Some of you who follow me on social media may be aware that Project Runway is one of my guilty pleasures. Those of you familiar with the show, particularly if you're caught up on the present season, may have some idea why I'm bringing this up. For those who don't know the show, it's a fashion design competition, which is an entirely different world, but still a glimpse into creative endeavors.
If you are following the current season but aren't current, you may want to stop reading.
In a recent episode, the designer Claire started to work on a shirt that was a near copy, form-wise, of the design that had won the previous episode. The creator of that design, Margarita, was distraught, couldn't stop focusing on it, even when Claire changed what she was doing. When it came out in the judges' panel, they pointed out that they borrowed from each other all the time. It's a natural process in fashion.
The grand wisdom of social media, of course, is never to read the comments ... and, also of course, I did. People came down hard on Margarita for whining, for being a diva, for not getting over herself. I think almost anyone with a creative passion would understand how she felt. Knowing on a logical level that an imitator hasn't done anything "wrong" doesn't help: it still hurts. And that line between inspiration and plagiarism? It's often mighty thin and almost always subjective, as is the line between when something is a fair-game trope versus a specific person's trademark.
There is nothing new under the sun, just different arrangements of the same pieces, yet writers bond fiercely with their designs. It's how we breathe life into them.
About Me
- Lindsey Duncan
- I'm a professional harp performer, chef / pastry chef, and speculative fiction writer from Cincinnati, Ohio. My contemporary fantasy novel Flow is available from Double Dragon Publishing, and my science fiction novel Scylla and Charybdis is now out from Grimbold Books. I've also sold a number of short stories and a few pieces of speculative poetry. I write predominantly fantasy, usually epic and/or humorous, with some soft science fiction. I play the traditional lever harp with a specialty in Celtic music - but I also perform modern and Renaissance tunes. And yes, you read that right - I have a diploma in Baking and Pastry and an Associates in Culinary Arts and am currently working in the catering field at Kate's Catering and Personal Chef Services (Dayton, KY). I am a CPC (Certified Pastry Culinarian) and CSW (Certified Specialist of Wine).
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Thursday Thoughts
A day late due to schedule juggling this week; I was working yesterday, and while it was an enjoyable day, it was a hectic one spent running interminably back and forth to the ovens (pies, cookies, cheesecake!).
Thought I would talk today about my ritual for starting stories and novels; not the choosing or conceptualizing, but the very first step in the writing, before those first words hit the screen like a bellyflopping diver.
(It occurs to me I do have to specify screen. I do all my writing on the computer, and am boggled by people who not only can, but prefer to write longhand. Admittedly that handwriting is both physically painful and awkward for me, quite apart from the whole left-handed, "Oh, hey, did I just smear everything I'm writing?" problem.)
So the first step is choosing a font. For me, stories have a particular feel to them; I might not be able to put words to what that feel is, but it's there. So do fonts. Here's an easy example: Comic Sans gets a lot of flack for being not particularly professional or serious, so it's a nice choice for a humorous story. Another criteria for fonts is that they need to be legible, but not too big or small, when Word is blown up to 150%. So I typically will write in 9 or 10 pt, but some fonts don't look good at that size.
Why do I blow up Word? ... let me rephrase that.
I've been increasing the zoom on Word since I got a larger monitor and 100% no longer filled the whole screen. It's one of those "feel" things: I hate a lot of white space around the text. It makes me feel detached from the story. It's also why I can't write in double spacing.
For shorts, I also like to futz around with picking a kooky, dramatic, whatever font for the title, though that doesn't have any serious bearing on anything.
Oh, the last, crucial thing: I need a title. Yes, for a writerly reason: I find that if I don't have a title before I start, it becomes exponentially harder to come up with one. Most of my post-writing retitles (I've had a few requests, once because the magazine had published a story by that same title in the previous issue), I've been pretty dissatisfied with.
Buuut ... also for a practical reason: file needs a title. Not that I haven't gotten around this: I have a worldbuilding file entitled ArbitraryWorldNameHere. And "She's Unable To Lunch Today" just has the filename of "Lunch." (As a culinary type, this confuses me sometimes. It may not have been the smartest choice.)
And then ... the opening line.
Thought I would talk today about my ritual for starting stories and novels; not the choosing or conceptualizing, but the very first step in the writing, before those first words hit the screen like a bellyflopping diver.
(It occurs to me I do have to specify screen. I do all my writing on the computer, and am boggled by people who not only can, but prefer to write longhand. Admittedly that handwriting is both physically painful and awkward for me, quite apart from the whole left-handed, "Oh, hey, did I just smear everything I'm writing?" problem.)
So the first step is choosing a font. For me, stories have a particular feel to them; I might not be able to put words to what that feel is, but it's there. So do fonts. Here's an easy example: Comic Sans gets a lot of flack for being not particularly professional or serious, so it's a nice choice for a humorous story. Another criteria for fonts is that they need to be legible, but not too big or small, when Word is blown up to 150%. So I typically will write in 9 or 10 pt, but some fonts don't look good at that size.
Why do I blow up Word? ... let me rephrase that.
I've been increasing the zoom on Word since I got a larger monitor and 100% no longer filled the whole screen. It's one of those "feel" things: I hate a lot of white space around the text. It makes me feel detached from the story. It's also why I can't write in double spacing.
For shorts, I also like to futz around with picking a kooky, dramatic, whatever font for the title, though that doesn't have any serious bearing on anything.
Oh, the last, crucial thing: I need a title. Yes, for a writerly reason: I find that if I don't have a title before I start, it becomes exponentially harder to come up with one. Most of my post-writing retitles (I've had a few requests, once because the magazine had published a story by that same title in the previous issue), I've been pretty dissatisfied with.
Buuut ... also for a practical reason: file needs a title. Not that I haven't gotten around this: I have a worldbuilding file entitled ArbitraryWorldNameHere. And "She's Unable To Lunch Today" just has the filename of "Lunch." (As a culinary type, this confuses me sometimes. It may not have been the smartest choice.)
And then ... the opening line.
