Showing posts with label reasons for writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reasons for writing. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Dream Big and Live Life
I graduated with my MA in English in May, and I can honestly say I'm not even sure I read a book that wasn't required in the entire year and a half I was pursuing that degree, much less put pen to paper. Before that, I was getting my BA, and finding time to write was difficult, but I still managed. Now, though, I teach three classes a semester, which means that even though I have huge chunks of free time in my schedule, I'm constantly exhausted and tired of words on pages and using my time to grade papers (sometimes). I also work at a movie theater because being a teacher really doesn't pay all the bills, especially since I only get paid once a month. So I teach in the mornings and am done by 12:30, and then I spend my nights and weekends shoveling popcorn and making drinks. It's a glamorous life, let me tell you. I am lucky when I get a day off at all, and any actual free time I have is normally spent curled up on my couch staring blankly at the TV simply because my eyes burn and/or I'm too mentally and physically exhausted to make my brain work.
But if I want it, I'll make time. Isn't that what people say? You force yourself to write whenever you can. Any words are better than no words. But I was an English major. And a perfectionist. And I hate writing things that are bad. I like to take my time and craft them well so there's less revising and editing and cutting and all that lovely jazz. But, Amanda, you say, that's just how writing works. Not just writing, creating anything, heck, even life! It's messy and takes work and patience! And I know it. I do. You know what else I know? That I just want to write. I don't want to worry about whether my classes are failing or if my students have figured out how to string words and sentences together any better or if I'm going to want to punch my coworkers for being too lazy to sweep up popcorn. I just want to write and be happy. But I can't do that until I can pay all my bills. And I can't pay my bills without working myself to the bones. Oh isn't life grand?
And you know what? I still find time to write. Because even though the words are crap and I have papers to grade and popcorn to make, writing is what I love, and if there's one thing I learned from my mother more than anything else, it's that you should do what you love. So I teach, and I work, and I lie in an exhausted heap around my apartment, and I write. Because it has always been my dream for people to read my stories, and it has always been my goal to be good enough at crafting them that people will pay me. And one day, it'll happen.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Standalone VS The Series
The Twilight Effect kicked off a big trend in publishing not unlike dominoes falling. We saw a fixation on a new paranormal creature that resulted in an abundance of, for instance, werewolves. Like the vampires before them, they were suddenly everywhere, flooding the shelves at bookstores, becoming many teenagers' new obsession.
But this is not the aspect of the Twilight Effect I want to talk about. Not because it isn't worth talking about, simply because everyone else already has, and we all know that it will continue. People will fixate on one creature or genre until the 'next big thing' comes out. Rinse. Repeat.
The thing that has my attention these days is the abundance of series we have on our hands. It's almost like an epidemic in the fantasy and science fiction genres of YA. While we could blame this bit on JK Rowling, the Harry Potter books have been out for years without inspiring this mass desire for sequels. We can, however, thank Rowling for kicking authors everywhere into gear and bringing children's literature to a new level.
Now then: the series, and more specifically the trilogy. A good series is fantastic. It takes a lot of skill to craft multiple books with a self-contained plot and give each book a portion of an overlying plot arc. There are lots of characters to take into consideration, not to mention the MC's growth over, not just one book, but sometimes five or more. That being said, you can see how there can easily be a lot of problems with a series. They can go on too long, they can get saggy and dull in the middle, they can lose focus of what is important. They can stop being true to the characters.
And because of this, as a writer, you have to ask yourself if your story really has to be part of a series. Not all books do. If you're writing a trilogy because they're hot right now, and they are, then you're writing it that way for the wrong reason. You need to take a look at your story and decide if multiple books are necessary to tell the tale that you want to write, because if it's not then it's okay for your book to be a standalone novel. Really, it is.
In fact, as a reader, I'm getting tired of series. I'm not going to stop reading them any time soon (most of my favorite books are part of a trilogy right now or a longer series anyway), but I would like to read a nice paranormal YA that ties everything up and ENDS. I would like to not have to wait a year or longer for the next installment of a story (Hi there, Sookie.). I would like to be in the position of yearning for more of a character and NOT GETTING IT. Why? Because sometimes it's nice to just wonder.
At the end of Z by Michael Thomas Ford (my review here), something BIG happens and you want to know more. You want to know what the character does next, how he will react, but the author deliberately chose to leave his readers in the dark. And I kind of love him for it. I can imagine a hundred different scenarios now of how his story played out, and none of them have to be wrong. I can get to know that character on a more personal level because of that ending, specifically because it's left open.
I think authors (mostly in the science fiction/fantasy genres) have begun to turn their backs on the standalone novel in hopes of big book deals and huge sales numbers, but there is power in a single book. You can write a series, and you SHOULD if that's what your story NEEDS to be complete, to get all the details out there, but you really shouldn't be writing a trilogy (or any other kind of series) unless it's vital to your plot.
Just because there's a trend bandwagon, doesn't mean you have to jump on it.
What do you think? Are trilogies and longer series over done? Would you like to see more single title books?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Thrill
My friend Jade (I'm going to call her that whether she thinks we're friends or not, because she's made of awesome like that) wrote a magnificent post this morning on writing, and I think she did a great job explaining the thrill of writing. Go read it. Now. I'll wait...
So, Jade says the key is in the characters, and I think she's right. I don't think any of us would really struggle to write a book if we didn't fall in love with those new voices that pop into our heads whispering their stories to us in the middle of the night when we're trying to sleep. Don't worry, Jade, that's usually when they find me too. :/
The characters are what make getting out of bed early to write worth it. They're the reason we stay up way too late writing, because we're so utterly enthralled with them that we literally can't walk away or crawl under the covers for fear that we'll lose something great and never get it back or (more than likely) we won't be able to sleep again until we've finished the scene that's itching to be written.
