Emotional Involvement

Today I was faced with the task of writing a very emotional scene of loss. Honestly, I almost started crying once I was in the character's mindset and tried to find every excuse NOT to write. The most difficult scene is now done, but I fear for a few coming up. Say what you will, but unless you're an actor or a writer, I'm not sure if you can truly understand the emotion that stems from trying to understand another's point of view. For writers it's much worse since we decide what actually happens to a character, but if everything was perfect, you wouldn't have a story. To be more precise, you wouldn't be truly alive if everything went just the way you wanted it, all the time. Readers may criticize and whinge (a lovely British word for whine), but without hardship, you'd have a pretty boring story no one would want to read.

I'm on the home stretch, nearly at 80,000 words and everything's coming together. Even the set-up for book two is mostly in place, which I can hardly wait to start writing. I have the ambitious goal of finishing the first complete draft by the end of this week (Sunday, perhaps), but it all depends on the final length. 90,000 words is doable, but 100,000 would be pushing it.

Right before I start editing, I'll be rewriting the first two chapters. I'm horrible at beginnings until I know the ending, and being the non-plotter I am, I'm still a little hazy about the details for the ending. What I had wanted to do originally may not work. In any case, the current Chapter One I have just won't do and needs to be jazzed up a little. Then I'm faced with the impossible task of fixing plotholes, mistakes and inconsistencies (Oh, I already know I have more than a few).

I'd better get back to writing and stop procrastinating. True I write best in the morning, but lately I've been writing more than 2,000 words a day, which requires some evening time. Maybe I should chain myself to the desk...

A Million and One Ways to Interpret Mythology

It's nearly the end of summer, and as I currently work the same days as the school calendar, it has been a summer of unemployment, good reading and getting into shape. The reading part is what concerns us this time around, as I have been addicted to mostly paranormal-related romances and fantasies.

When did stories about gods, goddesses, fairies, vampires, werewolves, harpies, and all matter of related creatures become so popular? Most "hot" titles feature one of the above creatures as their main character, but the world that surrounds them varies with each and every author.

For example, take Greek mythology. I have become a big fan of Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series about a group of warriors who opened and destroyed Pandora's box because of jealousy and have since been forced to house the demons inside of them (Pain, Death, Misery, Lies, Doubt, Nightmares, etc). The results are some engaging, steamy romances books (with a great background story and cast of characters, I might add), focusing on how every person, no matter their weakness, has someone out there meant for them. Take this approach and compare it to Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, divided into those who were created by Apollo (Apollites), who sometimes work with the daimons, and those favored by Artemis (the Dark-Hunters) who are granted a single act of vengeance before they serve her. The Dark-Hunters are immortal, seeking out those daimons and Appollites at night who wish to hurt humans. The use of the same set of mythological stories produces two very different worlds.

Another example is the portrayal of fey in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series and in Richelle Mead's Black Swan series. Again, the same set of stories and myths produce two very different takes on what it means to be an outcast fey in a modern world.

These are the type of stories I've dreamed of reading since I was little, but I guess my imagination was ahead of the curve. No matter, I enjoy the stories now and am nothing but guilty of producing yet another take on what it means to be "fairy" in a world interconnected to our own.

Now, I'm going ponder what the difference is between paranormal fiction and urban fantasy and see if I can come up with an answer, because honestly, they blend and overlap in my mind.

From a long hiatus

My life took a different turn from the end of November last year, ending with me substituting long-term as a Japanese teacher. I love to teach, but I had never taught a foreign language class before. My training and internship was in social studies, so this assignment was difficult, time-consuming and full of trail and error. Once that hurdle was completed at the end of January, I went back to day-to-day substituting and my sanity, which of course meant I could write again. I know people will say, "Make time!" but these people have not experienced life as a new teacher. Being both teacher and surrogate parent to middle school students is draining on many levels; when you get home, you are mentally exhausted. This is why I prefer teaching high school, as it is not as emotionally draining when you deal with students who are nearly adults that also understand your humor.

I have been writing since the end of February and now stand near the 40,000 word mark. I rewrote the first 30,000 words into a new 20,000, thus giving me more story for the word count. I've started a summer routine that forces me to write every morning, after breakfast. I may not yet be 30, but I naturally wake up around 5:30am every morning, giving me peace and a fresh start to my day.

No one is likely reading this, but the lonely link showed up in my browser today, and I couldn't stand the thought of leaving my last entry in November all alone. Posting will be infrequent, but yes, I am still alive and, most importantly, writing.

Distractions and Revisions

I have a bad habit when it comes to reading a good, new series: I can't stop. That has been my biggest distraction over the last two weeks as I flew through the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning (Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever and the last book, Shadowfever, is due next year). Even though fantasy, sci-fi and historical fiction are my favorite genres, sometimes I like to read a good romance novel. That was how I came across Karen Marie Moning in the first place, through her Highlander series. But then I decided to try her other series, and imagine my surprise to find it full of fairies, even up to having Seelies and Unseelies! Luckily I soon discovered they are nothing like my use of the Seelie Court/Unseelie Court, and didn't become disheartened. But the books are quick to read and addicting; I read them almost as quickly as the Twilight books. The endings are all cliffhangers, but sometimes taken to an extreme. Anyone who has read Dreamfever knows what I'm talking about, and late summer/early fall of 2010 is too far away.

