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It’s Called Backstory! Keep It There! As a plotter, I write down backstory. Shocking, right? It’s partly how I process information; writing helps my brain encode and remember. It probably also relates somewhat to some of my educational and professional experiences before embarking on creative writing. If it’s not written down it doesn’t exist. That’s a story for a different time. Regardless of whether I write it in some detail or just jotted down a few lines it's there. For characters, setting, and historical context for example. For my main character in a recently completed story. I had drawn out a family tree going back two generations, with years of birth to get the timing down and an origin story for the MC and parents that took up nearly two pages of notes. Maybe only five percent of it ended up in the story, that’s how it should be. The reader didn’t need all of this to understand the story. But I needed it, maybe as crutch. I'm not sure. The hazards of this. First, it takes some time upfront. Secondly, it's tempting to start dumping more of it into the story. This was particularly the case when I first started writing. Beholden   , I know you love these questions about the writing process. Do your stories have a backstory? How do you create and manage it, so it stays behind the scenes? You pantsers out there, please jump in with us plodding plotters. |
Image From this Sentence? The deeply embedded Pole survived the ravages of war. Context Please? You reasonably ask. Sorry, no context. It is the lone sentence of a micro-story titled War. What flashes to your mind? A lone wooden utility pole, anchored deep in the ground, standing against the ruble of a decimated landscape. Wrong! The national flag was tattered but still clung to the pole deeply anchored in the ground above the small camp. Wrong! The sad face of a Polish spy, who has been undercover for years, returns home after the war. Correct. Ah yes, the capitalization was not a mere typo. What is your point? You palindromic madman! A new game, at least I have never seen or heard of it. I hereby claim all intellectual property rights to Damon Nomad’s Sentence Quandary.* It’s easy to play, anywhere with as many people as you want. In-person or remote. You write a sentence, such as above. You write your intended imagery or meaning, hidden from the other players, but they know where you have recorded it. They can’t see it and you can’t manipulate it. No clues or explanations. The others take turns guessing your intended meaning. Five points for guessing correctly to any player. Twenty points to you if the players give up on your sentence. Then the next player in turn writes a sentence. For as many rounds as you want. If your intended meaning is judged to be unfair by the majority of other players, you are subject to death. Well, that may be a bit harsh. You lose your accumulated points. A perfect pastime for writers. Give it a whirl. *Please send a thousand GPS for each use of this trademarked and patented game to Damon Nomad. Well, maybe not. |
Nameless and Faceless Souls? When I first started writing fiction, my characters were definitely cardboard cut outs. I was focused on coming up with clever storylines and plots with cunning twists. I even started stories with just a random list of names to stick onto each of these difficult creatures. I still enjoy plot and story over characterization, but my approach to writing has changed significantly when it comes to characters. Not deliberately really, but it just sort of happened as I learned and listened to others, including many writers here on WDC. I still start with a story hook and a plot idea at the very beginning. I’m a plotter so I outline but now I find myself immediately writing a few lines about the main characters before I get started drafting. What would they do and why would they do it? What do they look like and what the heck are their names? It’s like the famous argument between an actor and a director. D: Just read the lines on the script! A: I don’t read I act. What is my motivation at this point in the story? Do you start writing before you give your characters names, personalities, and faces? |
| Nope, I always start with characters and throw them into some kind of situation and see what happens. Like literally, when I begin the first few sentences I usually have no clue what could end up happening. I'm a pantser for sure. Just scribble some weird ideas at the top of the document, and get started. So I guess you can say I start with an idea, add characters, have them act it out a bit in my mind, and then run with it. |
| I am definitely going to give up this answering questions about how I write. So much of it is unconscious and I don't think about it until asked. And I'm scared of losing the whatever-it-is by actually looking at it. So I've not really thought about where the characters come from - but now you've made me do it. Obviously, they're not planned but, equally, they don't develop as I write. They arrive, fully formed in a neat package with the story. Sometimes they're the driving force behind the story, sometimes the story produces them. There have even been times when the name of a character occurs to me and then the rest follows - who the person is and the story that they're in. All unconscious, unlooked at, and consistent with themselves. I know that because I become them each time I write about them. That's how I know about them - by being them, I don't have to plan or decide anything. I just am. So I know how they speak and what their concerns are. It's incredibly easy but, I suspect, also very fragile and capable of being ruined by thinking about it. Which is why I'm going to stop answering these questions. The trouble is, it's hard to not think about my answer when I read the question. Maybe I should stop reading. But I had to answer this one, just in case there are others who function like me. If there are, my advice is to keep doing it and don't listen to all the advice. Except mine, of course.  |
