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Brief writing exercises and thoughts on writing. Maybe the occasional personal musing.
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  Proud Member This is my writer's scratchpad. I use this space to scribble down some quick thoughts and images that appeal to me. The idea is that when I don't feel like working on one of my stories but still want to write, the incomplete "droplets" I form will get posted here. I have another (currently dormant) blog where I discuss politics, sexuality, spirituality, and whatever else comes to mind. It's called The Musings of a Confused Man  . |
We sat together in the waiting room together. I held her hand and glanced around. There were magazines placed on the numerous stands scattered among the chairs. They remained untouched, as all the women sat there looking as nervous as she did. Some of them were fortunate and had someone by their side, offering the same kind of support and encouragement I was. Others were there by themselves, and I wondered what kind of hell they must be going through without anyone to share it with. I understood now why she asked me, a mere friend, to come with her. I quietly cursed her ex for abandoning her during this time of need. The door leading to the examination rooms swung and everyone in the magazine-strewn lounge turned to face the woman in a white lab coat who filled the opening. JarredH  Our tears remind us that we're alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| On Friday, I posted snippets of my writing to my various social networking sites. As I ran out of things from previously written stories that I wanted to share, I started making up new blurbs on the spot. I've found that it's actually helped get the creative processes going and I've added new material to my current book project as a result. As such, I've decided to keep up the process and will even start posting some -- hopefully one per day -- to this blog. The following is the first such blurb. He crept down the poorly lit hallway, hugging Mr. Floppy tightly to his chest. His eyes darted around, spotting every moving shadow. He wished the howling sound the wind was making would die down. He almost jumped when the neighbor’s dog barked at some unseen threat. He tightened his grip on the stuffed animal and continued to inch forward. Safety was mere feet away from him. He glanced around the room beyond the doorway before tiptoeing inside and crossing to the bed. He reached up and nudged the snoring figure in the bed. The figure snorted once and the little by called said in a near-whisper, “Daddy, I’m scared.” JarredH Our tears remind us that we're alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| Warning: This post contains spoilers for the movie The Sitter . If you don't want to read spoilers, please skip this post. Of course, I'll note that this movie is almost six months old. If you haven't seen it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? I don't know if most writers feel this way, but I generally think that books and the written word are superior to movies. There's so much more that you can write into a book -- and that you don't have to worry about getting edited out because the film's running too long as it is -- that is hard to visually display. But after watching The Sitter for the tenth (or so) time, I realized that movies have an advantage when it comes to "showing rather than telling." The visual nature of the medium allows things to be communicated in ways that reminds me that a picture -- or a carefully crafted series of cut-scenes -- really is worth a thousand words.Consider the following sequence from the movie: 1. The camera shows a group of people, including the protagonists, sitting in a moving subway car together. Everyone's position relative to each other is established. 2. The camera cuts to a close-up of just Noah and Blithe. Blithe is staring off into space, and Noah is looking to his right, presumably at the trio of young people (I'm guessing college students) sitting on the other side of the doorway that is next to him. 3. The camera cuts again, this time to the man and women who are standing in the back right corner of the train and making out. 4. The camera pans this time, across the back of the car to the man sitting in the other corner. He's staring forward, looking at something (likely the trio again). His face registers displeasure and possibly even disgust. 5. The camera cuts to the young trio that seems to have drawn such attention, giving us our first good look at them. the group consists of one woman and two men, all dressed fashionably and casually. The woman sits to one side of the two men, and the man farthest from her places his hand on the other man's knees. 6. The camera now cuts to Slater, who is sitting across the car, his arms crossed and looking slightly to his left, again presumably at the young trio. His face suggests that he's about ready to cry, and I get a sense of wistfulness in that look. 7. The camera cuts back to the trio, and now the the guy in the middle reaches over to brush the other guy's bangs. The woman sits watching her companions' acts of affection -- at this point, I don't see how else they can be interpreted -- with a fairly typical look of someone who is happy to see two people so clearly in love (okay, maybe it's only infatuation at this point). 8. The camera cuts back to Slater who looks down briefly before returning his gaze to the trio. His expression seems to imply a deep-seated need to cry on his part even more now. 9. The camera jumps to Noah, who is now looking in Slater's direction, before returning his gaze to the trio as the camera pans back to them. 10. The camera cuts back to Slater, and I'm expecting to see tears any second. He pulls his gaze away from the trio and looks slightly down again. When he looks up this time, he's looking in Noah's direction. 