Mark Andrew Edwards

Just a quick update, time’s a wastin’ this Friday.

I got another rejection letter, this time from Everyday Fiction.  To be honest, I’d forgotten all about that story, my first attempt to publish Flash Fiction. The cool thing about the rejection was the comments given.  More than one person wrote comments about what they liked, where the story fell short to them and so forth.  It was good to see that. Worth waiting for.

I may try to submit another flash fiction piece to them, now that I have a bit more of an idea of what they look for. The sci-fi stories need to push boundaries of what is being described or imagined, it seems.  That wasn’t what I was trying to accomplish but if I get an ‘out there’ idea that fits in under a thousand words, I’ll be sure to send it to them.

They had kind words for my writing, which is encouraging.  So I think I’m on the right track for some things.  Maybe just my concepts need work. I don’t know, I tend to prefer more realistic sci-fi.  On the other hand, I don’t read slush all day long. I can see a desire for novelty. Something to consider.

Anyway, if you’re a write, try them out.  www.everydayfiction.com  Even if you’re new to writing flash fiction.

Baby steps forward. After Sunday’s marathon, that’s what this week’s writing has felt like.  But forward momentum is forward momentum.  I finished my homework for the editing class, though as usual, when I add additional dialog and such after the first draft, it feels kerlunky to me.  It sticks out like a sore thumb, though I have no idea if anyone else sees it.  I need to get better at inserting new dialog gracefully.

Let me outline the problem for you. There’s a rhythm to writing, especially writing dialog.  It goes: dialog, reaction, dialog, business beat.  Or something like that, it varies, of course.   When I’m writing dialog or just scenes in general, everything flows.  Everything is organic and natural, because I’m inside each character’s head and what they’re saying or doing is what they’re really saying or doing. If that makes any sense.

Now, I go back to the scene later, during an editing pass. I am told I have to put in some lines of dialog to expand the character or to just insert a plot point or seed for later development.  So I get in character, I write the new dialog and drop it in and…it feels like I dropped a stone in the pond. Not a small stone and not in a good way.  The flow of: dialog, reaction, dialog, physical business (or whatever) is broken by this lump of new dialog.  It throws the rythum off.

So, I try to rewrite the scene from scratch, incorporating all the changes I want/need as well as what was there the first time.  It doesn’t work.  The scene changes, the characters react differently and what I had before, that worked, is gone.  What I end up with feels like a muddled mess, artificial and glaring.  Now the scenes before and after the new scene don’t blend in together.

I try to stich those bookend scenes into the newly-written scene.  Which goes right back to the problem I outlined in the second paragraph above: the newly-inserted content sticks out.

Grr.  THIS is one of the things I hate most about editing.  This is what frelled Angel Odyssey, re-writing and stitching and finally the beast at the end has a body but no heart anymore.  I loved that story and I edited it to death.  Can’t even look at it anymore.

I sure hope the editing class has a way of dealing with this. Because I’m tired of killing my books on the operating table.

I'm having one of those days when I feel like I don't know anything.  It'll pass but while I'm feeling bewildered, I thought I should pay attention to what's confusing me.  I've noticed something about my short stories.  My shorter works seem to get a better response from editors and Wordslingers.  They tend to be full of specific details, emotion, all good stuff.  But they feel shallow to me.  Like a little burst of flavor from a pillow mint.  My longer stories, where I can develop characters more, build worlds and create plot or story arcs, satisfy me more but they haven't gotten the kind of rejection letters (or acceptance letters) I'd like. 

I'm trying to figure out why that is.  I could be that I can focus more on details in shorter works.  I'm terribly afraid that I'm a lazy, sloppy writer and maintaining focus like that over a longer work would burn me out.  I don't know. I almost feel like that level of immersion in a character's thoughts, emotions and point of view in a longer work would be exhausting to a reader as well.  Maybe I should try it.

I've been thinking more about story structure in short stories, as well.  Thinking that if I have a length in mind and I write to that length, it might make it easier to create plot arcs...

