Happy Halloween

Today I turn 27. I'm as old as Kurt Cobain was when he shot himself, when Jimmy Hendrix choked on his own vomit, and the rest of that club.
I have traditionally gotten very depressed on my birthday, but today is not so bad. Granted, I haven't left the house yet. So. The battle continues.

Submit!

I finished "A Brief Interview with Death" the other day. By finished I mean pumped it up to exactly 2000 words, which is still a bit on the light side for a short story, but I think it works well enough as a quick piece of fluff you can tear through, chuckle at, and remember later in the dark hours of the morning when you should be asleep but instead are up blogging.

And speaking of submitting it turns out Playboy has this thing for college students. The deadline is in February, and I went ahead and read the 2007 story. I have a feeling there are issues of masculinity that must be addressed when writing for this, the ultimate gentleman's magazine. The story wheels in the brain begin to spin.

October Stories Pt Deux

Ok, so I just wrote the first October Story rough draft, which is tentatively titled "A Brief Interview with Death". Right now it's just around 1500 words, and there is plenty of room to go. I've been refining the dialog as it's one of THOSE stories where it all occurs in the talking. I manage to reference the seventh seal twice, once in movie form, and once a bit more literally. It's not mind-shatteringly brilliant, but it's going to be a good October story, and I'm happy with that.



Now if only I could tap into brilliance like THIS.

October Stories

I had wanted to write a good short story to post here on Halloween. I love October. I love Fall. This is the time when people pretend to stop being rational and begin to believe in magic again. By the time Christmas hits it will all be over, and we will be stuck in the nihilistic wasteland of modern life - waiting until next year.

What is truth?

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The goal of some fiction writers is to tell a story.
Some fiction writers endeavor for the truth.

How do you tell the truth when you are essentially lying? Does the writer believe that he or she can grasp those gossamer strands of impression and weave them into something that is not only coherent, but also suitably written? Does the writer expect to discover some indivisible unit of the essential human experience? Should probably not think about it.

What is truth? Pontius Pilate supposedly posed the question famously to his wife. It sounds like a dramatically delivered line in a work of fiction. And maybe it was. All the world is a stage, the old Englishman's cliche'.



Gimme some truth John Hurt. You beautiful, beautiful man.

Drainage!

I managed a paltry 600 words that I'm hoping will end up as the beginning of something big. Unfortunately it took eight hours to come up with that 600 words. When Hemingway said "use the pain", he apparently neglected to mention that in order to tap into it you have to stand at the tenuous precipice and stare into the void that is one's life.

So For the first time I've tried writing from experience in a very personal way. It's unbelievably difficult for me, and I've been putting it off for some time now. It's a draining experience, hence the video. I feel like I'm using myself up to do it, but I'm happy with the result right now. It's not finished, but I think it's some of the most honest writing I've ever done. 600 paltry words, but they mean a lot at this point.

God, I love yesterday's tomorrow.

I would have liked to see pneumatic people-tubes.

What an awesome guy.

From the Dust Returned

H1N1 be damned, I think I was just gang-banged by a bacterium and a virus working in tandem. Thank you.

Did you know that Ray Bradbury is still alive? I didn't until recently. By recently I mean 2007, but it still surprises the hell out of me.

here's something he has to say on the subject of writing!

Hemingway's 4 Rules of Writing

Hemingway has been my favorite writer as far back as my drop out in 2001. I'd bought a copy of The Sun Also Rises at a used book sale on campus a week before I left. I brought the book with me. I'd thought about writing before reading that book, but Papa Hem is the guy who pushed me over the edge. The prose, the characters, the scenery and the masculine bullshit triggered some chemicals in my brain that began bubbling and cooking. The rest is history. Here are his rules, as he was wont to impart on his many youthful "mice".



1. Use Short Sentences

2. Use Short First Paragraphs

3. Use Vigorous English

4. Never Have Only Four Rules

These were also, according to legend, the rules for writing at the Kansas City Star, where Hem cut his teeth writing when he was very young.

And Another Thing...

