"There Will Never Be Another…"

I think everyone has a special show.

I say “show” as in a TV show, but really, it can be a single book or a trilogy or an entire series, a movie, a comic, anything that tells a story. Everyone has a story that is very precious to them, characters that are near and dear to their heart, a tale that takes their breath away. Over the years, I’ve had several stories that affected me deeply, stories that I come back to every year that remain fresh and new and alive, no matter how many times I’ve read or watched them.

For my Dad, that would be the old cartoon series Rocky and Bullwinkle. For me…well, I’ve had a few, most notably the original Star Wars trilogy, Joss Whedon’s sci-fi TV show Firefly, the wonderful blend of the best of American and Japanese animation that is Avatar: The Last Airbender, every Toy Story movie, the anime series Yu Yu Hakusho, The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman, The Bard’s Tale: Castle of Deception by Mercedes Lackey and Josepha Sherman, and, oddly enough, Elvenborn, the third book in The Halfblood Chronicles by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey.

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Onward and Upward

Being a writer is hard.

Heck, being any kind of artist is hard. Writing, drawing, painting, sculpting, composing or playing music, dancing, costuming, the performing arts…all of these and a few I haven’t listed require time, training, and serious dedication to master. Some people have inborn talent that lets them pick up art forms more easily than others. Some appear to be good at everything with no effort at all. But that lack of effort is an illusion and I’d say that 99% of any master who makes the work they do look easy have paid their tithe of blood, sweat, and tears.

While talent may give you an edge in some fields, most of it is acquired through long, careful study and vigorous practice. No matter how much talent Nature has gifted you, if you don’t expand and refine that gift, it will go to waste or never reach its full potential. Thanks to my mother’s side of the family, I have a decent amount of inborn talent for drawing and painting. It’s not genius level, but I look and approach things from an artist’s point of view and can draw decently without a whole lot of training. However, I could be a really good artist if I put my mind to it.

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To Write, You Must Read

One of the greatest and most basic rules of thumb in the world of writing is: “Write a story you would want to read.”

The next question is, “What kinds of stories do you enjoy reading?”

Once you’ve answered these two questions, your journey into the realm of writing has begun. And yet, so many writers seem to forget these basic questions. Too many get caught up what they think other people want them to write, or what other people want to read, or what kind of story formula will guarantee sales that will make them a multi-million-dollar success. If you start coming at stories from that angle these days, you are only sabotaging your own efforts. Your readers can tell when a story has heart and when it was written with calculation designed to draw them in. To an extent, every writer is trying to pull readers in, but the difference is this: are you trying to hook them because you think you have a good story to tell? Or are you trying to hook them for the money and popularity?

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The Power of Names

Names have power. This is something that seems to have diminished in importance in our modern world, fading from our consciousness. And yet, names still hold some of their ancient power. Parents spend months choosing “the perfect name” for their new baby, we observe pets for certain idiosyncratic behaviors that will tell us the best name for them (or they exhibit traits associated with the name we choose), and teens agonize over the screen name that will best reflect their “true self.”

In ancient times, names held the power to control. To know the innermost, “true” name of a thing was to have ultimate power over that thing. Wizards were keepers of names and the more true names they knew, the more powerful they were. Giving someone your true name was the ultimate sign of trust, giving that person power over you…if they so chose. While we do not attach the same beliefs or significance to names anymore, there is still something mystical about choosing a name.

With such care given to choosing names for pets, children, and online personas, it stands to reason that the same care should be given when choosing names for one’s characters. After all, are they not the children of our minds, our hidden desires and idealized personas given flesh? Many authors have said that their characters do not feel real or alive until they have been given the perfect name.

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Pros and Cons of Writing Groups

I personally don’t have much experience with writing groups. I’ve never officially joined one and find the idea of doing so unappealing and intimidating. It’s hard enough for me to share portions of my work with close friends, let alone near-strangers, especially since I am not good at summaries. I’m sure a few readers will think, “Well, if you don’t try to get to know them, of course they’ll remain near-strangers and you’ll never feel comfortable sharing your work.” True. But I would rather gravitate towards friends who already like to talk about writing and slowly create a group that way.

The success or failure of a writing group really depends on the people in it. If you are in a group that has people you trust who will give you honest, solid feedback, then I think you’ll have fun and improve your writing. But if the others in your group don’t give good feedback and are not decent writers themselves, then neither you nor your writing will have much fun. Some writing groups do weekly or monthly writing assignments or exercises for their members to participate in, and if that’s something you and your fellow writers are interested in, go for it. However, don’t get so bogged down in exercises and “being a writer” that you forget to have fun.

