The SoapBoxers

I have previously mentioned that I will be entering the 2011 Iowa Short Fiction Contest.  Today, I throw down the gauntlet and ask you, the readers, to join me in this challenge.  I know that we have writers in our midst – so join me in this plunge.

You can read all of the details here, but these are the basics:

• Submissions are accepted between August 1 and September 30, 2010
• Submissions must be a 150+ page (typed, double spaced) collection of short stories.  Stories that have previously been published in periodicals or in self-published works are acceptable.
• There are no reading fees or fees of any sort.  Your only out-of-pocket costs are printing and shipping.  (Emailed submissions are not accepted).
• The contest is open to US residents, as well as non-Americans who are writing in English.  However, current students at the University of Iowa are not eligible.

Note: this is my paraphrased version of the rules, and not the official version.

What happens if you win?  You get your book published, and you’re able to claim a prestigious award.

I need to get going on my latest longer story, Hollywood. Once that story is completed, I’ll begin the work of compiling my entry for the contest.  While 150 pages sounds like a lot, it should entailed around 40,000 words, which I should be able to meet with just the stories I have written in the last 15 months or so.  Happily, I should have enough content that I should be able to pick and choose the stories I want to include, instead of cramming in every last story in an effort to get to 151 pages.

For several months, I have been kicked around possible titles.  Since my writing covers a multitude of different topics, most of the titles have been some sort of “stew” variant.  Then, last night, it hit me – Mountains, Meadows, Ravines, and Chasms.  The mountains represent the stories that detail the very high points in life; the chasms represent the low points, and the meadows and ravines the stories that are more neutral.  I doubt that this will be the final version of the title, but it’s the working title for right now.

What are my odds of actually winning the contest?  Not particularly good.  I’d actually be pretty shocked if the debut submission of my work won an award like this.  However, the actual submission is a goal within itself.  Not only have I been forced to produce enough fiction to meet the minimum requirements, but I’ll also have to act as an editor and separate the wheat from the chaff.  I think that some of my stories are pretty good, but I’ll be competing against some writers who are seasoned veterans – including writers who have frequently been published in large periodicals.

However, as the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”  In a few shorts months, I’ll be printing out my manuscript and sending it off.  Who among you is with me?  (Martin Kelly, are you reading this?)

It was a dark and stormy night. This weather always made Casey think of Snoopy. How she envied that dog, with his vibrant imagination, always dreaming of aerial dogfights with The Red Baron or telling war stories with Bill Mauldin. When the bucket dropped down into the well of Snoopy’s creativity, it never came up dry.

The same could not be said for Casey. She looked down at the last two words she had typed – qwerty uiop. Hardly great fiction. She exhaled deeply, blowing tendrils of auburn hair away from her face. She abandoned the current story by closing the window. She opened a new window and began anew.

Twenty minutes later, she had managed just five sentences in the new story. The damned weather was distracting her. The flashes of lightning were constantly illuminating the sky, and the booms of thunder jolted her out of her seat every couple of minutes. It was completely impossible to concentrate. Casey needed a break. She decided to watch a bit of the idiot box before turning her attention back to her writing.

First, though, she needed something to quench her thirst. Casey crossed the room to the walk-in closet, pushed aside some dresses that she hadn’t worn in a decade, and removed a large, heavy box from the bottom shelf. Hidden behind the box – away from the prying eyes of friends who would be stunned by its presence – was a bottle of single malt scotch.

Casey grabbed one of the Styrofoam cups that sat next to the bottle. She poured a generous amount of scotch into the glass and chugged it quickly. She could immediately feel herself begin to relax. She replaced the box on the shelf.

Casey arranged a couple of pillows against the headboard of the bed and jumped up onto the pillow top mattress. She grabbed the remote and flipped the TV on. She was pleased to see that NCIS was on – and it was one that she hadn’t seen before.

Ducky was in the midst of explaining that the person had not died of natural causes, but was in fact the victim of a murder. This was not particularly surprising, since the show only focused on murders. Casey was interested in the real mystery – when were Dinozzo and Ziva going to get together? The suspense was killing her!

Finally, the NCIS team cracked the case and Gibbs got a confession from the bad guy. Casey noted that all good leisure must come to an end and got back to her writing.

