Writing Sya

Updates
10.31.2005

Random things I'm thinking about as zero hour looms closer:

People complaining about other people writing disturbing things - I believe people should have the freedom to write whatever they want. If it's something that goes beyond your moral boundaries or is something that You Just Don't Talk About, I think people still have the right to write it. And of course, people have the freedom to disagree with whatever that is written. It's only when you try to stop people from writing it or declare that such things should be burnt that you have plunged dangerously head-long into censorship.

(And what if those disturbing things makes you wonder about the author's mental stability or even safety? I suppose a benefit of a doubt should be given. Perfectly normal, well-adjusted people can write weird things.)

Also author photographs in the back flaps of books - Everything always seems perfectly coiffed, doesn't it? Or if the author looks disheveled, it looks like it's purposely disheveled. Nobody ever looks bad in those photos--so when someone actually meets an author, wouldn't they be disappointed? For maximum non-disappointment, there should be bad photographs.

[ posted by sya on 9:51 PM : (0) comments ]

Arg. Less than twenty-four hours until the start of a month of writing frenzy. This year, though, I'm probably going to get some sleep before starting. Is it due to less excitement? Practicality? The knowledge that I can make up those words I usually type right after midnight elsewhere? I don't know. But I do know that there are some things I really need to look up before I begin.

* * *
Last night, I went to the local kick-off party which was great. Not the same people I've been Nano-ing with the previous three years, but that's all right. It's the spirit that counts. There was a bit of a snafu at The Cheesecake Factory (a two hour wait, just to be seated!) so everyone ended up heading to August Moon for dinner. Which was just as well, I suppose. Everyone could be seated together and the light wasn't so dim...

Now let's see if I can make it to the next write-in.

[ posted by sya on 10:25 AM : (0) comments ]

10.29.2005

Stereotyping Female Characters?

I came across a Nano forum thread where a female writer was lamenting how she can only write male characters and not female characters. Some others complained that they can only write female archetypes. Yet others pointed out books where the male viewpoint dominates the narrative and women are rendered as caricatures.

What I don't get is why all these people are hung up on gender portrayal. I like character driven plots as much as the next person, but I don't read a story because the main character is a man or a woman. I continue reading because the author has successfully written about a person. And that's what I try to aim for in my writing--to write a person, not a mere male or a mere female.

And if people complain about too few realistic women in literature, why don't they write their own book with such a character?

Looking back at my previous Nano novels, I don't write exclusively male or female characters. It's probably more of an even mix. And any of the weirdness any of my characters exhibit is not due to their gender. As for this year's work--I'm thinking I have more male characters. But this has to deal with the setting (Victorian era) and my main character's occupation which at the time was primarily male-dominated.

[ posted by sya on 5:32 PM : (0) comments ]

10.28.2005

There are all these age polls on the forums, but one never really knows if the results are due to more young people voting or less old people being online or what. And of course, all those amusing geezer threads where the elders complain about all those whippersnappers taking over the whole thing.

So, being the crazy person that I am, I decided to look up everyone's ages via the handy-dandy Nano search. Bear in mind that the following chart does not take into account people who lie about their ages or the numerous youngsters taking part in the Young Writers Program. Total number of Nanowrimo participants as of today: 35312; Number of people with age in their profile: 20565; Number of people with unreported/other ages: 14747.

What a nice distribution! And notice the spike at age 18. So there definitely are a bunch of teenagers running the board. Which sort of makes sense. The younger you are, the more likely you're willing to do something as crazy as writing a novel in a month.

In December, watch for another graph showing the age distribution of the winners.

[ posted by sya on 11:33 AM : (0) comments ]

10.27.2005

I've been looking up info on foxes. Red foxes have phase variation, i.e., not all red foxes are red. Some can be black or silver or have a cross-type pattern. Foxes also have very good night vision but have a poor eye for detail. This might be pretty important to have in mind for particular plot twists.

Also, I've been making notes on geographic terrain for the setting. However, since most of the story is planned to take place in the city, I'm not sure how much of that I'll end up using.

