It's a Writer's Life for Me!

When you read a writer's short biography on the back of a book have you ever noticed that there are rarely "boring" lives described there?  Writers write, but we also live.  Without living there really isn't anything to write about.

My biography would be something like:

Born in 1969, Dawn came home on Christmas Eve.  Thankfully her mother stopped her sister from throwing her away and thus she lived. At the age of two Death tried harder, but from burns to scarlatina to chicken pox to stinky sinus steak she won with the aid of her family. This was also the time where her family picked up the habit, or maybe hobby?, of breeding and showing dogs.  Dawn raised Dachshunds and ducked bullies until she went to college and sucked at studying.  As an adult Dawn has traveled the Midwest, okay she moved from Kansas to Missouri, to Michigan, to Illinois; but it counts! She has created her own family while adoring the one she was born into as well. When cancer knocked on the door she kicked it out and turned the baby room into a rec room. She has recently been dealing with chronic illness, but in living a life long dream and moving to the Southwest she will be moving beyond that. Dawn owns and creates stone art with her family via Shadoe Stones and also paints, creates artistic photography and writes poetry because sleep is for wimps; happy, healthy, well rested wimps, but wimps nonetheless.

What would your bio look like?  I know there are things I want to add to mine.  I am planning on getting my massage license in Arizona and going to UofA to get a degree there.  The degree I am looking at requires travel over seas and Switzerland is a trip I would love to take. I want to travel all over the country and the world. I want to be published not just in my writing but in my photography as well. I want to sell art and spend time with my family. I want to be happy. Live your bio every day; make your life what you want to see on the back of a book some day!

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Did someone say Research?

Researching for a new piece of writing can be as simple as looking at a map and as complicated as using the map.  When traveling to the place you are writing about isn't possible it's time to turn to what others have written.  While I use the internet I also know that about 50% of what is on the internet is crap with no basis in fact and no reference to reality.  Why do I say this?  Because the "I read it on the internet so it must be true" meme is based in that reality. Without the capability to follow the logic in some form of annotation such as footnotes or a bibliography question your source be it in print, face to face contact or on the internet.  Wikipedia by the way is not a good source.  Why does everyone from your English teacher to me say that?  Because anyone can and will update Wikipedia; this gives it questionable content.

My favorite place to verify what I find on a Google search that doesn't have a backstory to it?  Right back on Google. If all of the "facts" lead right back to the original author then sadly it's time to start over. Without independent verification the facts are not real. Unless you are writing Science Fiction or Alternative History it's best to have your facts straight.

Why do you (or I) do all of this? To make our story more believable. If you are writing about Christmas in Australia you should probably know it happens in the middle of their summer not winter. It hurts the believably of a story for it to have a glaring error that isn't explained. If in your AH Australia is now in the Northern Hemisphere it would make since for Australia to have Christmas in winter, in our world not so much.

I have a new and excellent source for my research:  The Oxford Press, combine this with your local interlibrary loan program and you are going to know everything about EVERYTHING! Currently I am researching for my NaNoWriMo book "Live" and I am reading about Ancient Egypt, China and Greece; Medicine, Farming and Preaching; New Orleans, Mexico City, and London.  The background I give myself now will fill my book with authentic details so that when the story happens people are following it and thinking about it.

If you do know something to be true or you are an expert in a field then, of course, you don't need to research it...or do you? Sometimes double checking your facts doesn't hurt.  My family has bred and shown dogs for over 40 years.  My Mother worked as a vet tech for a significant portion of that time. If I am working on a story about dogs there are going to be parts I can and will write about with complete confidence. Those parts do not need to be double checked, I KNOW them. Then there are the parts I know, or think I do. If there is even a little bit of uncertainty then you should double check your facts.

Here's a great thing about fiction that turns all of what I have written on it's ear:  It's NOT supposed to be true.  If a fact doesn't align with your story AND you can give a plausible reason in your story that it is not true in your world then who cares?  If you don't have a plausible reason but it doesn't jar the story then who cares? Just remember that the person who cares could be a reader or worse a publisher.

