I've had my fingers in a lot of fictional pies over the past few weeks, between trying to finish up the novella, query letter for Who Wants To Be A Hero?, a new flash fiction story, and some editing - both preparing my submissions queue and looking ahead to Sword & Sorceress submissions (hopefully) in the spring. Today, I thought I would just share a handful of first lines as they stand:
The drizzle and evening fog lulled Marina, as
did her companion’s eager recitation of sports statistics from before
Superstorm Valerie; she almost missed the pulsing light of the motion
detectors. --- Undertaking Chances
“Most
people would be glad of the distinct lack of bodies in the street, not to
mention common thugs breaking into houses,” my companion said. -- Untitled (still ... got to do that before I can submit it ...)
Ioweyn stood in the Waiting Chamber of the Gods
and tried not to fidget. -- Who Wants To Be A Hero?
As
she had done every sunrise and sunset since arriving at the royal estate five
months ago, Elinet Plin stood in her tower window and stared across the newborn
lake of Cascolem. -- Soul Medley
“With
that kind of entrance,” Cailys Andiara addressed her visitor, flashing an
apologetic look to me from the workshop door, “I’m wondering if you think I
killed someone.” -- Unnatural Causes
(I am still unhappy with this final opening line; it's the opening of my finished but unedited novel. The first version was perfect, but implied a thunderous arrival for the other character that didn't make sense with his reasons for visiting. This is my murder victim, and I was trying to foreshadow her death ... such is a writer's life.)
Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my opening lines. And here's the opening to Flow:
On bad days, the world around Kit vibrated in
sympathy.
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, January 20, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Wednesday Wanderings
My life is a complex balance of order and chaos. Some areas are casual, spontaneous, driven by inspiration or impulse; other areas are measured, organized, sometimes overly indexed. To use a term that has become heavily cliche, but was a huge part of my childhood: my world is equally right-brained and left-brained. I have always joked that with everything going on in my head at all times, if I didn't have some structure, I would go crazy. Maybe it's not a joke ...
I'm a writer, harp performer, pastry chef / chef - do I even need to explain how creative chaos dances through my life? (Though I, personally, cannot dance. I am a giant clutz.) I am always puttering around with something; last night, before I fell asleep, I was plotting ingredient combinations for dinner meals.
Much of the structure and routine I impose is a matter of pragmatism. I use to-do lists on my computer because with the six different directions I'm going in at any one time, I could easily forget something if it isn't written down. Conversely, lists also combat my workaholic tendencies. When I was in school, I used my to-do lists to tell me when to stop: just these chapters, just this quiz today; others assigned for tomorrow. Otherwise, I would keep reading and doing assignments until late at night, leaving myself no time to relax.
It creates efficiency, too: when I'm not devoting braincells to, for instance, how to file my documents, those braincells can go off and do other things. And believe me, they have plenty to do. On the other hand, I can't deny that in some cases, I just feel more comfortable with structure.
Still, there are times to throw the self-imposed rulebook out the window, and ultimately, as rigid as my plans look, I change them when I feel something else would serve me better. But I always have calculated reasons for doing so ... though they may be based on nebulous feelings ...
Oh, whatever.
I'm a writer, harp performer, pastry chef / chef - do I even need to explain how creative chaos dances through my life? (Though I, personally, cannot dance. I am a giant clutz.) I am always puttering around with something; last night, before I fell asleep, I was plotting ingredient combinations for dinner meals.
Much of the structure and routine I impose is a matter of pragmatism. I use to-do lists on my computer because with the six different directions I'm going in at any one time, I could easily forget something if it isn't written down. Conversely, lists also combat my workaholic tendencies. When I was in school, I used my to-do lists to tell me when to stop: just these chapters, just this quiz today; others assigned for tomorrow. Otherwise, I would keep reading and doing assignments until late at night, leaving myself no time to relax.
It creates efficiency, too: when I'm not devoting braincells to, for instance, how to file my documents, those braincells can go off and do other things. And believe me, they have plenty to do. On the other hand, I can't deny that in some cases, I just feel more comfortable with structure.
Still, there are times to throw the self-imposed rulebook out the window, and ultimately, as rigid as my plans look, I change them when I feel something else would serve me better. But I always have calculated reasons for doing so ... though they may be based on nebulous feelings ...
Oh, whatever.
