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How much did I say I wrote yesterday? 500 words? Doesn't matter, because it's gone. I started completely over this morning and wrote 513 words. I knew yesterday that none of what I was writing would survive. My instincts are enough to know when I'm writing just to write and when I'm writing because the story wants out. Yesterday was just about word count. Today, though, that was story.
I had gone to work yesterday with those 500 words in my mind, wondering where to go next, but knowing in my heart it was no good. Then later I read Brian Hodge's Storytellers Unplugged entry "Leave It All On the Page" and I connected so well with what he was saying, I knew I had to stop holding myself back. The problem with this particular story is that it's so insanely ridiculous, I was trying to make it seem as plausible as I could. Forget that, it's a wild story, and I have to let it be wild because anything less isn't respecting the story for what it really is. So I started over this morning with no restraints and just let the story be what it is.
And what is it? Not telling. But here's a few pics I had to research for it.
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I am exactly 500 words into a new story this morning. I'm not too sure of its direction (I have one in my head, but it's too cliche and easy for that to possibly be the real plot) but I have a main character and there are some really interesting images in my mind I want to explore.
In 5 days it'll be 5 months since I've finished anything other than reviews. This cannot stand. I've had blocks that lasted longer, but I wrote a lot in the last two years and most of it was pretty good. I thought so, anyway. So I'm not panicking just yet, mostly it's a sense of annoyance. I hate blocks, especially when I have so much inside that wants to be on the page.
Oh well, it can't rain all the time, right?
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You know those days where you've gotten enough sleep the night before, but waking up is so impossible in the morning and the very last thing you want to do in the world is get out of bed? Yeah, that was me this morning. So when I sat down, I already knew better than to even mess with ELI today. Instead I made a submission ("The Garden", a personal favorite), and added another story to the REPRINTED blog ("The Salvation of Victor", which finishes off the stories that were originally published in print magazines).
Things weren't much better once I got to work. It seemed as if today was never going to end, then once I got home, I managed to read about 10 pages before slipping into a miniature coma for a while.
Later tonight I searched the anthology markets on Ralan.com, because I realized (I've probably realized this many times already) that for a long time all the best stories I was writing were a direct result of seeing the guidelines for an anthology and then writing a story specifically for that market. Sometimes they're accepted and sometimes they're not. Either way, I seem to be most satisfied with those stories. So I searched the market listings, hoping something would spark an idea in my head. I'm still searching.
I'd like it very much if a really awesome story came to me. I'd like to write something I'm excited about again.
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One of the best of the After Dark Horrofest's "8 Films to Die For" I've seen yet is THE ABANDONED from the first series. I reviewed the movie this morning. Here are some still from it, taken from the After Dark Horrofest site
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Dig if you will the picture: You've got superhuman strength, you can fly, you even have X-ray vision. So you do the only logical thing. You don a colorful costume and decide to integrate yourself into the super-hero/villain lifestyle. And to make sure you make a lasting impression--when super-strength, flight, and X-ray vision aren't enough--you pick a name that inspires in those who hear it images of such awesomeness they might just pee a little in their pants: Captain Ultra sounds pretty good. You go with that. Now, to make your grand debut, and to take things that one little step further into "Wow, who's THAT guy?' territory, you do it dressed like this:
Okay, um . . . maybe not the best choice.
A very small bit of background about our hero, Griffon Gogol, AKA Captain Ultra. Gogol was a plumber who's client, a psychiatrist, couldn't afford to pay him, so instead he offered a trade. Through hypnosis, he would cure Gogol's smoking habit. Unbeknownst to anyone who cares, the doc was an alien, which, naturally, means his hypnosis will indeed cure the smoker of his habit, but will also unlock his latent superhuman abilities. Unfortuantely, the side-effect is it also leaves Ultra with a fear of fire, a fear so intense it causes him to faint at the mere sight of even the minutest of flames.
So, anyway, that costume, huh? Holy crap, man!