Casey really needed to get her story done tonight. Her editor was a slave driver, and his deadlines were firm. If it wasn’t in his email inbox by midnight, it wouldn’t get into the next edition, and she wouldn’t get paid. Casey’s fridge was empty, her rent was due, and her bottle of scotch was dangerously low. She really needed a paycheck.

Since she hadn’t been productive in front of the computer, she decided to eschew her Macbook Air in favorite of pen and paper. She had a lot of flexibility – she could write anything, as long as it was fiction – but that was part of the problem. What sort of story should she write?

Casey grabbed her trusty Montblanc pen and a composition book. She decided to try her hand at a crime story. A half hour later, the story was dead. She had written just 250 words, and was completely uninterested in the plot.

Casey sighed, tore the page from the composition book, and wadded it up. She launched the paper ball across the room toward the waste basket. The long three point shot rimmed out – par for the course today.

She decided to switch directions one hundred eighty degrees and began work on a love story. Forty five minutes later, she realized that the main characters were only interested in each other as friends. Ugh.

Then the inspiration hit her. Of course – she would write a fictional account of a writer suffering from writer’s block.

How do I keep up the pace? This is a question that many authors face, sometimes in their own heads, sometimes honestly and out in the open. Some people would suggest setting aside specific time. This is a great idea if you have that kind scheduling skill/flexibility. Establishing specific times, you could set yourself up for additional pressure, so be careful. Always approach writing as what you want to be doing right now, not something you have to be doing.

There are always opportunities to have extra time to write. Evenings when on travel are much better used writing than drinking, unless you are in sales. Take a lap top computer with you when ever your kids have activities. Take that lap top when shopping with your wife, especially at specialty stores that provide chairs for husbands. Sorry, I don’t have advice for our female readers, men’s shopping locations don’t usually have seating areas.

As far as setting a writing pace, this can be a good thing. Set your pace for an appropriate time scale. Look at a weekly rate, not daily or hourly. It is just like tracking your weight, checking too often will just get you twisted up with the numbers. If you have a bad day, you will eventually have a good day. When you are on a role, try not to stop. Staying up late is not a bad thing as long as it is productive. If you get all of your ideas down, you will sleep better.

Another way to keep your writing pace, don’t get tied down by a single story. If you get bogged down, start something else or try to go back to something you have put on hold. If you have having that much trouble, the creative juices for that story line have dried up. Let it go and the well will refill. Sometimes even just writing gibberish can help, odd but true. Try just writing down what you are currently hearing, like the conversation at the next table at the coffee shop. If you don’t have conversations around you, write descriptions of what is in your field of view. All of these efforts are to distract you from your block while keeping you writing.

Remember that all ideas are good, some are just better than others. The best way to keep your writing pace up is to keep writing. The goal is, of course, to complete the stories that are floating around in your head. The first step to reaching that goal is to get as many of the ideas down on paper (or in the computer) as possible. Do the math. If you don’t write anything, your pace is zero. Anything you write will be beneficial, even if you cannot see that benefit right now. Try your best and remember to

–KEEP WRITING–

What do you really want to write? That is the first question that any author has to address. Are you into short stories, poems, novels, essays? All of the various forms of written expression have deferent demands. The poet seems to be the most unique of all authors. Poetry within itself can tell a story, paint a picture and fulfill a structure, but that is the same for all writing. The work you choose does not define you, you define the work. Anything you put to pen (or these days to keyboard) is your creation, your will causes it to exist.

I have always concentrated on novels. The longer story allows me the freedom to paint pictures of the world that my characters live in. For me, it is describing a dream, and in fact I have dreamt many of the images that I write. The topic you choose may drive the type of writing you attempt. Again for me, grand sweeping vistas drive me toward novels. I don’t have the concise and artistic imagery that is required for poetry. I do not have the energy to analyze like the essayist. Some would call these ramblings essays, but they are more opinion pieces that I spew forth in single sittings when the urge hits me. I have attempted short stories, but always return to add more detail, fill in holes, take the story to that next scene.

