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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| NaNoWriMo #0 So, for me, NaNoWriMo starts in around 16 hours. I have a few projects I have been putting off (doing the "13" (""13" - CLOSED" ) challenges has kept me from going insane with the ideas wanting release), and so I thought I'd let you know what they are:1) I started a novella (I'm sure) length story about an Australian cryptid a few months ago. It petered out. I am keeping the creature and one character (a lazy fat guy... no, not a self-insert!), but am changing the location, the PoV (going to 1st person from 3rd), the time of year, and the reason they are where they are. 2) I have an idea about a kid who finds fairies live on his farm and realises over time they are evil and have taken over his life. 3) I've done Jeff's Musicology contest twice, and I have an idea for another one that I feel will see the stories go way beyond the word count, so instead of waiting for next year and editing, I think I will do that. 4) I have an idea for a woman being possessed by a demon 21 years after her family released it into the world. And those are the 4 stories/story series I hope to get done for NaNo. I think the story series will be around 20k words, the rest 30k each, so all together, 110k words. Let's see if I can do it! |
| External Writerings X So... time for more external columns from Weekend Notes. AND many are based around Halloween because, while it is a Christian appropriation of a pagan festival, and while I might not like it, I do know which side my bread is buttered, and so most of these relate to Halloween. Early songs about nothing! Later songs about nothing! Halloween column 1: songs about poison! Halloween column 2: songs about monsters! (General monsters and Universal classics.)Halloween column 3: Theater Of Blood film review. Halloween column 4: An American Werewolf In London film review. Halloween column 5: songs about nightmares. So, lots of songs to help with your Halloween playlist! |
| A Quote/Explanation Well, I am not sure if this was abuse, a genuine inquiry, or someone just trolling me, but I received a message this morning. Basically, I was asked why I am offering so much help to people. What was in it for me? What was I getting out of it? I must be doing this for some reason; no-one is altruistic. Apparently me saying I am in "pay it forward" mode does not ring true; no-one just does that. So, here is a quote from a speech. It was given by Chris Park (Abyss) during his speech on his induction into the TNA/Impact Hall Of Fame in 2018. He gets it. I may not be anywhere near as accomplished as him, but I am a writer, and I want there to be more writers, so I help. Here is his quote: When you’ve reached and you’ve attained your goals and you’re sitting on top of that hill, and you’re feeling great, right before you pump that fist, turn around and put your hand out and help that next guy on top of that hill with you. Chris Park (Abyss) What do I get out of it? Just knowing that I have helped someone. If you knew all I have been through, you would understand why this is so important to me. I am not "giving away secrets" or the like. I want writers to be the best they can be. Will it make it harder for me to sell? Sure, a little. I don't touch that many lives. But those who I can help - if they are now rivals for publication, I would like to think it is a friendly rivalry. So I hope that explains where I am coming from and why I am doing this, helping with NaNo, stuff like that. |
| Recipe (Cooking) Genre In the past week I have been introduced to a relatively new genre of writing. I have seen it called both Cooking and Recipe, and, I have to say, it is rather intriguing way of writing. What is it? Recipe genre is a form of fiction where the story is entwined with food, and recipes are given throughout the narrative. In a short story, it is generally only one recipe, while in longer stories, it is accepted that it is one per chapter. Having said that, more are possible. It is not just a recipe, but the recipe forms a part of the narrative. On a wider genre stance, it generally falls under historical drama, romance, family drama, or generational drama. Now, that being said, I was introduced to it in a horror story setting! One last thing – the recipes are genuine, and anyone with access to the ingredients, can make them. It isn’t the sort of thing like a fantasy story where you need “dragon steaks” or the like – the recipes include ingredients you can get if not from the local supermarket, from a specialist food supplier (in Australia, that would be, say, crocodile meat). Where does it come from? Its history is something that many can probably relate to. In the past, going back to Georgian times, families started to write down their family recipes, instead of relying on oral traditions. This is something that continues to this day; my own family’s book, first written by my great-grandmother, and subsequently added to by her daughters, and then my mother, sits at over 100 pgs of recipes I have not found anywhere else, at least in the form we have them. In Victorian times, it was not uncommon for little stories about the history of the recipe to be included, as family history – especially in the UK and the Commonwealth – was something that was entwined with personal self-identity. As was usual for these sorts of things, it soon crossed the Atlantic (or moved south from Canada) into the USA as well. So, fast forward a few decades, and the recipes were there, with little family histories to go along with them, and a few of these were published, especially in the USA… and it soon came out that quite a few of these “histories” were just made up whole-cloth, or the family had its own history wrong (word of mouth is never a good encyclopaedia… almost as bad as Wikipedia). This led to people