Umbrella Academy #6 (of 6)
Incredible Hercules #114
The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death
Marvel Media Column: Fantastic Four on Film
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
My Reviews: January - February 2008
FEBRUARY
X-Force #1
Fantastic Four #554
Evil Dead #2
Sword of Dracula/Vampirella One-Shot
The Twelve #2
Uncanny X-Men #495
Annihilation: Conquest #4
Silver Surfer: In Thy Name #4 (of 4)
Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: Calamari Rising #1
JANUARY
With Great Power #1
Avengers: The Initiative #9
Young Avengers Presents #1
Fell #8
Incredible Hercules #113
Nova #10
Annihilation: Conquest #3
Amazing Spider-Man #546
End of Year Commentary Column: 2007
X-Force #1
Fantastic Four #554
Evil Dead #2
Sword of Dracula/Vampirella One-Shot
The Twelve #2
Uncanny X-Men #495
Annihilation: Conquest #4
Silver Surfer: In Thy Name #4 (of 4)
Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: Calamari Rising #1
JANUARY
With Great Power #1
Avengers: The Initiative #9
Young Avengers Presents #1
Fell #8
Incredible Hercules #113
Nova #10
Annihilation: Conquest #3
Amazing Spider-Man #546
End of Year Commentary Column: 2007
My Reviews: October 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Vonnegut's rules for short stories
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.*
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.*
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Monday, March 05, 2007
I"m a Loser, Baby...
So here it is; another weekly writing deadline is about to arrive and I have nothing. Nothing but excuses, that is.
It really is amazing how many things can distract me from doing what I really want (and actually enjoy) to do each week. Or is that pathetic? Yeah, it's definitely pathetic. I can sit around all day long, doing absolutely nothing, as if it were some sort of accomplishment.
Although to be honest, I do have teaching work to do. Papers to grade, assignments to plan, etc.
Except I don't do enough of that stuff either.
Next week there will definitely be some writing done.
I plan on either continuing the storyline I've already started (which is not what I want to do) or jumping head first into the next character's story (which is what I really want to do). The only problem with the new character's story, is that I'm not happy at all with where the first draft starts out with her. I'm thinking about reworking her entire introduction and her situation, and that's really what's got me distracted, I think. That's a lot of work. Much more than just working on a simple rewrite.
So while I grade papers and plan my classes and work my night job, I need to be thinking about this character (Emma's her name - which is odd, since I now have a cat by that name), and how to introduce her, plunge her into peril, and get her to her next major plot point.
Here goes.
It really is amazing how many things can distract me from doing what I really want (and actually enjoy) to do each week. Or is that pathetic? Yeah, it's definitely pathetic. I can sit around all day long, doing absolutely nothing, as if it were some sort of accomplishment.
Although to be honest, I do have teaching work to do. Papers to grade, assignments to plan, etc.
Except I don't do enough of that stuff either.
Next week there will definitely be some writing done.
I plan on either continuing the storyline I've already started (which is not what I want to do) or jumping head first into the next character's story (which is what I really want to do). The only problem with the new character's story, is that I'm not happy at all with where the first draft starts out with her. I'm thinking about reworking her entire introduction and her situation, and that's really what's got me distracted, I think. That's a lot of work. Much more than just working on a simple rewrite.
So while I grade papers and plan my classes and work my night job, I need to be thinking about this character (Emma's her name - which is odd, since I now have a cat by that name), and how to introduce her, plunge her into peril, and get her to her next major plot point.
Here goes.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Writing Log (A Little Late)
Whoops. Not only did I not write anything this week, I forgot to update here. Not that there's much to say. It was my birthday, so I sat on my ass all day (after mooching a fantastic Sushi Lunch) and did nothing.
So there.
So there.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Take Two
So this week's writing was a bit of a last minute thing, as I had to work and deal with teaching responsibilities over the weekend. But I think it worked out okay, at least at this stage in the process.
I went back and cut out all of the new exposition and character history that I'd added last week, since I felt it was the weakest part. I still feel that way, and wish I could figure out a way to let the pasts of these characters play out naturally, but they're not major characters in this story. Their story is something completely different; it could be a work of its own, really, and I don't want to get distracted from the goal here.
And I ended up adding some of it back in anyway, since the characters need some sort of touchpoint with the reader.
