Author: Ashlee Scheuerman

Artist, writer, dreamer.

Blogging out of time

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Blogging

Hey, it’s an early Monday update, but I have to tell you about my brand new, super exciting guest posts!

I was lucky enough to be asked by some of my favourite people to guest on their blogs. My first ever guest post went up yesterday, followed hot on its heels by my second! Today is an exciting day!

Go ahead and see what else I’ve had to say!
Momentum (the best kind) – guest post for Cynthia Robertson at her blog, Cynthia Robertson, Writer!
How to Put Your Writing in High-Def – guest post for Lisa Kilian at her blog, What Not To Do As A Writer!

And of course, a big welcome to my new readers and thank you to everyone for the lovely comments you have left! I’ll be updating my blog normally tomorrow, and there may be some more guest posts from me coming soon.

~A

Thursday, in space

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts

I have been weird and distracted for the past few days. I haven’t done anything productive, unless we count my semi-constant thoughts about my stories as productivity (which I kind of do and kind of don’t; it’s an integral step in my writing process, but it’s totally invisible and hard to “count”). It might just be the extra hours at my job that’s made me spacey, or it might be the time of year. I’m sleepy and content to just read a lot of books. It’s winter. Pull up a blanket next to the fire and eat apples all day.

I had a brief conversation with the lovely Cynthia Robertson about Western Australia. I don’t consider myself very nationalistic, but I truly love the land here, and there is something special about Australia. I described some of the landscape through our vast state, and it really got me thinking about a recent trip I took down south with some of my family. We drove for several hours through farmland, down into the gorgeous forests that cover the South West with cool, moist greenness. And even though I am making plans to move down there and live among the trees, it was the drive itself which brought up some interesting ideas.

There’s a secret part of me that believes the farmland is what Western Australia really is. It’s not “home” to me, not the way the dense bush is. The farms here are sprawling, dry-fenced yellow fields. We have some of the most unique trees here, growing as tall as they can, and throwing their branches wide at the top, looking almost like something from Dr. Seuss. In contrast to those, we have the short, curling trees; gnarled into a hunched, peeling, claw-like form. They are often scattered through the fields, either dead or dying, barren of leaves either way. Those trees are the melancholy bones of the bush that lived before the farms cleared everything away, laying under the endless blue skies.

I am an environmentalist, which is why my feelings towards the drought-weary hills and huddled cows and sheep come from a hidden place inside me. I am saddened by what humans have made from the world, and I see it here, in my homeland, where the farms have striped those places bare. But it’s so poignant. Driving through the country, you’re very alone, or very together. The harshness of the landscape only leaves room for absolutes. I’m a little bit in love with that part of Australia.

~A

Voice (not the way we usually talk about it)

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts, Writing

“Voice” is a term used in writing to convey the unspoken personality of the author. The part which makes your writing definably and obviously yours. At least, that’s what I think it means. For an industry based 100% around using words, the professionals latch onto some seriously strange lingo at times, so maybe after all this time I’m still misunderstanding what a “voice” is.

But that’s not what I’m interested in talking about. I mean the character’s actual spoken voices.

I’m Australian, born and bred, but I default to a vaguely proper British accent (the Queen’s English) for many of my characters. It could have something to do with the fantasy genre which I write for most frequently; we’re kind of indoctrinated to having medieval fantasy, with British accents on all the characters (especially when pictured in film). It seems to be my standard fall-back option, but it works well enough. It’s different enough from my everyday to be interesting to me.

There have been times where my characters are from a specific real-world location. Those characters always happily exist with their proper accents. Australian, Japanese, or locality-specific locations in the USA (who do have some of the most amazingly varied types of accents I’ve ever experienced, next to the Brits) have made their appearances in some stories.

I think I stick to familiar accents, just for the simplicity of it. As amusing as a Welsh character would be to create and read (I’m looking at you, Jacob), I just have that much more experience with Aussies or Americans.

This, of course, all makes the “read it out loud” part of editing my work into a very humourous exercise. I try to do it privately, to save my family from the bad accents I’m putting on (and save myself the embarrassment!). I’m no voice actor. But I know my character’s voices.

~A

In the beginning, there was an idea

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Writing

I’m always getting ideas. Whether they fit into an existing story, or fall under the category of “write it down, save it for later”, or even come out as semi-complete new plots, I’m constantly creating new things in my head. But when it comes down to actually taking those ideas and fashioning them into something, that’s when things can get murky.

For instance, I’ve been tossing around this notion recently: a brand new collection of shorter stories, set in the same world to one of my epic novels. These ideas tie together some of my existing lore, and expand upon other little details here and there. When a novel has the potential to be so expansive, it seems like there are just endless possibilities within that realm, and the people and magic can all tell their own version of events.

Of course, I’m currently free to explore these possibilities, and it’s now when I’m not sure where to go with them. I will sit down with a blank sheet of paper, and write out all the important information. Who are the main characters? And the minor characters? What is the central conflict? What kind of dynamic will there be? And of course, what’s keeping the characters from reaching their goals?

