Making some good changes

I graduated college last month and began obtaining my freedom into the land of adulthood where dreams flourish and...pigs fly. Well, as a writer with a sudden increase in free time until I start my new job, I've been making some changes.

"I'm Writing a Novel, Officer!" --Weird Things I've Googled For Something I was Writing

http://redriverpak.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/devious.jpg

If you take a glance at my web browsing history after I finish a writing session, you are likely to come away with three conclusions:

1. I can’t spell “beaurocracy” (bureaucracy as it turns out), often not even close enough for Google to figure it out.
2. A Good portion of my time “writing” is actually spent on Tumblr, Facebook, and Pandora.
3. I might be planning to commit some pretty God-damned serious murder. 

Jason's Rules of Writing

Jason's Rules of Writing

(And why you shouldn't listen)

1. You write gold. Except you suck.
2. You will usually describe objects (nouns) by their three most important features. (More of a context thing.)
3. Passive sentences are killed by a watchful eye (or eyes) and practice.
4. Being redundant is redundant. Don't be redundant.
5. Readers will hate a meaningless story more than a story full of crappy writing.
6. Readers don't like to read crappy writing, unless glittering vampires are involved; and thus the pages glitter in their own respect.
7. You write gold. Except you suck.
8. The mark of a great writer is one who learns the rules (guidelines), and breaks them in such a way that the reader benefits from it (and possibly doesn't realize the breakage).

Down & Dirty Fiction

Okay, so the title to this post might be misleading. What I meant was for “getting into a story”. People say, “Oh, yeah, I got into Lost.” Or, “I just couldn’t get into Harry Potter.” The topic of this post, then, is what does it mean to get into something, and on a greater note, why we use that phrase. Let’s begin like we normally would: with some ridiculous statements that we can hardly back up.

Chuck Wendig of terribleminds has coined the term, penmonkey, and wisely so. In his book of predominately edited blog-posts, Confessions Of A Freelance Penmonkey, Chuck talks about how the content of a story is not bound to the margins of the page (or sides of your compy or tablet). He calls it the magic of the cell-phone, with communication from all places of the story coming in and going out, and especially interfering with one another. Of course, that’s the way it should be. And that, JK’s huge base of readers, is where our idea of “getting into a story” takes place.

Getting into something probably means finding yourself in the story. Perhaps you are reading Gulliver’s Travels (the revised for modern comprehension edition), and within a couple of pages you find yourself gasping at the *SPOILER* tiny men tying up our beloved Gulliver. You got into the story. You found yourself at the scene, and what’s really important here is that you cared about the story, and hopefully, the character.

Writers and readers want that. If within a chapter the reader hasn’t gotten into the story, then they probably won’t (and hopefully they didn’t waste their money and time!). They can try, and they might, especially if there are vast changes in the story or a different POV. But, they would probably just be forcing their eyes along the pages until they go Fahrenheit 451 on that POS. Writers, too, but many won’t realize if they’re writing crappily until they’ve received 50 rejection letters from (hopefully) prominent publishing houses. (You can self-publish, of course!) They might not notice what they’re writing. Or, they might. Hopefully they do. And, if that’s the case, it’s the same situation: if they can’t get into their story writing-wise, or if they find content wise they don’t like it, then SOL and try again.

So, now we have an idea of what getting into something means. The why is as easy as the what. It’s a great why because the meaning of words actually give some semblance of a “world” in which you can “see yourself living in” with the actual characters.

Therefore, the first step for any reader or writer is to find those special things that they can relate to in a story, and get in knee-deep. Down and dirty fiction.

-JK out.

Google: recursion

Sometimes writing can feel like a spin on a broken record. Just like typing in “recursion” to Google will give you an endless linking to “Did you mean: recursion?”, the art can go on forever, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, it is frustrating much of the time. I won't take the analogy into any more obvious jokes, though. The real post starts here:

You don't want to scratch the record. That is, you don't want to damage your story, or your pencil. Or hell, yourself for that matter. Well, maybe yourself a little because, let's face it, writers face their demons one way or another.

So, if you're being careful, what happens if you just forget and move on? What happens if you just write, and see where the story takes you?

Well, lots of editing, actually. And sometimes it feels like it will never end. You're falling down an endless hole, and really you hope you can grab hold of something, and sometimes it seems like you will. Actually, I've heard that most people who want to write a book, or even just want to write, never do.

Why is that? Well, I'm not an expert, but throughout the past couple of years, I've begun to understand a bit about that.

It's not just that it takes time. Most people who’ve had the yearning to write say that, it seems. "Oh, if I had the time." And I do? I make the time.

Starting up that story, whatever it is, and putting your soul on the line is, admittedly, a bit scary. That might sound a bit melodramatic, but it really isn't. Everything I write makes me curious if I'm doing my best. I don't want to write crap. And neither do you.

So, where does this recursion, or process in terms of itself, come into play? It's in the "write", "edit", "write", "edit", phase. Sometimes that can go on for an entire life time. For others, four months, and then publishing, or quitting.

It can make anyone wonder if they're up to writing. Can I really do this if it's taking so much effort & time? What about the greats? The greats weren't perfect. And, they were forging paths for us later in life. Now, there are things called Editors.

We shall continue to explore this topic on the NEXT EPISODE OF SEVEN HEROES BOOKS!

-Jason out.

Instant Fame...Not Karma: Gaining popularity as a writer

Thanks to daily-songs.com/

“Instant Karma’s gonna get you...gonna knock you right on the head.”

But, this is about “Instant Fame”, and nothing to do with Karma. Well, maybe a little to do with it.


When people first begin writing, it’s easy to think the first draft of a story is amazing.
                            

Last Writes: Dealing With Criticism of Your Writing (Part 1)

Dealing with critiques can be painful

So you finally opened up and showed your writing to the world and someone had bad things to say. Quickly! Curl up and die over there! Underneath the sofa, you can fit!
Or you can remember that it’s not the end of the world, not the end of your writing career, and not the best you can ever do when touching pen to paper (or fingers to keys)...

The First Write

We The Writers, as judged by the times and thoughts of our brethren, shall hereby relate the knowledge and wisdom of our trade. Please beware: you might enjoy this.

Yet, we must take a few steps backward. Without a basis for the purpose of this blog, you may never read this again. This is a blog, for all certain purposes, but it will and is reaching much farther than that. And, because of this special place, sacraments are welcome. Except not. That would be creepy.

Kyle and myself are The Writers. We are not just any pair of scribes, though. To tell you why that is would be blasphemy to the art, and thus, against our creed. We hope you’ll be excited to follow along with us as we are on the path to fortune and fame. Our at least some amazing works of fiction.

So, thank you for reading, and if you have any sort of soul, you’ll press the “Follow” button.

Till next time,

JK.