I'm not exactly finished with my book. Ok, I'm not even close. But I have been reading up a lot on shopping for agents and sending out queries. Here's a good blog article on what to look for in an agent. Enjoy! :)
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-things-to-expect-from-agent.html
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
To the 'Twilight' haters: lighten up
So, if you all haven't heard by now a young woman by the name of Stephenie Meyer has written a book series about teenage vampires in love that have sold over 25 million copies and has thus sparked a movie deal where the second installment has (I believe) just finished filming.
No?
Oh wait, Edward Cullen?
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about now, right? ;)
There isn't a person on the planet left who hasn't at least heard of the phenomenon known as Twilight and I'm sure that every one in five people on the planet knows someone who has the hots for the series' main character, everyone's favorite emo vampire: Edward Cullen.
Now, I'm a Twi-fan. I won't lie. After I saw the movie trailer for the first time I had to know what all the fuss was about. I finished the series in a week and saw the movie on New Year's Day. I wear the "Alice choker" daily and I stare at the Cullens who are hanging on my door before I go to sleep every night.
Obsessed?
Maybe.
But, I'm ok with that. :)
What I'm not ok with are what I'm going to refer to as the "Twi-haters".
Twi-haters are people (who more often than not have never given the books or the movie a chance and just hate on it for the idea itself) who just hate on Twilight because of reasons like "it's gay", "it's lame", or "those aren't real vampires."
"Those aren't real vampires" is my absolute favorite!
"Sooo....vampires are real?"
Come ON, people!
Stephenie Meyer wrote her interpretation of vampires with the target audience being 12-17 year old girls and BANKED.
Bottom line.
Anne Rice did hers. Bram Stoker did his. Etc. Etc.
And these 12-17 year old Twi-fans of today will take an interest in vampire stories and read what we consider "cool" or "real" vampires when they are older.
Am I the only one who sees it for what it is?
A book series? A very (in my opinion) well-written narrative?
(*side note: Granted, I did get a little bored with being in Bella's head through the ENTIRE series but that's another post....*)
I may be a little biased and not because I'm a Twi-fan but because I'm a kids fiction fan in general.
Yes, like Whitney Houston, I do believe that children are our future and the messages in kids fiction (especially those in the young adult category) are excellent and many authors are pushing boundaries and actually writing about reality in these books to give our kids a better world view and understanding.
It's great.
Let's break down Twilight for what it actually is, shall we?
Picture yourself as a 14 year old girl.
You're a new student. You're kind of clumsy and awkward.
The hottest boy in school who no one can get to date them seems to want to date you but you're not sure because he acts so weird around you.
You like him a lot and can't stop thinking about him.
Weird things start happening in your town.
People are getting hurt.
You're worried about your parents and often times you feel like you're the parent.
You nearly get hit by a car.
See?
Take these issues....serious issues that are tough for ANYONE to face....and throw in something dangerous and exciting to captivate their attention: forbidden love and vampires.
BAM!
Stephenie Meyer = genius who has a lot of money right now :)
(Well, maybe not genius but do you see my point?)
She had an idea. She went with it and is extremely successful doing what we all love.
I congratulate her.
And I thank her because I actually enjoy the series. :)
So, yeah....Twi-Haters, it is what it is.
And it's ok to get your little sister that Edward Cullen action figure if she really wants it.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Importance of Bad Ideas
It's been my experience that creative-minded people (myself included) are truly their worst critics... Not that there's anything wrong with that (to borrow a signature line from one of the best sitcoms of all time...), however. Honestly, I think judging your own work too harshly can be more of an asset than being one of those people that is totally in love with their own words. But one thing that I have noticed is that the former group can often cause writers to prematurely abandon ideas that have actual potential.
For example, I have accumulated well over 100 (probably closer to 150 by now) story ideas, and while a few of them are too terrible for me to ever share, I document them anyway. It's my sincere belief (as this week's quote from yours truly demonstrates) that most of the time a bad idea simply needs the love, devotion and development to be fleshed out into something worthwhile, and who knows, with some sculpting and polishing, that terrible idea that you were so ashamed of could end up becoming your best work.
I've experienced this first-hand. One of the many stories I'm developing (in my head, at least) began as an overblown, James Bond-esque spy thriller with action setpieces so ludicrous that Michael Bay would roll his eyes at the mountain of disbelief and lack of imagination necessary to conjure them. I'm happy to say I was 15 or so at the time and that the story is slowly turning out to be far more morally complex and layered than its original incarnation.
Anyway, getting back to my point, the idea is that writing is like sculpting. Nothing comes out as gold. Creative writing is a living, breathing thing, and like anything with a life of its own, it takes time to grow and mature. I've certainly seen that with my never-ending work on my first screenplay. So as ideas pop into your head, even if they're not related to your current project, be sure to jot them down. You never know when one of them might blossom into something special.
Happy writing,
Rob
For example, I have accumulated well over 100 (probably closer to 150 by now) story ideas, and while a few of them are too terrible for me to ever share, I document them anyway. It's my sincere belief (as this week's quote from yours truly demonstrates) that most of the time a bad idea simply needs the love, devotion and development to be fleshed out into something worthwhile, and who knows, with some sculpting and polishing, that terrible idea that you were so ashamed of could end up becoming your best work.
I've experienced this first-hand. One of the many stories I'm developing (in my head, at least) began as an overblown, James Bond-esque spy thriller with action setpieces so ludicrous that Michael Bay would roll his eyes at the mountain of disbelief and lack of imagination necessary to conjure them. I'm happy to say I was 15 or so at the time and that the story is slowly turning out to be far more morally complex and layered than its original incarnation.
