Taven Moore's Blog, page 53

Flash Fiction Fun

Pinterest

I have been having rather a lot of fun with Pinterest. In particular, I am amassing an impressive collection of writing inspiration.

Anne, Mother of Three has informed me that her family may use my pins for a group writing activity, which sounds like an awful lot of fun.

So I says to myself, “Self, what say we do the same thing on the blog?” and I agreed that I was brilliant and of course we should do this thing.

Blog Participation

So!

Any blog readers out there want to pick a pin and write a little sumthin’ sumthin’, feel free to post your work (or a link to your work, if you’ve got your own blogspace and feel the need to do so) along with a link to the original pin.

That way, everyone can see what pins were chosen and what stories came from them!

Pins are here > http://pinterest.com/tavenmoore/writing-inspiration/

I’ll pick a pin and add my story to the comments as well.

Ready? Set? Write!

Related posts:

Flash Fiction Update
New Flash Fiction Up
Shackles – New Flash Fiction

[Steven] Coffee-Based Moisturizer

[image error]

From an email, Steven says:

If someone were to make a moisturizer out of coffee, that would be mocha lotion.

If someone were to make a train that ran off of said moisturizer, it would generate mocha lotion locomotion.

If someone were to complain about said train going through their neighborhood, said train would generate a local commotion with it’s mocha lotion locomotion.

Related posts:

Larry the Coffee Fairy
?? Scent-illating

Music Video : Fanmade Bruno Mars Medly

This is AMAZING.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Bruno Mars songs to start with (some of you might remember my wow-themed take on Billionaire. If so, I apologize. *laugh*) but this? This was pure genius.

Related posts:

?? Video Game Design
Video : Of Success and Happiness
Video: Dust Ruffle Ninja

[Guest Post] Perry’s Review of The Unremembered

Guest post by a friend, Perry, who is not only an excellent writer, but also a shrewd reader. I feel this way about epic fantasies myself from time to time and although I don’t generally post negative reviews on my blog, I consider this an open letter to anyone considering writing an epic fantasy. 

Don’t be that guy.

~Tami

Dear Mr. Orullian,

I’ve recently attempted to read your novel, The Unremembered and ended up wanting to chuck the damned thing across the room and likely would have had it not been stored on my Kindle.

Don’t think I wasn’t sorely tempted, though.

I may not be a big, published author and I consider myself a complete amateur when it comes to writing stories, but I would like to share a few thoughts with you, if I may.

There’s a line between an homage and plagiarism. Truth be told, it’s not even a very thin line. Actually, it’s not really a line at all. It’s more like a chasm with a couple bridges and maybe one narrow pathway down into the chasm and back up the other side.

I am aware that you’ve stated in interviews that you yourself are aware of the fact that your story is overladen with tropes and archetypes but this goes quite a ways beyond that.

It’s one thing to use the same archetypes and tropes that another author has, to tell your story. It’s another thing altogether to break into their house and jack their storyboard for your own nefarious purposes.

If you were to take Eye of the World by Robert Jordan and change the names of the characters, locations and creatures, you’d end up with a story that’s almost exactly (but not quite) The Unremembered.

Except worse.

You come across as a writer that’s so excited by the world you’ve built that they just HAVE to share it with us. Not that there’s anything wrong with that in general, really. If the writer is passionate about sharing what they’ve created, then they imbue their work with that same passion and that love gets communicated to the reader.

The problem is when you want to share it so damned much that you turn into one of those clingy and overly attached girlfriends that wants to know where we are and who we’re with and what we’re doing all day, every day. Almost every single question asked in the novel seems to be taken as an excuse to vomit up five or six paragraphs about the history of the world or a certain group of people.

A little bit here and there, served up as snippets is good. It gives me a taste of the world and leaves me wanting more and so, I’ll continue to read. Start forcing it down my throat with a shovel and we’re going to have problems. It has the secondary effect of absolutely murdering the pacing, especially in a long novel such as this one. It’s REALLY hard to impart that sense of urgency when your characters take a break every three or four pages to talk about how this kingdom fell to ruin or how that order of such and so got started.

If you want me to care about your characters, don’t have them acting like idiots. The two main characters ‘unwind’ after every life-threatening situation by wrestling/playing with one another and calling each other names. Did I mention that they take every opportunity to tease each other about the women they each have a respective crush on?