[ posted by sya on 7:52 PM : (0) comments ]

10.26.2005

Well, lately I've been sort of putting aside Nanowrimo planning for a bit. You know, there is such a thing as too much planning. So I just went through the manuscript of a novel I wrote during high school. I think the characters are good and the premise is all right, but there are a lot of things wrong with it. So I've somewhat outlined a plan of attack for overhauling it sometime in the near future.

As for planning for the background of this year's Nano? Today I borrowed some books from the library about Cyprus antiquities, mysticism in Christianity, and foxes. Yep, totally disparate subjects, but somehow I'll link them altogether.

[ posted by sya on 10:21 PM : (0) comments ]

10.25.2005

Aha! Just as I expected. Most people are doing fantasy. (I got these figures from searching for genre.)

Chick-Lit: 596
Erotic: 158
Fantasy: 3337
Historical: 330
Horror: 504
Literary Fiction: 2697
Mystery: 704
Romance: 595
Science Fiction: 1438
Spiritual and New Age: 132
Young Adult: 829
Other: 2613
Unreported: 17595

[ posted by sya on 4:08 PM : (0) comments ]

10.24.2005

It sounds so lame when I say that I got some ideas from a show on PBS, but it's true! Last night, I watched Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking with Rupert Everett as Holmes. Sure, there was the Victorian setting which gives me an idea of what kind of atmosphere I want to achieve. But the greatest thing was that Everett portrayed Holmes' darker side as a drug addict. What a wonderful flaw to stick one of my characters with!

[ posted by sya on 4:25 PM : (0) comments ]

10.20.2005

What Is A Novel?

Writing a novel in a month. The majority of people signed up for Nanowrimo are planning to write a novel--primarily, a long work of prose consisting of original fiction. But every year, there is the debate from fringe and not so fringe groups about what constitutes a novel. Is it simply anything at least 50,000 words? Must it be original fiction? Must it be fiction at all?

The way I see it, it's the spirit of the thing that counts the most. If what you're writing doesn't fit into my definition of what a novel is, that's okay as long as what you're doing is mainly 50,000 words of creativity. You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't try to force your own definition of the novel on everyone else. Epic poems, fan fiction*, non-fiction, biographies, movie scripts, stage plays--you can do all of that but don't tell me that those are novels.

Perhaps the debate wouldn't happen at all if the event was called National Book Writing Month instead. But it isn't and I guess I'm one of those old-fashioned people who believe you should write a novel when it says write a novel and not something else. Would a Chaucer fan club crash a science fiction convention? Would a contestant eat pumpkin pies at a hot dog eating competition? No. While you can argue that Chaucer and sci-fi are both fiction and pies and hot dogs are both food, they're not really the same. Although I don't like categorization as the next person, sometimes, they can be helpful.

*Fan fiction is a murky topic all within itself. It's fiction. And it's original--in the sense that the plot is original, but the characters and/or setting aren't. Fan fiction could be novels--witness the numerous Star Trek and Star Wars books--but most of it are just scribblings of self-fulfillment. I wouldn't say this is in itself bad or good. If people choose to use their time writing fan fiction, I won't argue with them.

There are several interesting arguments for and against fan fiction. The main objection is that the fan fiction writer is playing in someone else's world, that they're taking the easy way out by not creating the characters and setting themselves. Another is the constraints a previously created world sets on the writer. But this is debatable--some writers disregard the canonical rules and others argue that by creating your own world, you still have a set of rules to follow anyway.

Avid fan fiction writers point out writing in someone else's world is like training wheels on a bicycle. They're afraid of falling flat on their face if they start out writing original fiction. To that, I can only shake my head in disbelief. Are they afraid that their own creations will be too stupid for public consumption? I don't really see how fan fiction can prepare you for something original--the only thing to do is to practice. Besides, tons of stupid books actually get published every year and maybe your stupid idea is someone else's genius of a creation.

