On Writing: Show, do not tell

Something that I think all writers need to look at is that little golden “rule”: Show, don’t tell.

I’m all for showing. It makes with the coolness. But then there was an article I read somewhere (I’m trying to find it, goddamnit!) from a popular author who said otherwise, and I could also see -his- point of view too.

I think Telling kind of goes hand in hand with a little thing I’m going to call Streaming. I was sitting here typing away. You know, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near readable because its called WRITING, not ANAL RETENTIVENESS, but I have been noticing more and more lately that I just end up on a tangent… Telling and not Showing.

Sure, I did some showing of what Rayna’s tribe was like, but then I ended up in this disjointed POV that was supposed to be Rayna’s and it was a heaping load of Streaming brains and Telling. Its more like notes than anything, and it just drives me nuts. I keep thinking that I should be actively writing, not taking fucking notes. I don’t need to take notes. I’m not in class. I’m living it all in my head.

Must Show! Must not Tell!

But it doesn’t have to be perfect on the first write. Not only does it have to be, it shouldn’t be.

So I think that’s a little something that really gets in the way of my writing. Sure, I can discover some new things that way about the world I’m writing in (yeah, I contradicted myself from earlier). I just can’t get over that little roadblock. I have the ideas, I’m just not happy with the way I put them down and put them together.

ZOMIFG!

I. Am. Stoked.

STOKED!!!

The artist who is doing the cover work for my poetry book finally got a hold of a scanner. He e-mailed me what he did and ZOMIFG! Its awesome. Its better than I… like wow.

See? excited!

As for the guts of the book, all I really need to do now is the title page and figure out what, if anything, I want for the author page. You know, like how they have some black and white photo and a little paragraph…

*SQUEE!*

Also, I was thinking about having a bit of audience participation for the book. Like the Domiknitrix book, she had a password for some extras from the site that you could only get if you had the book. So I may do something fun like that.

The official decision of the Blood Rose Trilogy

Basically, more or less, this is what’s going to happen: I’m starting over. From, more or less, scratch. But it’ll be like writing a story about a movie right after you watched it. For years. And I have my printed up Blood Rose Trilogy (thanks to Lulu.com of course) to use as reference, and to take chunks from.

Yes, I’ll be starting over, but its for the best, I swear.

I’m starting with Rayna’s story on the time line. Everybody’s story is going to be given their own book/series of books. Whatever it takes.

See, Blood Rose, all three books… it was great and wonderful, but everyone’s stories were way intertwined and there was too much going on while at the same time… not ENOUGH was going on.

Its like untangling a pile of fishing lines and trying to find the right lure for the right pole for the right fisher, so they can get back to fishing somewhere else so they don’t get tangled up again.

Yup, that’s EXACTLY it!

So last night I started with Rayna’s story, from her birth. This is such a great opportunity, because I already know the majority of her story, I know how it “ends” (don’t you DARE quote me on that!)… I basically have to fill in all the gaps that writing the Blood Rose during NaNoWriMo created. This is such a great oppertinity because I can really get detailed now and my writing will be better, and it will not turn into that fishing line tangle scenario again.

Because,

HASTE MAKES FREAKIN’ WASTE

is sooo very true.

Don’t let me write anything serious during NaNo again ^-^ This year’s NaNo, I want to write something completely off the wall and wacky, something that I won’t feel the need to go back to at a later time to polish up and make a big deal out of.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I wrote those three books during NaNo. It was the only time that I could honestly tell people I couldn’t be bothered with anything else… because you really do have to set aside the time to write, or people will take advantage of you when it looks like you’re “doing nothing”. (read that over at absolutewrite’s forums…)

But yeah. I’m happy to actually be writing again and I have that driving force behind me. Yes, I stopped reading through my printed copy of the Blood Rose books because… I kept writing down the same notes, over and over. I couldn’t take it anymore! It really isn’t worth salvaging just on its own. Its fun to read, but if you’re really looking for something satisfying… try Harry Potter.

Or some of Fred’s FF, dammit.

Okay, gotta shut up again.

