Monday mornings are good for a change of routine. Although I've talked of nothing else for the past month I've decided to let God Syndrome sit for awhile and focus on a compilation of short stories. I'm thinking they may have a shared theme like strong women, or an area of land. I'll start writing and let it flow from there.
I was inspired to make my pieces into smaller chunks by the article, Why Do Most Writers Start With Novels?by Jason Boog. It's a relatively short piece, but it definitely is something to think about. With the writer's block I'm experiencing coming from character development I figure short stories are a good way to flex my brain muscles and obtain some focus.
My friend is at just over 9,000 words and we are both supposed to be at 11,000. I'll start over again and hope that in some miraculous fashion I can manage to catch up even a little bit.
Time to put on some good music and obtain some focus. Happy Writings!
This is Ken, and this is his blog which I will read at a later date.
I'll start off by saying four days into my personal nanowrimo and I'm already hitting the nail on the coffin head. I didn't type at all yesterday and right this very moment I would like nothing more than to crawl into bed and go to sleep. It's technically Saturday (even though I'm still counting it as Friday night) and I've yet to break the first 1,612 words that I needed for the first day. This however is something I'm going to need to work through. I'm keeping today's post brief so that I can devote a little more time to my project, but I thought I'd leave you lovely readers with a link to the blog that inspired me to keep trudging through the mud. To keep writing despite the fact that I feel a little disconnected to my own story line right now.
While I work for Penumbra EMag I often truly find inspiration on their blog. The post WRITE MORE: by Ken Liu tells aspiring writers a simple message to, "write more." It may be easier said then done, but experience is the giver of wisdom and I am certain this seasoned writer knows what he's saying.
Black mascara streaked down my face as I hiccuped, sniffled, and quietly bawled my way through Les Miserables this past weekend. The music has been so inspiring to me that I have been playing it at every opportunity I've had since I saw the film. There's something about a musical that reaches into your soul and makes you feel a person's triumphs, losses, and emotions more than any other medium. However, I did not realize until the opening credits that Les Miserables was a book written by Victor Hugo. I will be curious to see if the book can emit as much feeling as the soaring music that captures a listener's heart. In short, I'm adding the gigantic tome to my incredibly long reading list.
Several books have taken on new life and have been adapted for the stage as musicals. One of my personal favorites Wicked was originally Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Other triumphant transitions from the page to the stage include Ragtime, The Color Purple, Big River (The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin,) Oliver, My Fair Lady (Pygmalion,) and Cats which was based on a children's book called Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Elliot.
Plot lines don't always match up between the play and the original. Wicked and My Fair Lady are shining examples of drastic changes from the leaves of a book to a full on drama extraordinaire. (Others in the list above may differ from their play counterparts, but admittedly I haven't seen all of the plays or read all of the books.)
So my question, one that will require more research, is what causes the spark to go off in a stage write's head? Creativity has always flowed in my veins, but it did not seem to spark the fire that takes a novel to another stage. Whether that stage be a movie, TV show, radio drama, a stage play, or a musical It's always baffled me how someone could rework a novel into something more than it was. Mind you I don't think all medium transitions are a success, but it must take some sort of inspiration to make someone take a novel they've read and make it more.
Is there some quality in a book that makes it easy to transition to a musical, or is it pure determination of the play write or composer to make music from what he/she knows? Do the novels have something in common that makes them so heart wrenching on stage? I mean it's not like we've seen romance novels become stage plays. My opinion is that Spider Man became a musical to make a profit and nothing more. Maybe it's amazing and I'm missing out, but until someone tells me it's outstanding, I will remain skeptical. What makes a novel, or any story become a great musical? If you have an incite or ideas please share them. I'd be curious to see what other people think.
P.S. Day one of my personal novel writing month. My writing buddy has been updated and we are ready to go! From here on out I drop the pen and move to the key board. With 1,612 words to write a day I've got to conserve my energy. So I'll let a computer do my word counts and keep my wrists from cramping up by sticking to tapping keys rather than writing on paper.
The easy answer to this question is yes, yes you can. All those little flaws that make you want to deck your brother or sister, slap your lover, or tear the page out of a good book may seem like pure hatred, but the truth is it comes as part of the mental package. The flaws that drive you crazy do so for a reason, and often those reasons are nearest and dearest to your heart. I know there are things that I do which I will never understand. Procrastination for one. They make me want to tear my own hair out almost as much as watching people destroy themselves or each other out of selfish wants and needs. The world is a messy place and it's more than just bodily problems. We make "drama," add to our emotional problems, and do down right crazy things for those we know and ourselves.
Let's face it, no one is a saint. We try, we really do, but at the end of the day we are only human.
