What to Do With Downtime

            I have found that writing falls into two categories: intensive writing and intensive down-time. I have either been viciously typing away at the keys or I have been staring at the keyboard, sometimes trying to remember how it works. Some writers may have a happy medium between the two opposites, but for most it seems it is either feast or famine. We all know what to do with the writing times; write, and get as much on paper as possible. The times of austerity, however, can be tricky to manage, as the creative rivers all but dry up. Here are some of the things that I do when I have no major projects on hand.

            First, I research for future projects. What do I research, you may ask? Well, I read fervently and learn my material; anything that catches my eyes becomes a possible idea. Is your book historical? Know your information and dates? Are you writing about science? Learn the language of the field and the function of the sciences. Be fully prepared for your work and read everything! I have studied articles, books on various subjects ranging from mythology to Wicca, and mentally consumed my fair share of ghost stories. You may remember these were some of my avenues of inspiration. I am currently researching stuff on Wicca for my next novel. I may not have mentioned much about this current project yet, but soon I will give you some details on book 2. Researching is important to the whole scope of the endeavor, as it gets you in line with the reality of the story and helps to prepare you for the flowing of the rivers again. Do you neglect your research. More on this later.

            Second, I edit heavily. You may not be able to write, but you can edit like crazy. Take the document, a large cup of coffee/tea/milk/Bailey’s/etc. and read like mad. I try to edit when I finish the document, but sometimes it piles up on me. Those downtimes are wonderful for catching up on the editions and getting them in. Editing takes a lot of time, so use your downtime wisely and set aside an hour or two for editions. It may be tedious, but it sure beats staring at the keyboard.

            Third, and perhaps most importantly, I relax. As a writer, you are a bit of an entertainer. You create stories for amusement and pleasure. Sometimes, however, it is nice to simply read someone else’s works and allow your mind to wander. We spend so much of our time crafting tales, editing and researching the story we want to tell, that it is nice to sit back and allow someone else to narrate the adventure. Do not neglect reading, as it is a time for us to enjoy the craft without being totally immersed in the process.

            Downtime can sometimes be a pain, especially if deadlines are approaching, but if you have the available time, follow the above strategies and you just may appreciate the idle hours more than you previously thought.

            As always, good luck writing!

Excessive Gore

            We seem to live in a world today which thrives on gory descriptions. The bloodier the movie or book, the better it will sell, or so it is thought. We see movies like the Final Destination series and the Saw chain and realize we are obsessed with debased scenes. I refuse to watch gore, unless it is based on a historical war scene (in such matters I do not want to be lied to either, as I remember the stories my grandfather told me of the horrors of the Second World War.) Yet when it comes to entertainment, we gravitate towards the bloody; as writers, it should not be so with us. Too many works are created everyday that detail slimy, butcher-like scenes. That is not art; neither is it acceptable. Some may think it difficult to create a horror story without gruesome detail. I disagree. Below you will find a few hints on how to write a very good work of fiction without the mess.

            First, and most importantly, let the imagination work on its own. When a person is engulfed by a book, their brain is running “wide-open.” They are viewing the scenes you describe; they are engaging with the characters and the plot; they are remembering places and names, and perhaps even conjuring memories of their own. You need not inundate their minds with details of a bloody nature. Poe illustrates a good example in the Black Cat, where he plucks out the eye of the cat. What could have been a very blood scene in writing was glossed over very quickly with little to no gory detail. The mind knew what to think; everyone can create their own scene without unwanted detail. Let the mind of the reader work freely on these parts. This leads me to my second point, if blood is necessary, move through it quickly.

            If writing a horror story, you will encounter bloody moments. It is inevitable to create a story with violence and no blood shedding. To dwell on the bloodthirstiness of the scene, however, is not necessary. Pass through it quickly. In most of Poe’s works, he passed through the scenes very quickly and with little detail. In my works, I give very little detail on such matters, and opt to move around them quietly. Does that make me a bad writer? I should think not, since my work is more about art than mere entertainment. I write for the joy of writing and the art of the work, not subtle blood splattering. The action may be necessary for the storyline, but the excessive detail is not; mention and move on.

            Finally, remember your audience. It is always a good idea, if writing horror, to write to as general an audience as possible. Keep the gore to a minimum for the sake of the readers, and you will have better success with the reading population. People can enjoy a good scary story; not all people can stomach gruesome scenes. Write to the greater reading population and you will do alright.

            Well, still feeling the need to elaborate on the exploding head? Remember, what you create is art, not just archaic symbols on a page. You may walk into a museum and look at the works of Warhol and think, what? Some people may walk into your story and think the same, even though you, like Warhol, are brilliant.

