..:: Written .:. Off ::..

Halloween in the Burbs

Halloween was a lot of fun when I lived in the city. The streets were packed with kids and we would go through bags and bags of candy. Now that I live in the burbs, Halloween is a bit sedate. I think my doorbell rang maybe 5 times last Halloween. One year, it only rang once. I’ve learned that most families take their kids to Townhouse developments because they are well lit and the houses are clustered together. We took our daughter to one last year and there were lots of kids roaming around as opposed to where we live. I will probably do the same thing this year.

The only horror movie I managed to watch this season is the excellent Shaun of the Dead. If you like zombie movies, british comedy and romance (that’s right), check it out!
Do you do anytyhing special for Halloween? What kind of turnout do you get?

NanoWriMo Jitters

So we come to 8/31, the last day before Nanowrimo begins, and the jitters are setting in. I’ve been relatively calm about the whole thing this year. Nanowrimo is a fun contest but for someone who takes writing seriously, writing the book is more important than winning the contest. I will have to live with this book for long after Nano is a memory since it will probably go into the 100,000 word range (typical novel length).

The jitters that I’m experiencing are normal at the beginning of starting any major project. Many writers experience some sort of self-doubt that causes him or her not to write. My biggest fear while writing is that I’m going to run out of ideas or hit a wall. The fear is irrational because it happens while I’m writing. It’s like I anticpate failure.

I did a lot of outlining for Nano this year but not enough to give me anykind of comfort level. I think that I have enough material to at least write 50,000 words.

I did a few exercises this weekend that helped me out. I wrote a few mock scenes with a few of my characters just to get the tone down and also to see if the ideas flowed. The scenes came out good and were funnier than I thought they would be.

I will probably do a daily journal at this blog to let you know about my progress and the walls that I hit while writing. If anything, it will be theraputic.

Protect Your Work

For you Nanites out there. Don’t forget to split your story into chapters and back them up offline on your computer. You don’t want to lose your work.

A lot of Nano writers are using www.writely.com to edit and store their work. I have not tried this but I will check it out today.

Good Luck!

Halloween used to be one of my favorite times of the year when I was kid. My friend Henry and I would always end Halloween night with a horror movie fest at his house. We would rent the most disgustingly vile movies that we could find, order a pizza and watch them for hours. Most of these movies aren’t even in print anymore considering how bad they were. Total garbage but in a fun way!

I’ve seen a lot of good horror movies in my time, but I’ve also seen a lot that were bad. Instead of posting my favorite horror movies, I’m going to post my list of movies to avoid. Here we go…

1. Exorcist II: The Heretic - One of the worst sequels of all time. Completely incomprehensible.

2. Satan’s Playground - A dumb movie combining the worst elements of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Evil Dead.

3. The Ring 2 - Pointless follow up the The Ring. There is a part where the main character is driving in her car and is attacked by demonic deer. It’s as dumb as it sounds. Does anyone read these scripts?

4. Snuff - This movie is infamous because the movie is supposed to end with a real onsceen murder. The “real” murder is as fake as they come and the rest of the movie is about hippies running around shooting each other. It’s amazing what good marketing can do for a piece of trash.

5. Saw - I know that a lot of people love this movie, but I thought that it was so bad that I laughed during the last 15 minutes because the acting was so bad.

6. House of Wax - The Paris Hilton version of course. Unwatchable and has nothing to do with the Vincent Price classic. May be the worst movie of all time.

7. The Howling II - Horrible sequel to the The Howling. The Howling was an okay werewolf movie. The sequel made no sense and had almost nothing to do with the original. One word review: Unwatchable.

8. Dracula (Frances Ford Coppola): Unintentionally hilarious version of Dracula. This movie is so bloated and over/underacted, it never fails to amaze me how bad it is. A stylistic trainwreck, if you would.  Keanue Reeves and Winona Ryder are particularly godawful.

There are dozens more, but those that I mentioned stick out in my mind. What about you? Any horror movies that are so bad..that they are NOT good?

What makes a book good? What makes a book compel you to pick it up again? I’ve been asking myself these questions over and over for the last few days in preparation for my Nanowrimo novel.