Sunday, October 08, 2017
Song Styles
One of the backstory characters in Surgeburnt, Tahir, is deceased (we learn this very early on, since the narrator inherited his powers, so it's not a spoiler), and the character appears only in flashback scenes and in the narrator's memories of him ... but I like to think he has a strong impact on the storyline. In many ways, he's the person with whom she has / had the most in common, but there was never any romantic inclinations between them.
This is the song that makes me think of him, despite the love story implicit in the tale. As with a lot of these, the music video has no relevance whatsoever, though it is a pretty clever story on its own.
Colors - Halsey
(And speaking of misinterpreted but not necessarily misheard lyrics: for some reason, my brain always wants to hear the lyric as, "You'll never be forgiven 'til your boys are two," as if one of the characters has kids growing up and ... I don't know. I makes no sense, what.)
When I went to write this post, I also started to laugh, because I forgotten I'd given Tahir the casting call of the fantastic Edi Gathegi:
Friday, October 06, 2017
Guest Post: Tales From The Underground
We have a challenge for you. Put your feet on the ground. Feel
the earth under your feet. Now imagine… imagine what is under that earth.
Imagine the Underground.
Tales From The Underground is a new collection of stories from
Inklings Press – with a dozen stories from writers around
the world, all imagining what might lie beneath the ground.
There are stories of fantasy, there are stories of science
fiction, there are stories bringing you a shiver in the dark.
So here, join us as we discuss what lurks beneath…
What is Inklings Press?
Inklings Press started out as a collective of writers working
together to publish short stories – and though the net is wider these days,
that’s exactly what Inklings Press remains.
Royalties are evenly divided between writers, so every book sold gives
contributors more money in their pocket. The press takes a single share too,
the same size as any writer’s, to pay for
advertising and promoting the book.
In short, Inklings aims to provide a place for writers who are
new or up-and-coming, and we’re delighted to
bring those writers’ stories to the world.
Why Tales From The Underground?
Tales From The Underground is perhaps the most natural
development in the Inklings collection of books so far. The idea came from the
writers of previous anthologies. In discussion, the writers themselves
suggested the theme, so we ran with it. And the outcome is the biggest
collection of stories yet from Inklings Press.
Who is in the anthology?
There are writers from around the world in the collection –
there are stories that were authored in Australia, made in Mexico, that
flourished in Finland and France, emerged from England and were born in The
Bahamas.
The list of authors includes those with novels to their name, and
those who are still taking their first steps in publication.
The authors in the anthology are Jeff Provine, Brent A. Harris,
E.M. Swift-Hook, Claire Buss, Ricardo Victoria, Christopher Edwards, Lawrence
Harding, N.C. Stow, Rob Edwards, Jaleta Clegg, Jeanette O’Hagan and Leo McBride.
You would love this anthology if you loved…?
One of the nice things about this collection is the range of
stories inside.
Fantasy is a strong theme throughout, as in the urban fantasy of
Rob Edwards’ The Lords of Negative Space, about the world just
out of sight. But there are also science fiction tales, such as Jaleta Clegg’s tale, The Angels of Mestora, in which
unwary dwellers of a distant planet are lured away from civilization by “angelsong”,
and Ricardo Victoria’s Buried Sins, with
a battle in an ancient underground city.
Jeff Provine delves into a cavern with a reputation for weird
events, while Brent A. Harris takes us on a trip through time. N.C. Stow imbues
her tale with the influence of Russian mythology, while both Lawrence Harding
and E.M. Swift-Hook tell us tales of mythology in worlds of their own devising.
Claire Buss goes underground in more than one sense in her tale Underground
Scratching, and Jeanette O’Hagan presents a
team of miners fighting for their very lives against supernatural powers.
Christopher Edwards tells us a tale of strange visions in an RAF
bunker, and Leo McBride follows explorers retracing the steps of an expedition
that never returned. There are ghosts, there are distant planets, there are
things happening in the ground under our very feet. Legends are revealed, and
legends are made.
It is a delight to watch the stories take such different
directions while all sharing the same theme.
Where can I get it?
Tales From The Underground is available on Amazon at
www.amazon.com/Tales-Underground-Twelve-hidden-legends-ebook/dp/B075ZQ579N. You
can also learn more at www.inklingspress.com. Each story also includes
information about the writers, so if you fall in love with one of the works,
you can follow the links to learn – and read –
more.
So take a peek, and come join us, down here…
in the dark.
Wednesday, October 04, 2017
Wednesday Wanderings
Alas for the internet, for it has one terrible consequence: it is now almost impossible to go about singing ridiculously incorrect song lyrics, blissfully ignorant of the truth. A single peek on Google resolves (almost) all questions, so we're left with the plausible misinterpretations or those so ridiculous that they can't help but stick in the brain. (Recently, I was mildly heartbroken to learn that the line in Lady Gaga's "The Fame" is actually "Hot blondes in odd positions" - I was hearing "acquisitions," and it made enough sense I never bothered to look it up. I was picturing cold-hearted but gorgeous executive(s) who had clawed their way to the top. To me, a much more enjoyable take on the lyric.)
We all have our childhood favorites, the lyrics we didn't understand because the word or phrase wasn't in our vocabulary yet. Mine was the "man of loaded grease" ("low degree") in Helen Reddy's "Delta Dawn," but also noteworthy is the fact that for literally decades, I thought the girl in The Zombies' "She's Not There" had *died*, due to mishearing a few key phrases. "How many people cried ..." I thought of a funeral, not jilted / hurt emotions, and my interpretation spiraled from there.
Moving along to adulthood, in the category of "that almost sounds right," I came across Destiny's Child "Bug A Boo," about an obnoxious would-be lover: "I want to put my number on the call block ... break my knees so I can't move ..."
Thought me: well, that seems excessive, but I can see it ...
Oh. "Break my lease so I can move."
Then there's the line you know you had to have misheard. The Pussycat Doll's "Bite The Dust" is a possessive girlfriend talking to a would-be man-thief: "Make a move and I'm on him like Fievel."
Wait, the mouse from American Tail? Definitely not right. I decided it was supposed to be "fire" and didn't think much of it for a while. Then I finally looked it up: "5-0." As in the cops. Okay, that makes sense.
