Misba's Blog, page 3

Chapter-5: Magic Mama

  "The Machinist, Monk, & Mesmerizer Chronicles"

In the near future, a machinist, a monk, and a mesmerizer are looking for the Source of the universe, but among the ancient scriptures, they only find the devil â€¦

Few humans in the future, find the secrets of what words and sound can do, for the Apocalypse and war lead them to evolve in mind and physique. Two of them end World War III with just a speech. Some say they did a mass-hypnosis. Others say it was their voice and will. Fifty years later i...

Chapter-1: The Machinist

SHE WOULD HAVE CALLED IT DEATH, but she didn’t.

Mostly because she didn’t k­now what ‘death’ or ‘life’ or any other word in the world meant. At least, not then. Sometimes, death only means the end of all old memories. The first time Kusha saw the sun after her old memories died, it made her more curious than seeing her own breasts. At least, you can touch your breasts. But you cannot touch the sun.

Meera found her watching the morning sky standing stripped on the roof. “I’m your mother. Mo-ther …” Meera said, approaching her adopted teen-daughter, repeating ‘Mother’ several times. “And you cannot be naked, sweetie,” she added, covering Kusha with her wide, red shawl—spiral depictions of snails, in golden stitches, all over it. It gave Kusha warmth as much as Meera’s voice that belled as if water pouring through rocks in a desert. In response, Kusha extended her fingers to trace her new mother’s lips. She assumed lips create words.

“People talk,” Meera said, fetching those fingers to her own throat, “from here.”

Kusha gasped, sensing how Meera’s vocal cords trembled, how her voice rang. In an instant, her brain, empty of information and full of curiosity, craved to create sounds like that with her own voice, her lips, her tongue, with her entirety of being, if needed.

Kusha removed her fingers from Meera’s throat and lightly touched her own full lips; she gawked at her new mother, expecting she’d speak more. And Meera did.

“But you must speak from here.” Meera showed her belly. “Words are magic, sweetie. With words, you can re-code fate.”

Kusha didn’t understand what she heard. However, her prodigy brain remembered every set of sounds Meera had styled in her speech: “I’m your mother … mo-ther … mo-ther … you can’t be naked … people talk … words are magic … with words, you can re-code fate …” Kusha parroted them the next day in front of her new father and sister, not completely naked this time. Meera made sure Kusha, as a sixteen-year-old girl, wore at least a frock before she left her attic.

This was the moment that started it all. The moment that kicked off her tiny desire to speak that only grew and grew until she craved to become a goddess one day. Either to save the world as in heroic epics, or to destroy it, unlike the most villain-ballads.

WHY YOUR WEATHER PARAS ARE NOT WORKING

Alright. You are starting your book with weather descriptions. Sometimes, it follows on to the next page! And the character is still not there. And readers start wondering if this is a fiction with a character or is it a Geography book in the study section. The same thing happens when you keep giving settings, too.

Now, this part is tricky. You can't keep the MC hanging on space, you do need a line or two about setting + time + even weather. Yes. Maybe in a line or two? And when you do that you have to add the tension.

This is it. "TENSION" is all that you need to write those lines of weather and settings.

Let me give an example: If you haven't read Mistborn yet, (I'm still reading it), go, search in google, and look at the first page. Do you see how the author gives the world + weather para?

Do you see what he really did there? You don't? Ok, here it is.

ARE YOU BUILDING THE WORLD MOSTLY IN DIALOGUES?

You have a great world. I can see the world almost coming to the page, but you are not giving the finishing line, the conclusion lines, the narratives that will make the 'me-who-is-half-inclined-to-your-world' completely fall on it. Why? Because you're only writing dialogues one after another.

Now think about it, have you ever heard a movie on a radio? No? Why?

Because, it doesn't have the visuals, the transition effects, the motions, the acting, the facial expressions of the characters. Hmm ... well, the radio, at least, can have sound-effects. But in books? If u give only dialogues with only 'he said' 'she said' 'Sam or Mike said' ... ahem! I'll quit faster thanks.

In Books, you have to give EVERYthing a movie gives me: Dialogue is just one thing. Put the sounds effects, the transitions, the acting, the motiongraphy, the screenplay, even that background music.

What do you say? You can't give background music in your book? Read NAME OF THE WIND. See how the author did it.

Chapter-4: The Mesmerizer

 "The Machinist, Monk, & Mesmerizer Chronicles"

In the near future, a machinist, a monk, and a mesmerizer are looking for the Source of the universe, but among the ancient scriptures, they only find the devil â€¦

Few humans in the future, find the secrets of what words and sound can do, for the Apocalypse and war lead them to evolve in mind and physique. Two of them end World War III with just a speech. Some say they did a mass-hypnosis. Others say it was their voice and will. Fifty years later in...

WHY DOES YOUR PROSE SOUND CONFUSING?

You’re a writer of fiction. And like every smart fiction-creator, you make other writers critique your piece. And then, you face that issue that everyone else faces. That is: no one is completely ‘understanding’ what’s happening on the page.

You think they are not reading. You think they are skimming. You think they are not ‘your’ genre readers maybe. You don’t want to see the real issue.


The real issue is: Human mind and the reader’s psychology towards something new.
Let me tell you, the best and most successful books are the accessible ones, which all genre and age category readers can read and enjoy. How do the authors do it?

They make the early pages welcoming and understandable. The first experience into your world must not be clumsy or bumpy or hard or confusing.


Now ... Why they are bumping?

Chapter-3: Meadow of Metals

 "The Machinist, Monk, & Mesmerizer Chronicles"

In the near future, a machinist, a monk, and a mesmerizer are looking for the Source of the universe, but among the ancient scriptures, they only find the devil â€¦

Few humans in the future, find the secrets of what words and sound can do, for the Apocalypse and war lead them to evolve in mind and physique. Two of them end World War III with just a speech. Some say they did a mass-hypnosis. Others say it was their voice and will. Fifty years later in...

CONFUSING ACTIONS MAKE YOUR PAGES DRY

The next time you’re not Explaining enough is your MC’s or other characters’ actions. That is they are doing something and that’s all you’re saying.

Yes. You’re just saying. ‘Then she jumped off of the roof,’ and you're saying it without telling us why.

Now, pay attention here. Maybe, you’ve mentioned and showed earlier with dialogues that someone has left her, or someone close to her died, or she lost her lawsuit, or her years of the company went bankrupt in Covid-19 … You may have explained the situation. But you didn’t tell me her thoughts. NOTE: Her Thoughts!

Chapter 2: The Monk

 "The Machinist, Monk, & Mesmerizer Chronicles"

In the near future, a machinist, a monk, and a mesmerizer are looking for the Source of the universe, but among the ancient scriptures, they only find the devil â€¦

Few humans in the future, find the secrets of what words and sound can do, for the Apocalypse and war lead them to evolve in mind and physique. Two of them end World War III with just a speech. Some say they did a mass-hypnosis. Others say it was their voice and will. Fifty years later in...

ON THE PAGE: MUSIC & CULTURE

Once I saw a post on twitter. A writer was saying, how she will just have to choose the music herself if her book ever goes to Hollywood. She wants a say on music and sound decisions of her story if it becomes a film. 

Well, it’s not unusual. We can feel we need a say on the music. But why will you keep what you want to say for later? Why not say it now? On The Page?

This is another not-saying-enough on your story and writing-on-the-page article.

 

If you have a special theme or a song or a styl...