I'm not even sure I have it in me to ridicule this one, it just doesn't seem fair. Feels to much like picking on the kid with cancer.
I'm not even sure what this thing's made of. The pants look like Spandex, but there's also a whole ton of parts that look like metal, including the briefs. That can't be comfortable at all. The red in the tunic could be Spandex as well, but whatever that thing is on his chest is looks like maybe he's still suffering from a mild case of Scoliosis. And what's with the metal gear-shaped shoulder . . . things? And the neck brace!?! Obviously Captain Ultra checked out of the ICU ward AMA, so if he gets hurt on-site, stand back; he probably doesn't have insurance and you don't want to be liable.
The sleeves are a different color from the body of the shirt, meaning this was something done on purpose. The mask, too, has two different colors, green with yellow accents, and blue goggles. Just because yellow and blue make green doesn't mean it's a suitable color scheme for your mask, especially when . . . no, never mind. There are so many colors at war with each other here, it's not really going to matter anyway. I do believe, however, if you're going to have two-tone gloves, the boots should match. That's just common style sense. On the bright side, at least he picked a cape that really stands out against the rest of the costume, or maybe the blue was chosen to better highlight the costume. Or maybe it was just the last of the fabric in the remnant grab bag the fabric store was tossing out that day.
Of all the bad costume designs in the Marvel Universe--and there are some BAD ones--Captain Ultra wins the award, hands down, for "Best Costume Designed By a Blind 7-Year-Old Autistic Kid". After all, that's the only explanation I can think of.
I know that pose up there is supposed to be heroic and all, but the costume coupled with that silly grin . . . maybe that's the answer. It's possible the truth is that he doesn't have any super powers. He just tells people he does, but in fact has never had to use any because as soon as he shows up on the scene, the villains are all overtaken by sudden and uncontrollable fits of laughter. Smart thinking, Captain Ultra. Evil is foiled again!
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I didn't work any on ELI this morning, but I did think about it a lot, and what I want to accomplish with it. Later on, I was thinking even more about it and I started thinking about the difference between a character-driven novel and a plot-driven novel. So far, I think everything I've written has been entirely plot-driven, because I have a plot in my head and I want to tell that story. The characters usually come out of that. I don't believe I've ever been in a situation where the character came first and the story then evolved out of that. Well, maybe once, with "Epoch Winter", which hasn't been published, so you probably haven't read it. That was one time I remember very clearly having the character in mind first. But that was it.
I think the problem there stems from certain antisocial tendencies in me. I don't care much for people, and in not caring much for them or their company, I don't take too much time really getting to know them. Unfortunately, I think this also leads to a lot of not understanding people and how they work, which in turn leads to me writing some pretty flat characters who are obviously there only to serve the plot.
It's something I struggle with, and I've tried here and there to let the character take control of the plot, but more often than not, my stories just don't come to me like that. In almost every story I've written, it was a case of an idea concerning the plot, whether a particular twist on an old cliche, a certain climax I have in mind, or whatever. And then I start writing the story and let the characters evolve out of that. Honestly, sometimes the very idea of a character driving the plot baffles me. Other times there's a moment of clarity where I understand how it works, only at those times I have no characters in mind demanding to be written about.
ELI is definitely a story where the plot came first, however in this case the plot hinges on how well this one character is written. I mean the story is about him, so, you know, he's gotta be good, right?
So a lot of today was spent thinking about Eli and his personality, his habits and whatnot. Almost 4000 words in, it's something I hadn't taken into consideration yet--and it's a first-person narrative! So I have to do something to make Eli not just the narrator or the main character, but the driving force behind the entire novel. Hopefully without resorting to cliche tactics like the jumpscare in a horror movie. Not that there are jumpscares here, that was just an example of the type of cliche writing I want to avoid in personalizing this character. You dig?
So what did I do with my morning while I wasn't adding words? I downloaded
WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!