And meat dress notwithstanding, I really don't think Lady Gaga's persona in "Marry The Night" wanted to "Put on some leather en croute." ("and cruise")
Sometimes, you hear the words correctly (sort of), but it just parses oddly. That's the only reason I can come up for this one from "I've Forgotten What It Was In You" (Maria McKee): "Your arms were like a little pair of dice." ... paradise. *Paradise*.
This, though, is the gold standard in absurd misheard lyrics. If watched Dead Like Me, you're probably familiar with the haunting Metisse song, Boom Boom Ba - and if you're not, go listen to it first, because a) it's a beautiful song; and b) the misheard lyrics will forever ruin your ear.
Now, Metisse is hard to understand to start with, but many of her songs include lines or phrases in another language. So that results in this glorious strangeness:
Boom Boom Ba - Misheard Lyrics
We all have our childhood favorites, the lyrics we didn't understand because the word or phrase wasn't in our vocabulary yet. Mine was the "man of loaded grease" ("low degree") in Helen Reddy's "Delta Dawn," but also noteworthy is the fact that for literally decades, I thought the girl in The Zombies' "She's Not There" had *died*, due to mishearing a few key phrases. "How many people cried ..." I thought of a funeral, not jilted / hurt emotions, and my interpretation spiraled from there.
Moving along to adulthood, in the category of "that almost sounds right," I came across Destiny's Child "Bug A Boo," about an obnoxious would-be lover: "I want to put my number on the call block ... break my knees so I can't move ..."
Thought me: well, that seems excessive, but I can see it ...
Oh. "Break my lease so I can move."
Then there's the line you know you had to have misheard. The Pussycat Doll's "Bite The Dust" is a possessive girlfriend talking to a would-be man-thief: "Make a move and I'm on him like Fievel."
Wait, the mouse from American Tail? Definitely not right. I decided it was supposed to be "fire" and didn't think much of it for a while. Then I finally looked it up: "5-0." As in the cops. Okay, that makes sense.
And meat dress notwithstanding, I really don't think Lady Gaga's persona in "Marry The Night" wanted to "Put on some leather en croute." ("and cruise")
Sometimes, you hear the words correctly (sort of), but it just parses oddly. That's the only reason I can come up for this one from "I've Forgotten What It Was In You" (Maria McKee): "Your arms were like a little pair of dice." ... paradise. *Paradise*.
This, though, is the gold standard in absurd misheard lyrics. If watched Dead Like Me, you're probably familiar with the haunting Metisse song, Boom Boom Ba - and if you're not, go listen to it first, because a) it's a beautiful song; and b) the misheard lyrics will forever ruin your ear.
Now, Metisse is hard to understand to start with, but many of her songs include lines or phrases in another language. So that results in this glorious strangeness:
Boom Boom Ba - Misheard Lyrics
Sunday, October 01, 2017
Song Styles
It's the most wonderful time of the year ...
No, really. As a professional musician, I've had to start working on my Christmas repertoire, brushing off songs that I haven't played for nine months. Many of these tunes have been part of my annual set for years, so they quickly come back to my fingers and brain, but with fifty-plus pieces to revive and an instrument that doesn't lend itself to sightreading, I always start before Halloween ... and often when it's still far too warm to think about Christmas.
Is it any wonder I rarely listen to Christmas radio or CDs? I start even earlier than the malls do.
By and large, my selections are Christmas tunes that I enjoy. There are some I can't stand, and I try to avoid playing them. For instance, I have an irrational dislike of "Silent Night," and will only include it upon request. There's certainly no lack of beautiful tunes to play instead.
At this point, I have largely plumbed the depths of Christmas music that a) I like; b) is recognizable; and c) is playable upon the harp. I would love to play the Charlie Brown Christmas song ("Christmastime Is Here"), but it isn't harp friendly. Still, I'm always keeping my eye out for something new I want to add.
No, really. As a professional musician, I've had to start working on my Christmas repertoire, brushing off songs that I haven't played for nine months. Many of these tunes have been part of my annual set for years, so they quickly come back to my fingers and brain, but with fifty-plus pieces to revive and an instrument that doesn't lend itself to sightreading, I always start before Halloween ... and often when it's still far too warm to think about Christmas.
Is it any wonder I rarely listen to Christmas radio or CDs? I start even earlier than the malls do.
By and large, my selections are Christmas tunes that I enjoy. There are some I can't stand, and I try to avoid playing them. For instance, I have an irrational dislike of "Silent Night," and will only include it upon request. There's certainly no lack of beautiful tunes to play instead.
At this point, I have largely plumbed the depths of Christmas music that a) I like; b) is recognizable; and c) is playable upon the harp. I would love to play the Charlie Brown Christmas song ("Christmastime Is Here"), but it isn't harp friendly. Still, I'm always keeping my eye out for something new I want to add.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Wednesday Wanderings
It's official: my weekly post has migrated to this day. I work four 10 hour shifts at my new job, which means that I have one day off in the middle of the week, and this is it. A lot of people have winced and said, "Ugh!" when I've described my schedule, but I really like it, both the slightly longer days - enough time to get more done - and the "free" day in the middle of the week.
Anyone who knows me can suss out why the word "free" is in quotation marks.
I've always juggled a lot of balls and hats, putting the former on my head and rolling the latter across the floor ... wait. Anyhow, one of the best things I've done to manage this is keep to-do lists as Sticky Notes on my computer desktop, today and tomorrow. When I close down for the day, I delete the "today" note, drag the "tomorrow" note to the top, and start a new note for the next thing. As I accomplish things during the day, I delete them from the note. But there's one line on every note that never gets deleted, since it's never completed ...
It simply says "Write." There is no word count, no page goal, no progress marker - my life is such that my ability to complete a specific amount a day varies widely, and I don't either want to fall short and feel guilty, or easily accomplish the goal and then feel like I can slack off for the day.
But it is an endless repeat, a refrain, a forever expectation. Even if the day goes haywire and all I do is plan in my head, I keep my writing as part of my daily life.
Anyone who knows me can suss out why the word "free" is in quotation marks.
I've always juggled a lot of balls and hats, putting the former on my head and rolling the latter across the floor ... wait. Anyhow, one of the best things I've done to manage this is keep to-do lists as Sticky Notes on my computer desktop, today and tomorrow. When I close down for the day, I delete the "today" note, drag the "tomorrow" note to the top, and start a new note for the next thing. As I accomplish things during the day, I delete them from the note. But there's one line on every note that never gets deleted, since it's never completed ...
