Category Archives: Writing

Reading, Religion, Writing

The weight of heroism

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Wild Bill Hickok

I’m reading a novel right now, by a very good author, which is taking me forever to get through. (I won’t say what novel—maybe I’ll review it at the end of the line.) It’s a pleasant story with an interesting narrator. But it’s so… languid. It starts with a murder, but then the plot takes the hero (and the villain) to an entirely different location, and the villain proceeds to do nothing very sinister for a considerable time. The hero is wearing himself out trying to catch the villain at something, but there seems to be nothing to catch. Thus the book lacks that sense of urgency that drives the reader to keep turning pages, and pick the book up anxiously whenever there’s a free moment.

It’s slow.

My analysis of the problem is this—the author has failed, thus far, to raise the stakes. In order to keep your audience’s attention, you need to keep the villain busy doing bad stuff. And that stuff must be devastating and costly. People who matter to the reader, and to the hero, need to be placed in imminent, horrifying danger (unless it’s the hero himself who’s in peril). The good characters’ awful pain and fear are the very elements that transfix the reader.

I think there are very few authors who don’t have a problem raising the stakes like this (I know I do). Most of us are nice people. We don’t enjoy inflicting pain. Raising the stakes is emotionally hard.

This relates to life too. I’ve written more than I have a moral right to about heroism. I believe in the necessity of heroism. I believe that faith and heroism are closely related (all heroism isn’t faith, but all true faith is heroism).

It’s easy to forget that heroism has a high cost. Continue reading The weight of heroism →

Writing

Tips on Writing Better Junk and Stuff

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Here’s a hit-n-miss list of writing tips. Number 1: Become a blogger. Eh, I can’t say that’s good advice. I know Lars and I make it look easy by whipping out brilliant, concise posts day after day, but does writing any type of blog make anyone a better writing? I’d think writing at all would have the same benefit.

Number two: Use self-imposed word limits. Now, this is good advice. I’ve been working on 100 words short-shorts for posting here, and the word limit push me to carefully examine otherwise serviceable sentences. I hope I don’t ruin them in the process, but you can let me know once I start putting them up.

Browse the rest of this list to see any of them inspire you.

Writing

Story Problems and Ailments

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Douglas Van Belle of Andromeda Spaceways humbly offers “A Comprehensive and Totally Universal Listing of Every Problem a Story Has Ever Had” for your consideration. Things like starting in the wrong place, story pacing, and mundane dialog are only some of his suggested story criticisms.

This leads me to ask when did we begin to believe zombies wanted to eat brains? I remember they come from Voodoo lore, but where was the brain-eating part introduced?

Blogs, Socials, Writing

Eat like a Viking, regurgitate, repeat

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In case you’re wondering how I’m doing on the Virtual Book Tour I’ve been working on for my publisher, I think I can say it’s been going well. I’ve finished one blog post and several interviews for various literature-related blogs. And yes, I’ll let you know where to look for them, once they appear (assuming I find out myself).
I’m nearly finished with the first batch of interviews. I understand more are coming. Today the publicist asked me how I felt about writing a food-related post for a blog that talks to authors about their favorite recipes.
Now on the surface that doesn’t make much sense, me being a certified microwave-dependent bachelor (though I do make a mean scratch chocolate chip cookie when the fit is on me). But the idea of writing about Viking food, and relating it to West Oversea (buy it here) is intriguing. I’ve decided to do it, and I’ve made arrangements to borrow a recipe from a reenactor friend.
(And yes, in case you wondered, I will give her credit for it.)
I feel confident I can produce a post unlike any this particular blog has seen before. A hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners exposé of genuine Viking cuisine, featuring such delights as rotten shark (a delicacy in Iceland which reportedly made that Chef Gordon Ramsey throw up), and sheep’s head (also popular in Iceland. The eyeballs, I’m told, are especially relished). Many is the joke that’s been made about lutefisk over the years, but the Norwegians’ beloved lutefisk is just a pale, ghostly remnant of the true Nightmare On Elm Street mealtime horrors of the Scandinavian past.
Because we’re talking about a marginal economy, where taste places a far distant second to survival.
People sometimes ask me whether I wish I had been born in the Viking Age.
My answer is no, for three reasons.
One, I was a sickly child who would in all probability have been exposed on a hillside for the wolves at birth.
Two, the plumbing was awful.
Three, the food was inedible to the modern palate.
I’ve written a time travel book (still unpublished at this date) in which a father and daughter get the opportunity to go back to Viking Age Norway and stay there. She points out that if they did, they’d never get to eat chocolate again.
I call that an excellent point.

Publishing, Writing

Interactive Fiction: Is It the Future?

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Keith Stuart asks if interactive fiction is the future of books. “For example,” Mr. Stuart writes, “clues could be unlocked by shaking the screen so that most of the words ‘fall off’ revealing hidden codes. Other narrative elements could be unveiled by opening the book while in a specific geographic location.” He goes on to describe what is already online for interactive fiction and why a cool idea may not work for previously published novels.

Writing

Thick Skin

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Thick Skin - Rhinoceros rear end

The Novel Doctor has a few words to say about taking criticism.

But, as the theory goes, if you have a “thick skin,” the review won’t bother you at all. As you read how your protagonist “wouldn’t even be believable playing a stiff on a soap opera” and that your plot “drags more than J. Edgar Hoover” you’ll simply smile while the scent of lavender fills your nostrils and images of puppies and kittens frolicking in a field of poppies fill your mind.

Of course, there are a few problems with this theory, as the doctor explains. I have often thought I take criticism well, but I’m starting to doubt it. At least, I worry that I don’t take it as well as I thought I did. What I need is to put my work out there more aggressively so that more good and bad criticism comes, and I’ll have more practice handling it.