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After much screen-staring this morning, I managed to add another 331 words to ELI, for a total of 3349 so far. I had mentioned before I thought something was needed in there before Jonathan takes Eli out of the tent to see the world, and it turns out all that was needed was another sentence or two. It all fits better now.
I had no solid idea where to take him once he was out of the tent, but I knew he couldn't just stand there staring at the world. If Jonathan was taking him outside, he must have had a destination in mind. I finally got them there, but haven't yet decided what happens when they get there. I'm still working on it.
It's funny how things have changed over the years. There was a time years and years ago when I didn't write without music blasting. I would usually draw inspiration from whatever I was listening to, whether a phrase that would add to the story (I did this a lot in my novels RITE OF DAWN and THE THIRD FLOOR, neither of which you've read) or a name if I needed one (such as in my short story "Coming Down the Mountain", which, if you're one of the few to get my collection TERRIBLE THRILLS before the publisher folded, you would have read), but the past several years, I'm finding the music to be too distracting.
I think sometimes it really depends on what I'm working on. For a story that's coming out pretty easily, I think the music doesn't prove to be as big a distraction. If I'm really sunk deep into the story, the music is incidental and I barely notice it. This morning, however, as it usually does when I'm working on something I'm still unsure of, the music just about kept me from adding any words at all. But I did reach a point in my 339 words where I was able to immerse a little more into it and the music sort of disappeared for a minute.
I have a feeling THE EVOLUTION OF ELI just might be the death of me.
On that note, this morning's playlist:
Butch Walker: "Trash Day"
Footstone: "Toothpick"
Jaguar Love: "Polaroids and Red Wine"
Japanther: "Spread So Thin"
Smoking Popes: "Sandra"
all of which only took about 13 minutes, leaving me time to get a little bit into
before it was time to shower and go to work.
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Well. Still no new words on THE EVOLUTION OF ELI. I spent this morning querying over seemingly lost submissions instead. I had a couple that went out forever ago and it's way past time to check up on them. Unfortuantely, I think that might only be part of the reason I haven't worked on it in longer than I like.
ELI isn't like most of the other stuff I've written. It's still very much speculative, but the setting in this first part is so far outside my comfort zone, it's hindering my ability to get too far into it too quickly. Usually when I'm working on something I really like, I tend to immerse myself in it and when I sit down to work on it, I'm looking around in wonder at the entire thing. But with ELI, it's far enough outside what I do, I'm not getting that wide-eyed wonder feeling. Instead, I very much feel like an observer. I'm recording what I see and, being first person, I can sort of put myself into the story better, but I still don't feel as much a part of it as I usually do when it's something I'm more comfortable with. A monster story or a haunted house story, sure thing, but this novel is so different. I sometimes find myself wondering if it's the thing I should be working on, but at the end of the day, I do love this story and want to tell it. But the part of me that wants to feel like I'm really a part of the story wants to work on something else, something more familiar. But that's not exactly going to get THIS novel written, now is it?
I'm not working on anything else, I'm going to find my comfort zone and I'm going to write this novel. That's just all there is to it. It just might not be as smooth a sail as I'd hoped. And I may procrastinate here and there with business stuff like submissions and whatnot. But, hey, that stuff's gotta get done, too, right?
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March 1st means what did I read last month?
The Undead 3: Flesh Feast, edited by D. L. Snell and Travis Adkins
Bestial, by William D. Carl
Monstrous, edited by Ryan C. Thomas
Season of Rot, by Eric S. Brown
And today I started:
You hold in your hands what is perhaps the most explicit and overt anthology of original horror fiction ever assembled.
Each of the stories in this anthology is set in a world where the dead have risen to eat the living, and each author has his own intimate vision of what those days will be like: in the brilliant and caustic "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks," Joe R. Lansdale spins what should be a traditional western yarn about a lawman tracking a badman--the deadly dead, however, give that tradition a special twist; Stephen King's pregnant heroine in "Home Delivery" learns the exorbitant price of survival and of patience; Robert R. McCammon's "Eat Me" answers all the questions about love among the newly risen; and Douglas E. Winter's "Less Than Zombie" allows us a very unhealthy peek at the pampered, exclusive, and totally lifeless life-styles of the rich and famous.
