A Message on Brevity in Writing

Get your point across in as few words as possible.

A Time For Writing

Not everyone has the luxury of being paid to write full time, or the ability to attend an art school with a writing program. That does not mean that are not writers. Everyone is a writer, even your grandmother's racially insensitive Facebook posts are written works. One might think that in order to write their passion project novel they would need a vast amount of open hours over several months. Well, yes, and that is a large commitment. I would instead suggest short, or flash fiction. Take an hour, or a day off and write a story under a thousand words. If you have an open weekend, write something around five-thousand words. Write stories and throw them at the internet. Self-publishing has never been easier, and you never know what might just catch on. Cheers.

Regarding Your Creative Writing Habit

          In recent weeks, I have noticed quite a few people say that they are not writers. I find this to be a most grievous fallacy. What they probably meant to say is that they are not a professional writer, or are not classically trained in writing. It is true that their work might not be on a professional level, or as well written as one who is classically trained, but they can still write habitually. I would state that all humans tend to be habitual writers. Even if their works are music, debates with friends over text, or just witty microblogs on Twitter, they are still working the same mental muscles. There are many explanatory works that describe the health benefits of writing, one such article is here: http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/11/5/338
           The issue I find most common in these writers-in-denial is that they have yet to find a muse that gives them that creative spark. In quite a few of my more recent posts, I stated that a lot of my creativity comes from listening to music. Most writers require a similar sort of muse. Something that they can focus on and infer their own creative story, without knowing the exact story behind the subject. Some people find that they develop off shooting stories from film, or existing books, or by looking at nature, or historical monuments. My personal creativity comes from music, and people's faces. If I find someones face particularly attractive or interesting, I will awkwardly stare at it for a moment, trying to think up what their story is, or what story their face fits in. You can imagine how that goes if the subject is keenly aware of their surroundings. Some of my inspiration also comes from personal trauma, which I explored in my last bit of short fiction, published last week.
          By now, you have probably noticed that the title of these post was aimed at YOU, but the rest of this discussion used plural pronouns pointed at the ubiquitous 'them'. That is due to the more argumentative nature of the first two paragraphs. This one here, is my personal advice for anyone looking to become more creative with their writing. Take time to explore different possible muses. Listen to albums, in their entirety, marathon several films, go on a nature walk, or even just explore your own city playing that dumb Ingress game, and notice the history around you (Personally, I'm waiting on Pokemon Go). If anything impacts you in such a way that you cannot help but feel some sort of emotion, take time to write. Just a simple paragraph that explores your emotions at this time, or, perhaps, it's a treatise for a story, or a poem, or song. Just create. Do this as often as possible. This will train your mind to view things in a creative light, and let your imagination roam more freely than those people we call 'adults'. Of course, we know they are just repressed writers.

In Which I Complain About My Profession

          Writing schedules are a pain. While it is true that this an occupation that often times allows one to work from home, and keep the hours they choose, it also has some of the strictest deadlines. Some writers who have managed to land in-house jobs at publishers, studios, or magazines do maintain a nine-to-five work day, but they also have to spend most of their evenings either corresponding with other writers, working on their own projects, or, in most cases, both.
          Those who strictly write also have to take time to communicate with editors at these establishments since that provides them with updated deadlines, and suggestions to keep their work on track and in theme, but they also have to manage their own daily completion schedule on whatever it is they hope to have published. This is done by maintaining a word count, and it is the bane of my existence. A writer usually has an idea of how many words they want their work to be. Usually it's a rough estimate rounding up or down to the nearest ten thousand, or hundred thousand words. Then divide this by the number of days between now, and a week before you want to get it to your editor, (trust me you still won't have it done in time) and you have an idea of how many words you need to write each day. As a daily goal it's great, it serves as a simple, achievable goal to do whenever throughout the day. In most cases, however, your personally set deadline is a matter of weeks, and if you are doing anything bigger than a small novella, your word counts will give you carpal tunnel just by looking at them.
          God forbid you go grocery shopping, meet up with a family member, or do some dumb adult thing during the normal hours of the day. This will, most likely, cause you to stay up until two, one eye tracking the words you write, the other looking at your counter in the bottom of your screen. Sooner or later, we all go a little cross-eyed. For our editors who have to deal with similar problems, and maintain a nine-to-five schedule, my heart goes to out to you. Of course, most of us don't complain, without a little tongue-in-cheek. We have one of the best jobs in the world, we get to create worlds, and give people fun. This is something I, and many of my peers, are very passionate about.
          We usually lose track of time when writing, and I find myself, more often than not, going over my word count at three in the morning. This still does not mean the work gets done on time. Usually our visions are more grandiose than time permits. If you recall, or simply rotate your eyes to look at paragraph two, I said that it's good practice to set your personal deadline at least a week before your actual deadline. That week will be you frantically trying to tie up lose strings in the story, condensing and revising chapters, and giving your story a conclusion that doesn't feel as abrupt as it actually is. Of course the time for this varies. If it's a short fiction, or novella one to two weeks should suffice. If you have written a full novella, you may want to give yourself a month for damage control, as you probably forgot a character you introduced in chapter two by the time you wrote chapter five.
          This job is a lot of not sleeping. Whether you're writing comics, films, games, or books you will dedicate yourself to perfecting each work, while your publishers believe you can crap each one out in one night. It's an amazing ride though, so grab some coffee, find a place with a view, and start smashing your keyboard for weeks at a time.

Regarding Upcoming Projects, and Space Ninja DJs.

          I have recently been working on a short fiction piece that explores struggles that I have had to deal with over the course of my life. This piece has been a form of catharsis for me, and it is my hope that this work will also help some of those who deal with the same daily war with these inner demons. The work is, of course, fiction, so the meanings are all wrapped in metaphor. I sincerely hope that the use of metaphor bridges a disconnect that I have found with people who do not have a first hand experience with these issues. The first draft should be completed sometime this week. After I do my first run of revision, I will be sending it to an editor, and hopefully releasing it for free either as an e-book, or perhaps just a pdf. No matter the course, I will be providing a link on this site.

          I was working on this piece when my favorite space ninja (With the mask, he's clearly a space ninja), Zardonic, released his Anti Hero album, and it is fantastic. Unavoidably, I started listening to it while I was writing. Then things got weird. My metaphorical piece set in 1930's New England was now a scene for an alien invasion. The connection between music and literature is something that's very prevalent in my work. Often, I will have one album on repeat when working on a certain piece, and translate the emotions and tone in that album into the writing. For the 1930's piece, I had been listening to a collection of piano music, and carrying the sadness and longing, that can be so easily conveyed in piano, into my work. I have a feeling that my Anti Hero piece is going to be full of explosions, one liners, and the very human struggle to fight against impending doom. I am hoping to release this work in a sci-fi journal, but it might find itself being a free ebook for all of his fans to download. 

          After separating my ideas, and getting my piece back on track I made a joking tweet, tagging Zardonic. One thing that I have always loved about Zardonic, is that he actively engages with his fans on social media. A discussion followed, then in a view brief moments he had followed me, and had his PR team email me the press release, which I will write about soon. He even sent me a message saying that if I want an interview with him to contact his PR team. I am not much of an interviewer, and have no connections within the music press. If I were to post an interview on this meagre blog, without a larger network, it would be a disservice to the artist. I am currently in the process of finding a music journal, or magazine that would be willing to publish said interview, should it occur.