What makes us want to keep turning the page? Why do we want to get invested in a story? When I was in graduate school at Illinois State University (Go Redbirds!!!) I would talk to friends of mine and we would discuss what it was that made people want to read a story. When picking up a book at your local Barnes and Noble, why pick up Book A instead of Book B? What was it about this text that caught my eye over that text? For me, when I read the first few paragraphs of a book story, that can tell the tale.
When I was first writing stories (on a notepad in my bedroom before bedtime), I always thought that whenever you start writing, you start at the beginning. At that time, I knew all there was to know about writing and no one could tell me anything (I long for those days, I think I’ve gotten stupider over the past few decades). Where does a story begin? Most European/American writing is linear. You begin in a chronological order and continue until the story ends. However, a lot of stories have broken that tradition. Take a look at Pulp Fiction: a film about several intersecting storylines that converge/diverge at different points in time. How about Memento (a murder mystery done backwards)? The myth of “beginning at the beginning” has long been debunked. This makes me think of the ingredients of a good opening.
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”
“Call me Ishmael…”
“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth…”
Whether it the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick or the Bible, each of these lines represent a different way to involve the reader. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…” This opening line makes me want to read about a different time, a different world, and a whole new story. It makes me wonder the possibilities that are endless with a story.
“Call me Ishmael…” This line makes me wonder about this narrator. I want to know who Ishmael was, what did he care about, and what put him on a ship ran by a madman. It wasn’t the story that made me want to read this novel called Moby Dick, it was Ishmael and Ahab.
What greater line evokes an epic grandiose feel than the opening words from The Bible? The opening passage induces an atmosphere of awe and discovery. It lets us know that the words that are within its pages will educate and entertain. No matter if you see the Holy Bible as a religious text or a collection of stories there is no mistaking the power and lush reality that it conjures for a reader.
Here’s a quick exercise: close your eyes and imagine what comes after “Once upon a time” or “It was a dark and stormy night.” These lines (albeit cliché), are still powerful lines that can vividly call to mind a wooded glen where elves and fairies traipse through life granting wishes, harboring secrets, or even telling a tale as old as time. Or, they can cause our hearts to speed as we imagine rain showering over us while moving timidly through a midnight forest hoping that something within the shadows does not grab us and pull us away into our deepest, darkest nightmares. That is the power of an opening line.
When it comes to writing (whether they are essays, novels, short stories, etc.), I sort the pieces into two categories: character driven and plot driven. Those that have compelling protagonists, whose evolution/development tend to become a driving force of the story, are referred to as character driven. Works such as Forrest Gump, Batman Begins, Fight Club or Atlas Shrugged are excellent examples of excellently written character driven pieces. Stories that have plots that are quite complex, and tend to overtake our attention are plot driven. Stories such as The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, or the Odyssey are great plot pieces. With beginning lines, the writer can show (without stating verbatim) if the piece is plot driven or character driven. However, before you even sit down to write an opening line, it is important to ask yourself if your work will be focusing on the character or the events that occur.
An opening line can be what makes the difference between a character that I want to continue to read about, and one that I decide to place back on the bookshelf. Opening lines can act just like first impressions. They are great to break the ice, and can introduce you to a new friend. Just remember to think of the appropriate way to introduce them. Whether it is a person or a plot, readers want to be teased enough to want to learn more.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Smashing My Head Against the Writer's Block
"Nulla dies sine linea"
- Horace
Have you ever heard that old adage “If you don’t use it, you lose it”? Well, it turns out that it is something that affects writing just as much as it affects everything else in life. Writing ability is just like muscle development; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
Whenever I teach a freshman composition class, on the first week of class someone inevitably approaches me apologetically, and informs me that they haven’t written anything in a long time and to “go easy on me.” Said student usually approaches me when others are out of earshot and they seem very sorry or upset to let me know this (as if I will be angry). Unfortunately, I tell the students, “No, I can’t go easy on you. I’m a mean person,” which usually results in laughter since I look and act as one of the meekest people you will ever want to meet. Afterwards, I reassure them that writing ability is something that develops the more that the writer does it. Also, I tell them that the process is different for everyone and the journey is just as different. As such, there isn’t a “right” way or a “wrong” way to go about writing.