Scratch Them from the List? That’s what I have been doing. When I come across a submission opportunity that says words to the effect, we don’t pay authors. s   posted recently in a writing blog an article about rethinking attitudes in your writing. See "20240610 Quitting"  So, why have I been scratching them from the list? Good question. Arrogance, pride, stupidity? Probably a combination. I have quite an inventory of rejected stories from paying markets. Why haven’t I been checking out these non-paying markets to see what they might be looking for? See the answers above. Maybe I should modify one of these rejected stories or write something new. Worst case, another rejection. Best case some free advertising and a publishing credit. What got me thinking about this specific point was a recent article about 25 journals that have acceptance rates higher than is typical. As I looked over the list, I saw that several didn’t pay. Here is the list of journals with higher acceptance rates, if you are interested: Authors Publish Article Link What do you think about submitting your stories to non-paying markets? |
| When I started what we shall laughingly call my writing career, I had a heap of non-paying publication credits. The money did not matter - it was the legit trad publishing credit. One I continued to sub to even after I started earning pro rates because of the support they gave me at the start of my career. And then they employed me as an editor. Then COVID came and they went bust... I digress. Nowadays, after a rather large number of credits, I will only sub to a non-paying market if I know the editor or it is to help a start-up get their feet on the ground. But, yeah - they helped me at the start of my career. |
Name Morphing Finishing off the first draft of a story a couple of days ago, around four thousand words. I gave the story a quick read before stopping for the day. Looked to be in pretty good shape for a first complete draft, I patted myself on the back. Then I turned on WORD Read Aloud, just to see how it sounded. That’s when I realized the main character, Ralph became Rudy in the third scene, back to Ralph in the next scene, and finished the story off as Ryan. Ahhh yes, character name morphing. One of my writing errors that repeats itself and can be difficult to catch. Not that this was the only flaw that I heard. Ever submit a story for a submission call or post it as a final version only to have someone else, point out the name change of a main character? I must admit I have, but it has been a while ago. I'm sure I will again. Add it to your checklist and give your stories a listen. |
Amethyst Angel🌸📝🪽  - I'm tempted to start giving them code names and then doing a find-and-replace right at the end. |
| Amethyst Angel🌸📝🪽 - You realize you just cursed yourself. Now it’s going to happen when you least expect. A late night editing session and Don turns into Dan! Zap you are now a victim of the WDC curse. |
Damon Nomad  - I'm funny about names... Don and Dan, though generic, are "two entirely different people," in my mind. A character is either a Dan or he isn't. Largely because of lead singer Dan Reynolds... "Don" sounds like a stodgy old coot - maybe because of the person whose name rhymes with Bump. |
Spell Check There are lots of stories you probably have about how spell check doesn’t catch everything. Recently I found one that had been hiding in one of my stories for quite a while. After multiple drafts and probably the third round of editing. One I hope to submit for an anthology in a few weeks. I will not repeat the passage, but I will use the same word that nearly tripped me up. Read this quickly and see if you catch it first time through: He muttered as the uninformed police officer walked towards him, “What are you gonna harass me over? Its always something with you people in blue.” Did you get it right away? I read a sentence with uninformed police officer probably twenty times, thinking it was uniformed police officer. My ear caught it when I listened to it with the read aloud function in WORD. |
| I read it twice before I noticed. Wish I could notice that fast in my own writing. |
dragonwoman - It's my bread and butter. Everyone turns on me when I overlook stuff like that, which I do.  |
Awesome Radio Show Today I caught everything except the first five minutes of s on Writers Corner on Community Radio for the Copper Coast (89.3 Gulf FM). Quite talented as a reader I must say. You should consider turning some of your work into audio using your voice. Got to hear some nice easy listening music as well between the reading sessions. Well done, mate. |
A Sad Truth Stranger Than Fiction I had an idea for a story several weeks back that kept rolling around in my mind. I started a simple outline of how it might play out. The general idea was that the main character started to suspect a friend as a demon and then suspects another, then another because their appearance shifts in certain moments. He begins to question questions his sanity as this cascades . . but is fearful of the creatures surrounding him. I started to do some research and came across an actual mental disorder, prosopometamorphopsia (PMO), or demon face disorder. People who see faces as distorted or demonic. I couldn’t write the story that I had in mind knowing that some people suffer from this extremely rare condition. Now I’m rethinking the idea with a different sort of twist, where the MC finds answers and that his friends and family aren’t monsters. Not the direction I was taking. Ever give up on a story because it might victimize or stigmatize people? Or find another way to write it? What do you think about my proposed solution here? |
