January 2014 Ramble: Resolutions and Promises

This month in the Ramble we have decided to make our writing goals public so that they are out there and you all can help us be accountable.  Kind of us to volunteer you, wasn't it? :)  Without further ado, here are my goals, dreams and aspirations for the coming year (in no particular order).

1.  Submit to Writer's of the Future First Quarter (to begin with).

2. Begin publishing the series I started in NaNoWriMo 2013 (more news on this later).

3. Write an effective fight scene (I love watching various fighting styles, but I haven't figured out the art of writing them).

4. Have something to submit to my writing groups at least every other month.

5.  Write for an hour every day.

6.  Keep a dream journal again.

Goals can be big, small, long term or short.  They can be about the craft itself or about an end product.  All that matters is that they fill you with excitement, motivation and inspiration.  Take a few moments and think of what you really want to accomplish this year and write it down.  Leave it in a comment if that helps!  You kick my butt, I'll kick yours - how does that sound? :)

Time to Wake Up

I had a dream today that I knocked on my door. The me I should be answered. The one who writes every day. The one who exercises every day. The one who lives in the house of mine that is organized the way I want it to be. I felt sad and out of sorts. I told her that she should wake up and leave me in the dream since she knows how to actually live my life. She just smiled and shook her head, "It is you who needs to wake up." And so I did. 

 I can't stop thinking about it. It -is- time I woke up.

Guest Blog post on The Fictorians!

Check out my guest post on The Fictorians!

November 2013 Ramble: What Traveling Has Taught Me About Writing

This month in the Writer’s Ramble we discuss Outlining vs Discovery writing, Plotting vs Pantsing, Architects vs Gardeners.  However you are used to classifying these two creation styles they boil down to the same two categories.  Do you like to plan out your novels and short stories or do you prefer to let your stories tell themselves?

At heart, I am a pantser – I like to sit down, start typing and see what comes out – even the way I travel could be considered pantsing.  I’ve gone on trips with my family as well as with my old job as a travel agent where I would wander off, discovering what the cities had to offer; wherever my feet took me.  I had so many adventures that were not in the tour books, it almost seems unreal.  I collected so many wild stories, it became a joke in our family. "Well of COURSE that would happen to Heidi..."

Much of the writing I’ve done has come about the same way.  I let my fingers wander and end up running into characters and situations I’d never dreamed of, but which ended up being just what the story needed.  A discovery writer, a pantser, is a more organic writer.  You kind of sit back, let things grow as they will and if it turns into something useable? Great!

However, as my traveling habits have evolved, I’ve come to appreciate having a basic plan.  I found I could see more of a place and not miss out on things that I know I enjoy by doing a little research and having a game plan in place before I arrive in a new city.  Outlining, plotting, planning – these are all new things to me in my writing life as well. 

This month for NaNoWriMo I decided to try my hand at plotting.  Okay, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t a conscious decision.  My sister was brainstorming with me about a series of books I’d gotten an idea for.  At the end of the session, we had two of the ten books pretty well plotted with rough ideas about the other eight.  I’d never done that before.

It feels good to know where I’m going with this story, and that there are nine other stories waiting to be told once this one is done.  I’d gotten familiar with the characters before I started writing them.  Just as researching a city made me feel more like I was coming home than venturing out into a unfamiliar and foreign place, so has plotting out this series made these characters feel more like family than strangers I need to get to know.

As a writer I’ve come to the realization that to be my best I need to be both a plotter and a pantser, depending on what the situation calls for.  I still leave myself time in my travels to do some wandering.  I leave myself open to adventure.  If my characters want to take a left when I want them to take a right, I’ll go along with it.  You never know where a wrong turn will take you – until you make it.

(I’ll let you in on a little secret.  This blog post was completely by the seat of my pants.  I hadn’t thought about the correlation between my thoughts on travel and my thoughts on writing – until I wrote it out.  My advice is to be focused, have goals and an end game in mind, but keep yourself open to the adventures of the unknown. It’s a wild ride, enjoy it!)