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Creating a World, Creating a Universe, Creating a story

“A writer is a world trapped in a person.” ―Victor Hugo

Lately I have been doing a lot of world creation.  Everyone goes about this completely differently.  The way that is right for you, is the right way-for you.  I am not here to tell anyone how or what to do I am here to show you what I do and offer it as an alternative or a starting block.

Depending on the setting I will either start with research or a map.  If I am creating a world from scratch as I am with Dragur, my RPG idea, I start with the map. There is going to need to be research as well; but the map is the impetus for the action in this case.  The amount of resources available and what those resources are drive the story.  Even if the map is largely in my head at first, it is the map that creates the world.  With "Live," my settings vary and I am looking at a very character driven story line, the map is there but research is needed to flesh it out.  I already know that it will begin in Ancient Egypt and move through to a future life on Mars. I need to know what those worlds look like so that I can describe them to my reader and take them there.  Tasting the sand and the salt of the sweat that a slave will drink to prevent dehydration while working copper mines in a desert, where he knows the names of the Gods, but not the name he was given years ago. All maps need research, all maps affect a story, it matters what the world looks and feels like to your characters; so it matters to the reader, as well.

When you are creating a map out of whole cloth as it were, you will need one of two things:  1. artistic skill or 2. a good program! There are a lot of great programs out there, I state again that I don't get paid by manufacturers I am just sharing the ones that work for me. A great free website resource is donjon world creator. If you have the ability to purchase one or more programs then go here, do not pass go, these guys are amazing! A good program will even save a good artist some time and trouble.  I have also had fun in the past of simply taking a random world and creating a story that fits it.  Even if you never do anything with the story it is a great exercise at world building. When you are setting your work on Earth you have the advantage of having a map already made, and the disadvantage of the possibility of making a mistake.  For instance, did you know that Tucson, Arizona has a two month monsoon season, but is still considered a desert? These are the kinds of things you need to know about where you set your novel so that if someone is reading it from that part of the world they recognize their neighborhood.

World building isn't just about maps.  When you are writing fiction you have the ability to create an entire world, even on Earth, and you will people this world with the creatures you create.  Are they human or human like? What is precious to them, who or what do they compete with for resources? Do they see themselves the way others see them? How are the creatures in your galaxy governed or are they? Did I just say GALAXY?

Yes, I did.  When you write a book, or create a game world, there is always the possibility of sequels or new modules, etc. We have even seen authors writing two unrelated series pull them together and show that they were in one universe the entire time; i.e. the Anne McCaffery Pern and Ship series. Even without that possibility, for me, knowing the world and the universe that my characters are born into helps me breathe life into those characters.  If a dragon from a lush vegetative area were to come upon a plain how would it react to the sky?  Would it have wings?  Would it know how to fly if it does? Even if that dragon never sees a plain or the sky, knowing how it would react helps you make that character one that the reader cares about.  

Things like a planet having more than one sun or moon are going to affect things like deities, cycles of seasons, the way the people approach math and the sciences. Are they able to see stars or is it constantly partially lit in their world.  If you never see the stars are you driven to fly? Are you driven to get to the stars? Your characters, in this book, may never consider these things; I believe that it is your job to at least have a basic idea what the rules of your universe are. Do Newton's laws work or Asimov's law or even better yet gravity?  We long to fly because we are held down. Would a creature who can't touch down without assistance dream of walking?

Build your foundation well and the story grows from the questions.  Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

Writer's Block

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” — Mark Twain

Breaking writer's block is a question of maintaining a habit, in my opinion. The habit is to write. Every single day you write. Something, anything, everything.  If all you are writing for 30 minutes to an hour is a mess of silliness it is still writing. Eventually you will find the thing that makes writing what you want to write possible, or you won't. This blog is full of my opinion, please understand it is my opinion only and what works for me. Try it or not, at your own risk.

Sometimes what we want to write isn't what we are supposed to write, no matter how hard we try to make it so. The characters won't cooperate, the plot drags, and nothing will go quite right. Then in a moment the secondary characters flare and discover this amazing thing that changes your story completely, dramatically; making it a different story. Not a better story necessarily, but definitely a new one.  You may never get back to the old one, then again you might. Don't get rid of the notes.  You may have 20 or 30 stories waiting to be told within the confines of a story that didn't work.