Thursday, January 07, 2016
GoodReads Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury(As with previous classics, I've withheld a star rating.)
This book exploded into my consciousness. Perhaps the reading of it was perfectly timed; perhaps it was a message I needed to hear about the world and the important of independent thought - even if, or perhaps especially if, it disturbs you. Bradbury responded vehemently to claims that the book was about censorship, and I would agree that it is only a small fraction of the subject matter. Rather than government censorship, Fahrenheit 451 looks at censorship from the roots up: tyranny of the minority, the fear of giving offense. It's a subject that it is terrifyingly topical nowadays, when everyone seems to be offended by something, when students insist that their professors not teach material that distresses or challenges them.
But even more prescient and immediate is Bradbury's assessment of the world of constant information, where there is too much of everything for people to be knowledgeable ... so the summary, the television show, the shortened attention span until it is hardly more than a blip. What could be a better description of the Internet Age? In these bland synopses there is nothing to trouble the individual, and society goes to lengths to keep people from thinking too much ... all in the name of making them happier.
I'm sure Bradbury didn't have homeschooling in mind when he wrote this book - during that time, I don't know that it was even a movement yet - but the text is also a compelling argument for homeschooling. Clarisse McClellan? I've known homeschooled kids like that. Arguably, I was a kid like that. There's a line when the Fire Chief is explaining how the book-burning came to be where he states that the government made the school age younger and younger to help prevent the risk of too much thinking. Hmm ...
Bradbury's lyricism and tempo of writing are unique. He writes in music - pace, pitch, rhythm are almost as important as what is being communicated. The beauty of his prose at first seemed inappropriate to the story to me, a jarring contrast. As the novel continued, I realized it was fitting precisely because it stands in opposition to Montag's dry, shallow world.
For me, I thought that the book ended rather abruptly: it had just started, I wanted to see Montag's growth in his new world, and then ... bam. (Literally.) Part of this may have been the fact that this edition has a lot more non-book text than I expected, so as I was reading, I could see more unread pages in my right hand ... but it did feel slightly incomplete.
A quick word about the other materials contained within this edition: the context, writing and Bradbury's own reflections on the novel are invaluable. I drew so much from understanding where Fahrenheit 451 came from, particularly his inclusion of elements from a previous tale, The Pedestrian. The rest of the materials, on the other hand, consist of various introductions and brief critiques for the novel, and I honestly couldn't see why they would interest anyone but a diehard Bradbury scholar ... your mileage may vary.
View all my reviews
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Wednesday Wanderings
A lot of fiction markets make much of the requirement that the protagonist have a driving goal. The main character must be proactive, not reactive. Some even require this motivation to show up in the first page or two.
To a certain extent, this makes sense. I think it's one of the most common mistakes newbie writers make: they create a main character who is solely reactive, fighting against misfortune without agency of their own. Giving the main character motivation forces a writer to think about who the character was before the opening lines. In the fantasy field, I'm sure the popularity of the Chosen One trope is partly due to the ease of it. The main character doesn't even have to do anything: the villain is after them because the prophecy says so, and of course, then it becomes self-fulfilling.
But for me, I think this strong motivation isn't always necessary. I enjoy characters who are finding themselves, who don't yet quite know what they want - characters for whom this very uncertainty is their prime motivation. I find there's something very powerful in a character blossoming to discover purpose, or even just the hope of it ... which, of course, fits very nicely into the open-ended, "yes but ..." kind of story conclusion I like to write.
Certainly, I'm not saying that characters can be aimless. Smaller goals, or an immediate situation to react, can lead into the real problem: characters wondering where they should go, who they are. I find that discovery makes for a uniquely satisfying conclusion ... because can't we all empathize with that feeling, that uncertainty? And is there anything better to live vicariously than that discovery of purpose?
So while I understand the editorial concern here, I wish they'd relax this standard a bit. Sometimes, there's a wonderful story in the question mark.
To a certain extent, this makes sense. I think it's one of the most common mistakes newbie writers make: they create a main character who is solely reactive, fighting against misfortune without agency of their own. Giving the main character motivation forces a writer to think about who the character was before the opening lines. In the fantasy field, I'm sure the popularity of the Chosen One trope is partly due to the ease of it. The main character doesn't even have to do anything: the villain is after them because the prophecy says so, and of course, then it becomes self-fulfilling.
