R.S. Hunter's Blog, page 11

Is it Cheating?

On Thursday a huge black out hit all of San Diego, parts of Orange County, northern Baja California, parts of Arizona, and even New Mexico. Left without power and fading sunlight, my girlfriend decided to take a nap. Before she fell asleep she suggested I write…the old fashioned way. I was reluctant because I was in the middle of working on a novel outline and it was saved on my computer. I wouldn't be able to make concrete progress without the files open in front of me. She then suggested I write a short story, but I told her I was going to read instead.

So I plopped down on the couch and dove into Broken Time Blues, which is pretty awesome by the way. I made it through two stories and the title of a third when inspiration hit me. A collection of images I'd had in my mind for a long time all came together. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to write a story about a robot neighborhood in 1920s Manhattan and anti-robot riots. I put down the book and quickly began outlining my story.

As I was doing that and all the next day a nagging feeling kept eating at me. My idea for a story only came after reading some from Broken Time Blues. Did that mean my idea wasn't my own? I hadn't read any stories so far in that collection that dealt with robots and riots, so I definitely wasn't stealing. But it felt like I was borrowing inspiration or something. Is this cheating somehow? Is it cheating if reading a story or book inspires you to want to write something of your own?

I don't have an answer. I want to hear from other writers if they've ever had something like this happen before.

When Do You Abandon a Manuscript? Also, Updates

Every writer's experienced this at some point: you're in the middle of a manuscript, let's say about the halfway point, and your enthusiasm for the project begins to slip. You start questioning every little bit of plot and character development. You run your hands through your hair asking, "Why would anyone ever want to read this? This is the worst book in the history of words!" And then a dark slips through the cracks of your flagging self-confidence: what if you just gave up and worked on something else?

Tons of people will tell you that success in the field of writing comes from hard work and perseverance. You can't write a novel unless you sit your butt in a chair (or stand if you feel like it) and write. That's great advice, but where do you draw the line between just hitting a speedbump and legitimately needing to write something else. When do you abandon a manuscript?

Right now I'm in the middle of writing a sci-fi book. I'm at about 50,000 words give or take, and my goal's about 80,000. So I'm definitely over halfway and some days getting words on the page is a slog–even with my incredibly detailed 40,000 word outline. (Yes, I'm a huge plotter) I can honestly say I've thought about giving this one up. But I haven't yet. I tried a little bit of that perseverin' thang and made some progress. That was enough for me to give up the notions of quitting.  However quitting (maybe just temporarily) could be acceptable if you've really tried. You forced yourself to make progress, and it still isn't coming any easier. That might be a sign it's time to take a break.

I know that's not a great answer but that's the only one you're getting out of me! Time for other things. I got another short story accepted! My story "Strike Breakers" is going to appear in the 20,001: A Steampunk Odyssey anthology by Kindling Press. This is my 3rd short story acceptance for 2011 and my 5th overall. I try not to get jealous when I see other writers with dozens of short story credits to their name, but short stories really aren't what I focus on. Still it feels good, really good, when you get a win like this.

Time for some word count updates

Project Name: The Price of Loyalty

Deadline: N/A

Word Count: 51,791

 

Humanity, Empire, and the Ood – Reactions to Doctor Who S04E03 "Planet of the Ood"

I just finished watching Doctor Who season four episode three–"Planet of the Ood." I felt moved to write something. It's not a review and definitely not a formal essay. That's why I'm calling this a reactions piece–a rambling, hopefully coherent piece that will share my thoughts about the episode.

For those of you who don't know, Doctor Who is an extremely long running British television series. And also for those of you who also don't know, I'm from the US, and I just started watching the show this year. The biggest thing I've noticed is that the series has a fundamental British-ness about it–whatever that means. I believe that "Planet of the Ood" exemplifies the series' British-ness, especially surrounding concepts like empire and the Other.