It simply says "Write." There is no word count, no page goal, no progress marker - my life is such that my ability to complete a specific amount a day varies widely, and I don't either want to fall short and feel guilty, or easily accomplish the goal and then feel like I can slack off for the day.
But it is an endless repeat, a refrain, a forever expectation. Even if the day goes haywire and all I do is plan in my head, I keep my writing as part of my daily life.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Song Styles
Another few months, another set of CDs for my car listening pleasure, and another game of word association, as I string song titles together by links of varying degrees of sense:
Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? - Shania Twain
These Boots Are Made For Walking - Nancy Sinatra
Runaway - Sahlene
Runaway Daydreamer - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Daydreaming - Corinne Bailey Rae
Sweet Dreams - Beyonce
Sweet as Whole - Sara Bareilles
A Whole Lot of Hope - Carrie Newcomer
Hope Has A Place - Enya
Everything Falls Into Place - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Broken Pieces - Clannad
Smash Into You - Beyonce
We Can't Move To This - Ellie Goulding
Move - Dreamgirls
Hit The Road, Jack - Helen Reddy (also a thematic link between this one and the previous)
Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) - Lady Gaga
Poem To A Horse -Shakira
All The King's Horses - Joss Stone
Queen of Swords - Idina Menzel
Fighter - Christina Aguilera
Warrior - Kimbra
Love Is An Army - LeAnn Rimes
Scars To Your Beautiful - Alessia Cara
Beautiful Scars - Madonna
(Drop Dead) Beautiful - Britney Spears
Playing Dead - Chvrches
Musical Key - Cowboy Junkies
Making Music - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Music - September
Love Song - Sara Bareilles
Another Love Song - Leona Lewis
Break-up Song - Alicia Lemke
(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here - Shania Twain
Leave My Body - Florence + The Machine
Leave A Trace - Chrvches
Shadow - Colbie Caillat
Chasing Shadows - Shakira
Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michaelson
Grigio Girls - Lady Gaga
Ashes and Wine - A Fine Frenzy
Burn - Ellie Goulding
Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? - Shania Twain
These Boots Are Made For Walking - Nancy Sinatra
Runaway - Sahlene
Runaway Daydreamer - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Daydreaming - Corinne Bailey Rae
Sweet Dreams - Beyonce
Sweet as Whole - Sara Bareilles
A Whole Lot of Hope - Carrie Newcomer
Hope Has A Place - Enya
Everything Falls Into Place - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Broken Pieces - Clannad
Smash Into You - Beyonce
We Can't Move To This - Ellie Goulding
Move - Dreamgirls
Hit The Road, Jack - Helen Reddy (also a thematic link between this one and the previous)
Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) - Lady Gaga
Poem To A Horse -Shakira
All The King's Horses - Joss Stone
Queen of Swords - Idina Menzel
Fighter - Christina Aguilera
Warrior - Kimbra
Love Is An Army - LeAnn Rimes
Scars To Your Beautiful - Alessia Cara
Beautiful Scars - Madonna
(Drop Dead) Beautiful - Britney Spears
Playing Dead - Chvrches
Musical Key - Cowboy Junkies
Making Music - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Music - September
Love Song - Sara Bareilles
Another Love Song - Leona Lewis
Break-up Song - Alicia Lemke
(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here - Shania Twain
Leave My Body - Florence + The Machine
Leave A Trace - Chrvches
Shadow - Colbie Caillat
Chasing Shadows - Shakira
Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michaelson
Grigio Girls - Lady Gaga
Ashes and Wine - A Fine Frenzy
Burn - Ellie Goulding
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Song Styles
I made a new set of car CDs for myself yesterday, and part of the collection is my playlist for Surgeburnt. It's incomplete, technically - some characters don't have songs, but beyond character specific themesongs, I have songs for specific relationships and several for the overall world and feel. I've already mentioned Mary Lambert's fantastic "Sum Of Our Parts" (both versions) as the strongest inspiration, but those aren't the only tunes in my general theme list.
Here are a few others that I felt reflected the attitude, the outlook, the worldview, or perhaps even could be taken more literally than they were intended, in a fantastic setting. The instrumentation and mood of the music itself applies as much as the lyrics:
Fairytale - Sara Bareilles (This version has a longish non-musical introduction, but it is infinitely superior to the faster, fuller version from Little Voice)
Stranger Than Earth - Purity Ring
Glory and Gore - Lorde
Here are a few others that I felt reflected the attitude, the outlook, the worldview, or perhaps even could be taken more literally than they were intended, in a fantastic setting. The instrumentation and mood of the music itself applies as much as the lyrics:
Fairytale - Sara Bareilles (This version has a longish non-musical introduction, but it is infinitely superior to the faster, fuller version from Little Voice)
Stranger Than Earth - Purity Ring
Glory and Gore - Lorde
Monday, September 11, 2017
Monday Meanderings
Last week, I brought up the thorny topic (to me) of calendars. To me, our month and day names stand out as products of our world, so they don't work well in a fantasy setting. (Exceptions would be alternate earths or the stealth fantasy-setting-that-is-actually-scifi that used to be popular: colonists settled the planet long ago, but the origins have long since been lost and it reads like a fantasy realm.) One easy solution is to simply "reskin" our months and days with new names.
Otherwise, the challenge is to make a system that is 1) Logical and usefully divided. People rely upon the pattern of weeks to order their lives. A twenty day week would be unwieldy. 2) Intuitive. Throwing a foreign system at the reader, it needs to be easy to pick up. 3) Roughly equivalent in the length of a year. Extra days or decreased days can add up to characters who aren't quite as old as they say they are ...
The easiest layout is to shorten the months to 28 days. Then you have thirteen of them, and exactly four weeks. In Unnatural Causes, Pinnacle - a day of rest - is in the middle of a nine day week. The week is counted down and up from Pinnacle. It comes out easy to follow, once you wrap your brain around the fact that three-before is followed by two-before.
Again, intuitive is the key. If the writer dumps a lexicon of month / week / day names on the reader, the story grinds to a halt ... and it probably doesn't serve the intended purpose, as information overload leads to skimming.