Sick ‘n Writing

No, not sick OF writing. Just a little sick or something. I’ve had this odd lump in my throat that has been making eating solids a bit difficult, then I spent a couple days with a rough spot on a tooth rubbing painfully against my tongue. Then I went to the dentist on Monday (FINALLY! woo whoo!) and found out that my teeth ARE as bad as I thought they were. I need several root canals, a few pulled, and a the rest capped. Yeah, every single teeth needs something. Dentures are looking more and more tempting…

*cough*32kwasquotedtome*cough*

And then I’ve felt like I had the flu off and on and I’m verging on anorexia and people won’t shut up about it which is causing me more stress. Not cool. But I think I’ve put a few pounds back on.

ON TO THE WRITING!

I’m feeling more and more confident about this trilogy, and having to basically rewrite the whole damn thing. I was panicky at first, but after a few days of mulling it over, I’m eagerly back into it and I can’t wait to start. First things first: Need to finish editing at LEAST this first book. And I think I’ll join that AbsoluteWrite forum for a little support here and there. And to offer what I have. Which prolly isn’t a whole lot.

And, ohh how I’d love to spend some time in Eugene. I think I mentioned this before, but I think its going to be the only way I can get some true, hardcore editing time in. I just feel like I shouldn’t stray far from home right now, with the way I’ve been feeling.

I also need to look back into finishing my first poetry book. I can NOT make up my mind about what to call it. That’s whats been holding me back, along with the selection. I have a lot of really personal poetry and trying to figure out if I should have that as a separate book or just cram it in with my other assorted poetry. I have a ton of poetry books on my shelf, but they offer no advice.

Sure I have the selection, I know what I want to publish, but I don’t know how to organize it all. One book for every sort of “type” or poem? A dark book, an angst book, etc. Or jam it all together? I’ve looked at some books on Lulu.com before but I can’t remember what I found. I’ll look again.

I guess that’s it for now…

The mess of the Blood Rose

So I was commenting just a moment ago on Fred’s blog. He was going on about how some writers hate what they write, etc.

I thought I’d post a bit about why I have moments of hatred towards my writing: MESSINESS! Arg. Just… arg!

Yes I’ve written my last three serious pieces during NaNoWriMo, but holy moly. I do worse when I’m not on a deadline. This mess of which I speak is everywhere. Sure, its readable, but its not too pleasant. My POVs are all over (though I got some handy tips from a website and it helped me for NaNo ’06). My characters aren’t always “in character”, there’s lots of room for improvement as far as clarifying things. You know the ol’ “Show, don’t tell” argument. I’m trying to do the Show more, as I really like it. And hey, word count, hellooo :-p

Editing has been hard. Its been 100 times harder than I thought it would be. Whether its because its my own work or because it truly is a mess, I don’t know. Its also hard because I know I’ll basically be re-writing just about everything from start to finish. So you know, what’s the point of all this editing of content if its just going to be re-written? ( shh! don’t answer that!)

I’ve also been indecisive on how to go about some things.

One of the problems with my indecisiveness is: Where should I start the story of book #1?
Years ago, this world started out with the meeting of Zander and Rayna and it blossomed from there. The actual book started with the Captain on the Blood Rose, days before meeting Rayna and Zander, who by then had “been living together for several months”.

Having the story start with Zander & Rayna meeting would be cool. But it presents a challenge. It seems to me that it would be a bit… clumsy. After all, the book isn’t about Zander and Rayna per say, its about Rayna finding a lead that allows her to be able to start looking for her mother (whose been missing for years).

Perhaps I could have their meeting, and all sortsa stuff going on, leading up to this “lead” and then the introduction of the Captain later on? That may be a good way of going about it. ‘Cause I need the Captain in there. Unless I REALLY want to re-write everything! O.O *feels faint*

Another indecisive part that’s getting me is Whose Story Should I Follow? Each and every one of my characters has his/her own story. I can write a trilogy on EACH on these character’s stories alone. Should I do that? Or should I intertwine them all together in this one lump, perhaps even forgetting about the trilogy and keep it going until everyone’s story is wrapped up? Whitey suggested I keep the other character’s story in the background, nice ‘n quiet-like, and do their stories separately. Good idea… or is it?