just running with it, and inventing little anecdotes to go along with their recipes; one of the more famous in Australia was a story about a woman being cared for by goats after her abusive husband made her leave home, hence the reason their damper recipe used goat’s milk. Of course, this developed into this new genre/sub-genre. How is it presented? There are two ways I have seen it presented. First is each chapter starts with a recipe, and the chapter involves the ingredients, its history, the foodstuff having a major plot point, all sorts of things like that. This makes it easier to follow the recipe, but it can feel like the story is shoe-horned in around the recipe. Second is the recipe is entwined within the fabric of a story. This does make it harder to follow the recipe – some books have the complete recipes at the end, others expect you to work it out – but it does make the food feel more organically a part of the story. In the hands of a talented writer, both can work. Warning! Recipes can be copyrighted! They are published online or in books for public consumption and use, but NOT for reproduction. You cannot simply copy a recipe from taste.com into a story. These need to be family or personal recipes that you have made up. When it comes to modifying recipes… I am not sure where the law stands on that. I would personally err on the side of caution – only use those family recipes you have prof have been in the family for many, many, many years. Conclusion This is a new and fun genre to try, and it could be something different as well. Do I recommend it? Only if you have some good recipes to use! Anyway, possibly something worth considering for all the cooks and family historians out there. . |
| Technical Jargon (In Stories) My last post was about using technology in a story. This is NOT that. This is using technical jargon in a story. What is technical jargon? Technical jargon is the use of words or phrases that are almost unique to an occupation, or have a different meaning inside an occupation to the rest of the world. Those in the occupation just accept it; those outside are confused by it. And that is the nature of technical jargon. For example, to an Australian police officer, a hi-cide is when a motorcyclist dies on the road because of excessive speed. No-one else would know that word. On the other hand, a word like duck means a water-bird that quacks… whereas to a cricketer it means getting a score of “zero” when batting. Technical jargon can also be a shorthand way of saying something long, using acronyms, abbreviations, etc. A doctor will say c.c.s instead of “cubic centimetres” because it’s quicker. Why use technical jargon? Technical jargon evolves over time inside occupations, or it can come from the same etymological base and just went on a different path. Using technical jargon can give a story a sense of realty. It makes the people seem more real. And that is the main reason to use it – it adds reality and can help the immersion and suspencion of disbelief. Problems with technical jargon There are two main problems. The first is that people will not understand it. And that is a huge issue in highly technical professions, like engineering, medicine, law, etc. As a writer, you cannot have a lawyer say, “This is a case of corpus delicti which, as you know, means. ‘the body of the case, that there is a case to be answered.’” That’s stupid. But the layperson is going to be slightly confused by this sort of language. The second is that the writer, being a writer, could use the terms wrong, or slightly wrong, just wrong enough for an expert (or an amateur aficionado) to be concerned. And if someone decides to look it up and sees the mistake, then they could well then doubt everything else about the story and what is being portrayed. Avoiding problems in technical jargon There are a few ways to avoid it. First, don’t use it. Full stop. I have read a lot of books with hospital scenes where the medical professionals don’t speak on camera (you get what I mean) and so their technical jargon is avided. Second is something that Michael Crichton wanted to do, but was vetoed by the publisher – include a glossary. A few stories do this, but not enough. I don’t see an issue; it is often used fr foreign languages (especially made yup ones) in books, so for technical jargon, why not? At the back, just a quick one. Third is to ignore the confusion, and let the context let the reader know what is going on, which is what John Grisham does. Lots of legalese, and yet he is so good at weaving it in and out of the story, it does not distract from the story at its core. Fourth, and this is to make sure you don’t use the jargon wrong, is to only use jargon you yourself use. For me, this would mean music, performing, teaching, palaeontology, sport, fitness, etymology, historical research and physical rehabilitation (yes, I’ve had a weird life). It also means I would have to avoid medicine, law, etc. Following on from that, fifth is to ask people who are in the field. Get them to read it and listen to them when they say something is wrong. Change it! Lots to consider, that’s for sure! Conclusion Should you use technical jargon? In my opinion – YES! It really does help in world-building and is a nice addition, and can even be an Easter Egg for those “in the know.” I would say only avoid it if you really have to, but otherwise, just make sure it is used correctly. . |