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Reality, Dreams, and Speculation

My brain is in a weird place right now. I’m currently reading The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) by Siva Vaidhyanathan and just finished listening to the audiobook version of M Is for Magic, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, and I’ve been on a real Star Wars kick after rewatching the VHS tapes of the original trilogy.

It’s very odd to have the realms of reality, dreams, and speculation all intersecting and intermingling in your head at the same time.

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Accepting Criticism With Grace

No one likes criticism. No one wants to hear that the paper or story or script that they spent days, weeks, months, even years slaving over is no good. Or even that only parts of it are not good. “Sorry, you missed the mark, try again.”

Rejection hurts. Criticism hurts. It’s like watching someone sucker-punch your infant child while having your fingers amputated because you aren’t worthy to be a writer and then having salt and alcohol slathered over those gaping, bleeding wounds.

Okay, I don’t think I’ve felt quite that extreme a reaction to criticism, but it is a lot like amputation and birth contractions, coming in waves with occasional sharp pangs that make you want to crawl into a hole and hide your face from the world forever.

But like the pain of a birth or an amputation, criticism is necessary in order for us to grow.

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My Take on Writing Classes (and School in General)

I have always loved learning.

That being said, I have also always hated school.

Individual classes, individual teachers, individual ideas I have enjoyed and gained valuable knowledge from while in a school setting. But the institution itself? Loath it. Despise it. Repulsed with a vengeance. Abhor with a passion. Trust me, college is not for everyone.

Since school has started up again for many people, I thought it would be appropriate to broach the topic of writing classes. I’ve had a mixed bag when it comes to writing and English classes. My parents always encouraged reading and writing when I was homeschooled and I had a wonderful English teacher, Mrs. Ware, in middle school who was still old-school enough to make us do vocabulary, spelling, and grammar exercises. (To this day, I can still spell “amalgamate” without help thanks to her. ^_^) In high school, my literary highlight was Fiction/Poetry Writing with Mrs. Turner. I adored that class; it catered directly to my interests. In fact, where my friends and I sat became known as “the Fantasy Corner” because we were all obsessed with that genre, and with J.R.R. Tolkien’s works in particular. I learned about different poetic forms and took my first jab at writing short stories, so Fiction/Poetry Writing exposed me to some new writing forms and encouraged my creativity.

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10 Ways to Get Inspired

Every writer needs inspiration and we all have different ways of bribing our muses to stick around and help us finish our projects. So, here are ten different tricks that you might find helpful, or just plain fun, in your quest to complete a book!

1) Listen to music, especially themed playlists. Whenever I hear a song that makes me think of a scene or character, I take note of the song and what it made me think of, then add it to my playlist. For Astral Rain, I actually have a “theme” for each of the main characters. Listening to that music when I’m trying to write a scene or just to have in the background when I’m writing for a story helps me drift into the writing mindset.

2) Look at artwork (photographs, paintings, sculptures, etc.) that reminds you of a character, a setting, a mood, and event that helps propel your writing. A photograph of a landscape that looks like your world, a painting of a person who looks like your character, a piece of abstract art that just gets you in the writing mood. DeviantART is my favorite place to go for this, but the art can really come from anywhere. Also, if drawing your characters or a scene works, go for it!

3) Watch a movie that gets you in the mood to write. This happens more for Foxglove than me, but I know that when I watch anime, I get in to mood to write anime-style stories or characters (although this can lead me into writing fanfiction rather than focusing on my own work. ^_^;;)

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One Writer’s Evolution

A thought struck me as I was rereading passages from some of my older, unfinished works: “Wow. I’ve certainly changed in the last decade.”

Rereading old works can be both cringe-worthy and heart-warming. Cringe-worthy because, hopefully, if you’ve been working to improve yourself, you’ll be thinking, “Good grief, I had NO grasp of pacing,” or “My magic system in this story made NO logical sense,” or “AHHH! SO MUCH FORCED CHARACTER DESCRIPTION!” (I’ve always been über-descriptive in my writing, so that’s always been a problem of mine.) But the cringing will hopefully be followed by the realization that, “Hey, I’ve come a long way since then. All those problems seem so obvious to me now and I know how to avoid them.”

I don’t know about you, but I also always get a warm, slightly nostalgic feeling when I reread my old stories. I’m like a parent amused and indulgent with her children’s finger painting and story-telling antics. They might not make sense in the adult world I now inhabit, but there’s a great deal of old-fashioned charm in the nonsensical-ness. Horses used doors and buckets, magic was thrown in willy-nilly to make up for a lack of opposable thumbs and tornadoes were a perfectly acceptable method of transportation.

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