Category Archives for writing

The First Rule of Beginning a Story . . .

. . . don’t start with strangers bashing each other in the mouth or the nuts or anywhere else. “[I]f you plunge instantly into the action, you risk losing the reader,” writes Damon Knight in Creating Short Fiction. “It is hard to take much interest in absolute strangers, no matter how enthusiastically they may be bashing each other.”

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules of Write Club, as Chuck Palahniuk demonstrates in the opening of Fight Club:

fight 2Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. For a long time though, Tyler and I were best friends. People are always asking, did I know about Tyler Durden.

Why does this beginning work, though the narrator has a gun shoved in his mouth in the hook? (Also note the comma splice. Does that work for you? Why? I like it; it speeds the beginning, alerts you to the roller coaster ride you are about to begin, and tells you you’re about to get your nose bloodied, or worse, much, much worse.) I think Palahniuk’s beginning works, because, if you are like me, you’re suddenly asking who is this person who gets you a job then shoves a gun in your mouth? What kind of psycho is this? It raises suspense.

But Knight is probably right. You have to begin a story and make the reader care about the narrator. And unless the narrator has a gun in his mouth, you probably won’t be interested. You don’t have to have someone in such dire straits to get your money for  nothing and your beginning for free. You do need tension and suspense or provoke interest, as  Knight confirms, “The opening must establish character, setting, situation, the mood and tone of the story; it must provoke interest, arouse curiosity, suggest conflict, start the movement of the plot—all this in about two hundred words.”

What do you think? What makes a good beginning?

—Todd

One Word Writing Prompt, Episode 4: Learning to Fly Led Style

Episode 4

SteampunkAirship

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to One Word Writing Prompts, Episode 4. Basically, your instructions, dear Reader, should you wish to participate, are to simply use the word below as a prompt to write something from it. And, if you would like, please feel free to post your creative output in the comments, and with your permission, I might share them in a later post. Have fun. Be creative.

>Dirigible

But Learn the Rules First . . .

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”—W. Somerset Maugham

Earlier, I tweeted the following link to breaking writing  rules. Thought I’d share it here for those who didn’t see it then. Also, I would say you do need to learn the rules, learn to use them effectively before breaking them.

Anyhow, enjoy:

5 Classic Writing Rules We Could Do Without

—Todd

One Word Writing Prompts: A “Mutant” Response

Here is a response to One Word Writing Prompts, Episode 3: Mutant:

emilyschiller says: February 21, 2013 at 8:36 pm (Edit)

Just found your blog. Cool idea. I decided to go comic book with this, for some reason. 3 am does that to you…

Mom said I looked like a mutant when I shot out of her thirtysome years ago. A wet ball of pudge and surprise. ‘I didn’t know what to expect’, she said. ‘But that wasn’t it.’ Truth is, I looked like all the other little creatures in the maternity ward. Just your average unplanned pregnancy. A lucky break for me that something else broke nine months earlier. She took it in stride, my mother. Her policy was honesty. She did what was right. Dropped out of school and learned to take night shifts. She wasn’t great at it all, but she knew her responsibilities. But I think she never got over that initial shock–’that thing came out of me.’ I guess it would be shocking, not that I would know. I’ll never have to. I wasn’t built for passengers.
So, you understand I didn’t feel guilty telling my mother. It was almost an inside joke between us, that there was something wrong from the beginning. A mother’s instinct. I thought she’d laugh. Not take it so… seriously. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t see the humor in it–me actually being a mutant after all. I gave her the two biggest shocks in her life. First my existence and then my mutation. The second one did her in. I guess we can’t all be jokers.

Thanks for the contribution.

—Todd

John Scalzi on Writing

I have to recommend John Scalzi’s blog Whatever for any writer—fiction no matter the genre (and I’m not really sure why you don’t read science fiction), non fiction, copywriting, or whatever. Not only does he share insights about writing, but also gives other writers plugs. He’s also funny.

And an example of how the SF & F community seems much more willing to pay it forward with other writers than writers in other genres.

Scalzi also recently posted an interview in which he talks about his background as a journalist and film critic, and about the most important event of his life–getting laid off at AOL and deciding to become a freelance writer. At that point he took control of his career. Something writers need to do more of, even this on.

So, enjoy this video.

—Todd

One Word Writing Prompts, Episode 3: Fruit Flies Do It

Episode 3

Mutant Fruit Fly

Mutant Fruit Fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to One Word Writing Prompts, Episode 3. Basically, your instructions, dear Reader, should you wish to participate, are to simply use the word below as a prompt to write something from it. And, if you would like, please feel free to post your creative output in the comments, and with your permission, I might share them in a later post. Have fun. Be creative.

>Mutant

One Word Writing Prompts: Wormhole Follow-up

Here is a follow-up to my first episode of One Word Writing Prompts:

For Wormhole. I received one comment from a contributor named Gene:

 

“WORMHOLE!!!!”
“Yes, and don’t fake astonishment. Mankind has progressed beyond fake astonishment.”
“Ahem . . . yes, excuse me.” Wormhole, wormhole he muttered to himself.
“You know I’m not sure the whatever it is – astonishment, disgust, etc – is fake.”
“Don’t be silly. I’m the 3 star Chancellor aboard this ship. I now fake astonishment as easily as I’d know a ‘pigsty’.

“PIGSTY!!!!”

So, OK, one response is good. But we need more People! Get to writing!

—Todd

How Many Words Must a Writer Write Down To Know He or She Has Written a Novel?

Word Count

Word Count

I once read somewhere Mark Twain kept a running word count in the margins of his manuscripts. Word counts are probably a weird obsession held largely by writers. We survive by them. Sometimes we’re paid by the number of words we write. Sometimes we use the count to measure a good day’s work, whether those words add up to a few sentences or several pages.

Word counts also tell us—somewhat arbitrarily—what sort of work we have written. Is it a Tweet (which actually is even more micro, down to the character)? Is it an essay? A short story? A novella? A novel?

A few months ago, a writer friend of mine Gerald Warfield and I shoptalked about just such things. We couldn’t come up with a solid answer. But a blog post from Writer’s Digest gives some novel advice at least, breaking down some average word counts for novels of different lengths.

The link is here. Of course, it’s not the end-all declaration of authority, but it must count for something.

—Todd

One Word Writing Prompts: Episode 2, They Say You Want an Evolution

Episode 2

Evolution

Evolution

Welcome to One Word Writing Prompts, Episode 2. Basically, your instructions, dear Reader, should you wish to participate, are to simply use the word below as a prompt to write something from it. And, if you would like, please feel free to post your creative output in the comments, and with your permission, I might share them in a later post. Have fun. Be creative.

>Evolution

—Todd

None but a blockhead

One of my new favorite writers is John Scalzi. Besides writing some good SF, he also writes a blog—Whatever—in which he writes, well, whatever he wants. Often his posts, to my delight, are a look inside another writer’s life; it’s the sort of site that’s often encouraging and inspirational, but grounded in the realities of writing for a living. And it helps me feel not quite so alone in my ambitions and worries and even my small triumphs as a writer.

One of today’s posts addressed an issue most writers have to struggle with—money. Specifically saying it’s OK and good to actually make money from writing. It doesn’t make you a hack or sell-out. Upbringing (“money is the root of all evil”) combined with university English courses and professors and fellow students that romanticized the suffering, always struggling pauper writer/artist, it’s hard to break free of such a negative mindset toward money. So, I wanted to share Scalzi’s post below for those, like me, who have struggled constantly with this issue:

 A Moment of Financial Clarification