National Novel Writing Month

November is NaNoWriMo. Is anyone participating? This will be my, hmm, 2nd or 3rd attempt. My username is diello.

What Made You Weird?

Going through some old writing and found this little gem, born from an article in Coilhouse Magazine.

What made you weird?

Fantastic question, I think. What better inspiration for writing to draw from than your own personal history?

(and if you don't think you're weird, then what the hell are you?)

"For many of us there is an event, a circumstance or a series of both that altered us in a specific way, making us strange, odd, whatever you want to call it enough to seek lives less ordinary. It’s different for everyone - Nadya, for instance, was inspired in part by Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation video’s military look and overall stompiness. For me, there were several components and so I present you a partial list of What Made Me Weird."

And here is my list.

So?

What made YOU weird?

Flash Fiction

Flash fiction has all the elements of a short story, only it's boom-boom-boom and you're done.

Character

Problem 1 (small)
Problem 2 (large)
Coping!

Resolution/resonate

Genre elements

It's easy if you list some starting points, like:

• Place
• Event
• NPC (non playing character)
• A Rule of your world
• A random object

A practice run in class yielded some great results:

• Place: On a rooftop at the Bank of Mars (BoM) in the city of Chipotle.
• Event: Earth is about to die/be blown up.
• NPC: Homeless guy flipping a coin
• Rule: A bug that stays in your nose that enables you to breathe (like a babelfish)
• Object: a bed, a crack in the roof

The story shouldn't take more than five or ten minutes. That's what makes it a flash.

Post your results in the comments! I've posted mine!

Online Resources

We were showed a bunch of websites to aid in our search for a good publisher (right now, I'm painfully aware that saying "we" and "our" is sounding pretty... Queenly. I assure you, I'm talking about me and my class, and not me and the people who live inside my head-bones).

Just for now, I'm linking what was shared in class. At the end, I'll post a few links from my own bookmarks, and as always, I encourage you guys to comment and add your own suggestions, too!

Duotrope's Digest. To find a bajillion publications to submit to, just fill in the drop-down menus and hit the not-so-shiny search button to spring up hundreds (or less, depending on how much info you decided to put in) of publication options right there at your fingertips. Shows you what they look for, what they pay, if they pay... all that happy stuff.


Some highly popular magazine and onine publications:

Weird Tales
Fantasy Magazine
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
Prick of the Spindle
Locus



Some books to buy (you find a story that's just your style? Check the back of the book to see where it was published):

Booklife
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
Year's Best Science Fiction
Year's Best Fantasy




Some authors' blogs and sites to check out (if you like someone's stuff, check out their blog, follow 'em, and even comment. Good comments will get your name out there, and if you have your own blog, link your profile!):

• Jeff Vandermeer
• Clive Barker
• Kelly Link

Right. That's it for class notes. On with some of my own links (I'm at work, so right now it's just off the top of my brain-thing)...

Don't judge me:

• Warren Ellis
• Chuck Palahniuk
• Neil Gaiman
• Laurie Notaro
• Lemony Snicket
• Cory Doctorow
• Serena Valentino
• Laurie Halse Anderson
• Poppy Z. Brite
• Timothy McSweeney
• Allie Brosh

(sorry I don't have a lot of author sites I follow. I mostly follow art blogs. I also don't have a list of publications that I regularly collect that are pen-centric that haven't already been mentioned above)

Now I demand that you all comment and add more! MORE!

Toolbox: P.O.V.

• What three things does your character see, feel, taste, smell, hear? They have senses. Use them.
• First, second, or third tense (if one doesn't work, switch gears)
• Language in context with the point of view character
• Don't head-hop. Keep the "camera" in the point of view of one character per scene.

(sorry, I didn't have that much in my notebook this time. That's why I need your comments!)

Toolbox: What NOT to do

• Cliches
• Cool factor
• archaic narrative / dialog
• similar sentence length
• Absurd and unreasoned names you can't even pronounce
• Writing what you don't know about
• Describing simply
• Distracting tags and adverbs
• "very"
• head-hopping (keep it to one POV per scene)
• White Room Syndrome
• Switching tenses
• Passive voice (was, is, to be - followed by -ing verbs)
• Breaking the rules you set for your story
• Waking up scenes
• Unimportant transportation
• Unimportant dialog

Be sure to...

• make sure people interact with the rules
• keep characters IN character (don't let them live your fantasy or be/do what they never would)
• give your characters flaws
• make sure painful things hurt (continuity)
• RESPOND!

Comment! Keep 'em coming!

Toolbox: Preparation / Inspiration

• Bring your lightning rod in case lightning strikes! (always have at least a pen on hand at all times!)
• If you don't have paper, maybe you have a napkin, a place-mat, a receipt... anything you can get your thoughts onto (and take with you when you leave).
• Unwire! disconnect from your appliances (iPod, internet, cell phone) so you can connect with the world.
• Play music
• Zone out
• Meditate
• Walk around
• People watch!
• Look at pictures / watch tv
• READ READ READ READ READ READ!
• Change. If one place you're writing isn't doing it, switch seats, or go somewhere else all together. Switch from inside to outside, switch from writing one story, to taking a break to write something else, or to read... Keep your mind fresh.

• Above all else, DON'T WAIT FOR INSPIRATION TO HIT, JUST WRITE!

Comment to add more!

Toolbox: Tension

• Two things that you wouldn't put together (although, it worked for Reece)
• Dialog broken by surroundings
• Juxtaposition
• Mystery
• Misinterpretation
• Miscommunication
• Passive-aggressive behaviour
• Behaviour that contradicts belief
• Give them something stupid to argue over
• Mismatched colours
• Volume (whispers, screams...)
• Unmet expectations (by character or reader)
• Proximity, boundaries (personal bubble, too close to bomb, spider, person of desire...)
• Being in two places (by phone, internet, tv...)