Together these stories are a stream of timeless, mind-blowing spike points by some of the most talented, savage, and unique imaginations writing fiction today.
This is a book filled with flaming, frozen moments of dread and wonder you will never in a million years forget.
This is a book that goes too far.
And invites you along for the ride.
While I am looking forward to this collection, good God let this be the last of the zombie fiction for a while.
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I wanted to post something about the new words I added this morning to THE EVOLUTION OF ELI, but when I went to check them for a total, I couldn't find them.
I looked everywhere. I checked under the rug
I looked behind the couch
I even looked in the closet
but I couldn't find those new words anywhere. Then I remembered I didn't work on that this morning, I read instead. That explained it.
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I finished MONSTROUS today after work, posted thereview, and am contemplating starting the next book tonight or waiting until tomorrow. The next book, by the way, is
Season of Rot
Safe from the walking dead that rule the streets, a band of survivors holes up in a hospital. When their supplies run low, they must either migrate or trust a stranger who promises them salvation--except the stranger isn't who he seems to be, and neither are the dead.
The Queen
To escape a plague that has turned most of mankind into ravenous cannibals, a crew of survivors takes refuge at sea. But supplies only last so long, and the crew must face their enemies on land in order to keep themselves alive and afloat.
The Wave
When a wave of mysterious energy from outer space washes over the earth, electronic devices fail worldwide and communications break down. Worse still, the energy alters human brain waves and turns billions of people into bloodthirsty animals. Only a small pocket of humanity is immune, but their only chance of survival may laos be their grave.
Dead West
The Civil War is over. The Confederacy is gone. But in the West, a new threat is rising. Accompanied by a regiment of inexperienced soldiers, a journalist ventures into the frontlines of a war against the walking dead, and the truth he find their is far more frightening than any living corpse.
Rats
Rats are everywhere and can get into anything. And now they are swarming mankin. Those bit rise again as undead pawns in the rodents' onslaught, and no place is safe--no place except one. The problem is getting there before the rats' next attack.
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Just so it doesn't seem as if we're strictly picking on the more obscure and goofy characters of comicdom, today we're tackling one of the heavy hitters, one of the legends, a hero who helped make superhero comics what they are today, the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott.
Scott gained his powers from a magical ring, powered by a magical railway lantern that eventually gave him the ability to do, well, pretty much anything he wanted. See, the Green Lantern powers are limited only by the imagination and willpower of their wearer. Oh, and anything made of wood. Yeah, his ring's powerless against wood, apparently. Anyway, despite this one admittedly goofy weakness, Alan Scott, as the original Green Lantern went on to become a living legen in the DC universe. And he did it all while wearing this:
That's not even good comic book attire, let alone anything that could possibly be applicable in the real world.
I'll buy the green tights. He's Green Lantern, after all. But how to you justify a red, puffy-sleeved shirt? And let's look at his insiginia:
It's not even stylized, it's a picture of an actual green lantern. Let's face facts, the very idea of being called GREEN LANTERN is about on par with being called BRONZE FLASHLIGHT or CHARTREUSE DIMMER SWITCH. It's not a name that inspires. So anyone going by this moniker's really gotta bring his A game. I won't say Hal Jordan's costume is exactly the height of fashion
but it suits his purpose, and it doesn't clash. Alan Scott, though:
Yes, that's a purple and green cape. With a red tunic and boots. And green pants. This doesn't look like something he came up with using his imagination and willpower, it looks like he cobbled his costume together from remnants left over from his high school production of KING LEAR.
Sure, you put him in action, and Alan Scott's got the charisma to pull it off
but if we're talking real world setting. Well, you be the judge:
FAIL!!!