But if it all seems to make sense and the reader can track how much time has passed, then the calendar has served its purpose. Like most of the iceberg in worldbuilding, the reader will (hopefully) feel the structure without needing to see it.
Word count this week: 2,995
Pages edited: 22 (yes, really)
Otherwise, the challenge is to make a system that is 1) Logical and usefully divided. People rely upon the pattern of weeks to order their lives. A twenty day week would be unwieldy. 2) Intuitive. Throwing a foreign system at the reader, it needs to be easy to pick up. 3) Roughly equivalent in the length of a year. Extra days or decreased days can add up to characters who aren't quite as old as they say they are ...
The easiest layout is to shorten the months to 28 days. Then you have thirteen of them, and exactly four weeks. In Unnatural Causes, Pinnacle - a day of rest - is in the middle of a nine day week. The week is counted down and up from Pinnacle. It comes out easy to follow, once you wrap your brain around the fact that three-before is followed by two-before.
Again, intuitive is the key. If the writer dumps a lexicon of month / week / day names on the reader, the story grinds to a halt ... and it probably doesn't serve the intended purpose, as information overload leads to skimming.
But if it all seems to make sense and the reader can track how much time has passed, then the calendar has served its purpose. Like most of the iceberg in worldbuilding, the reader will (hopefully) feel the structure without needing to see it.
Word count this week: 2,995
Pages edited: 22 (yes, really)
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Song Styles
So when I did my flash-and-poetry boot camp, I generated more ideas than I was going to need so I could pick and choose ... but not too many more, so I wasn't left dithering.
There was one idea that I put down and didn't end up using, but I think it's a good concept overall, so I bequeath to anyone who cares to borrow.
The idea is this: take a metaphorical song lyric and interpret it literally. For my boot camp, I decided to pick a specific lyric ahead of time ... and as soon as I did that, I couldn't find a lyric to suit me. Before that, it seemed like every other song jumped out at me with, "If you take that literally, it's an interesting concept." As soon as I started looking for one ... boom. Nothing.
I finally ended up with a bit from Rihanna's S.O.S: "I'm lost, you've got me looking for the rest of me." Though glancing at the song, "I'm the question, and you're of course the answer," has possibilities, too ...
(This song also falls on my "misheard lyrics" list: at first, I would have sworn she was saying, "This timepiece baby come and rescue me" even that makes no *sense*, but it sounds a lot more like "piece" than "peace." And I suppose animate heroic clocks would make a good story ...)
So there's your story spark: cherry pick a lyric from your usual listening fare that is intended to be a metaphor, figurative image, etc ... and interpret it in literal fashion.
There was one idea that I put down and didn't end up using, but I think it's a good concept overall, so I bequeath to anyone who cares to borrow.
The idea is this: take a metaphorical song lyric and interpret it literally. For my boot camp, I decided to pick a specific lyric ahead of time ... and as soon as I did that, I couldn't find a lyric to suit me. Before that, it seemed like every other song jumped out at me with, "If you take that literally, it's an interesting concept." As soon as I started looking for one ... boom. Nothing.
I finally ended up with a bit from Rihanna's S.O.S: "I'm lost, you've got me looking for the rest of me." Though glancing at the song, "I'm the question, and you're of course the answer," has possibilities, too ...
(This song also falls on my "misheard lyrics" list: at first, I would have sworn she was saying, "This timepiece baby come and rescue me" even that makes no *sense*, but it sounds a lot more like "piece" than "peace." And I suppose animate heroic clocks would make a good story ...)
So there's your story spark: cherry pick a lyric from your usual listening fare that is intended to be a metaphor, figurative image, etc ... and interpret it in literal fashion.
Monday, September 04, 2017
Monday Meanderings
Suspension of disbelief is a marvelous thing. It makes possible our immersion into fantastic realms where wizards fly and griffins sling fireballs ... wait, reverse that. It even operates in other genres, allowing us to believe in the amateur sleuth in the mystery, or that Carrie Bradshaw really can live in that apartment with *all those shoes* as a writer ... ahem.
But the tiniest little thing can break it.
Especially when discussing film and television versions of speculative fiction, people often give side eye to those questioning details. Many of you will recognize this example: "You have no trouble believing in the walking dead, dragons and decades-long winters, but you get hung up on the speed of a raven?"
Well ... yes, I do.
Don't worry, I'm not getting further into that specific debate here, just using it as an example: the details matter. In fact, the more fantastic, the more bizarre the assumptions of the setting, the more accurate and plausible the mundane details have to be.
It's a matter of trust: the reader (or viewer) has to trust the writer and the story they are being told. If the things the reader is familiar with are right, or at least seem right, that builds the writer some capital, which they can "spend" on the fantastic. The tricky thing, of course, is that every person has a different tolerance level ... a different amount in their suspension-of-disbelief bank account, if you will. Some people will buy anything you want to sell them. Others are actively looking for flaws. And, of course, people who already read and enjoy speculative fiction are far more likely to accept a fantastic premise without a solid trust framework.
As a writer, I happen to like playing with the details. I like to make things consistent and cohesive behind the scenes, even if the rationale behind specific worldbuilding elements is never made explicit in the text. I pay some attention to climate zones and the influence of geography on trade.
One particular small detail I admit I tend to be obsessed with: calendars! To me, using our world's calendar verbatim breaks my immersion; the names of the months, for instance, are so grounded in our mythos and culture. But how else do you mark days, months and years without confusing the reader or forcing them to learn a slew of unnecessary details?
But that's off the point, and probably an entire blog post on its own. In conclusion: yes, I am hung up on the speed of a raven. The mundane details matter.
Word count this week: 2,924
Pages edited: 5.5
Poems edited: 1
(I'm starting to get adjusted to my new work schedule. Hopefully productivity will continue to increase here.)
But the tiniest little thing can break it.
Especially when discussing film and television versions of speculative fiction, people often give side eye to those questioning details. Many of you will recognize this example: "You have no trouble believing in the walking dead, dragons and decades-long winters, but you get hung up on the speed of a raven?"
Well ... yes, I do.
