Just had a fun time reading through this, as I'm thinking about genre stuff. Favorites:

• "Call a Rabbit a Smeerp"
  A cheap technique for false exoticism, in which common elements of the real world are re-named for a fantastic milieu without any real alteration in their basic nature or behavior. "Smeerps" are especially common in fantasy worlds, where people often ride exotic steeds that look and act just like horses. (Attributed to James Blish.)


• Bathos
  A sudden, alarming change in the level of diction. "There will be bloody riots and savage insurrections leading to a violent popular uprising unless the regime starts being lots nicer about stuff."


• The Jar of Tang
  "For you see, we are all living in a jar of Tang!" or "For you see, I am a dog!" A story contrived so that the author can spring a silly surprise about its setting. Mainstay of the old Twilight Zone TV show. An entire pointless story contrived so the author can cry "Fooled you!" For instance, the story takes place in a desert of coarse orange sand surrounded by an impenetrable vitrine barrier; surprise! our heroes are microbes in a jar of Tang powdered orange drink.


• Space Western
  The most pernicious suite of "Used Furniture". The grizzled space captain swaggering into the spacer bar and slugging down a Jovian brandy, then laying down a few credits for a space hooker to give him a Galactic Rim Job.


• AM/FM
  Engineer's term distinguishing the inevitable clunky real-world faultiness of "Actual Machines" from the power-fantasy techno-dreams of "Fucking Magic."

I know a lot of people don't like outlines and find them stifling, but at some point I became a serious outline fanatic. (Anyone who has ever spoken to me about writing for a couple minutes knows that.) But I really don't find them stifling, because first of all, you don't have to stick to them exactly (or make them so exact that slight alterations to the plan are serious deviations from the outline); and because they are always revisable.

That's actually what I'm doing right now. I'd had a couple of small things in my novel that I was unsure about adding up and jumbling around in my brain, and somehow a vague thought about how to fix these problems formed. It seems like it will involve writing out one character entirely, and seriously beefing up another's role (and vastly changing her backstory, which was a plot point, so that now requires alterations, too).

This is why I like having an outline: obviously none of these things are on it. I also have only vague ideas of what these changes will require, plot-wise, and how to make them work. So now I'm sitting down with my outline to alter it, and as I do that, it forces me to consider the ramifications of what I want to do, and how to make these changes serve the story itself. One problem I ran into a lot a few years ago -- all the time in the Saga, occasionally in the Underground, and in every Nano I've attempted and almost all of my fanfic -- is that some ideas are just so cool that I want to include them no matter what but they don't actually make sense. They throw off just about everything the story was doing for a brief sense of personal satisfaction. Which is super-fun, no lies, but doesn't actually make for a great story overall.

So. Outlines work for me.

So my novel is currently about in the midst of the third chapter, the end of which is the end of my first act. (Of three. Ish.) It's about 12,300 words long; I don't really have a goal for length, but I feel pretty satisfied with how it's going.

Though I know it'll be vastly shorter on rewrite. That's the thing. When I did this for Nano, I was just writing random crap to get words, without much of a goal. Now I've got a goal for each chapter, so I'm writing to a purpose; but since there's so much worldbuilding to establish and I'm clunky at that, chapters two and three are reeeeally heavy on stuff I know will be removed. I'm sort of throwing everything and the kitchen sink in, and not worrying about elegance. I know whole pages will come out when I get to editing this draft, and hopefully they'll magically be replaced with a few deft sentences or whatever. On the one hand, that's probably a good way to approach it, but on the other, it's kind of frustrating. I would like for this project to be good.

(Though when in doubt, this gives me hope.)

Some things that have been helping me:

-Scrivener. Justine (see previous link) recommended this on her blog, and it looked neat, so I figured I'd give it a try. I'm in LOVE with it, even without using all the fancy features (like the cork bord, which is really neat, but not how I organize). But being able to split screen between the doc I'm writing in and my notes (or the previous chapter) with my outline at the right? Excellent. Being able to go full-screen with no word/page count visible? Even BETTER. Because when I've got no way to measure how much I'm doing, I do a lot more. (Also, the program is like a new toy. Whenever I work on my novel, I'm playing with a new toy!)

-Writing outside the apartment. I've been bringing my laptop with me to work once or twice a week, and setting up in Borders when I get out. It's because there's no internet to tempt me, I know, but I get CRAZY amounts done. In two hours last week, I wrote, like... five thousand words.

-Only working when I'm focused. I have other projects I can dick around with, but I only work on the novel when I'm working. It seriously helps me concentrate; I don't feel guilty because it's open and I'm not working on it, and when it is open...I work. I don't remember why I made the decision to do that, but it's been working out.

