Truth-Weaving

"We throw tantrums like parties.

"We're not happy until everyone knows we're sick,

and that's just how we like it." 

"So, now, you know all my secrets.

"I want out; I know I don't need this.

"Can you find me friends that don't rank me on what I've been through?

"The more battle scars, the more attention it gets you.

"Don't tell the others, but it's all getting old.

"I mean, how many more times must our stories be told? 

Being lonely's only fun in a group,

but it sort of loses it's charm when it's true."

~Get Well (Icon For Hire)

It doesn't matter what we do or how we do it; under our technique-tatooed skins, we're all the same.  Some authors will type all of a first draft and then edit all of their first draft; others can't get past three paragraphs before they are urged to go back and fine-toothed comb their writing.  Some think writing is easy, smooth, and natural; others think it's a hard, lonely business.  Some write by hand; others on computers.  Some, with music; others, without.  Some will write while feasting; others prefer to be empty-stomached and handling a cup of warm tea.

But...no matter how we write, we all convey emotion by our writing.

Recently, though, I feel as if I've been wading through a swamp of thinly-veiled sob-stories.  In many stories that I've read recently, main characters own striking resemblance to their authors, physically and emotionally.  Those characters meet friends and enemies, and the plot...oddly enough...includes all of that author's personal, detailed issues.

No, I'm not against this cathartic method of writing.  I've used this sort of writing myself throughout all of my life, and I'm something of an addict to this style of writing.  I'm begging, however, for these accounts, not to be destroyed, but to be better weaved.  The best stories own reality, yes, but the best stories own ugly reality in a coat of chocolate, half buried under a few pounds of dried roses, and intertwined with adrenaline and glorious victory.  All over literature history, we see those poor authors who veiled truth too thinly and were put to the rack by critics.

Truth is a tricky thing.  Authors everywhere are seeking to find the most encompassing truths, the truths that touch the heart-strings of every reader, and encase those truths in glass cases surrounded by show-lights.  But truth is delicate as well, and, if not handled well, it becomes the most ridiculous mud pie, thrown into the face of the disgusted reader.

Be careful with your truths, authors, and take that extra step to understand truth.  Don't go avoiding problems or missing out on opportunities to experience new things.  Take that extra step to find good truths...and the extra step to veil truths...and the extra step to edit your truths.  Put work into your stories, and - I promise you - you'll like them better.

Write on!

Clove

CHAPTER 3 - Author's Notes Part II, aka. EUREKA!!!

Okay, okay, okay.  Muahaha!


Geud nooz, gyz.


If you remember from the chapter that accompanied this post, a dance occurs between Patra and Myreap, then another between Patra and Syne.  As with all dances, there is music!

For a long while, I was scouring Pandora's online radio, seeking to find the perfect accompaniment track, and, sadly, for a long while, I found nothing that truly fit with the threatening aura of both dances.  Even the dark, menacing songs that were cast at me didn't fit Syne's obviously-fake mask of cheer and hidden heart of grim foreboding.  Every flowery, cheerful song wasn't quite right for the blossoming, awkward romance between Patra and Myreap.

Until...today.

Unfortunately, the song is not at all well-known, and Youtube has yet to possess it, thus, I can't display it here.  Nonetheless, I have found the full track here, and, even if you don't follow my story or aren't interested in the bizarre "fandom" I hold over my own story (yes, I'm vain, but, shhh...don't tell anyone), you should still listen to the song.  ;)

The artist name is "Elise Lebec", and the track is called "Letter from Elise".
Buy it and support her, guys.
She deserves it.  x)

To be honest, this song works for both dances, in my opinion, and I'm absolutely psyched for Providence to have cast down this piece of musical genius into my ear canals.

Bwahaha, quit reading this blog, go listen to great music, and, as always...

Write on!
Clove

A good laugh

How's it going all?

Want some good inspiration?
Go jogging on a clear night with the shining-pearl moon casting your shadow in front of you, your breath as a thousand silver ringlets curling from between your parched lips.  For added inspiration, run on a lightless, misty night in the most torn-up garb you have with music chasing you onward from your iPod/MP3 Player.

Anyway, you're waiting for that laugh, aren't you?

