Writing – Page 10 – Blue Ink Alchemy

Tag: Writing (page 10 of 47)

Abandon All Hope

Once upon a time I wrote an article for an online magazine. It went over pretty well. The relationship I described therein has blossomed, and my wife and I work together on quite a few occasions to best the challenges of a particular game. I thought that might be worth writing about.

And then, along comes Chuck Wendig.

It was like practicing your kicks in the dojo and thinking you’ve got what it takes to achieve the next belt when this unknown guy smelling slightly of bacon and gym socks strolls in, crane-kicks you in the mouth, swipes your water bottle and walks out with your girl.

If you want to be a writer, you better get used to it.

One of the few things I carried with me from my brief stints of studying fencing & the martial arts (no, really) is that there will always be somebody better than you. Somebody will be faster, beating you to the punch. Somebody will have better, more powerful delivery. Somebody’s already hit the rhythm that’s been eluding you all the time, and once they’re in that groove they’re not getting out of it.

Because, in the case of writing, it’s going to pay them.

All writers deal with rejection, but on top of that is seeing other writers succeed. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s great for talented writers to be getting work. We know how much it sucks to go without food. Seeing people who actually know how to string words together feed their families on the power of their words is heartening.

It’s also saddening because we haven’t done it yet.

I was asked by a friend “How do you keep writing?” It’s a complex answer, and this is part of it. I’m motivated by ideas I want to put into words, by the notion of making a living with my chosen art instead of just living for it, and I want to be one of the people who actually makes it.

It might never happen. I may simply get one rejection after another until I’m laying on my deathbed still spinning ideas and outlining novels that will never get published.

But if I stop trying, I might as well ragequit now.

We can’t all be Chuck. We can’t just splatter gold onto the desks of editors and directors all over the place. And even if it looks that way, it probably isn’t. Every writer that seems to be effortlessly earning cash for words had to go through the same wringer of rejection and depression we are. And guess what? It’s persistence that got them where they are.

If we persist, if we work through those rejections and hardships until we finally get where we want to be, there will be other, lesser-known, unpublished voices looking up from their dayjobs and their pretentious little blogs wondering how the hell we make it look so damn easy.

How do I keep writing?

I see where I am, and where I want to be. There’s a gap in the middle that needs to be filled with words. They won’t always be the best words, or even particularly smart ones, but the more words that go into that, the closer I get to my goal. And yes, someone out there somewhere might have done what I’m trying to do better than I have. Then again, maybe my work will be just different enough to distinguish itself. As much as I admire George RR Martin, it’d be foolish for me to try and be GRRM. Same goes for Chuck, David Hill, Will Hindmarch and Marty Henley. They’re all great guys. And I can’t be them. I try to play in the same field they’re playing in, I’m likely to get blown clear out of the water.

I keep writing to carve my own niche. To push myself to stand out from the crowd. To become an author on my own merits, with my own ideas, distinguished in my own ways.

I keep writing because as much as the world is flush with stories, mine has yet to be told the way I can tell it.

And I keep writing because I have to. I’m compelled to. At least in choosing writing over heroin, I’m nowhere near as broke as I could be. And I’d be frothing at the mouth for reasons completely unrelated to my daily frustrations.

I’m not saying you should abandon all hope of succeeding, if you’re writing or want to be a writer. Far from it.

I’m saying you should abandon all hope if being able to praise a fellow writer without, to some degree, cussing incessantly under your breath.

Just remember: as much as your teeth might hurt today, tomorrow you might be the crane-kicker. Get up. Dust yourself up. Wipe the blood from your face. And keep hammering those words.

You won’t get anywhere laying there feeling sorry for yourself.

The Paths to Self-Publication

February 2, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 1 Comment

So. Self-publication. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought lately.

If you’re anything like me, though (and if you are you should really think about seeing a professional), you have a habit of catching just a whiff of a new endeavor and throwing yourself at it to the expense of all else. If that’s the case, let me caution you to STOP.

Read this, this and this.

True, Chuck is no self-publishing expert (and he even tells you so) but he likely knows more about it than the average self-publishing wannabe. Which is a category I definitely fall into. My queries are still out in the wild, howling their agent mating calls, waiting for some sort of response even if it’s just a shoe getting tossed at them so they’ll get off the agent’s fence. It’s not the novel I’m thinking of self-publishing.