The episode opens with the Doctor taking Donna to the Ood-Sphere, an ice planet and home of the Ood, in the year 4126. During the course of the episode, he remarks that they are in the middle of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Little warning bells went off in my mind as soon as he said that. And I think this is where the series' inherent British-ness is really apparent. This is a sweeping generalization, but I feel like because empire played such a huge role throughout the course of British history that the fabric of empire has been imprinted on the modern British psyche–for better and worse.

I don't think it's any secret that we're supposed to draw parallels between this Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire and the British Empire. What's interesting is how many critics praised the episode for its commentary on slavery, but I don't see it. Not the commentary itself–I saw that–but why the episode is deserving of so much praise (on those ideological grounds).

The Ood are a perfect Other. They're humanoid, but distinctly not-human. With squid-like tentacles where a human's mouth would be and a strange appendage attached to their heads, the Ood are both fascinating and terrifying because of how similar and how strange they are. The fact that the Doctor and Donna fight for the Ood against oppression is supposed to be seen as a major victory.

In the episode we learn that the Ood are being sold in three human-dominated galaxies as the perfect servants. In fact, they've been bred and surgically manipulated to be that way. Obviously there are parallels with slavery on Earth, and when the Ood finally free themselves the Doctor and Donna pat themselves on the back for a job well done. The Ood are free because they deserve to be free because slavery's bad. We get it. It's very surface level.

The problem comes down to the inherent British-ness of the series. The way I see it, Doctor Who sees slavery as bad (because it is) but doesn't seem to recognize that empire is just as bad and leads to things like oppression and slavery. The concept of empire, with its unequal power structures, creates Others its less fortunate subjects–some of them slaves. If the Doctor was really trying to stop slavery, he wouldn't just fly away in the TARDIS after helping the Ood. Instead he'd go help dismantle this Second (Supposedly) Great and Bountiful Human Empire.

I realize that this is just a TV and that the United States also has a tumultuous history with empire, but I can't help but feel like the episode missed the point a little bit. And now my train of thought is starting to come apart. I know there's a lot more that could be said about empire, the Doctor, the Ood, and the Other, but my brain's tired and I need to go to bed. I'm going to keep watching the series because for the most part it has an element of absurdity to it that's pretty awesome. I just hope the next episode they try to do some serious commentary it's a little more successful.

When Inspiration Strikes

What do you do when inspiration strikes, when your muse speaks to you? (Sidebar: I hate calling things "my muse") Most of the time inspiration doesn't show up when you want it to. You get a bit of free time. You sit down, ready to bust out a thousand words or so, but then nothing comes to mind. You don't know what to write about. The monolithic blank page scares you so instead you waste some time on Twitter or going through pages on Reddit. Then your time's up and guess what? You got nothing done. Thanks for not showing up, Inspiration.

Personally, I tend to come up with ideas at the weirdest times. The situation I just described above rarely happens to me. Not because I'm an amazing writer, full of ideas all the time. It's just that I don't try to write without a plan already in mind. But where do these plans come from? Weird places and strange times. The shower for instance. I'll be taking my morning shower and bam! I've got an idea for a short story. Or what about when I'm falling asleep? I love and hate when that happens. I have to get up and write my ideas down or–what usually happens–text my ideas to myself so they'll be on my phone in the morning.

I swear I'm trying to go somewhere with this post. Inspiration shows up unannounced. I write down my ideas so I don't forget them. Then I try to use those ideas. A real life example: I'm working on a short story right now tentatively titled "Land Swimmers." The idea came to me as I was falling asleep a few weeks ago. Instantly I knew that I had to do something about it or I'd forget it in the morning. I sent myself two texts and I'm so glad I did. Oh, the actual image/thought that sparked everything? "Giant worms that come out when it rains. Jump out of the ground like dolphins." Yup. That's where "Land Swimmers" is coming from.

What about all you other writers? What's the weirdest time/place that inspiration has hit you? What'd you do when that happened?