I love to read but I have to tell you that I don’t finish 60% of the books that I start. A lot of times I get a few chapters in and put the book down. Sometimes I will get halfway through a book and forget that I’m reading it since I’m not compelled to pick it up when I have free time.

When I do find a good book, I will blow through it in a matter of days. I find myself looking forward to reading it instead of just reading to kill some time.

So what makes a book good? What makes it special enough that you will continue reading day after day until you’ve finished?

For me, the book must contain the following:

- Great and memorable characters. It’s not an easy feat to create solid likable characters who are different than the slew of generic characters  that populate fiction. Multi-dimensional character who the reader roots for are hard to come by. The reader has to identify with the character in some way. This doesn’t mean that the author should fall back on a stereotype that is comfortable and easy to write.

- Tight story telling. I personally do not like books that trail on and on about things that are not integral to the story. Tight story telling keeps things moving for the reader.

- Originality. There is not enough originality in literature these days, especially in fantasy. I know that I’ve gone on about this subject before but nothing seems to change. I like to read books that are different and take chances. I think that a lot of fantasy authors are afraid to take chances with the conventions that have used over and over for years.

-Cliffhangers. I’m not talking about a cliffhanger at the end of a book, I’m talking about end of scene/chapter cliffhangers, that make are interesting enough to make you want to read the next chapter. The cliffhangers come from knowing when to end a scene and crucial time.  A cliffhanger can be as small a detective finding a clue but compelling enough to make the reader want to know more.

-Great Opening.  A novel must have a great opening scene and not only that, it should sustain throughout the beginning of the novel. I can’t tell you how many books that I’ve put down because nothing interesting happens in the first few pages. Fantasy novels are famous for prologues that go on and on about a character who either has little to do with the story or a scene that is more interested in showing the reader how lovely and detailed her world is. Here’s an idea, open your book with a murder, that will get the readers attention!

It’s easy to point these things out but not easy to incorporate them into your own writing. Writing a good novel takes planning and writing one that takes place in another world, even more.

I’ve been reading the forums over the Nanowrimo site for awhile now and a lot of the writers there are discussing how to pad their novel to reach 50,000 words but are not doing much planning beyond that. I know, I get it, the point of Nanowrimo is to write 50,000 words in a month. It’s more of a badge of merit than anything else. I just think that with some proper planning and thought, a lot of these writers would surprise themselves at the end of the month. Not only would they have reached their goal, they would’ve come up with a story that they could actually do something with!

What do you think makes a good novel? What compells you to keep reading page after page?

This may be a hobby that only interest me, but I though that I would write about it today
I like to run when I get the chance although I am afraid that I don’t run that far. I normally do either two or four mile runs and I do around twenty miles a week. This is something I have been doing regularly for since early 1989. I run in the heat, cold, snow and pouring rain, but I do avoid the ice as I don’t want to break my leg. I run on a lot of back roads which around here means largely dirt roads and a number of hills. Some mornings I get up and I am raring to go and other mornings I fall out of bed and force myself to go. For a number of years I ran at night, but now I mainly run early in the morning although on some weekends I run in the afternoon. You almost have to be a runner to understand the appeal of it. It can be fun, it can be invigorating, but it can be painful and frustrating as well. If you run anywhere other than a soft track then you can expect your share of strained muscles and various pains, but you keep going as best you can. I love to run in the rain and when it just starts snowing because it feels good on your face and head and it creates more of a challenge. Here are a few of the odd things I have seen over the years while running.

Number of times I saw sparking telephone wires-1
Number of times I saw people dumping trash where they shouldn’t-3 (all in the middle of the night)
Number of times I have had bottles thrown at me-2 (they missed)
Number of times that I have bitten by dogs-2 (I didn’t go to the doctor)
Number of raccoons I have seen that I suspect were rabid-3
Number of snakes I have seen that were longer than three feet in length- 3
Number of times I have been pulled over by the police while running-1 (long story, but I did nothing wrong)
Number of skunks I have seen-1(It fortunately did not spray me).

You can read Metal Mark’s Blog at Heavy Metal Time Machine 

“Are you hungry Bruce?” I ask my little boy, as he sits in the shopping cart whining, crying and being a general pain in the butt; they way little boys are apt to do. He nods emphatically and says, “Ges!”

