A.J. Race's Blog, page 10

Why Do You Write? (Repost)

I’ve often been asked the question, what do you write, in fact it almost seems compulsory whenever you explain to someone that you are a writer (and I’ve said many times why this question always without fail flusters me a little) but the one question writers are never asked is why do we do it? Until, this article by Writer Unboxed asked the question: Why do you write? 

The obvious answer to that of course would be because I love it. It obviously isn’t for the money, I’ve been doing it for years before there ever was any money and the fact that some people are willing to pay me is actually more nerve wracking than you could imagine. There are some writers, I won’t name names, but I have seen that there are some writers who do seem to do it exclusively for the money, and hey they’re famous so what better reason would there be to do it right? Maybe it’s because they’ve forgotten the struggle that a lot of us authors go through or maybe they just don’t care, but I have to say, I think their writing would be a lot more genuine and authentic if they wrote for something other than because it sells well and makes them money, but perhaps that’s just me. I mean obviously it does continue to sell, (but then I’m pretty sure they could write anything and it would sell) so perhaps I’m the one who’s wrong here.

As a writer it has always been my belief that it is far more important to write what you love than to write what is popular. That’s the whole lesson behind write, defiant! in the first place. Rather than writing something because it’ll sell really well or you can catch a sweeping tide of what’s popular I would rather make what’s popular, and believe me the temptation to just give in and write some godforsaken vampire, erotic S&M horror show because it would probably get me a shitton of readers, is sometimes exhausting. It would be so easy to give in, but that’s not what I want to do, and that’s not what I want to be known for. I write because I love it, it’s in my blood, I couldn’t imagine having to do anything else for the rest of my life, I think I would go insane. It’s an addiction I’ll admit, the thought of ever having to stop for any reason is… frankly a nightmare scenario that I hope I never have to encounter.

Now I’d like to hear from all of you, why do you write?

The Sound of Creativity (Repost)

Of the many tools I find particularly useful when creating a new novel, Scrivener, new notebooks and pens, occasionally a pencil or two and every so often Google Maps, one of the more underwritten about tools is that of the writing soundtrack I create for all of my books. Sometimes it’s songs that I would love to see in the film version of my book, but more often than not it’s songs that have a certain feel to them and motivate me to write the particular scenes necessary for any given book.

For instance if I need a dark, somber, mood or perhaps a tearful scene I have tracks that are emotional to me and that have the ability to make me cry. For intense action packed scenes I like to grab the soundtrack to an action movie and borrow that. And for everything in between there are just certain songs that I feel fit the mood of the story and can inspire me, so I compile them all into a playlist on Spotify, press shuffle and get to writing. Occasionally I still need to skip songs depending on the particular scene at hand, but for the most part the over all theme of the songs I’ve chosen seems to work rather well. I also have, unrelated to the story specific playlists, a writing playlist which houses slower songs, the occasional movie score—I’m particular to Philip Glass and his work on the Hours as well as Notes on a Scandal. Both excellent films by the way. There are a few jazz numbers, the occasional classical piece, two songs sung by Eartha Kitt that were both featured in the film Something’s Gotta Give, and for reasons I will never fully understand the main theme to Saw. Like my musical tastes outside of my story specific playlists and my writing playlist, it’s an eclectic and arguably strange compilation of seemingly unrelated songs that all manage to set the tone that I need them too, and in the end that’s all that really matters.

PS: Because you totally asked, occasionally in the background of all of this music I like to play my sounds of nature collection which is an hour long disc of rain and thunder. This without a doubt always manages to inspire me.

PPS: If anyone is interested I’d be more than happy to discuss the specific songs that can be found on the current playlist for my W.I.P.

Series of Possibilities (Repost)

In honor of my four year anniversary here on WordPress I’m featuring 10 of my favorite blog posts from the last year. 

Yesterday I announced on my Facebook that in the midst of working on my current work in progress, I had (as usual) gotten an idea for an entirely new story. Or at least, a new way to tell an old story anyway. It’s an exciting new adventure that I really want to embark on, I managed to write about ten pages of outline last night for the first book and if all goes as planned I think I might be able to drag this out into a longer story over all. For a long time now I’ve wanted to write a series, originally Secrets of Witches was intended to become a series and for a time that really seemed like a possibility. The original goal was a lofty 13 book main series with a sort of spin off of 5 more books totaling 18 in this particular universe (although at one point I remember thinking it was 20). Within a matter of just a few short months 18 dropped to 8, then to 5 and ultimately down to three within a matter of years. No other story has really felt right for a series because I have too much of a propensity to kill off my main characters for the good of the story. It would be very difficult to try and continue writing a story with 98% of your main characters dead and the very likely possibility that the character the story is about won’t survive the end of the story either. Unless you decided to take it some route that follows their long distant half brother or something, which would be weird.

Nevertheless, this latest idea, has at least with it the possibility of being able to be taken out into a longer series, I’m hoping for at least four but I could really see myself being happy with five or six books too. I think I’m going to have to do a lot more serious outlining before I can make any official pronouncements, and obviously every pronouncement I make should come with the asterisk, subject to change. I promise I’ll keep you updated and hopefully I’ll have a series to work on shortly after my current W.I.P.