When someone claims that one form or topic is easier than others, this can only be true for them. Techniques can be shared and are almost always helpful, but seldom in the way intended or expected. For example, I like to write in a continuous narrative, going back over the ‘completed’ sections to verify continuity and right wrongs. I like to read in the same fashion, front to back referencing earlier parts to check up on the author. Others can skip about, writing sections that they later weave into the whole, or reading chapters as they see fit, to keep themselves entertained.

I have recently embarked on my second novel this year. My first was an entry into the National Novel Writing Month (ref NaNoWriMo.org). This new one is just to fulfill the joy that writing has given me. I have been traveling a lot recently, and writing on those lonely evenings in hotels has kept my spirits up and kept my home sickness at bay. My first effort was a romance. I don’t know why, but I got a story in my head about a young man who lost his memory and had to find out who he was. I guess I really wanted to explore how you could learn about someone who knew and loved you when you did not know what was going on. In addition to the romance part, I included a lot about simple farming, which I admit is a fantasy that I will never get to live out.

This second story is also something that has been haunting my dreams. It is a science fiction detective story with a lot of space exploration. Now I am a trained Aerospace Engineer and have worked directly for NASA and for private companies contracted to perform work for NASA. I have worked on both the Space Station and the Space Shuttle. I would even consider several current and former astronauts to be my friends. Every spring I perform a community service by talking to middle school students about the space race of the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

I will admit that at least a kernel of this story was started back when I was in middle school. I found some of my old musings while cleaning out some storage containers. My writing (I believe) is much better now than back then, but the creative ideas are similar.

My suggestion to everyone is, if you get an idea, write it down. It may come to nothing, it may have to be modified so often it looks nothing like the original. But then again, it could be the start you are looking for. You can only write if you start. That first sentence will lead to another. That first paragraph will eventually make sense. That first page will get filled. Don’t throw anything away, in this computer age, just save it away for later. There will be days that you are on fire; 500, 1000, 5000 words. There will be days of nothing. Don’t just sit stewing over it if nothing seems to be brewing. Get up, do something. Clear you mind of writing by concentrating on something else. In this world there is always something to do.

In my latest effort, I have violated the method that I described just a couple of paragraphs ago. I have written two scenes that I will have to weave in. Why did I do this? Because the scenes played out in my mind, I had to write them down. Will they work? I don’t know. I may have to cut them into some special file for use in another effort.

I wrote in an earlier column that the one of the most important things and author needs is a good editor. I stand by that claim. We, each of us, can be the most flattering supporter and cruelest critic of our own work. Most of us underestimate our own worth and the worth of our work. A good editor will polish our writing without claiming it as their own. If you are ever graced with the opportunity to edit for someone else, remember that it is their work, not yours.

This has turned into quite a pep talk. In the end there is only one really good piece of advice for perspective authors. –KEEP WRITING–

Writing a novel is quite an undertaking. Trying to put a deadline on yourself is nearly impossible. I recently participated in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org) which is a world wide competition to simply write a story of at least 50,000 words during the month of November. I succeeded. This success was documented while I was writing. So what is the next stage? Well first, I have to get people I trust and respect to help edit that work. I have heard that the best method is to let a work set for a while to mellow. I disagree, at least for me. I want to have some sort of finish.

I have found my initial editor in my wife. Although she does not write herself, she is an avid reader of every genre. Besides being well read and well educated, she also has no qualms about telling me when I am wrong. Being a writer also requires a thick skin. I do not understand the stories of writers who have all of these demands and how they must be treated with kid gloves. They are just people like anyone else and should behave as such. Of course if I become rich and famous author, this opinion may change.

My next task is to keep writing. The best way to do that is to just jump right back into it. I have not set a new deadline, and I don’t have NaNoWriMo to help me now. I have decided to change my genre completely. My first effort was a romance. It is hard for me to admit that, but the fact cannot be avoided. My new effort is definitely science fiction. I have many more characters with major roles. I am also trying to be much more diverse in the personalities of my characters. I will continue to try to avoid too close of association between my real life relationships and my characters. Some association cannot be avoided. We develop our ideas of self and others through our personal contacts or plagiarism from other sources such as literature, television, radio and plays. The best we can do is avoid direct copying, from life or from other sources.