We decide on chicken strips, mac and cheese and beans, and get a whopping plate handed to us at the deli counter. Rummaging through my purse for that ever elusive driver’s license, she cheerily tells me itís alright; my check was already accepted. Cool, I just found my drivers license. I put it back in my check book where it belonged, and pushed the cart over to a table where Bruce and I proceeded to see who could devour the food faster. I won, but munchkin man ate twice what I did. I was impressed. We scuttled on, to the great relief of the patrons trying to read books and scarf down their own food. They might have been disturbed by Brandy getting her diaper changed in her car seat, or it could have been Bruce’s squeals of delight as he shoveled barbeque sauce into his maw… with his fingers. Who knows.

So we moved on and finished our shopping, one baby sated and another one naked. We bought diapers, dog food, air wicks, and some other stuff. The baby got a new diaper put on, and I tried to conceal the fact that the diapers were opened. Hmmm, no matter which way I placed the package in the cart I really couldn’t cover it up. Oh well. Maybe they will think I grabbed it that way.

I thought things at the check out would be just as boring, but I was in for a treat! The checkout boy, cashier, clerk, annoying little Texas heathen, or what ever you want to call him, was extremely pleasant. He even asked me how I was doing twice! Wow, he must be very interested in me. Maybe he won’t notice the diapers. Encouraged by the fact that my favorite grocery store in Texas already accepted one check without my life’s history written all over it in blood, I confidently handed him my check.

“I’ll need to see your ID,” he demanded, which I gracefully handed him. Oh well. “Do you have Texas ID?”

Cleverly I replied, “If I had a Texas ID I wouldn’t be able to have a North Dakota driver’s license now would I?”

Waving my check in my face, mister young snotty Texas boy pointed out the fact that I had a Texas checking account. “You need to get your Texas ID!”

Really? I am amazed. I didn’t know that. Should I explain to this little piece of toast that to get a Texas driver’s license I need a billion forms of proof of identity, a vehicle registered in my own name, and proof of Texas insurance? Should I let this cookie know that to register a vehicle I need the title that the dealership has failed send me? Should I go into my shpeal about the ticket I received for not having this little gem? I really want to, but crispy clean counter clerk won’t let me. He is really incensed that I am disregarding Texas State Law. Funny that Wells Fargo doesn’t have a problem with it.

“Did you know you can’t buy alcohol without it?”

“I have never had that problem here before.”

“THEN THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG!”

“Well, I usually pay with my debit card-”

“It doesn’t matter! You need Texas ID to buy alcohol in the state of Texas!”

“I have never been carded here before.”

Jamming his finger through the ledge that my purse, checkbook, ID and arm are resting on, he points at some writing under the plastic. “If you look under 30 we have to card you!” During his tirade, my check goes through and he starts bagging my purchases. What a good boy.

“Well, I <i>am</i> over thirty,” I say as I grab my receipt. “Maybe when I come in here with my 11 year old, they realize how old I am and don’t bother to ask!” I start to push my cart away and realize he didn’t even put the groceries in it. I even moved Brandy’s car seat to make room for the bags! I jammed them into the cart and marched all the way over to Wells Fargo bank, wishing I had gone there first.

I vented my frustrations to the bank tellers about “the grocery clerk over there” as I made my deposit. I even got to complain about the problems getting my new driver’s license. Handing me my receipt, she asked me a question.

“What kind of alcohol were you trying to buy anyway?”

“I wasn’t,” I replied, shooting a ferocious glare his way as I left my favorite grocery store. At least he didn’t notice I opened the diapers.

You can read Dawn’s Blog at Dreamscape.

Getting That First Book Under Your Belt

-Ray Van Horn Jr.-

So, at the daring invitation of Fred, I thank him for the opportunity to share my thoughts about the all-intensive creative process when writing your first novel.

When I finished my first novel “Mentor,” I can say it innocuously began with a six-page short story about an abused child exploding on his father when he watches his mother being brutalized before his eyes. It was a destructive, passionate affair, the first really good piece of writing I’d done in my early twenties. At that point, I had already sent out letters to all of the major publishers and received beautiful stationary in return that all had the same message as if a stamp was available for purchase by book publishers: “Thank you for your interest, blah blah blah, no consideration without an agent.”