| The Problems With Technology (In Stories) This is NOT about technology you might use to assist your writing. I will not be slagging off AI in all its myriad forms here, as much as it deserves it. Yes, I know it is a tool, but it steals and gives no recompense… and then people pay for a programme like Grammarly that gets grammar wrong, and yet because people rely on it, they do not bother to learn the rules for themselves and so don’t realise Grammarly is (essentially) useless for a fiction writer. [/rant] No, this is about utilising the technology f the time in a story. This came up in a conversation on Discord recently. Here’s the context: When we read a story from the 1970s through 1990s, most of the time it does not matter the year. Car models might be named, maybe a famous person or scandal, stuff like that, but rarely did people use things like computers and the old-styled technology was still in use. More to the point, those technologies are still used in a lot of cases today. For those years, stories became timeless. But now, if we mention a technology, there is a chance that in 5 years many people are not going to know what we mean… or using the technology makes little sense. The examples we came up with were PDAs (personal digital assistants) and car-phones. We also looked at some technologies that might become obsolete, like autonomous cars and photocopiers. But that was our discussion. So, the point of this is – how much technology should you include in a story? Now, too much technology of the time could well date a story, and leave future readers confused. Not enough technology could make a story seem unrealistic. It is a fine balancing act, and is becoming harder and harder as things evolve and develop. So, this is my opinion: use generic terms. Don’t talk about your Apple iPhone 17B; talk about your SmartPhone. I can’t see SmartPhones of all stripes disappearing in the foreseeable future, so that’s safe. Don’t talk about an iPad, just a Tablet or Tablet Computer. I am sure you can think of other examples. This leads to another aspect of this – computer programmes and applications (“apps”). If I talked about Napster in a story, or even MySpace, people under a certain age would be all, “What? Okay, boomer!” (I’m actually Gen-X, not a boomer, but that’s by the by.) Even talking Pirate Bay and Tout (sticking with downloads and social media) would confuse many. Then, let’s go to functional programmes: WordPerfect and MS Works. Who remembers them? We nearly all use Word/Office (or free variations) at the moment. But… Word is also killing itself with its subscription model, and other alternatives (Open office) are coming to the fore, so would Word even be there in 10 years? So, again, using generic terms will make sure your story isn’t dated. Pirate sites, social media, word processing programmes – generic terms. Now! Having said all that, if you want your story to be set in a particular year or year period (say, your story is an alternate history story about Boris Johnson losing his mind and talking only in Latin before losing his leadership to a lettuce dressed as Liz Truss), then these details can help add colour to your tale, and help immerse the reader into that particular time. But if the time period does not really matter, and you just want it to be vaguely “today” in time period, then maybe consider generics instead of exactitudes. In. My. Opinion. . |
| Utilising Present Day News In Stories So, you see a great story in a newspaper, on the news, on a news site, and think, That would make for a great story! What do you do? Well, duh - you write the story! Okay, it's not that simple. You have several approaches available to you, so let's look at them. 1) Writing The Story First, you can write the story. Now, if it's a non-fiction retelling, you do you, but this is about fiction. So, we are talking a fictionalised account. If it is the actual story and you are recounting it, you need to have your facts right. You cannot make up facts. You might be able to get away with making up conversations, maybe add some extra characters, but if you are simply retelling a story in your own words as a work of fiction, despite it being fiction, the court system has proved you need to have your facts right or you could be sued. This does happen, though, and there are a lot of stories out there written with a real event as the story basis. Some things to be aware of, though: * just telling the story is journalism, even creative non-fiction; you need to have a twist on it; * you need to be a fast writer, because otherwise it will be dated; & * writing about the main players involved can be fraught with legal danger. But it is worth considering. 2) Basing On The Story The most common thing to do is to base your story on the actual story. What happened can be the same, but certain large details are changed - especially the people involved or the time it occurred - and so it is no longer the actual event/story, but something adjacent and with enough of the original story there that readers understand where it is coming from. This is really common in science fiction, by the way. However, because it has allusions to a real world event, it can become dated as well. You do still need to be aware of everything about including real people in it ("20240526 Using Real People In Fiction" ).3) Using The Story As A Scaffold This is when the story beats follow the event, but everything else is changed. This is the safest and the most common way to go. You know what happened, so use that to base a story on with completely different characters, setting and timeframe. It also means that, if well-written, it won't date the story. Given my druthers, this is the way I'd go. 4) A Jump-Off For An Alternate History This what alternate history is: "20240912 Alternate History" .In this case, you use the events of the story as they happened, making sure you keep to the facts... until you have a deviation, which sets up an alternate history world. You need to be very careful with living people portrayals, as is the case all the time, but once it becomes alternate and there is a degree of speculation, courts have been a little kinder to these works. Because you are deviating, as well, there is less likely to be a dating of the tale. How does this work in practice? Let's look at all four of the above, and use the January 6 2021 attacks. 