I've got a complete story that just needs fleshing out. If I get sidetracked with trying to tell the stories of every minor character who really only has a small, extremely limited part to play, I'll never get the main story completed. This isn't a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, it's a stupid horror/science fiction adventure. Nothing groundbreaking about it. I just want to get from point A to point B and make it an entertaining story.
I can always tell their story some other time. If they're that interesting to me, I'm sure I can always go back to them. Hell, I don't even know if I really want to tell their story. I just want the reader to feel for them when the bad stuff happens. And that's coming up quick.
I'm not sure about my pacing either. I have a natural feel for short story pacing. I've spent years writing stories where I cut out all the fat and just deliver focused, lean narratives. But this is different, isn't it? For a novel length work, shouldn't the pacing be a little slower, a little more exploratory? It's not a mode I'm comfortable in, but I should probably just work my way into it and see what I come up with. I can always cut back and reorganize later drafts if the need arises.
Anyway, there's week 3 of this experiment done. I don't know if anyone else is actually going to still be taking part in this by the end of next month. I hope they do. I don't want to keep boring the shit out of everyone, sending my pages off week after annoying week.
I went back and cut out all of the new exposition and character history that I'd added last week, since I felt it was the weakest part. I still feel that way, and wish I could figure out a way to let the pasts of these characters play out naturally, but they're not major characters in this story. Their story is something completely different; it could be a work of its own, really, and I don't want to get distracted from the goal here.
And I ended up adding some of it back in anyway, since the characters need some sort of touchpoint with the reader.
I've got a complete story that just needs fleshing out. If I get sidetracked with trying to tell the stories of every minor character who really only has a small, extremely limited part to play, I'll never get the main story completed. This isn't a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, it's a stupid horror/science fiction adventure. Nothing groundbreaking about it. I just want to get from point A to point B and make it an entertaining story.
I can always tell their story some other time. If they're that interesting to me, I'm sure I can always go back to them. Hell, I don't even know if I really want to tell their story. I just want the reader to feel for them when the bad stuff happens. And that's coming up quick.
I'm not sure about my pacing either. I have a natural feel for short story pacing. I've spent years writing stories where I cut out all the fat and just deliver focused, lean narratives. But this is different, isn't it? For a novel length work, shouldn't the pacing be a little slower, a little more exploratory? It's not a mode I'm comfortable in, but I should probably just work my way into it and see what I come up with. I can always cut back and reorganize later drafts if the need arises.
Anyway, there's week 3 of this experiment done. I don't know if anyone else is actually going to still be taking part in this by the end of next month. I hope they do. I don't want to keep boring the shit out of everyone, sending my pages off week after annoying week.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Little Turds at Crunchtime
Ok, so my second week of rewriting has finished. Thank christ.
I had almost 2 pages of original story from the first draft and expanded it to 7 pages of crap. The only plus is that now three characters who had no personalities (or names, really) in the first draft, all have names and are fairly interesting (to me, anyway). Of course, that occurs by having a big block of exposition settled down firmly in the middle of a scene of a guy standing under a tree for a few minutes. Oy.
Oh well. I never really thought that this thing would be complete after a second draft. That's crazy thinking any way I look at it. So at least I have "real" characters to torture and kill, now. Should make the bad things that are about to happen matter a little more. Maybe. A couple of drafts down the road.
Shit.
The worst part is that I blew off writing all week and instead crapped out these pages at the last minute (as if I were still in college). Granted, the last time I wrote consistently was when I was in college, but that's no excuse to keep up that kind of stupid "schedule." I had all day Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (before going to work in the evening) and then all day Sunday, and for some reason, only wrote on Sunday. Late Sunday. Horrible.
So that's gotta change. Otherwise I might as well just not bother.
The whole point of this is to actually write something worth reading, isn't it? Why am I asking you? Anyway, I want to write something worth reading. Not something important, just something fun and entertaining and a little disturbing at times. But if I want to do that, then I have to do it. Not just blow it off and crap out little turds at crunchtime.
I had almost 2 pages of original story from the first draft and expanded it to 7 pages of crap. The only plus is that now three characters who had no personalities (or names, really) in the first draft, all have names and are fairly interesting (to me, anyway). Of course, that occurs by having a big block of exposition settled down firmly in the middle of a scene of a guy standing under a tree for a few minutes. Oy.
Oh well. I never really thought that this thing would be complete after a second draft. That's crazy thinking any way I look at it. So at least I have "real" characters to torture and kill, now. Should make the bad things that are about to happen matter a little more. Maybe. A couple of drafts down the road.