To tell a story.

That's what I want to do, like to do.  Are my shorter works really stories?  They seem to be about an event.  There are lots of short stories that are like that, at least if my books by Hemingway, O. Henry and Hammett are any indications (the H section of my library is pretty choice when it comes to short story writers).  Are event stories really stories at all?  What is a story?  It should be a series of events, shouldn't it?  One event linked to another as a result of the actions taken by characters, that's a story, isn't it?  So what am I writing when I write shorter works (1-2k words)?

See, this is what kept me from writing short stories while I was trying to focus on novels. I'm concerned that I'm thinking too small.  For novels, you need to think big.  You need to set up things that pay off fifty pages away, while with short stories, the payoff always has to come sooner.

I like short stories, as a break, and they're a good way to experiment, to practice. If some get sold, all the better.  But Novels are where my heart is. Stories.

I don't know, I'll see if I can write larger, intentionally, in my next short story.  My first attempt at a structured short story, all the way back in April, seemed to work but it felt stilted and artificial to me. It felt like I was writing to plot points, reversals, inciting incident on page 2, reversal on page 10, yada yada.  It didn't feel like telling a story, it felt like constructing one.  Maybe that's the way professional writers do it, or some of them, at least.  I tend to fall closer to the 'exploratory' side of the spectrum, at least as far as writing enjoyment goes.  Like in the last novel chapter I wrote, I had one or two pieces on plot information to expose, the rest of it...I just winged it and things happened in it that surprised me. The characters felt alive, free.  They don't feel free or alive when I'm writing to a structure, to a form.

So. There's my challenge. To write a longer story, a series of connected scenes but with characters that feel alive and like robots marching towards a structure.

Sigh.

I wish I'd never read those damn Larry Brooks books. I feel like I'm having to unlearn things to get back to what works for me.

This isn't the post I had written for today.  Luna, my friend and fellow Wordslinger (@lunalindsey on Twitter) tweeted some statements about characters who don't use guns.  I wrote a very long and decent rebuttal, arguing that characters that don't use guns under any circumstances are weaker, immoral and less interesting.

I just lost that post when my computer blue screened.  Lesson learned. Write posts in gmail, then paste them over.  Grr.

On the other hand, I sent off my Clarion West application. I probably won't hear back until March and the competition-always fierce- will be greater this year because George R R Martin is teach one of the weeks.  I don't know if my story submissions will make the cut or not but I had to try.

Wish me luck. Oh, and buy a Mac...apparently.  Stupid Dells...grumble, grumble

Whew.  Productive last week.  Sorry I was quiet last week, Snowpocalypse took up a lot of my life but not all of it was bad. I got some serious writing done.

I did write and submit a short story last week.  I'm still a week 'behind' but I have hopes I can catch up.  I went on a writing binge yesterday, I wrote for 7 hours straight without a break.  I was in the grove and I frelling went with it.  Maybe I went too far, by the end of the session, I was exhausted, couldn't focus my eyes very well and was drenched in sweat. Ah the glamorous life of a writer. :)  I ended up writing 10,000 words. I think. Possibly a bit more.  This is on top of another 3 or 4k words for the same novel that I wrote earlier in the week. The sad part, this is all for a novel that probably will never see the light of day. But I'm glad I got so much done, sooner this book is out of my system, the sooner I can get back to writing work that can sell.

Editing class went well on Saturday, most of the snow was gone by then or at least was easily negotiated.  People in class critiqued the first five pages of my novel, which might be one of the more useless critiquing I've ever had.  Seriously, there is only ONE thing you can get out of the first five pages of a novel: do you want to keep reading it.  Five pages is about 1% of a novel, less for some.  Now, they're important pages.  If you don't nail your beginning, you're not going to be able to show most people how brilliant chapter 14 is (compulsive readers aside, yes, we're out there. You're looking at the guy who read all of L. Ron Hubbard's 'Mission Earth' series...and not out of enjoyment).  So if I was to do this 'first five pages' critique again, I'd want the answer to one question only: would you keep reading?