| I do think that maybe you were being a little too sensitive. Not all PMO sufferers see demons - some just see distortions. I personally would go with the original idea, but then the why demons are congregating around the MC needs to be explored. I have seen a film where this happens, and it ends up being his "real father" was Satan, and so, in the end, the demons are there to be with him, and he takes his place as a ruler of hell on earth.... yes, the bad guy wins. Sort of. I don't think I would victimise anyone except certain groups of people that annoy me (nothing to do with something natural about them). But stigmatise? I would try not to do that to anyone, but then there are some people who want to be offended, and see offence everywhere. I'd personally write the original story. |
| I worry when I write characters who are depressed/suicidal or neurodivergent... I have both real experience and "book learning" with these issues, but I don't know if my own experience matches what others go through, and I don't want to be insensitive or "get it wrong." |
| Write whatever you want. It doesn't matter what you do or don't do- someone will be offended, somewhere. Writers should not censor themselves out of this fear. It can end up making whatever your creation was supposed to be bland and I think stifles the creative soul. People can read or not- their choice. I think it is better to write whatever story was burning in your creative mind than stifling it out of fear you might possibly offend someone. |
Welcome a newbie returning to WDC after something like a fifteen year break. I think that is pretty cool. Says something about the WDC community and platform as well. Dr. Misha  |
Tune in a WDC Colleague Next Week Tune in next week and listen to s for a monthly reading. See his post "Note: I'm appearing on the radio for my monthly read..." Tune in to the Community Radio for the Copper Coast Next Tuesday 10-11 pm US WDC time. 89.3 Gulf FM Put a voice to the words. Rumor has it that he may also be singing, but I can’t confirm that to be true.  |
| s - That is very interesting. This is Malaysian radio. My favourite. A talk radio station. https://bfm.my/Since I think our local artists most sing Malay songs and this is an English channel so... I guess having a talk radio makes sense. And I don't think we have that many singers. Our entertainment industry is kinda sad especially for the English audience. |
s - Well, this is Malaysian radio station for oldies, but I used to listen to this station as a teen. I stopped listening when I'm adult after they play the same song for like the 100th time.  Is this the kind of songs you listen to? https://radioonline.my/lite/ |
| s - Sorry for spamming, but I remember when I was studying in Perth, I did listen to this classical radio station. I love that... |
Great Linguistic Paradox (GLP) Maybe the title is a bit of an overstatement, but keep reading. Writers and readers like language and I think you will find this curious. You may have even pondered it yourself. It has occurred to me before, but something in the last few days brought it into focus. I’ll explain, stick with me. For native English speakers, you can recognize the accent of someone speaking English who is not, right? If you have worked, traveled or lived overseas you probably have a pretty good ear for it in a crowd. French, Italian,German, Russian, etc. They tend to have a distinctive influence from their native tongue. You can also easily recognize your linguistic English cousins, Brits, Aussies, and Americans and with some practice Canadians can be sorted from Americans. Now for the paradox.What about when non-Americans sing in English? Even Brits sound like Americans, even the most famous almost without exception. Recently my wife was streaming a video compilation from The Voice. I wasn’t paying attention until I realized that the announcers and family were chattering in German. The guy was singing an American country music classic and sounded as American as apple pie. I watched the global compilation for nearly an hour. Finnish, Russian, French . . and they all sounded American. Yes s even those from down under. I don’t know anything about music or singing, but it turns out linguists have studied this. Auditory illusion or reality, what do you think? |
| s - I appreciate your analysis and I know nothing about music. Induldge me with a further query if you have time. I know you are aware that the US has regional accents. Some of them quite distinctive. The central midwest if most often considered neutral, not accented. This is what singing sounds like to me when I say American. When you refer to neutral, what does that mean? What is the reference point for neutrality? |
| s - Sorry, exception for country music it tends to have a southeastern US twang. Most pop music is "Chicago" neutral. |
| Damon Nomad - To an Australian/UK ear, there is no neutral "American" accent. The neutral accent is called mid-Atlantic, and is a mix of US and UK. Many actors develop the neutral accent, however, because it comes from emphasising other accents. The actors with the best "neutral" accents tend to be Australians who have worked in the US and UK, in my opinion. Listen to a Hugh Jackman or Margot Robbie in interviews. Sometimes their Australianism comes through, but after a while overseas (like in the US), their accent drops to neutral. Nicole Kidman interviews very Australian despite being able to mimic most other accents; Isla Fisher can be neutral, though she tends towards the Australian-UK hybrid. |
Heaven and Hell Is there a heaven? If yes, then there must be a hell, right? A new story that contemplates this and asks another question. Would you know if you were standing at the proverbial gates of hell? Give it a read and let me know what you think if you have some time. Right around two thousand words. An interesting bit of inspiration from an old movie in the acknowledgment at the end. You might remember Phil and Rita.