As I was already starting college when I went through this defeating exercise, I would occasionally write on my typewriter (yes, typewriter, a Brother electronic wordsmith) for fun, just to keep practice, sometimes fiction, sometimes faux record reviews of my own collection in practice for what I’d become later. I also wrote my papers and assignments and tried to be creative within the context. Often I was rewarded, sometimes not, but when I wrote a paper on serial killers for my psychology class, I was given an A++ and the professor asked for my consent to use it as a model term paper. I was bowled over with excitement. To be given such credentials was the catalyst I needed. Before that, I had served as Assistant Editor on the college newspaper and wrote a monthly music column nobody read, then I switched to movie reviews and got a lukewarm response. I was now inspired and halfway through college with all of this sick knowledge about serial killers festering in my mind. It was only natural I take that knowledge and try to do a piece of fiction on it.

The short story in question was simply known as “Danny.” My mother, who was always my best critic because she would tell me when something wasn’t working, told me it was the finest piece of fiction I’d produced and that I should do something with it, get it published, expand on it, something. So after getting a nice healthy batch of magazine rejection letters to “Danny,” I eventually decided there was more to tell.

The creative process to what would become “Mentor” was something of a confrontation of my personal past. In order to accelerate this little short story into something bigger, I had to introduce more characters and create a focal point for the readers to identify with. Only a macabre underground of readers would want a book entire dedicated to just Danny, the abused child who grows up to be a serial killer. I mean, it’s kind of cliché and I think the movie Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer kind of the standard. No, what I had to do was find a target, a sympathetic creature who gets sucked into Danny’s bloody world and explore what would happen if the two paths crossed.

Therein lies the premise of “Mentor.” I’m not going to spoil it for you all, because frankly, I have books to sell, hee hee… But the process was a long and tedious one, filled with drafts and rewrites that would drive a lesser person mad with frustration. It’s not easy to write 500 pages of material because that’s what you tell yourself it should be based on the thousand novels you’ve already read to that point. Trust me when I say it’s delusional to think that way as a beginning author, because you’re going to find later on in the drafting process that 500 pages is going to be chopped down to about 350 if you manage to score a publishing deal.

I briefly had an agent in New York who raved over “Mentor,” and what I had presented her was my third draft. She informed me that she saw huge potential in it but noted I would be required to do another full draft of the thing and it was here where I’d learned the standard author phrase “be ready to kill your darlings.” In order to make the book a better piece, I began the laborious process of hunting down unnecessary passages that stymied the flow of the story, and I even went so far as to kill off three entire chapters in the interest of making it a more seamless story. God, it hurt to do that!

My agent quit her practice due to health reasons and there I was with “Mentor” in slight disarray and already I’d gotten four turndowns through the agent. We parted amicably but the depression of having all of this work go to naught was looming over my head. Having sacrificed sleep and weekend time to work on this sucker mounted on my brain and I almost throw the son of a bitch into the trash, like Stephen King did with his first draft of Carrie. I always kept that in mind, that I could be throwing away a potential winner, and that’s the catalyst that got me moving.

I failed to procure a new agent because most felt the story was too gory for mainstream audiences and then of course Columbine happened. To have a story of a ridiculed preteen find his courage and nearly go too far in defending himself, yeah, I saw the point. But to think that when Columbine happened, I’d been working about five or six years on “Mentor.” I wasn’t going to be dissuaded.

I was given a couple of James Patterson books to read and I was astonished by his really brief chapters and his uncanny sense of pacing and this was what helped me trim “Mentor” into a lean fighting machine that I was able to present to a small-press publisher on my own. I met another local author at our Renaissance Fair and we kept in contact for a short spell. He’d read some of my published work online and then suggested I try this publisher.