During my first Endeavour, I had the benefit of being on travel for work with plenty of time in the evenings, plus hours on airplanes, to write. These opportunities are continuing but will not be indefinite. I am trying to force myself to a March deadline. This will correspond with a change of my travel responsibilities will be changing from long term to short term events. I want to use these opportunities to the best of my ability while they last. This column will document how well I stick to my deadline.

This column will be different from my NaNoWriMo day by day story development. Instead, I will concentrate on areas of writing that I am focusing on or struggling with during the week I am reporting on. I have never been a reporter, not even in high school. I have always written in the ‘create’ way, supporting a poetry publication and short story booklet in high school. Each column will be between 500 and 600 words. So for this first installment, I have concentrated on what I plan to do, both with my next work and with this column. Check again for updates in the near future. –KEEP WRITING–

12/1 – I really did a lot of editing before continuing the story.  My wife read the first two chapters and helped out a lot, especially in the female character dialog.  Finished up chapter 39 and chapter 40.  I have the main character working hard at being a good farmer.  He is working with and learning from his father in law.  I took the story to the end of spring and the end of the school semester.  The friends of the main characters have their baby as the last line of the chapter.

12/2 – worked on chapters 41 and 42.  The main character is really pushing for a child of his own.  The wife is not exactly against the idea, but needs some convincing.  Both characters have a lot of things going on in their lives.  In Chapter 41, the priest has a heart attach and they go to visit him.  In Chapter 42, there is an end of summer party that reunites many of the characters.  I wanted to get them all in the same place to compare and contrast the choices that they have made and their successes and failures.

I am getting in a lot of writing because I have to wait up each night for my daughter to come home.  She is only 17 and works retail.  Her hours are late because it is the Christmas season.  I think I will be done with the bulk of the writing tomorrow, then starts the hardest task, editing.  Just from what I have done myself and the one day my wife looked at it, editors are worth their weight in gold.

12/3 – DONE!  I finished just before midnight.  Three chapters.  Apparently I had two chapter 32s and missed chapter 35 so some of my previous entries may have missed parts of the story, or duplicated, I don’t know which.  I found out when I created a table of contents.  That is a very useful tool in Microsoft Word.  The final word count is just over 68,000 words.  It is really weird to have all of these ideas written down.  I have copied it to several computers and on two memory sticks.  I don’t want to lose it now that I am done.

The story reaches may peaks in these last few chapters.  The main characters decide to go ahead and try to get pregnant.  The main character’s wife goes off to a state school for college, it is close enough to drive to.  The priest passes away, this is not necessarily a bad event, just sad because they have lost a friend and counselor.  The main characters find out that the accident was not his fault, the other driver fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the median.  She gets pregnant and gives birth.  The final chapter is only three sentences long.  I think it wraps up the story very nicely, but the community will have to wait for the editing to be completed.  I want to leave some of it in suspense!

Writing these articles has almost been as much fun as writing the story.  It was a romance in the end.  My next effort will start next week as I travel again.  I am thinking Science Fiction this time.  Less dialog, more action and no need for sex scenes unless there is alien sex like in Star Trek.  Kosmo has invited me to continue with a weekly input.  I have agreed.  It will mostly focus on the joys and stresses of writing, although I will sometimes wax poetic on other topics.  I hope all of you have enjoyed and will continue to read my musings.  Thank you.

Guest writer Martin Kelly races toward the NaNoWriMo deadline – will he get to 50,000 words by November 30?

This is the third NaNoWriMo writing diary from Martin.  You may also want to read part 1 and part 2.

11/20 – Chapter 23 and 24. I was flying home today. Writing on an airplane is difficult. The guy in front of me was reclined, and I am kind of heavy, so the laptop screen was not at a good angle. I spent most of my hour on the ground in Chicago correcting typing errors from three hours on the air.

In the story, the main character has learned to do something that is very hard for men, he is asking for help. We will have to see how well he accepts the help. At this point, the idea of having him watch like a little kid actually seems quite natural. His mother in law is being nice, on orders from her daughter and husband. The main character is doing his best to be nice to her as well. He of course does not know she is his Nemesis. They are having Thanksgiving. He is complimenting her cooking at every opportunity, and he honestly means it. This is her weak spot, and it is having an effect. She can’t help but enjoy being told how good of a cook she is. His wife also tells her mother that he seems ok with having kids now, that is just one more step to making her like him.