I'm going to be sending out my Clarion West application tonight, which I'm counting for the Write 1, Submit 1 purposes.  If for no other reason than for it being a big deal and a big load of work.  Honestly, I don't know if I'll make the cut this year or not. I really needed Clairon West last year, I still sorta need it this year. If I don't make the cut, I'll live. And keep writing and reading.  Which is the only sure way to get better at this gig.

A day late, but I did get a short story finished last night. And I also sent off "The Scent of Cold" to another market, with a few tweaks suggested by the Wordslingers.  We'll see how that goes, hopefully I'll hear back from them, soon-ish.

The short story was one that I started in November and I have NO idea why I didn't finish it before. It's a darn interesting concept and the character voice was so strong that it felt more like dictation than writing.  I will let it sit a bit and then I may go back and draw it out a little.  I seem to write pretty good short stories about 2k in length and I feel I can write some good stories about 6~8k in length.  Two different kinds of storyteller gears.

As much as my head is in short stories right now, I have novel editing to do for class on Saturday.  I'm supposed to write out two characters and assign their work to other characters, if I can.  I'm not sure this assignment works for The Mageborn Mechanic. The novel is only about 50k, so it doesn't need to lose sub plots.  What I really want to know is if I need to lengthen the story, add more twists and turns, more planning scenes for the heists.  But it's good advice for some of my other novels. Angel Odyssey could probably be shorter and tighter if I cut the Isaac/Boaz character and the Castellan.  Smooth Running can trim one or two characters and reassign their actions to someone else.

But I also think that trimming characters makes for a smaller world.  I don't mean trimming sub-plots, that has to happen to cut word count sometimes. But the fewer named characters you have in a novel, the more the characters in the story will start to feel like cardboard cutouts.  There's a big difference between your protagonist wanting to avoid the crazy lady across the street and wanting to avoid Widow Higgens, who always corrects anyone who calls her 'Missus' and screams at the mailman when he comes.

Now, maybe Widow Higgins can take on the role of Miss Archer, the nice schoolteacher and confidant of your protagonist.  Maybe not. Each character I write and name, I put there for a reason. To illustrate the kind of people in that world, to contrast with other characters or to echo them.  If your 'red shirts' have names and lives, it means more when they get eaten by a Gorn or a pile of goo.  

I don't know. I think Mageborn Mechanic is streamlined enough, but I'll look through the book and see if there's any characters that can merge. I'm doubtful.

This year's Snowpocalypse has struck. But luckily it happened on a weekend, so the worst thing that's happening is people are staying home.  I'm an hourly employee and from Iowa so, yeah, snow wasn't going to stop me from getting a paycheck. Slow me down, yes, stop me...no.  Still, it is lovely.  I do love snow and this is good, quality snow.

My Write 1, Submit 1 challenge update: fail.  I didn't finish a story this week, though I started two.  I did not submit a story but I'll try to today. What happened?  Well, as expected, the homework for the editing class was much more intensive than I was ready for.  Too much to do, not enough time to do it. If I didn't have a full-time job, I could probably manage. As it is, I've decided to continue trying to keep up with both. We'll see how things go.

I got good feed back on my story, "The Smell of Cold". One of the great things the Wordslingers do is see things I don't.  So I know where to tone things down, where to cut and some interesting iterpretations of the story. I may make a modification to the story and submit it to fantasy/Sci-fi markets.  I'm also going to toss the rascal in with my Clarion West submissions, which I'm aiming for submitting by the end of this month.

Relax. This isn't a blog post about the decline of values in America.  I'm talking about writing stories and where to start.

I've had a lot of false starts these past few months, stories that didn't go anywhere or that declined to start at all.  So I took a look at the stories that DID work, the ones that got close to publication, the ones the Wordslingers seemed to like best.  I tried to remember writing them, how it felt, how it flowed. My best stories were actually kind of effortless, at least the writing of them.

