Questions Questions

We;re in the second half of our writing class, and already there's a new story draft. I was told to reflect on it a little bit, so I shall, but it will be very straight forward.

Pre-Workshop Questions: 

1. What's working in the draft and why do you feel that it's working?

     Nothing really. Perhaps the visuals, because I always do at least a little good at visuals. I'm an artist first and foremost and it's easy to paint picture in my mind. Transferring it to words is the hard part, but over the years it's become second nature.

2. What needs improvement in the draft and why do you feel that it's not working?

      Perhaps actually caring about the draft itself? The first story for the semester had only a little heart put in it, and this one has even less (as in, no heart. I don't care about it at all.) The character is wholly uninteresting to me, and the conflict doesn't speak to me at all either. If it did, I think I'd be more invested in stretching out the narrative and exploring some more scenes to let the audience get a feel for the protagonist more (and perhaps improve the writing itself, because while visuals are somewhat cool, describing feelings or conflict is not).

3.  What are the questions you'd like the workshop to address about the story?

              I have no idea. I know it sucks. Maybe please point out to me how I might make the plot more interesting? Gimme some real life inspiration.

4.  What is the story about? What's the main character's internal conflict in your story? 

        A young teen goes behind her father's back to buy her late grandmother's old dirt bike. She fantasizes about riding it down her own secret hill only to find it's not so secret at all.

5.  How's the draft challenging your writing?

       I still have no idea. Like I said, no heart. Maybe it's challenging me to write when I have literally no hoots to give.

Being an Editor Questions:

1.   List 2-3 things you plan to improve in the feedback you give in Workshop #2?

        I won't hold back in what I think may be wrong or try not to hurt feelings. I just waste time looking at the computer screen that way. That's pretty much it. Maybe include more writing 'keywords'."

2.  Detail 1-2 goals for you as an editor for Workshop #2?

      Finish the actual workshop according to the guidelines.

Magical Realism? (Does it have unicorns?)

There is apparently a category of literary fiction called "Magical Realism". Magical Realism introduces a sort of magic to the plot to either kickstart it or frame the conflict, but roots the rest of it's setting in the real world.

I find that incredibly fascinating.

Never before had I come across a name for literature like that. I had assumed that all literary fiction needed to be real world problems with real world events (that I find either dreadfully boring or so out of my experience that it's almost alien). Magical realism might be my ticket into writing something that is finally literary.

I'd had a story I'd considered literary once. It was about a little girl who lived in a post-apocalyptic city, but her family was moving and most of the story was set on examining her feelings on the matter and not the history behind the ruins. I tried to send it in to my school literary journal.

They rejected it on grounds of reading 'too genre'.

I was mad, of course, but now I realize it was a step too high on the sliding scale. I can step down, and give Magical Realism a try. Just introduce a magical element (like a lizard burning through someone's boot, or donut halos appearing over the heads of anyone who's had sex behind the donut shop) and never explain it (which is usually a big no-no in fantasy genre) and then just write on my character's conflict spurred on by that event. It seems incredibly simple to me.

....famous last words, huh?

A Letter in Post

Dear Mendoza,

I hope you haven't been missing us too much. It was fun visiting you last week and seeing your work. Even if you are going to turn into some old spinster, with all the focus you put into Alchemy, it was a reminder of why I want to study in the first place. Someday I'll surpass you, so make sure to visit us some time too. I wouldn't want to blindside you.

As for Father, I think he's all out of sorts. He says he's really proud of you, and I think he means it, even if you did run from the altar. Yet he's angry. "I'm getting old," he says. "I need to have security in the family line," he says. I think he thinks that I'll be the one to carry on the family name. He's already started finding cotillions an debutantes for me to attend. They're all girls our class, nice enough. But only a few are really interested in Alchemy. I don't have time for someone to slow me down. I want to be famous!

I suppose I wouldn't dislike marrying entirely. but it would have to be a very particular sort of girl. One who studies Alchemy, isn't afraid to get dirty, embraces honesty, and is good embroidering things. She would have to have thick red hair and a sweet face with freckles. She should like goats, and candy apples from the country fair, and have the ability to keep up with me. I haven't seen that in the noble girls of our class so far. They like pretending to be porcelain in satin shifts too much. If no one exactly like that turns up, I might have to flee the altar like you.

I wonder if Father would be angry if I married outside our class.

Otherwise, I think it's entirely too soon for me marry. I'm still of a handsome age. Father says I'm getting old, but I think he's  the one feeling old. I still have six years ahead of study! Maybe even more if I find a good apprenticeship. It'll be up to Ginger to keep this fine bachelor company, and you know how she complains if I even think of falling behind a little in schoolwork.

Please visit soon, and write often. It's boring without you around.

Your brother,
Anatolio

P.s. I would ask you to grant me apprenticeship, but Father says you've been enough of a bad influence already. Sometimes I think if Alchemy wasn't such a lucrative vocation, Father would ban it from my schooling altogether.

Reflection
Behold! A new character! Even though I wanted to flesh out Anatolio a bit more compared to Ginger, I realized he wouldn't be the type to sit down and keep a diary. It's not his speed. So I thought a brother to write a letter to would be appropriate. It's a nice addition- I think the way Mendoza's become a little bit of a black sheep casts light on how eager Lord Cabraron is to have his sons married and with heirs to set his mind at ease about his estate. If one son ran off, who's to say about the other?

