A Living Nightmare

My writing group asked: Can you perhaps submit something for next week?

I know I had a short story on my computer that I thought was ready to be read by others. So I said yes. This morning I figured it might be wise to read it again before submitting it. The problem was, however, that I had no clue what name I had given the file. I had written it in a single session, and didn’t looked at it anymore.

Seed

After opening my Short Stories file, I had to conclude it wasn’t in there. How odd. Since the title was a mystery to me, I searched on the date it was last modified. I knew I wrote it after hearing some unfortunate news at the end of March. So any file older than March couldn’t be the one I was looking for. An eerie idea was slowly taking hold of me. What if I never saved the story?

The Opposite Sex

Vanessa’s post ‘A Different Perspective‘ got me thinking about my own process when writing the opposite sex. Although I often prefer to stick more to the male characters (I do understand them better), I also have to work with female characters. I’d start off by saying its fun. Lots of fun. And difficult. Capturing the essence of a female character’s emotion in a specific scene due to certain circumstances, and letting that emotion play itself out through action has always been challenging.

One of the things I often do first, is to compare myself (what I think I would feel and do) to that of the female character. Equipped with this basic knowledge, I would conjure up images either from personal observations or characters in other texts (often from the literary spectrum) and then apply the different possible actions the female character can take. The next step is to analyze what fits this particular character’s personality so as to establish credibility and consistency. Despite this somewhat methodical approach, I do get it wrong more often than not.

Musical Inspiration

The first time I made a list of all the things that had to be organised for a wedding, my initial thought was ‘that’s it?’ I knew that this couldn’t be true. And joy, was I proven right. Luckily, I had two very helpful wedding MCs who helped me out. One of the last things I did was thinking about the opening dance. Now I don’t mind dancing, but it isn’t something you’ll find in my top 3 past-time activities.

Our Song
So here we were sitting opposite the dance teacher. And the first question he asked was about our song. Well we don’t really have a special song. We do have one that we both like, but we’re not going to use it. Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light is just not the most appropriate song for a wedding. (See the lyrics. I kind of liked the idea, but husband-to-be thought otherwise.) It soon became apparent that we were very difficult people music-wise. We like all kinds of music, from classical (he doesn’t) to death metal, but nothing really in particular.

A Different Perspective

I’ve never written stories where the main character is a male, as I’ve always stuck to female protagonists. So does this matter? And what does it say about my writing?

I began thinking about this after reading a prompt that suggested writing a first person narrative, assuming the voice of someone from the opposite gender. The prompt’s suggestion began by stating the following:

“As a writer of fiction you’re seriously handicapped if you can’t write convincingly about people unlike yourself.”

Getting Back On the Road

For almost two years now, I’ve been ignoring a young adult book I’d started writing. The printed out pages of critiqued chapters lay on the corner of my desk, haunting me, reminding me that there’s story which is far from finished.

I’m not really sure why I stopped writing it. I could blame the circumstances in my personal life (ie I had a baby) but that would be lying. It probably had more to do with the fact that I knew I was coming to a point where I didn’t know how to continue. I had the plot of three more chapters planned out in my head. As for the rest, I only know how I want the novel to end. I haven’t got a clue how to get my characters there.

When Your Characters Gaze, Ponder & Move About: A Random Rant

Reblogged from The Blabbermouth - Linda P. Epstein:

I've been reading a LOT of manuscripts lately, both submissions and from my clients. I've noticed a common weakness in writing that is easily remedied. If you want to describe something, just describe it. You don't have to have your character's "gaze fall upon" whatever you want to describe. They don't need to "all of a sudden notice" it. It doesn't have to "catch their attention." Believe it or not, I've read those exact words in about five different manuscripts this week.

Read more… 248 more words

A fantastic blog with all kinds of useful advice from an agent. This entry particularly struck a chord as I have to deal with this often in manuscripts as well. So writers, please pay attention.

The Intrusive Word: When the Right Word Is in Another Language

This tip is for anyone who has ever tried to write in one language but another one keeps intruding.

Have you ever found yourself  in “the writing zone” – inspired, full of energy, the words just jump out and land ‘bang & splat’ onto the page like magic – so you write and write and suddenly, you find that the next word you are about to put down fits perfectly into the sentence, only it happens to be in another language? The pace then slows to a halt and for all the world, you just cannot find any other word that fits as well.

That’s So Cliché

I avoid clichés at all costs when writing. However, the chance that I find some clichés in a first is undisputed. After carefully rereading the text, I can track down and eliminate them. A trusted group of fellow writers will also help point out those that I’ve missed. Mission accomplished. No clichés in my text.

Predicable and Meaningless 

So here I am with my cliché free text – or so I’d like to hope –  and I think, are they really that awful? Those sentences have been around for a long time and have been used much too often. At a certain point in time, people must have liked them. Perhaps they liked them a bit too much, making them become both predictable and meaningless.