Author: ransomnoble

Published Writer: young adult and science fiction

A Way to Beat Writer’s Block

Ever heard of plinky.com?

Every day plinky sends out a prompt or challenge. Today’s is “What’s guaranteed to make your roll your eyes?”

It’s an interesting idea. Some of them are more writerly compared to the personal one above. “Fictionalize a real argument you’ve had. Write only in dialogue.”

Some verge on the silly: “Write a haiku about the last meal you ate.”

For someone struggling with ideas to write about, it might help. (I know someone’s going to point me in that direction for my lack of entries this month, but I’ve been busy.)

What do all these prompts give you? If someone answers them all, it’s going to give a lot of information about that person. I’m not sure I agree with their use of the word memoir, simply because a memoir is about a specific time in a person’s life. An autobiography tells all, while the memoir is focused around a specific event. Example: A memoir could cover lessons learned during the college years or a difficult pregnancy or surviving a specific round of office politics.

But a prompt by itself isn’t going to get you too far. You can write a one-sentence answer if you choose, like for today’s: “Bad jokes are guaranteed to make me roll my eyes.” It takes a little effort to make it work for an entire blog post. A fictionalized story, a chapter of a memoir (or an autobiography), a detailed description – any of these will take more than a sentence to do well.

And there’s nothing to say you can’t pick and choose, and blog about other things in the middle. It all depends on the purpose of the blog. Don’t have a purpose to the blog? Now that’s trouble!

Posted on by ransomnoble 0

Character Interview

An interview is sometimes a good way to get involved with a new character. It might not start ideas for new characters (at least, I don’t use it that way), but it can really solidify an idea of the person in your head and on paper.

There are sheets out there to use to generate ideas for characters; some of them include everything under the sun from where she was born to why she went to eighth grade wearing pink shoes. While it’s awesome to know all this information, not all of it should be included in the story.

Another useful part about an interview versus character sheets that become one long list, is you can hear the character’s voice. Is he someone who stutters when he’s put on the spot? Are answers avoided? Does your character lie?

Or, even worse, does she sound exactly like the last protagonist from the novel in the drawer? Are only the physical qualities different? Is his vocabulary off from his supposed education and upbringing?

One of my writer friends from my critique group caught a little disparity in the voice of a minor character when he used a little higher word than expected for the ‘child’ that I portrayed him as. Whoops – I’ll be fixing that this week, and I’m hoping with this interview I’ll be able to keep a few more of those errors out of my story.

And I will admit taking time to interview my characters is fun. I have an annoying newscaster who always plays the part of interviewer. Luckily for me, it’s Inter-Dimensional News and she has some sort of truth-box she sets her victims in to get the real dirt on them.

Now if I could just get this current victim character to sign the waiver so she can appear on the show…

Posted on by ransomnoble 6

Why Do You Do What You Do?

I vaguely remember when I was five – I wanted to be a bus driver. It was one of those passing fancies. I don’t remember if it was driving the big vehicle around the town or picking up and dropping off all the people, but that was what I wanted to do. For at least a week.

There were random other thoughts between that time and when I started thinking seriously about The Future. When do we think we’re old enough to decide what we really want to do For A Living? And why do we think we have to focus on one career?

Some careers, like medicine, may very well need that kind of emphasis. When you go to the doctor, you want to have an expert, right? Well, I see a doctor who adjusts my back who also has a photography hobby – and they sell. I might even buy one at some point, but I love waiting in the rooms with his pictures. [Even the one with the pink flowers.]

Maybe it’s part of the mentality of ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’ It might be true that a person will never master a subject by flitting from this to that. But what about the people who don’t necessarily know what they want to do, or can’t support themselves doing it? And I suppose we also have to consider the lowly jobs we take to pay the bills that were never what someone would choose to do.

On the other hand, there’s a certain appeal to me for something like a toll booth operator. During the slow times, I’d have a notebook or laptop or something and be writing. Well, at some point I’m sure I’d rewrite and edit and do all that other stuff.

