Do You Have a Mothering Complex?

A close up of Tell Me Your Happy
by Wenqing Yan

Mothering Complex- Wish to keep your characters safe from truly evil individuals. Unwillingness to allow your characters to die. No trauma of any sort befalling any main character, often causing little to no character development.

I'll admit right now this is a term I made up. If there is a real mothering complex in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders I apologize. This blog has mainly to do with writing, and since I made up the term I will admit I have a problem.

I have a mothering complex.

I like my characters to be happy, to be quick on their feet, and I don't like to see them get hurt. I don't like to see them have their friends die or experience heart ache. I like them to be safe and sound.

Part of my upcoming notes for God Syndrome will include a detailed plot chart. In there I hope to create some true hurdles for my characters. A place for them to experience life to it's fullest, including the crappy parts of it. I'll make it a personal goal for my character to experience death in some way. The reason I'm doing this is because I have a tendency to tell a story full of roses with only minor characters dying on the side. Often the deaths have gone unnoticed by the main characters. I've been analyzing some of my old writing and I've come to realize how little readers and characters get to know those who die. It's a clean cut that doesn't have you balling like when Fred Weasley or Sirius Black died in Harry Potter. 

I suppose you could say that you don't need to have those moments. However, I think it's important that on some level writing mimics life. That sometimes when shit goes down everything isn't okay. My favorite pieces of writing have always had a bit of tragedy in them. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Harry Potter, and from my comics The Demon Ororon are among the pieces I have read that I loved and yet made me cry. So one more writing goal for myself is to break my mother complex, and to give my character a life. One that is measured by both successes and failures. One that has that little stroke of reality to make you feel your own life in that moment.

Its one heck of a goal and I certainly haven't decided who will pass on, but in the end it is something I want to experience as a writer.

Is It Possible to Write an Original Story?

I made the cover for a SF course I took in college.
I had decided to make a comic out of the manuscript.

One of my greatest fears as a writer is to write a book that's already been written. I admit sometimes I'll see a book already published with a flap copy that is similar to an idea I have. So, instead of reading it, I put it back on the shelf. Afraid that my thoughts were already someone else's.

I think that's why I stopped my first major project, Dreida. I had written two full chapters, almost thirty pages, when I became acquainted with the movie Blade Runner. While the stories weren't even fifty percent the same, they did have very similar elements. The main underlying question they both had was, what makes us human?

I had plans to add alien cultures. The story was going to take place between India and Germany. The characters were going to be a bit over the top, a little science fiction mixed in with fantasy. I had side stories about the scientists who created the humanoid beings called humanisapiens. Humanisapiens are biologically human, save for a few minor brain adjustments that makes them emotionless and obedient.

The thing was, those plans felt silly after I had watched the movie. Part of me is now worried that God Syndrome, my current project, will be similar to some other story line I'm not yet aware of. Part of me thinks I need to get over this worried mentality. The story, as far as I know, is original. Unlike Dreida I've been taking notes on this baby for almost a month now. I have thirty pages of just notes on viruses, deities, doodles, and plot ideas. I should feel secure that even if this sort of story has been written before, that I can do it in a way that is better. In a way that is all my own.

However, I won't lie I'm hoping that God Syndrome is an original piece. One that won't make me want to chicken out. Right now though, I feel pretty certain I'm on the right track.

Happy Writings!

How Logical Do You Have To Make Your Writing?

This weekend I visited one of my best friends. We've been besties since our sophomore year at Ferris State University. We met in the Honors Program, helping students carry their carpets into Puterbaugh Hall. We started talking while moving the hefty flooring and found that we had similar interests including anime, manga, movies, romance novels, and science. She was, and still is, studying to be a pharmacist.

When we were catching up with each other, I filled her in on the story I was planning for January. I asked her about my concept and the use of viruses and DNA in my upcoming novel. It sounded okay to her. However, she told me how viruses attack not only DNA but also RNA and other bits of genetic information.  I knew viruses acted differently but was unaware that they could target different things.

I'm beginning to wonder how much research I'm going to need for this book. I'm currently uncertain how much scientific knowledge I'm going to need before I go forward with my novel. My story The God Syndrome is a piece of speculative fiction that fuses sci fi and fantasy together. Fantasy is easy you can make up the rules as you go. Science fiction requires science behind the story that is thoroughly grounded in some fact. My goal is for scientists to read the book without twitching from incorrect terminology or impossible happenings.

The last week and a half I've spent writing notes on how the virus works.The kind of bodily changes it creates, when it was discovered ,and how much scientists know about the syndrome. I have more than ten pages and I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg. I may only use two pages of this information when I write the novel in January, but I want this disease to make sense even if it is fake.

My question is how many facts do you need in a sci fi story for someone to believe it? Especially when you're adding fantasy elements to it. How much do you get to cover up with fantastical elements before a sci fi story becomes completely ridiculous. My book is a sci fi novel first and fantasy second, finding that balance  of the believable and the fantastic may take some time.

When I start revisions, I'll send a copy to my dear friend so I can make sure that I'm not hurting her scientific brain with bad information. This time without any fear of being inadequate.

Good Girl Gone Bad!

Last Christmas my mother got me a night shirt that said, "Careful, or you'll end up in my novel." It was meant as something cute. However, whenever I dawn it I get this small bit of satisfaction out of it. Knowing that there is a wicked little secret that I may indeed depict someone. Never in a recognizable way! A trait here, a quote there, but never more than that. It's a habit to want to imitate life, to make your writing have a breath and life that carries more than your own voice.

It's Tuesday night and I didn't written a thing on Monday. It's because I visited my boyfriend. Some of you out there probably understand the pull certain people in your life have on you. Those that can convince you to take time away from the things you should be doing. A lunch here, dinner there, a walk along the cold beach, or watching a new movie.

It would be so easy to lay the blame on him. Others often do when faced with my situation. They say that their partners always demanded or stole their time. However, I've always found that a silly thing to say. In the end I was the one who made the decision to avoid my writing. So needless to say I feel a bit wicked today, but nonetheless rested.

However, I'm not going to let this little break in my writing change my new goal just as I'm starting to form a habit and make some headway. I suppose the positive thing is that I really felt guilty about it. I've decided that I am going to keep writing on a Monday through Friday schedule.

Despite my neglect I did make a necessary selection for my future writing goals. I went through my personal library of notebooks and chose a story line to write about from the several I had. It wasn't a science fiction story like I had thought it would be, at least not entirely. The piece I chose is a solid piece of speculative fiction, a mix of several genres. There's a bit of science fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy in the story line. The piece I'm working on is called "The God Syndrome." It was an idea I came up with while I was in college. The notes for this story thankfully included a plot line.

Over the next few weeks I plan to expand my notes on the story. I may write a more detailed version of the plot, a mini story of sorts. I will still write a page a day, but I want to focus on building this work/ world. That and I will need to do some research on various subjects before I blindly move forward with my writing. Especially with history being an aspect to the story.

The Future of Exploration

A piece I did for Penumbra EMag's blog.

Penumbra eMag: The Future of Exploration: by Kristen Saunders

The picture wasn't spectacular, but it was the best I had at the time.

The piece focuses on how our current history is going to affect the writing of the future. It wasn't meant to be about writing techniques, which is the usual topic. I was asked to find a different approach to addressing exploration from a writer's perspective.

December's topic for Penumbra will be Utopia. I've been thinking about what people think as the perfect world. Thing is no two definitions would ever match up. So it's an interesting thought process to start to delve into.

I'll probably write again today, this was just a shameless plug.