One of the biggest reasons that I find myself wanting to turn on the television instead of writing something productive is that Law and Order: SVU is on. Benson and Stabler (played exceptionally well by Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni) are more than able to pull me away from my writing tasks. I even find myself sabotaging my writing when I enable the distraction. “It’s great storytelling!” I tell myself. “If I watch the show, I’ll learn about plot pacing, character development, and realistic dialogue.” As such, it won’t be a waste of time. Of course, by the end of the episode, I am so wrapped up with how horrible the villains on the show were (not to mention the depression in knowing that the Benson/Stabler duo will soon to come to an end).
- Horace
Have you ever heard that old adage “If you don’t use it, you lose it”? Well, it turns out that it is something that affects writing just as much as it affects everything else in life. Writing ability is just like muscle development; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
Whenever I teach a freshman composition class, on the first week of class someone inevitably approaches me apologetically, and informs me that they haven’t written anything in a long time and to “go easy on me.” Said student usually approaches me when others are out of earshot and they seem very sorry or upset to let me know this (as if I will be angry). Unfortunately, I tell the students, “No, I can’t go easy on you. I’m a mean person,” which usually results in laughter since I look and act as one of the meekest people you will ever want to meet. Afterwards, I reassure them that writing ability is something that develops the more that the writer does it. Also, I tell them that the process is different for everyone and the journey is just as different. As such, there isn’t a “right” way or a “wrong” way to go about writing.
Sometimes that is a bitter pill to swallow when on the receiving end of it. I freely admit to not writing on a daily basis (as I feel that I should). I admit to feeling like a hypocrite when writing this blog posting knowing full well that I find it difficult to write every single day. Where does this problem stem from? Where does it stem from for college writers? I would guess the same place.
One of the biggest reasons that I find myself wanting to turn on the television instead of writing something productive is that Law and Order: SVU is on. Benson and Stabler (played exceptionally well by Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni) are more than able to pull me away from my writing tasks. I even find myself sabotaging my writing when I enable the distraction. “It’s great storytelling!” I tell myself. “If I watch the show, I’ll learn about plot pacing, character development, and realistic dialogue.” As such, it won’t be a waste of time. Of course, by the end of the episode, I am so wrapped up with how horrible the villains on the show were (not to mention the depression in knowing that the Benson/Stabler duo will soon to come to an end).
As the example shows, it is easy to be swayed by outside stimuli to forego writing for that day. One day can turn into two; two can turn into three. Before you know it, you haven’t written in a month and when you return to write something, the process is much more difficult to do than it has ever been before. To get in the habit of writing, keep a journal. When I began working on my journal, I foundt hat the more I wrote, the better my writing became and the easier it was to write on something else. Upon reflection, as I looked at past papers that students turned in, on the first essay, students would not meet the page range. When the second and third essays were written, I found that more students met (and exceeded) the page range. Writing is infectious. Writing begets more writing!
Another problem that forces me to stop writing is when I am working on a piece and right in the middle of the essay (sometimes even while writing!), I will not know how to continue. What word should I use next? What was I writing? I lost my train of thought! At that moment, I will panic. On a few occasions, I would feel this way when I wrote Demon in My Head. There was a reason that it took exactly one year to write that first draft!
This problem still plagues me, however, a wise professor of English taught me a trick over fifteen years ago, and that still helps me to this day. “Don’t finish the sentence,” he told me (and about twenty other undergraduate English students). His thinking is that if the writer returns to the piece the next day, they will be able to finish the thought and continue the next one. On many occasions, I have been able to pick up my thought and continue to the next thought. Most writing is linear. If the line is broken, the writer may be able to continue the logical line of thinking.
It is my intention to give these tips and tricks to help the writing process move along for you. Ultimately, this would be futile unless you are motivated to write. There has to be a message that you have that fuels moving that pen on the paper (or those fingers on a keyboard). Keep writing! The adage is true: if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Here’s to keeping it.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Conversing with a Figment of Your Imagination: Getting to Know Your Characters
“Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.”
-Edward Albee
“If you're writing about a character, if he's a powerful character, unless you give him vulnerability I don't think he'll be as interesting to the reader.”
-Stan Lee
“How do I know vampires exist? Because I see them!”
-Gabriel Brimstone
I am a person who has done a lot of quirky things just to see how other people react. On a crisp summer afternoon, while grocery shopping; I would push my grocery cart on the left side of the lane, just to see how people would react. On each encounter with another shopper, I would get a grumble, a few choice (four letter) words, and a disapproving sneer.
An assignment that I give students in my Workplace Communications class is to go into a business or organization, observe their surrounds, and record the reactions of the customers/employees/supervisors and analyze how they interact with one another. The day they turn in the assignment, my students and I get into a brief discussion (aka debriefing) of their findings.
