Kate Larking's Blog: Anxiety Ink, page 30

Ethics and Narrative

While planning my attendance schedule for When Words Collide, a panel I’d never heard mentioned before caught my eye: Ethics. No, I can’t imagine that would catch the eye of the majority of people, but I’m quirky that way.

I have a meagre background in philosophy. I love it, don’t get me wrong, and I was fortunate enough to find an amazing professor at the U of C who I really connected with. I desperately wanted to minor in philosophy, but I couldn’t make it work while I was in school. I might try in the future.

Anyway, I have a pretty decent grasp of western philosophy and not only because it comes up in a lot of classical literature. That was the focus of this panel: western philosophical ethics applied to the hero/heroine’s journey, specifically the hero/heroine’s dilemma/moment of doubt.

Not that that’s what the panelist said, which was one of the flaws of the presentation. The other was trying to explain western ethical philosophical theory and the differences in virtue philosophy between Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Mill, and Bentham in 50 minutes. It was too much to handle in such a setting, although quite admirable. Also, she chose to use “hero” throughout because it was easier than saying hero/heroine. That just irks me.

However, before the presenter tried to explain all of those names above in single sentences, she did present some excellent story elements that rely on the protagonist’s ethical dilemma over the course of the story arc. Those are the parts I’m going to share below because I think if you pay attention to them while crafting your story, you’re going to be able to add oodles of layers to your plot.

As far as ethics go, we’re talking about a character’s principles and the consequences they know will arise in regards to going against those principles. These are ingrained in people by society from an early age, so they don’t require a ton of explication in any narrative. Most readers can recognize a Good character versus a Bad character based on their actions alone.

The protagonist’s main ethical issue should break down like this: someone else is acting unethically and the protagonist is not in a position to do anything about it. Something is causing them to be unable to act; they are helpless to correct the issue.

Then you have to ask yourself: does correcting the issue require the protagonist to be unethical in turn? Is someone being victimized? Does not acting make the character even more unethical than acting would?

This leads to the moral dilemma/question, which is separate from the ethical issue. Essentially, it’s a question of what is the cost of not acting? But it’s also not black and white. It’s the choice between two lousy options which means that some principle or value is going to be betrayed no matter what. The character has to pick the most right/least wrong option. This is seen in most dystopic fiction, high fantasy, space operas, and horror.

Remember, the ethical issue is external and plot driven. The ethical dilemma is the internal conflict your character suffers.

So what is your protagonist’s response? They need to find a way to respond to the lack of ethics while still maintaining their own ethics. They have to keep honour in a less than honourable situation. Sometimes a situation cannot be exited, a response will be forced and therefore must be found.

This is where you have to think carefully about the obstacles you’ve placed in front of your protagonist and their suitable response. The presenter made it clear that when the battle against evil comes up there must be a moment of doubt because no one –especially not a fully formed character– is going to dive head first into a battle to the death without a care for their own safety. They need a good, valid reason to suppress their survival instinct.

Of course, you play to this throughout your narrative because as the story progresses you’re showing small signs that your protagonist has the skills and moral compass to go up against evil, and that despite their doubt they’re going to do the right thing in the end and face down evil. Second guessing is believable and relatable.

In the end, your character has to have a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong and they need to be able to think about more people than just themselves and those closest to them. These can be murky in the beginning but the protagonist should have a strong understanding near the height of your stories climax.

I hope that was a help to you! I can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned about ethics to my own stories, and not just my adventure stories. Ethical dilemmas make for great internal conflict which will help amp up any story.

And I do intend to follow up and learn more about ethics as they apply to character development and narrative. I’ll touch base on that in the future.

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Writing Goals 2016 – Third Quarter Check In

I have been working A LOT. It is rush month at the bookstore which means lots of overtime, lots of events coming in, and lots of stress. My chronic eye-twitch returned three weeks ago to reaffirm that yes, I’m busy.

In one of my work events discussing theoretical constructs of writing, I was struck by how much I’ve done this year. I have actually accomplished a lot. And, it makes sense that I’ve front-loaded my year with accomplishments. This is my last writing goals check-in before I am caring for an infant.