So overall... It's not quite crusing, but it's going.

Yesterday, I was talking with harmonyangel and poisonivory about writing. This is not exactly a huge surprise. Jess made a point that almost made me double-take, though. I am a very determined writer, in that I can make myself write and be productive pretty much no matter what. (I don't always, but I can, and often do). I don't, however, apply that same skill to editing. Which is where my big block is: I have a couple of manuscripts shoved in drawers over here, but none of them are good enough to submit to anything. And none of them are getting any better, because I just ignore them and pretend they don't exist.

( more )

Current project list, ( fannish and original )

I think that's it. Uh... anyone want to teach me how to edit a novel? 'Cause I got nothin'.

I've been feeling very good about my chances of getting published lately. This is fairly remarkable, considering that I've only written a few scattered pages in the last month or so, and the last original thing I tackled (that wasn't cowritten) was senior year of college...coming up on three years ago now. Which is CRAZY. (What have I been doing?!!)

But right now...I dunno, I feel optimistic. I think doing Nano will really help me, because I need to get back into the habit of writing daily, but that's my main worry now. I fee like, as arrogant as it may seem, the quality of my writing is publishable. I read a lot of YA books, and my writing isn't so off that. I have some serious weaknesses, but honestly, I can think of some stuff I've read differently that's definitely not as good as my stuff.

( So much more. )

Very relatedly, the final piece of my general plot for Nano fell into place today. I sat down and wrote a fake query letter for the thing, and when I got the the end of what I knew happened, I felt dazed, and my fingers continued to hit keys, and then I was staring at a concluding arch that actually ties the plot and subplot (and I barely knew I had a subplot!) together. I mean, I don't know how it happens (like I said, I have a huge fear of not being able to tie everything together well), but I know what it is. Which is awesome. (And I feel good about the story itself, and the two characters I have; I feel good about it as something that can work as an actual manuscript after polishing. And this is without having written the damn thing yet.)

I am so excited, y'all.

I posted this on skygawker's MB awhile ago (like...a year) and totally forgot about it until someone revived the thread.

List number one is things you love to read about in novels (and thus should write); list two is things you hate (and should avoid writing). I'm sure my lists will shock no one.

Magna Carta I:
1-fast-paced, humorous dialogue
2-spunky young heroines
3-male characters with Daddy-issues
4-extensive worldbuilding
5-dystopian settings with utopian morals
6-"they hated each other immediately (and we all know what that means in the long run)" style relationships
7-villains getting their comeuppance
8-redemption of villainous characters
9-forbidden love/true love waiting decades to be together
10-exploration/questioning of sexuality
11-power couples who are "meant to be" from day one
12-arrogant young male protagonists (who get mildly beaten up)

Magna Carta II:
-long, descriptive paragraphs
-expository chapters
-damsels in distress
-stories about worlds, not people
-religious allegories in fantasy stories
-ambiguous endings
-depressing endings
-unrelentingly dark story lines
-rape as plot device
-irredeemable villains

It is not exactly surprising that my nano plans for the year--in as much as I have them--already consist of 2 (the lead), 3 , 4 (well, hopefully there will be by the time I'm done), 5, 8 (probably), 10, and 12 (almost definitely, though I have no distinct plans for it yet).

Okay. So after four years (plus a few months), I finally finished this fic.

( vague thoughts )

I might have an actual, workable idea for a short science fiction story. Like, you know, fewer than a hundred pages. You know, unless my brain starts working the way it always does. Sigh.

Oh, and I enjoyed reading this. But it does remind me of how much I want to scream and throttle alot of writers. I really, truly, genuinely do not understand why people think they can develop a well crafted male character but not a female one, or say they don't know what to do with a female character. It's not that hard. You develop a woman the same way you develop a man. They fulfill a roll in the story, the same as a male character. The only challenge I can see a good writer having to face is remembering not to default to male for all characters. I just...don't...get the difficulty.

So which is a bigger problem, being in a funk of uncreativity where you don't write, or being in a funk of uncreativity where you only write recycled stuff you know you're good at?

( whining and pretentious arrogance )

...although not a very shocking one. I just got bored and checked on fic lengths at FFnet. And sure enough, EYDW is the longest fic in the Newsies fandom. I was pretty sure it would be; that sucker is 500 pages long.

What I wasn't sure about is that HISMSV is the second longest...which it is. (Currently at 290 pages, I'm betting around 325 when it's complete. Damn, I'm close to finishing it.)

I really, really wish my brain could think in stories shorter than epics, sometimes.