I'll make you sweat for it a few seconds longer.  You know, I find it...amusing, being 100% home-schooled -- 33% in real life and 33% online and 34% on my own.  The most amusing bit is that I get two finals weeks, one week before Christmas break for my real life classes and the other after the partying for my online classes.
Like all good Asian girls, I've been studying my glasses off, but, apparently, I'm not doing enough of that because I still had time to post here and find the below:

"I am thoroughly convinced that mankind needs a laugh once in a while." -- Clove, January, 14, 2014

All that to say, forgive the sporadic posts and, as always...

Write on!
Clove

Memorization and Presentation?!

Last Wednesday at school, I was told that the five pillars of idea-portrayal are invention (what you are saying), arrangement (how to structure what you want to say), elocution (how you actually say it), memory (memorizing what you have written), and presentation (delivering your idea to an audience).

As an author, invention for me includes brain-storming and lots of mulling.  "This kind of character?  No...this type would be better for this plot.  What about this plot-hole?  Well, if he goes there, then she has motive to look for him, which will lead to...and...then...or..." etc. etc. etc.  You get the picture; no doubt, you've done the same sort of thing.  :)
Arrangement is also a very familiar pillar of idea-portrayal for me.  After all, I have outlines, character profiles, chapters, and scenes.  Those are all part of structuring my ideas.
Elocution includes the actual process of writing: choosing adjectives, nouns, verbs.  Accordingly, commas, quotation marks, and other grammar rules fall under this category.  Most authors spend the most time working with elocution: writing then editing, writing some more, then editing some more, and so on and so forth until they are satisfied with their work.

Memory and presentation, however, are lost pillars of idea-portrayal, and sadly so for us authors!

Yes, I know this sounds a little vain, but I make it a point to memorize some of my dialogue, not so I can flatter myself with my "awesome" writing 24/7 (well, I mean, partly - don't tell though) but because I like to contemplate the accuracy of what I'm saying in my writing.  ;)
If a certain character's words are close to reality, I might notice myself repeating him/her in real life conversation because I like the phrase so much.  (Mom says, "Good morning" on a rainy day, and I mimic Morgan, an old story character, by saying the memorized phrase, "Or lack thereof.")  On the other hand, if a character's dialogue is awkward, I'll be sure to notice it when I speak it out loud.

Of course, we all have way too much to memorize between school and other hobbies, and no one wants to hear a random presentation on conversation.  x)  Therefore, an easy way to practice memory and presentation is to merely read your chapter out loud to yourself.  If a character's dialogue is too stiff and unnatural, you'll notice by an out-loud read.  Sometimes, the wording may be too flowery, or the intonation is set to create bizarre fluctuations of the voice; those inconsistencies are the flaws that will make your reader get very easily lost, and they must be fixed!

Do not take this for granted!  Reading you work out-loud just once will save you loads of editing time!

Write on!
Clove

Clutter!

As a writing geek, I, at fifteen years of age, have been reading through The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White as well as On Writing Well by William Zinsser...recreationally.  That said, be prepared in this post to take out your two-inch thick, steel-rimmed, bridge-taped glasses.  You'll need 'em.  :)

So...clutter.

I have a lot of clutter in my writing.

I'm the person who abuses ink and spills words out needlessly, probably more so than Mr. Anonymous-Author down the street.  Mark Twain says to James Fenimore Cooper, "Eschew surplusage," and, in those two words stand the greatest bit of advise that I could give to any editor.  Chunks of description could go; dialogue doesn't respect my reader's time; action is for the sake of adrenaline, not for the sake of the plot, and all these things must go, go, GO.  Vas.  Shoo.  Self-defenestration.

Even beyond that, though, I could still chop even more away from my writing.  Don't believe me?  Allow me to quote the first of aforementioned books:

"Vigorous writing is concise...many expressions in common use violate this principle.

• "The question as to whether / Whether

• "There is no doubt but that / No doubt

• "Used for fuel purposes / Used for fuel

• "He is a man who / He

• "In a hasty manner / Hastily

• "This is a subject that / This subject

• "Her story is a strange one / Her story is strange

• "The reason why is that / Because

"The fact that is an especially debilitating expression.  It should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs.

• "Owing to the fact that / Since (because)

• "In spite of the fact that / Though (although)

• "Call your attention to the fact that / Remind you (notify you)

• "I was unaware of the fact that / I was unaware that (did not know)

• "The fact that he had not succeeded / His failure

• "The fact that I had arrived / My arrival

"...Who is, which was, and the like are often superfluous.

