Characters and world-building

I recently finished reading Brave New World. It's certainly a good book, and I think the ideas it presents are well worth discussing, and the world-building is rich and interesting.

(But.)

I'll admit to being really disappointed by the characters. They're static, and though initially likable in most cases, became incredibly irritating by the end of the novel. They don't seem to change at all, which is frustrating, because once in a while they would seem to make progress, but then go right back to how they used to be.

(I think the ONE exception of this is John, except not really. I mean, look what happens to him in the end.)

World-building is important. But people don't relate to settings. They relate to people.

Thoughts?

3/24/14 Prompts

Quote

"But it feels good to love a thing and not expect anything back. It feels good to not get an argument or any pushiness or any rumors or any bullshit. It's love without strings. It's ideal." - Ask the Passengers, AS King

Photo

Video

Link roundup 3/22

Sorry about the delay. The internet has been out for the past couple days. Here you go!

Some of the Writer's Digest staff had an AMA on Reddit. Worth reading.

You need Open Library in your life.

"Quit This, Not That (For Writers)" was posted back in June, but it's always relevant.

And last, this girl helped inspire one of my characters, and needs more attention. Give her some, please. :)

The rut

I think anyone who's a creative person has been here, or will eventually be here. Not reading this blog post, of course, because that would be bananas, but I mean a rut. It's so easy to fall into and a million times harder to pull yourself out – if you can get yourself out.

I'm going to be honest here. I'm still in the process of pulling myself out, in more ways than one. I panicked and fell into the mentality that the first draft had to be as close to perfect as possible. That I went through four years of schooling, so it HAD to be near-perfect, or I deserved to have my degree set on fire.

I heard this really great quote the other day that says something like, “Eventually you will care more about not doing anything than actually succeeding.” And that's kind of what happened with me. I got so angry at myself because I love writing and stories and books and spent literal years of my life trying to  create something worthwhile. And I wasn't doing anything.

Then I started writing for fun again, stuff I wasn't going to show to anyone. Stuff that I'm still not going to show to anyone. And I started looking over old story notes and rethinking them and instead of writing out every single plot point before I started writing, I jotted down a few notes of what I wanted to happen and tried to do things like I did when I was a teenager. It's kind of scary, writing that's part pantsing and part plotting, but I think it's helping.

Open discussion: when you're in a rut, what helps you?

3/17/14 Prompts

Quote

“Chicago takes up about two hundred twenty-seven square miles,” says Zoe. “The land area of the planet is a little less than two hundred million square miles. The percentage is . .  . so small as to be negligible.”

She delivers the facts calmly, as if they mean nothing to her. But they hit me square in the stomach, and I feel squeezed, like something is crushing me into myself. So much space. I wonder what it’s like in the places beyond ours; I wonder how people live there.

I look out the window again, taking slow, deep breaths into a body too tense to move. And as I stare out at the land, I think that this, if nothing else, is compelling evidence for my parents’ God, that our world is so massive that it is completely out of our control, that we cannot possibly be as large as we feel.

So small as to be negligible.

It’s strange, but there’s something in that thought that makes me feel almost . .  . free.

Roth, Veronica (2013-10-22). Allegiant (Divergent Trilogy) (pp. 186-187). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Photo

Video

Hey.

Here's where I've been.

• Tutoring. Learning about Eastern culture, especially Korean culture and history. A little bit of their language too. It's a really interesting country and I made a lot of friends from it.
• Writing. Deleting. Abandoning. Hating pretty much everything I wrote. Trapped in a vicious cycle, basically.
• France.

A couple years ago, I increasingly felt like I didn't have much to say anymore that was relevant to this blog, so I dropped it. I'm sorry I never said anything.

Here's what I'll be posting from now on.

Mondays: Prompts in three varieties: quote, photo, and video.

Wednesdays: Open discussion on a book or writing topic.

Fridays: Link round-ups and a drabble. (I'm using the traditional definition of a story that's exactly 100 words.)

Maybe in the future I'll expand beyond that, but for now, I think that's what I'm going to stick with.

I am a mature adult.

So I started reading Divergent by Veronica Roth, and it's really good! I just love it so far, even though I haven't made it that far in.

In the book, the city is divided into five sections: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Erudite, and Dauntless. The main character starts out in Abnegation, which emphasizes selflessness. And I started thinking, Man. Abnegation people are the type of people who let people cut in front of them while they're waiting for the bathroom until they're having a meltdown.

And that led to this.

(Click for big.)

No regrets.

Something different

I've been having trouble writing recently, and I'm not really sure why. Stress, probably. SO I figured my routine could use a little shaking up.

In our high school drama and screenwriting class, our teacher started us out writing scenes that were completely silent. Then we built up to one word, then two words, then we could use all the words we felt were necessary. That, in essence, is what I'm going to be trying. Except it'll look a little more like this:

-50 words
-100 words
-500 words
-1000 words
-2000 words
-5000 words
-10,000 words

It'll be a good exercise, especially with the first three.

I've got the 50-word story done and with that... it is only with great embarrassment that I'm telling you I have a Tumblr. I swear I'm not a hipster. I got it and wasn't really sure what I would do with it for a while, but... well, now I do. Plus now I'm finding tons more writer blogs. So. If you're on there, give me a shout. :)

Rage. Rage, rage, rage.

"SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive - and a New Bill Joins Them"

So let me break this down for you.

Government: Hey, we're gonna pass these bills that will totally violate your first amendment rights and encourage other countries to do the same thing!
Internet: DON'T YOU             DARE.
Government: Oh... I guess these might need some revision.
Internet: Come up with that idea on your own, brain trust?
(One day later)
FBI: We're going to shut down Megaupload now.
Internet: NOOOOOOOO.
Tumblr: Good night, sweet prince.
(A week later)
Government: Hey we've barely altered anything in those two bills, and we've got another that will do the same thing!
Internet: >:T

Government: Also ACTA.

"Is Your Book Good, Great, or HOT?"

(Relevant link that pretty much cracked me up with the title.)

Disclaimer: I am just kidding you guys. Also this is the best possible first post of the year. Also I'm really sorry if this offends you and I promise never to make these kinds of jokes here again.


My book is SO hot!

"How hot is it?"

It's so hot that it comes with its own fire extinguisher.

It's so hot that when it touches one page to another, it sizzles a little.

It's so hot that everybody at the library wants to check it out.

It's SOOO HOT that it runs at 451 degrees Fahrenheit.

(Best for last.)

My book is so hot that when it walks down the street, librarians wolf-whistle and go, "Hot dog, check out the binding on that fine piece of print."

Let me tell you about white text

I cannot tell you how nice it is just to take a big segment that's getting in the way, make it white text, and move it to the end of the document. It's doing wonders for the inner editor. The word count doesn't take a hit, either! Everybody can be happy. :)

Working titles

Note the time stamp.

How's NaNo going for everybody who's doing it?

/Edit/

Did this really look that much like a poll?

What.jpg

Actually, the file name really is what.jpg

Eventually...

I will write something of worth on this blog again.

:D

The greatest synopsis I've ever written

Yes I spammed Facebook with this. And yes I'm reusing characters. Come at me.

This is the best thing I've written since "I'm going to be a space hobo now. A magical space hobo."

Also if you're doing NaNo, I will totally be your buddy (when that's available again)! My corner is over here.