But for me, I think this strong motivation isn't always necessary. I enjoy characters who are finding themselves, who don't yet quite know what they want - characters for whom this very uncertainty is their prime motivation. I find there's something very powerful in a character blossoming to discover purpose, or even just the hope of it ... which, of course, fits very nicely into the open-ended, "yes but ..." kind of story conclusion I like to write.
Certainly, I'm not saying that characters can be aimless. Smaller goals, or an immediate situation to react, can lead into the real problem: characters wondering where they should go, who they are. I find that discovery makes for a uniquely satisfying conclusion ... because can't we all empathize with that feeling, that uncertainty? And is there anything better to live vicariously than that discovery of purpose?
So while I understand the editorial concern here, I wish they'd relax this standard a bit. Sometimes, there's a wonderful story in the question mark.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Wednesday Wanderings
A few weeks ago, I discussed the fact that my three fish-out-of-water main characters from Flow - Kit, Chailyn and Hadrian - were all characters from roleplaying games that, for one reason or another, hadn't got enough play in their original homes. I introduced them to each other, they hit it off (... sort of), and the book was born.
I've always enjoyed roleplaying games, and I often use them as writing aids. For instance, the sourcebooks for GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) are often surprisingly great starting points for research or brainstorming. GURPS Religion contains as thorough a checklist for creating fictional religions as any book specifically geared to fantasy writers.
Then, of course, there's character generation. Every RPG system has its own method to create characters, sometimes starting from a point that a writer would normally never choose. I find this really useful for thinking about characters in a different fashion ... and being able to quantify abilities, relative strength, etc, between characters can be helpful, even though (obviously!) the numbers never show on the page. Of course, the flip side of this is that once you enter the writing phase, nothing on the character sheet is a rule. It's more like a guideline ...
Miayde, the eponymous protagonist of Butterfly's Poison, originally started out as a character in a short-lived Exalted game. (Exalted is an eastern-inspired fantasy game centered around exceptional martial arts feats ... all of which disappeared by the time Miayde became a part of the world of Seventeen Seas.) In a moment of full-circle poetry, I designed a roleplaying storyline in the same setting, different system, that was never played out - but it may some day become a new novel in the same world.
Of course, I would be painting myself in too marvelous a light if I claimed I've always used roleplaying games appropriately. I'll confess to writing a long-since (and permanently) shelved epic where I actually used the system and its random rolls (... mostly ... sometimes I'd change my mind) to resolve action scenes. On the other hand, sometimes this would send the story off in a direction I hadn't intended, and I found it was better for the diversion.
When I set out to write Who Wants To Be A Hero? I wanted to simulate some of the randomness and unpredictable turns of ... well ... reality. I felt that having the spontaneity in the writing process was important for making the final book feel right. So I ended up giving my characters very simple stats - basically just a handful of numbers indicating broad areas of competence, such as Magic or Diplomacy.
For each round, I picked an appropriate stat(s) that would apply to the heroic task at hand. Sometimes, there would be the "option" to use another, less appropriate stat, at a penalty. Each character got a random roll plus their stat to determine how they did.
At this point, I took randomness back out of the equation somewhat: any of the top three were eligible to win; any of the bottom three might go home. I'd write the action and the first phases of judging, then assess how events had fallen out.
Of course, I had executive control, but I had an understanding with myself: think about standing back and watching what happens ...
That's really what appeals to me about using roleplaying systems as a supplement, ultimately: it makes you look at things in a new light, whether it's filling in part of a character sheet that has nothing to do with your story or dealing with a "weird" random roll. But as always, the numbers can't tell the whole story: that's up to the author.
I've always enjoyed roleplaying games, and I often use them as writing aids. For instance, the sourcebooks for GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) are often surprisingly great starting points for research or brainstorming. GURPS Religion contains as thorough a checklist for creating fictional religions as any book specifically geared to fantasy writers.
Then, of course, there's character generation. Every RPG system has its own method to create characters, sometimes starting from a point that a writer would normally never choose. I find this really useful for thinking about characters in a different fashion ... and being able to quantify abilities, relative strength, etc, between characters can be helpful, even though (obviously!) the numbers never show on the page. Of course, the flip side of this is that once you enter the writing phase, nothing on the character sheet is a rule. It's more like a guideline ...