4 Years

This past Sunday the 15th, marked my four year anniversary with WordPress!

I really can’t believe it’s been four years already! So… in honor of this milestone I’ve decided that it’s time for some much needed change. Don’t worry, not about the look of the blog. Actually what I was hoping to change instead was the main focus of the blog. For most of the last four years, in fact, for all of it save for maybe one or two posts, this blog has been dedicated solely to writing and self publishing. Which is fine. I’m an author, I write, I tried my hand at self publishing, twice. But now… I want to try something a little different for the new year. Something that I’ve talked about doing for a while, but have never actually gotten around to doing. I’m not going to reveal any details as of yet, because well, I can’t. I don’t have any. I have a very rough timeline in my head and rather than blurt it all out here (as I previously would have) I’m going to keep that under my hat until I can secure a bit more solid details. So. for now let’s just say I’m working on a semi-secret project that I hope to be able to show off within the next year. And that’s all I’m going to say about it. In the mean time, in honor of this four years I’d also like to do a sort of best-of the Racewood Post and repost some of my favorite blogposts over the last few years.

 

Of Art and Money

When I first read this article on HuffPost books I confess my initial knee jerk reaction was to write a sort of counter piece, about how publishing is a business and self publishing is ultimately also a business, and that if we’re ever going to pull the name of self publishing out of the muck we need more people who want to work at it to make it good, not just every Tom, Dick, and Harry who just wants to say they wrote a book.

Upon further introspection however it was plain to see that this was a far more complicated issue than it might first appear. On the one hand, publishing is a business. There’s no getting around that, but on the other hand, writing is art. It’s supposed to be about telling a story, entertaining readers, and expressing ideas and opinions. While wanting to make money from a book is great, it can’t and shouldn’t be your sole reason for writing.

Who am I… who is anyone to tell someone not to self publish because they’re not ready? For some people seeing your book in print and being able to hold it in your hands is amazingly special, it’s something everybody should experience in their life quite frankly. Maybe we need to take a step back from being so polarized about which is better, self publishing or traditional publishing and instead consider the opportunity we’re giving both readers and writers. Art wasn’t always about money, many would argue that turning art into a commercial enterprise is exactly the problem. But there will always be artists who know that art is ultimately about more than money. Sure, you want to write a bestseller, and perhaps one could argue that your adult self might regret those books you self published when you were twelve, but thanks to the internet, people’s attention span lasts about as long as a news cycle wills it too.

 

Don’t Take My Word For it… No Really, Don’t

Back during the 2011 NaNoWriMo, Writer’s Digest was giving away several of their ebooks, including one called the Complete Novel Writing Handbook; a title I’d been wanting to pick up for years, that includes stories from writers, agents, and publishers on what makes for good fiction.

One author suggests to make your story more interesting you should use real life events. Remember that tragic thing you thought would make for a good story? Use it. The next author, however, argues. Don’t do that. It’s terrible and overdone.

For a new author this can be fairly confusing, and the sad fact is, when it comes to writing this is often the case. There are few things writers seem to agree upon universally, even the oxford comma is widely debated.

The good thing is, writing isn’t an exact science and so what works for one book won’t work for another. The bad thing is, writing isn’t an exact science and so what works for one book won’t work for another. Your guess for what makes a great story is as good as anyone else’s and what exactly is the measure of its greatness anyway? Remember, Fifty Shades of Grey was number one on several lists including the NYT Best Seller list for months. Why Twilight became a runaway success and yet the flood of the vampire novels that followed it did not see similar fame is unclear, even the author’s other book the Host has not seen the excitement that Twilight did.

Where to Begin?

Figuring out where and how to begin your story is perhaps one of the biggest challenges for authors, but also one of the most important. The first chapter should ideally

introduce your characters, setting, time frame, etc.
pull readers into the story
set up the rest of the novel

but it should also keep a bit of mystery about itself so that readers are forced to keep reading to find out what happens next.

In Blood in the Past, a thriller written by one of my good friends Jordanna East, the story begins with the main character and her best friend being mugged. The trigger moment. that sets into motion the entire rest of the novel.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum Christian Nation, presents a speculative dystopian alternate reality look into how America would be different had John McCain won the 2008 election and subsequently died leaving Sarah Palin in charge; begins instead with the main character in the present looking back their life and how everything had actually come to pass. The How did we get here? moment.

Wicked a fantasy which details the life of the Wicked Witch of the West and how she came to be, begins with a conversation between her minister father and her pregnant mother, as the father leaves to preach about the dangers of a new attraction in Munchkinland. Much like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which in fact begins with Harry being delivered to his aunt and uncle’s and slowly builds up to the idea that he is in fact not what he appears. This particular type of beginning is more of the slow build up to larger events that will take place later in the story.