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Instead of going on about how much I didn't write this morning, I decided instead to talk about an author I first encountered a few years ago. How I came upon the writing of Kristopher Reisz was a happy accident. I was reviewing books for SFReader.com and one day a new selection of books arrived in my mail and among them was Reisz's debut Young Adult novel TRIPPING TO SOMEWHERE:
I read and reviewed it and afterward was still so impressed with not only the book, but with the author's talent as a writer that I tracked down his website and emailed him to tell him so. I've always believed in paying credit where it's due, so when I read a particularly good book, I like to tell the author I thought so. We struck up a conversation and, months later when his second book Unleashed
was due to hit stores, he asked if I'd like to review it. Hells yeah, I said. And it was even better than the first book.
I can't say what it is about Reisz's novels that impress me so much, if it's anything in particular. I suspect it's what all authors strive for, a combination of great story and believable characters under the umbrella of just plain old fashioned excellent prose. I mean, what's not to like? The thing that strikes me the oddest about his books is that he's writing Young Adult novels, but he's writing them for Adults. At least, that's how it seems to me. There's nothing "young" about these stories, other than the characters. Certainly the situations and emotions flowing through his plots are all things adults can relate to, even if they take place in a high school. So while his target audience might be my oldest son's age, Reisz is definitely not writing down to them, which is good.
I asked Reisz to say a few words himself, offering any information he could on upcoming projects:
"Despite nobody seeing it coming (including myself), Unleashed became a minor hit. So Simon Pulse has decided to give it a quick spit and polish and re-release it in trade paperback this June.
"My other project coming out this year is a short story collection called Quiet Haunts, which should come out around the same time as Unleashed. I'm releasing it myself as an ebook, and after going through the grind of getting two books published with a big publisher, it's wonderful to have so much control over a project. Right now I'm working with my friend Constance, who does these incredibly striking lino block prints, to illustrate it.
"Looking further down the road...
"I'm at the beginning of the end of writing my third novel. Right now it's called The Drowned Forest, and it's about Jane, whose best friend drowns in the Tennessee River and becomes a ghost. Jane has to help her friend move on while figuring out how to move on from the tragedy herself. I just sent it to my beta readers this morning. It's the first time anybody's read it besides me, and it's pretty nerve-wracking. But they're all smart folks, and I'll listen to any suggestions they have, fix as much as I can, then send it to the agent and publisher.
"Also, Simon Pulse has plans to re-release my Tripping to Somewhere next February. Again, this will be a trade paperback edition with a brand new cover. I'd also love to write a couple more short stories this year and a steampunk comic book-thing that's still very much on the drawing board. All-in-all, this is shaping up to be a very busy year for me."
Over the years I have read a TON of crap, and not all of it on purpose. It's my opinion that, with the abudance of bad bad writing from amateur authors who haven't yet learned the rules of writing, much less when to break them, it's all the more important now to support great writing when we come across it. Word of mouth is a powerful tool, so I just want to do my part in getting the word out about how good Kristopher Reisz's work is.
His characters are believable, his plots are interesting and exciting, and his writing is pretty flawless. When I read his work, I don't feel like I'm watching some newbie more interested in publishing credits than in actually learning to write. There is a definite learning curve to this thing, but with the plethora of small presses out there, way too many people who shouldn't be are getting published anyway. But sometimes publishers get it right and the people with the talent wind up on the shelves. Reisz is one of those instances. And you should go out and get one, or both, of his books.
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After the struggle yesterday to get a measly 300-some words down, I chose not to work on THE EVOLUTION OF ELI this morning. Sometimes the best thing for a story really is just to not work on it for a day.
So instead I downloaded the last of the tracks I needed and burned off
I also saw a “new” Hendrix single,
so I got it, too, while I was at it.