Writing + Publishing Goals:

Comic – Chapter three is done, despite a very difficult May-June at the day job. The individual comics now have a new schedule:

Chapter 1 – March 1, 2016 – Crash and Burn Chapter 1 Published March 8th!
Chapter 2 – Before July 20, 2016 – Whomp whomp. It’s formatted but we didn’t get it printed before the summer events. New plan is to have it printed before Calgary Expo Holiday Market.
Chapter 3 – December 1, 2016 – This one is getting moved UP, to also be printed before Calgary Expo Holiday Market.


Tame the POD monster – I have done it! For the Queens and Courtesans anthology, at least. I have a rough draft for the Comic Volume 1 which should be done before the end of the year.
Keep Anxiety Ink going – I’ve been trying to get ahead on the blog but I feel that I have only been just treading water. Still working on queuing up content ahead of time with proper graphics.

Administrative Goals:

Set up the Crash and Burn Patreon – Done! It is here if you would like to support the comic!
Website Redesign – Still on the goals. Anxiety Ink got updated in July/August. I had hoped to have this one done for my personal site before WWC. But I am looking at themes (paid themes! INVESTING IN MYSELF!) and nearing a decision.
Tidy up Twitter and tumblr – I think I’m officially signing out of these goals. Expecting myself to do better on Twitter and tumblr when they aren’t compatible with me and don’t give me energy, I just have to call it.

Learning Goals:

Continue learning Japanese -I want to do this. I had planned to enroll in a different academy in fall. But with a baby on the way, I have to focus my attention and not get into too many commitments beforehand. I may look to returning to this officially in a year or two.
Study comic book writing – *kind of dies a little* I’m learning by doing?
Read more – Reading! Mostly been trying for nonfiction but I have read the first two picks for the Anxiety Ink Book Club.

Additional Items

In my last goals post, I mentioned that I have been scaling back responsibilities in order to hone my focus. I am pleased to report that it has actually been working! I am feeling less overwhelmed and am more creative. I have time for writing dates with friends, reading a few pages here and there, crafting a poem on the side…

My plan at the beginning of this year was to go to 3 conferences/conventions: Calgary Expo with Clare at Faery Ink Press, When Words Collide, and Sirens Conference. Currently, yes, I have attended all of those except Sirens. I also attended 3 others. And now, Calgary Expo has launched a Holiday Market and we leapt on the opportunity. Super affordable tables, establishing our own space in the Expo sphere, I’m excited to add this one to the list. The only issue? It’s literally within days of my baby’s due date. So I am planning to not be able to attend but am hopeful to make it out there for a bit.

Upcoming Publication

Finally, a project that crept into my life after I made my writing goals list. Queens & Courtesans, an anthology I co-created, is written, edited, formatted, and set to be published! I will write more on Queens & Courtesans later but if you want to preorder it, it’s available 10/6!

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Amazon.com/Amazon.ca

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Third Check-In: 2016 Goals

In all my goals over the years, I’ve never added, “Learn to be productive without outside accountability.” I have a feeling this year won’t really allow for it, so I’ll consider adding it to next year’s list. If I can figure out an approach to accomplishing it.

In theatre: after the summer off, I’m stage managing a production of Tigers Be Still. It’s going to be amazing! And next month, there’s a master class on movement and physicality, which is something I struggle with.

Oh! And the 24-Hour Play Festival happens this weekend. I’m not writing for this year (yay, sleep!) but I’ll act and I’m one of the organizers.

In travel: Reader Con happened and was wonderful. The wedding in Quebec was beautiful, though the 8+ hour drive killed me. My husband had a chance to reconnect with a couple university friends for the first time in at least six year, which was excellent and long overdue.

Unfortunately, Florida will not become an annual destination because our reason for visiting is no longer there. My grandmother-in-law passed away.

2016 has had a nightmare death toll, which has me nervous about the remaining few months.

I have continued to fail at the juggling attempt of the day job, family, friends, writing, and theatre, with some additional difficulties thrown in just for fun. My energy is finite, which means I spend entirely too much time recuperating.

In writing: I still want to finish revising the novel by the end of the year. Not sure how likely that is, but I have that goal. However, I now also have a completed story to submit to an anthology, with two more I want to write for other anthologies. All due by the end of the year.

In three more months, I’ll let you know how well this balancing act (and goals) succeeded! Though if I just get through the year, I’ll take that as a win.

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NaNoWriMo 2016 Plan: Break the Rules

It’s pretty old news that I do National Novel Writing Month every year. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to set aside chunks of time in November since I began taking on the challenge in 2013 and have consistently won. Which means I’ve written 50,000+ words from the 1st to the 30th.