            As always, good luck writing.

The Importance of Saving Your Work

            Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned in writing is to back up your work. It seems like such an obvious idea, but few will actually take the time to secure their writings before leaving the computer. I speak from personal experience when I say it is essential to constantly save your work when writing and editing. Here is a bit of a sad story to illustrate the point.

            Only a few moments ago, I was in the process of editing a short work of fiction. I reached page seven and found to my amazement that no further pages existed to correspond with my hardcopy. The electronic version only had seven pages, whereas I typed a full thirteen! Where did they go? My memory gently reminded me of some computer error I had a few weeks ago, so I am now supposing the ms became entangled in that situation and half the story went the way of the Dodo. I have not edited in a few days, so the issue was not immediately recognized. When I checked my backup jump drive, it, too, had only the seven page document on board. Lesson One: check the full ms before closing down for the day. You may have an error and could possible restore the document before saving the corrupted file to your disc. I even tried my “doomsday disc” and found I had only two pages saved there. I was out of luck.

            It is not a total loss, since I have a hardcopy of the work, and here lies lesson two: always print off a hard copy when you are finished with the story. It is not only needed for editing purposes, but also for the safety of the work. I have a hard copy now, so I can at least retype the document and have it electronically again. It’s a lot of unnecessary labor on the part of the writer, but at least the whole endeavor will not be permanently lost.

            Above, I mentioned my “doomsday disc,” a jump drive which I used as the proverbial doomsday vault of my literature, the last bastion should everything else fail. Normally, I am obsessed with backing up documents and I always pride myself on having multiple copies of a single document. In this case, my obsession failed me, and my doomsday vault was found to be empty. Lesson three: always save to such a disc as the doomsday disc when a work is completed (before editing); when you complete a read-through, save it there once again. Believe me; you will thank yourself for it.

Your writing is too precious to lose, and the time put forth into the craft is far too valuable. Keep multiple saving discs and always secure your work, or you will end up like this disgruntled writer who now has to waste time retrieving a story which was already written!

Well, that is all for now. As always, good luck writing!

Work Update 2

            I am very busy now! Perhaps that exclamation will make my point. My apologies for my recent absence, but the fact is I have had little free time since beginning my new occupation at work. I will indulge your curiosity for a moment and share a brief segment of my life before moving onto my work update.

            You might remember that I am employed in the food and beverage field, and was formerly the evening shift supervisor of a Starbucks Coffee Shop on an academic campus in Central Florida. I worked the job until two weeks ago, when the supervisory position in the Catering Department became available. Management was very encouraging, and I decided to take the position. I have been retail since I began working at the campus; now, I am in a totally new field, with new hours (a positive change), and a lot of responsibility. In fact, to make my point, tomorrow I will be preparing a breakfast for the university president and some guests. It is an exciting move, and I stand to gain a lot from it. It has been a good week in the new field so far and I am enjoying it immensely. There are items and people in the coffee shop I miss, but the transition has, overall, been a very positive one for me. I am now home most evenings with my wife (as opposed to working 6 pm-3 am every night) and I have a wonderful manager and crew with which to work.

            Now, I have said the above to point out that my new position leaves me little time to engage in blog writing. My wife is my first priority in the evening, so I write and research when time allows. I have been a week in the job, so hopefully I will begin to learn to use the new schedule to my advantage, as I still desire to keep my writing career going. That being said, onto the update.

            I spent most of today working on the novella, and am pleased to say I have finally gotten through the first draft! It was a bit of a pain, as the first read-through was extensive, but it came out well. Only two more edits and it is finished. I am pleased so far with the story and its outline, pace and style; only a few more critiques and it will be near perfect.

            You are reading my blog, so it means I was successful in creating it today. On my list are this blog and my short story, The Unbinding Tie, which I am currently editing. It is my hope to have this posted and the story completed soon. There do no seem to be many corrections as of yet (that frightens me!), but it is coming along nicely.

            As far as ideas go, I have one project I will begin shortly. This one is a short story about a hiker who ventures off trail into the old, abandoned house of the supposed town witch. Once inside, he finds and reads from a book she wrote about her own life and experiences with the judgmental townspeople. It has been rattling around in my cranium for a long while now, and demands attention. I hope to begin work on it in the next few days, time permitting. I am excited about the story’s prospects, as I feel it is going to be a good one for me. It will be nice to get it underway.

            Well, that is all for now. Wish me luck with my new endeavors, and as always, good luck writing!

On Writing a Short Story

            In a conversation with a co-worker the other day, she told me she was going to submit a short work of fiction for a writing scholarship competition. Having only worked on a novel, she was unfamiliar with short story writing. I realized then not all writers are familiar with writing shorter works. In this blog I will give some pointers on how to write a good work of shorter length.

