Category: Creativity

Writing, music, anything creative

Posted on

Pre-November Preview

Things have been steadily moving forward with my current novel project. I’m getting the outline to the point where it almost writes itself, which is exactly where it needs to be.

This is the time where I decide if I want to officially try to “win” at NaNoWriMo this year. I’m of course thinking about how all the horrible fanfic and chick-lit authors will swarm the NaNo boards and discussions, talking about stuff I’m not the least bit interested in. I don’t have to participate, of course, but that takes some of the fun out of it.

I am noticing that more and more writers are foregoing the whole “story” idea and just writing mush. As I’ve written previously, I have issues with contrived stories that lack focus… I ought to know, I wrote one! Continue reading “Pre-November Preview”

Posted on

Book Review: Monster Hunter International

I finally had the chance to read through Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. In a nutshell, the book is a fun read, and I’d recommend it. But that’s not really a review, so I’m going to give it the proper treatment it deserves.

As the first book in a series, MHI is about Owen Zastava Pitt; a simple corporate accountant who ends up shoving his boss out of a 14th floor window. But that’s because his boss was a werewolf. After nearly being mauled to death, Pitt wakes up in the hospital with lots of scars, and a job offer from a shady character.

I generally judge a book or film on how well the writer achieves their goal, and how entertaining the journey was to get there. Now, with a name like “Monster Hunter International” I had a pretty good idea of where the story was going to go. And since I’m cool with blowing monsters to bits, I’m willing to overlook a few things here and there if the story is fun. Continue reading “Book Review: Monster Hunter International”

Posted on

What Drives Me To Write

With all the thinking I’ve been doing on how to write, I haven’t covered much about why I write. And while I am still hammering through plots and characters, every now and then I have to remind myself why I’m sitting with my laptop, pouring time and energy into something intangible.

I came to a realization last night, after reading and watching some excellent seminars on plot and originality. I realized that it’s okay for me to pour myself into the book’s main character. There’s nothing wrong with using my own experiences if it makes for a more convincing story.

This not only gives me some freedom in not having to worry about making the “perfect” character, it allows me to write what I know. If I write a character that has had hip surgery, I know how to write that. I know what it feels like, I know how to describe it. If my character plays the guitar, I know how to describe that, I know what that feels like. And that’s not a bad thing. Continue reading “What Drives Me To Write”

Posted on

Marketing And Self-Promotion

For me, marketing is a something of a sticking point. As a general rule, I don’t like marketing, for several reasons. Usually it’s because they’re trying to sell something that nobody needs.

So when I think “how can I reach more people” my first response is “Oh God, I’m becoming a marketer!”

But it’s a question I have to start thinking about now if I’m ever going to consider writing for a living. I don’t like screaming for attention, but in person, I tend to… how shall I say this… stick out in a crowd. I like interacting with people, but I don’t see that as marketing. Why?

Because it’s a two-way street. It’s communication, not an advertisement. And advertisements annoy me because they assume they know what you want, when in fact 99% of the time they have no idea. But with communication, I can ask questions and adjust the conversation to suit that particular interest, or maybe segue into a related topic. Continue reading “Marketing And Self-Promotion”

Posted on

Outlines, Deadlines, And Lying To Yourself

I haven’t written anything on the blog this week. Instead, I’ve been working on outlining a series of stories, which as it turns out, is very hard for me to do.

But outlines are important, for the same reason that having lines on a highway is important. When you start drifting, you can look over, see the line, and prevent yourself from plummeting off a cliff (or in my case, plunging into a swamp).

Similarly, deadlines are a necessary evil. If left to my own schedule, I would toodle around on a couple of scenes for months, and never get anything completed. I need a deadline to move forward, because it causes me to push aside the perfectionism and distractions long enough to start moving forward again.

But Outlines and Deadlines?

Ouch.

I’ll admit it, I use every trick in the book (pun intended) to get through writing something. In order to edit a book, it has to actually be written, and so without the two “lines” I would go nowhere.