I’m a bit nervous for this go-around. The past two years I’ve worked on books one and two in the series I’m currently mired in. While I plan for there to be a book three sometime in the not-so-distant future, I’m not ready to write it. Mainly because once I complete book two, which should honestly already be done since I have it mapped out and ready to go…, I need to return to book one and do a major overhaul.

And that is likely the reason I have been avoiding finishing my manuscript.

I don’t want to edit for NaNo, I’ll never ever get the words I need to accumulate while editing. And I don’t want to start book three. Cue my stomach tying into knots since I know what I don’t want to do, and until recently I didn’t have a clue as to what I did want to do.

Thankfully, I had an epiphany the other day. I’ve had a middle grade/YA story playing in my mind for a while now. The ideas are half-formed, the setting is half-formed, and the characters are wispy shadows. I don’t know what to expect from any of it, but I really want to find out what it has to offer.

I know it’s a bad idea to start an entirely new project while I have two needing edits, but it’s the only thing I can think of. Plus I need a break from my series. So I’m breaking my project focus rule.

Here’s my plan: for NaNo I intend to pull up my big girl pants and finish book two’s manuscript for my RA series. Which means after NaNo, I have to pull up my scarier big girl pants and start the revision process with book one. However, I fully intend to distract myself with the writing of my middle grade book cuurently dubbed Doppelganger as a working title. I intend to have nothing but fun with it in an effort to bolster myself for editing and to flex my underused writing muscles.

I still have to print my calendar, do the necessary math, write blog posts well-ahead, and come out with a minimal outline for Doppelganger, but I’m excited. And relieved.

Are you tackling NaNoWriMo 2016 come November?

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Writing Nonfiction: Small Stories and the Big Truth

Writing nonfiction has been on my mind a lot recently. I’ve written a nonfiction book, and I’ve written here on the Anxiety Ink blog for over three years. And I want to write more–but I’m not sure what on yet.

Plenty of topics grab my interest but the main thing that holds me back in writing, be it a series or blog posts or another ebook or any length, is that I’m not sure I can fill out the topic. I have the main idea, but I’m not sure I have enough to justify a whole ebook, or a series of posts on either this blog or my personal blog.

At work, I’ve been working myself into the ground building up overtime so I can take off more days when my newborn baby arrives later this year. While this can be a challenge, sometimes I’m rewarded with events where the topics are in my wheelhouse.

An event on Documentary Literature with Marcello Di Cintio proved to be the wake up call I needed. Di Cintio, an engaging speaker, offered this sage advice on presenting stories to readers.

Some people just want to write the big truth, not the small stories that lead up to that truth. That’s not the story; that’s just a bumpersticker.

This statement, while making me laugh, really made me pause. In order to write nonfiction that allows the reader to follow along and experience revelations with you, the writer must include the small stories. The steps offer a basis of shared experience, instead of assuming that the viewer has a similar set of experiences. Those small stories take skill; presenting pieces that add up to something more resonating that a truthful whole.

This one statement made me take a step back and ask:

What truths so I have stories for?
Can those stories be presented in a coherent and cohesive way?
Has a lot of my serious consideration for nonfiction writing right now been a means to avoid writing my fiction?

And, unfortunately, it seems that the last point is the most true. Because we all rule at procrastination.

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Finding Your Muse: Ideas and Inspiration

A muse, to me, is something that inspires and facilitates your stories. Some people find their muse in a person and some find theirs in an object or place. You can certainly have more than one and they can also change over time.

Mine is water. At least, that’s my primary muse.

I grew up on the Maine coast. From my bedroom window, I could look out and see an inlet that turned to mud flats at low tide. My grandmother had a cottage on an island in the middle of lake that we went to as often as possible. Even small bodies of water work, like a frog pond or tidal pool.

Water works for me because it relaxes me and helps silence the inner critic, allowing the words to flow more freely. I spend less time second-guessing myself, so more words get on the page.

The view of Lac Ouimet from the hotel room at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.

My husband and I attended a wedding last week in Quebec for two of his university friends. Let me tell you, I desperately needed that break.

I didn’t do much writing; we arrived Wednesday evening, completely burned out from what turned into at least a nine-hour drive, then Thursday was the wedding, Friday a day to relax, and Saturday an early departure to make it home before dark. Things like driving and being fully present for the wedding took priority over writing, but Friday? Friday had a glorious amount of editing. And part of the reason it went so well was because of the gorgeous hotel room view of Lac Ouimet.