These are just a small handful of the questions which I will eventually need to answer about these stories. The fact that I am planning on making this a series of shorter novels (no 100,000+ words for these!) means I need to decide if there is an over-arcing plot, or if they are simply snippets from the lives of individual characters with a matching theme. If there is an over-arcing plot, what are the mini-conflicts in each book? How do they relate to the ultimate outcome?

Before all of that, I will have conversations with the characters. Get to know them. Make them interact with each other, see who they are and what really drives them. Where their biases lay, where their weaknesses hide, what they fear, and what they believe in passionately. I can’t write without knowing my people. They are the whole reason a story exists. If I don’t know them, I can’t write what they will do, and how that will shape the eventual ending. If I want to reach “Point H”, I need to first know if the characters can get there organically, or if it will just turn out forced and awful with the personalities I’m working with.

~A

How many ways to edit

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Writing

Editing is a funny thing. There are many kinds of errors you need to look for, and many forms to the edit. Typos, misused words, flat writing, continuity errors, grammar and punctuation. Some of these things you can find just by reading the project. Some of them you will only notice when you read it out loud (especially stilted dialogue). Some of it will be a crazy mystery until your beta readers have a crack at it and start highlighting issues you overlooked through sheer familiarity.

I go through several processes when editing, whether fiction, or articles.
I read the whole thing through, making changes as I go.
I read it out loud, fixing whatever I notice.
I print it, then read it through again
I highlight problem areas and make notes all over the page.
I input the changes into the computer, then I read it again.
I read it out loud some more.
It goes on.

Of course, the whole process isn’t as simple as “spot the error, now everything’s okay”. I have hummed and hahhed and really kind of agonised over choosing the exact right word to use in certain instances. Sometimes, I lean toward using a word poetically, then wonder if it’s too ambiguous. I worry that I’m taking the creative licence too far. I debate over using two equally exciting words. I get angry when I realise I just reused the same word a sentence later. I get more angry when alliteration falls into my writing entirely by accident and I have to rewrite an entire sentence so 80% of the words don’t begin with the same damn letter! I disagree with my beta readers over suggestions to fix parts that are “technically wrong” (because the rhythmic quality of the writing sometimes suits rule-breaking), or disagree with a suggestion for a word replacement, because one word holds connotations that I don’t like. It’s complicated. It’s a delicate mix of creativity and obsessiveness.

I don’t mind editing as much as some people do, and I don’t relish it as much as others. It’s just a part and parcel of trying to do this stuff the “right way”. I’m generally okay with just writing for myself, but I also look forward to the time where I can hold an armful of my own printed books. To get there, I embrace the whole process. My writing deserves that much respect.

~A

Lucid writing

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Writing

I don’t know how it is for other writers, but sometimes I fall into a headspace where I “forget” I’m writing, and the klackity of the keyboard, or the faint crruuu-cruu sounds my pen makes scrabbling against paper just blend into the story-consciousness. The words are happening in my head, and my body can auto-pilot well enough that they appear on screen/paper without me having to be aware of the progression. That is an awesome thing, and I attribute it to thinking about my stories so often that I know all the important parts and they can just come flying out of me as fast as my hands can keep up.

Sometimes, a scene will come to me, or a snippet of dialogue, and I will find the nearest slip of paper and pen (one is usually clipped onto my necklace; yes, writing is an obsession) and write it down for later. Certain ways of wording something can only be written THAT WAY once, and if I lose it, I might never get those exact words back again. Some people might think it’s not a big deal, or if it were so great, how could I forget them? Frankly, my brain is full of too many ideas, and if I don’t physically catch them when they overflow and fall out of me, they might drift off into the aether. That’s just the way of things. Scenes, stories, plot points, I can turn all of those over in my mind enough times to make them stick, but not always so for those flashes of brilliance.

On the other hand, there are times when I am fully aware that I am writing. I have to systematically work through a setting in my mind, often with mumbled descriptions and hand gestures as I work out the spacial layouts, or figure out how to describe a certain movement. This is when my words are building blocks which I am carefully placing one by one to try and fashion a story. I am lucid and actively participating in the creation as I work through it.

I find that editing a manuscript straddles the line between the two. I read through my work, fully engrossed in the scene until something jars me out of it; the trigger that makes me stop and say, “hey, wait a minute…”, and realise that something needs changing. Then it’s a question of whether I’m able to pour out all the right ideas without thinking about them, or if I have to consciously craft the fixes.

The worst is when I have an obligation to work on one project, while the beautiful inspiration for another is ready to bubble over. Usually, I go the way of “artist”, and let the story with the ideas take what it needs, rather than play at being “responsible” and trudge through my work. To do anything else feels like I’m trying to pretend to be one person, do the “right” things for that life, but all the while speaking with someone else’s words, stolen and re-purposed to suit something they were never intended for. Yo ho ho, a writer’s life for me.

~A