I realized that all of the stories had one thing in common: I'd started with the character,for all of them.  I think that's the problem with the latest short story I tried to write last week: I had the write story but the wrong main character telling it.*  So, now that I have this clear in my mind, I want to share a good way to write a story.

Now, as with all revelations and advice, this is what works for me.  All of you may have other methods and techniques that work for you. But there's enough of you out there who write like I do, to make this worthwhile.

First, start with the character.  You might have already gotten the spark of a scene: a beginning, an opening, a twist or hook.  Fine, hang onto that, but picture who the main character is.  Do you see them in your head?  Until you do, don't start writing.  Spend time, in your head or jotting notes, exploring who the character is. You don't have to do a detailed Q&A, you don't need their life's story, but you have to have an idea of who they are, what their personality is like, what their character is like (here I am actually talking about their moral worldview).

Next, think about the conflict. What does this character want?  What stands in their way.  This may lead, quite naturally, to your antagonist. Leash up your main character and think about his enemy.  Your antagonist can be a person (ususally is) or it can be the weather, fate (careful with this one) or some other natural force.  Again, take a moment and mentally explore this antagonist. What do they want? How does that bring them into conflict with the main character. How can they make life hard for your main character.

Now, back to that first spark, the idea or hook that gave you the story idea.  It's time to fill out the world, give your character a place to stand.  Where are you? When are you? What does the setting look like, smell like, feel like?

Hold all that in your head.  See the scene, picture it.  Now take your main character off the leash.  Put him in the scene, watch it take place.  Now write down what you're seeing.

If you can, think about the opening, the hook, the first line or the first paragraph. How can you make it irresistable, cool, scary, interesting?  Now think about the ending, if you haven't already. How does it end? Can you echo your opening with your ending?

I know this sounds simple, too simple maybe, but it works.  Every time I do this, things happen, magic things.  Scenes play out, often in ways I didn't expect or script.  Needs, motivations change. New characters hop in to help or hinder the main character. But if I know the main character, if he or she is real, then everything else feels real, too.

Try it, you'll like it.





*I'm pretty excited about this, now that I know 'who' needs to tell the story. It should fix the sprawl problem, too.  

My homework for the editing class is not going well.  I got up to about chapter 8 by last night. I was supposed to get the novel read and commented on in two days.  Yeah...

Maybe back in the old days when I didn't have a full-time job, MAYBE that could have happened.  But I work in Seattle, I have a commute and I have a writer's group that I need to submit my critiques for.  I also am supposed to write a short story and submit one this week.  Needless to say, I have NOT written a story so far this week. So far, this experiement isn't working.

So what am I going to do? Well, I'll do the class materials as best I can. I'll try to fit in my read-through and editing around other things. But those other things: The Wordslingers critiques, the write 1, submit 1, job, family...those all come first.  I'm not going to drop the class, heavens no, but I'm not going to go nuts trying to keep with homework assignments that seem to think I'm a full-time student.

Today and tomorrow I have homework, for the first time in decades.  I am supposed to read through my novel and mark things that need fixing and things that I like.  

That sound you just heard is hysterical laughter.

It's not the length that's the problem, I can read a 50k novel in two days, done it before.  It's the idea that I can mark things that need fixing and things that I like in a two day period.  Sorry...hang on.

Man, that hysterical laughter is hard on the gut.

Anyway, I'll give it a shot. I'm taking the class, paying for it, trying to learn.  But I have misgivings.  See, when I start reading my own work and try fixing it, things bog down, my brain overheats and I usually get disgusted and have to walk away.  (thought I do tend to get wrapped up in Smooth Running, which causes it's own editing problems)  Every writer thinks their work stinks, the ones who don't...they mostly tend to be writers that everyone else thinks their writing stinks.

Maybe there's some mental trick, where I can convince myself that what I'm reading was written by someone else. I hope so, because I don't see any other way this is going to get done.  

Not to mention work, coding study (I have an interview at Amazon coming up and I need to brush up on my C#), critiques to write, IM gaming on Thursday.  

This is going to be a tough week.