11. The camera cuts to Noah, who is now looking at Slater. His expression suggests dawning comprehension. 12. The camera cuts back to Slater, confirming that he and Noah are still making eye contact. 13. The camera cuts back to a wide-angle shot of the whole subway car for a few seconds before the movie moves on to the next scene. That whole sequence took roughly forty-three seconds to run, much less time than it took me to write up the description of the scene. And yet, in that scene, the movie communicates several things: 1. Slater is truly broken up and torn. 2. Slater is torn because he's gay. 3. Noah has just started to figure out that Slater is gay and that's his "real problem" rather than the neuroses and other issues he's been bringing up so far. 4. Slater's own sister is completely oblivious to what's going on with him. We can probably assume that she's fairly representative of the whole family when it comes to this particular subject. Writers who expect their audience to interact with their written words directly (as opposed to those writers who create scripts for movies like this) also try to show as much as possible without telling as well. But in the end, we can only show through words, which is a bit of telling in its own way. Maybe a better writer than I would be able to do it, but I honestly don't think that I could write a scene in a book or story that when read, would have the same subtly powerful effect as this series of cut-scenes. That alone has regained some of my respect for the artistic power of movies. JarredH Our tears remind us that we are alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| Warning: This blog entry contains spoilers for the movie Abduction . Those who do not wish to have the movie spoiled, even in minor details, should skip this entry. I suspect that script immunity is an issue most authors -- well those authors who write stories that involve danger at least -- struggle with at some point. A character is put into a seemingly impossible situation where survival is extremely unlikely, and yet the plot demands the character's survival. So the author tries to come up with a plausible resolution to the scenario. A great author may luck out and create an entirely believable course of action for the character. More often, a less-than-perfect scene gets written that stretches (though hopefully doesn't break) the reader's (or watcher's, in the the case of a screen-play or other performance piece) credulity. That's life. And then you have those cases where the writer just doesn't seem to care and doesn't bother to cover up a blatant case of script immunity. That happened a few times in the movie Abduction . The biggest example is during Karen's capture on the train.Bear in mind that by this time, the movie had established a pattern where the bad guys swooped in, caught people off guard, got the information they needed, and immediately killed the people. They did it to Nathan's fake parents and were originally going to do it to Karen when she was found outside the home. (That time, Nathan came in and rescued Karen just as she was about to be shot in the head, thereby making the script immunity almost invisible. Her rescue was plausible and reasonable.) And yet, when the big bad captures her on the train, he gets her to tell him which Car Nathan is in, and then ties her up and leaves her alone so she can escape. No bullet in the brain this time. Just leaves her to escape. (Obviously, he never watched any James Bond movies.) Something he hasn't done at any time prior to this point in the movie. This is script immunity at its worst. The girl must live, so she gets tied up rather than shot. There's no attempt to explain it or justify it. It's insulting. And while it's the most blatant case in the movie, it's not the only time something like this happens. Gilly too appears to benefit from severe script immunity as Nathan and Karen call on him for help not once, but twice. Given how connected both the CIA and the bad guys seem to be and how they know the couple's every move in every other case, they must have known they contacted their friend with the fake ID's. And yet, no one approaches the young man. No one tries to manipulate his contact with them to their advantage. No one forces him to tell them what he did to help them and then put a bullet in his brain. LIke Karen (and Nathan, though they cover the hero's script immunity more cleverly), Gilly simply gets a pass. This ruins the story in two ways. First it makes it clear that these characters cannot die, which takes away from the illusion of danger such a suspenseful story depends on. When the villain leaves people alive for no obvious reason -- and worse, in opposition to the fact that he has every reason to kill them -- it makes it clear that everything will be fine. That takes the excitement out of a thriller. Secondly, it creates clearly incompetent villains. Suddenly, there is no suspense in the too evenly matched hero and villain, and the hero will clearly win in the end with ease. JarredH Our tears remind us that we are alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| So I started one of the new stories I talked about in Writing Ideas within the World of Magisters. So far, I'm about 800 words into it and I've only introduced two characters. I'm not sure I'm going to be happy with the results, though. So far, Heshan (my main character) seems