As I continue working on my Free Fiction entries, spinning new ideas and laying out words, I see a pattern forming between some of the stories, things that readers can latch onto. As much as the anthology is a hated article of fiction, and combining that with self-publication means I’d be infecting my work with the literary equivalent of the Black Plague, an anthology of myths re-cast into different settings may still have an audience.

I don’t think you’ll be seeing it available any time soon, because I have a few things I need to do.

First, I need to write more.

No-brainer here. Right now I’ve got two solid stories and one that may be more a continuation of the first than a stand-alone narrative. I’ve got a new one in the works and ideas for at least three more. And I don’t want to just dash them off and slap them into a PDF for sale. There will need to be edits, revisions, cuts and fusions, all that good stuff that makes decent ideas into great stories. You’ll still get Free Fiction on a (semi) regular basis, but mostly I’ll be posting the raw stuff.

Next, I’ll need a cover artist.

Somehow I’ll have to find room in my budget to pay somebody for this. Considering I want this to be a product I’m proud of, willing to show to others as evidence of my style, inspiration and ability to produce, I don’t want it to look like something a fifth-grade drew in MS Paint or a photoshopped image with kitschy filters and lens flares all over the place. This should look professional, even if I’m a complete and total amateur.

Finally, it’ll come time to market the thing.

I’m not a marketing guy. I tend not to be inclined to schmooze. It makes me an inadequate salesman, even when I’m trying to sell myself. In social situations I always fear talking about myself too much, artificially redirecting conversations to make them about me, basically wishing to avoid behavior that’d get me branded as a self-centered douchecopter.

Yet that’s a good chunk of what will get a self-published work in a position to earn its keep.

Once it’s up on the Intertubes, it’ll sit there unless acted upon by an outside force. Newton’s First Law of Internet or something. And since I created the thing, I’ll have to be that outside force. I honestly have no idea what the best or most efficient way of doing so is going to be, but I’m willing to give it a try.

It’s something that could go any number of ways. Hopefully I don’t pursue one of the ways that pitches me head-first into an unforeseen pit filled with red-hot magma.

In other news, it’s entirely possible I’ve been playing Minecraft a bit much lately.

Time is Money, Friend

February 1, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

I’m afraid today’s Free Fiction is getting postponed.

The shuffling of matters at the dayjob have thrown certain things for a loop and I’m struggling to catch up. I’m also still getting settled into the new OS install at home, and contemplating a scrub of the laptop (it’s a long story). I do have some ideas for upcoming Free Fiction entry, which may eventually yeild an anthology, since I’m going to be sticking with the re-telling of myths.

This next one’s turning out pretty well and I want to take my time with it. So, right around Valentine’s Day, you’ll be getting a double helping of Free Fiction with a longer-than-usual tale, tentatively entitled “Miss Weaver’s Lo Mein.”

It’ll make sense in context.

I also want to get some work for Amaranthine done, hopefully before the Machine Age crew head out to California. This new project of theirs has all of the originality and edginess of Maschine Zeit with some really interesting backstory thrown in, and I’m eager to be a part of it.

Queries are rolling around in peoples Inboxes and some should be rolling back to me soon. Probably in the form of a rejection. But that’s the way of things. More queries will be going out as soon as I can compile a fresh list of agent names.

And the outline for a new novel is taking shape. Slowly. A braindump will be coming soon.

Still not sure what sort of video editing software I’ll be able to use, but folks seem to continue enjoying IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! in its current form for now, so I’m not exactly in a rush to put that on my plate.

On top of all of this is the impending trip to Canada in a few weeks. By the way, I’m still interested in guest posters chiming in during that week. If you have something you want to talk about/discuss/rant on related to writing or gaming, and want a different outlet for it, hit me up.

Finally, with the wintery mix coming down on our heads, tonight’s D&D was postponed, so no Into the Nentir Vale this week. Luckily I set up the final confrontation of the Battle of Albridge before we parted ways last week, so we can start rolling the moment we get settled and I have my beer.

Yes. I drink while I DM.

Don’t you judge me.

Writers Gotta Write

January 31, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 3 Comments

I think one of the worst things you can do as a writer is sit idle.

I don’t mean physically, though that probably comes into it. The remote control, the take-out menu, the bottle of booze – they’re all comforts we reach for in general. Writers in particular can feel affected, even exhausted, by what they do. You finish a project, a novel, a round of pitches, and you feel absolutely spent. You just want to take a moment to get away from the pen, the word processor, the outline and the query.