Shit.
The worst part is that I blew off writing all week and instead crapped out these pages at the last minute (as if I were still in college). Granted, the last time I wrote consistently was when I was in college, but that's no excuse to keep up that kind of stupid "schedule." I had all day Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (before going to work in the evening) and then all day Sunday, and for some reason, only wrote on Sunday. Late Sunday. Horrible.
So that's gotta change. Otherwise I might as well just not bother.
The whole point of this is to actually write something worth reading, isn't it? Why am I asking you? Anyway, I want to write something worth reading. Not something important, just something fun and entertaining and a little disturbing at times. But if I want to do that, then I have to do it. Not just blow it off and crap out little turds at crunchtime.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Alone in the Wilderness
I guess I should actually try to use this blog for something other than data storage. A workblog is a good idea, I think.
So here goes.
There was a time when I wrote all the time. I have a file of stories that I really enjoyed creating. I wrote a number of stories that won prizes in my college fiction competitions, and I turned them into a collection that served as my Master's Thesis and also took First Place in the West Virginia Writers Conference competition a few years back. But then I stopped writing for a number of reasons I really don't feel like going into.
Anyway, over the last couple of years, I've been trying to get the ball rolling again and have taken part in the the 3 Day Novel competition and tried to take part in this year's NaNoWriMo. That last one didn't work out so well, but I did complete short novels (novellas, really) for the 3 Day Novels. They weren't good, but they had beginnings, middles, and endings, and that's something.
Recently, a friend of mine (Mr. Martini) suggested organizing a writing group in order to help motivate us to actually sit down and put words on the page. It seems that without a deadline, I can't get worked up to write. Since that seems to be the problem with some other people I know, as well, we have kick-started a writing group of sorts. It's fairly minimalist, with a minimum of 5 pages due each Monday, emailed to everyone in the group. There's no reward beyond a sense of accomplishment and personal pride, but there's also no punishment beyond shame and self-loathing. Hopefully that will be enough.
So I've dug out the latest work and begun the painful process of rewrites. And it is painful.
The work I did for NaNoWriMo is horrendous. There are good ideas, I think, but the execution is disturbingly bad. Nerve shaking bad, actually. I used to be pretty confident in my writing skills, and now, reading over this stuff, I considered giving up. Instead, I just put it aside and reread my 3Day Novels.
My first "novel" isn't bad, but is pretty short (70-odd pages) and needs major work. I don't think I'm up to that just yet. But I wasn't horrified by it, so that's good, eh?
My second "novel" also wasn't bad (to me, anyway), and clocked in a healthy 120ish pages, with a solid structure and a lot of entertainment value (to me, anyway). Granted, at the moment it is in first draft shape, meaning it pretty much sucks and needs a lot of attention. But I'm going to give it some love and try to expand it to around twice its current length. Since it was written over the course of 3 days and in a cloud of caffeine and beer there are things that need work. A lot of work, really. So that's actually a good thing.
It's Science Fiction / Horror with a fair balance of humorous and disturbing characters and events. So far, after one week with the writing group, I've reworked 2 short chapters into an 8 page prologue of sorts that I like. For the past few days, I've been thinking about the next section of the story and should start doing rewrites in the morning and all day Sunday. That deadline is looming.
The only real question (and it's not even a question that needs answered just yet) is which storyline do I jump into first. The prologue sets up one storyline and introduces 2 of the main characters, but there are 2 other narratives that I follow through the story. Which to choose?
I guess I'll decide that tomorrow when I start writing again.
So here goes.
There was a time when I wrote all the time. I have a file of stories that I really enjoyed creating. I wrote a number of stories that won prizes in my college fiction competitions, and I turned them into a collection that served as my Master's Thesis and also took First Place in the West Virginia Writers Conference competition a few years back. But then I stopped writing for a number of reasons I really don't feel like going into.
Anyway, over the last couple of years, I've been trying to get the ball rolling again and have taken part in the the 3 Day Novel competition and tried to take part in this year's NaNoWriMo. That last one didn't work out so well, but I did complete short novels (novellas, really) for the 3 Day Novels. They weren't good, but they had beginnings, middles, and endings, and that's something.
Recently, a friend of mine (Mr. Martini) suggested organizing a writing group in order to help motivate us to actually sit down and put words on the page. It seems that without a deadline, I can't get worked up to write. Since that seems to be the problem with some other people I know, as well, we have kick-started a writing group of sorts. It's fairly minimalist, with a minimum of 5 pages due each Monday, emailed to everyone in the group. There's no reward beyond a sense of accomplishment and personal pride, but there's also no punishment beyond shame and self-loathing. Hopefully that will be enough.