• "His cousin, who is a member of the same firm / His cousin, a member of the same firm

• "Trafalgar, which was Nelson's last battle / Trafalgar, Nelson's last battle"

Crazy, isn't it?  Reading that section made me want to go into all my documents and search for these extraneous phrases, deleting them with editing gusto.

If my point isn't made yet, let me also quote the second of the two aforementioned books:

"Clutter is the official language used by the corporation - in its news releases and its annual report - to hide its mistakes.  When one big company recently announced that it was "decentralizing its organizational structure into major profit-center businesses" and that "corporate staff services will be realigned under two senior vice-presidents," it means that it had a lousy year.
"...Clutter is the language of the Pentagon throwing dust in the eyes of the populace by calling an invasion a "reinforced protective reaction strike" and by justifying its vast budgets on the need for "credible second-strike capability" and "counterforce deterrence."  How can we grasp such vaporous double-talk?
"...I could go on quoting examples from various fields - every profession has its growing arsenal of jargon to fire at the layman and hurl him back from its walls.  But the list would be depressing and the lesson tedious.  The point raising it now is to serve notice that clutter is the enemy, whatever form it takes.  It slows the reader and makes the writer seem pretentious.
"Beware, then, of the long word that is no better than the short word: "numerous" (many), "facilitate" (ease), "individual" (man or woman), "remainder" (rest), "initial" (first), "implement" (do), "sufficient" (enough), "attempt" (try), "referred to as" (called), and hundreds more."

So what to do about these pieces of clutter when editing?  William goes on to say:

"I would put brackets around any component in a piece of writing that wasn't doing useful work.  Often it is just one word that got bracketed: the unnecessary preposition that is appended to a verb ("order up"), or the adverb that carries the same meaning as the verb ("smile happily"), or the adjective that states a known fact ("tall sky scraper")."

This information has been priceless for me, and I hope you too will get to utilize these tips to their fullest!

Write on...cleanly!

Clove

P.S. Okay, okay, I admit.  I'm not as geeky as it may seem.  The Elements of Style, I got from a friend for my birthday/Christmas gift; she knows me well.  ^_^  On Writing Well, I found when I was looking through a bunch of books to sell online; I pulled it out of the box and skimmed through it and am now engrossed.  :P

Character Imbalance - the REAL plot - Part II

After my first post on character imbalance, I suppose some of you may be complaining, "But...but...Clove!  You keep talking about how important these flaws are, but what if imbalance makes my character look stupid?!  I want a hero, not a dork!  I want a knight, not a wimp!  I want confidence, not a coward!"

Yes, yes, well, we're getting there.

When crafting characters, I try choose imbalances closest to reality: harassment, loneliness, pride, overconfidence, or a flaw that hits home with me, something with which I've struggled.
You ought to do the same for your characters.  If you haven't ever felt the acute pain of being mocked for having a birth defect, then go with something more vibrant in your heart.  Is it timidity?  Make your protagonist timid!  Is it excessive knowledge and the relentless temptation to brag?  Make your protagonist a genius!  Do you, Mr. or Ms. Author, feel weak?  Give that weakness to your protagonist, and marvel at the sight of not a dork, a wimp, or a coward, but a human being with a range of anguished emotions that all exude from within you.

With this new model, you then have to approach plot.  Let's go back to our example of Sam, the Alien Pummelor.  To be more realistic, I'm going to make Sam less god-like in strength and a tad bit stronger upstairs, but I'm also going to throw in a marriage problem.  When he wakes up without his wife, he suddenly thinks that she's disloyally running away because they had a heated argument the night before.
Suddenly, my created-in-thirty-seconds plot is now going to take several hours to reshape.  Does Sam even want to locate her?  If not, how long does it take for him to realize he needs her?  If it takes him several months, then wouldn't it be wiser to start the story after those months and go back and explain?  When he realizes that aliens have taken his wife, does he want to risk his life for her?  She never did anything for him...but...ohhh...he has to...doesn't he?  They could be doing anything to her - experimenting, torturing, or...who knows what guiltless cruelties those beasts had developed?  Sam's imagination was endless...