Writing seems like wrestling with demons to some, to others it is the equivalent of a language enema, dumping their soul onto a page to heal themselves.  To me it often seems like another life lived.  I am writing what I know to be true for the characters, as though they are alive in another dimension somewhere and I am just writing their biographies.  If you have ever had trouble with a character you understand; if you haven't you never will. Characters have boundaries, places they won't go, no matter how well you write the scene it will read wrong. Allow the scene to write itself, but don't let a poorly drawn character hijack a story either.

I am a strong believer in research as I mentioned last week.  I also create an outline for the stories before I write them.  Often later parts of the outline grow to the point that I am basically writing up the book. It is my process and when I get involved it will come pouring out of me. Sometimes it will dry up. Dead stop.  Not a bad character, not a poorly chosen theme; but a block, no clue where else to go with it, I normally have a plan for the beginning, middle and end of the story long before I start. Writer's block, for me, is when I lose the path from one to the other.

That is when I start creating keyboard diarrhea. I just start writing anything and everything that comes to mind.  I use my time that I have set aside for writing doing so; always, to maintain the habit.  During a block I will spend a day, or two, not working on the story, unless the dam breaks of course. After a few days like that I will then spend time going over all of what I have written.  If there is not inspiration for the current book, but there is for another I will change tracks; and yes this means I have a lot of half written stories, but sometimes in life stories don't have nice neat endings and I have a lot of stories that I did finish this way as well. If there is nothing I will spend more time with stream of consciousness writing. I will repeat this pattern until I am back into my writing.

Finally, know that there are times when writing isn't necessarily typing or writing; it is reading, talking, watching.  When I say to spend each day writing, I mean to spend time ON your writing every day, write something-even a grocery list with flare is writing!-every day; but don't forget to live as well.  Living life is an essential part of writing a story.  Never forget to forge ahead with your own story or you are much more likely to lose inspiration, for your spirit will run dry.

Or you could just torture your cat...

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Life ain't easy

It isn't meant to be.

A quote:  The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. ~Henry David Thoreau

Today I wrote this:

Living easy isn’t living

Going with the flow

From one day to the next

Means being just like everyone else

Life is hard

It is supposed to be

Easy Lessons are learned easily

The hard ones are supposed to hurt

So you can point at the scar

And say it was worth it.

Live life HARD and live life.

I am going to share a secret with you...for me it's last week. (cue shocked face and dramatic music)....bom bom bom bom....

I write these pieces at least one week in advance so that if it's a hard day or a hospital day I don't have to worry because you will be reading a blog!  My job in all seriousness has become this blog and creating things for it.

Some hard truths for me  have happened in the last 5 years.  Some of the best things in my life have happened in the last 5 years.

I have had cancer.  I survived cancer.

I met one amazing freaking woman.  I have been seriously ill for the almost three years since we met. ( I met the freaking amazing man in my life just over 5 years ago...so he is doomed to not make it here by a technicality).

I have had a migraine every day for the last 9 months, prior to that and now I have been dealing with unexplained body aches and pains that put me in the hospital twice last year.  I am slowly learning to take care of myself and rediscovering my arts.

The friends we moved closer to slowly drifted away, my husband was unable to visit the children we moved closer to because of our financial situation, and we have been dead broke almost from day one of our move.  We moved out of Michigan.

We are going to be doing the most difficult thing, due to our finances, that I can think of (including those things above).  I get to do something I have wanted to do pretty much since I can remember.

So what is that last thing?  I finally get to live in the Southwest!  Sar got a transfer with the VA and we are moving to Tucson! Whoot, Whoot!  Sadly, we aren't doing this for kicks and giggles; but for my health.  The weather is much better for me there and Crimson can get her DMA there as well.  It's win/win/win.

The only lesson you learn from an easy life is...yeah nope.

Everyone has a story, thus everyone lives a hard life.  Your definition of hard only applies to you.  My life has sucked for my health and finances.  My life has been utterly amazing in the way of my closest relationships and artistry.  The glass is only half of anything if you don't freaking drink it.  Drink up! Make the most of what you are given and give the most you can!

I gave you a poem and a quote!  That is a MWF "P" with some sage advice.  Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.