Anyways, this reminds me of a comment I got a while back about my 2003 Nano novel where the reader compared it to a "good X-files fanfic." My first reaction was more along the lines of "WTF?!" because I don't read fanfic, let alone X-files fanfic (aside: I'm not particularly a fan of X-files) and fan fiction, to me, has a lot of not exactly positive connotations. And dang it, my novel was original! But after thinking about it, I figured it was supposed to be a compliment. At least I hope so.

[ posted by sya on 11:05 AM : (0) comments ]

10.19.2005

Lately, I've been seeing people gush about Moleskine notebooks. And fountain pens. And I can't help think that perhaps people love the image of being a writer than really writing anything at all.

I really like my laptop--not because of the model, because it's not the latest model--but because it is portable and I can instantly type stuff in wherever I take it with me. Weight-wise, a notebook in the pocket is far more convenient, but I don't put notebooks in my pocket.

But I feel that a laptop is for my more finalized versions of whatever I'm working on. I also like to write in notebooks--but I don't spend the extra money on fancy volumes that makes the ordinary person look like a tortured artist wannabe. There are several types of notebooks I use. One is the Mead Five-Star 5 subject notebook which I use with any black ball point pen (the ones from hotels are the best; the ink flow is always even) for long writing exercises. The Mead Five-Star is still my long-time favorite--I've been using them for close to a decade now.

Another one is the black and white marble composition notebook which I do prewrites and planning, jot down ideas, and sketch out diagrams and maps with various types of pens depending on my mood. The third is the heavy sketchbook with a black cover--the paper is thick and I use the black Uniball Vision Micro pen which I absolutely love because the ink flows so nicely and evenly. However, this also means I must guard my Uniball quite zealously because people like to steal them. The sketchbook is primarily used for detailed world building.

[ posted by sya on 7:53 PM : (0) comments ]

10.17.2005

Last night, I was seriously contemplating on streamlining the background of my major characters and changing their names. But then I thought, nah. Nobody's simplistic. Everyone has a complicated background. Besides, this will give me more to write if it comes to that.

[ posted by sya on 2:23 PM : (0) comments ]

10.16.2005

Nanowrimo Emergency Kit

(This idea came from Karen, one of the municipal liasions in New Hampshire. I still have mine from last year.)

character builder sheets
packet of cocoa mix
packet of cider mix
post-it notes
chocolate bar
altoids
teabag
pencil
pen
eraser
rubber band
marble

* * *
On other ideas: While reading over last year's entries in the writing blog, I remembered that I had once considered writing a novel about pirates on the high seas. I have so got to do that one--maybe next year.

On title searching: It's fun going to search for other people's titles. For instance, if I type in "dark", the results spit out a lot of titles involving darkness, shadows, and light.

On angst: So many people with plots involving angst! I don't like being a complete sadist to my characters--even the villains--and if something bad happens to the characters, I'm usually rather matter of fact. I don't dwell. Could be because I don't like reading angsty fiction in the first place...

[ posted by sya on 2:09 PM : (0) comments ]

10.15.2005

On writing tools: I have been fiddling with a program that other Nano-ers have been recommending called Rough Draft. It saves everything in rtf format and associated notes in txt format. The upside of this is that the files aren't as bloated as a Word document. Another upside - it doesn't autoformats everything that I type in. This is why I'm pretty happy with it after I typed in my outline yesterday. Also, it has tabs! I love tabs. But as to actual writing? Remains to be seen.

On ideas: I had a really disturbing dream last night. Well, I always have disturbing dreams, so this isn't really new. It was sort of like a murder mystery except I knew who done it and why, but not how. And why was this disturbing? The murder scene was really--gory. Anyways, if anyone is short on ideas, dreams could be another source of inspiration.

On characterization: Threads on characterization keep appearing on the forums asking for how to make a character do this or that if a character's personality is completely counter to those types of actions. Well, anyone could do anything if given the right motivation. And it seems to me that these people just take a character prototype and never bothered to develop the character themselves. I guess it takes a bit of human understanding to write about anyone at all. And if you have to ask somewhat how to make a character three-dimensional, I'd suggest you seriously start people-watching.