In my own novel, Man on Manhattan (also a thriller) the story begins with the main character, a journalist who while on his way to work receives a mysterious threatening text message that demands he get his friend to kill the piece she’s writing about a would-be presidential candidate or she will be killed. This is, the spark that ignites the main characters action.

How you begin your novel and where depends entirely upon the story, is the backstory of your main character important enough that it can’t wait, or is there a more interesting action that would push the story forward instead? An important thing to keep in mind would be to look at your first chapter (as objectively as possible) and ask yourself, would I really keep reading, and more importantly, would anyone else keep reading either?

Make Art

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it, while they are deciding make even more art.”

-Andy Warhol

As writers we have a habit sometimes of trying to be perfect. We figure if we can tweak just one more thing, fix one more line, make it just a little bit better, that if we can just get it perfect, everybody will love it. Okay, so maybe I’m projecting a little, but I can’t be the only writer who hopes if I make something better that more people will enjoy it, can I?

The problem is, and I know I’ve said it before, perfection isn’t really possible. Even the greatest novels aren’t perfect. Maybe the key to really good writing is being passionate, and just letting the words flow, not necessarily worrying if they’re going to be gems of wisdom that generations from now people will share with one another. Writing is, at it’s most basic level about creation. The creation of art. And like every art, it’s subjective. There are going to be tons of people who are going to hate it no matter what you do, but the key is being able not to care whether or not people like it. Sometimes it’s hard not to take it personally… but it’s not really personal. It’s a matter of one person’s opinion.

The ‘Thought Verb’ Debate

If you haven’t read Chuck Palahniuk’s essay on the subject of Thought verbs please do so now. I’ll wait.

You done? Good.

It’s a pretty interesting piece and actually not a wholly bad idea (although I think it’s something to be done when editing not necessarily while free writing a first draft).

But then, as I often do, I read some of the comments. And this particular comment got me thinking:

Remittancegirl August 17, 2013 – 8:46pm

Although I agree that too many ‘thought’ verbs can bog writing down, human experience is made up of both the concrete and the abstract. One of the reasons I can’t get through half Palahniuk’s books is specifically because the abstract element of his characters is missing. I feel so ambivalent about them, I can’t be bothered to care for them – either positively or negatively or a nice crunchy mix.

This approach to writing is a consequence of the enormous influence film and visual narrative has had on writing. Although it has the very real effect of aiding readers in ‘seeing’ the story unfold in their heads, it also can leave them entirely emotionally unengaged…

Now, I’m going to admit something that most people probably won’t believe. I have actually never ready any of Chuck’s books. I know of him of course, but for one reason or another I’ve never had any interest. That said, she brings up a very good point… there’s something to be said for getting into the minds of characters, knowing what their thinking and worrying about. Something Chuck says quite clearly you shouldn’t do:

But your character should spend very, very little time alone.  Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.

I would agree you’re characters should spend very little time alone, just because that’s boring. Very little interesting things happen when characters are completely alone, sometimes they dream (which can be interesting and telling) or they reminisce. But a lot of interesting action happens when characters interact with other characters.

I’m really of two minds on this debate. On the one hand, I do agree that a lot of what characters think, or know, or feel (I feel like opinion verbs might be a better word), would be more interesting if they were shown rather than just stated as shown in his own example:

Instead of saying:  “Adam knew Gwen liked him.”

You’ll have to say:  “Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it.  She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume.  The combination lock would still be warm from her ass.  And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”

However, I also feel that there’s something to be said for getting into the thoughts of your characters, sometimes, it’s what they don’t say but rather want to say, or imagine they should say that can be important to the character. But perhaps this is just me.

What do you think? Is it more important to give readers concrete action or is a mix of concrete and abstract important in creating a well rounded story?

Presently Speaking

This week I discovered the following quote on Tumblr:

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future.

If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

-Lao Tzu

I think for the most part this is true. Often times, thinking of the past can bring back happy memories, but it can only lead to the knowledge that these memories are just that. They’re in our past and never coming back. The future however can be scary to some, exciting to others and a mix of the two, particularly for me. The problem of course is that thinking of either doesn’t allow you to focus on the present at hand.

Lately (perhaps due in large part to my turning 22 in just a few short weeks) I’ve been thinking a lot on my past. Some of the memories are good, but many of them are pretty depressing. So instead I’ve tried to focus on what lies ahead, which is both exciting and terrifying, and realistically totally unhelpful. Because we can never fully know what’s going to happen tomorrow. When I was sixteen, I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to be at 22. I had this idea in my head that I’d have my life entirely figured out, and I’d be well on my way to a very successful writing career. Only things don’t always work out so perfectly.

The best you can do is live for now. You write, you work, you do what needs to be done, because ultimately the past is the past, and that is where it should stay, you can look back on it with fondness, or mourn the sad times, but obsessing over the things you should have done and should have said, isn’t going to change the past. Believe me this is something I have to remind myself all the time too. As for the future well… if you spend all your time thinking about what should be, you’ll lose sight of what is actually happening around you. It won’t be easy, and like everything it isn’t an overnight change. But it’s a goal worth working towards.