Life in progress

Tag Archives: writers


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The Most Important Thing in Fiction

The mark of an excellent novel, in my opinion, is made by how much I fall into the story and its world and how much I care about the characters. There’s really nothing quite like a book that I don’t want to put down. You know the kind – they’re the ones that leave you sad when they end.

I was thinking about the elements that go into such a story and it occurred to me that for me, it’s the author’s ability to leave things out. Description, in too much detail, takes away my need to imagine them. But having said that, it’s only certain things I don’t want described to me.

If a land, for instance, is extremely foreign then I need as much detail as I can get. But certain actions… Take sex scenes for instance. I find them much more erotic if they are sparsely described than if they are laid out like a users’ manual, unless there is something particularly unusual about the scene. Another one for me is the description of characters. Even if someone is described in minute detail, I tend to get my own impression of their appearance and I think a lot of what I imagine has to do with their character itself, for instance whether they are a villain or a lover. It’s like when I talk to someone on the phone on a daily basis – I get an idea of what he or she looks like based on their voice and the way they talk. It’s usually a shock to see what the person actually looks like!

The point is, it’s the lack of description in many cases that makes me think–makes me imagine more–and this is what draws me in. If I’m able to place a modicum of my own experience into a world I’m reading about, it becomes mine. It becomes a place I love to be, populated with people I can truly envision.

What do you like left out of the stories you read? Do you have a favourite thing you like to envision for yourself?


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS August 9/14

I’m posting the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday early (it’s 12:09am as I type) because I need to have time to write my own Saturday post before I leave the internet behind for the weekend. The inspiration for this week’s prompt comes to you from a conversation I had about Tim Horton’s and McDonald’s – I confirmed today that there is more fat AND calories in a large double/double (2 cream, 2 sugar) Tim’s coffee than there is in a McDonald’s hamburger. Crazy, right?

Anyway–drumroll please–your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: double/two/bi-/twin or anything else you can think of that means “two.” Use the prompt at will!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at the prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in! Remember, I won’t be around this week so please double-check to make sure your ping-back showed up in the comments.

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people will come and read your post! The way to ping back, is to just copy and paste the URL of my post somewhere on your post. Then your URL will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. For example, in your post you can copy and paste the following: This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-914/  The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


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Random Life in Progress

CAM00319

As you can see by the photo, I’m thoroughly enjoying the weather as I sit on my back deck with a glass of white wine, writing this post. Life is good. After I finish this post I’ll probably go back to editing my novel. Just yesterday I found a huge, gaping plot hole wherein the history of my character’s family didn’t match up with the present. I had to go back and write an entire backstory (to keep it straight in my own mind) on a character that won’t even exist unless I end up writing a prequel to my novel. On a happy note, I have enough history to write a prequel. Seriously, I’m putting an awful lot of effort into this mythical epic that I keep talking about. It WILL see the light of day if it kills me.

In other news, I’m going away for the weekend. My son Christopher wishes to go on his annual pilgrimage to Ottawa to visit the museums. I found a great deal on a place to stay: one of the colleges in town is offering a whole two bedroom apartment, including a kitchen, for $64/night. Can’t beat that! And since I lived close by for fifteen years I know the area, so getting around is going to be a breeze. On the way home we’ll pick up Alex, who has been visiting with his dad all week (which is why I’m able to sit outside in peace) so it’s a bonus for my ex too, not having to make the three hour drive to get him home. Long and short of it, I won’t be around to read the SoCS posts this weekend. I’ll do my best to get caught up early next week though.

The best news of all comes on the heels of my post from a couple of days ago entitled “How for would YOU go?” I looked into getting backstage at the venue that my main character performs in at the beginning of the sequel (written in July as part of CampNaNo) and guess what? http://nac-cna.ca/en/special/event/9938 So I’ll be going back to Ottawa again on the 28th of September to tour the National Arts Centre backstage! I’m so excited! 😀

I tell ya, sometimes the universe comes together just right.


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How far would YOU go?

Since I’m hip deep into the novels today (and by hip deep I mean I’m trying to stick to my laptop rather than run to the kitchen every half an hour to grab a snack that will inevitably go straight to my hips) there are a few issues on my mind that need a little sharing. Foremost at the moment is research.

I’m discovering that there is only so much that can be done whilst sitting on my rear end in front of the computer. Wikipedia is great, but sometimes you just have to get out there and see what’s going on in person. To this end I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the city where most of my novel takes place, which is as you probably know, Kingston, Ontario.

There are some things I am having a more difficult time researching, however. My story is about stage magician, Stephen Dagmar–meaning that apart from the novel’s main plot, which is a paranormal romance/horror about a man who must battle against a family curse in order to live happily ever after with the woman he loves, it also contains the stage. And a talent agent. And, most difficult to research in person, the backstage areas of some major venues across Canada. I’m thinking that before I actually publish this thing I’m going to have to find a way to talk to/interview both a magician and an agent. But getting backstage might be a different story.

If there are any magicians or talent agents reading this, I’d love to talk to you. If there is anyone who has access to a live theatre I’d be forever grateful if you’d leave some tips on how to get backstage. I’m not looking to meet celebrities, I just want to see where they hang out and get a feel for the process of setting up a stage.

For everyone else reading this, how far have you gone to get research? I’m not only talking distance. Would you have the guts to try to get into places the public doesn’t normally get to go? To what lengths would you go to get there?