Don't worry, I'm not getting further into that specific debate here, just using it as an example: the details matter. In fact, the more fantastic, the more bizarre the assumptions of the setting, the more accurate and plausible the mundane details have to be.
It's a matter of trust: the reader (or viewer) has to trust the writer and the story they are being told. If the things the reader is familiar with are right, or at least seem right, that builds the writer some capital, which they can "spend" on the fantastic. The tricky thing, of course, is that every person has a different tolerance level ... a different amount in their suspension-of-disbelief bank account, if you will. Some people will buy anything you want to sell them. Others are actively looking for flaws. And, of course, people who already read and enjoy speculative fiction are far more likely to accept a fantastic premise without a solid trust framework.
As a writer, I happen to like playing with the details. I like to make things consistent and cohesive behind the scenes, even if the rationale behind specific worldbuilding elements is never made explicit in the text. I pay some attention to climate zones and the influence of geography on trade.
One particular small detail I admit I tend to be obsessed with: calendars! To me, using our world's calendar verbatim breaks my immersion; the names of the months, for instance, are so grounded in our mythos and culture. But how else do you mark days, months and years without confusing the reader or forcing them to learn a slew of unnecessary details?
But that's off the point, and probably an entire blog post on its own. In conclusion: yes, I am hung up on the speed of a raven. The mundane details matter.
Word count this week: 2,924
Pages edited: 5.5
Poems edited: 1
(I'm starting to get adjusted to my new work schedule. Hopefully productivity will continue to increase here.)
Sunday, September 03, 2017
GoodReads Review: Shelf Life ed. Greg Ketter
Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores by Greg KetterMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
How could I resist an anthology full of stories about bookstores? These are all solid, satisfying tales, but the narrow theme is made narrower by the fact they all feel very similar: set in our world with the fantastic creeping in slowly. I would have loved to see more variety in tone and content. One tale does depart dramatically from the overall vibe: Patrick Weekes' "I Am Looking For A Book ..." which is exactly and wonderfully what you would expect from the author of The Palace Job. This one and the story immediately following, "The Glutton" (Melanie Tem) were the standout tales in the anthology. "The Glutton" got to me on a deep level.
To recap: good quality, but not a lot of variety.
View all my reviews
Song Styles
I've been adding songs to my Surgeburnt playlist as I come across them, and noticing a pattern: all of Maren's songs, except one, in some way reference death or dying. There's a nihilistic attitude underlying the songs I've chosen, a sense of "don't hold back, because it's all about to end." Case in point, my most recent addition:
Last Damn Night - Elle King
Maybe I could go on a deliberate search for a cheerful song, but it would probably just feel wrong.
Last Damn Night - Elle King
Maybe I could go on a deliberate search for a cheerful song, but it would probably just feel wrong.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Monday Meanderings
I've been mulling over alternate history of late: how does one historical turning point change the shape of the world? Much fiction has been composed and spilled on the subject. It's also a difficult thing to get right: any one event can have consequences in several areas, including some that may not seem related. This, admittedly, is a good part of the reason why I haven't written any alternate history myself, unless you count the wackiness of "The Fosterling Conspiracy," a short story that starts in Elizabethan-era Wales.
(I have played with time travel in some of my fantasy stories, a related topic. In my Ishene and Kemel stories - the time mage and her bodyguard - the prevailing theory indicates that temporal paradox could, quite literally, destroy reality, so they take "make no changes to history" with deadly seriousness.
For those not familiar with temporal paradox, the idea is: if you go back in time to make a change in history, then what happens in the "new" present, where history is different, so you don't need to travel back in time, but you *do* need to travel back in time, because otherwise, it will happen as it originally did? If you entirely can't follow that (understandably), the classic scenario used to explain it is a time traveler who goes back and kills his mother. Well, all right, now you were never born ... so who killed your mother?)
Back to alternate history, the further the world progresses from the inciting change, the harder it is to measure the consequences. Another thing to consider is whether the evolution of technology, social measures, etc, is parallel or divergent.
For instance, consider a world where the Americas were never "discovered" by Europeans. Think of all the technologies that were invented in America even before the 1900s. In this alternate history, would those technologies simply not exist at all? Would they have been developed in another fashion, by someone else, but with small differences? That's parallel evolution. Or ... would the technologies invented to solve life's problems been completely different? That's divergent evolution.
Obviously, parallel evolution is way easier to deal with. It's a cousin to another time travel concept, "plastic time," which is sometimes used as at least a partial resolution for paradox. Plastic time is the idea that history has a natural tendency to go back to the shape it was; it corrects itself. If you go back in time to murder Hitler (another classic scenario), one of his general steps up and takes over.
What I want to see in a time travel story is, instead of basing the alternate timeline on a big, pivotal moment, the alteration being a smaller event, even one that seems minor on the face of it. I watched Genius recently, the television series following the life of Albert Einstein, and I wondered: what if he had continued to collaborate with his first wife, instead of shutting her out? How much further would they have advanced his field? Would he have become politically involved? Would he have spawned the atomic bomb?
Another thought: what if Mary Shelley had never been born? Frankenstein is often regarded as the first science fiction book. The imagery in this book has pervaded our culture, and how many artists and even scientists has it inspired?
I can see two ways to approach such a story. The first is to cue the reader into the change right away, so they can appreciate all the nuances as they arise. The second is to treat it like a mystery, showing a world changed and only at the end revealing that point of divergence.
Obviously, this isn't done often (that I've seen) because such a change is more likely to be appropriate for a short story, and that's a lot of research / work for a brief payout. Does anyone have any examples they might want to share?
Word count this week: 2,222
Pages edited: 4.5
Poems edits: 2
Clerical note: I may move my weekly blog post back to Wednesday due to my work schedule.
(I have played with time travel in some of my fantasy stories, a related topic. In my Ishene and Kemel stories - the time mage and her bodyguard - the prevailing theory indicates that temporal paradox could, quite literally, destroy reality, so they take "make no changes to history" with deadly seriousness.
For those not familiar with temporal paradox, the idea is: if you go back in time to make a change in history, then what happens in the "new" present, where history is different, so you don't need to travel back in time, but you *do* need to travel back in time, because otherwise, it will happen as it originally did? If you entirely can't follow that (understandably), the classic scenario used to explain it is a time traveler who goes back and kills his mother. Well, all right, now you were never born ... so who killed your mother?)