The day following Thanksgiving, black Friday, all of the female characters head off to the city to shop, in this case it is Saint Louis. The main character meets up with his childhood friend. This is a development chapter where you get to learn more about how he grew up. Several of the truths about him, his father and his mother are debunked. He breaks down and empties is heart to his friend; all of his fears, his concerns and what has happened to him. The friend does not believe at first but their common background pulls them together.

11/21 – Chapters 25 and 26. I hit 40,000 words today. It is good to be home, but I had to plan my writing time. Both chapters are rather short. More development and a return of the religious men. I am attempting to get the people who are trying to help the main character all working together. With the men it is easy, mostly because I am a man, and with men, good food and a little mutual razzing results in cooperation. I do not know how I am going to incorporate the women. His wife is going to be supportive separate from the men. She understands more than he does that a marriage is a partnership. I have developed her into the smartest person in the book.

11/22 – Chapter 27. Writing on Sunday again, just to keep going. I am so close to the NaNoWriMo goal that I don’t want to stop. I also think I can actually finish this book, with a conclusion! I dreamed up a final scene, now I just have to get there. Right now, the women have returned and the best friends are expecting their first child. This is a good nudge for the main character towards the responsibility of fatherhood. Now he just has to show his wife that he has ‘changed’ enough to take it on. Another short chapter. I may have to reorganize the chapters to make them flow better, but that can wait. I still haven’t had anyone else review it yet, I am kind of nervous about that. My wife will be the first with Kosmo having the second look, then it should be ready for the Casually Observing community.

11/23 – Chapter 28. Lots going on at home to get in the way of writing. The eldest son is back from college for the break and in laws are coming in for the holiday as well. This is my family, not the story. Matching up the time line to real life has helped but can be confusing in a blog. Back to the story. The main character and his wife have a day alone. Some more revelations about their childhood. The main character has always had a learning disability, specifically reading. In school, even though she was younger than him, she had been assigned as his ready buddy, to help him out.

I included a touching scene where she gets to reenact helping him as he tries to share her love of reading. He tries to get her to restart her dream of going to college, more than the community college effort that she is in. Currently she is trying to get basic office skills to have a part time job, her dream had been to become a veterinarian. She is reluctant, mostly because of cost and because he is putting forth too many things for her to hold on to at one time. He has suggested in the last couple of chapters that they get her a new car, that they have children and that she go back to college for her dream. She promises to think about it, then she talks him into taking a course at the community college. It is a farm management course that will be good for him, but he is uncertain, he is not exactly college material.

11/24 – Chapter 29. The main character has to have his checkups scheduled back in chapter 4. He heads into town with his wife. They do some things at the community college before he sees the dentist. His teeth are fine now. I ended the chapter with them at lunch, before he sees his family doctor. His wife is working all of the things she has promised to do, looking into college for the vet degree and checking on the feasibility of getting a new car, or at least a car that is new to them. I allude to her car being on its last legs several times in this chapter. I don’t know what I am going to do in the next chapter yet. He has to see his family doctor and go over his injuries and the affects. His memory problem will have to be discussed eventually and this may be the right place. Oh well, I will see tomorrow.

11/25 – Chapters 30 and 31. My step mother in law is in town. We don’t get along very well so I have been retreating to my room, leaving my kids to deal with her. On the bright side, I did get a lot of writing done. In chapter 30, all is good for the main character. I used the family doctor to fill in a lot of his family history both for him and the reader. His dad wasn’t really a drunk, he had stress and medical issues that drove him away from his wife out of shame. I have tried to temper the character of his mother as well. She isn’t as mean as I portrayed her at the beginning, she had a rough time and her youngest son was disappointing her.

Chapter 31 everything goes down hill for the hero. His old drinking buddies show up and take him into town. He ends up at the same bar that he always goes too. The bar maid is helpful, but assures him that they had not fooled around. She lets him know that he is (was) a jerk and should go back to his wife. Without explaining why, he asks for her help escaping from the guys. The only person he knows to call is his father in law. Although the father in law does come to get him, thing do not go well. The hero is seriously worried about getting his ass kicked by this man. To avoid both a beating and his wife he asks to be turned over to the sheriff, expecting to spend at least the night in jail for going to a bar after being found responsible in a drunk driving accident.

