We're all friends there, even when we're friends in competition. Even our competition is friendly, and it truly is the most encouraging thing I've ever done


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All of this

July 4th 2008 04:10
All of this I have thrown away
Just for you.
All of this I have destroyed


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To the true writer, to the serious writer, writing is a passion; an art. It is more than that though-it is the writer's soul, their life, their purpose. Writing isn't about mechanics. It's about love.

Only someone who truly loves the work they're doing can become a truly amazing writer. It takes so much time and effort to write something beautiful, especially a novel, but more than that it takes passion and love. You have to feel for your characters-or as your characters-and you have to feel connected to the plot


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Becoming The Character

July 1st 2008 05:44
Some actors become their roles; when in role, they think and feel as if they were the character in reality. Often with a very loose grip of the truth, and sometimes without a grip of it at all.

Some writers become their characters. It is an art form and it is the purest, in my mind, form of characterization. To really become your character, not just control them and tell them what to do; but to feel as though you and that character are one. For writers who plan this may not be so great. Personally I get so into it that I don't know what comes next, I may know some future event but nothing in the 'now' of the story


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