On occasions when I am traveling, I make a habit to take a tape recorder with me to record conversations with other people and listen to the rhythm of their language. Afterwards, I play the tape over and over to hear accents, pauses, and other “quirks” in the wording.
What do these three things have in common (other than the fact that it solidifies my weirdness)?
It means I am trying to learn and understand people in order to learn and understand my characters. The characters that I write are people, too. They think, feel, love, and hate just like anyone else. I want my characters to be as three dimensional as the person who I pass in the hallway, the student in the classroom, or the person ringing up my groceries in the checkout line. My characters may have the same hopes, dreams, aspirations, or obsessions as a person I speak to at the bank. In order to understand them, I need to understand people.
In the novel that I am currently writing, I have a multitude of characters and I want to get to know each and every one of them. In order to have true authenticity, I need to know what the character’s innate desires are. I have protagonists who are selfish, villains who have had troubled pasts, and characters in-between who are more than just “cannon fodder” or are “disposable”. Even those characters that are merely in the opening prologue or a single chapter (and are brutally killed off) have desires as well. In order to know how tragic their passing is, I need to know who they touched and who would mourn their passing.
Some writers create “character profiles” of their major protagonist (or antagonist) to get to know who they are. They have a “file” (of sorts) that lets them learn who their subjects/characters are. They act as if they are therapists or physicians for their characters. I, on the other hand, act in the similar way as a friend or confidante would. I have “conversations” with these characters. I sit down with them and I “talk” to them. Yes, this does seem quite “schizophrenic” (hence the title of my first blog). Acting as their best friend, I can learn different things about them. I learn if they have fetishes that they haven’t told their significant other; I learn where the bodies are buried (literally, in some cases). And by listening to them tell their story; I can learn of the patterns of dialogue and speech impediments that they may have.
This allows me to explore a part of my psyche that I haven’t explored since I was a child. If you have ever had an “imaginary friend”, this is the exact same exercise. I am sure this exercise is no less socially acceptable as when we were children, it is a very good way to get to know the characters that you hope other people will believe in.
If you want to create people that the reader will believe in, then you must first believe in them.
-Edward Albee
“If you're writing about a character, if he's a powerful character, unless you give him vulnerability I don't think he'll be as interesting to the reader.”
-Stan Lee
“How do I know vampires exist? Because I see them!”
-Gabriel Brimstone
I am a person who has done a lot of quirky things just to see how other people react. On a crisp summer afternoon, while grocery shopping; I would push my grocery cart on the left side of the lane, just to see how people would react. On each encounter with another shopper, I would get a grumble, a few choice (four letter) words, and a disapproving sneer.
An assignment that I give students in my Workplace Communications class is to go into a business or organization, observe their surrounds, and record the reactions of the customers/employees/supervisors and analyze how they interact with one another. The day they turn in the assignment, my students and I get into a brief discussion (aka debriefing) of their findings.
On occasions when I am traveling, I make a habit to take a tape recorder with me to record conversations with other people and listen to the rhythm of their language. Afterwards, I play the tape over and over to hear accents, pauses, and other “quirks” in the wording.
What do these three things have in common (other than the fact that it solidifies my weirdness)?
It means I am trying to learn and understand people in order to learn and understand my characters. The characters that I write are people, too. They think, feel, love, and hate just like anyone else. I want my characters to be as three dimensional as the person who I pass in the hallway, the student in the classroom, or the person ringing up my groceries in the checkout line. My characters may have the same hopes, dreams, aspirations, or obsessions as a person I speak to at the bank. In order to understand them, I need to understand people.
In the novel that I am currently writing, I have a multitude of characters and I want to get to know each and every one of them. In order to have true authenticity, I need to know what the character’s innate desires are. I have protagonists who are selfish, villains who have had troubled pasts, and characters in-between who are more than just “cannon fodder” or are “disposable”. Even those characters that are merely in the opening prologue or a single chapter (and are brutally killed off) have desires as well. In order to know how tragic their passing is, I need to know who they touched and who would mourn their passing.
Some writers create “character profiles” of their major protagonist (or antagonist) to get to know who they are. They have a “file” (of sorts) that lets them learn who their subjects/characters are. They act as if they are therapists or physicians for their characters. I, on the other hand, act in the similar way as a friend or confidante would. I have “conversations” with these characters. I sit down with them and I “talk” to them. Yes, this does seem quite “schizophrenic” (hence the title of my first blog). Acting as their best friend, I can learn different things about them. I learn if they have fetishes that they haven’t told their significant other; I learn where the bodies are buried (literally, in some cases). And by listening to them tell their story; I can learn of the patterns of dialogue and speech impediments that they may have.
