I apologize for not posting in over a week. But I really haven’t done much but read. I’ve been drowning in the vast, complex, compelling Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey, so I’ve not been sleeping or eating much, let alone blogging.

When I was a kid, I spent three or four hours a day reading, and all weekend long if my parents would let me. I really didn’t do anything else, a lot of days, especially when I was immersed in the kind of fantasy series that hurtled me through one 700-page book straight into another, and another. Back then, I read The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien at least once a year, and I frequently re-read The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star books by Melanie Rawn, the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams, and the first few Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. These books shaped my imagination and my first efforts at fiction.

In fact, my first attempt at a novel features a first-person narrator who thinks a lot like Corwin of Amber and travels through a somewhat cartoonish version of Middle Earth. But in college, I gave up reading most fiction except what was assigned for my literature classes and have only recently started reading fantasy again. There’s a gaping hole in my knowledge of contemporary fantasy.

I’ve gradually started filling that hole, and now that I’ve read Kushiel’s Legacy, I’m kicking myself for those lost years of inspiration. Nothing compels me to write more than reading the kind of book that makes me completely forget about sleeping until my alarm goes off and I realize it’s time to get up and go to work. This inspiration goes beyond the imitations I wrote as a kid. Even then, I put my own twist on the characters and world. My “Corwin” was female, and my world was inspired by bits and pieces of many stories, as well as my own imagination.

But now, I have some experience in understanding the mechanics of a story, not just the emotional impact. Now, even as I’m swept away by the power of the story, I’m reflecting on what elements create that power. Now, even though I’ve completely fallen in love with Phedre, the narrator of the first three Kushiel’s Legacy books, and Joscelin, her consort, (and I haven’t crushed this hard on characters since Melanie Rawn’s Rohan and Sioned) I can step back and examine what makes them such compelling characters. I don’t want to imitate them, but I want to learn about them, the balance of traits, strengths and weaknesses, that create such sympathetic, yet admirable characters. And I notice all the little details that make the world of Jacqueline Carey’s story so exotic and yet so familiar. It gives me ideas for ways to make my own world come alive.

I don’t know if I’ll ever write something so incredible as Kushiel’s Legacy, but having the opportunity to study such a masterpiece can only improve my writing. And that’s what I mean by passive creativity. Part of me says I’ve been wasting time, devoting so much energy to reading these books. My laundry has been dirty and my fridge empty, this past week. I could have spent the time doing something “productive,” like working on the blog design and writing my own stories. But the creative part of me knows better. Reading is research, inspiration, sowing the seeds of future creation. Though I haven’t written this past week, my imagination is fired in a way it hasn’t been in a long, long time.

Every writer is told, again and again, that the way to learn to write is to read and to write. As simple as that, but much more complex. Reading teaches the writer what works and what doesn’t, what story elements will repel readers and what will drag them in. In the course of observing these things, I’ve learned ways to make my own stories better. So as I read, I am creating, imagining my characters better and stronger, my world more detailed and inviting, the tension of my plot rising to a more dramatic peak.

Passive creativity is the ability to incorporate all the lessons of life into your creative work. Whether you’re a writer, an artist, or anyone else with a problem to solve, practicing passive creativity will make your efforts stronger. Creativity doesn’t mean that every idea has to come from your head alone. We are all influenced by everything we see and learn, whether we acknowledge it or not. But recognizing these opportunities to learn allows us to apply the lessons directly to our own work, and makes it better and stronger for the effort.

I don’t see myself forgetting this lesson soon. If I want to write epic fantasy, I need to study the best, and even the worst, to see what works and what doesn’t. As complex and vivid as Jacqueline Carey’s novels are, I have a feeling I’ll be learning from her for a long time to come.

What inspires you? Are there books, songs, movies, art, that compel you to create? What do you learn from your inspiration?

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Posted: January 16th, 2008 under Creativity, Writing.
Comments: 2

Do you ever discover a new blog and get sucked into reading the archives, from beginning to end? I’ve been reading Miss Snark lately, which is not only not new, but is not even updated anymore. However, the archives are absolutely fascinating. I’ve been doing little else than reading them for the past week.

Miss Snark is an anonymous literary agent who answers questions about the business of publishing. Having a novel published has always been a dream of mine. As I’ve grown older and more cynical, I’m much more realistic about the slim possibility of being published, but that doesn’t make me any less fascinated with the industry. For a while, I was planning to get into publishing as a career after college. I’m just in love with books in all their stages of life, from the story idea through the metamorphosis into books on the shelf.

Even though I say publishing is just a dream, I find myself making notes as I read through Miss Snark’s archives. Even more importantly, the posts make me focus less on my own creative angst and more on the eventual reader of my writing. After all, a literary agent is just another reader looking for a new favorite, albeit a pickier reader with a lot of lousy writing to slog through. As I read through Miss Snark’s list of annoyances, like beginning a story with a description of the weather or taking chapters to get to the action, I’ve been taking a hard look at some of my stories and wondering just what a reader would make of them.

