Writing Environs

It seems like it has been hot and rainy for weeks. Hot even by my standards, and so humid that I'm becoming uncomfortable. For the majority of my life, I've preferred temperatures in the mid-high 70°s Fahrenheit, but lately I've noticed that I'm becoming more acclimated to temperatures in the low 60°s - 70°s. To the point that the present temperature of 79° has me sweating and debating air conditioning. I absolutely blame my partner, who prefers downright chilly temperatures and whom I want to keep comfortable in our home during the summer. It's only fair, since he suffers through winter while I have the heat cranked up to temperatures unreasonable to most other human beings. Once I'm cold, I cannot get warm; it's worse without sunshine.

Beyond the personal relationship implications of the weather, it is also seeping into my writing. I was working on a scene in my fantasy novel in which the protagonist is traveling. Suddenly, a rainstorm occurred! Granted this protagonist is a sorcerer with some watery magic abilities, so the storm could plausibly suit the story, but it definitely wasn't in the early drafts. Outside my window, a fresh rainstorm beat into the yard and had me considering building an ark. Whether or not the impromptu rain remains in the scene, it did remind me to pay more attention to atmosphere.

Where I live, I worry about damaging rainstorms and flooding more than tornadoes or fires or drought. If such an event did occur in my area, I would be far less prepared to deal with it than others who more often experience such natural phenomena. Types of weather can become routine, and you can forget how awesome and terrifying they truly are.

Artemis is sprawled at my feet declaring things have become too hot and humid. It's time for me to close up the house and turn on the AC. She'll retreat under the bed for maximum frost (it'll be like someone unleashed the Casket of Ancient Winters) and remain there throughout the expected thunderstorm. Yes, I'm adjusting the household temperature based upon the wishes of my cat, rather than my partner. Luckily for him, she also appreciates a cool abode :)

Community

Being an introvert, I have always bristled at the suggestion that I should be part of a wider community. Having the high anxiety that I do, I have always felt a gut-twisting fear of judgment and inadequacy. Both of these conditions often led me to spurn situations where people of like-mindedness gathered with the intention to assist one another. I was wrong; at least in this particular case with regard to my writing and with these particular people.

I met Duckie and Tenmao over a decade ago while pursuing my creative writing degree. Of the individuals in our classes and writing workshops, they were the two with whom I connected most and whose comments and criticisms were most constructive for me. Recently we discussed forming our own writing group, just the three of us, to hold each other accountable for progress on our projects. It's been less than one week, and already I've seen the immense benefit.

We each have different styles and strengths and thought processes, and just having to explain to another person what I am working on has helped solidify ideas. My memory warehouse is a labyrinth in which I have gotten lost more than once. Having their support is the proverbial fuel my creative vehicle needs to crest the next hill, and knowing they are waiting for updates and results is the tailing officer in my rearview mirror.

I knew I wasn't accomplishing as much as I could, having to answer only to myself. Facing organized goals is daunting, but will help me improve my habits and establish more solid expectations. And I didn't realize how alone I had become in my own thoughts creatively, until I had someone with whom to brainstorm. I prefer working alone so much that I had gotten to a point it was restrictive rather than conducive. Tenmao and Duckie are the inspirational rays of light through my clouds of procrastination.

I still feel all the same anxieties about communities (especially larger communities) in general, even though I know how helpful some can be. In this case, my case, it comes down to trust. I have a difficult time trusting, especially with regard to my creative ideas. I trust these writing pals of mine; I value their input. That makes all the difference.

If you're having difficulties progressing in your project(s), maybe a small community could be of value.

Voices in my Mind

There is a squirrel hanging by its feet in the tree outside my window. It is adorable and distracting. Artemis is completely unfazed. She supports the squirrel army and intends to employ them in her war against birds; especially blackbirds and mourning doves. #AdventuresofArtemis #GoddessoftheHunt

In other news, the writer's block struggle is real. I'm actively stopping myself from switching between projects, because Project A has actual deadlines and needs to be finished. But it is so difficult! I was in a great headspace to complete the necessary chapter on Tuesday, full of excitement and drive. It was going so well! And then I completely lost the tone of the chapter in the final sentences. So frustrating. I wanted to be done, done, done and send it off for review. Instead I've been staring at just those sentences for the past two days, willing them to morph into more suitable phrases. There are groups of chapters that contain the same style, so I'm going to move forward and hope I regain the necessary voice in my mind. That's how I write - I internalize it.