This allows me to explore a part of my psyche that I haven’t explored since I was a child. If you have ever had an “imaginary friend”, this is the exact same exercise. I am sure this exercise is no less socially acceptable as when we were children, it is a very good way to get to know the characters that you hope other people will believe in.
If you want to create people that the reader will believe in, then you must first believe in them.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Finding Your Voice
“Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.”
-Thomas Berger
“If there is a chance in hell that someone is reading this, then what I write will live on.”
-Gabriel Brimstone
One idea that I have always tried to instill in student writing is significance and depth. Ever since I have started teaching, I have allowed the writers I have worked with to choose their own topics. “You can write about whatever you want, just as long as you show the reader the significance in your words.” At first, many students are comforted by this. Some are even excited by this! However, once reality hits them, they realize just how important it is to choose the “right” topic. What is the “right” topic? How does a writer know when they have stumbled onto the right one?
All writers want to create something with depth, something that has meaning, and something that is relevant. No matter if it is an essay for a Composition class, a creative writing piece, or any variation between, they want to make sure that the send an appropriate message, plus create a piece that is worth their time.
When approaching writing (creative or otherwise), I tend to look for patterns in the world to create themes. For example, when writing Demon in My Head, I wrote of the world of a vampire hunter. Any “average” vampire story has the traditional blood-sucking storylines. Stories that simply focus on the monster killing people, only to be executed himself/herself, have been done to death. How can one put in their voice to make the story their own? I looked around in my real world to see themes that I could use in my fiction. In short, I looked within myself and my life to place my voice into the story. My grandfather was a reformed alcoholic who struggled with his addiction. I heard of this secondhand, of course, since it was something that he never talked to me about.
It is rather easy to see a similar theme of addiction of within the vampire subgenre. So, I created Gabriel Brimstone, a vampire hunter/vampire who is remorseful of his fall “off the wagon” (i.e. drinking the blood of the innocent). In the opening pages of Demon in My Head, Brimstone is found going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Writers (new or otherwise) should know that depth is found within one’s own discovery of patterns. I played upon the pattern of addiction that is inherent in vampire fiction, but I would not have seen it had it not been for learning of addiction within my family.
So I tell my students to look for patterns within their own lives and backgrounds. There are always patterns (humans are very logical creatures). What patterns do they see? It is like playing “connect the dots” with abstract concepts. It is these patterns that allow me to see the reality of the world around me and address it in the truths that come from my own mind.
Lately, I have been swamped with student essays to grade. Each essay has a truth in it that comes from the writer’s own mind. On many occasions, I will ask myself “What drove this student to write this particular essay?” Whether it is about gun control, a biography of John Quincy Adams, or a summary of a thought-provoking essay, there is a kernel of truth that acts as the driving force behind the project. On most occasions the essays include examples of events that have occurred in the students’ lives that have a relevance to the topic that the student has chosen. As such, the writer has a direct connection to the topic and realizes that they indeed have a voice to bring to the essay.
It is important that the writer knows that they have a valuable and valid voice. Writing is very empowering. To write something, it implies that the writer has a voice. As a writer, one must know what they care about. If it is important enough to occupy the writer’s thoughts, then it is important enough to write. Always keep the pen moving! Listen to what you write and your will hear your voice.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Schizophrenic In Me
“Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?”-M. C. Escher
“Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t looking at you and licking their lips.”-Gabriel Brimstone
Just this past weekend, I attended a wedding shower and it was discovered, by many of those who attended, that I had recently published a novel. I felt like a celebrity (something that doesn’t happen very often) and was excited to answer many questions about writing a novel. One of the questions was “How close do you feel to your characters?”
Many people have asked questions regarding to my process and where I come up with ideas, but that was the first time someone had asked me about how close to my characters I was. On the heels of publishing Demon in My Head and nearly completing The Modern Prometheus (both of which feature the vampire hunter Gabriel Brimstone), I had to think about how I felt about finishing Demon. In short, I was depressed.
It took me exactly 365 days to write the first draft of Demon in My Head (then titled Addicted). Before that, I had written many short stories featuring Gabriel. After I edited Addicted for publication in Night to Dawn Magazine, I found myself rewriting the manuscript, changing it into the version that is currently out for “consumption”. That rewrite took a good two years to complete. As such, Gabriel and I spent many, many years together.
