One of my favorite words is "Albatross". The first time I heard it was a Monty Python skit where I guy was trying to sell an albatross. He was walking around with this gigantic "dead" bird yelling, "Albatross! Allll-batross!" He sold it to another person who then turned around and tried it sell it himself. It was one of those things that just stuck in my head. Every time I encounter writing that I think is ungainly and isn't going anywhere, I think of that skit.
I've used that term to describe an essay that my sister was writing for college. It was huge, ungainly, and I could tell that she wasn't really interested in writing it. She took a step back and ended up re-writing a majority of the essay, which turned out to be quite good. Well, up to this point, I never used that term to describe something I had written. That was, until I started going through all the feedback I had on Goobasaurus Dex.
It isn't that the people in my reading circle don't like it; it is just that there seems to be a consensus that it isn't where it needs to be. The feeling of an albatross hanging from my neck is my own. I feel that it is turning into something huge and ungainly and I need to take a step back and re-evaluate where I want to go and what I want to do with it. Some radical changes need to be made and it may end up being more than just a simple picture book. As I told a friend, I felt that maybe I was trying to cram it into a format that it wasn't meant to be. That would explain why I felt it was turning into an Albatross.
So, the next thing I need to do is take a step back, leave it on the back burner, and let my back brain chew on it while I focus on something else. I did a little of that with my second story, "Sir Grumpsalot". With that one, I ended up deleting over half of it and rewriting the ending. I ended up with a much better story as a result. Goobasaurus Dex may take more time to figure out than Sir Grumpsalot did. We'll see. I've got another story to focus on that I'm really excited about, plus an upcoming creative writing class to focus on.
The story in question is called "The Forgotten Arch" and I am planning on submitting it to a competition through Lulu.com for National Writing Month (which is November). I have till the end of the month to upload it to their service and enter it. I don't expect to win anything, but you never know. I've had a lot of good feedback from everyone in my reading circle so I'm positive that I am going in the right direction. The last time Lulu.com did a competition for National Writing Month, it was for full length novels and they had 30,000 submissions. Whether I win anything or not, the important thing is that I am taking the chance.
So, some negatives on one front, but positives on another.
Till next time.
Showing posts with label Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stories. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Finding a Voice With Which to Write
It's interesting that there are so many books about plot, character development, setting, etc, yet not that many talk about voice. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, but I would think that this would be one of the more important concepts in writing. Finding your voice is important. It's what defines you as a writer. It is unique, like a fingerprint. It is wholly you. When you read it, others will say, "This is that writer".
Stephen King mentioned it in an essay in his book, Night Shift. He referred to it as "filters". He explained that he didn't write horror fiction because he wanted to, but rather, that is just what came out. He gave the analogy that if he and Lois L'Amour were to sit on opposite sides of a pond that they would come up with story ideas about the same time. The difference being that L'Amour would come up with a story about water rights in the Old West. Whereas he, King, would come up with something involving monsters living in the water that would eat anyone that happened by. What King describes is the concept of "voice". It isn't necessarily a "choice", but rather "what comes out". Some might find this concept a little restraining. After all, we all want to be masters of our destiny. The reality being, that human beings do what comes more naturally. We can step out of that "box", but what we create doesn't always look, or feel, natural to us or others.
When I was in college in my music composition class, I remember writing one successful piece of music. Successful in that the teacher thought it was good and not, as he would call it, "mental masturbation". Crude though that statement was, it did make its point. The piece was called "River Fanfare" and was, in my humble opinion, rather nice. However, what really frustrated me was that my professor mentioned that it reminded him of Aaron Copland. Now some might find my frustration humorous. After all, Aaron Copeland is an American icon. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of Copeland. I liked his music, but I didn't love it, not like the European masters that I grew up with (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, etc.). I wanted to write like they did. The reality was, however, that every time I tried to write like them, I would fail. I wouldn't be able to express what was in my head the right way, and as a result, never finish it. My professor would call it "crap" and I would ultimately give up on my dream to be a music composer. The rest, they say, is history.
In my very short career as an aspiring writer, I've submitted two stories to publishers (see my blog post on dealing with rejection for the sordid tale). Both stories were children's stories. From the feedback I've gotten from friends and family, they are good (now if I could only convince a publisher!). The second story, Sir Grumpsalot, really surprised me. It was light, cute, and downright silly. It wasn't what I would consider "me". After all, two of my favorite authors are Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. So it was doubly surprising when a good friend of mine, who is also a writer, told me that I had found my voice. She read it to her children and they even said, "Wow that sounds just like how he talks".
So, now I've found my voice, what does that mean? Does it mean that I'm supposed to write silly kids stories my entire career? Or is "voice" more complex than just a simple, this is what you should write all the time? Sometimes I wonder if I have more questions now than when I started. I guess if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun.
Till next time.
Stephen King mentioned it in an essay in his book, Night Shift. He referred to it as "filters". He explained that he didn't write horror fiction because he wanted to, but rather, that is just what came out. He gave the analogy that if he and Lois L'Amour were to sit on opposite sides of a pond that they would come up with story ideas about the same time. The difference being that L'Amour would come up with a story about water rights in the Old West. Whereas he, King, would come up with something involving monsters living in the water that would eat anyone that happened by. What King describes is the concept of "voice". It isn't necessarily a "choice", but rather "what comes out". Some might find this concept a little restraining. After all, we all want to be masters of our destiny. The reality being, that human beings do what comes more naturally. We can step out of that "box", but what we create doesn't always look, or feel, natural to us or others.
When I was in college in my music composition class, I remember writing one successful piece of music. Successful in that the teacher thought it was good and not, as he would call it, "mental masturbation". Crude though that statement was, it did make its point. The piece was called "River Fanfare" and was, in my humble opinion, rather nice. However, what really frustrated me was that my professor mentioned that it reminded him of Aaron Copland. Now some might find my frustration humorous. After all, Aaron Copeland is an American icon. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of Copeland. I liked his music, but I didn't love it, not like the European masters that I grew up with (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, etc.). I wanted to write like they did. The reality was, however, that every time I tried to write like them, I would fail. I wouldn't be able to express what was in my head the right way, and as a result, never finish it. My professor would call it "crap" and I would ultimately give up on my dream to be a music composer. The rest, they say, is history.
In my very short career as an aspiring writer, I've submitted two stories to publishers (see my blog post on dealing with rejection for the sordid tale). Both stories were children's stories. From the feedback I've gotten from friends and family, they are good (now if I could only convince a publisher!). The second story, Sir Grumpsalot, really surprised me. It was light, cute, and downright silly. It wasn't what I would consider "me". After all, two of my favorite authors are Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. So it was doubly surprising when a good friend of mine, who is also a writer, told me that I had found my voice. She read it to her children and they even said, "Wow that sounds just like how he talks".
So, now I've found my voice, what does that mean? Does it mean that I'm supposed to write silly kids stories my entire career? Or is "voice" more complex than just a simple, this is what you should write all the time? Sometimes I wonder if I have more questions now than when I started. I guess if it was easy, it wouldn't be fun.
Till next time.
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