With a cast of characters this sometimes manifests as me talking to myself out loud, having full conversations with actual emotions. Writing tool, or dissociative identity disorder? Discuss amongst yourselves.

For the scene I'm working on, I need to inhabit two very different personalities simultaneously. The dialogue needs to be perfect. I'm not sure I'll ever be satisfied, so I rely on my reviewers to tell me when it's good enough and appropriately conveys what I'm attempting. Good editors and reviewers are an absolute must!

What Makes a Villain?

Motivation. The answer to everything character-driven. The equivalent of the number 42. Problem solved; the end.

Creating a proper villain is something I struggle with, because no defining experience or motivation ever seems 'bad enough' to me. And the level of relatability I want depends on the story, the character, and the emotions I want to convey to readers.

I have an easier time when writing fantasy, within a wholly-constructed world I've built, because I can go wild with scenarios. There's a suspension of belief inherent in such stories that allows for some real deep-delving madness. You don't necessarily need to understand the villain to accept them as such. As opposed to, say, a story set in real-world present day, where part of the fear is how real and relatable a villain can be. I don't want any of my characters to appear 'cookie-cutter' ever, but I especially worry about my villains because so much hinges on them. Without an appropriately matched and scary villain, the hero falls flat.

Part of the great joy of writing (at least for me) is getting to assume the role of so many different characters. Each has a little piece of me, tapping into some experience to find the emotion and motivation I need to make that character compelling. Maybe I spend too much time thinking about heroes and villains, their motivations, how they are perceived. How they are so very similar.

There was a movie many years ago that was so full of suspense and fear, when I saw it in theaters, it had the audience deathly silent throughout the runtime. At the end, there was a collective exhale as though we had all forgotten to breathe. The movie felt innovative and shocking, both in content and in its villain. But the best part to me was the opening scene: the villain was hidden in plain view. At the end, after the surprising reveal, my seat-mate turned and asked me how I'd knew. Feeling a mix of pride and unease, I answered, Because it's what I would do.

Need a bit of help constructing your villain? Check out the articles below and always remember Willem Dafoe's wise words: There's no difference between playing heroes and villains; they all think they're righteous.

* What Makes a Good Villain? Your Checklist for Writing a Good Bad Guy

* How to Create a Villain Readers Won't Forget: 6 Tips

* 8 Villain Archetypes: How to Write Different Types of Villains

Writing to Music

I love music, in all its forms. I certainly have my preferences as to genres, artists, sounds, musical stylings. My CD collection is an eclectic mix ranging from digeridoo sounds for meditations to doo-wop to alternative rock and metal. I have something for just about every situation and scenario. I listen to music while driving, while in the shower, while performing household chores, and while sleeping. These are all moments when my mind is relaxed and free to create.

Yet I've never been one to listen to music while writing. I find it distracting. Even tones meant to soothe or just provide background sound irritate me to an unreasonable level. When I'm writing, I'm focused. On the story, the worldbuilding, the character creation. Anything, any sound, interrupts that focus. I do find inspiration in music in all those other situations, that I then bring to my writing space later. But listening while writing is an absolute no-go for me.

I tried listening to music while writing this post. I was curious about the playlists that exist, the music that writers and other creatives have curated to keep them engaged and in the necessary mindset while working on specific projects. I'm having a rough go with the second part of Sons and Daughters of Olek, and wondered if the right bit of music might unlock something for me. A Google search brought me to a website full of playlists, organized for authors by the genre they were writing. I selected the first science-fiction playlist...and immediately regretted my decision. It was definitely not to my taste, for the writing exercise and in general. I can only compare it to the melodious shrieking and tinkering sounds of a local band whose full set I once sat through, doggedly determined to support, while both my head and my whiskey glass throbbed and threatened to shatter.