Going hand in hand with that: Whose POV should I be keeping? I keep pulling a Stephen King. You know… he’s all over the freaking place. I don’t want to do that. At least not to the extent of his prolificness. In book #3, the story seems to evolve a lot in the Captain’s head (when she’s conscious), and about her alcoholism. Book #1 is all over the place. Book #2 I hate with all my passion and wish not to mention it ever again.

Some further thoughts on my so-called Trilogy: Its sort of like a video game. Or a series of video games. Or an Anime, such as Trigun. Or even the Harry Potter series. Let’s stick with Harry Potter as an example: Each book stands on its own really well, but still, one book is a part of the whole, and in the End of all Ends, the Main Bad Guy will come up to bat. That’s a common theme amongst everything that is a series, it seems. Also, each book, or episode, have their own problems separate from the other pieces, and they all have their own Bad Guys.

I do have a main Bad Guy. Each book thus far has had its own mini Bad Guy. So yeah, that’s working out okay. But what happens if I break… oh wait, the answer just came to me ^-^ I was going to ask “What happens to my main Bad Guy if I give each character their own series of books?”

Duh.

Each character who gets their own series will get their own personal Bad Guy. Yay, that makes so much sense 🙂

One other main thing I’ve been battling with is: Should I just keep all three of these books as ONE BOOK? So yeah, each character gets ONE book? That would kind of break up the reasoning behind having the Mini Bad Guys, but mayhaps they may work to push the story forward, each acting as a sort of milestone?

It sounds like I’m searching for an easy, novel writing formula now. *shrugs* I’ve been going with the flow, bit its time I beak out the oars and start controlling this bad boy so it can really shine. And it fucking WILL, its so awesome 😉

*whew* I feel a bit better. I need to get back to blogging. Rambling/ranting does a body good.

(my monitor has been making a very annoying, painful noise if its on for too long, so yeah…)

editing Blood Rose…

As for editing Blood Rose, I’m still within the first few chapters of book #1. Its been very interesting. Kind of mind boggling, too. Its not easy work, but it needs to be done. The whole trilogy is such a mess. Of course, what do you expect from writing that much so fast and not going about it slow, methodical and- hey, do any writers do it that way? :-p

That and I need to figure out something about Rayna’s dad. Does he even need to come into the picture? Does she have a father back at the village? Sometimes I think I’m too logical to do this whole writing thing, because everything has to make sense, dang it. And for that little flaw, I sometimes can’t enjoy TV and such. Especially cartoons. Oh but I do love cartoons

Almost NaNo-fied & Ayreon

I don’t remember when, but I remember where I was when I hit 45,000 words.  Good gods.  I.  Am.  So.  Tired.  Not because I was up all night, but I think because I was pacing myself all month, instead of rushing it and setting insane, personal goals.  But I prolly felt like this last year, too.

But what’s really got me excited for the moment is, I believe that this is my best NaNo novel yet.  Which isn’t saying a lot, I think, since ’05 sucks my grumble monkey.  But maybe it doesn’t suck as much as I remember it.  I’ll be sure to give it a read.  *twitch*  Then I must finish writing it.  *double twitch*  But at least I know of some stuff that happens in it, thanks to this year and book 3.

As for <strong>Ayreon</strong>.. I don’t know… <strong>Fred</strong>? You might <strike>like</strike> love them.

I got the chance to hear “Into the Electric Castle”.  ZOMG.  Yeah.  That sums it up.

But really, folks.  Electric Castle was exactly like this: Pink Floyd’s The Wall meets Jesus Christ Super Star, who just got back from a convention on Egyptology and they make a sweet sweet baby with the help of Ramstien’s german grunting while Metallica/insert-metal-band-here watches from the sidelines, smoking pot and illegally downloading bits and peices of New Age music.

Yeah.  Like I said:

ZOMG!