And at that crucial point, ladies and gentlemen, when your character chooses to overcome his imbalance, that is when you see that you have in your hands a remarkable human with real, negative emotions and real, winning confidence.

Imbalance does not create bums.

Imbalance creates victorious warriors and champions, those who have made decisions and forced on into plot, knowing that they would be changed but letting themselves be changed because they have to or else.

If you want a two other examples in cinematic works, here you go:

--Cars by Disney/Pixar.  Lightning McQueen's imbalance is obviously pride.  (And now, here's a little fault on Disney's part called "Deus Ex Machina" or "God out of the Machine", which is where things just happen to...happen:)  While riding to his next race, he "coincidentally" falls out of his trailer and is forced into plot.  He realizes his pride when he is forced to do menial work; he faces his pride when he realizes that he loves people cars and that...er...cars...love him.  His imbalance climax is at the final race, we're all holding our breaths when the King flips out...aaand!!!  He displays humility by helping the King finish his race.  The end.

--Kung Fu Panda by Disney/Pixar.  Po's imbalance is his self-doubt due to obesity.  When he is forced into plot and made to face his own physical ineptitude as Dragon Warrior, Po comes to believe that he doesn't have enough self-discipline and therefore is defeated by his flaw.  Shifu, however, realizes that Po's answer is not self-discipline but food, and that is the turning point of the story.  From there, Po trains with food as his motivation; he overcomes his self-doubt when he reaches new limits (in an ehhhpiiic mauuuntauuuj); and, in his climax with Tai Lung, you even see him using his fatness to his advantage.  The end.

There you have it!  Now you know what imbalance is, and you're fully equipped to use it in your stories.  Congratulations!  :)

Write on!
Clove

Character Imbalance - the REAL plot

Imagine this type of story:

A brilliant and dashingly-handsome man of great expertise in all weapons wakes up one morning to find that his wife has been abducted by aliens.  In a explosive rage, he decides to take revenge and sets out to the nearby NASA facility, which he quickly sneaks through in order to get to a space ship.  Using his highly-intuitive mind, he flies to Mars where his wife is being held captive, rescues her, and defeats an army of aliens, breaking the heart of an alien princess who fell in love with him meanwhile.  Back at home, he is seen sitting down to dinner with his wife, happy once more.

I wrote that off the top of my head, guys, in, like, twenty seconds flat.  Maybe you might be wondering why I don't write more if I put together such a full tale in such a short amount of time.  Or...maybe, if you're smarter, you might be poking holes in such a sketchy outline.  ;)

Either way, the story above was crafted quickly and easily because it lacked a certain element, being character imbalance.

So what is character imbalance?

Well, I'll tell you for one, it's the stuff that makes writing so stinking difficult.  See, in the above story, I've already established the fact that our man in distress (let's call him Sam for the sake of the example) is practically invincible, not to mention extremely handsome and talented with weapons.  Fortunate for him (and for me, his author), his abilities make the plot move along quite swiftly.

Now, just for fun, what if I were to take away his inhuman strength?  He would be incapable of sneaking into the NASA facility and would have no way to defeat the alien masses, thus ending the story then and there.

What about if his good looks were gone?  He wouldn't meet that alien princess, and, more than likely, he might not even be married.  Sayonara, plot.

Of course, the last element is his brain, the brain he uses to navigate his space shuttle.  Without it, the plot wouldn't get very far either, now would it?

What we just did to Sam - take away certain elements of his flawless character - is called character imbalance.  Those few crucial flaws that could be anything - a physical ailment, a mental disturbance, an emotional frailty, or a spiritual need - make every story worthwhile reading and worth far more than a while writing.

If you want a good example of character imbalance in olden literature, take a look at the Song of Roland, with Roland who was heroic and chivalrous yet impossibly proud.  American Literature shows character development in a novel like The House of Seven Gables with Hepzibah Pyncheon, a kind-hearted, elderly lady who is dramatically misunderstood due to an unfortunate scowl plastered on her face (the result of near-sightedness).  Modern day novels also show this element in books like the Hunger Games (where Katniss is self-centered) and Harry Potter (where Harry is a misfit).

So now that you know what character imbalance is...the question remains: how do you use it?

Dun dun daaah!

Part II will be here soon, folks.

Write on!

Clove