But I see authors on social media posting about the albums or playlists they are/were listening to while writing a particular work. So, I'm curious...Do you listen to music while you create? And do you play something you know, or do you seek something new? Do you listen to vocals and maybe sing along? Do you need atmospheric sounds? Do you listen to the same playlist over and over during a project?

Let me know in the comments!

Fan Fiction

I admit, I read fanfiction. I write fanfiction. I love fanfiction!

That's easy for me to say as an author whose characters have yet to be put through the proverbial ringer. However, the one thing I note in fanfiction that I enjoy so much, is that characterizations remain consistent. The author of the source material wrote such well-developed characters, that their readers understand those characters and their personalities and are able to reliably place them in new situations. That is something I want to accomplish, as an author. I think that a reader being so invested in the world and characters an author has created, to the point of wanting to continue the adventure so badly that they are compelled to write, is fantastic.

Will there be fanfiction that doesn't meet the high criteria of stable and consistent characterizations? Yes. Will there be situations in fanfiction when characters are bandied about and abused? Yes, inevitably. And when characters I have created are eventually subjected to such treatment (please, God), I hope I will continue to view the efforts with grateful amusement.

Want to know a secret? Sometimes, I write fanfiction about my own characters. It could be a little puff piece with them in a weird situation that helps me develop some aspect of their personality. It might be an experiment with a romantic pairing not appearing in the book, unlocking some similarity in their thought processes.

The trick is to keep all that headcanon appropriately compartmentalized. I have dozens of little one-offs, but not all of them include material / situations / outcomes that I want to influence the existing characters. Consistency is always key. Sometimes a quick coffeeshop AU is just a coffeeshop AU.

Managing Expectations of Writing

A friend and I (we'll call her Cole) this week were discussing our writing styles and the hurdles we're facing in making progress on our projects. Cole writes nonfiction and has an agent, whereas I write fiction and represent myself; so there are distinct situational differences. But what we found is that we have generally similar approaches to our writing, and that both of us struggle with our personal metrics.

What I mean is, writing isn't just actively writing the book. Both Cole and I tend to measure productivity and judge ourselves based upon quantifiable data such as words written, chapters completed, etc. Metrics like these are easy to point to and evaluate. Some writers and community sites give advice toward metrics such as these, to help other writers stay on track. And that can work. Holding myself to a measurable output - in terms of words written per chapter, and chapters completed each week - helped me finish Part I: Labor (Sons and Daughters of Olek).

However, I was actively trying something different while writing that story. The process I used was not / is not my norm. And now that I am writing full-time, working on my own projects and accountable only to myself, I'm learning that my 'norm' is neither great nor sustainable.

I've learned two very important things about myself and my work style:

    1) I try to do too much at once;

    2) I need to reevaluate how I measure my work output.

These two realizations are connected. Both involve setting reasonable goals.

When I launched into my new situation as full-time writer with the fervor of a childhood dream come to fruition, I was trying to set too ambitious of goals and do too much at once. That was tough to acknowledge. I am a person who prefers to work alone and do everything herself. When I was in a traditional leadership role, I had to learn to delegate and trust my team. On my own, I had to learn to prioritize and then stick to only what was on my list. I had to adjust my own thinking and believe it was okay to not work on those other tasks. Everything doesn't need to be done at once, and in fact cannot be done well when my focus is split in so many directions.

This is a tricky thing for me to manage, because I can absolutely lose motivation and let myself slide on deadlines when it's only me that I'm disappointing. A factor that muddies this further is that I was recently diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. I began experiencing symptoms in 2019; by the time I realized how serious my condition might be, I was without health care and suffering from fatigue and progressive physical damage. In the midst of my new and exciting writer!life, I was falling short of my goals and had to cut myself some slack. Now as I work to get things under control, I have to learn the difference between when I truly need rest for the disease and when I'm just not feeling particularly motivated. I love being organized, so I make color-coded lists to keep myself on-task; things to accomplish that day or that week or that month. There are definitely days when I worry I am not doing enough and not holding myself accountable. But I am trying, and I do see a difference in my behavior. It's all part of this learning experience for me.

