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

Articles/Ideas/Prompts Short Fiction - Fictional Worlds

When Everything Is Just Too Much

October 4th 2008 23:28
So let me tell you something. School is stressing me out; I'm trying to force myself to go but it isn't working very well. Things at home aren't pleasant either. I'm stressed; so stressed that I've been sick on and off for two weeks now. Nanowrimo is on the horizon.

It's times like these when anybody-writer or otherwise-starts to wonder about all their obligations and if they're worth it. It's times like these when normally I would abandon the blog for weeks at a time; I'm trying not to. It's sort of working. It's times like these when we just want to throw in the towel.

But what do we do? We keep pushing, keep pushing ourselves to the limit every day to do our best no matter how bad we feel. We keep going, doing everything in our power to prove that we are capable people. That we can handle it.


The writer lives this life more than some. We live from paycheck to paycheck in worry; maybe the next one won't exist. Maybe there will be no work. We work hard in competitive markets where we might not make anything. We might just fall on our faces and have to try to pick ourselves up again. It might not even work.

But that is the risk we all take. We all know it's there. And no matter what, we have to keep working. And no matter what, I will keep writing. I will somehow manage 250, 000 words this November. And it will be something to be proud of.

I hope that those of us going through hard times right now-students of any age especially-can push themselves to stay on top of their goals, and to meet them, and to do all the great things, or at least most of the great things that they want to do.
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Website Review: Holly Lisle

September 15th 2008 00:48
I'm sick, my internet access is severely restrained because I stayed out REALLY late watching the Batman movie (which I loved), and I'm just feeling generically exhausted from school and life at the moment.

However, I am posting something. I just got the last lesson in Holly Lisle's newsletter course on creating your own royalties. Although it isn't for me at quite this point, I believe that someday I will be prepared to take better advantage of the course, which is saved in my Gmail. (I'm just going to say this: I love Gmail, there is so much space, you can keep most of your emails. I have dozens that are kept because there is just that much space.)


Link: http://www.hollylisle.com/

I've been reading Holly Lisle's site on and off for three or four years now. I originally found it through a worldbuilding help link on the Nanowrimo forums, and I read through all of her articles.

Although I am a very different person from Holly, especially in my style of outlining and revision, I have found her articles inspirational and helpful. She seems like a good person, dedicated to what she does, and dedicating to helping others. Holly believes in 'Paying forward', in helping other writers to get where she is-living off of her writing.

She may not be able to help you, because everyone is different, and we all have different techniques that work for us. But she has some excellent ideas, and the course I just finished reading is clear, concise, short, simple, and very true. I have heard her words echoed in many places throughout the web, and not necessarily by people who have ever heard of her.

I have never read any of her books, but I have read all of her articles and am deeply interested in her language creation workshop, although again, she is a very different type of writer than I am. I believe that any writer of fiction will benefit from her reading-if only in the way that any of us benefits from knowing how another works.

Kudos to her and her willingness-and attempt-to help other writers.

And link again: http://www.hollylisle.com/
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The Magical Moments

September 10th 2008 08:46
Why do we live life?

For those moments of magic, those moments of beauty and joy and love.

Why do we read stories?

For the magical moments, the moments in which we can feel with the character; of joy, bliss, beauty, love, and in some books even sorrow is beautiful.

Either I'm reading too much Anne Rice, or I'm onto something here. The moments which effect us in the most profound ways are most often beautiful if seen from the right point of view. Some, like a death by cancer, cannot be made into anything beautiful no matter how hard you try; but even the loss of love, and many other forms of death, can be made beautiful.

It is this beauty that the writer is ever trying to capture. This essence; the magical moments, the magic of the moment, the magic in the air, of the location, of the people. This proves difficult on many occasions, and to me has seemed ever easier to do with poetry. Most prose just doesn't have that quality to it, the intangible quality that keeps you enthralled and makes even the most atrocious acts beautiful.

There are a few examples of books which hold that tone, the tone of magic and beauty, the whole way, or almost the whole way, through. Anne Rice, which I read a lot of, has plenty of examples of this. Lady of the Hay, whose author's name I'll remember someday, I promise, holds that tone throughout much of the book. From what I understand, George R. R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire has some of this as well, although I haven't had a chance to actually read through that series.

Capturing the magical essence of life is our duty as writers. And it is difficult, yes, but the end result is beauty that is absolutely worth it. The work that can fully capture that sense is our best work, and should be shown off to whoever is willing to listen. This is a writer's life, this is a writer's work. To capture that essence and share it with others.

I had a magical moment of my own very recently; and it is a sweet story that someday, somewhere, I will tell. And the world, I hope, will hear me-and I will be able to capture it completely, I hope. For it is one of those things that happens maybe once in a lifetime, and it has made me so happy of late that I can barely believe it. Things are looking up now, they really are.

Can you capture a magic moment?

Do you remember a magic moment?

Turn that moment into a piece of writing... and do your best... to capture the essence within.
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Why Do I Write?

September 1st 2008 05:57
I've written about this topic before. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately, so I decided to talk about why I write-not only this blog, but everything else that I write.

I write because without writing, I would be locked away with no outlet to express myself


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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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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

July 24th 2008 07:34
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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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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Publishing your books, short stories, and poems...

July 20th 2008 10:19
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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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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Fanfiction: Good, Bad, Or Indifferent?

July 15th 2008 04:21
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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Writing-passion, art, and so much more...

July 3rd 2008 04:02
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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