Do you know who DOESN’T act like that? People who were almost killed. People who’s entire worlds have been turned on its head. People whose only sister (or love interest in the case of the best friend) hadn’t been raped and given birth to a stillborn child that the monsters stole away for some unknown reason.

Sigh.

This is getting long and rambly, so I’ll bring up one last point and leave it be.

When I’m reading this book, I know that it’s a fantasy novel. I’m well aware that the world I’m being shown here is one that’s made up for the purposes of the story. Subjecting the reader to your arcane jargon for no other reason than to try press upon them that this is your created world is an exercise in literary torture to a reader and completely unnecessary.

So your inexplicable use of the word ‘melura’ to describe a youth under a certain age and that other word (that I can’t remember) to describe someone over that age as well as ‘anais’ for lady, ‘endfast’ for breakfast, ‘cullough’ for pack and countless other offences were very unappreciated.

You know what bothered me even worse than that though? When you started using known words in the place of other words for no goddamned reason.

I get that you’re trying to impart that rustic, wheat-stuck-in-the-hair villager here but seriously? Using the word ‘skies’ in place of days (“if I never live to see another sky…”) or ‘earth’ in place of grave (“I feel like someone just walked over my earth back there…”), along with (again) countless other examples was just baffling, especially when you used those replaced words in other places, indicating that you AND the characters both know that those words exist and exactly what they mean.

I know that this was only the first book of a planned trilogy and, despite my trauma, I am not averse to the idea of giving your books a second chance so please, fix your shit.

An unsatisfied reader,

Perry

PS: ‘Tobaccom’ for tobacco and ‘kaffee’ for coffee? Really? REALLY?

Related posts:

Guest Post at TooManyAnnas
Guest Post on Arrens.net
Guest Post At Bria’s

Perry’s Review of The Unremembered

Guest post by a friend, Perry, who is not only an excellent writer, but also a shrewd reader. I feel this way about epic fantasies myself from time to time and although I don’t generally post negative reviews on my blog, I consider this an open letter to anyone considering writing an epic fantasy. 

Don’t be that guy.

~Tami

Dear Mr. Orullian,

I’ve recently attempted to read your novel, The Unremembered and ended up wanting to chuck the damned thing across the room and likely would have had it not been stored on my Kindle.

Don’t think I wasn’t sorely tempted, though.

I may not be a big, published author and I consider myself a complete amateur when it comes to writing stories, but I would like to share a few thoughts with you, if I may.

There’s a line between an homage and plagiarism. Truth be told, it’s not even a very thin line. Actually, it’s not really a line at all. It’s more like a chasm with a couple bridges and maybe one narrow pathway down into the chasm and back up the other side.

I am aware that you’ve stated in interviews that you yourself are aware of the fact that your story is overladen with tropes and archetypes but this goes quite a ways beyond that.

It’s one thing to use the same archetypes and tropes that another author has, to tell your story. It’s another thing altogether to break into their house and jack their storyboard for your own nefarious purposes.

If you were to take Eye of the World by Robert Jordan and change the names of the characters, locations and creatures, you’d end up with a story that’s almost exactly (but not quite) The Unremembered.

Except worse.

You come across as a writer that’s so excited by the world you’ve built that they just HAVE to share it with us. Not that there’s anything wrong with that in general, really. If the writer is passionate about sharing what they’ve created, then they imbue their work with that same passion and that love gets communicated to the reader.

The problem is when you want to share it so damned much that you turn into one of those clingy and overly attached girlfriends that wants to know where we are and who we’re with and what we’re doing all day, every day. Almost every single question asked in the novel seems to be taken as an excuse to vomit up five or six paragraphs about the history of the world or a certain group of people.

A little bit here and there, served up as snippets is good. It gives me a taste of the world and leaves me wanting more and so, I’ll continue to read. Start forcing it down my throat with a shovel and we’re going to have problems. It has the secondary effect of absolutely murdering the pacing, especially in a long novel such as this one. It’s REALLY hard to impart that sense of urgency when your characters take a break every three or four pages to talk about how this kingdom fell to ruin or how that order of such and so got started.

If you want me to care about your characters, don’t have them acting like idiots. The two main characters ‘unwind’ after every life-threatening situation by wrestling/playing with one another and calling each other names. Did I mention that they take every opportunity to tease each other about the women they each have a respective crush on?

Do you know who DOESN’T act like that? People who were almost killed. People who’s entire worlds have been turned on its head. People whose only sister (or love interest in the case of the best friend) hadn’t been raped and given birth to a stillborn child that the monsters stole away for some unknown reason.