I get asked a lot how I go from a career in engineering to staying at home as a mom and writing books. I think it’s only because people aren’t accustomed to people who are good at math and English; so many times a person is strong in one or the other. My husband can’t spell to save his life. When out with my friends, I often split the bill because I can do the math without breaking into a sweat or punching it into the calculator.

But I’m still curious when we start with our little dreams and go to The Future Career. Are we really given the tools to prepare in high school? How many kids know what most jobs do, and how many dream jobs are difficult to break into? When did we decide we’d major in Underwater Basket Weaving (code in my parent’s household for a major where no one could land a paying job) and then wonder why we couldn’t pay the bills?

What about when you study to be an engineer, like a girl I knew in college, and decide a semester before you graduate you don’t want to do it? She was a waitress, then became a bookkeeper.

How much of what we do defines us as people, versus the things we do outside our jobs? Do you dabble in different things to know who you are and what you like? I tend to dabble, if only because it amuses me when other people say they’re bored. I can’t say I play guitar well, but I know a few songs. I read books about anything that captures my fancy, figuring at some point knowing how to knit might serve me well – even if I only do rectangular things like scarves and dishcloths.

Being a dabbler also means I have many hobby items that lay untouched for periods of time, like the harmonica and the bead board and the calligraphy pens. I’m not sure any of it defines me.

I’m also not always sure how to answer the question of what I do. If I’m a stay-at-home mother, I ought to have an awesome home and that would be my focus. That’s a stretch, though I do put effort into it. If I’m a tutor, I’d have teaching plans and ideas about that, but I don’t always. If I’m a writer, I spend most of my time shaping words into the ideas I wish to convey.

Haha, I’m probably a writer, but I retain a few technical skills and an ever-widening domestic ability. I’m still at a loss for what that means. One day it might come out in a story, but I’d probably have mixed so much fiction into it no one will know which parts are true, including me.

And I won’t lie, I like it that way.

Posted on by ransomnoble 1

A Guide to Life

Sometimes I pick up books with titles spouting wisdom, like “everything a girl needs to know in her 20s” or “how to run a modern household.” Some of the information is always new, and some of it I know. I just find it interesting to read.

I suppose part of the reason why is to gain perspective into what others might want, to use as a character (possibly) or to use the information in a story. Of course, that would mean restricting it to the real world, but all sorts of items can be adapted to other locations.

It occurs to me that I read Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy and the follow-up Extras and not one of his female protagonists ever talked about her shoes. Okay, so there are only two protagonists through those four books, but don’t you think shoes would come up at some point? Especially in the Prettytime, when everything was about the aesthetic value and their brains had been altered to think that way (about aesthetics, not about forgetting shoes).

Since most of the guides I’ve read are about women’s lives, I think next time I hit the library I’ll look for a male counterpart. Is there a male counterpart to those guides on how to live as a girl? That would definitely make interesting reading, even though most men don’t dote on shoes like women.

I bet they’d be missing the section on manicures and pedicures…

Other than that, I am sure there should be something to apply to men. It’s not like men get a free ride on stuff women somehow don’t learn growing up.  [And to be fair, it’s not like our mothers didn’t try to teach us to check the labels on clothing for care like dry cleaning or  machine wash warm-tumble dry low. I was listening. Very few clothes are cute enough to have to dry clean all the time.]

The answers are out there. Sometimes you just have to find the right question. And don’t spout 42 at me. If you don’t know what the question was, you can’t necessarily say it’s the answer to everything.

Posted on by ransomnoble 8

A Question of Character

A writer friend of mine attended a weekend conference in Iowa City about character. He wrote to me about some of the activities, and suddenly one of the ideas I’d been working flared into something I had to work on right away.

So one of the plots I’ve been toying with now has a character. I may not be exactly sure what she looks like or what her name is, but I did see part of her world. It also brought me into her mind for awhile, which was more of what I needed to get connected to her.

Because, really, does her eye color, hair color, or even skin color matter just yet? It might not end up mattering at all, unless she becomes green-skinned for some reason. (Or any other outlandish color.)

Sometimes I’m still waffling between how close my third person narration is to my character. Am I going to tell you about that black-haired blue-eyed midget, or will I show you that everyone towers over him?