[ posted by sya on 9:29 AM : (0) comments ]

10.14.2005

On meetings: So on Wednesday, I went to a local Nano meetup which as usual is pretty cool. I mean, you get to meet other people who are as crazy as you are to write a novel in a month. Weird thing was--I was probably the youngest person there but with the most years Nano-ing under my belt.

On my plot: Yay! Now most of the outline makes some sense. Still have to fit some other things in though. And I had a problem with how the villain meets his maker and I finally figured it out this morning: electrocution. My main character is going to be fiddling with electricity experiments all the time so somebody has to be electrocuted when things go wrong. Might as well be the villain.

[ posted by sya on 2:13 PM : (0) comments ]

10.12.2005

I am a big fan of open-ended, general outlines. I start getting antsy when people gush about detailed background and the snowflake method. I don't care if it's invented by a guy who has a PhD in physics. I want to spend my time writing, not doing background.

[ posted by sya on 12:52 PM : (0) comments ]

10.11.2005

I finished making a map yesterday of the city where everything is going to take place. My scanner isn't working and the map isn't very pretty so the chances are slim that I'll be posting it online.

The thing about maps--I don't go for the large continental fantasy maps. The largest I've done are city street maps. This year's street map comes in two parts. There's the center/interior part of the city where the streets and alleyways resemble a spider's web. The poor live in the inner city. The outer parts of the city where the working class, middle class, and upper class live are at the same time more grid-like and more haphazard. And nothing was drawn to scale.

The hardest part was in putting in street names. I used Culpeper's The Complete Herbal for inspiration.

[ posted by sya on 11:42 AM : (0) comments ]

10.10.2005

I've been partially following a hot thread on the forums called What is the point of this?

The instigator of the thread basically posits that there is no point to doing Nanowrimo. He says that anyone can join and that what most people will be writing is tons of crap that isn't publishable. There are a lot of other participants who've rushed to defend the concept of Nanowrimo and to that, I say, hurray! If you have to ask what the point is, you've probably completely missed it anyway.

Why does anyone want to write a novel in a month? There are probably as many reasons as there are participants. And who's to say that one reason isn't as valid as the next? Nanowrimo is all about getting the motivation to write and to join a community of writers who understand what you're going through. Sure, any person can join--but why act elitist about it? Part of the writing process is to just get the words down. A lot of people who want to write novels don't even do that.

If you want to join a small writers group who's goal is to get published, then join another group. Nanowrimo's purpose is to get writing. I'm sure a lot of words churned out during November is "crap" but that doesn't mean that nobody's trying. Besides, I don't think such a paragon exists who can turn out perfect prose the first time. If someone really wants to write crap, they can just copy and paste the same word 50,000 times. And editing...well, that's a different process. You'll have to check up on Nanoedmo for that.

[ posted by sya on 2:33 PM : (0) comments ]

I'm actually quite surprised at how many people don't know what steampunk is. I was under the impression that the mainstream was already aware that this was a subgenre of speculative fiction. But I guess I shouldn't assume anything. I've been looking through subgenres of spec fic when I came across some terms I haven't heard of before.

*Bangsian fantasy - Spec fic that deals with the afterlives of famous people. The only book I've read in this genre was one of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld books.

*Dying Earth fiction - It's a subgenre within a subgenre (science fantasy to be exact). It's spec fic that takes place at the end of time, when the sun is dying. Sort of like H. G. Wells' The Time Machine in the far future.

*Biopunk - Spec fic that deals with the underside of a biotech society. Includes elements such as the hard-boiled detective, film noir, anime, and post-modernism.

*Ribofunk - The word is derived from the full name for RNA. A subgenre of biopunk, it deals with the enhancement of technology via genetic manipulation.

*Clerical fiction - A subgenre of science fiction that deals with the Catholic Church.

*Cosy Catastrophe - A subgenre of post-apocalyptic science fiction where everyone is killed except a few middle-class survivors who set about rebuilding civilization.

*Xenofiction - Spec fic that is set among a species that is very different from humanity or human society. An example would be Watership Down by Richard Adams.