|
Cat Got Your Tongue? What a peculiar idiom, it must have an obvious origin. Oh, such a naïve fool. I spent (wasted) nearly an hour poking about the internet looking for credible references for the origin. From an academic source or such. The three most common theories (myths): A form of capital punishment in ancient Egypt. Liars' tongues were cut out and fed to cats. In the Middle Ages, cats acting as agents of witches would steal the power of speech from victims. From the 1800s and the Royal British Navy, there was a whip called the “cat-o’-nine-tails," used to flog miscreants. The pain was so horrific that the victim was unable to speak for a long time. No documented explanation for this common idiom that I could find. You got an answer? Or has the cat got your typing fingers? |
Yin and Yang of the Inbox Just moments after reading a new rejection something else popped into my email box. A short note from the publisher of a recent anthology with one of my stories. It contained a link to a recent positive review of the book. A doubly nice surprise is that my story was one of three that the reviewer highlighted as standing out, in a good way. It is difficult to pick a favorite out of this collection, but the stories that stand out the most to me are ‘Death Trap’ by Damon Nomad, ‘Definitely Not Your Mother’s Book Club’ by D. W. Milton, and ‘Return of the Ripper’ by Tom Howard. Here is the full review if you have a strange compulsion to give it a read. SERIAL ENCOUNTERS REVIEW I think I’ll quit on the email for today, on a yang note. |
Should You Admit Your Story is AI-Assisted? Most traditional publishers ask that you make or endorse a statement that your submission is not AI-assisted. What exactly do they mean? Obviously, no content generated by AI. Probably not detailed plots or settings generated by AI. What about character names generated by AI? Or research with search engines that use AI? Synonym searches, grammar, or spell checkers that use AI? This is all assistance. But isn’t that too literal? Where would you draw the line? |
I asked Google Gemini to help me name an imaginary pagan idol I dreamed up for
I had originally pulled the name Thoth out of my head, but it's a "real" idol which doesn't match. I did add a note at the bottom saying how I got the name... Hope it doesn't open a hornets nest |
| It depends on the publisher. Some think using Word's grammar/spelling check is as far as they go. Even then, it needs to be tempered as it is not right all the time. And these publishers don't like Grammarly (you can pick fiction where the author has just trusted Grammarly completely). Online theasuri are okay; research is fine as well. But most I work with say it stops at programmes like Grammarly. No AI for plotting, scene generation and definitely writing. Name generation... no idea. Look, 10 years ago, a writer had to do it all. If a writer needs AI now, then maybe they're not a writer. Same for any art. Yes, it is using a modern tool. But to lose the arts to machines is to lose something that makes us human. I've experimented with AI image creation, but I do not pretend I am a visual artist. And legally, anything created by AI (no %age has been ascertained) can be copyrighted; it is currently being argued in legal circles. We didn't need AI as artists before! why do we need it now? Let's be human. |
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I've also tried starting with a simple idea and going wherever the story takes me, with almost no planning.
It didn't seem like one method was superior to the other. You get to the same place either way, so go with what feels more comfortable.