Project Name: "Land Swimmers" (working title)

Deadline: 6/20/11

Word count: 1,663

 

Novel Revisions & Life Updates

Wow I haven't written anything here in a while. A lot has happened since…damn May 4th was my last entry. Anyway here's what's been going on.

A couple weeks ago I got to spend an hour with a professional editor from a publishing company and have her critique the first chapter of The Exile's Violin. Man that was an incredible privilege. I've been on the editing side of things before. She reached out to me after she had rejected my manuscript. That kind of thing almost never happens. The hour we spent going over the opening chapter was extremely productive. We identified some problems and worked out ways to fix them. After that hour I had a mission: to completely revise my manuscript and make it even leaner, tighter, and hopefully better.

So that's what I did. Starting that afternoon and going up to about two days ago, I spent almost every free minute going over that manuscript. I cut over 6,000 words and rewrote a couple of chapters. I sent the polished manuscript out to a couple of beta readers yesterday. Hopefully I'll get some good feedback. I'm feeling real good about the whole thing.

I haven't worked on The Price of Loyalty in a while because the editing/revising took up all my time. Plus… I have a full time job now. So yeah working 40 hours a week also cuts into my writing time, but I'm not complaining! At this new job I'm learning all sorts of crazy cool stuff about SEO and internet marketing. But most importantly…it's a job…that pays money. That's really all I could ask for.

Oh I also had a birthday over the weekend. Yay me!

I'm feeling good. The last few months were tough with the whole unemployment thing, but it looks like things are starting to turn around. I got that great opportunity to have my manuscript looked at, I got a job, and I had a birthday all within a couple of weeks of each other. I'm going places baby!

Anyway tonight I'm getting back into the writing game. I'm not going to dive back into Price of Loyalty just yet. I kind of want a little bit of a break from the novel stuff. Instead I got a brand new short story outlined and plotted. Tonight I'm starting the heavy lifting. Wish me luck!

Oh and IN SITU has a release date: July 8, 2011. Mark your calendars. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

The Teller of Stories

Lately I've been reading a lot of posts by other authors where they talk about how they first started writing. Many of them say things that make us plebes feel left out like, "I started writing at age 2. I actually started writing before I learned how to talk. I got my first story published when I won a national contest at age 6 with my heartbreaking tale of a stuffed bear dueling a miniature unicorn. It was actually a commentary about the fall of the Soviet Union."

Sidebar: I'd actually read that story about a Soviet flavored teddy bear & unicorn fight. That sounds rad.

For me, those kind of accounts (while probably rare in real life) make me feel like I'm missing out somehow. I didn't start writing stories until I was in college. I've always been an avid reader, but I didn't start creating and putting pen to paper–well, fingers to keyboard–until fairly recently. Then I realized something today. Just because I haven't been writing very long doesn't mean that I haven't been a storyteller for years.

Back when I was growing up my brothers and I loved to play with Legos. Our favorite thing to do wasn't following the instructions and building the sets properly. Instead we'd build our own spaceships–things inspired by Star Wars and videogames. Not only would we build them, but then we'd battle them. Mostly this consisted of us putting them on the floor, moving them around, and making "pew pew" laser noises and explosions. Somehow our Lego games evolved. I started developing a story for our battles. I came up with reasons why my forces were battling my brothers'. I drew maps and created coalitions, confederations, empires, and republics. An entire universe with characters evolved around our Lego battles. I was creating story.

I guess I forgot that being writer doesn't just mean generating pages. A writer's job is to tell stories, and I've been doing that for years; it's just now that I'm actually sharing them with others. What about you all? Despite my good natured teasing up above, I'm really interested to know how other writers got their starts. Please sound off in the comments.

Me? I'm going to go start an outline for that teddy bear vs unicorn story.