You know, sometimes it's amusing to see all these little classifications, but personally, I don't really want to categorize what I write. I say that I'm trying steampunk because my story is set in a quasi-Victorian society. It's not like I'm going to focus entirely on steam technology (I'm not). Who knows what other elements I might end up throwing in--fantasy, mystery, romance, horror, comedy...

[ posted by sya on 11:19 AM : (0) comments ]

10.09.2005

Character sheets, blah. I don't think listing my characters' interests, activities, and eye color is really helpful. I usually go for the short bio instead. This gives me more insight into a character's possible motivations and actions when the plot starts rolling.

On setting: One thing I've never really explained before is that my Nano novels have all been set on an alternate Earth. All place names have been changed. For example: In A Snake Among the Roses, the town of Elanne was modeled on Old Pasadena, California. In The Twenty-Fifth Hour, Monadnock was pretty much an amalgam of small New Hampshire towns. Monteport in The Reflecting Eye is an alternate Boston. For Beads of Horn Silver, the small town of Gavot was modeled on Ohio farming communities.

This year, the city of Amanthus (named after the chthonic deity Amanthusa) is based on the ancient city of Amathus in Cyprus. The original name sounded pretty cool so I didn't change it very much.

[ posted by sya on 3:23 PM : (0) comments ]

10.08.2005

Here's another writing exercise: Character Roll Call. The point is to list all the characters you have so far in your story.

My named characters so far:

Main Characters
Zan Hu - "Swift Fox", fox-shifter, inventor
Moon Caradon - fox-shifter, businessman

Villains
Southmore - a bishop, one of the Queen's advisors

Secondary Characters
Ali Rasheed - Moon's man-of-affairs
Obe Bama - ambassador from the Ivory Coast
Long - apothocary
Oliver - Moon's cousin, Gasmere's successor
Del Garrou - a dandy/fop, wolf-shifter
Mrs. Felis-Ackart - a wealthy widow, cat-shifter

Deceased Characters
Elliot Waterstone - Zan's maternal uncle, inventor
Peter Caradon - Moon's father, Earl of Gasmere, Queen's ambassador

Supernatural Beings
Amanthusa - a chthonic deity

Currently Unnamed Characters
Various scientists and inventors from the Academy
The staff of the Museum
Zan's parents
Moon's mother
Zan's household staff

[ posted by sya on 3:07 PM : (0) comments ]

I've been making revisions to the semi-outline I have and at this point, I'm wondering if I have too many secondary characters. Of course, these secondary characters will come in handy when I'm struggling for something to write.

For research, so far, I have Victorian clothing, Victorian speech patterns, Victorian transportation (sensing a theme here?), Chinese medicine, Michael Faraday, static electricity machines, and fabric. Maybe today I'll look into Victorian funerary customs and some of Faraday's chemical experiments. Oh, and I've yet to find a good site with a list of Chinese herbs and their traditional properties.

Some thoughts inspired by forum threads:

*Titles. I've got one that matches some of the plot's themes. I won't put it down here yet because I might change my mind.

*Maps. Mine's chicken scratch. It vaguely resembles a city at this point.

*Names. I am having more trouble with names this year than previous years. At this rate, I'm stealing names from other ideas that haven't come to fruition.

[ posted by sya on 9:19 AM : (0) comments ]

10.07.2005

There are some interesting topics in the forums, although going in a certain direction, had me thinking:

Point of view. I've only done third person for Nano because in a certain way it gives more freedom to explore more than one character. I'm more leery about first person--it's very easy to lapse into writing like yourself rather than your character and not many authors do it well. I don't even like reading most novels in first person. And second person--arg! Second person sounds so accusatory, it totally grates on my nerves.

Sequels. I must admit, I have toyed with the idea of doing sequels to previous Nano novels but have never seriously considered doing it. For one thing, I don't like reading novels that are sequels, trilogies, series, unless they are very good. I have no patience for extended story lines and a standalone is fine enough for me. I love fantasy as a genre but I just don't get why people keep on writing trilogies. Is it a holdover of The Lord of the Rings?

The polls. Maybe the results are skewed towards the people more likely to take polls but I do find them interesting. The majority of the people doing Nano are female. And most people are writing in the fantasy genre. Does this mean anything?