Anyway, getting back to my point, the idea is that writing is like sculpting. Nothing comes out as gold. Creative writing is a living, breathing thing, and like anything with a life of its own, it takes time to grow and mature. I've certainly seen that with my never-ending work on my first screenplay. So as ideas pop into your head, even if they're not related to your current project, be sure to jot them down. You never know when one of them might blossom into something special.
Happy writing,
Rob
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Lore
You know you're a nerd if you title a blog "lore", but I is what I is. :)
Anyway, I've been taking a break in the last few days from pumping out chapters to work on my "world lore" for the fictional world where my story is set. I've been trying to build three different languages, each with a 500 word dictionary.
I'm not just doing that so I can impress all my nerd friends with having three made-up languages. The reason why I am doing that is very simple: I need place names. What is the region where my main character grows up called? Who named it? The dwarves or the goblins? And what are the names of all the cities that my main character passes through on her way south? What are the histories of those places? What are the people who live there like?
A big part of writing fantasy is creating a world that has depth and a sense of reality. Now, you don't necessarily have to go as deep into world creating as I like to. But that's just it: I LOVE world building. I love writing new languages and histories. I enjoy creating customs and mini-communities within communities. I love the quirky sayings you find in foreign places and the questionable foods that you are forced to eat. It's all so much fun to me.
And, at least so far as I am concerned, world building has to start from the ground up. It begins with a place: where a group of people settled. Why did they settle there? What features of the land made them decide this was a good place to settle? What did they call the place (and the surrounding places) when they arrived? How did the settlement in that place change from it's point of conception until the time of my story? Are there any important past-events that will affect my character when she arrives there? What do the people there look like? How do they dress? Who are the prominent people there? How do they live? What do they eat? What do they do in their spare time?
As you can see, I can get carried away with world building. Just as with character building, you have to make choices about which places you really NEED to develop. For example, there are four or five areas that will be the dominant settings of my book. THOSE really need to be fleshed out. I need to be able to see/smell/hear/taste/touch them in my mind. But the others? I need to at least be able to know what they'd look like if I was driving through them in a car. I distinctly remember certain places I've seen on road trips even though I only just drove down main street.
And, as always, it is important to give the evil places (the home of the bad guys) just as much attention as the good places. In too many fantasy stories the villains and their settings are neglected. (Poor guys). It makes them seem flat and contrived in many cases. I'm not claiming that my villains and their settings are jaw-droppingly deep and complicated, but I'm going to do my best to make them and their worlds seem real.
So...that's what I'm doing during my three hours a day where I have time to write. I think it's going to take a few weeks to get my three languages to a semi-functional state. I just need them to work well enough so that I can name places and things without having to make up words out of thin air that have no meaning. After the languages, I am starting work on the histories of my main "areas". Don't worry, I'm still writing sections and chapters. I just have to leave blanks for the names and skip some of the setting descriptions until I get my world into a more fleshed out state.
(By the way, I have a day-to-day writing blog: http://admcclish.blogspot.com ) I post stuff there every couple of days, but I'm going to force my brain to remember to post some of those posts here!).
Anyway, I've been taking a break in the last few days from pumping out chapters to work on my "world lore" for the fictional world where my story is set. I've been trying to build three different languages, each with a 500 word dictionary.
I'm not just doing that so I can impress all my nerd friends with having three made-up languages. The reason why I am doing that is very simple: I need place names. What is the region where my main character grows up called? Who named it? The dwarves or the goblins? And what are the names of all the cities that my main character passes through on her way south? What are the histories of those places? What are the people who live there like?
A big part of writing fantasy is creating a world that has depth and a sense of reality. Now, you don't necessarily have to go as deep into world creating as I like to. But that's just it: I LOVE world building. I love writing new languages and histories. I enjoy creating customs and mini-communities within communities. I love the quirky sayings you find in foreign places and the questionable foods that you are forced to eat. It's all so much fun to me.
And, at least so far as I am concerned, world building has to start from the ground up. It begins with a place: where a group of people settled. Why did they settle there? What features of the land made them decide this was a good place to settle? What did they call the place (and the surrounding places) when they arrived? How did the settlement in that place change from it's point of conception until the time of my story? Are there any important past-events that will affect my character when she arrives there? What do the people there look like? How do they dress? Who are the prominent people there? How do they live? What do they eat? What do they do in their spare time?
As you can see, I can get carried away with world building. Just as with character building, you have to make choices about which places you really NEED to develop. For example, there are four or five areas that will be the dominant settings of my book. THOSE really need to be fleshed out. I need to be able to see/smell/hear/taste/touch them in my mind. But the others? I need to at least be able to know what they'd look like if I was driving through them in a car. I distinctly remember certain places I've seen on road trips even though I only just drove down main street.
And, as always, it is important to give the evil places (the home of the bad guys) just as much attention as the good places. In too many fantasy stories the villains and their settings are neglected. (Poor guys). It makes them seem flat and contrived in many cases. I'm not claiming that my villains and their settings are jaw-droppingly deep and complicated, but I'm going to do my best to make them and their worlds seem real.
So...that's what I'm doing during my three hours a day where I have time to write. I think it's going to take a few weeks to get my three languages to a semi-functional state. I just need them to work well enough so that I can name places and things without having to make up words out of thin air that have no meaning. After the languages, I am starting work on the histories of my main "areas". Don't worry, I'm still writing sections and chapters. I just have to leave blanks for the names and skip some of the setting descriptions until I get my world into a more fleshed out state.
(By the way, I have a day-to-day writing blog: http://admcclish.blogspot.com ) I post stuff there every couple of days, but I'm going to force my brain to remember to post some of those posts here!).
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