I realized that I’ve been writing only on instinct for a long time. Yes, I read books about writing and learn a great deal from them. I study the works of my favorites and analyze their techniques. But it’s been a long time since I’ve shown or even talked about my writing (other than this blog) to anyone except in the most general terms. So what I need to do is finish something, and show it to someone, and hold my breath until she or he tells me it’s terrible.

That’s the probable result. After all, even though I’ve been writing creatively for most of my life, my enthusiasm for it has come and gone in fits and starts. I’m a better writer than I was when I was 12, I’m sure, but I’m guessing I’m still a long way from engaging, thought-provoking, and all the other wonderful compliments I’d like to someday garner for my writing.

As a writer, I just can’t be a typical reader, much less with my own work. When I read for fun, I tend to pick at things that most readers would never notice. And yet, when I reread my own work, it’s hard to forget what I meant to say and focus on what I did say and whether it makes any sense. It’s almost like I’m standing outside in the fog, looking through a window into a vast library filled with readers. I want to see into their heads, understand what they like and why, but I can’t even hear what they’re saying to each other.

What it comes down to, yet again, is that I need to focus on writing, only writing. And when I’m done writing, I can revise, then edit. And then I can ask readers what they think, and probably begin the process over. After all, writing is in its essence, communication. If I’m not writing something that will touch someone, why am I writing? If I just want to see what I think, I can keep a journal and never show anyone. That’s fine for anyone who wants to write that way. But when I think of how ecstatic I am when I reach the crescendo of a wonderful book, I am reminded that I want to create that experience for someone else. It’s the gift I’d most like to give the world.

The best writers not only offer a window into the hearts of their characters and humanity as a whole, they offer their readers a chance to examine themselves and become better and wiser for the experience. Someday, I don’t want to be the one on the outside looking in. I want to be the one who can open the window for someone else.

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Posted: January 9th, 2008 under Writing.
Comments: none

yWriter is a free novel-writing program developed by Simon Haynes, programmer and author of the Hal Spacejock books.

Because Simon wrote yWriter for his own use as an author, the program is continually improving and expanding as Simon considers feedback from other users and his own needs for the software. I’ll be discussing the most up-to-date version, yWriter Version 4.

So what can yWriter do for you?

yWriter allows writers to organize their work in an clearly laid-out system that can be easily exported into a final document. yWriter produces various summaries and reports, such as:

• a work schedule from outlining to completion
• a long or short synopsis based on chapter and scene descriptions
• an outline
• a storyboard that allows scenes to be rearranged graphically
• a scene list and scene cards
• lists of characters, locations, and items
• number of scenes and word count for each viewpoint character
• scene ratings to measure tension, humor, and any other qualities you would like to track throughout the story. The scene ratings can then be viewed as a chart.

Chapters and scenes can easily be rearranged, either in the main interface, pictured above, or in the storyboard. Also, characters, locations, and items can all be associated with scenes, and the author can make notes about the projected goals, conflicts, and outcomes. yWriter also has a places for general notes and descriptions for each scene. Notes can also be created as separate scenes and chapters, then marked “unused.” For example, if you have an idea for a scene that you’ve not yet written, you can create a placeholder scene with your notes that can be ignored when a draft is printed.

How I’m using yWriter

I really only started using the software after I finished most of my rough draft for my NaNo novel. yWriter has a rich text editor that allows users to adjust the font style and size, and apply boldface, italics, and underlining, but I didn’t write directly in the software. Instead, I used the minimalist word processor JDarkRoom to do the first draft. When I finished the rough draft, I copied and pasted my work into yWriter, allowing me to see the structure of my novel more clearly. yWriter creator Simon Haynes says this is how he uses the software as well.

yWriter allows me to see the structure of my story much more clearly than scrolling down one seemingly endless document and looking for missing pieces. Now that my rough ideas are organized into chapters, I can see more easily where I need to add scenes.

Some tips on using yWriter

One of the best features of yWriter is the program’s extensive backup system. Unless you delete the entire project folder, it’s difficult to lose all your work. Each scene is stored in a separate RTF document that can be edited outside the program without disrupting any of the settings. One caution though: If you export the entire project, work on that file, then attempt to import the document back into yWriter, you will erase your project settings, such as the viewpoint characters and notes for each scene. I wouldn’t recommend trying to import a file unless it’s with a brand new project.

But if you’re looking for a way to use yWriter when you’re away from your home computer, install the program on a flash drive. Simply run the installation program as usual, specifying your flash drive as the installation location. Then do the same thing with the Pendrive Runtimes program from the Spacejock downloads page. Put the Pendrive files in the same directory as the yWriter files and you’ll be able to use yWriter on any Windows computer with your flash drive.

