A Light Through the Darkness

I know, I'm getting chatty lately. But I'm reading a great book on writing craft, and I thought I'd share some of the thoughts it's triggered.

The book is called How to Write Magical Words, by the Magical Words crew. The blog, btw, is a great resource for writers, and if you aren't reading it daily, shame on you. Go rectify that. I'll wait. (davidbcoe is today's blogger, and his post on Time Management is awesome.)

Now, I read Magical Words pretty much daily, although I don't comment a lot. I bought the book at StellarCon and have been savoring it - it's a collection of the best essays from the blog, and includes some of the comments from the threads.

The one that got me thinking last night was an essay on character wants. Basically, it's making sure that your characters WANT something, even if (as they say) it's only a glass of water. And it isn't a hard concept, but for some reason, it blew a clear light in my head. That's exactly the problem I have been having with a few stories. What the heck does the character WANT? What haven't I given them? A few clues fell into place, and I think the writing will be a little smoother from here. I just wish I'd thought of that before.

So buy the book. It's worth it!!! And it's even available for the Kindle!!!

I'm listening currently to Owner's Share by Nathan Lowell. and it's making me think about storytelling. If you haven't listened to and/or read any of Nathan's stuff, I highly recommend it. Although there's a bit of a body count in Ravenwood, his fantasy novel, it's the Ishmael Wong stories that have captivated me since I was introduced to them last year about this time.

I don't usually like stories that don't have what I guess I'd call "Save the World" plots. You know, defeat the big bad or the world as we know it will end. Then again, I like more fantasy/sword and sorcery/urban fantasy type stories. That, or horror. The stuff I write, usually.

The Tales of the Solar Clipper are not really like that. It's a journey, one that starts with Quarter Share and sadly, will end with the end of Owner's Share. It follows Ish from the horror of his mother's death (she dies in the first or second paragraph of Quarter Share, so that's not really a spoiler) right after his 18th birthday all the way through his life - his career as a spacer, his choices, how he deals with life in the Deep Dark. It's a fascinating listen/read, and I highly recommend it to everyone, not just because it's that damn good, but because it's That Damn Good.

Nathan is a storyteller. He spins amazing stories, with real, honest characters. It's not the production, although he's solid in that respect. It's that, when he reads his words, the worlds and lives he's created spin out like a movie, or one of the really good radio dramas of old. He's got everything, and even the minutiae of Ish making coffee or Cookie making dinner is fascinating.

I keep relistening to them, hoping to figure out how he does it. Kind of like going over and over to a magic show, watching the magician in the hopes of learning how he does the amazing illusions. And I think I'm starting to figure it out, just a little.

Nathan KNOWS his characters. I get the feeling, as I listen, that he knows every single little nuance of their beings, even if he doesn't realize it at first. You can hear it in the way he voices them, in the small details that seem like throwaways but really reveal the deeper character. These aren't just words on a page.

They're PEOPLE.

Stories don't work unless the characters, the PEOPLE, in the stories do. And that's what I'm beginning to realize is one of the keys to good writing. Folks care about the people in the stories.

I'm thinking that's why the Advent Story clicked so well. I was getting emails, not about the story, but about Molly and Schrodinger. What were they going to do next? What else could I come up with? I won't lie - the emails continued after the story ended. And that was really cool.

So I've got characters on the brain. I'm hoping you folks will like the next set I trot out (more on that soon, as soon as I can talk and post stuff about it). And I'm thinking about the next novel I want to write, when I finish Rites, which WILL BE THIS MONTH.

More later. Now, I gotta get to bed.

Short to-do list today:

1. Molly December 15
2. Molly December 16
3. Read Chapter 5 for homework
4. Dishes
5. Class at 9 pm

I think that's it. Seriously. Not feeling well. But will be soldiering on.

Oh, and if you want to hear me and PG Holyfield (of Murder at Avedon Hill fame) talk about balancing the writer's life and the day job with the Galley Table crew from Flying Island Press, you can go here to listen to the podcast.

I need to start putting goals down again. Goals this month:

500 words a day of honest WRITING. Not blogging. Not texting. WRITING.

Starting today.

Look for updates.

Thank you to everyone who participated (and if you haven't, I'm leaving them open) - I was looking (rather unscientifically, considering how small a pool I have to go with) to test a theory.

I was in FM Chat yesterday, and the subject of author blogs came up. Specifically, WHY authors blog. The theory put forth was that pro authors blog to sell books, so they should only write things about the books and the subject matter of the books, not things like how to work with editors, how to write, stuff about their life, etc. This got me to thinking (always a dangerous thing) and I realized that while I was a pro author, I don't blog just to sell books. In fact, it's not even the main thrust of my blog.

(Not that I don't WANT to sell books, obviously. The cats still have to eat.)

I blog because I want people to read. I want people to write. I want to know about the people around me. And sometimes, I just want to whine or rant or rage.

So I wanted to see why others blogged. Not to disprove the theory - just for my own curiousity. I'm still looking for the black swan, you know.* I did skew it towards the author side, since that was the theory put forward. And of the 7 published authors that participated, not one put "promoting my books" as the primary reason why they blog.

Which I find interesting.

So now I throw another question out to the masses. No poll this time, just a question.

Why do you read author blogs?

*Looking for the black swan was an image my chem teacher in high school used to draw us in. He was always saying that science was the act of looking for the fabled black swan - even though all around you was white swans, the myth of the black one kept you looking for it, always exploring beyond your line of sight. I've always loved that image, and it describes my life pretty perfectly.

[Poll #1343515]

Just to satisfy my own curiosity...

Again, this is a completely nonscientific attempt to understand part of the blogoverse...