Anatolio isn't so adverse to the idea it seems. It was nice to figure out what he notices about Ginger that he thinks is exclusive to her. Naturally, those traits aren't, but I think Toli is enamored with the way they gel together so easily, that he knows her so well, and that she has similar interests to him. The 'embraces honesty' is a funny one- Ginger likes to hide and lie about her state of feelings when she's upset, but Tolio views her as honest because she a lot less duplicitous than the girls he's encountered so far. She tells him nearly everything, so he doesn't really have a reason to think otherwise.

Characterization (and my problem with it)

I typically like writing about, it seems, simple and lonely characters with few connections, or characters that are only in an adventure for money, though they are aligned with good more than bad. I like throwing these characters into adventures and seeing them change that way, because a bit of blood and bruises never hurt anyone, and if there's a day to be saved, even better!

I think I'm attracted to the adrenaline of the action more than not. I also like writing about people with the sort of high morals of the 1800's. A more romanticized version, but I can never really find myself sitting down and writing about a person with a habitual drinking problem, or an addiction to bedding unwed ladies. Those end up being side characters. Most often, it seems like the protagonist is kinda British too.....

I will admit, quite a bit of what I like is wrapped up in Sherlock Holmes, Grand Adventures, and Action Couple Romance. It's fun to read and write about high stakes adventures that I can never have, or fantastical elements that will never come true in a million years except for here and now, in this book, movie, graphic novel, etc. Which is maybe why I'm finding that too many of my main characters are perhaps too simple. I'm not sure if it's in the motivations or in the way I write them, but when I stand back, it's as if they pale in comparison to other works I've read.

Of the recent three that I'm considering writing about for a class workshop:

James Roth, 18, signs up for the military to make sure he and his younger brother can make rent. All he wants to do is keep Thomas safe, and catch a break in life. The rest of the story devolves into a steampunk political/military drama with James and his simulacrum of a brother at the center, but as I'm writing, I find him ... slightly boring. At the beginning at least.

Eddie Meyers, 7, is a mute from a traumatic engagement, and only speaks to a stuffed rabbit he stole from a classmates birthday party. I'm considering having the story build a bridge between he and the classmate he stole from as he tries to work his way out of his trauma, but I'm not sure what he wants besides friends.

Zachariah Rosencraft, 49, an aging globetrotter who gains custody of his goddaughter in the wake of her mother's hospitalization. He's supposed to be a man who's estranged himself from his family in the wake of his own wife's death and gets softened by Grizelda who's character is a work-in-progress, but I've yet to figure out what he's motivated by and his character arc seems a little too similar to other figures; like the grandfather in Heidi, or Scrooge McDuck from Ducktales.

None of them live in a modern era, and none of them seem to have stories down to earth, which makes me start to wonder if I've only ever been dealing in cliches. Eddie is closest to literary story, but I'm afraid to touch it, because it doesn't seem literary enough. Right now, in my head, he's still engaged in a little adventure with his rabbit, his classmate, and the man who did him wrong, and yet he's not that sort of complex everyday-joe-that-you-could-pass-by-on-the-street sort of complex. He isn't a normal person.

And I don't know if he's going to be. I like writing about exceptions. I used to say, 'Worthy stories are about the exceptions'. Exceptions to the rules of the universe, exceptions to how our society usually runs, exceptions to what I think is normal. "Why else do we read stories, if not to read about the exceptions?" I used to like doing that- molding characters into being glorious exceptions, one element or two that separated them from the rest, and more importantly, separated them from me. I didn't like getting bogged down by what sort of movies they liked, or if they sleep on their side or on their stomach because I didn't want to write about that. I go to the movies. I sleep on my stomach. Give me something different, something exciting!

And now I find, when I'm trying to be serious about leaving genre behind and writing really truly literary, for once, I can't come up with a satisfying literary character or story. Someone who could be real, that you could find on the street or in the supermarket, or even in jail. A story that could've been told by your aunt to you over the phone.

That makes me actually disappointed in myself, because I considered myself to be a good story teller. At least, better than mediocre, but I'm stumped.

Blogs for Writing that I find (somewhat) essential

Hello there! Welcome to my writing blog. Though it's a bit hidden, I'll be using this to keep a track of some things for my minor in Creative Writing. And what better way to celebrate a newly born blog than to shower you in better blogs?

Jenna Moreci
You Tube Channel
Not quite a blog- a Vlog series actually- by a young adult fiction writer by the name of Jenna Moreci. She answers questions about writing good plots and characters in videos uploaded every Wednesday, with a snarky attitude that I can't help but love. She also makes very good points about planning for a novel, finding editors and beta readers, and more of the publishing process!

How to Fight Write
http://howtofightwrite.tumblr.com/
This tumblr blog is all about combat! And how to write it successfully. They often have really long posts, but you learn so much about different combat and fighting styles, as well as how to write them. For someone who eventually wants to write actions successfully, I enjoy following them!

Script Medic/ Script Family
https://scriptmedic.tumblr.com/
If you write combat, chances are, there's going to be some hurtin' too. Aunt Scripty is a professional EMT and a writer who runs a blog helping other writers to hurt their precious characters. With accurate medical information, a good sense of humor and a dedication to getting more writers to write injuries accurately, Script Medic is perfect for those wanting to add realism to a dangerous situation. She has also spawned a whole blog herd of other Scriptys that handle writing questions about mental health, lawyering situations, linguistics, history, torture, army specifications, and much, much more.

Hope you check these blogs out if you need help with your writing woes!