Comment to add more!

Toolbox: Setting

• Develop characters and worlds
• Create rules for worlds
• Avoid White Room Syndrome!
• Interact with settings, don't just describe
• What's wrong with your setting? What's weird or out of place?
• Change the weather (pathetic fallacy?)
• Describe things - one of which is not from our (the author's / reader's) world
• Use all five senses (smell and sound are big ones)
• How clean, dirty, tidy, or cluttered is the room?
• Would you walk barefoot in these streets?
• Can you see the sunset on the horizon from where you are (or do you have to get out of the forest, or go up on the rooftop of a skyscraper)?

Comment to add your own!

Toolbox: Plot

• Character coping
• Cartesian Circle (character, plot, character, plot, character, plot...)
• Moment of Change!!!!!
• Encompasses all characteristics of a story
• Make your character suffer (give 'em what they want, then take it away, or just DON'T give them what they want)
• What can go wrong?
• Take your character out of his natural setting
• Juxtapose (fairies, unicorns, nuclear bombs)
• Throw in unexpected characters
• Don't overthink it- go with the flow
• Give them a new desire
• Give them booze, fire, diarrhea
• Focus on an important object. Why is it important?
• Add a perspective that questions the status quo
• Heroe's quest; call to adventure!
• Try the tarot card trick
• MICE Quotient
• Think of the tropes
• Influence from other stories (steal something)
• Influence from life
• Kill someone (or remove them some other way). Continue without them, or be haunted by them.
• How do you get from A to B to C?
• If it's not working, go in the opposite direction

Comment to add your own!

Toolbox: Dialog

• Tag to let us know who is speaking (if needed)
• Broken phrasing (you talk in complete sentences all the time? Doubt it)
• Interact with the surroundings while a conversation is happening (people don't usually just sit/stand there while they talk. They cough, adjust their glasses, sip coffee, lean against something... if they really are just standing there while they talk, maybe one of your characters has to pee. How do they get that point across without being rude?)
• Are there words/phrases your character won't say?
• Connect in disconnected ways ("Check out this screen-cap!" "Fuck, you crashed the internet!" *totally related in my house, but the untrained eye wouldn't get it*)
• Internal monologue vs. external
• Find questions to ask about objects
• Manipulation of desires
• describe!
• Don't forget setting
• Have external world break up dialog

Comment to add your own!

Toolbox: Character

• Where is your character from?
• Where is he now?
• Where does he want to be?
• Friends, family, loner?
• Traits, quirks
• How do they speak?
• How do they dress?
• Hobbies
• Likes / Dislikes
• Flaws
• What do they want / need (and how will you NOT give it to them)?
• What makes them happy / unhappy?
• Happiest and worst memories?
• Fears
• Medical problems?
• What kind of cereal do they like best?
• How do others see him and how does he see himself?
• How does your character react to his surroundings and to others?

• Pathetic fallacy - give your character an external reality. Personality in terms of objects.
• Authorial summation - put in a paragraph about your character if you need to
• Give your character an interview
• Don't forget archetypes of fantasy and science fiction.

Comment to add to this list :)

Toolbox Introduction

The Toolbox is a digital (or you can put it on note cards and index them into a file if you want) reference guide to help you out when you're stuck.

The toolbox will come in separate posts, free for you to comment on with additional ideas in these categories:

• Character
• Dialog
• Plot
• Setting
• Tension
• Preparations / Inspirations
• What NOT to do
• POV

Personally, whenever I think of the toolbox, I think of these cards called Oblique Strategies created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmitt back in the late '70s, meant to spark dilemmas or move things along. I first read about this deck 14 years ago on the website of a friend-of-friend-of-friend. He posted all of them. And thanks to the power of the Wayback Machine, I will share them all with you (I have no guilt in posting this, since I didn't originally post it, and £30 is rather a lot for a deck of cards, no matter how cool they are). You can find over a hundred Oblique Strategies here.

Individual toolbox posts to follow... after I make cupcakes.

The MICE Quotient

A la Orson Scott Card:

Milieu

Idea

Character

Event

Milieu - 3 places. Character starts in place A, then goes to place B (where he learns something important to carry with the rest of the story), then either returns to place A or goes on to place C. Think Wizard of OZ, Coraline or Alice in Wonderland.

Idea - Ends with the revelation of what it's really all about. Think Shutter Island or Fight Club.

Character - The character's world changes. Think Office Space or Amelie

Event - The pivotal point that disrupts the balance or brings order or continues in chaos... This all builds up to the big ending. Think Independence Day or Heavenly Creatures.

Fantasy

Fantasy breakdown

Characters

• Sad lead
• Lovers
• Deity
• Anthropomorphic personifications
• Seeker (quest-taker)
• Heroes
• Mentor (the wise one)
• The Chosen One
• Dragons / Fairies / Elves ............
• Desire personified
• Fear personified
• Bard/writer/artist
• Sage/scholar
• Soothsayer
• Evil mother/witch/monster...

Good vs. Evil

• Evil - Right idea, wrong process
• Good - no ideas, just there to stop evil
• 2 ideal worlds contrast and battle.

Plot

• Truth
• good vs evil
• human vs nature
• espionage
• quest
• true love
• other worlds (dreams, multiple...)
• art/words
• family/school
• exchange
• morals/ethics/psychology... what are we?
• transformations
• (several of these can be one in the same)