Let’s just say that the deal I took when offered it was not the best. Amongst other things, the promotion of it was lumped directly on the author, but they were going to accept “Mentor,” and even better, the editor they gave it to told me that my copy (which was my sixth full draft) was almost flawless, that her job was the easiest she’d done. Taking this feather in my cap, I became excited that I was finally going to have something tangible in my hands to show off, besides the Cyber Age Adventures anthology “Playing Solitaire” that collected five of my short stories in it. I knew my contact kinda stunk and I took it to an attorney friend of mine who said that if I didn’t mind the so-so terms, it was basically kosher. Knowing that I wanted to pursue a music project and other things, to have the published novel meant everything to me.

So I took the deal, and began promoting the thing, going to local bookstores and got on the radio to pimp it. For our vacation, I rolled out the U.S. map and dropped a coin to see where it landed. It ended up in Georgia, so we drove down to Savannah and I hit all the bookstores on foot that I could. I learned quite a few things like dealing with chains and how most small bookstores aren’t willing to buy unknown authors at new, but they’ll gladly accept a donation. Nice, huh? Locally, I put a few copies of “Mentor” on consignment and got screwed.

To-date, “Mentor” has sold about 200 copies because I have no time to promote it. Sad, but true. I’m currently trying to sell the concept of it to any potential movie producers, but it’s a long road. I had one interested party who read it and flagged certain parts of it with a question mark. I realized by reading the book just how naïve my writing was when it was finally finished in 1999. I’m a totally different writer now, but I know having fought like hell to get that book done has made me a better person and author and I’ll know how to attack when I go to write the second novel, which I’ve started three different times, ha!
Read Ray’s Blog at Pulses, Verses and Other Flotsom

I will be spending next week in the bizzare world of Disney giving my money to that frozen guy buried beneath the park.

During my vacation, I have lined up a series of “guest bloggers” from some of my favorite sites, so please check back. And even better, if you like what you read, check out their blogs!

Take care and have a great week!

You can’t force creativity. Lord knows, I’ve tried. For the last two weeks I’ve tried to write an outline for my next novel, a science-fiction satire, but it just isn’t working. I get two chapters in and I hit a wall. Part of the reason that I’m having such a tough time with this story is because there are certain aspects of it that I’m unwilling to let go. I know, I know, every book on writing tells you to “kill your babies”, which is essence means, if something does not work, get rid of no matter how much you love it.

Sorry, but I’m not ready to do that yet. My stubbornness has driven me into a huge writer’s block. If there is such a thing as writer’s block, this is it for me. I usually attribute writer’s block to laziness but this is different. I was banging my head against the keyboard with this idea and yesterday, I just gave up and put it on the back burner. The whole idea needs to simmer for an unknown amount of time until something clicks. And let me tell you, right now, it ain’t clickin’.

When things like this happen to me, I tend to question whether I should just give up writing. Sometimes I think that my level of commitment is just not where it should be. Before I reach utter despair, something always comes along to pull me out of the muck.

I was pulling out of train parking lot yesterday and listening to a terrible radio show. The
Howard Stern imitator” said something like “I am the wizard!” For some reason, I hung onto those words and a moment later, two brain cells containing separate story ideas collided in my head. I’m not sure how it happened but two novel ideas that I had banged together into one.

I believe that creativity can not be forced. It happens on a subconscious level and can not be controlled no matter how hard you try. It felt like I’d opened up a deck of cards that I’d been trying in vain to open for two weeks. When I got the deck open, all of the cards came spilling out onto the floor, each card representing a different idea. I went home, logged onto my computer and keyed in all of the ideas that were popping up in my head. So while my Sci-Fi idea simmers away, my new fantasy project is well on it’s way.

If I could figure out a way to bottle the creative spark, I would be a multi-millionaire. Every artist in the country would be walking around smiling like that guy on the Enzyte commercial.

I picked up the morning paper today only to find out that Tower Records, one of the largest chain stores to buy music, is going out of business. Online stores such as Amazon combined with the rise digital download via iTunes are attributed to the company’s declining profits.

I have mixed feelings towards the store’s closing. I have bought many a CD at Tower Records since they opened their first store on South Street in Philadelphia. I can remember the first time I walked into the store; it was as if the heavens opened an poured music onto my Sam Goody hating head. I walked through the aisles and was stunned to see music that I like prominently displayed. Tower always had young people employed there so the displays would be loaded with stuff you would never see in your local Sam Goody or Wall To Wall Sound.