(I will also add here that KMM pushes her main character to the limit in the Fever series, another addition to my small list of authors who do so.)

Between work, reading and helping with a friend's wedding, I somehow managed to find the time to make a major decision about the book I'm working on: completely rewrite it. Yes, that's right, from the first page! It took me nearly 100 pages to figure out how James Taylor wanted to tell his story, and he wouldn't have it any other way. The result? A tighter and more entertaining story in my opinion. I don't dread thinking about how to tell what's happening next. On the contrary, I love the new style and quite enjoy telling the tale. This version of Senna and James is what I wanted.

Sometimes you have to be willing to start over to make it work. I will not be the type of person who rewrites into eternity, but since this is my first take on a longer work, it's taking a little while to find my stride. Let's hope I don't lose it.

How much is too much?

If you can raise the stakes in fiction, you are suppose to do it. This piece of advice is given in almost any book you read about writing. But my questions is, how much is too much?

All throughout high school and my time at Western Washingtion University (WWU), I was into anime. Anime is Japanese animation, and while it is more commonplace than ever in the US today, back in the late '90s/early noughties it was just starting to boom. I became president of WWU's anime club (AIYA!) and even had a high ranking volunteer position in Sakura-Con, the Northwest anime/culture convention. The point of all of this is that some of the highest stakes in stories can be found within the storylines of anime and manga (graphic novels). If something could go wrong for a character, it usually did. I still remember one title--Fushigi Yuugi--that had heartbreak, rape, manipulation, you name it, all woven into the storyline. At the end you still sat wondering if something else could go wrong for any of the main characters. If something wasn't being done to a character, then usually their own angst would kick in, making it even bleaker.

In most anime the story would bounce back up, but it wasn't guaranteed; anime and manga endings were not always happy. Bad things could happen, and sometimes characters couldn't get out of it. Like life, the end result was unpredictable.

However, the emotional ride was so intense it makes me wonder if the same can be done successfully with fiction. With the exception of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, I have yet to see many authors really make their characters suffer as much as possible. Let me make something clear here: Characters shouldn't be tortured for the sake of being tortured. Pushing a character to the brink, on the other hand, is something we all should try to do more often. If the stakes are so high that failure could truly be disasterous or life-changing, then readers become more invovled and drawn in.

I'm not an expert on this by any means, but it's something that I've learned from anime and manga that I hope to be able to implement in all of my stories. Perfect, happy endings aren't all that interesting, no matter how much readers may yearn for it. Writers need to remember to make the storyline as intriguing as possible and granting every fan's wish for one or more characters usually won't accomplish this.

Finding the line between "the limit" and "too much" is a bit trickier.

Melusine's Story

The legend of Melusine (a Breton Faery) was first written down by Jean d’Arras in the 14th century. (You can read one of my favorite versions of the tale here.) The main character of the legend, Melusine, first demanded to have her story told on Wednesday. I was researching which fairy legend to mention in the Otherworld novel I'm writing, and despite the four months between my initial research and now, her story was the first to come to mind.

Okay, so I had a legend to include as a reference in my book. I summarized it and moved on. I managed to type about five more pages before Melusine demanded to tell her story on Thursday. This was the second time. I was about to give up the idea when I decided that a little more research into the legend couldn't hurt. Afterall, I would be using it in my story, so it wasn't a lost cause.

Twenty minutes and a number of websites later, the story began telling itself in my head. Much like with my main character, Zahra, from my short story, "Burden of Discovery," Melusine's story came quickly and needed to be written. I wouldn't get another word of my novel completed until the story was done.

I tried researching 7th century France, coming up with few sources. (Although I will admit that during this time I took a look at the Melusine page on the French Wikipedia. Thank goodness for Google Translator!) Using what knowledge I had of the legend, France, and general European history, I decided to start writing today.

Once I started, I couldn't stop. Some people need detailed outlines to complete a story, but I all I need is a good first sentence. The first sentence is much more than a hook--it dictates where the story starts (or ends) and what tone it will take. With a good first sentence I wrote Burden of Discovery in three days. I expect Melusine to take about the same.

After I hear back about my first submitted short story, I'll have another ready to go. The best part is that it ties into the novel I'm working on. Maybe some day people will be able to enjoy the world of Melusine's family over a thousand years in the future.

My first post of no consequence

This post is merely to welcome my new little blog devoted to my writing. I'm currently trying to publish one of my short stories in the online magazine Strange Horizons, but as with all submissions, there is nothing to do but wait until that email you've been anticipating--yet dreading--arrives.

In the meantime I'm working on my first Otherworld book. I'm nearly 1/3 of the way done, which, considering I've been working on it for a little less than two months, ain't half bad. ^_^ (Of course, if I'm honest, I did do about two months of research before I even started writing) I may write a short story about one of the characters mentioned in this book as sort of a stand-alone prequel. Of course, we'll see how that goes...

And now I must follow my golden rule of successful writing: Make yourself write. It is too easy to procrastinate and do nothing, believe me.