Back to alternate history, the further the world progresses from the inciting change, the harder it is to measure the consequences. Another thing to consider is whether the evolution of technology, social measures, etc, is parallel or divergent.
For instance, consider a world where the Americas were never "discovered" by Europeans. Think of all the technologies that were invented in America even before the 1900s. In this alternate history, would those technologies simply not exist at all? Would they have been developed in another fashion, by someone else, but with small differences? That's parallel evolution. Or ... would the technologies invented to solve life's problems been completely different? That's divergent evolution.
Obviously, parallel evolution is way easier to deal with. It's a cousin to another time travel concept, "plastic time," which is sometimes used as at least a partial resolution for paradox. Plastic time is the idea that history has a natural tendency to go back to the shape it was; it corrects itself. If you go back in time to murder Hitler (another classic scenario), one of his general steps up and takes over.
What I want to see in a time travel story is, instead of basing the alternate timeline on a big, pivotal moment, the alteration being a smaller event, even one that seems minor on the face of it. I watched Genius recently, the television series following the life of Albert Einstein, and I wondered: what if he had continued to collaborate with his first wife, instead of shutting her out? How much further would they have advanced his field? Would he have become politically involved? Would he have spawned the atomic bomb?
Another thought: what if Mary Shelley had never been born? Frankenstein is often regarded as the first science fiction book. The imagery in this book has pervaded our culture, and how many artists and even scientists has it inspired?
I can see two ways to approach such a story. The first is to cue the reader into the change right away, so they can appreciate all the nuances as they arise. The second is to treat it like a mystery, showing a world changed and only at the end revealing that point of divergence.
Obviously, this isn't done often (that I've seen) because such a change is more likely to be appropriate for a short story, and that's a lot of research / work for a brief payout. Does anyone have any examples they might want to share?
Word count this week: 2,222
Pages edited: 4.5
Poems edits: 2
Clerical note: I may move my weekly blog post back to Wednesday due to my work schedule.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Song Styles
For your amusement, sympathy, and perhaps to snare an unsuspecting soul into the same trap that has tortured me for the last few days ... for some reason, this song has been an earworm in the back of my brain:
The Red Shoes - Kate Bush
The song references a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a pair of enchanted shoes that force the wearer to dance endlessly. This particular version seems to imply a cure that, while not part of the original fairy tale, is a very common trope: to escape the red shoes, one must give them to someone else, passing the curse along.
The Red Shoes - Kate Bush
The song references a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a pair of enchanted shoes that force the wearer to dance endlessly. This particular version seems to imply a cure that, while not part of the original fairy tale, is a very common trope: to escape the red shoes, one must give them to someone else, passing the curse along.
Monday, August 21, 2017
Monday Meanderings
Years ago, I read Heinlein's The Puppet Masters for a course. I was underwhelmed; it was a fairly good story, but nothing special. Admittedly, for me as a reader, it was more difficult to become engaged because the female lead was probably considered a "strong female character" by the author, but her portrayal was painfully dated. (It may not have been as bad as I remember, to be fair.)
But one part of The Puppet Masters stuck with me. The alien invaders of the novel physically bond to their human hosts. After the initial threat is neutralized, the government requires everyone to be naked, so there's no place for the alien to hide. But instead of this being distracting and titillating for people, the fact that every part of every person is revealed removes the interest of mystery. It becomes part of the background. Heinlein doesn't linger on it any more than that.
It's not a new thought, of course: what is concealed is more alluring than what is revealed. But Heinlein's illustration is both literal and direct. Imagine a whole world with nothing (physically) to hide. Or this, for the matter of that.
It's also worth keeping in mind as a general principle. When everything is spelled out, the attention wanders; boredom sets in. Keep people guessing ... but the reveal had also better pay off.
Word count this week: 1,843 (... it was a crazy one)
Pages edited: 7.5
Poems edited: 1
But one part of The Puppet Masters stuck with me. The alien invaders of the novel physically bond to their human hosts. After the initial threat is neutralized, the government requires everyone to be naked, so there's no place for the alien to hide. But instead of this being distracting and titillating for people, the fact that every part of every person is revealed removes the interest of mystery. It becomes part of the background. Heinlein doesn't linger on it any more than that.
It's not a new thought, of course: what is concealed is more alluring than what is revealed. But Heinlein's illustration is both literal and direct. Imagine a whole world with nothing (physically) to hide. Or this, for the matter of that.
It's also worth keeping in mind as a general principle. When everything is spelled out, the attention wanders; boredom sets in. Keep people guessing ... but the reveal had also better pay off.
Word count this week: 1,843 (... it was a crazy one)
Pages edited: 7.5
Poems edited: 1
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Song Styles
Who Wants To Be A Hero? is still seeking an agent, which means that some typing is curtailed due to my perpetual crossing of fingers. I've spoken before about some of the character themesongs, and today I'd like to highlight Senashi, the goddess of acclaim, public opinion and popularity ... who, of course, is the instigator of the game / show around which the novel is structured.
So what's her song? It's neither subtle nor obscure, and you've probably heard it:
The Fame - Lady Gaga
Really, what's more appropriate for the reality TV set?
So what's her song? It's neither subtle nor obscure, and you've probably heard it:
The Fame - Lady Gaga
Really, what's more appropriate for the reality TV set?
Monday, August 14, 2017
Monday Meanderings
I recently did a "Boot Camp" with the goal of writing a flash fiction or poetry piece, per day, for two weeks. I mostly concentrated on flash because that was what I "needed" for submission purposes, but I did finish four poems. (I partly stopped with poetry because they were becoming increasingly disturbing ... not sure why that happened, but I needed to stop unnerving myself with my own writing.)
What I became aware of is that writing poetry, particularly - for me, at least - within fixed form and line lengths, helps strengthen a writer's sense of word choice. In a short story or novel, it's easy for a cliche phrase to slip by in the flow to the next and the next. In a poem, the content is finite and each phrase needs attention, and often reworking to arbitrary lengths or rhythm. This draws a writer's eye with laser focus to the exact words, the way of shaping image: the journey as well as the destination.