Sigh.

This is getting long and rambly, so I’ll bring up one last point and leave it be.

When I’m reading this book, I know that it’s a fantasy novel. I’m well aware that the world I’m being shown here is one that’s made up for the purposes of the story. Subjecting the reader to your arcane jargon for no other reason than to try press upon them that this is your created world is an exercise in literary torture to a reader and completely unnecessary.

So your inexplicable use of the word ‘melura’ to describe a youth under a certain age and that other word (that I can’t remember) to describe someone over that age as well as ‘anais’ for lady, ‘endfast’ for breakfast, ‘cullough’ for pack and countless other offences were very unappreciated.

You know what bothered me even worse than that though? When you started using known words in the place of other words for no goddamned reason.

I get that you’re trying to impart that rustic, wheat-stuck-in-the-hair villager here but seriously? Using the word ‘skies’ in place of days (“if I never live to see another sky…”) or ‘earth’ in place of grave (“I feel like someone just walked over my earth back there…”), along with (again) countless other examples was just baffling, especially when you used those replaced words in other places, indicating that you AND the characters both know that those words exist and exactly what they mean.

I know that this was only the first book of a planned trilogy and, despite my trauma, I am not averse to the idea of giving your books a second chance so please, fix your shit.

An unsatisfied reader,

Perry

PS: ‘Tobaccom’ for tobacco and ‘kaffee’ for coffee? Really? REALLY?

No related posts.

Following Up on Short Stories

So, not too long ago, I wrote a lengthy series of blog posts on short stories, and my feeling of being somewhat saddened by the current short story landscape.

Time and research later, I thought some of you might find the fruits of my angst to your liking.

First off, this article written by the great Marion Zimmer Bradley sings to my soul. Clearly, I need to dig up some of her short story collections, because she’s talking to me.

Secondly, I managed to find a few short story ‘zines that I would be proud to be a part of … and whose contents interest me as a reader as well as a writer.

Podcastle – Unique in that it doesn’t offer text versions of short stories. It offers professionally-read short stories in podcast format.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – This zine permits lengthy stories … but requires that they be set in a world that looks nothing like our modern world. (For those keeping track, both Taxidermist and Love’s Champion are too similar for this zine, alas.)
Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show – Also accepts longer stories, and seems pretty clean-cut and professional. They do both Science Fiction and Fantasy
Strange Horizons – This ‘zine prefers shorter stories, but may accept longer ones if they’re good enough. Publishes both Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Lightspeed – Another that prefers the shorter stories, very professional and born of the old Fantasy magazine. Publishes both Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Hopefully any readers out there with a similar mindset will find something worthwhile in there. =]

Related posts:

On Short Stories – Part 1
On Short Stories – Part 3
On Short Stories – Part 2

Being a Writer Makes It More Difficult To Be a Reader

What is Seen Cannot Be Unseen

Much like the fact that ducks are actually wearing dog masks, it’s awfully hard to UN-learn something you’ve learned.

Particularly if the thing you’ve learned is something that matters to you and is hard-won.

The ability to tighten a sentence, replace weak verbs with dynamic ones, and to see the difference between a strong phrase and a weak one? That takes time and effort and study.

Armed with this new knowledge, you can re-read a book that delighted your ignorant self and find that you cringe at every corner. Weak “to be” verbs catcall from easy street, the makeup that once seemed so simple and inviting now looking like the garish facepaint of a cheap streetwalker.

Delightful characters of old now look like two-dimensional paper dolls, every action a stereotypical shard of glass thrust into your writer’s soul.

Worst of all? A plot that once thrilled and enticed you shows ragged holes and tired tropes.

Reading old loves can seem like a betrayal, and newly encountered books are often scoffed at or dismissed entirely.

Resistance is NOT Futile

As a writer, you must resist this temptation to sneer and snark and dismiss books as unworthy.

Reading is an essential aspect of writing. Perhaps some writers write merely because thundering herds of authors bungle through the English language. These authors do their best to prove everyone else inferior.

Perhaps some do. Most writers, though? I’d wager most writers write because they love stories.

Neither writer nor story can ever truly be perfect … and they don’t need to be.

I love my dog-eared copy of Beauty by Robin McKinley. I loved it for what it meant to me when I was younger. Although I can now see some of the problems even the author felt the need to rewrite (see Rose Daughter for the reboot), I can also still see the things that made me fall in love with it.

