Engrossed

Things have bee quiet about here, so the hubby and I have been chilling out (a little too much, perhaps) and watching some old TV shows and the like. May sound super lazy, but we are trying to enjoy spending our time together before he has to go back to school for the semester. I’ve been itching to do some personal writing during the day while things are so slow, but I haven’t had the heart to do anything. I think I might get the urge once he’s back to night classes, and I find myself with a surplus of alone time.

With everything we watch, I am more and more fixated on the questions of storytelling and character development. I find myself analyzing things as I tended to in college, trying to fix a formula for a good yarn in my head. I’ve said since I was a little girl that all I ever wanted to do with my writing is to get someone to experience emotion. It doesn’t matter what it is. I see a story as the ultimate way to reach out and touch another human being. Unfortuately, I have find myself pretty competant at strining pretty words together, but I rarely have the gut to inject the amount of conflict that a good story needs. I’m an amicable person at heart, and I never really want to set bad things (fictional or not) into motion.

I tend to keep things very minimalistic and focus on very small things that rack my main characters with guilt, sadness, and other similar emotions. This is probably because I have always been very sensitive emotionally. My husband once remarked that the entire climax of one of my stories could be a facial expression or comment that sent the character into a downward spiral. He advised me, rightly, that not everyone gets that sort of thing.

In the end, I see my tendency to focus on the undertones of human interaction as a limiting factor to my writing. To me, it is almost a manifestation of a lack of imagination. I mean really, don’t all of the great writers play fast and loose with reality from time to time?

Therefore, I’ve taken to spending some time studying the most over-the-top and colorful stuff I can get my hands on. No, it’s not mythology. Although, my friends know that I have an almost unhealthy love of Greek myth. No, all of the comic book movies coming out the summer have piqued my interest in classic superhero stories. Wikipedia and various fan sites dot my browser history, and I have even more respect for the writers than I did as an adolescent with a passing interest in the X-Men and Batman. These people have kept characters, relationships, and (most importantly) rivalries interesting for over 40 and 50 years. They certainly know a thing or two about taking some chances in a story line.

So, where better to learn about imagination than among caped crusaders?

Flummoxed

I had an exhausting weekend, and my schedule shows no signs of slowing. I wish I could say the same for work these days, but I have hit a definite slump. I guess that means that I should start looking into doing some longer posts here to stay in the rhythm of writing. Maybe I’ll even publish some more fiction.

For now, though, nothing much to report. I actually have an acute case of bloggers’ block. Times like these I wish I had a camera. You should see the beautiful blue jays and finches that congregate on my patio.

Garrulous

Grammar nerdy like me? Looking for a little light reading before bed? Do a little reading up on the differences between style guides.

I have to admit it: This rabbit hole is why this post isn’t longer. Now I’m looking into why each standard uses different rules. Localization concerns for technical documentation. Clarity for AP. Fascinating, but I should really go to bed.

Conundrum

Or How to misdirect

One thing my professors tried to instill in me is to treat my audience with respect. In many ways, their advice came down to that of Kurt Vonnegut:

“Now lend me your ears.  Here is Creative Writing 101:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist.  No matter sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person.  If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible.  To heck with suspense.  Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964).  She broke practically every one of my rules but the first.  Great writers tend to do that.”

So, I’m mulling over this story. I’ll spare you the details, but the crux of the whole thing is a reveal. Guy obsesses over the source of a noise, goes to crazy measures to find out the truth. So how do I keep from wasting my reader’s time and writing pulling a cheap surprise ending? I have no idea.

Obsession and ugly human emotions are much more interesting to me than mystery. I guess that’s why I’m always more interested in stories from the murder’s point of view than the cops. Over the month I was MIA from here, I watched The Dark Knight a couple of times. (The IMAX tickets are totally worth it. Do it if you have the chance.) The notion of The Joker being one of the complicated criminals is engaging in a way that a mobster holding out for drug money is not. The question is, how to direct the story towards the madness instead of the mystery.

Or maybe I’m micromanaging things.

Ballyhoo

Well, months after I said it would be completed, the website is finished. The funny things is that development has wrapped up in a really strange transition period where I probably won’t be using it very much. Anyway, I have some quickie samples up and I need to fill some stuff out, but the website is officially open.

The hubby’s side is not done, but that’s his problem. This little old blog is even linked. Awesome indeed.

Check it out if you’d like to look at my boring work stuff:

www.starlo.org

Enthralled

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about finding a my place. The husband and I were discussing the serendipitous way in which we found our way to Austin. He always says he prepared the way for me. It was easy for him to find his way into a job and school. My year has not been so clear cut. I’ve explored a lot of avenues and hit a lot of dead ends.

Freelancing has not helped slow things down. There are wide pengelum swings of business, and my job changes drasticaly from one week to week. Admittedly, this is one of the reasons I decided to give it a try. I like being busy and crave a challenge. I have always feared being stuck in a rut professionally and never want to rest on my laurels. My current situation may have been overcompensation on my part.

These days, I would love a little consistancy.

Exegesis

I have trouble with exposition. Most people say you should avoid it all together. It can be useful to write it out even if most of it is cut out of the next few edits. Writing something like this:

They lived in a storage shed, but even she had to admit it was a nice one. Most of the vats of dressing and pallets of potatos were in a corner on the far side of the kitchen area. Everything else was in the walk-in. They had to share their bathroom with the employees, but it was outfitted with a tile shower.

can help me solidify details about the setting in my mind, but it isn’t very elegant prose. It’s a bunch of clunky descriptions. The question is…how does one do it well and do we really need any of this? The first part question is harder to answer than the latter. I contend that many short stories (and most novels) have no need for pages of incidental exposition.

It depends on the situation. This is why God created editing. I have a problem with relating these things sometimes. Man, it’s late. Sorry for the rambling.

Pique

Oh man. I’m in one of those moods. I have a lot of work do tomorrow, but I have been dragging all day. It was one of those days when I would have rather ripped all of my teeth out one by one than write another word about anesthesia.

To make things worse, I’ve got an unexpected guest in for lunch tomorrow, so I’ve had to extend my work into the night. More and more it seems my free time and work time bleed together. This is why I’m going to put freelancing on the back burner for awhile; it’s maddening.

Edict

I’m still doing well on the routine. I’m nothing if not commited.

Since I’ve been revamping my work, I’m thinking about enacting an idea i had some time ago. I’m too lazy to search through my own blog posts, but the general idea was to do some creative writing every Wednesday. Obviously, that is not the case today. I’ve done nothing of the sort. I still have a contract to finish.

I like to think of it as an alternative to “Wordless Wednesdays.” I love words. I don’t want to go a day without them.

Virtuosity

I’ve been trying to focus more on my own writing lately, but I’ve been having a hard time concentrating. So much so that its been hard to blog. I feel like I’ve been committing the cardinal sin of blogging here: Blogging for blogging sake.

I know that it is because I have made a commitment to writ every workday, but it is nothing to be proud of if the quality is low. Besides, the days lately have been feeling less like workdays and more like depressing blurs. I’m not going to cut down on blogging; I’m just going to to try to be better. The secret subtitle of my journal here is “There is nothing more important than writing everyday.” I still believe that.