Dylan Charles's Blog, page 30

A Little of This, a Little of That

A lot of the books I read end up adding to what I write. Characters, words, worlds, even just that mix of tones (a little darkness, a dash of magic and a small smidge of humor); it all affects how I write.

There are authors who energize; who help me get off of my ass and start writing again. There are the writers who function like literary warning signs. Danger! Do Not Mix These Genres: Disastrous Results! There are the writers that show me that what I'm doing ahs been done over and over and o...

The Birth of a Year

I have decided to, once again, make a couple of resolutions and post them here, so that if I don't follow through, you'll be able to shame me properly. Let's not look back on the old resolutions however, for the New Year is about looking forward and never, ever looking back.

1. Last year, I might have said something about posting 200 blog entries in a single year. There are several reasons why this turned out to be a bad idea. There would be some months where I posted nothing and then other...

The Death of a Year

Let's see if I can remember how to do this.

We'll start with an opening sentence and take it from there.

Oh hi! I don't really know if there are people who still read this. It's been about, oh, two months since I last updated. I'll make the assumption that everyone who reads my blog assumed that I had died over that little break. Well, I'm not dead. Far from it.

I'm here to do what's likely to become the annual tradition around here. I'll weep about my failures over the last year and make...

Writer's Commiseration

Writing has never been a group thing to me. I don't track down other writers to talk to them about the process. I don't go to forums and chat about plotting and character development. I don't hang out in coffee houses with other writers and discuss the finer points of the gerund. That's just not what writing is to me. The very idea of talking about a first draft with a total stranger is akin to discussing bodily fluids with someone you met on the bus. And if you think that's a needlessly...

NANOWRIMO

This year I've decided to write a novel for NANOWRIMO. I'm so out of touch with writing fiction that I figured the best way to get back into shape is to try and write 50,000 words in less than a month. It's like if you decided you wanted to start running every day and figured the best way to do that was to run the Boston Marathon tomorrow.

The only problem is that I've already lost two days. I need to really get into gear if I want to make the deadline. By day nine, I should have 15,000...

Back in the Game

After a month and a half of eating, drinking and breathing horror, I think I'm ready to get back to work.

To be honest, it's been a long time since I've written anything fiction, but now that I've given myself a deadline for the second book (May 1st) I really need to get back on track if I want the book to be done on time and lookin' purty.

I'm going to start working on the book a little bit every day. No massive goals, but I need to at least start looking at it again. I'm not even sure where t...

Repeat: Beyond the Veil

Millenia ago, people believed that alongside our own world was another world. The worlds existed apart, but the borders between the two could wear thin and it was possible to cross from one t'other.

It was said that in certain places, during certain times, going to the other world was as easy as crossing through a doorway. One just had to know how.

But to do so, would be to draw the attention of the things that lay beyond the veil. Those things were often beautiful, magickal and immortal, but t...

All Hallow's Eve Eve Eve Eve

This is more a post to let ya'll know that I'm still alive and kicking. A series of events have made it hard for me to sit still in front of my computer and write things.

There'll be more blog entries again soon.

Promise.

Dylan Charles

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Re-Run

I don't feel like writing much right now. There's too much going on and I just…can't. But, here's a re-post of a blog entry I wrote a long while ago that is apropos in more than one way.

Since I write horror, I often feel the need to defend it. It's the creepy, inbred cousin in the writing family, the one that you just know is going to pull an Ed Gein and live in a house decorated with body part furniture he got from a satanic Ikea.

For me horror, in most of its forms, functions as a way for...

Clothes Make the Monster

I take my Halloween costumes very seriously. It takes a lot of prep-time to make sure that everything is perfect. It's important that you never break character once in costume. If you do, the illusion is broken and Halloween loses all of its magic.

For instance, this year I'm going as a private eye. So, for the last two months, I've been reading detective novels in order to learn the lingo. Because of the intensive nature of this training, the speech patterns have become writ into my brain...