Yes, as a writer it is good to notice flaws in writing. You need that critical eye so that you may bloom and grow.

However, it is at least as important to notice the WONDERFUL things.

What did the book do right? Surely, it was something.

Of Sparkly Vampires And Fainting Heroines

Take a favorite whipping-boy of the writing and reading community — Twilight.

If you are a YA writer trying to get published, I recommend you at least read the first book. Feel free to do so with a curled lip and a bad attitude, if you like … but can you see what about it made it appealing to so many people?

No? How about the fact that it’s a story for girls who want to feel special? The girls who think they’re not pretty and wish that the cute boy they’re crushing on would notice them? I consider myself to be a strong woman, but even I’ve had daydreams of a prince on a white horse rescuing me from real life.

Take those GOOD things — the things that worked for you, even in a book you hated, and combine them with things that you love. Hate how passive Bella was in Twilight? Write strong characters. Hate the random “sparkly” vampires? Make sure that in YOUR books, the things that set a tired writing trope on its ear have a purpose and a reason.

At the same time, books and movies become blockbusters for a reason. That’s not to say you should sell your soul for a bag of silver … but what harm is there in trying to figure out what worked?

TL;DR

You can (and should) enjoy reading books after the point where you know some of the finer points of writing.

Try not to judge new books too harshly, and learn from the good and the bad you find within them.

Forgive authors for being human and making mistakes. Ask your internal editor to take a break and let your creative side ride the joys of a new story without constantly pointing out every little problem.

Most authors start out voracious readers. It would be such an incredible shame if authors stopped loving books.

Related posts:

Writer’s Sketchbook
eReaders From A Writer’s Perspective
The Green Writer’s Block

Writing Playlist

Music and Writing

Music is a pretty big piece of the writing pie. Just about every writer I know prefers to write to music, and each writer has their own preferences.

Some build a playlist scene-by-scene in their novel, suiting music to mood. Some pick songs that remind them of their heroes or heroines, that pluck at their heartstrings and remind them of why they love their stories.

My Requirements

I’ve never been quite that involved, but I do have some requirements.

The music must not have identifiable words. No English (or even Spanish) words are allowed, because my brain spends too much effort trying to understand/translate. Preferably, the music has no words at all and is entirely instrumental.
No identifiable tunes. I get distracted waiting for lyrics that aren’t there. My friend’s wedding playlist is gorgeous, but I can’t use it because it’s mostly instrumental versions of awesome songs. This includes music immortalized by Looney Tunes, because I don’t need to be thinking about Coyote and Road Runner when I’m trying to write an emotional scene.
The music must feel BIG. It must have enough pace to it to keep my writing edgy, and must feel slightly epic.
The music must have multiple songs (so it takes a long time to go through the whole playlist) but each song must match the other songs well enough that I’m not stuttering every time there’s a song change.

I’ve found that movie and video game soundtracks fit this bill VERY well.

In particular, I’m getting to really enjoy the Bastion soundtrack (though some of my favorite songs have actual words) … but my favorite soundtrack, and the one I’ve used for over a year now, is the NieR soundtrack. I’ve got a youtube playlist for it (see below) but I also purchased the whole soundtrack from iTunes.

Bastion (Not Perfect for Writing, but Fabulous Vibe)

NieR (My go-to writing soundtrack)

You

What about you? How do you choose music to be creative to? (Not just writing). Do you have a favorite playlist?

Related posts:

Office Tunes
Writing Tip of the Week: Headphones
Writing Space

Best Song Mashups

Take two great songs, put them together in a blender and stick a fork in it, because these are awesome. (shhhh, just pretend that made sense, okay?)

The last video is a special gift – not two songs mashed up, but one song (by Daft Punk) mashed with a classic Charleston dance video. Crazy fun.

Stayin’ Alive In The Wall

Wonderwall Of Broken Songs

Thunder Busters

(Tami’s Favorite)

Sad But Superstitious

Master of Doin’ It

Charleston Style, Around The World

Related posts:

?? Video Game Design

New Short Fiction: Omega Fire

Another short fiction for your reading pleasure. This one’s longer than flash fiction, but still isn’t a full-fledged story. It’s also a few years old now (and rough enough to prove it) but it still makes me smile, rough edges and all.

Omega Fire – A Superhero Battle

Related posts:

Fire and Storm – New Short Story Up
New Flash Fiction Up
New Flash Fiction: Muppet Wars