Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail for October 14th, 2014

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ― Ray Bradbury

Notes from the night itself…
Katelin read from a revised chapter 1 of The Battle of Sista.
The group agreed that capitalizing the alien races would make it more clear. Wording like “drinking in the stillness” and overuse of the words “create” and “creation” made things confusing. Jack pointed out some continuity errors like “popped slowly.” Alicia thought that since there is so much to introduce, it could be good to tell more clearly what these new things are. What is the central conflict? Possibly bring that closer to the beginning while setting the scene more clearly.

Alicia read from chapter 1 of Coastie Girl.
Consider using “irreverent” instead of “sacrilegious.” Liam thought that the father would not stay in uniform after he was home and would not be washing dishes in his uniform. Katelin liked the voice of the narrator. Rebecca suggested demonstrating the girl’s talent to help people and her motivation for acting.

Rebecca read from chapter 2 of Lookout.
Everyone loves the cat’s point of view. The mouse memory was a bit long, shorten to only the essential information. Katelin liked Ang’s purpose in staying outdoors. Alicia didn’t find hints about the larger conflict of the story.

Who’s up next . . .
October 21: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Andy Brown (chapter, Man Before the Fall), Bob Kralapp (???), Pat Edwards (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), and Judith McNeil (???).

Oct. 28: Rebecca (chapter 3 of Lookout), Alicia (chapter 2 of Coastie Girl), Judah (chapter 1 of December)

November 4: Judith McNeil (???), Andy Pfeiffer (chapters, The Void), Millie Mader (chapter 59, Life on Hold), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Bob Kralapp (???), and Jerry Peterson (short story).

Nov. 11: Liam (chapter, Prisoner of the Gods), Jen (???)

NaNoWriMo!
National Novel Writer’s Month is coming up, and NaNoWriMo.org has many tips on getting your novel done! This week, enjoy

Ask An Author: “With all of the existing imaginary worlds out there, how do you create a world that’s unique to your own story?”

Michael David Lukas is author of historical novel The Oracle of Stamboul.

With all of the existing imaginary worlds out there, how do you create a world that’s unique to your own story? — a NaNoWriMo participant

On the surface, this seems like a question oriented towards science fiction and fantasy novels. But, in fact, it’s applicable to any genre. Novel writing is, first and foremost, world building. You may be building a world ruled by the electric sheep from android dreams or you might be building a world that looks very similar to our own. Regardless, writing a novel is about creating a landscape, populating it, setting the rules, and telling the stories that bubble up to the surface.

Whatever your world may be, it has to be one that is uniquely yours. Your world can be influenced by other fictional worlds. But in order for the world to be successful it should be one that you have created and (importantly) one that you will feel comfortable living in for the next few years.

Spend some time in your world before you start writing, give yourself the space to imagine who lives there, what the air smells like, how hard the sun beats down. Build the world out in your mind before putting it down on the page. Because once you start writing, the demands of story start to take over.

And, if at all possible, try not to think about the market (whether people want to buy a book about talking hippopotamuses or a slightly noirish remake of Garfield). Try not to let all the vampires, werewolves, and plucky dystopian heroines influence your world building. A world that’s unique to you will be more enjoyable to write about and, ultimately, it will produce a book that’s more enjoyable to read.