You have to embrace them. Continue reading “Outlines, Deadlines, And Lying To Yourself”

Posted on

The Plot Thickens

I’ve been a fan of multi-book series since I started reading novels. There’s something magical about reading story after story with the same characters developing, following along with them, seeing them overcome struggles and hardship. After reading a whole series with the same protagonists, you get attached to them.

But for the writer, stretching out a story across multiple books get increasingly harder the further you go. At least, if you want to keep it interesting.

When I decided I wanted to write a book series, part of me said “Yeah! Let’s do this!” and the other part of me said “Oh geez, now I have to write plots for all those books!”

And plotting is something I am loath to do. Yes, I know it’s critical, but my brain often spews forth ideas faster than I can capture them. And when I do come up with a great story idea, I tend to not know when to quit, and I hammer it to death, or let it fall apart because I want to cram more stuff in there.

There’s a fine balance between “really good story” and “mind-bending psychological train wreck.” I want to get as close to that line as I can get without going overboard. And of course, there’s the fact that each book needs to be a story in and of itself, and yet still be coherent and open-ended enough to make a broad-reaching story arc. Continue reading “The Plot Thickens”

Posted on

Seeing The Big Picture

Part of working creatively is learning what to do when things don’t go as planned. In my case, I tend to put deadlines or challenges on myself, and I get rather irate when I can’t reach them.

But it’s mostly my own ego making me feel that way. I tend to put extremely difficult standards on myself, so high that even *I* can’t reach them all the time.

This is both good and bad.

When I make a statement like “I pledge to write on my blog every weekday” and I actually do it, I feel awesome. But if I don’t, I feel like a failure… even if I only missed one day in 6 weeks.

The good side is that sometimes, my ridiculous goals can push me to actually do something I honestly didn’t think I could do. The bad side is, nobody bats 1000. So when I say things like “I’m going to write on my novels every single day!” that’s a *huge* goal, and I need to accept the fact that I’m not going to actually be able to write every single day.

To that end, I’m going to set up a daily writing progress tracker written by Jamie Rubin, whom I’ve linked to before as his Evernote posts are fantastic.

This will allow me to see how much I’ve written over a broad span of time, as opposed to panicking over missing one day. It’s much easier to see the big picture… when you can see the big picture.

(Write Or Die also has a word progress tracker, but I’m not going to be able to write with it all the time.)

Posted on

Writing, Busyness, and Chasing a Dream

First, I’d like to apologize (to all 5 of my readers) for not posting anything yesterday. I know it didn’t affect you in any way, shape or form that I didn’t, but you know, I promised myself I would write every weekday, and I have, for several weeks. But you’re about to find out why.

For a long time, I’ve dreamed about living a creative life, and spending my days working on writing novels and music. I say “dream” because I didn’t think it was something I could do while I was awake. But every day that I go to work and get micromanaged, or work on things I’m not passionate about, I get more and more frustrated.

You see, deep down, I know I can write books for a living. I don’t think so, I know so. But the problem is  that it takes time to write and edit books. And with working, being a dad/husband/scoutmaster/supervillain and everything else I have going on, writing a book just doesn’t seem like something I can fit into my schedule.

But I need to make this happen. I don’t need to “fit” in time to write: I need to make it my singular goal if I’m going to ever break free of working for a corporation. Can I actually write enough to quit my day job? Is it even possible? Continue reading “Writing, Busyness, and Chasing a Dream”

Posted on

Creativity Brain Hacks

A few days ago, I wrote about my reasoning and motivation for diving into deep projects. I didn’t really get into how those things happen, though, and so I figured I’d give you a glimpse into what my creative process looks like.

I developed a few things I’ve begun doing to make it easier to dive into big projects. Some of these aren’t exactly revelatory. Some of them I got from Cal Newport’s “Deep Habits” study hacks blog, some of them I just figured out.

So, here’s my suggestions for Creativity Brain Hacks: Continue reading “Creativity Brain Hacks”

Posted on

Storytelling 101: Sintel

Yesterday I wrote about diving deep into projects, but after thinking through the problem and finding my motivations, I didn’t really post much on how to go about making that happen. While I’m working on putting that list together, here’s an awesome video I discovered a while back. Fantastic animation and storytelling. It’s basically a 15-minute master class on how to tell a story.