Some of the best stories I've read involved characters who felt just in what they were doing, and I almost loved them as much as I hated them. They were ruining or thwarting my favorite character's efforts in a way that seemed downright dastardly. Thing is, stuff like this happens in our every day lives all the time. Some girl stole your best friend's boyfriend and mercilessly flaunted the fact to her face. Your grandparent got robbed by some kid who was just trying to make it into a gang. Your school rival got the job you had been trying to get for the past five years and it was only because he or she was flirting with the boss to get it. Crazy crap happens and it's all around you. The key is writing about some of that stuff when you are angry or peeved. Capturing the thoughts of that moment are so revealing about what is happening to a person in a rage. Then, after some time trying to see what you have written in another light. I, for one, had a moment like that tonight.
There's nothing like experiencing a bit of my own stupidity. Even now I'm shaking my head wondering how in the heck I managed to miss that tomorrow was New Year's Eve. Time flew right past my brain and made me think it was next week, not tomorrow. Somehow, I managed to believe that December deserved another week of existence for 2012. There was so much I was going to get done in that extra week too! I wanted a certain project for Musa done by tomorrow and was supposed to be working on my notes for my 50,000 words in January. That has all been reduced to one day's work and as luck would have it the road will have a couple hours of my attention (again.) I'm seething and have no one to blame for myself. Sometime in the future, I'm certain I'll look back at this and laugh. Who knows I may even be glad I was late because of some of the inspiration I got from the film adaption of Les Miserables tonight!
I'm definitely hitting a learning curve. Now, I have some work to do! Happy Writings to all of you and may it be an outlet for all those moments in your life you feel the steam pouring out of your ears.
I'll admit it, I used to be a worthless writer. In high school I received mostly A's. So, thinking all was well, in my junior year I took Advanced Placement Composition, a college level writing class. I received an "A" and decided to take the eighty-nine dollar test. A.P. tests are scored 1 through 4 with four being excellent, three being normal, two being poor, and one being awful.
I received a two on the test. POOR.
I remember being stunned that I had done so badly. My grades certainly didn't reflect the score I received, but my parents knew. They had known for awhile. They were not happy when I showed them my final portfolio. My parents went to the principal to complain about my good grades. It was plain to them that I didn't grasp some of the basic rules of English and therefore didn't deserve them. It was humiliating to say the least.
The next year, against the advice of my high school, I enlisted in a remedial English course for college students. That course taught me grammar, spelling rules, and how to compose a paper properly. She drilled into our heads that pen and paper helped you think while writing. She mandated we edit every paper we turned in. We had to have a first and second draft for every paper.
I haven't picked up The Classic Guide to Better Writing since then. Part of me was naive and embarrassed I never wanted to face my weaknesses or pick up the book again. Reading the book reminded me how feeble my memory can be and that even after my remedial class it helps to review some of the rules.
The first chapter is about mapping a plan for what you want to write. It basically says while you might be able to deliver a message nobody will want to listen to the garbled mess you'd make up on the spot.
The last few weeks I've been producing notes and research on various things for my future novel The God Syndrome. While these notes will help me keep information short at hand, they won't help me write my story in a fluid fashion. They are a garbled mess that have no meaning by themselves. My story requires a fleshed out plot mountain. I have one I did when I originally thought of the story four years ago. However, that diagram is very basic and doesn't help me know what I'll write in advanced or how I'll stitch together all the notes I've taken.
I think the last week of December I'll start fleshing out this plan. Making sense of the amalgamation of notes in my notebook. It will give me a good jumping point for those first 50,000 words in January.
I may have been a poor writer in high school but that won't hold me back now. I'm going to use every tool I know to make my writing enjoyable.
"Nano update 2170 words done today to bring my total to 6240. Not bad. Very tired though."
I wanted to grind my teeth. For those of you who don't know, This month is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. It's a one month race every November to type 50,000 words and finish a novel length project. Every year I say I'm going to do it, and every year something gets in the way.
This year it was a convention. I attended Youmacon the first few days of November and have made no attempt since to even try moving forward. I had work projects, and had to help my boyfriend move into his new apartment. Life has this funny way of trying to stop you from accomplishing your goals.
I'm flat out jealous at this point. I know I could do it, If you write everyday we're talking about a measly 1,667 words a day. Around two to two and a half pages without spaces. So I've come to the conclusion, I will try to do it this year. However, I'm not doing it with everyone else like I should. I'm moving my NoWriMo to January and writing with a friend.
We figured January was the month for breaking bad habits and starting new ones, that and there were no major pesky holidays like Thanksgiving that could take days out of your time if you have a nuclear family like I do. I have two thanksgivings and several hours worth of travel no matter which way I go to celebrate. January's only holidays would only serve to give us more writing time and no familial obligations. It was the perfect solution to the busy schedule problem.
Still, I'm missing out on the big rush. The feeling of completing my stories along with everyone else. The feeling of a group of people working together to get to that glorious end. The national bit of the equation.
Youmacon did have a panel on NaNoWriMo called 50,000 words. The panel gave me some resources to check out, and I wouldn't have found my writing buddy for January without it, so I don't regret leaving the national stream. I'm just slightly jealous of all of those folks who are going to attain their goal just slightly ahead of me.
To you poor saps attempting the challenge now, I commend you, trudge forth!