way too sweet to make it in the colony of barbaric humans and ikati. He may have to toughen up. Of course, I'm also taking a lot of liberties with the colony. In the end, I might have something very different from what Friedman envisioned, but I guess I'm okay with that. Besides, I'm finding to answer some questions she never really thought about. Like where new consorts for freshly-birthed ikati come from. I mean, someone besides the lone girl who gets to bond with the ikati queen has to help give birth. So that means there must be women who are unbonded in the colony somewhere. Are there men too? That's not as likely. I imagine most men would fight to attempt to bond with the ikati. After all, without an ikati consort, I imagine a man would have no status. I find I'm enjoying these questions as much as the question about a gay consort. Who knew? JarredH Our tears remind us that we are alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| Spoiler Alert: This post deals with the world created by C.S. Friedman for her books in her Magister Trilogy . I will be discussing some of the plot elements and themes in the series. If you have not finished the series yet (What are you waiting for?), you might want to put off reading this until you're done. Earlier this weekend, I wrote a post at my everything blog in which I took C.S. Friedman to task over self-righteously (in my opinion" claiming she "didn't get" why anyone would be into slash-fiction. As a part of that post, I gave a few examples of why I think her own Magister Trilogy practically begs to the be target of slash fiction writers. I also admit that I'm tempted to pick up my own pen and write a few stories of my own.This bog post is my chance to continue exploring that temptation. To be honest, I'm not interested in writing slash fiction (or fan fiction) in the purest sense. I have no desire to create a story in which Colivar and Ramirus get freaky or in which Kamala seduces Gwynofar. Those are well defined characters, and I have no desire to warp them into something of my own creation. Nor do I want to try to get inside those character's heads and try to write stories about them that fits in with their characters. To be frank, I love character building and therefore would much rather start with blank slates for characters that I can imagine and build up from nothingness. However, playing in Friedman's world is another story. Exploring an entire species of creatures, the humans that bonds with them, and the humans with hybrid souls through new characters could be fun. I just have to decide what characters and scenarios I want to explore. One of the ideas that I have going through my head is to explore what it would be like for a gay man to bond with an ikati, and how he might be affected -- or the ikati might be affected by his gay consort -- during a queen's mating flight. Would the original bonding be possible? (I could have my gay character bond with a queen instead, but that just seems too cliche and stereotypical.) If the gay man's consort won the right to mate with the queen, would the human's gayness interfere with the mating because of their shared soul? And what if an ikati were gay? What if a male ikati joined the mating flight, only to realize he's far more interested in one of his would-be rivals rather than the queen? In a species where dominance, violence, and sex are powerfully intertwined, how would sexual desire between two males of the species eventually manifest itself? Would a gay ikati be driven from the colony? What would this mean for his human consort. What if gay people simply cannot bond with ikati? Does this suggest that a gay person might be immune to the effects of the species (the mesmerizing power, the ability for a queen to make herself invisible, etc?) in general? I could create a morati character to explore those possibilities. And of course, I can also explore the possibility of a gay Magister. Even if gay people cannot bond directly with ikati, perhaps they can bond with the remnants of the ikati soul Colivar shared with his fellow Magisters. I could explore why the two scenarios are different. And then, of course, I could explore what it would be like to be a gay man among the Magisters. And this is something I could explore both before and after the Magisters have learned about their true nature. There are so many possible avenues of exploration, I don't even know where it would be best to start. JarredH Our tears remind us that we are alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| Recently, I've been rereading the first book in C.S. Friedman's Magister Trilogy. I'm in complete awe of Ms. Friedman's world creating and writing ability, and hope to be half the writer she is someday. What particularly draws me in about this trilogy is the source of the Magister's magic and how they manage to survive its use. It's a fascinating concept, and part of me is sad that she came up with the idea before me, as I'd love to explore it myself. However, last night, I got the inspiration to do something similar, but slightly differently. As such, i wrote the short story "Sorcerer's Trial" [ASR] in which a sorcerer's apprentice must face his final ordeal in order to earn the power he seeks.JarredH Our tears remind us that we are alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