As time went by, CD prices began to escalate. If you wanted the new Britney Spears CD, you could get away with a $12.00 price tag, but if you wanted something a bit more obscure, you could end up paying in the upwards of $19.99. There have been several occasions where I’ve had a stack of CDs in my hand, only to put them back because I knew I could save in the upwards of $25 by buying from Amazon. Tower did make an attempt to lower their prices in the last year but it was too late. The younger generation does not seem to be into CD packaging as much as I was/am. The kids today are computer savy and have no problems downloading a CD from iTunes for $9.99 as opposed to buying it for $17.99.

So, now that Tower is gone, where can you go to buy a CD? There’s Walmart, who has decent prices and an okay selection. Be be warned, Walmart only carries “clean” versions of CDs. Target’s selection can only be described as vapid. Sam Goody, the king of mall music, closed it’s stores last year and was replaced by FYE. FYE has a decent selection of music but their price tags reach into the $20 range.

If your lucky, there might be an independent record store near you. Most of these places survive because they carry niche titles, which I think is awesome. Unfortunately for me, I don’t live near any of the “cool” record shops anymore. Most of them are clustered in one area of Philadelphia.

After thinking about while writing this, I will miss Tower for the sole fact that it was a place you could walk into and browse for CDs, which is something that I love to do. You never knew when a hard to find CD would show up in the store. Once I found a copy of a Pavement CD single that had been out of print for years. I couldn’t even imagine how it turned up at Tower, but there it was, staring at me and begging me to take it home, which I did!

It seems to me that the days of purchasing actual CDs will be disappearing sooner or later. I think it will be a sad day. Music for me is not only about the music. It’s about the whole deal; the packaging, the artwork, the lyrics.

Maybe I will take a stroll by Tower today, and browse for a bit before the doors are locked.

A few weeks ago, I was focusing my energy on learning about marketing and self-promotion. Playing around with Myspace was one of the avenues of self-promotion that I explored. I found that while Myspace may be great for promoting music, it is of little use to promote a book or writing work. Still, there does seem to be potential but you have to be able to deal with a lot of childish behavior in the process. There were a few times that I added people whom I thought to be serious writers to my friends list, only to be bombarded by ridiculous bulletins day after day. Anyway, I knew what I was getting into so I wasn’t too surprised. I also found the level of arrogance radiating from some published authors to be almost sickening. Experiences like this usually send me packing off back into my cave…

… so now I’m back in preparation mode for writing my next novel. I will attempt to write the bulk of this novel during National Novel Writing Month starting on November 1st. I’m strangely focused which goes hand in hand with the fear that my focus will disintegrate at any moment. Self-doubt tends to rear it’s head when I’m immersed in writing. Last night I went to be asking myself why I’m putting all this effort into something that is ultimately meaningless. The way to step on self-doubt is to either ignore it or shift your attention back to your work. Feeding self-doubt will only cause it to come sniffing around again and again.

I’m always open to trying things a different way. A few weeks ago I posted about how I don’t like using outlines but I figure that I have to make one to be successful during Nanowrimo. I’m using a creative project software called Curio to draft this novel but all of these things can be done in Word or any word processor. Here is a list of what I’m doing to in preparation:

1. Creating a Master Outline that hits all major plot points. These points are the events that have to happen to move the story along.

2. Chapter Outlines - Each chapter has it’s own separate outline where I start to go into more detail and flesh the story out.

3. Character Cards -  I created a digital index card for each character in the story that contains his/her vital stats and other pertinent information.

4. Glossary -  Each time I make up something, I’m throwing it into a glossary file with a definition. It’s good to use a glossary when you are dealing with fantasy or science fiction since you tend to make up all kinds of things.

5. Random Idea File - This is the place where I’m putting in any ideas that I have that don’t fit in anywhere else yet or need to be organized later.

None of the concepts listed above are new, I just never use any of them myself so it is certainly challenging. I tend to use the “headlight” method of writing, where you only concern yourself with what is immediately in front of you. I tried this method with Nano the first year and hit a wall 22,000 words in (I must not have had my brights on). I don’t need that to happen this year if I can avoid it.