1) A journalist watching the Jan 6 attacks and wondering what has happened to the USA. 2) In 2017, Trump didn't win and there were attacks on the Capital at his subtle instigation. 3) In 2004 in El Paso, Texas, John Smith didn't become mayor, and he convinced his supporters to storm the town hall. 4) In 2021, the attackers took the building, and Trump used his supporters to hold the entire country to ransom, forming a dictatorship in the process. This is simplistic (and all have been written, which is why I used them as examples), but shows how one real-world story can influence the writing of some works of fiction. Extra I have collected weird newspaper articles and stories for nigh on 40 years (I actually started in 1984), and have 36 scrapbooks filled with them. They have resulted in maybe half a dozen stories and exactly 0 published works. So, while this does seem something that could help, and is something I persist in, I have to say, for me it does not work as well as I had hoped as a teenager. Still, you might have greater success than me. And i reckon it is definitely worth considering. . |
| Alternate Writing Markets As a short story writer/ novelist/ columnist/ (bad) poet, I tend to write with a particular audience in mind. My work appears in books and magazines and online spaces, where the work is chosen/curated by publishers/ editors and I (mostly) get paid, even if a pittance. I have also discussed in the past writing screenplays and stage plays. But there are other things you can write that can lead to markets for your writing. So, let’s look at a few you might want to investigate. First is one I used to do. I wrote for a few professional wrestling organisations. Yes, wrestling. The matches in wrestling do not exist in isolation. There are stories to create reasons for two (or more) people to fight, and stories intertwine, allegiances shift, you need to be able to make changes when injuries occur or people leave – it is an intense and fascinating world to write for. Second is another one I used to do – write choreography for performance acts. It’s not just a matter of putting together a bunch of things that look cool; you need to make the way things work follow a narrative that can engage the audience. Cool stuff loses impact; a through-story helps keep them engaged. And third is the last one I have done before, and that is stand-up comedy. It used to be that you could get on stage and tell a string of jokes, but the alternative comedy of the 1960s saw that change to stand-up routines having a through-tale of sorts. So, you need to be funny, have funny jokes, and have them somehow be connected. It is not as easy as it sounds! But it is so much fun performing your own words and having a crowd laughing. So, next is writing for video games. I have an acquaintance who does that for one of the local companies, and he tells me that it is not easy, but when you see your work on a screen, it is so satisfying. It becomes like a choose-your-own-adventure writing task, but all choices either end in death or at the same final boss. Complex, but worth investigating. Next is something that used to be huge, then almost died, and is not coming back, and that’s audio plays. They used to be for radio, but now more and more podcasts are doing it. Now, this is different to stage and screen writing, because you need to include audio clips and there is nothing visual. You have to paint a word picture through dialogue and audio atmosphere. I have always wanted to try this, but am not sure really if I could, so I haven’t. Next is writing for graphic novels. This is an interesting thing to try, and I have done a course teaching how, but have not done one. As the writer, if you work with an artist, then it is completely collaborative. You have a story outlined (which is why I struggle) and work together on characters, scenes, visuals, dialogue, etc. However, I know at least one company in Australia used to get people to write for them, and then they assigned an artist. You need to write with a panel system, the 3*3 panel, and with merged panels thrown in to stop boredom, with descriptions of the images, then trust the artist. The Australian company used to do horror comics with 4-6 stories per issue, so it wasn’t a full graphic novel; I believe some might exist in the US still. And finally is writing poetry for slams. This differs from just writing poetry in that there has to be a performance component. When Kate Tempest does their script for their slam performances, they include body actions, sounds they have to do, facial expressions, where they move, etc. It is even more involved than a stand-up comedy script! Back “in my day” a poetry slam was just reading a poem loudly. Nowadays, it is full-on performance. So, I hope that intrigues some people to give other options a go. . |
| Know Your Audience I do know this does not apply to every writer, but for those who it does, this is something that I have found doing some editing is an issue amongst writers. This is answering the question: Who are you writing for? I realise a lot of writers just write for themselves. That is excellent; you should always be your first audience. And if you do not plan to show it to anyone else, great. But as soon as you put a piece of writing out there in the public, or to a group of people external to your circle, then you have an audience. Knowing your audience is key to reaching the people you want to reach. Now, I have already discussed writing in the young adult sphere ("20240510 Writing Young Adult Fiction" ), so I won’t re-invent the wheel there.First, though, some writers feel their work is so great or “so important” that everyone needs to read it. It’s why you get publishers closing to open calls because these morons feel their work should be submitted everywhere. When I worked for Static Movement (a spec