Note to Linux users: Follow these directions to install yWriter in Wine.

For a thorough overview of all of the functions of yWriter Version 3, see House of Strauss. Also, you might find this discussion on the NaNoWriMo forums to be useful.

In Conclusion

I look forward to using yWriter to organize many other projects. One of the sticking points I’ve often had with previous projects is confronting the mess I was left with after the initial writing. yWriter provides a free, easy-to-use, and helpful way to organize my writing. One of the best aspects, in my opinion, is that the software is designed by an author who also uses it for his own work. All in all, yWriter is an excellent tool to organize a novel, whether as a creation tool or an organization tool.

Have you used yWriter or any other novel-writing software? What has your experience been?

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Posted: December 7th, 2007 under Productivity, Writing.
Comments: 1

Yesterday, Write Stuff asked readers, “When do you write?” The ideal answer was “always,” meaning that when a writer is away from her keyboard or notebook, she is still writing in the back of her mind.

Although I didn’t think to answer “always” to the question, the post struck a chord. Most of my best ideas have developed when I first wrote down an idea, then later did some freewriting to explore its possibilities, then let the idea hang on the tree in the back of my mind until it was ripe and ready. When the same idea comes back again and again, each time with richer possibilities, I know it’s a good idea.

I’m reminded of what Orson Scott Card said in How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy:

“Good stories don’t come from trying to write a story the moment I think of the first idea. All but a handful of stories have come from combining two completely unrelated ideas that have been following their own tracks through my imagination. And all the stories I was still proud of six months after writing them have come from ideas that ripened for many months—usually years—between the time I first thought of them and the time they were ready to put into a story.”

It makes me wonder if I shouldn’t let some of my ideas ripen a little longer before plucking them. Or if perhaps I should revisit some of the stories I wrote as a kid. They’re horrible, of course, but some of the ideas still come back to me after all this time. Maybe there was something there after all, something that could be combined with some of my newer ideas. I think it’s worth a look through the archives.

The old cliche to “write what you know” doesn’t really mean that if you’re a teacher, all your characters should be teachers, or that if you were born in the Midwest all your stories should take place there. It means you should write out of your experience of the world and human emotion. In this sense, all of us are always gathering material for our stories.

What about you? Are you always writing?

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Posted: December 5th, 2007 under Writing.
Comments: 2

What is a writer? Is it someone who makes a living writing? Is it someone who has been published? Or is it just someone who writes? And when I say “someone who writes,” I don’t mean that everyone who writes a grocery list should be accused of being a writer. I mean people who write purposefully, whether they have aspirations of publication or not.

I don’t tend to make these distinctions, but if asked, I say that I’m an amateur writer. I certainly don’t have the presumption to compare myself to famous writers of the past, or even to anyone who’s published, but I still think I’m a writer, albeit an amateur one.

I’ve been thinking about the meaning of being a writer today, because I’ve just been reading 101 Reasons to Stop Writing and trying to decide if I’m offended or not. I think Sean Lindsay has some good points. Far too many people think of the “wealth and fame” they’ll have when they’re published long before they even have a first draft. And there are probably far too many bad books published. But I couldn’t help but wonder: who’s tying this poor man down and making him buy and read all these terrible books? Publishing, like all businesses, is market driven. If there are bad books being published, it’s probably because there are people who will buy them.

Lindsay also criticizes NaNoWriMo pretty severely. Like many people who disparage NaNo, I think he’s trying too hard. Yes, judging by the NaNo forums, some participants think they will have a complete novel, ready to send to publishers, by the end of the month. But many serious writers also use the adrenaline from NaNo’s forced pace to increase the time they spend writing or to help them work toward a goal. And many participants just write because it’s fun, challenging, and an exercise in creativity. True, the emphasis on writing “crap” is perhaps overdone in the NaNo promotional literature, but the larger point is to overcome inhibitions and take creative risks. And most participants understand that what they have at the end of NaNo is an extremely rough draft.

So what does this have to do with the definition of “writer”? When I’m confronted with the idea that I should just stop writing if I’m not good enough to be a bestselling author, I feel the need to reinforce the validity of writing as an amateur, for fun. Why should anyone who enjoys writing stop? The idea seems comparable to saying that those who bicycle for fun should stop unless they’re good enough to compete in the Tour de France. Or that the people who play instruments in the community band should stop if they have no future as professional musicians. There’s no shame in pursuing an activity just for fun.

So although I agree with some of Lindsay’s reasons, he hasn’t convinced me to stop writing. What about you?

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Posted: December 4th, 2007 under Inspiration, Writing.
Comments: 4