So you pour yourself some sweet succor and kick back. But what then?

Intellectually, we know writers have to write. It’s nothing short of a moral imperative. It’s in our blood, and once it’s taken hold it’s not going to let go. We can do our level best to ignore it, of course, but the longer we do that, the more it’ll gnaw at us.

We might keep a journal, maintain a blog, post on forums. But these are little more than stopgap measures. They hold off the beast in our brains for another day or so. Then the ideas start popping up in our heads again. Square-jawed heroes with jet packs and ray guns. Werewolf fiends with viscera dripping from their jaws. Good-looking girls who also happen to be tough as coffin nails. Fairies that giggle as they turn innocent travellers into twitsed abominations. Flying cats.

Channeling this creative energy in a productive direction can be a daunting task. It means stepping away from those comforts. We have to put away the snacks, turn off the television, stay off the tweets and bulletin boards. When you get right down to it, writing is work, and after work is done for the day the prospect of more work just isn’t all that appealing.

But writers gotta write. We set goals for ourselves. An outline in an hour. A thousand words a day. A story every fortnight. We try to structure our time in such a way that we can better focus the energies that tease the edges of our imagination when our minds come to something resembling a halt and we might consider distracting ourselves in some way, shape or form.

Art is creative chaos, and writing is an art. Imposing order on chaos is something that sounds good in practice but tends to suffer in execution. The trick is not to overdo it. You can say that you’ll spend the hours between X and Y writing Z words, but the truth is the chaos will rebel against it in the form of the way we seek excuses to stop writing. The dog will need to be walked. We’ll remember the trash needs gathering. We’ll catch a glimpse of the pile of dishes in the sink (and did that one just move?) and resolve to scrub a few. I could go on.

In those situations, remember how far you’ve come towards your goal and how much is left. It’ll be easy to forget in the process of tending to those outside influences, and say “Well, I wrote something at least. Time for more fun! Fire up the tweets! Ale and whores for all!” Stop. Think. You have a goal to meet and you haven’t met it yet. Chances are it’s closer than you think, and if you can get on a roll you might even exceed it. But the only way you’ll find out is if you keep your focus on the words and continue to let them flow. They want to come out, arrange on the page, thrive within the story. We just have to let them hitch a ride down our neurons from our brainpans to our fingertips. That takes time, focus and energy, and we may be disinclined to expend those things on a task that is less fun than the many distractions that tempt and tease us.

Just remember. You’re a writer. And writers gotta write.

Magpie Management

January 17, 2011 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

I apologize for yesterday’s oddness. I’ve been meaning to adjust the schedule of my blogging. Not on this end, mind you: posts will still publish as near to noon as possible. I figure folks on lunch break might want something interesting to read other than the news.

It’s totally a creation-oriented thing. Rather than scrambling for topics at the last minute, which occasionally leads to things like surly Mexican supercops scowling at you, I need to make it a point to jot post ideas down when I have them and write said posts in advance. Tomorrow, for example, will see the return of Into the Nentir Vale, and while I have the funny quotes from my players, making sure the narrative flows in line with the events of the last two sessions would take up most of my lunch hour.

Still, it falls back to making sure I use the free time I have wisely. This includes time on the train, naturally, as well as walks to and from the station. It can be difficult to predict when an idea for a post might hit me, and if I don’t document them they might slip through my fingers the next time a shinier idea passes me by. I’m a bit like a magpie, in that way, which is something I’ve mentioned before.

Creating new habits to replace bad or broken ones can be one of the biggest obstacles a person has to face. It means change. It represents stepping away from the familiar, the comfortable. The edge can be a scary place, and not everybody likes to hang out there. We need to remind ourselves, however, that with risk comes reward.

I’m dangling myself over the edge already, at least a little. Queries are going out. I know most will be met with rejection. But that’s a fact of the writer’s life. It’s not the rejection itself that matters – it’s how we deal with it.

Tag: Writing (page 10 of 47)

Abandon All Hope

The Paths to Self-Publication

Time is Money, Friend

Writers Gotta Write

Magpie Management

Buy This Book!

Search the Blog

Recent Posts

Getcher Updates!

Works

Legal Stuff

Categories

Archives