11/26 – Chapters 32 and 33. The relatives are still in town, so more writing. I have passed the 50,000 word mark. NaNoWriMo has declared me a winner. You get icons to put on your email, facebook and myspace. You also get a nice certificate to download. I am going to try to figure out how to include that certificate in my final publication.

In the story, the sheriff’s deputy, who just happens to know the hero, and the father in law figure out how to keep the ‘friends’ away. The hero is an idiot, but that can be overcome. He fesses up to his father in law about not knowing who these friends were, then spills his guts on the whole memory thing. The father in law believes him and takes him home, but makes a side trip to get grain for the animals as an excuse for running into town and the late return to their respective farms

11/27 – Chapters 34 and 35. More good writing. After spending a guilt filled night lying next to his wife, our hero starts confessing to her. His doctor told him back in chapter 30 that the best way to recover was to include his wife and not have secrets. He finally breaks down and follows that advice. He also confesses to the sheriff’s deputy, but he doesn’t come completely clean. He does not admit to his wife, or anyone else, that he doesn’t remember her.

Chapter 35 is a confrontation with the worst of the drinking buddies. An almost fight occurs that is broken up by the resourceful, and armed wife. She insists on taking him to the hospital, just in case he had another head injury. This involves her brother, since he has to come over to take care of the farm. More confessions to include the mother in law and another confrontation with the bad friend, this time in court. Trusting his wife is the best thing our hero has done so far. I told you in an earlier blog, he is an idiot, but that can be helped.

11/28 – Chapters 36 and 37. Some of my relatives are leaving, so this might be my last double chapter night for a while. The story is building up to Christmas. The hero gets his wife a puppy, and convinces her to chase her dream of becoming a vet. Just because I really didn’t like the character, I had the bad friend get hurt in a bar fight. Probably not necessary for the story, but felt good.

11/29 – Chapter 38. All my visitors are gone. Lots of cleaning, not much writing. Got several pep talk emails from NaNoWriMo. I really haven’t used them very much, I just participated in the word count challenge and got the reward. I think it was me not doing much, not them. They seem like really nice people who want to help. The write ins could be a lot of fun if I had the time.

In the story, one of the other drinking buddies tries to straighten out his life. He is heading out of town to pursue his dreams and tells the hero, thanking him for standing up to the bully that they use to drink with. The hero also decides to try to better himself by taking an extension class at the community college, to be a better farmer. For the first time, significant time passes, well a couple of months, instead of a day by day account.

11/30 – NaNoWriMo is officially over. I already made the word count several days ago, to the finish is sort of an anti climax for me. I added to chapter 38 and started chapter 39. I wanted to show a growth in the two main characters’ love lives as well as growth on a personal level. The main character has regained his strength and his wife notices his physique. He also uses his new knowledge to actually work his own farm, not well of course, but still his own sweat and effort. I think I have a good ending planned. I want to finish this book before Christmas. It is a goal that is within reach. Probably six more chapters to get there, then lots of editing. If Kosmo will let me, I will post the book as a Christmas present to the Casually Observing community.

We pick up where we left off last week, as guest writer Martin Kelly continues in his quest to meet the NaNoWrioMo goal of 50,000 words in a single month!

11/13 – Chapter 15, my main character learned how to milk a cow.  Almost everything in this chapter came from listening to my father in law talk to my kids about growing up on a farm.  I was actually using the story to encourage them to go to college.  He escaped and didn’t want them to have to work that hard.  I am trying to be as faithful to the stories I have heard as possible.  On word count, I have passed 23k.  This is good, since I continue to re-edit earlier work, mostly with deletions.  I have found lots of spelling/typing errors and just can’t help myself, I have to fix them

11/14 – I’m at the half way point!!  More than 25,000 words.  Chapters 16 and 17, my main character is left alone in his house for the first time.  He snoops around.  Mostly he finds embarrassing things.  His wife has a lot of lingerie, some of it pretty slutty.  This is stuff he got for her before his ‘change’.  He also finds his box of adult videos.  He starts lifting weights to get back his strength.  Since he is only recently out of the hospital, he gets worn down and fall asleep at the end of chapter 16.