What are your thoughts about these two different approaches to writing? Leave a comment with what works best for you!

Nanu Nanu

September 2013 Ramble: The Hero's Journey Part 1

Over the next few months in our Writers’ Ramble we will be discussing and dissecting a story structure developed by Joseph Campbell in his “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. You may be more familiar with it termed as “The Hero’s Journey”. Campbell determined there were 17 stages of this journey and broke them into three main sections: Departure, Initiation and Return.

This month we will be discussing the five elements of the Departure phase. I will be covering Refusal of the Call. Check out our main blog for my group’s take on the other stages.

Refusal of the Call

"Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or 'culture,' the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless - even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire or renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration." (Campbell p. 59)

 
In a story that follows the Hero’s Journey, it is common to be presented with a situation that calls for a specific Hero. This is generally a world or a people in peril or conflict. Events unfold that make the Hero aware of the conflict via The Call to Adventure. How the Hero responds to the Call sets the tone of the story. It is quite common for a Hero to initially Refuse the Call; this builds tension and shows the Hero to be relatable and human.

There are many reasons a Hero would Refuse the Call:

• Luke Skywalker refuses to go to Alderaan with Obi-wan because he has chores to do and a responsibility to his aunt and uncle and their farm. 
• Sherlock Holmes will refuse a case until some bit of evidence presents itself as a sufficiently intriguing puzzle worthy of his great intellect. 
• In the Matrix, Neo refuses the Call numerous times because of his initial disbelief in the Matrix as a whole and later in himself as a Hero. 
• Fear of the unknown and a fear of what they would be giving up by leaving home are also common reasons for refusing .

When a Hero Refuses the Call, three paths open up, though they share the same road for awhile:  First, they can struggle for a time, but eventually something (usually very personal and tragic) will happen that outweighs their objections and they finally Accept the Call and the Adventure begins! Luke Skywalker’s home and family were burned to a crisp.  “There’s nothing left for me here.” Let’s go save a Princess!

Second, the Call follows them everywhere they go, as Calls are wont to do, but the Hero keeps slipping the noose.  Eventually, the Call stops playing the nice guy and the Hero is caught in a trap.  Take Jonah and the Whale.  There are some Calls to which there is no escape.

Third, because they have been chosen by the powers that be for the specific task, their life will be plagued by misadventures until they give in (as was shown in paths 1 and 2) but by continuing to Refuse they will be forced out of the role of Hero and into the role of Damsel in Distress or Villain.  They will either need to be rescued by a Hero who Accepted the Call or become the Villain in another Hero’s story.

There are times when a story works best with a Hero who jumps at the Call, but generally it is more interesting and satisfying for a reader to have a Hero who is reluctant, shows fear and weaknesses and who at times has to be beaten over the head with the Call before they accept it.  Of course, you can go too far with this, but the payoff a reader gets once the Hero overcomes their resistance to the Call is usually in direct proportion to the amount of fight the Hero put up initially.

There is a variation to the Refusal of the Call that some call Can’t Stay Normalwhere an old Hero has forgotten or given up their powers, deliberately or otherwise. They get tired of their life of adventure and just want something Normal. Eventually they get it, but once they have a normal life they either miss their Adventure and want it back or they are enjoying their normal life, but the Call will not leave them alone. They have a destiny to fulfill, dangit! The world needs saving again!

If you are writing a story that follows the Hero’s Journey, does your Hero Refuse the Call?  I’d love to hear how, leave me a comment! :)

June 2013 Ramble: Where Do Characters Come From, Mommy?

My writing group’s topic this month is “How do you create your characters?” As with most of our topics, our answers will be different. I decided to go through a few of my projects and jot down how I ended up with the characters I have and see if I could find a pattern ;) And what do you know, I did!

Love in all Directions – I thought it would be fun to have a regency quartet with four brothers who go by North, South, East and West. So I came up with names that would shorten to those nicknames and then I started seeing their faces and feeling their personalities. Then they told me about their parents and their childhood traipsing around the known world. Each born in an area corresponding with their directional names. Things took off from there.