Seriously, if you ever have a chance to visit, do. This place would be amazing for a writing retreat.

And no discussion of water-as-muse would be complete without acknowledging mythic and folkloric contexts. Over and over in mythology and fairytales, water becomes a liminal space – a transition, most often from the living to the dead, but also from real life to fantasy. Think the River Styx, or the Lady in the Lake from King Arthur, or the Japanese fairytale of the fisherman taken to the bottom of the sea to marry a woman in a magical land there and later returns home to find that many years had passed.

Clearly, there is something about water that inspires the imagination; it’s not just me!

Do you know your muse?

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Happy Anniversary!

I have to admit, I’m really surprised that our fourth anniversary flew past on September 6th and not one of us made a big deal about it. Each of us is all over the place in various facets of our lives at the moment, so I don’t blame us. But I’m still surprised.

Happy Anniversary Anxiety Ink and my fellow Inkettes! *a round of clapping*

There. I feel better.

It has been an interesting year on the blog! Outward facing things have stayed relatively steady from the get-go. We’ve face-lifted the site a few times, added and lost Inkettes, gained many awesome new readers (thank you!), and learned a ton. We hope you’ve valued the last four years as much as we have!

Now, just because we forgot to make a bunch of noise the Tuesday before last doesn’t mean we didn’t know our anniversary was coming. As a group we’ve been sitting down and having Google meetings for months because face-to-face-via-webcam is just far easier to navigate than a message board.

The most noteworthy item to come out of those meetings: Melissa and I actually saw each other’s faces and heard each other’s voices for the first time! Welcome to the digital age where you can work with someone for years and not even know if they’re a robot. I’m pretty sure Melissa isn’t.

In all seriousness, we’re really buckling down on Anxiety because, like I said above, we all have a lot going on in our lives, but we also value the blog a great deal. We want to put more into it, expand certain aspects, try new things, and start to get a little more out of it.

In the next year you’ll see some shifting in post topics as we figure out what works for us and what doesn’t. You’ll see new and various content across the site. You’ll also have heard that we started a new book club with a group on Goodreads that we hope starts to gain momentum! We’re also updating different pages on the site and touching up a few finer details.

Once again, THANK YOU for taking time out of your day and reading our blog! Now it’s time for me to step back, stop talking, and ask, is there anything you’d like to see us tackle? Or, tell us what you think is working and what you would like to see more of. We love feedback!

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Where do Writers Get Their Ideas: Story Dice

I love finding new ideas and developing them into a story. A lot of the time, the tales go nowhere. Will they stand up to become a full-fledged narrative? Probably not. But sometimes, those little ideas make an existing idea stronger and better. Sometimes, those little ideas take on a life of their own and won’t leave me alone until they are stories of their own.

My current favourite way to get ideas is story dice. Seriously, these things are magic. I don’t even know what the rules are for the proper storytelling game you’re supposed to play with them–but that doesn’t matter. They are story dice. So you make stories!

Unlike most writing prompts, you aren’t limited to the words provided, or a question, or a first line. Story dice give you little images. The onus is on you to try and find a way to string them together.

The thing I love about story dice is that they are genre-writing compatible. Do you write pirate stories? No problem. Fantastic adventures? Romance? Science fiction? Just go with it!

So I want to show you my favourite story dice which will hopefully get some ideas rolling (hah! See what I did there?) for you as well.

Where to start with story dice?

[image error][image error]These story dice are great starters. They provide a basic framework for the add-on dice you can get that help genre-skew the prompts (Amazon.com/Amazon.ca).

Out of these three sets, if you’re only going to get one, I recommend Voyages (Amazon.com/Amazon.ca). I found that one to be the most story-creation compatible out of the three.

Skew the stories to your genre with expansion packs

After getting a basic pack, there are genre-specific add-ons that really help me click my ideas from generating in a contemporary sphere to a more fantastic, or creepy, sphere. Most of the below are 3-dice packs that can easily fit into a container with the main story packs above.