Miayde, the eponymous protagonist of Butterfly's Poison, originally started out as a character in a short-lived Exalted game. (Exalted is an eastern-inspired fantasy game centered around exceptional martial arts feats ... all of which disappeared by the time Miayde became a part of the world of Seventeen Seas.) In a moment of full-circle poetry, I designed a roleplaying storyline in the same setting, different system, that was never played out - but it may some day become a new novel in the same world.
Of course, I would be painting myself in too marvelous a light if I claimed I've always used roleplaying games appropriately. I'll confess to writing a long-since (and permanently) shelved epic where I actually used the system and its random rolls (... mostly ... sometimes I'd change my mind) to resolve action scenes. On the other hand, sometimes this would send the story off in a direction I hadn't intended, and I found it was better for the diversion.
When I set out to write Who Wants To Be A Hero? I wanted to simulate some of the randomness and unpredictable turns of ... well ... reality. I felt that having the spontaneity in the writing process was important for making the final book feel right. So I ended up giving my characters very simple stats - basically just a handful of numbers indicating broad areas of competence, such as Magic or Diplomacy.
For each round, I picked an appropriate stat(s) that would apply to the heroic task at hand. Sometimes, there would be the "option" to use another, less appropriate stat, at a penalty. Each character got a random roll plus their stat to determine how they did.
At this point, I took randomness back out of the equation somewhat: any of the top three were eligible to win; any of the bottom three might go home. I'd write the action and the first phases of judging, then assess how events had fallen out.
Of course, I had executive control, but I had an understanding with myself: think about standing back and watching what happens ...
That's really what appeals to me about using roleplaying systems as a supplement, ultimately: it makes you look at things in a new light, whether it's filling in part of a character sheet that has nothing to do with your story or dealing with a "weird" random roll. But as always, the numbers can't tell the whole story: that's up to the author.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Wednesday Wanderings
I know I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of the "yes, but ..." ending: the main character succeeds in their goal, but the getting of it creates new complications, and the reader is left with the feeling that life goes on. Just as invisible past events lead into the story, invisible future ones flow out of it.
The pat, tidy ending where everything resolves is not a favorite of mine - sometimes in very short stories, but in those tales, there's often not room to introduce extraneous elements in the first place. The demon-summoning sorcerer may be in love with his childhood sweetheart or have gambling debts, but it's not relevant to the plot, so the reader never learns it.
I enjoy creating loose ends in fiction - it makes the end result feel more organic. As long as the main story question is answered, other, supporting questions can sometimes be left dangling ... or have a negative answer, rescuing the story from tooth-ache levels of sweetness.
And these other threads don't even necessarily need an arc. It may be a static element - even something inherent to the world that the character clashes against, but it's not a problem that they can solve. If they tried, well ... that's a whole book in itself, if not a series. (Maybe the NEXT book ... hmm ...)
I think these loose ends contribute to the iceberg effect, the feeling a reader gets that there is a lot more to this world and these people than ever shows up on the page. And maybe - just maybe - it makes the real victory, the struggle the story was, after all, about, that much more satisfying: even if everything else is uncertain, THIS went right. THIS is my success.
The pat, tidy ending where everything resolves is not a favorite of mine - sometimes in very short stories, but in those tales, there's often not room to introduce extraneous elements in the first place. The demon-summoning sorcerer may be in love with his childhood sweetheart or have gambling debts, but it's not relevant to the plot, so the reader never learns it.
I enjoy creating loose ends in fiction - it makes the end result feel more organic. As long as the main story question is answered, other, supporting questions can sometimes be left dangling ... or have a negative answer, rescuing the story from tooth-ache levels of sweetness.
And these other threads don't even necessarily need an arc. It may be a static element - even something inherent to the world that the character clashes against, but it's not a problem that they can solve. If they tried, well ... that's a whole book in itself, if not a series. (Maybe the NEXT book ... hmm ...)
I think these loose ends contribute to the iceberg effect, the feeling a reader gets that there is a lot more to this world and these people than ever shows up on the page. And maybe - just maybe - it makes the real victory, the struggle the story was, after all, about, that much more satisfying: even if everything else is uncertain, THIS went right. THIS is my success.
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Wednesday Wanderings
Have I mentioned that Flow makes an awesome Christmas present, or other denominational holiday of your choice?