Wow, so I just reread a few Mercedes Lackey novels, and am now glancing at a couple recent chapters of the Saga, and it's remarkable how much I internalized her writing style. I'm not as descriptive, but aside from general tendencies in the stories/characters themselves (it certainly wasn't intentional, but occurs to me that Islana is, in a lot of ways, a mediocre Kerowyn ripoff), the turn of phrase (in the occasional section that isn't all-dialogue... man, my writing hurts sometimes) is very, very Lackey-an.

( Of Mercedes Lackey and Mary Sue )

Okay, so I was very bored and ran a whole bunch of characters through the original fiction Mary Sue test, including a few I'd already done to double check for accuracy. The final scores...

Saga
Islana: 57
Cleran: 46
Kalin: 66
Serissa: 40*

Underground
Katie: 31
Abraham: 47
Franklin: 32
Harriet: 24
Ida: 16

( Saga analysis [some spoilers for middle season 2] )

( Underground analysis )

( Conclusion-y ramble )

You know what's nice? When characters who haven't spoken to you or in any way assisted in the writing of a story for months (verging on year/years at this point) wake up and want to be helpful. Especially if it's by yelling explosive (or at least interesting) dialogue at one another.

harriet_vane called me a plot-arch driven writer last week, as opposed to character arch. I think this is somewhat true, given my recent obsession with outlines and tight plotting. (Which I never used to have--there is now a functional outline for the rest of the Saga, which should hopefully help move things along there.)

I don't think the plot-arch driving writing is really that much of a change. I've always been more interesed in characters than plot, but never (until very recently) had any idea how to go about character development; now it comes around as sort of a secondary element when I'm plotting. And at the same time, it's a bitch and a half to try and write a story where the characters aren't in any way "speaking" to me. Which I realize sounds silly, but most of y'all are writers, right? You know what I mean.

(Obviously, this post is about the Saga and how irritated I am at being deserted by my long-time and much-beloved characters. And while I can write without them, there's a large difference in the writing quality. Which makes me an unhappy camper.)

Abraham's Gary Stu score is a 57.
{56-70 points: Über-Sue. You've got one hell of a Mary-Sue on your hands here, and it's not going to be easy to set things right. But do your best. There may be hope for you yet.}
Franklin's Gary Stu score is a 50.
{36-55 points: Mary-Sue. Your character needs some work in order to be believable. But despair not; you should still be able to salvage her with a little effort. Don't give up.}

I think some of the difference between their "redeemable" scores and Islana's "stop writing before you make my eyes bleed" score (which, again, I don't really put any stock in, but according to the test) is both that I'm older and more experienced as I'm creating and refining Abe and Franklin; after all, Islana's first story was written in 8th grade. The experience thing has led to much tighter plotting, which means their backstories are less over the top and angsty.

I suspect--didn't do it, but maybe I will if I get bored--that Katie would probably score even lower on the scale. She's significantly less flawed than Abe and Franklin, but that's because her personality is less extreme. Their areas of strength are extreme, and so are their flaws. (Abraham is one of the best soldiers and military thinkers who ever lived; the flip side is that he doesn't understand the human aspect of war and has no ability to show what little emotion he feels. Franklin is a super genius who can fix anything; he's also smug and never able or willing to admit it when he's wrong.) Katie is less extreme: she's smart, but not a genius; she's pretty, but not gorgeous, etc. But she's got at least some skill in almost every area. Her biggest positive trait is her passion, and her worst weakness is that her passion creates tunnel vision and thus blindness to other problems. What I love about her as the writer is that passion is what makes her extraordinary, not a skill in the sense that Franklin and Abraham have specific skill sets.

In other words, though, Katie is good at everything but not extreme enough to be a Mary Sue by the standards of the test.

The test also tries, but doesn't succeed, in accounting for character flaws. It has you subtract Sue points for bad habits, especially if they aren't fixed by the end; but it also, in that way, rewards you for not developing your character. Obviously flaws should still be present at the end of a story, but characters do learn from experience so if every bad habit is still present... Then what was the point? In what way did the character grow that no bad traits were fixed?

Again, I don't think that Mary Sue is a term that works well for original stories. If one must measure such things, I think a cliche scale might be more accurate. The Saga is a much more cliche story than the Underground, and Islana is an extremely cliche character. She's what I thought a Strong Female Character should be... when I was in 8th grade. As a senior in college, that idea had changed a lot. She and Katie are similar in that they are (or were) my attempts to represent strong chicks in genre fiction, they're both trying to save a failing society and end a conflict. But Islana is cliche and Katie is, if nothing else, less so.

(Yes, I'm obsessing over this. La la la, what do you mean I need a job?)