Fantasy-themed story dice:

Magic & Fairy Tale Set

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Story Cubes – Enchanted Expansion Pack

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Adventure and horror story dice:

Intergalactic Story Cubes

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Pirate Story Dice

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Ghost Story Dice

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Mystery and thriller story dice:

Story Cubes – Clues Expansion Pack

(Amazon.com/Amazon.ca)



Story Cubes – Fright Expansion Pack

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Books On Writing

I am ridiculously picky about books on writing. Maybe because my family thought for years that all books on writing were equally useful. I still remember the feeling of reading Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and for the first time connected with a book on writing. It was incredible.

Bad writing advice abounds, some of which have even made it to publication. Then there are the books that are so basic they seem as though they’re talking down to you. Or at least that’s how they make me feel.

Confession: I’ve never made it through Stephen King’s On Writing, though that book is the most common recommendation I get.

In college, a writer-friend recommended Writing Down the Bones by Natalie

Goldberg and The Right to Write by Julia Cameron – both excellent. A few years later, I discovered Ray Bradbury’s Zen and the Art of Writing.

A good book on writing, to me, articulates truths I haven’t yet found the right words for or opens my mind to other possibilities and makes me question my assumptions. Preferably, it does both.

I just finished Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook, which is a masterclass in its own right. Or several masterclasses rolled into one book. It fulfills my criteria and then some.

What are your favorite writing reference books? Or are you still searching for one that speaks to you? If you give any of these a try, let me know what you think!

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Conferences from an Outside Perspective

It recently came to my attention that not all people understand the organization of a writing conference, or merely a conference in general. Surprising, right? Yeah, not so much.

After the first day of When Worlds Collide, I attended my day job’s annual barbeque. My coworkers all knew I was attending the conference that weekend since I also happened to be on vacation from work at the same time. There, everyone kept asking me how things were going. Finally, someone point blank asked what exactly happened at a writing conference. I really had to stop and think hard to answer.

Then I remembered way back in 2013, when Kate first asked me if I wanted to attend WWC with her, that I had no idea what I was walking into. Now, a veteran of four WWC conferences and one Sirens conference, I can give outsiders a good idea of what a writing conference entails.

So, if you’ve attended a conference, bear with me. If you haven’t, I hope I can clear some things up for you!

I’ll use WWC as my reference point since I’ve attended that conference the most (and most recently).

Basically, over the course of Friday afternoon, most of Saturday, and about 10-6 on Sundays, the panelists, volunteers, and attendees take over the presentation rooms of a hotel. This year it was the Delta South in Calgary.

The day is broken up into about nine blocks which consist of (usually) 50 minute presentations, as you can see below:

On average, each panel has four presenters of various background, who discuss the panel’s topic for the allotted 50 minutes. Sometimes there are one on one’s with editors or single authors reading from new releases.

WWC is unique in that there are SO MANY panels happening all at once. You really have to pick and choose what you want to attend and scramble back and forth between rooms in order to get a good seat. Luckily, there’s usually some topic overlap, and reading presenter bios and panel descriptions carefully will help you decide which ones are better suited to you and your interests.

Essentially, you’re attending mini lectures like you would in any post-secondary institution. Some people, myself included, take notes, others listen. There’s usually a decent amount of audience participation though on Sunday afternoons people tend to be pretty quiet thanks to the partying that happens Saturday night and the information overload.

At this point you might be wondering what the point –heck, even the appeal– is of running yourself ragged to attend a bunch of lectures. I understand that most people are not like me and do not enjoy attending lectures on topics that interest them. Honestly, I have a great deal of pity for such creatures!

However, most writers live to discuss their craft. Throw us all into a hotel where a good 9 discussions are happening simultaneously focusing on just a single aspect of writing and we’re in heaven. There is no better way to meet like-minded people than at a conference devoted to a singular topic, such as writing.

WWC also provides a unique space because it’s a conference for new writers, seasoned writers, and readers. Plus, wherever readers and writers converge you are likely to find editors and publishers. And, WWC is genre fiction based, with a different genre taking centre stage each year, which gives attendees that much more to bond over. All of this combines to make a networking dream.

The Sirens conference I attended was a slightly different experience. One, I flew to Washington, so I stayed in the hotel which allowed me to participate in the evening presentations, like the keynote speaking and the mixer. There were also fewer panels to try to attend which meant less scrambling. Plus, Sirens focuses exclusively on women in fantasy, which gives it that extra bit of niche quality.

The beauty of both conferences though: the merchant rooms, full of books galore.

Hopefully that clarified things for you. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to comment! I’d also love to hear about any other conferences you’ve attended!

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