fic press), the amount of stories that did not fit (a) the word count, (b) the theme of the anthology, (c) the spec fic genre, or (d) all of these, was insane. It still happens, and most of these writers are religious (99.99% Christian) writers who feel the need to convert everyone to their belief system. Well, sorry, but no-one’s work is so important. There is no such thing as a book that everyone has to read, no such thing as a book that suits everyone, nothing like that. There is such a thing as individual taste, needs, wants, beliefs, etc. Whenever I see those lists “100 books everyone must read before they die!” I look through and realise (a) I will have read maybe 10 of them, and enjoyed 5, and that the title is wrong. There is no such thing as a book you HAVE to read!! Sorry. It gets on my goat. But it does lead to this topic: know your audience. I can’t tell you who the audience is for any different work. It changes from culture to culture, county to country, even region to region, town to town! But you need to know who you are writing for. So, personal example. I write predominantly horror, and my main market is the USA. As such, I need to be aware that too many Australianisms confuse United Estatians, and that even words in English (the UK brand) have different meanings. It is still a thing I am learning, but I am getting there. Of course, as my works set in Australia, I cannot use US terms (like “cookie”… in Australia that is not something you eat… unless you’re a cannibal… but you do you) because it is not realistic, but I need to ensure some things I avoid. I also need to limit my use of terms like “God” and “Jesus” when spoken in a non-ecclesiastical arena. In Australia, they are part of children’s programming; in the USA, it’s as bad as “fuck.” But I am learning my market. So, what does this mean to a normal writer? First, only submit a story to a trad publisher who it’s a good fit for. Logical, but too many ignore it. Second, make sure if there is the option of stating what sort of rating a story has, err on the side of a higher rating. A PG film in the USA is often a G film in Australia, for example, so calling an Australian G-rated story PG is erring on the side of caution. Third, give your story the correct genre. “But my story has no genre!” I hear a lot; then call it ‘mainstream’ or something like that. Don’t give a romance story to someone who only reads body-horror. But many do… Of course, you can write for more than one market, more than one country, more than one culture. My stories sell in the US, Australia and the UK, set in Australia, but (it seems) appealing across cultures because I do not push the one Australian culture as the be-all and end-all. However, when my stories are way too Australian, they are a much harder sell; this is just something I have learnt through trial and error. USians have an advantage as theirs is the largest reading market in the Western world… but, even then, I have heard some Texan and Floridian writers struggle to sell to publications based west and north. That cultural divide still exists in one country. Then comes the hard bit. Do NOT try to write a story for every single genre and culture. It will not work. Write your story with you, the first audience, in mind, and then, if you want it to be read by a wider audience, consider these four things: 1) the age of the reader you want, 2) the genre/s you want the story to fit into, 3) which country/ culture you want to read your story, & 4) is it a good story? Good story first, audience second. Always. Now, I know I didn’t say anything to help you find an audience, because it is too individual. But, once your work goes into any public arena, the audience is a part of the process. Don’t annoy them. . |
| Self-Insert Characters This came up while discussing characters during NaNoWriMo prep. I linked to a old post about the perils of the Mary Sue/Marty Stu character in writing (right here, for those playing at home: "20240215 Mary Sue/Marty Stu (Gary Stu)" ). However, are all self-insert characters a Mary Sue/Marty Stu?Simple answer: No. The Mary Sue is idealised and perfect and can do nothing wrong, and if something is done wrong, it all comes out right (perfect) in the end. They have more powers than everyone else, are cleverer, more intelligent and either "fix" the broken boy or end up with the dream-boat main character (especially in Mary Sue fan-fiction). They are just too perfect. Sometimes the writer is smart enough to make the character not look like them, but what they look like is what the author wishes they look like. Just too wonderful for words. However,, there is still the fact that some people insert themselves into their fiction. This is not just people writing from a first person PoV; this is when a character is so obviously the writer. This is perfectly fine. My first long works, there were definitely characters who were me. In one I was the MC, in another I was the MC's off-sider. As a beginner writer, it made writing characters easier. But a writer might also want to write their own fictional universe with them at the centre, a fictional autobiography. And, again, that is fine. The main thing, though, is that you are not perfect, so your written counterpart should not be perfect as well. And in stories that resonate with readers, the characters grow or change, so make your self-insert grow or change. They need to make mistakes. They need to not know everything. They need to really foul things up at times. They need to not be the centre of everything, able to do everything needed. Basically, like all other characters, they need to be realistic! ("20240214 Notes On Character" )So, if you want, feel free to self-insert! Just remember you are not perfect, and no character should be perfect. Don't Mary Sue/Marty Stu yourself in your work! . |
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