            The short story has been around for centuries. Some writers utilized the medium extensively, like Poe, Hawthorne and London, and some had their stories broken down into smaller bits for publication in newspapers, like the French writer Dumas. Short works are best described as works long enough to give ample definition to emotions and settings, as well as plot, but short enough to read in a single sitting. I personally love the style and approach of a short story; it gives me room to move artistically, but also keeps me focused on the story, as I do not have too much space for frivolous material. A short story keeps you to the point.

            There are a few basic tips to follow when constructing a shorter work, tips I shall detail below. First, and I believe most importantly, write in the here and now. You all know my flare for existential writing; write in the now. Of all my stories, only a few actually progress through time. The remainder of my tales all take place in the moment. Writing in such a manner allows for further emphasis on the emotions of the moment, and the moment itself. It presents a powerful piece in which the feelings and atmosphere become the actual characters, [see my blog on existential writing]. Try the style. Some writers may prefer to have a general progression of time, while others may find they like the approach. I feel I would be utterly lost without this method.

            Second, keep your characters few in number. A short story cannot have dozens of characters, each with their own plots and subplots. If such is your story, please write a novel. My stories have one, perhaps two characters at best. The Man in the Window had only the main character with the two boys appearing only as part of the backdrop. In many of my tales, there is but one character, and only one. This also helps to tie into the theme of existentialism; too many people in the story illustrate too many themes and too much emphasis on time.

            Thirdly, write a simple plot. You need not re-create the Count of Monte Cristo or A Tale of Two Cities in short fiction form. It is a short work: let the plot be short and simple. In Perpetually Seven the main character is driven mad by the loss of time; the same is true of The Noise from Above, where the character thinks he hears someone moving around in the second story of his home. Take a single incident and construct it on paper, letting the scene speak for itself. Don’t worry about background information. It is sometimes unique and neat to be dropped into the middle of a situation. The scene will reveal itself over the course of the story, so don’t worry about that.

            Finally, pace yourself. When writing a novel, writers pace themselves for a long haul or run; with short fiction, pace yourself for a sprint. Know and remind yourself constantly that the work will be a short one. Not all problems need to be handled and corrected in the lives of your characters in the story. Let some issues slide by in an effort to run your sprint with ease.

            If you do feel compelled to use time in your story (I did with Unbinding Tie and The Man in the Window), try to keep it simple. I have found that using such phrases as “After a week,” or  simply, “with the passage of days…” helps greatly to create the illusion of passing time, without having to progress through each day and encumbering your story with needless details. It is not my point, however, to erase all descriptions and details from the work. That is certainly not my intent. If you have read any of my tales, you will find very descriptive paragraphs. You need only to eradicate what is not necessary.

            So, there you are. Now, sit before your computer and belt out one of those stories. Not that easy? Well, you are correct. As always, let the story speak to you. Short or not, the story has a tale to tell, and it will let you know when it is ready. Be alert and ready when it calls, and use these tips to craft an excellent work.

            As always, good luck writing!

The Story Behind the Story

            Part of my fascination with movies is not their script, their acting, but rather, how the movie was made. I recall sitting for hours watching the “making of" specials when a blockbuster movie would premier. What struck me was the magic behind the screen and the way the idea took shape. I especially liked the discussions on how the whole project started. Sometimes it was a mutual collaboration between producers and directors on a patio in LA, or over a cocktail in New York. No matter where, the story behind the story is always amusing. In this work, I wish to share with you all some of the little known stories behind my works. Like the movies, each has a unique beginning and may help the reader to understand the work a little better. Here they are:

Lost in the Fog

            Lost in the Fog has its origins a little over a year ago at Christmas, when we were visiting my wife’s family in Virginia. It was the night before we were to travel home, and it was exceptionally foggy out. In the dense mist, my mind began to wander, and perhaps wonder at the setting in which I found myself. Save for the actual fog on their road, all else came from the vaults of my mind.

Death Immortal

            I was the only one of my family to hike up a steep, nay, very steep hillside to see an old family cemetery located in the Cataloochie area of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. It was small and picturesque, sitting like a sentry upon the apex. Here lies the inspiration for Death Immortal.

Perpetually Seven

            In the final year of graduate study, a small group of us took a religiously oriented trip to China. While there, I became sick with some illness and was immobilized one evening at the hostel. I recall lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling. My roommate, Josh, was unpacking some items from his bag. I asked him what time it was. He responded, “Seven.” Content, I drifted off. When I opened my eyes, I again asked him what time it was. He replied, “Seven,” again. I had thought myself asleep for some time, but found I was wrong. The story then took shape from there. I wrote it when I got home.