I also had to recognize and accept that my writing process is different from others' (and all that well-intentioned advice I've read), that I don't (yet) have a template to success, and that I needed to change my own approach. This is still difficult for me. I'm actively working on retraining my thought processes and how I evaluate my work output.

There are other aspects to writing that I have realized are just as important and valid, and that I need to allow myself to perform as part of the work. For example, storyboarding. I never did this in the past. The story just evolved as I wrote it, through numerous drafts. Now that I schedule time to storyboard and collect / organize my ideas, I'm finding how useful it is to me. I notice patterns in my writing and characterizations, and I can elect to keep or adjust them. I can choose a specific story progression to influence how I present material. I can plan, without losing the magic I feel about the story. Basically, anything I accomplish toward a story 'counts' as work. Whether I need time to research space travel or peruse forums debating superpowers or study medieval textiles and cultural weaponry, all of that accumulates toward a rich story. Which is what I hope to write.

Overall, I've learned I need to give myself space to create, without putting so much pressure on myself. I've found that I have productive hours that are fairly consistent each day, but I need to change up my tasks so I'm not doing the exact same thing every day. If I cycle, work on A on Monday, B on Tuesday, etc., I'm more likely to meet the goals I set for myself that week. I also don't structure those hours so strictly anymore. I can enjoy a spontaneous moment, step away from the writing process without abandoning the creative process.

I'm still not where I want to be as far as projects completed. I'm behind schedule and struggling with a few plot points. I feel really bad about this; I feel anxiety about not producing material at a quicker, more reliable pace. It is something I want to be better about, and I'm hoping all that I am learning through this endeavor is angling me in that direction, positioning me to better manage myself.

One of the worst things I've ever done is compare myself to others. Whether it's another writer's process or a friend's life milestone, I usually feel I'm falling short of achieving something that is expected. I am constantly reminding myself that I do not need nor should I look for the approval of others to guide my path. The only way I can truly fail is if I give up creating and writing. That's a pretty empowering thought.

WorldBuilding

I love world-building. Almost as much as I love character creation. I will spend months (months!) developing the setting for a story. Locations, climates, species, cultures, genders, histories, religions, governments, distances, measurements, sciences and magics... I love knowing all the intricacies of a world. Having all that information to reference helps me as I write. It influences character personality, can shake up a problematic scene, and keeps details consistent throughout a story.

There is a project I have been working on since high school (yes, that one; it still isn't finished) into which I have put years of worldbuilding. I thought I was finished. I even decided the fifth draft, dutifully revised and edited, was acceptable to my perfectionist self as the final draft, and I sent out the manuscript. That was nearly a decade ago.

Since then, I have experienced some truly fantastic storytelling with wholly immersive worlds. I already had templates for such things, such as Tolkien's impressive catalogue, but I've come to appreciate even more how such deep and well-thought worldbuilding affects a story.

Let's discuss tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) for a moment. I've played with groups whose Game Masters (GMs) haven't put much effort into worldbuilding, or who are following a module without getting in-depth. I must here admit that I too was guilty of this, in my early experience as a GM. I have since discovered the glory (joy, madness and heartache) of creating your own world and all it contains, and letting other people run amok in the setting.

My brother (codename: Sasquatch) asked specifically for advanced worldbuilding in our current campaign, and both of us are finding it delightful. He is literally reshaping the world I created through his characters' actions, and I am learning how to adjust such things in a way that plausibly reflects natural story progression. He's having a blast trying to start wars and hoodwink characters out of their literal thrones, and I'm refining my worldbuilding and storytelling techniques. It's a win-win.

What I'm trying to say is that I run/play a Dungeons & Dragons [3.5] and Pathfinder homebrew, it helps my writing process, and you should all give it a try. The whole point of games like this is that you as a Game Master can make up all the rules, just as you make up all the rules for your written stories. Follow templates, abandon them, make new templates, create a new race, discard that spell that no one uses because it is so convoluted and replace it with something that makes sense.

Now, go rework that scene you're struggling with; I have a sixth draft to prepare.