[ posted by sya on 11:55 AM : (0) comments ]

10.06.2005

So I'm slowing putting up links to other people's NaNoWriMo weblogs, journals, websites, whathaveyou on my links page. The one thing that I find annoying are LiveJournalers who have made their websites "friends only". I understand that some people don't want everyone to see their stuff, but what's the point of advertising the url on the Nano forums (where I usually pick links up) if nobody's able to view anything?

* * *
Ah, most things are starting to gel. Yesterday, it all hit me--Michael Faraday. I read a biography about him earlier in the year and I didn't really think it was much use to me except for the fact that I found him interesting. But last night around 11 or 12 o'clock, while I was thinking about my nebulous steampunk idea and how little I knew about 19th century technology, I realized that I did already know something. And then Marco Polo and Alister Crowley jumped in and made it interesting.

I'm not going to actually use these historical figures in the story. And yes, I do realize that some of the historical figures are not 19th century. More likely, I'll be putting bits and pieces of them into major secondary characters. And Faraday, of all people, has given me an idea on how to make the magic system in this alternate world work.

[ posted by sya on 11:58 AM : (0) comments ]

10.03.2005

Today is research day. I'm reading up on Victorian fashions and architecture and technology. Why? I'm thinking of placing the setting in a fantasy steampunk/clockpunk world.

[ posted by sya on 3:36 PM : (0) comments ]

10.02.2005

At the moment the forums are caput, but I found a nifty planning exercise on one of the threads. So far, this is the current idea I'm been tossing around. Of course, all of this is subject to change and there's a possibility I might scrap all of it later.

Novel Title: Right now, it's untitled. I usually come up with one once I'm further along.

Estimated length: At least 50,000 words.

Your writing experience: Been seriously writing for quite a while now although I don't have anything published (yet). Finished my first novel in high school. And of course, Nanowrimo since 2001.

Fantasy - new genre? Or old favorite?: Old favorite.

Other genres of your novel: thriller, occult horror, romance

Gonna publish?: Not my Nanowrimo efforts but hopefully some of my other stuff.

Cliches/archetypes you're including: Nercromancy, decaying cities, shapeshifters.

Cliches/archetypes you're avoiding: Perfectly heroic characters.

Theme(s): What themes? You mean we need a theme?

What we (the readers) will learn: You would learn something if I had any themes in mind.

Main character(s): Blacktail and Nightpaw (only clan names at the moment), who are two fox shifters.

Secondary characters: Probably a sorcerer and a ghost or two.

Protagonist(s): Blacktail and Nightpaw

Antagonist(s): The Black Ivy, a cadre of power-hungry sorcerers.

Setting: An as yet named necropolis and its surrounding living suburbs.

Rough geography: At the base of a mountain range.

Races/inhabitants: Humans, long-lived sorcerers, shifters of various sorts, ghosts, some Lovecraftian-type monsters.

Fantasy aspects: Magic and mythical creatures.

Conflict: The Black Ivy's ambitions are the root of all the conflict.

Obstacles in the journey: The Black Ivy's henchmen, some necessary artifacts hidden in inaccessible places, the surly and dangerous inhabitants of the necropolis where almost everything takes place.

Expected resolution: The Black Ivy's plans are permanently thwarted, at least.

Summary of plot: Blacktail has just gotten out of jail and she's bent on revenge--The Black Ivy had framed her for a murder she didn't commit, but it's practically impossible to get near the sorcerers without getting killed herself. She later teams up with Nightpaw, a magic consultant, and gets hired on to do some investigating of the Black Ivy's activities in the dragon ore trade by another mysterious organization called the Red Velvets.

[ posted by sya on 3:33 PM : (0) comments ]

10.01.2005

In one of my dreams last night, I was trying to log on to the Nanowrimo website. Somehow I managed to type in my password despite having my keyboard going all funny on me (I knew where all the letters were despite all the keys looking like hieroglyphics--ah, the skill of knowing how to type!), but the entire website looked like a garish yellow. I wonder what that means.