Breaking Ground & Being a "Real Writer"

I'm having a very surreal moment right now. I'm breaking ground on my 2nd novel of 2011–my 3rd one all time. I just finished the outline for The Price of Loyalty after the end of a marathon day today. You'll see what I mean when I get to the word count section. This is the longest outline I've ever written, so hopefully it'll be easy to fill in the cracks when it comes to the actual writing part.

Let me break down the surreal part. I consider myself a writer, but in my head there's a tiny voice that sometimes tries to tell me that I'm faking it. I'm not a real writer. I'm just someone who wishes they were a writer. When that voice kicks in the acceptances, the rejections, the completed stories, and even the two completed* novels don't count for shit. It's kind of annoying actually. I hate when that voice pops up. Well it's kind of happening right now, but this time it's a little more incredulous instead of discouraging. It can't believe that I'm starting another book, never mind the fact that I just finished one a month or so ago. Writing yet another book is something real writers do. Okay, maybe it still is just discouraging.

Screw it! I'm writing another book. In a few months I'll finish the rough draft, and then maybe that little voice will shut the hell up.

*By completed I mean I've finished one to the point where it's suitable for submission. Its sequel has a complete rough draft but hasn't had any edits or revisions. It's kind of pointless to start really revising that one because it can't really be sold on its own.

Here's my statistics for this mentally exhausting day.

Project: The Price of Loyalty (outline)

Deadline: N/A (was supposed to be 6/1)

Word count: 7,964

 

My First Interview & Some Writing Updates

My first interview is up at the Dagan Books website. My first ever. I think it's really cool that all the authors included in the In Situ anthology are being interviewed. It adds a little bit of personal flavor to the anthology if you can get a glimpse into the authors' heads. At the very least, I hope I don't come across as boring or dumb.

Sadly, the dumb part may not be avoidable. I just headed over there and realized that my spell checker changed the name of my story on me. It's supposed to be "Jewel of Tahn-Vinh" not "Than-Vinh." Also the website listed isn't current anymore. I switched to this current site and forgot to to mention it to Dagan Books. Whoops. Should be simple enough to get proper info put in the interview though.

I took a break over the weekend and didn't work on The Price of Loyalty outline. I'd been working on it for over a week straight and I needed a bit of a break. I dove right back into it. I got a good chunk of it done today. I'm actually over the 40,000 word mark for the outline, but that's okay. It just makes the actual writing part that much easier. I'm getting near the climax and the main character is going to get the emotional shit kicked outta him. Nothing hurts more than broken trust and expectations.

Project: The Price of Loyalty outline

Deadline: N/A (maybe 6/1)

Word count: 8,066 (since 4/20)

In Situ Cover Art

This news is a couple of days old, but the cover art for the upcoming Dagan Books anthology In Situ is available. Here's a slightly scaled down version of the full size image.

Personally, I think the cover looks amazing. My story "Jewel of Tahn-Vinh" is included in the anthology, and it's scheduled to be released in May 2011. I'll also have an interview up on the Dagan Books website sometime in the near future. I probably should the dates down… Oh well. Enjoy the cool art!

Price of Loyalty Outline Updates

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been pretty busy. I've had several job interviews that went well, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that front.

I've put in lots of work on the Price of Loyalty outline. It's coming along pretty well so far. There are a couple of rough/not fleshed out parts that I'll have to go back to later, but they're not important right now. I just want to get a detailed, complete framework for the story in place. Then I can start filling in the gaps and actually write the novel.

On a semi-related note. I started a new feature series over in the Community Blogs section on Destructoid. It's called "Under the Radar" and it's where I focus on games (some newer than others) that just flew under my personal radar. The first game featured in the series is BioWare's Jade Empire from 2005. I don't know how often it'll be updated, but I'd like to at least make it a semi-regular thing.

Now word count and stuff.

Project: The Price of Loyalty outline

Deadline: N/A (maybe 6/1. 5/1 isn't going to work)

Word count: 19,840 (since 4/8)