Some writers will also use a form as a starting point and depart from it when it doesn't serve them; this is another great way to heighten awareness of exactly how you're making your point. Is the original phrase(s), within the context of the form, most effective, or does this change that departs from the form enhance the poem?
Like flash fiction, a poem is also a way to crystallize an idea in a compact number of words. Finding that essence makes the writer aware of what's actually needed to convey the story. (And there is a story, even if it's a progression of moods or an internal conversation rather than a specific plot.)
As a writer, I tend to be fairly deliberate: if a word choice isn't right, or I'm missing a fact, I need to resolve that before continuing. I spend a lot of time in my initial write of story openings to make sure that all the pieces are entering play. People who toss in parentheticals to (fill this in later) boggle me. But even if one is more a "throw down words and don't look back" writer, poetry can be helpful when you get to the editing stages. Clunky or dull phrases leap out where it might be possible to skim past them in a manuscript.
I happen to write (usually) overtly fantastical poetry: seers, ghosts, aliens. But even if tackling more mundane subject matter, poetry sharpens focus and attunes one to specific word choice.
Writing 7/31:
Word Count: 8,560
Poems written: 2
Pages edited: 5
Writing 8/7:
Word Count: 4,857 (... it's been a week)
What I became aware of is that writing poetry, particularly - for me, at least - within fixed form and line lengths, helps strengthen a writer's sense of word choice. In a short story or novel, it's easy for a cliche phrase to slip by in the flow to the next and the next. In a poem, the content is finite and each phrase needs attention, and often reworking to arbitrary lengths or rhythm. This draws a writer's eye with laser focus to the exact words, the way of shaping image: the journey as well as the destination.
Some writers will also use a form as a starting point and depart from it when it doesn't serve them; this is another great way to heighten awareness of exactly how you're making your point. Is the original phrase(s), within the context of the form, most effective, or does this change that departs from the form enhance the poem?
Like flash fiction, a poem is also a way to crystallize an idea in a compact number of words. Finding that essence makes the writer aware of what's actually needed to convey the story. (And there is a story, even if it's a progression of moods or an internal conversation rather than a specific plot.)
As a writer, I tend to be fairly deliberate: if a word choice isn't right, or I'm missing a fact, I need to resolve that before continuing. I spend a lot of time in my initial write of story openings to make sure that all the pieces are entering play. People who toss in parentheticals to (fill this in later) boggle me. But even if one is more a "throw down words and don't look back" writer, poetry can be helpful when you get to the editing stages. Clunky or dull phrases leap out where it might be possible to skim past them in a manuscript.
I happen to write (usually) overtly fantastical poetry: seers, ghosts, aliens. But even if tackling more mundane subject matter, poetry sharpens focus and attunes one to specific word choice.
Writing 7/31:
Word Count: 8,560
Poems written: 2
Pages edited: 5
Writing 8/7:
Word Count: 4,857 (... it's been a week)
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Song Styles
I'll be posting more from my Scylla and Charybdis playlist once I have a release date for the novel, but in the meantime, here's a "general purpose" song on it that I really like simply because it's imaginative and joyous:
In The Arms Of The Milky Way - Laura Powers
Laura Powers is what I would describe as New Age Pop, stuffed with every Celtic cliche you can imagine. As a professional Celtic musician, sometimes I'm kind of embarrassed by my fondness for her stuff, but it is surprisingly catchy and fun.
As a sidebar, the television show Salvation recently mentioned the mythological Scylla and Charybdis. (I keep meaning to write a blog post about Salvation, which is to impending-apocalypse science fiction what Laura Powers is to Celtic mythology: a heartfelt but not particularly original love letter.)
Anyhow, the characters on Salvation discussed the part of the story most people don't address, which is Odysseus' solution to sailing between them. With the whirlpool Charybdis, the danger was all or nothing; they might be able to evade it, but it might suck the ship and all its passengers down to doom. Scylla, on the other hand, was a monster, a woman from the waist up, and vicious dogs from the waist down (given Greek misogyny, there's gotta be a metaphor there). She would certainly kill some of the crew ... but not everyone.
So the mythological choice between Scylla and Charybdis is ... do you choose the certain sacrifice of some over a chance that everyone might make it ... or everyone might die? It's a no-win situation.
How this metaphor applies to *my* Scylla and Charybdis is another question. I didn't have this story specifically in mind when I structured the plot, though there are mythological influences sprinkled throughout. (In the original short story, when Gwydion was the *only* male you see, I very deliberately chose a name from another mythos - Welsh. And I can't recall specifically, but I don't think that the name of his sister-in-law, Sophie - wisdom - was chosen randomly, either ...)
In The Arms Of The Milky Way - Laura Powers
Laura Powers is what I would describe as New Age Pop, stuffed with every Celtic cliche you can imagine. As a professional Celtic musician, sometimes I'm kind of embarrassed by my fondness for her stuff, but it is surprisingly catchy and fun.
As a sidebar, the television show Salvation recently mentioned the mythological Scylla and Charybdis. (I keep meaning to write a blog post about Salvation, which is to impending-apocalypse science fiction what Laura Powers is to Celtic mythology: a heartfelt but not particularly original love letter.)
Anyhow, the characters on Salvation discussed the part of the story most people don't address, which is Odysseus' solution to sailing between them. With the whirlpool Charybdis, the danger was all or nothing; they might be able to evade it, but it might suck the ship and all its passengers down to doom. Scylla, on the other hand, was a monster, a woman from the waist up, and vicious dogs from the waist down (given Greek misogyny, there's gotta be a metaphor there). She would certainly kill some of the crew ... but not everyone.
So the mythological choice between Scylla and Charybdis is ... do you choose the certain sacrifice of some over a chance that everyone might make it ... or everyone might die? It's a no-win situation.
How this metaphor applies to *my* Scylla and Charybdis is another question. I didn't have this story specifically in mind when I structured the plot, though there are mythological influences sprinkled throughout. (In the original short story, when Gwydion was the *only* male you see, I very deliberately chose a name from another mythos - Welsh. And I can't recall specifically, but I don't think that the name of his sister-in-law, Sophie - wisdom - was chosen randomly, either ...)
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