Category: Writing

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

Work through the sickness

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Writing

My life these past few days: care for sick relatives. Wake up every four hours to help administer medication. Cook soups, retrieve water, collect extra boxes of tissues. Condense an eight hour shift at work into some kind of ungodly three and a half hour race.

And all that leaves me tired out and catching a cold. It’s to be expected, and I’m already getting over it (there’s something to be said for eating heaps of Vitamin C supplements at the onset of an illness, let me tell you!). Nevertheless, I’ve had no energy to do anything besides these important duties. Anyone with a family will tell you that sick time is “drop everything else” time. But I’ve persisted at my writing work (usually when everyone’s taking a nap), and I’ve noticed something interesting.

When I’m exhausted and spaced out, I can be very capable of monotonous tasks like replacing pesky words. Something about the frame of mind I have been in has allowed me to see every instance of repeated words, bland adverbs, and importantly, spotting “it”, “was”, and “that” in my writing (some of the most frequently used words through this manuscript – eek). The fact that I was spacey enough to actually need a bright red sticky note on my monitor with those words written on it makes no difference; I just couldn’t remember if THOSE were the words I was on the lookout for unless I had a quick reference.

This has something to do with lacking the brain power to concentrate on multiple things. Yes, I’m guilty of multi-tasking, which is just code for doing everything slightly less efficiently all at once. If I can think about researching, and emailing, and maybe just quickly checking one of my online hangouts, I’ll probably do it every now and then. But if I’m too tired to even remember those things exist, I have no problem just mumbling my story out loud and finding all the things that need fixing.

Don’t get me wrong, I will be delighted when I’m over this cold. It’s the first one I’ve had in ages, and I resent it. But maybe it will teach me something valuable, if I can just figure out where to find a “quiet mode” in my brain. Because it’s not the distractions themselves that are so problematic to being productive, it’s my ability to think about them while I’m doing something else.

It doesn’t matter what it is. If I can think about it, it’s a distraction.

So I will continue to make the most of this illness and work through it, glancing to my red sticky note every now and then (noting “just” isn’t on the list for the umpteenth time), seeking out those redundancies, and finding all the times where I’ve told, not shown (he’s happy to see them? What ever made me think I could just say he’s happy to see them?).

~A

Writing for a song

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Writing

The title of this entry may be misleading if you recall an old saying, which would refer to performing a task or acquiring goods for little money as “for a song”. However, I’m thinking more along the lines of listening to music while you write.

This is something I do with a fair degree of frequency. And it got me thinking about how I choose the songs which accompany my work. Do I choose them for the feelings they invoke, and how well they match the scene, or is my writing more directly affected by the tone of my music?

If I kept a record of the songs I’ve listened to, you might see a soundtrack to my stories. When I find the right song, I play it on repeat, anything up to several hours at a time. The melody fades into the background, the vocals become something I might hum along with, and the emotions expressed in those sounds become a state I can fall into. There have been a couple of really important tunes which helped shape some of my favourite scenes, but funny enough, listening to those songs now will not transport me into the story. Only the words on the page can really do that.

With this is mind, I think the answer is that I utilise specific music to keep me in the right mindset. Yes, this sometimes means I seek out very depressing music (sometimes I have to write incredibly depressing scenes!), and wallow until I’ve either finished the scene, or grown so sick of the song I have to find something else.

For the curious among you, my most recent listening habits have actually been slightly different from usual, maybe because I have been doing more editing and less creating. I’ve been streaming a radio station that plays music from the 1920s and 1930s. Although it’s a slightly earlier era than in the game, it makes me feel like I’m still playing Fallout 3. And that is good!

Signing off with an update! I re-discovered why I loved the yWriter software (http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html), created by Simon Haynes, author of the sci-fi comedy series Hal Spacejock. It’s organised and packed with useful tabs and features. I do tend to get distracted easily (hence I forgot how much I appreciated this gem), but I should be able to get back into the habit of using this awesome program for all my writing. I imported my current project into yWriter, and got a lot of work done. Nothing like seeing your progress clearly laid out.

~A