The Man in the Window

            There is no particularly interesting story behind this one save for its intimate connection with the swine flu which attacked the world a year ago, in September of 2010. I wanted to write a piece which would be set in a cultural incident, and the flu presented me with the perfect situation.

The Expense of Ill Judgment

            Not yet released, this story has its origins in a stroll around the cemetery and historic chapel at historic Jamestown, in Virginia. I even lifted the chapel and dropped it in the story, allowing it to make a cameo appearance. It was my ‘thank you’ to the building.

The Nursing Attendant

            My only full-length novel (not yet released), this work has perhaps the best origin, second only to Perpetually Seven. The story began life not as a novel in the works, but as a short work of fiction. I wanted to create a short tale where a nursing attendant took residence in a home with an invalid and a madman, who then tries to blame the girl for all the terror he enacts. The story changed drastically as the characters began to speak loudly. The madman became the honest Robert Latoure, and the innocent nursing attendant became, well, Caroline Asher. I won’t give away the story here, but suffice it to say it became an amazing work with psychological monsters, witchcraft and the waking dead! 232 pages in all, I began writing it in room 310 in Graves Hall, and ended down the hall in the Resident Director’s apartment.

            I hope you enjoyed these little stories, the tale behind the story. Every work as an amazing set of circumstances behind the pages; the next time you read an awesome work, stop and think for a moment about what went into the novel or short work, and what brought the idea to the forefront. Knowing the story behind the story can be wonderful.

As always, good luck writing.

Favorite Story Excerpts

            Today I will share with you some of my favorite literary moments as found in my writings. Below, you shall see excerpts from my writings, each labeled and encompassing what I like to think of as some of my best, and my personal favorites. Enjoy!

From Death Immortal:

I could not bear to place over such a beautiful and graceful creature a cold and demeaning stone, but at length was forced by an inner unsettledness to act. Erected above her was a marker, a tablet enshrined with the many graces of my beloved, who in life cherished all living and animated creations. I placed only one, for she alone was deceased, and my soul was still spirited, active and alive with energy, although my heart sank with a burden none other had ever felt. It was to this stone I now approached, my feet walking with a reverence only pall-bearers would recognize.

From The Man in the Window

I nearly nodded off when some inner spark became activated and enlightened within me. My eyes, blurred by fatigue and sleep, opened to the window, the tree branches and those two boys below! I stared in greater disbelief as they defiantly stood in the confines of my yard yet again. Their ruddy little faces, with eyes turned upwards, did not cease to stare directly at me. I shook at their insolence and lowered my eyes briefly to lift the strain of their gaze. When I returned, they were gone from the yard, street and all other visible locations; it was as if the two boys had sunk into the lawn itself. I trembled with fear, provocation and chills that arrived as my energy waned. I moved away from the window with as much speed as I could muster and pulled myself back into the bed. I remained there for the rest of the afternoon.

From Lost in the Fog

Just as I started to advance, I saw the same object again. It did not move, but, stationary as it was, nearly blended with the fog. My legs, at this reappearance, took to shaking slightly. I heard no sounds coming from the shape. At first I thought the image to be that of a person, one like myself who had ventured out as well. Their lack of mobility, however, alarmed me greatly. Why, I reasoned, would someone simply stand in such a location in this weather?

From The Noise From Above

            The wine seemed to dull my nerves, but at the same time sharpen an acute awareness to my dark surroundings. There was the singular ticking of a clock on the wall, the settling of the house as it was battered by the storm, the dripping of the drain in the guest bathroom in the hall. These noises were amplified by the wine and seemed to nearly deafen me. Then, as I reeled from the sharpness of the sounds, I heard above me another thud. It was loud and distinct. I knew, not from experience but from understanding of the fears within me, that an intruder had trespassed into my home via the upper level. It certainly was he who was making such noises. I could not think of what else it might be. Thoughts, some brave and others cowardly, circled in my mind. Should I dare to venture upstairs and examine the surroundings? Or should I remain idle with the hope that by so hiding it would merely vanish into the outer darkness from whither it came? I drank more wine.

From Perpetually Seven

I stared at it, regaining the state of hypnosis I had abandoned. The clock, that little device which measures the passage of time, shot its rays across the floor in so seductive a manner I could not help but be compelled to see why this particular light was still illuminated; it did not at first occur to me that the clock should have been disabled by the lack of power. I pushed myself onto the floor and crawled, like some irreverent, irrational beast, to the clock. The tint of its hue showed upon my face and my eyes, now thrilled by the color, read the clock. It read 7:00.