I'm sure I've told this story before, but here's a glimpse into how the novel came about, and it all started with character. To be specific, three short-lived characters in online roleplaying games. I didn't get a chance to play them to my satisfaction for one reason or another, so I decided to give them a new life in a different setting.
Kit initially never got beyond the "application" phase - where the character is created for pitching to the staff of the game. At the time, I was planning on a fantasy game that mixed a few themes, including mythological divinities, with a race of evil beings that hunted them and ate their energy. Kit was designed as an estranged member of this race, but right about as I finished the application ... staff decided to close neutral or good members of this race, as apparently they were getting a flood of them. Curses.
I retooled her for the "beta" phase of another game where I was part of the staff. Besides removing that backstory, I had to tweak the effects of her powers somewhat to fit in with the rules system ... and because I was also brand-new to aforesaid system, the character was haplessly unplayable in action sequences. She never made it out of beta; she did, however, make a brief re-appearance as a demon-borne antagonist from a mirror-realm.
So Kit before I started to work on the novel idea was a collection of bits and bobs, various origins that contradicted each other, and personality traits in potential, but never fully realized. I actually started with her origin story and designed much of the supernatural world history around what I wanted her to be. That world, however, needed another aspect, and I had already found it in the character of ...
And here's Chailyn, water-witch, fish out of water, raised in a world that was never intended for children and plopped into ours. Again, she started as a game character; in this case, she was retired because the game shut down. In her first incarnation, that globe of light she wields in chapter one was actually a fully fleshed character, her "sidekick" - it allowed me to make snarky, biting remarks that were out of character for Chailyn herself. Obviously, with Kit (and Hadrian) around, I didn't need another outlet for quips and banter. I couldn't resist keeping around a hint, though.
Finally, Hadrian was also a character from a game that crashed and burned, this time after I had played no more than a few scenes. The game's story gave me an easy origin for his powers, and he had some more bizarre applications - he could sense people's weak spots and incapacitate / sicken them by touch - that didn't seem appropriate for the setting I was building. Hadrian's origins, as rewritten for Flow, have a hint of mad science to them I haven't really explored in the setting just yet ... they do fit the overall narrative of the world (of course!), but suggest possibilities not yet touched upon.
I'm sure I've told this story before, but here's a glimpse into how the novel came about, and it all started with character. To be specific, three short-lived characters in online roleplaying games. I didn't get a chance to play them to my satisfaction for one reason or another, so I decided to give them a new life in a different setting.
Kit initially never got beyond the "application" phase - where the character is created for pitching to the staff of the game. At the time, I was planning on a fantasy game that mixed a few themes, including mythological divinities, with a race of evil beings that hunted them and ate their energy. Kit was designed as an estranged member of this race, but right about as I finished the application ... staff decided to close neutral or good members of this race, as apparently they were getting a flood of them. Curses.
I retooled her for the "beta" phase of another game where I was part of the staff. Besides removing that backstory, I had to tweak the effects of her powers somewhat to fit in with the rules system ... and because I was also brand-new to aforesaid system, the character was haplessly unplayable in action sequences. She never made it out of beta; she did, however, make a brief re-appearance as a demon-borne antagonist from a mirror-realm.
So Kit before I started to work on the novel idea was a collection of bits and bobs, various origins that contradicted each other, and personality traits in potential, but never fully realized. I actually started with her origin story and designed much of the supernatural world history around what I wanted her to be. That world, however, needed another aspect, and I had already found it in the character of ...
And here's Chailyn, water-witch, fish out of water, raised in a world that was never intended for children and plopped into ours. Again, she started as a game character; in this case, she was retired because the game shut down. In her first incarnation, that globe of light she wields in chapter one was actually a fully fleshed character, her "sidekick" - it allowed me to make snarky, biting remarks that were out of character for Chailyn herself. Obviously, with Kit (and Hadrian) around, I didn't need another outlet for quips and banter. I couldn't resist keeping around a hint, though.
Finally, Hadrian was also a character from a game that crashed and burned, this time after I had played no more than a few scenes. The game's story gave me an easy origin for his powers, and he had some more bizarre applications - he could sense people's weak spots and incapacitate / sicken them by touch - that didn't seem appropriate for the setting I was building. Hadrian's origins, as rewritten for Flow, have a hint of mad science to them I haven't really explored in the setting just yet ... they do fit the overall narrative of the world (of course!), but suggest possibilities not yet touched upon.
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