C.L. Ragsdale's Blog, page 7
April 21, 2011
Arguing With Myself...And Losing
Okay, so Jeff Dunham the ventrioquist said that first, but as a fiction writer I can relate. I am currently working on the fourth book of my Reboot Files Series. The first two came pretty easy. My second book, The Island of Living Trees, I am planning on releasing in May 2011. It was the third one, The Harbinger of Retribution (great title huh?) is coming out a few months after that, but it was that book I started running into issues with the characters.
I was wondering, do you other fiction writers ever find your characters rebelling against you? The ingrates, you create them and then they won't cooperate!
Look, I know it's really just me, myself and I, but it goes something like this. I get the plot going into a certain direction, and then one of my characters starts protesting, "I wouldn't do that."
"But I need you to do that" I argue with myself.
The character retorts, "I don't care, I still wouldn't do that. You didn't write me that way."
"But you have to do it," I insist, "Otherwise I will have to tear out pages, and I hate tearing out pages. I worked hard to write those pages!"
The character, however, simply states, "You're the writer, but make me and see what happens."
Of course what happens is the plot goes offline and I have to tear out those pages I tried so hard to protect. Worse, it does put the plot back online. But at least my characters shut up. Untll I do another plot point they don't like.
Which begs the question, why do I argue with myself when I'm right? Especially when you consider that if I would just listen to myself in the first place this writing thing would go a lot more smoothly.
Oh man, now I'm confusing myself.
It's times like this where I am certain that the Lord created me to be a writer. Because it's hard to argue with youself, and lose.
Oh, and in case you wondered what the fourth book is called I've titled it "The Wrong Ghost".
Pretty appropropriate.
I was wondering, do you other fiction writers ever find your characters rebelling against you? The ingrates, you create them and then they won't cooperate!
Look, I know it's really just me, myself and I, but it goes something like this. I get the plot going into a certain direction, and then one of my characters starts protesting, "I wouldn't do that."
"But I need you to do that" I argue with myself.
The character retorts, "I don't care, I still wouldn't do that. You didn't write me that way."
"But you have to do it," I insist, "Otherwise I will have to tear out pages, and I hate tearing out pages. I worked hard to write those pages!"
The character, however, simply states, "You're the writer, but make me and see what happens."
Of course what happens is the plot goes offline and I have to tear out those pages I tried so hard to protect. Worse, it does put the plot back online. But at least my characters shut up. Untll I do another plot point they don't like.
Which begs the question, why do I argue with myself when I'm right? Especially when you consider that if I would just listen to myself in the first place this writing thing would go a lot more smoothly.
Oh man, now I'm confusing myself.
It's times like this where I am certain that the Lord created me to be a writer. Because it's hard to argue with youself, and lose.
Oh, and in case you wondered what the fourth book is called I've titled it "The Wrong Ghost".
Pretty appropropriate.
April 13, 2011
Why I Write Like I Do
This is my first blog post and I thought I would use the opportunity to give an idea of how I write. It's a little strange, but true.
In the early days of trying to write a story I generally accepted that I would have to write a novel. Now no one seems to agree exactly, but apparently the average novel starts at 40,000 words and can go well beyond 100,000 words. That is a lot of words. Now don't get me wrong, I have all the admiration in the world for people who can write that much and keep you interested, it's just not something I do very well. If you have seen any of my writing, or posts of my writing, you will notice that I always emphasis short. That's because I'm done after 100 pages, and that's double-spaced. I did manage to actually write a novel, and one day I will try to do something with it, but after all of that work I found that it was still a 100 page story with a bunch of fluff that didn't add anything, it was just to hit the word count. Kind of like when I was a kid and had to write an essay with a particular number of words. Again, that is in my own case, I admire you writers who can write long stuff.
But since my intention is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in an entertaining way and have fun doing it, I decided to play to my strengths. This brought me to the novella, which starts around 17,000 and works very well for the eBook format which is how I publish.
So to make a long story short, and short is what I do, I wrote the first three books in my series The Reboot Files. The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, and the Harbinger of Retribution. My fourth book, called The Wrong Ghost is in the works. Novella’s may be short, but they still take some time to write.
So, that’s why I write short, or I thought I did. Until a friend of mine introduced me to Hint Fiction, or writing a story in 25 words or less. That makes me look downright long winded in comparison.
My first e-book The Reboot Files: The Mystery of Hurtleberry House is located at http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Hurtleb...
In the early days of trying to write a story I generally accepted that I would have to write a novel. Now no one seems to agree exactly, but apparently the average novel starts at 40,000 words and can go well beyond 100,000 words. That is a lot of words. Now don't get me wrong, I have all the admiration in the world for people who can write that much and keep you interested, it's just not something I do very well. If you have seen any of my writing, or posts of my writing, you will notice that I always emphasis short. That's because I'm done after 100 pages, and that's double-spaced. I did manage to actually write a novel, and one day I will try to do something with it, but after all of that work I found that it was still a 100 page story with a bunch of fluff that didn't add anything, it was just to hit the word count. Kind of like when I was a kid and had to write an essay with a particular number of words. Again, that is in my own case, I admire you writers who can write long stuff.
But since my intention is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in an entertaining way and have fun doing it, I decided to play to my strengths. This brought me to the novella, which starts around 17,000 and works very well for the eBook format which is how I publish.
So to make a long story short, and short is what I do, I wrote the first three books in my series The Reboot Files. The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, and the Harbinger of Retribution. My fourth book, called The Wrong Ghost is in the works. Novella’s may be short, but they still take some time to write.
So, that’s why I write short, or I thought I did. Until a friend of mine introduced me to Hint Fiction, or writing a story in 25 words or less. That makes me look downright long winded in comparison.
My first e-book The Reboot Files: The Mystery of Hurtleberry House is located at http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Hurtleb...