This seems to be a recurring theme in my posts of late, reasons for writing... I'll try to come up with something else to talk about soon. :P Really, I will.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Fans
Anyway, I've been writing fanfics since I was like 14 (I'm 20 now), and I've always gotten really good feedback on my stuff. I know my fics aren't as great as they should be; they haven't been edited with a careful eye, and I've become a much better writer since some of them were penned. But I have fans, and that's really something to me. (Please don't look up any of my stories and embarrass me.)
We say that as writers we want to share a story with people, we want to affect their lives for the better, we want to create the book that gets people reading. So when I opened my Outlook when I got home from work this evening, I nearly cried over a fanfic response:
Hey, I've been a fan for a while now, since Hell's fire, Heaven's Wings =D I just wanted to say thankyou. Thankyou for inspiring me to write =).... I was sitting in my job employment place today on my fanfiction page. I've been really sick lately, and it hurts to use my laptop, and I don't have a printer.
But while I was sitting at the place, looking at your stories again, I decided to take advantage of the printer, and ended up printing off all of "Hell's Fire, Heaven's Wings", "The Dragon Underneath", "The Phoenix Within", "Heaven's Forgiveness, Hell's Damnation", "Stress Relief". lol all up it was 82 pages. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you, that I did it for my personal use. I absolutely love your stories...
And I can honestly say, two weeks ago I was on the phone to my best friend, and I was telling her about a story I hadn't read for ages, and when I did read it, I absolutely fell in love with it. And to this day, it's still my favourite on fanfiction. Ever. Nothing has topped it yet =D Can you guess what it is? Hell's Fire, Heaven's Wings =D.
This absolutely made my day. It topped the bunnies that I saw on the way back to the dorm. It topped the fresh, crispy, salty fries I had from McDonald's.
This, this is why I write. I write because I hope that my stories will resonate with people, will inspire them, will take them to new highs/lows/places/etc. I write to make a difference in someone's life, even if it's only the tiniest impact, because you never know how the smallest things can change your whole life.
Why do you write?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Writers: Driven or just plain Insane?
(Even if you don't agree, the pictures are good for a laugh!)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Marching Band = Sport = Writing
I have class every day, with Mondays and Tuesdays being my busiest days and Thursday coming in a close second. I work 7 hours every other week and 21 the opposite weeks as well as having 5 classes, an hour horn lesson every week, and a 30 minute cello lesson every week. I am also a member of a women's music fraternity which meets every Tuesday night for at least 2 hours, and has smaller meetings every now and then as well as events.
I do my best to find time to write, but lately I've just been exhausted trying to make it through a day at a time. I'm not writing this post to make excuses or complain; I just want to get all of that out there so you all know what I'm working with.
Writing takes time. It takes effort. It takes a whole lot of determination. Writing is a sport. No really, it's like marching band (which is totally a sport and should absolutely get PE credit. I mean if cheerleaders get to call jumping around and shouting a sport, then so should the marching band. I don't mean any offense to cheerleaders, but I lost 15 lbs when I got to college and started marching. It's intense, and it was just as bad in high school and junior high. No joke.).
So, marching band and writing, right. In band you get a drill sheet, which is basically the outline for a picture the band is going to make by reaching the right spot at the right time in the music. You drill this over and over and over until you no longer need to leave a marker in your spot. You just go to it. Every time. And you do it over 20 times (usually for a single song and you'll play a good 3-4 songs for a show). This is completely separate from the music at first, but you can't have a show if you don't have music, just as you can't have a show with music only. They're both essential. Just like so many things in writing.
You can tell a story all you want, but if you don't have great characters, real characters, you don't have a book. You can have the best characters in the world; real, flawed, deep characters, but what good are they without a story. You need plot and setting and characterization and all kinds of things to make a piece of fiction (or non-fiction for that matter) work. And if you're missing just one of those things, or you're weak in one spot, it will throw the entire piece off balance.
If your trumpet section is weak, more than likely your melody is going to get lost in a sea of other parts. If one trombone player is out of step, it will throw someone else off, or it will look bad to someone watching, especially a judge. If the interval is off between two people, not only is there a gap in the overall formation, but it means that person is either going to have to work even harder to get to their next spot, or they're going to miss the next spot too, and the next one...
My point is that writing is complicated. It's hard work. It's a sport in and of itself. And it takes practice to get good at. You have to work at it every chance you get. You have to want to write. You have to love it, because if you don't then why are doing it?
Now then, I'm going to go watch the latest episodes of Bones and Supernatural (squee!!) and then try to get some more writing in myself before I call it a night. Happy writing, or just have a good weekend (whichever works for you).
PS- I think that's the first marching band analogy I've ever seen haha. :)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Why I write.
Now, these friends actually know that I write, and that I want to be published. Naturally, one of them started to ask me about writing, and he had one major question: Do you care more about the language or the plot?
A good question for any writer, I think. The problem was, he didn't want to accept my answer of "both," he believes that one has to be more dominate than the other. He may or may not be right. Honestly it's not something I think about quite like that. He wanted to break things down into the typical Literature/literature way, and frankly that bothers me. I don't want to write something that looks or sounds beautiful or will be studied for symbolism later on in a classroom -though I wouldn't mind any of those- I want to write a book that will suck someone in and keep them reading. I want to write that book that you have a hard time putting down. So, I guess I focus on plot.
But honestly, I want to write a story that people can go back to over and over again and maybe learn something new about themselves or the characters or life. I want to write a story that people care about. I want to write something that will impact at least one person, even if that's just making someone's day better because they read my story.
I don't know if I've answered his question. I don't know if I ever truly will (I told him plot when I was having a hard time articulating myself). But you know what? I know what I want to do as a writer, and I don't know if I'm any good at it, but I sure as hell try.
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