| I have to say that I'm really enjoying WDC. I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that there's a great community here where I can get some feedback on my writing. It's helping to keep me more motivated, as motivation has always been a huge issue for me when it comes to writing. I can usually come up with some good ideas, and even get out a couple chapters or a half dozen pages. But trying to keep things going is a bit difficult. So one of the things I'm doing here is trying to use WDC as a way to discipline myself to write at least every other day. (Writing every day would be nice, but I think it would be too much of a stretch for me right now.) One of the big things I struggle with is the "internal editor." I don't just write for the sake of writing, or I feel I have to convince myself that an idea is "good enough" before I even start writing it down. So I'm trying to get myself more into a mindset where if I think of it, I write it. Who cares if I decide it's not good after the fact. At least I wrote it. And let's face it, you have to go through some drudge to get to the good stuff. To that end, I wrote a new short piece, "A Mother-Son-Talk" [18+] by JarredH . It's actually part of the same story space of my novel in progress, "When Love Changes Everything" [13+] by JarredH that I came up with late last night with showering. As I thought about it, I decided it didn't really belong in the novel for various reasons. But today, I realized that I shouldn't let that fact keep me from writing it at all. So I wrote it as a separate piece. It got the creative juices flowing, and possibly gave me a few ideas for things that will go into the story.Of course, the other thing I'm struggling with is the fact that the novel ideas are coming out of order. I think I need to give up on the idea of writing the silly thing from start to finish, and write teh various parts that come to me as they come to me. I'm not sure if that means I should save them privately and only add them to the site when I get the stuff done that comes before it. Maybe I should just post it all as it comes to me and make notes when I skip parts. Maybe even I could put disclaimer in: "Extra stuff happens between this cahpter and the previous ones. i just haven't written them yet." |
As I continue to get used to this site, I decided to enter my first contest tonight. I decided to start by entering the "Invalid Item" . I figure I'm pretty good at character creation, so it's a good place to get my feet wet. I'll move on to more challenging contests -- one that force me to work on my weak points -- as time goes by. So I put together a character profile:
Hargath is actually a recreated and edited version of a character I played in an online freeform roleplaying campaign. The way I came up with him always amused me. When the group on the BBS decided to set up the room for the campaign, I hadn't decided if I was going to participate yet. So I sat back as people started making posts introducing their characters. I noticed that everyone was creating noticeably good -- as in morally upright -- characters. As I watched the party form up, I realized that this was looking like it would be a campaign where the players worked together perfectly well. Now, perhaps it's because one of my favorite roleplaying games (though I never got to actually play it) was Paranoia, but that state of affairs didn't sit well with me. I felt that like good storytelling, good role-playing (I'm also of the opinion that the difference between the two is almost negligible) required some conflict between characters. It wasn't enough to just have to overcome the obstacles of the NPC's. There needed to be some obstacles to teamwork that needed to be overcome as well. So I decided to introduce a dark priest. I forget what his name was, and I don't think I described him quite as well as I've described Hargath. But he was definitely the dark cloud looming over the party. And his presence did make for some interesting role-playing. Shortly before the campaign fell apart (those of us involve simply found ourselves with not enough time to continue it), I remember an exchange between my priest and the mage that my friend, Ben played. At one point, the party came up against a particularly nasty captain we had to get rid of. The party agreed that assassination was the best course of action, and my priest volunteered to do the dirty work. The mage decided that my priest needed a disguise in order to get close enough. The mage happily helped out in that department obliged, by transforming my priest into a woman! Of course, my priest got his revenge. His new disguise allowed him to get the captain in private and dispatch the captain in a formal ritual sacrifice to the dark goddess. And the mage's spell further enabled my priest to psychically link said mage to the victim. The end result, the mage experienced everything done to the captain as if it was happening to him. Ben thought the whole idea was a hoot. In fact, he wrote the entire scene for me because I didn't have time. Of course, my choice of characters did create problems between me and at least one other player. Another friend, Jared, played a Druid. Jared was interested in Druidism himself at the time. And my priest character did a couple things (like steal the soul of a horse so that it would bend to his will) that freaked Jared out. Note that I said it freaked Jared out rather than his character. Jared was mad at me for days. That much was unfortunate. But as I explained to him, part of role-playing and fiction is allowing some characters to do things we wouldn't dream of doing in real life. After all, if all characters were the goody-two-shoes most of us try to be, our games and stories wouldn't be nearly as interesting. And I admit that playing an evil character helped me write such characters much better. JarredH  Our tears remind us that we're alive. Our laughter reminds us why. |
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