Arbiters' Child: Draft 2 underway

Having received a healthy dose of feedback from a number of sources, the fine revision process for Arbiters' Child can finally begin. I was pleasantly surprised that the most troubling sections are fairly ambiguous, and while consistency is an issue, the largest change I need to make is simply redrafting for clarity.

The other major issue within the piece is its inherently abstract nature, in which I have struggled to ground the reader. If I can figure out a way to give the reader a concrete starting point, the abstraction will be less invasive and easier to explore.

Nonfiction and Timing

I was part of a formal debate league in high school. The community was pretty small. Close-knit, kinda. And very dramatic. My debate partner and I were the only two guys in the midst of a (small) sea of ladies.

Debate was great. Attempting to form and maintain basic friendships with some of the other debaters was laborious. No matter how well you know the other debaters, there's always that underlying knowledge that you'll be trading brutal argumentation the next weekend.

Immediately after I graduated, I wrote a short, (almost) nonfiction essay detailing some of the drama that was carried along on the shoulders of teenage angst and formal debates. Reading it now, it has far more depth of feeling than anything I could currently produce about that time period. I think I remember a professor once saying to me, "it's important to have enough distance when writing nonfiction. But it's also important to be close."

I put my pen (fingers) to paper (keyboard) a few days ago, and the death of my grandfather came out. He died in 2004. Is nearly six years enough distance? I think I'm still too close to tell.

Trivial Technicalities: Early Development in Progress

I started jotting notes on this project today. Five paragraphs later, and I've yet to produce an ounce of actual work. Still, the notes are promising. This is one of the few projects I undertake that will require actual research, so I'll be making a journey to the library in the next few days. Before I hit the library, though, I'll be surfing the web for options so that I know what I want when I get there. Oh, the irony.

Lolwut?

This is the pinnacle of internet slang. The power of communication via written text has been reduced to criminal ineffectiveness by an acronym. Lolwut?

I'm no English scholar. I'm just a guy who gets annoyed when useful phrases get turned into nonsensical jargon by spam. Have you played an MMORPG recently? Have you watched the world chat channel? How many statements (because it's impossible to measure internet chat by actual sentences) included some variety of LOL?

But here's what really gets me... the vast majority of the uses of "lol" are meaningless. Some even use it to temper ambiguous statements that might be interpreted as bigoted, despite that the subject matter has nothing to do with humor of any sort.

I'm a fan of lol. I can't stand it when people type something other than what they mean.

Second Drafts: To Rewrite or Refine?

This is a question I ask myself with repetitive frequency in my current labors with the Amren project. My initial writing process normally involves its own kind of in-process-edit, so I've been fortunate enough to have several first writes make it to the final edition on several smaller projects, but Amren has been long enough in the workings that I can see a certain level of growth within my own writing between the beginning and the end. Several passages, like tonight's project involving an extra-planar entity, are just plain lousy. I've even updated it once before. Was I not paying -any- attention to diction??

I could rewrite. I could probably make it a lot better. Yet despite its coarseness, I still suffer that illogical clinginess that writers often have for pet projects. Against my own better judgment, I decided on the "refine" version of second drafts.

I'm not done yet. But halfway through, I'm pleased with the results thus far. The events of the scene weren't particularly imaginative or dramatic, but often it's the desperate grasping for mundane necessities (breath; water; solid ground; life) that makes a story ring true. This particular "maxim" might seem out of place in a story involving alternate realities, but I don't think Amren would disagree with me. No matter what plane he is in, maintaining his flesh in an unbroken state ranks very high on his list of interests.

Shameless Plug

--------> www.nanowrimo.org <----------


Sorry for the lame arrows.

This is the web address for the creators of the National Novel Writing Month. If you're familiar with Nanowrimo, skip down several paragraphs.

The idea behind Nanowrimo is... is... well, here's what they say about it, from their "about" section:

"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."


Now, if you're like me, you're asking yourself this question: Of what practical use is a 175-page novel? John Grisham barely gets going in 175 pages. Charles Dickens considered 175 pages to be somewhere in the middle of chapter three. And Herman Mellville could have written 175 pages worth of text on the back of a postage stamp. The point is, most "good" novels occupy the mind for far more than 175 pages. I am not of the opinion that good literature must be lengthy. I'm just citing a trend that I've witnessed in an entirely non-scientific manner.

If a 175-page book is so pointless, why the shameless plug? Because Nanowrimo is the best tool I've found to help young writers get their good ideas on paper.

I'll say that again, and since vertical space is free of charge on the WWW, I'll be generous with my carriage returns:



Nanowrimo is the best writing tool for new writers!



It's free. The staff commentary and pep-talks along the way are witty and encouraging, and they take part in the journey with the masses. Local support groups can be found in virtually every major metro area. Resources to assist in keeping the groundbreaking, breakneck writing organized are readily available. The only real requirement to participate in Nanowrimo is lots of idle time and plenty of knuckle grease. It is truly a transformative experience.

That being said, the end product is an extraordinarily tiny, horrendously choppy and bumpy, nearly random piece of garbage. Unless the author gets lucky or spends inordinate amounts of time editing and revising, my guess is that the average NanoNovel isn't worth much.

But aside from the 30 day requirement, is Nanowrimo really much different than writing any other large, story-driven document? My experiences are hardly extensive, but I frequently find that I'm writing by the seat of my pants. I rarely know if my current paragraph will last beyond the chopping block. Surely there is merit in planning and outlining, but most authors will tell you that characters almost never cooperate with them throughout the whole story.

To me, Nanowrimo is a proving grounds. I've survived, twice now. I figure I probably have what it takes to write for a living. The next step... is to make the Nanowrimo endeavor something I do every month.

A Note on Typogrpahical Errors Found Herein

This is a blog about words and writing. It will therefore be free of typographical errors in every sense. There will be no misspellings, incorrect word choices or placements, no syntax transgressions, and no doubled spaces when not preceded by a period.

However, it should also be noted that I cling to the principle that when creating art, rules and structure must be followed unless there is a reason to break the rules. Henceforth, all questionable formatting found upon this blog can be attributed to my sense of art. I find rules are usually made to be broken.

Amren's Holiday Review

Four invaluable friends (Ok, so one of them is my wife. She's -doubly- invaluable.) are undertaking the challenge of reading the entirety of Amren while it is yet in its adolescence. If you've never read a book-length document that is full of errors, inconsistencies, plot holes, hasty writing, and half-baked thoughts, I would suggest avoiding doing so at all costs. Nevertheless, writers around the globe need this kind of verification fairly consistently, so friends, spouses, and writer's groups across the globe submit themselves to this kind of abuse regularly. If you four ever read this... thank you!

I've obtained one of the scribbled-upon copies already (he had it read in less than a week) and the comments are enlightening. After reviewing the first quarter of his comments, I've already filled a page with notes of changes and alterations that need to be made... and these aren't necessarily simple fixes. A few of the changes will require revision of many scenes throughout the document. I've got my work cut out for me. However, I've never before been so happy to work so hard. My epic yarn is spinning, and that's neither gamer nor fiber-lover terminology.

Arbiters' Child: Draft 1 Complete

I dredged up a short science-fictiony bit and put to work expanding it over the holidays. Considering it was published in a university's creative arts newsletter, I was disappointed to find so many awkward phrases yet retained their place within its margins. The fresh rewrite, easily three times the length of its predecessor, is hardly what I would consider polished, but I'm fairly confident the diction is better than before. I'm having a second pair of eyes review it tonight. Draft 2 comes soon, if Amren decides to leave me alone for an evening.