So I've dug out the latest work and begun the painful process of rewrites. And it is painful.
The work I did for NaNoWriMo is horrendous. There are good ideas, I think, but the execution is disturbingly bad. Nerve shaking bad, actually. I used to be pretty confident in my writing skills, and now, reading over this stuff, I considered giving up. Instead, I just put it aside and reread my 3Day Novels.
My first "novel" isn't bad, but is pretty short (70-odd pages) and needs major work. I don't think I'm up to that just yet. But I wasn't horrified by it, so that's good, eh?
My second "novel" also wasn't bad (to me, anyway), and clocked in a healthy 120ish pages, with a solid structure and a lot of entertainment value (to me, anyway). Granted, at the moment it is in first draft shape, meaning it pretty much sucks and needs a lot of attention. But I'm going to give it some love and try to expand it to around twice its current length. Since it was written over the course of 3 days and in a cloud of caffeine and beer there are things that need work. A lot of work, really. So that's actually a good thing.
It's Science Fiction / Horror with a fair balance of humorous and disturbing characters and events. So far, after one week with the writing group, I've reworked 2 short chapters into an 8 page prologue of sorts that I like. For the past few days, I've been thinking about the next section of the story and should start doing rewrites in the morning and all day Sunday. That deadline is looming.
The only real question (and it's not even a question that needs answered just yet) is which storyline do I jump into first. The prologue sets up one storyline and introduces 2 of the main characters, but there are 2 other narratives that I follow through the story. Which to choose?
I guess I'll decide that tomorrow when I start writing again.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Self Publishing
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Tuesday, March 07, 2006
SFPD Creative Crime Writing
Do as I say.
Go here. This is the San Francisco Police Department Community Update site. "Community Updates is a weekly information newsletter to inform the Northern District residents of incidents in the district."
Someone writing up these reports is taking the time to get creative. It's very very entertaining. Try starting out with July 19. It opens a .pdf file. Once open, scroll down to July 14th: 1:31 PM, Loitering for the Purpose of Narcotics Sales.
Here's an excerpt: "Challenging anyone to a fight is a misdemeanor. Challenging Jim Kreps to a fight is just plain foolish. Kreps is a big guy who is light on his feet and carries himself like a pugilist. His strength, however, is his professionalism."
This is excellent! I'm gonna go read more now.
edit - 2:52AM
Holy crap! Check out the Tuesday, May 24th link. The first full entry is for May 16th at 8:55AM. It's bloody brilliant! Even better than the Officer Kreps entry above!
Check this out: "Now the officer who had been running to keep pace with him closed in, and fear of capture charged the fleeing man like a cattle prod. He had just enough time to squeeze in front of the officer and run up a set of stairs, but it would be close. He could plainly hear the officer’s boots hit the pavement behind him. "Stop, police!" If he just concentrated on running, maybe that stolid mask of determination behind him would fade away. He took two stairs at a time."
This is good stuff!
Go here. This is the San Francisco Police Department Community Update site. "Community Updates is a weekly information newsletter to inform the Northern District residents of incidents in the district."
Someone writing up these reports is taking the time to get creative. It's very very entertaining. Try starting out with July 19. It opens a .pdf file. Once open, scroll down to July 14th: 1:31 PM, Loitering for the Purpose of Narcotics Sales.
Here's an excerpt: "Challenging anyone to a fight is a misdemeanor. Challenging Jim Kreps to a fight is just plain foolish. Kreps is a big guy who is light on his feet and carries himself like a pugilist. His strength, however, is his professionalism."
This is excellent! I'm gonna go read more now.
edit - 2:52AM
Holy crap! Check out the Tuesday, May 24th link. The first full entry is for May 16th at 8:55AM. It's bloody brilliant! Even better than the Officer Kreps entry above!
Check this out: "Now the officer who had been running to keep pace with him closed in, and fear of capture charged the fleeing man like a cattle prod. He had just enough time to squeeze in front of the officer and run up a set of stairs, but it would be close. He could plainly hear the officer’s boots hit the pavement behind him. "Stop, police!" If he just concentrated on running, maybe that stolid mask of determination behind him would fade away. He took two stairs at a time."
This is good stuff!
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