Seven Spires – I had some names that I wanted to use and an idea of a world. Once I got the world more concrete in my mind I saw where the different characters fit into it. I started by filling out a character sheet and writing a prologue for each of the seven main characters and a couple pre-prologues of their ancestors. As I wrote they became clearer and told me more about themselves.

Fork in the Road – I had an idea of an inventor and his creation rattling around in my head for a long time, but it wasn’t until NaNoWriMo that I actually fleshed him out. Again, I just kept my fingers typing and he came to life – along with his rival and love interest.

Perfect World – I had a basic plot idea that mulled itself around my mind until Dave Farland’s Writer's Death Camp last November. I talked with him about it and that conversation shaped the overall story/theme enough that I felt excited to sit down and write it. As I went more details filled themselves in.

I guess what it comes down to for me is that I’m a discovery writer. I start out with a name; a picture/piece of artwork; a concept or idea of a world and then sit down and let my fingers do the discovering. I have found more often than I can count that I’ll write something a character does or says and think to myself in passing “Hmm… wonder why they did that?” only to discover a few days or weeks later “Ohh! That’s why!”

When I was younger I would think about my characters a lot more before trying to write them. Too much, in my opinion. I’d obsess about their hair, their clothes, their mannerisms and never get around to actually writing about them doing anything. Once I decided to just write and see where it took me, I got a lot farther and I still discovered their hair style, clothing preferences and their mannerisms.

This will not be the way for everyone. Some people are not discovery writers in any sense of the word and so my way of doing things will seem crazy and inefficient to them. And that’s okay. You just need to figure out how –your- process works and work it!

I’d love to hear about how your little darlings are brought into your worlds. Leave me a comment below! Until next time, dear reader. Nanu Nanu.

May 2013 Ramble: What Inspires You?

This month my writing group’s blog discussion is about Muses and Inspiration. Where do ideas come from? The answer will be different for everyone. It’s important to keep yourself open and always searching; there’s an idea hiding in every nook and cranny of this world. They are just waiting for the right person to find them and bring them to life.

Now, let’s get personal… Well, allow me to get personal. I have found that inspiration will hit me over the head without warning in the strangest places and so I make sure to always have with me a way of recording these assaults. The program I have found most useful is Evernote. I’m not going to go into a sales pitch, but I do recommend checking it out. It’s an app that syncs between your phone and computer and you can make notes via text, email, voice recording or your camera. I’m not letting any idea get away from me!

I remember driving home from work right after I’d moved to Portland, OR. I wasn’t familiar with my new city yet and got lost. As I was at a stoplight, looking around for something that would tell me where I was and where I should go, I caught sight of an exchange that I wish I had had a video camera with me to record. A man was stretching his legs while his car was being filled (you can’t pump your own gas in OR – I felt like a queen when I would go to get gas :) ) and a woman was walking down the street.

He watched her approach with an expression of awe, but lowered his eyes when she turned in his direction. She looked at him with interest and a small smile, but turned her head away when he looked up. This exchange carried on for the entire time it took her to walk past him. They took turns watching each other, but looked away before the other could see they were being studied. I was across the street, but I could almost see little strings tethering them to each other. Even after she’d passed she kept turning back to look at him and he watched her until she was out of sight. He shook his head ruefully and got into his car. I wanted to scream at them, their whole relationship flashed in front of me and I couldn’t believe they’d just let it slip by.

So many different ideas exploded in my head during the exchange, even now, 12 years later, I remember it clearly. The ideas born on that day are still with me, getting mighty impatient to be used, but they haven’t abandoned me. Before the light turned green, I scribbled it all down in a notebook I had with me.

Recently, I was driving to my current job, not lost this time, watching the sun disappear behind the mountains. The way the sun’s rays got caught in the hazy clouds hanging around the top of the mountains made me think of a person’s fingers reaching up under a sheet, making peaks and valleys. I made a little Evernote and later that night wrote a scene for one of the projects I’m working on.

What inspires me? Everything. What speaks to me? This world and all its possibilities. What inspires you? I’d love to hear; leave me a comment! :)