So when this dear, sweet woman asked me about the closeness of my characters, I told her that I felt “schizophrenic”. Much like Gabriel, I, too, have demons and voices in my head. Some of them are friendly, and some of them are very, very dark. These are the characters that make the inspiration for my stories. I have eaten, dreamed and slept with Gabriel Brimstone (much to the chagrin of relationships that I have had). It took me a lot of effort to continue the conversation and refer to Gabriel as a character. Otherwise, I would have sounded like a person with severe mental issues to the curious woman.
“They are a part of me, and I am a part of them,” I remember telling her. Before Brimstone, I had published very little writing. It mostly consisted of mystery tales. However, when I jumped into horror fiction, which was when my writing received the most amount of attention.
My fiancé has mentioned many times that I should write something more romantic or (as she puts it) “real.” The problem for me is that the definition of “real” is a very ambiguous term when I dip my pen into the ink well of my imagination. Even though Gabriel Brimstone is a vampire hunter and spends his nights keeping the things that go bump in the night away from the rest of us, he is very “real” to me. At a risk of giving some of the plot away, there are some very real facets of Demon. On many occasions, I have had to work at separating myself from my characters (Gabriel Brimstone being one of the most prominent characters). Mr. Brimstone and I have philosophized on many occasions the meaning of life, the definition of reality, and our hopes and dreams. Demon tells reality through the eyes of a man who looks at the world a little different than most of us, but to him, it is no less real. After all, what does “real” mean to you?
I don’t attend wedding showers very often (in fact, this was my very first one), but I had a great time justifying my psychosis to a dear woman who wanted to get inside the mind of a writer, but got more than she bargained for. The next time you ask a writer how close they are to their characters, see what their answer is.
If you’re a doctor, don’t be afraid to prescribe something.
“Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t looking at you and licking their lips.”-Gabriel Brimstone
Just this past weekend, I attended a wedding shower and it was discovered, by many of those who attended, that I had recently published a novel. I felt like a celebrity (something that doesn’t happen very often) and was excited to answer many questions about writing a novel. One of the questions was “How close do you feel to your characters?”
Many people have asked questions regarding to my process and where I come up with ideas, but that was the first time someone had asked me about how close to my characters I was. On the heels of publishing Demon in My Head and nearly completing The Modern Prometheus (both of which feature the vampire hunter Gabriel Brimstone), I had to think about how I felt about finishing Demon. In short, I was depressed.
It took me exactly 365 days to write the first draft of Demon in My Head (then titled Addicted). Before that, I had written many short stories featuring Gabriel. After I edited Addicted for publication in Night to Dawn Magazine, I found myself rewriting the manuscript, changing it into the version that is currently out for “consumption”. That rewrite took a good two years to complete. As such, Gabriel and I spent many, many years together.
So when this dear, sweet woman asked me about the closeness of my characters, I told her that I felt “schizophrenic”. Much like Gabriel, I, too, have demons and voices in my head. Some of them are friendly, and some of them are very, very dark. These are the characters that make the inspiration for my stories. I have eaten, dreamed and slept with Gabriel Brimstone (much to the chagrin of relationships that I have had). It took me a lot of effort to continue the conversation and refer to Gabriel as a character. Otherwise, I would have sounded like a person with severe mental issues to the curious woman.
“They are a part of me, and I am a part of them,” I remember telling her. Before Brimstone, I had published very little writing. It mostly consisted of mystery tales. However, when I jumped into horror fiction, which was when my writing received the most amount of attention.
My fiancé has mentioned many times that I should write something more romantic or (as she puts it) “real.” The problem for me is that the definition of “real” is a very ambiguous term when I dip my pen into the ink well of my imagination. Even though Gabriel Brimstone is a vampire hunter and spends his nights keeping the things that go bump in the night away from the rest of us, he is very “real” to me. At a risk of giving some of the plot away, there are some very real facets of Demon. On many occasions, I have had to work at separating myself from my characters (Gabriel Brimstone being one of the most prominent characters). Mr. Brimstone and I have philosophized on many occasions the meaning of life, the definition of reality, and our hopes and dreams. Demon tells reality through the eyes of a man who looks at the world a little different than most of us, but to him, it is no less real. After all, what does “real” mean to you?
I don’t attend wedding showers very often (in fact, this was my very first one), but I had a great time justifying my psychosis to a dear woman who wanted to get inside the mind of a writer, but got more than she bargained for. The next time you ask a writer how close they are to their characters, see what their answer is.
If you’re a doctor, don’t be afraid to prescribe something.
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