So it turns out there's a litmus test for original characters. I couldn't help myself, out of curiosity, I ran Islana through it. Here are the things she scored for:

( Questions she failed )
Total: 74
71 points or more: Irredeemable-Sue. You're going to have to start over, my friend. I know you want to keep writing, but no. Just no.


Yes, I will take their advice and never write again, because clearly I have no talent and... ( Oh. Wait. )

I'm not saying the Saga is perfect, or even particularly good. And Islana is not even close to the best character in it--in fact, she and Cleran are probably the worst. Jereh and Tiernan are much better. But I don't think she's a Mary Sue, and I don't think that tests can accurately measure Mary Sue-ness in original stories.

My (not at all) secret is that I'd really like to someday (soonish) rewrite all of HISMSV as an original. Obviously this has been in my mind for quite awhile, and during my "I hate Race and want him to die like this story has" phase this winter, seriously debated tearing it down to start again, minus fandom. Obviously, I decided against that. (It's a toss up between getting practice writing and getting my ego stroked. Whichever way you choose to look at it. Also, I hate it when people drop WIPs and am trying to alieve the aching guilt of never finishing my [godawful mary sue] Sailor Moon fic from 9th grade.)

Anyway, I know that there are people who go from writing fic to writing original, and I think probably a few people I've run across on LJ who've worked on taking stories that started out as fic and writing them as original--what I'm planning. But I also know that if something is published online, it's toxic to real publishers, who want first rights to it.

So does the fact that it used to be fanfic give it better or worse chances of publication? Yes, it was online, and it was also a form of copywrite infringement. Two strikes against getting it published. But on the other hand, the fact that it was a fanfic means that it's going to have to go through some vast, vast changes to become original.* If I were to revise something like the Saga, I'd still be uncomfortable trying to get it published--I know the changes would have to be vast to even make it coherent at this point, but at the same time, it wouldn't really be changing its form or format. But fanfic to original is a huge change, even for something totally AU, like HISMSV.

I'd love to hear thoughts on this. Obviously, for now this is just musings; I can't start rewriting until David and I get through this battle to the death over what his name is going to be when it's no longer David. Stupid boy.

ETA of next chapter is, tentatively, middle of next week.

* Like killing Race. Or at least, his entire subplot. Take that, Higgins family!

I think my writing overall is improving, if only because it's a bit more deliberate now. For example, I have never worried too much about the point of view before. In fact, I was fairly oblivious to its existence, as I'm sure many many chapters of the Saga could prove. (I wasn't entirely dumb; I didn't change first to third person or anything like that, but hadn't yet worked out the whole "limited omniscient" thing, until cycnus started beta-ing for me in the fandom.)

But I seem to have become obsessed with POV in my new story. The main characters are Katie and Abe. The story and the whole first chapter are Katie's POV, as she's the real protagonist, when you get down to it. But because the end of the first chapter has her being kidnapped and it then becomes necessary to introduce Abe, it cuts to his POV, but then back to hers later. But then, annoyingly, he has to do important things the reader must see while she's still tied up in another room, which means that it skips to his POV again.

I'm not happy with this because a) I know his character far better than hers, and he's starting to steal the show because in some ways I like him more, and it's Katie's story, not Abe's; and b) it's just awkward to skip perspectives. I don't like doing it (now that I'm aware of it), though I feel like, if it were later in the story, it wouldn't be much of a problem because it would be more clear who's there to do what, if that makes sense.

But, for the sake of not skipping around too much, I'm now stuck in Abe's POV. And I don't like it, because they're heading off to his secret hideout, and while using Abe's POV lets me slip in some background exposition, Katie's would convey the sense of wonder and fear and, you know, make it much easier to describe things, since she's never seen them before and would be taking note. But I don't just want to jump, but I don't want to not jump, so just... arrrrg!!!

Anyone who has a magical cure for this should please let me know.

You know, I really wish I'd made Jereh a bit younger and Tiernan a bit older. (Also, I wish Jereh wasn't Cossette; but that's a different sort of 'I'm so dumb' wish entirely.) But at this point, really, Tiernan and Jereh's story arch is about my favorite part of the story. It's kind of the only one that makes sense, has a definite resolution, and is vaguely good. Oh, I am so filled with self esteem!

(I've been working on the Saga in class for a couple of days, so it's been on my mind.)

( On strong female characters; minor spoilers with major spoilers cut out )

I suppose the real ponderance should be on why we worry more about female characters' strength than male characters', but that's a different question entirely.

ETA: I finally decided what to do about friendslocking. It's only been six months... All writing is friendslocked; nothing else is. If you aren't on the friendslist and would like to be in order to see any of the writing entries, please comment. I also went through and categorized just about every entry in the memories, which is only interesting to me, personally. But it killed time, and that's the important thing.)