Suggestions are also gratefully received. 😀


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The Editing Process

It occurred to me this morning as I was working on what will probably be the second-last edit of my novel The Great Dagmaru, that editing is an inherently ugly process. When I read my novel as a whole, it’s like taking in a picturesque landscape, with rolling hills, still lakes and vividly coloured birds, twittering and flitting from branch to branch.

But as I edit it, sentence by sentence, all I can see are the caterpillars, munching on the leaves and weaving themselves gauzy tents where they squirm like maggots. My job, of course, is to get them outta there looking like pretty butterflies.

It’s easy to get discouraged when I’m gazing at my work under a microscope. I agonize over single words; I look at them sometimes until they cease to have meaning. I forget how phrases go together in natural speech because I’ve contemplated them for too long. Thankfully this only happens occasionally. There are also parts which I can read through and not want to change a thing, except to delete a word here and there.

Today, however, the ants are crawling with the spiders and the worms are aerating the ground to allow for new growth. And I’m seeking oxygen to keep going.


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My Element

Earth, air, fire and water. Of the four I’ve always been most drawn to water, though according to my zodiac sign I should be more of an air person.

I love being near water, and living near it as well, though not too close. I’ve seen what floods can do and I’m far too practical to want to risk having my belongings ruined by one. I do have a natural spring running through my basement, however. Come over on laundry day and you’ll see me filling up my washing machine with a bucket of non-stop drinkable H20.

But this:

DSC00183this I could sit beside all day. Water like glass, I can imagine myself walking across it, skimming like a bird catching a fish just below the surface. I love the way things reflect upon it, ever-changing and yet it accepts whatever is put before it.

I love the way it smells, and the way the breeze rushes over it to the shore. I want to be floating upon it in a boat – any size boat, though my favourite is a canoe.

I want to read beside it, to write beside it, or to walk beside it.

I’m happy to be living close to the water; just close enough to visit any time.


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Readers and Writers: Opinions Wanted

I had an idea: I doubt it’s a unique idea, which is why I one of my questions to you, dear readers and writers of fiction, is whether or not you’ve ever seen this done before.

Imagine being able to have a conversation with Anne Rice’s Lestat, Stephenie Meyer’s Edward Cullen, Stephen King’s Annie Wilkes, or J.R.R. Tolkien’s Galadriel. Would you want to? If an author gave voice to one of his or her characters in an interactive medium, would it be just plain weird for that character to be removed from the world the author created for them? Or would it be a thrill-ride to be able to ask all the questions you have about their lives before they showed up in the story you love? Would you enjoy flirting with your favourite fictional character? Would you like to get more insight on a villain’s inner thoughts?

I’ve seen blog posts where authors interview their characters, but to let them out in public–to relinquish control over what they might have to reveal–is a different scenario.

So I ask you, apart from the question have you seen it done before, would you want it? Or is it better to let them stay put in their story?


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS August 2/14

One of the biggest challenges in coming up with the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is finding something everyone can have in common. And yet there are so many things that transcend borders, cultures, abilities and environment that sometimes it’s hard to choose just one. Today I had so many ideas coming at me that I’ve written some down for future prompts. Here is the one I picked for tomorrow’s post:

Your Friday prompt for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness post is “hear/here.” Be creative!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at the prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Don’t hesitate to join in!

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people will come and read your post! The way to ping back, is to just copy and paste the URL of my post somewhere on your post. Then your URL will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. For example, in your post you can copy and paste the following: This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-214/  The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


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Goals for Stream of Consciousness Saturday

I’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback for SoCS in regards to it not only being fun to participate in, but also for the new connections that are being made between bloggers. However, without advertising it on HarsH ReaLiTy, the word doesn’t seem to be getting out that fast. And after all, the more new bloggers participate, the more new bloggers we have the chance to meet and follow and have follow us.

In light of this fact, I’ve decided to set up some goals:

1. Write a blog post (probably close to or on Friday this week) and ask people to reblog or copy and paste to hopefully encourage each of our “outer circles” to join in.

2. Set up a contest for the design of a new SoCS badge that we can all display on our blogs and/or display in our weekly posts. The winner will of course have their badge on display with their website name on the badge for all to see. Judging will be made public.

3. EVENTUALLY, when and if SoCS gets big enough, set up its own WordPress site and invite other bloggers to come and set up the week’s prompt and watch over the proceedings.

If you can think of ways to promote SoCS, please let me know in the comments.  The more, the merrier!


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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Anniversary (Question)

According to WordPress, today is the official second anniversary of my blog. It’s the day, two years ago, when I decided to see what WordPress is all about. I wrote one post and promptly forgot about it for the next six months.

So this morning I decided to go back and take a look at it. At this moment it has three “likes” and no comments. But I’m okay with that – it’s nothing to write home about. Hell, it’s nothing to write WordPress about. It’s four sentences of basically question marks. It’s the same first post I see on many blogs, to varying degrees.

But let’s face it – this WordPress thing is a tough thing to get into at the start. None of us really knows what we’re doing, and most of us don’t understand what the follow/like/comment thing is all about. How many people here had no idea that there was such a wonderful community here? Come on, put up your hand if you’re one of us.

Once we’re in, and I mean REALLY in to this mode of communication, it’s astounding what it can do. We meet people with similar tastes, we share invaluable information with one another, and we find a place to sound off, to practice our craft, and to feel a part of something so large!

And it all started somewhere for each of us. When was the last time you read your very first post?

 

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-2514/

Click on the link and join in the fun today!