When he wakes up at the beginning of chapter 17, the weather has turned bad.  He has to move quickly to take care of the animals.  By the time he is done, his wife is home.  He is starting to do the little things to make her believe he has actually changed.  He is performing the farm chores, he is setting and clearing the table for every meal.  He hasn’t become a perfect husband, but he is trying and she is noticing.

11/15 – Chapter 18 Okay, this was the big sex scene.  I like the way it turned out.  Not too sophomoric and not to pornographic.  I gave enough details to leave no doubts as to what went on.  I tried to think about scenes from movies and books I have read and seen with out plagiarizing.  I tried to avoid anything that would reflect on my real life experiences, to avoid embarrassing my wife.  When I am done, I will make the whole novel available to Kosmo and the rest of the casually observing community.  You can judge my success or failure.

11/16 – Chapter 19, the morning after.  The main character and his wife are still in the glow of the previous evening.  They are preparing for a day at her parents house.  They have another romp before doing all the things that have to be done around a farm.  I have included a lot of homey details to make the characters more full.  This was a short chapter, but I am close to 30,000 words.  Being on travel has given me a lot of idle time to write.  No kids, chores or anything else to distract me.  I am on the west coast, so even the television shows that I watch are over early.  Hopefully I can keep this pace up.  If I do, I might hit 60,000 words before the end of November.  I am not really aiming for a specific word count, I want to get to a good ending point for the story.  I think I have come up with a good stopping point, now I just have to get there.

11/17 – Chapter 20 The main character spends the day with his in-laws.  I must be lonely for home, I spent a lot of time describing the food.  There is also another sex scene.  I may really have to tone this down before publication.  I avoided the intimate scenes for days, now three in a row.  Another short chapter, but I passed the 30,000 word count mark  I am still ahead of plan for NaNoWriMo.  I actually have a lot of time for writing when I get to the hotel each night.  Tonight I had dinner with several co-workers, so less time and fewer words.  The key is writing every night, even if it is stuff you will have to delete later.

What did you miss over the weekend?

• On Friday, we saw the short fiction story My Name is Dollar Bill
• Kosmo told us about Life in Iowa on Saturday
• Sunday featured Kosmo’s Ramblings

So, what’s up in Kosmo’s world?

I avoided the ladder

I encountered one of my more interesting driving experiences this week.  As I was driving into work, an extension ladder suddenly appeared on the road in front of me.  The ladder was in the two right lanes (of three total lanes) and I was in the right land, so I veered sharply right to avoid the ladder, then back sharply left to avoid leaving the roadway.  I felt a little bad about the lack of control the car exhibited during this maneuver – until I looked in my rear view mirror and saw another driver perform a carbon copy of my move.  I really didn’t need my morning caffeine after that – I was wide awake.

Baywatch (and Hollidaywatch)

Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay rejected a 4 year contract offer worth $60 million from Boston this week.  This sets an apparent floor on the value of Bay and fellow free agent outfielder Matt Holliday.  The emerging consensus, based an advanced statistical measures, is that the two players are comparable offensively (albeit with different strengths and weaknesses), and that Holliday is a better defender.

An interesting quirk is that Boston would actually come out ahead in terms of draft picks by allowing Bay to leave and nabbing Holliday as a free agent.  They would forfeit their first round pick to sign Holliday, but would receive a draft pick from the teams that signs Bay (assuming that a contender signs Bay, this would be a first rounder) as well as a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds.  The sandwiches are truly a free lunch – they picks are artificially added into the draft.  That’s why there are about 40 “first round” picks every year – in spite of the fact that there are only thirty teams.

There’s one important free agent who might be slipping under the radar of a lot of casual fans.  The name is Rudy Jaramillo.  Never heard of him?  What position does he play, you ask?  Hitting coach.  Jaramillo, widely renowned as the best hitting coach in baseball, is moving from the Texas Rangers to Chicago Cubs.  Don’t be surprised if you see several Cubs players have strong seasons at the plate.  Interestingly, the Rangers lose Jaramillo just one season after poaching standout pitching coach Mike Maddux (brother of Greg) from the Brewers.  What goes around, comes around, I guess.