That was pretty much my morning. While the Ani cd was burning, I read another story in MONSTROUS. Yesterday I read Nate Kenyon’s “Keeping Watch” and was downright awed by how perfect the prose was. Now I’m even more eager to read his novels. I have three so far, and am looking forward to the release of the next one.
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The novel is doing a number on me this morning. This was another morning where I wanted to do anything but write, but I couldn't just not do it. So once again I opened the file and started working.
Yeah, today I really should have listened to my instinct and just steered clear. I stopped after 305 words, refusing the mess it up any further. I feel like I'm rushing this scene, like there's something more that needs to happen inside the tent before Jonathan takes Eli outside to see the camp. But that damn visual of Eli looking around in awe of how big the world is just drove me on and I had to write it. I'm definitely going to have to go back and slip something in there before that, though; it's just too soon for him to be out.
I reached my goal for this morning, though. Or at least I reached the goal I set once I realized it wasn't going to be an easy day. 3018 words, so I'm over the 3000 mark, which is all I was aiming for today, apparently.
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I had a small breakthrough in the EVOLUTION OF ELI plot last night as I lay in bed, going to sleep. It's the only thing that made me open it this morning and start working on it. Not that I didn't want to, but I didn't feel like I'd slept enough and the pain in my neck was incredible (the steroid shot I got a week and a half ago apparently did nothing for it), so I really just wanted to read and not think about having to go to work. But I was intrigued by the images I saw in my head last night, so I opened the file anyway and tried to reach that scene.
I didn't, but I think the progress I did make was natural and I should be at the scene I saw last night within a couple of days, definitely by this weekend. I think. Don't want to rush it, though. Still, it's a pretty cool image and will help ground this first part of the novel.
Today's tally is 550 words (2713 words so far).
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860 new words this morning on THE EVOLUTION OF ELI, giving me a so-far total of 2163.
As usual, I've found some of the best words come when I'm not much in the mood for writing them. You know those days where your mind's just not in the story, you've no idea what comes next, nor how to convey it on the page, and you'd really rather just do anything but write. However you know the story won't write itself and you already feel like enough of a slackass for not being further on it already, so you sit down and just start writing. And the funny thing is, on those days, once you've got that first new sentence down, that's when the words begin to come more easily. The scene fills itself in, the details flesh themselves out, and before you know it, 45 minutes have passed and you've got nearly 1000 new words. Not only that, but they're good words, words that add to the story where you thought nothing could that day.
I started this morning with what felt like an insurmountable roadblock in my path, but as I wrote, the story worked and the words took care of it and the roadblock got smaller and smaller until 860 words later I'm over it and on to the next roadblock, which is also getting smaller and smaller and I'm only stopping for now because I have to get ready for work. So today was a pretty good day for me and Eli. I think the trick is that sometimes I just tend to forget that, this early in, the words don't have to be perfect, they just need to be there so I have something to work with later. I can't take it one word at a time if I'm not putting words down in the first place. Today just happened to be a day where the words all seemed to be right anyway. It's a good feeling.
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I finished BESTIAL Saturday morning, then yesterday started the 4th Permuted Press book in a row:
Move over King Kong, there are new monsters in town! Giant beetles, towering crustaceans, gargantuan felines and massive underwater beasts, to name just a few. Think you've got what it takes to survive their attacks? Then open this baby up, and join today's hottest authors as they show us the true power of Mother Nature's creatures. With enough fangs, pincers and blood to keep you up all night, we promise you won't look at creepy crawlies the same way again.
So far, I'm 4 stories in (of 20), and there's not a bad one in the bunch. Some are better than others, sure, but they're all good so far.
There was no school today, so immediately after work, my daughter asked, "Ready to watch Star Trek?" We sat down to the season one first episode, The Man Trap. The remastered editions are really good, and it's fun to try to spot where the upgraded effects are. Plus it's Trek. You can't go wrong.
No writing over the weekend, other than a couple of reviews and a new Super Snazzy and Villain Vogue, but I'll be back to it tomorrow.
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