It’s just interesting to see how the character expresses him- or herself when you get out of the way. I might not think about my natural light brown hair, especially if I get another color – like red – out of a bottle to amuse myself. Some characters might feel that way, and others might feel a sense of loss for their old color. Some may never glance in a mirror at all.

That’s the beauty of characters. They’re unique, with their own stories to tell, and with different personalities to uncover through the story process.

It feels so good to start connections to them again. Getting a lead character might just get that novel project going. Not that I need another novel to work on right now, but maybe it’ll scare Don’t Tell Your Mother into some necessary revisions…

Posted on by ransomnoble 2

Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman

Blueberry Girl was a gift to my daughter by a friend of mine. It was written by Neil Gaiman, and illustrated by Charles Vess.

It’s a beautiful book with full-color illustrations. A little repetition keeps her attention and large words (I hope) spark her vocabulary.

I know she’s only one, but she listens to everything. She says more words every day, and though they’re not completely clear, she’s getting more expressive.

I haven’t let her pick this one up and carry it around the house yet. It’s not a favorite of hers, but I like reading it to her. The words are calm and the pictures don’t excite her, which makes Blueberry Girl a great choice for bedtime.

Posted on by ransomnoble 2

Description

How do you know when it’s too much or too little?

I usually err on the side of ‘not enough’. I work while I revise to make certain the world, the character, and the actions are shown enough for the reader to make sense of it. Sometimes I keep too much of it in my head in the first draft.

There are exercises to work on description, but they don’t change what I do as I write. I’m getting better at finding the line where the descriptions are needed, but I never want to put in too many.

I’ve never been a fan of purple prose.

When I find those overflowing, descriptive passages, they’re in other people’s work. It can be very pretty, except when it gets in the way of the story. It’s so hard to tell someone, “You know, I don’t think this is working for your story. What’s actually happening here?”

I get the “show, don’t tell” references, but precious few references tell you how to go about that. And they don’t say a lot for when you think you’re showing it all, only to find out you’re on a tangent that doesn’t advance the plot.

Wait, they do have a saying for it: Kill your darlings.

It doesn’t tell you how. Or where. Or why. Is it measurable between dialogue beats, narration, emotional response of character to events? I doubt it will surprise anyone to say I’m reading a book about it to understand more and critique better, partly because I can’t just say, “This is the point where my mind wanders away. Fix it.”

Writing is such a harsh business. We have to be critical to each other, critical of our own work, and submit to the critique of editors and agents we may never meet.

Posted on by ransomnoble 2

And Add an Inch

It’s odd advice that I received from a non-writer friend of mine, but it’s very pointed and helpful. I need a little bit of extra on one part of the short story, but not a lot. She guesstimated it would add an inch to the story (which is less than 1000 words).

I find it very interesting to get advice that way. It was more specific than I thought it would be, and it’s great.

It’ll be submitted in no time. Sometimes it’s better to get an opinion from someone other than another writer. [Though I’m not knocking writers- they give me wonderful help.]

Posted on by ransomnoble 2

What do you do?

What do you do when the words won’t come?

The ideas swim in my head like koi in the pond at the zoo, but when I try to string a sentence together, nothing’s coming out just yet. Not even blog posts- as you can see by my absence.

I’m curious what others do to beat the block. Lately I’m researching and taking a lot of notes.

Posted on by ransomnoble 4

A Working Schedule

Schedules don’t have to be bad things. Work has to be done, and it’s better to do it when you’re fresh – or at least when you’re ready to do it.

When I sit down to write, it’s when my daughter goes down to nap. I suppose it doesn’t really matter what time of day it is, it’s just very difficult to concentrate on my book when she’s awake.

I hear a lot of advice saying to write before she gets up, but I don’t normally get up before she does. I often keep at it after she’s asleep, but that’s only because I can’t get myself to sleep at 8pm when I make her go to bed.

If I could, I might wake up early enough to get stuff done before she wakes.

I find it interesting that one relative – her children are about my parents’ age – thought it was good to take away naps to get them to sleep better at night. I wonder if her kids were cranky. Mine would be, if I tried that on her. I’d just as soon she had her naps in the daytime when I get a chance to be productive.

Posted on by ransomnoble 0