Novels

I recently broke ground on my novel, Casting Stones.  I’ve been kicking around plot ideas for several months, but finally began the actual writing on Halloween.  I pushed past 6000 words on Friday and am making good progress.  The infrastructure for the plot is developing pretty well, with concrete ideas for seventeen chapters.  I see 15,000 words as a turning point – if I can make it to that point, I think there is a strong chance that I an maintain momentum and finish up with a full sized novel.

I’m not the only one working on a book.  Martin Kelly is working on his, of course.  We’ll see another installment of his NaNoWriMo diary tomorrow) and few other folks I know are either in the midst of writing a book, or are seriously considering one.  Go for it!  If you finish the book, great.  In any case, writing a book is an absurdly cheap hobby.

I have written a few other articles on the topic of writing fiction. Today, I’ll spend our time together talking solely about the development of characters.

Let them have a little fun

Characters are the lifeblood of any story. If your characters are dull, your story will be uninteresting. Conversely, an interesting character can not only captivate your audience, but also inspire you during the writing process.

Recently, Martin Kelly mentioned that he liked his characters. To an outsider, it might seem odd, but I also find myself relating with characters. With a short story, a writer doesn’t spend a lot of time developing characters, due to the compressed nature of the writing. For longer stories, though, many hours can be spent molding the character.

In order to explore various plot scenarios, I often will send my characters to the “back burner” of my brain to let them try out various experiences in and effort see what experiences are good fits of the plot and which are not.

The net result is that I create a nearly sentient being. These characters can run wild inside the imagination of an author, living very full lives as they rush to and fro, experiencing all that life has to offer. Do I sometimes wake up and wonder what a character did while I was sleeping? Well, um, sometimes.

Let your characters have fun, and you will have more fun writing about them.

Attributes of a character

One problem I have stumbled across is that many of my characters are quite slender. Why is this? Quite simply because I’m projecting. I stand a shade under six feet tall and tip the scales around 150 pounds. Not surprisingly, it is easier for me to write about slender characters than it is to write about characters who are 5’4” and 275 pounds. I simply don’t have as solid a frame of reference for the other characters.

I also have a habit of making most of my characters physically attractive. Most of my characters also have very engaging personalities. Many of them share the interests and hobbies that I myself enjoy. In short, they are people that I would get along with great.

So, by default, I have a bunch of Stepford characters running amok in my brain. In terms of their usefulness as imaginary friends, this is pretty nifty. Unfortunately, these happy-go-lucky characters make for a pretty lousy plot – because there is not conflict.

Thus, I am always compelled to roughen the edges on a few of the characters. Interestingly, it isn’t difficult for me to create truly bad characters such as murderers – I struggle more with putting a few necessary blemishes on the nice people. For the most part, I actually fail at this. The majority of my characters are still much nicer than I would like.

So, it’s OK to like some of your characters, but you should also dislike a few – and dislike some aspects of nearly all of the characters. Also, avoid using yourself as too much of a reference point. After finishing up the writing of Key Relationships, I was stunned to find out that the vast majority of the story is written from the male perspective! Even worse, there was no valid plot-related reason for this.

Names and Dialogue

If you write a lot of stories, it can be difficult to constantly find new names. You may find yourself using names of family, friends, and celebrities. Within the past year, I have begun going to the source. The US Census Bureau tracks first and last names and ranks them by how common they are. This is, in a word, SWEET. Not only does it provide you with names you may not have considered previously, but it also lets you know how common the name is.

As we segue smoothly from names to dialogue, we encounter the topic of names being used as part of the dialogue. It is important to avoid overusing the names of characters during the dialogues. If Mark and Bob are speaking to each other, you need not use “Mark” or “Bob” during each line of dialogue – you will drive your readers crazy.

It is also important to spice up the dialogue with a bit of variety. “Said” is a perfectly fine word, but people can also ask, shout, exclaim, whisper, hiss, utter, reply, or comment. Amazingly, most of the time you can simply avoid using any of these verbs. The presence of quotes already makes the reader aware of the fact that someone is speaking.

Finally, natural dialogue will typically be less formal than the prose that surrounds it. Spoken language tends to be less formal than written language – in large part due to the minimal preparation before speaking. If your characters’ dialogue sounds as if they are reading it from a teleprompter, it won’t ring true to your audience.