This is news to me, but it seems that the author of Artemis Fowl was tasked with writing a final Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book. Making that officially part 6 of 3. I feel the same way I do about this as I did about the Blade Runner sequels. I am not knocking on the author, and I'm not going on a diatribe about the pollution of one man's "art", because that's not how I feel. I just have no interest in this kind of thing beyond the fact that it happened. I wouldn't say I'd never pick it up in a library if I saw it, but I'm not spending money on it at this juncture. I hope things work out for Dent Arthur Dent and Co.

A World Without Nuclear Weapons

It's five minutes to midnight.

It's been that way since 2007, when the minute hand was advanced by two minutes. I was in Iraq, so that's my excuse for being late to this information.

The Nobel Peace prize award once again brings nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament into the the public consciousness - where it will sit for five minutes, cause some consternation, and then be dumped for John and Kate +8 late breaking news.
There are currently 9 countries in the world that possess or are believed to posses nuclear strike capabilities, in no particular order: Russia, The US, France, Pakistan, India, UK, China, North Korea, and maybe Israel. I can see why some Hawks yearn for the good old days.

Unfortunately, the world we live in is no closer to being rid of nuclear weapons than the world of the 1950s.

How do you unlearn something? How do you unknow the secrets of the universe? A world without nuclear weapons is a fast fading dream, mankind may just have to live in the shadow of the mushroom cloud, as we have been as a species for over fifty years. In the timeline of our history, that isn't very long - and chances are we have some way yet to go...

But I think that if you stretch the timeline out long enough, destruction is assured.

Robert Heinlein's Rules of Writing

I found this and having given where credit is due, I think it's worth reposting (not riposting) these here.

1. You must write.

Maybe this is a no-brainer, but since starting this blog I've found that the amount of writing I've done about writing has actually decreased, and my production has gone up. Sometimes the best you can do is slam your fingers into a keyboard and watch the wordcount for the day increase one at a time - and other times it's truly the inspired stuff you wanted to write in the first place. Write. Write some more. Then Write a bit after that.

2. You must finish what you write.


Now this is the tough part. I tend to write very short and concise scenes. I don't know why I got into the habit of doing this, but now my habit is to write something in very lean prose, have something weird happen, and that's the end of it. The scenes conclude, but it's not really over - and that's easy. It is a pain in the ass following up on something and continuing to work within its continuity in the hopes of creating a decent and coherent narrative. But, if you want to be a writer, you had damn well better finish what you write.


3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.

I'm assuming he's talking about to excess. There comes a point when you've done the work, written the thing - and now its time to submit it. I was very lucky that my first published thing required no rewriting. It was short enough and weird enough that it stood on its own well enough.


4. You must put the work on the market.

Rejection letters have become slightly monotonous, and I'm still only starting out. Putting something out there for the would-be publisher to read is a bit intimidating. I guess the best thing to do is bite the bullet and do it - and don't take it personally until they accept something.


5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

I've been shopping one story around for five months now, and I am seriously considering taking it and rewriting it or doing something to make it more palatable. Heinlein sez don't. I am but an egg.

I think it's started...

I didn't want to start on the novel until this summer, but I just started something big. The sheer mass of it is hidden, and I'm 500 words in... but I can feel it. This one might the be one. AND It's got a killer opening line.

I heart college.

I recently watched Dreams With Sharp Teeth which is a documentary about a writer named Harlan Ellison. Here he is talking about college students and Dachau with trademarked abrasiveness.

My two cents.

I didn't want to say anything about the god damned war, but then we watched MSNBC for two hours. So here's what i got:

It does not matter how effective your Counter Insurgency (COIN) forces are, you can't polish a turd. I was never in Afghanistan, I spent my three tours in Iraq - so this is NOT an opinion informed by personal experience. This is an opinion expressed by someone who HAS conducted COIN operations for nineteen months, trained for said operations over a four year period, and studied COIN in a scholastic manner for two years.

The Karzai government stretches credibility here in the US, I cannot imagine what the Afghan people think about its legitimacy.

If the government of Afghanistan is not legitimate, is not seen as legitimate abroad, and is not accepted by the Afghan people as legitimate it. will. fail. The United States cannot prop it up and make it a cogent alternative to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Do it right, pour troops in troops to secure the country, unfuck the government by rebooting from whole cloth, and be prepared for ten more god damned years in that hellhole -- or get the fuck out and lets stop this fucking nightmare.

Those are the only two options I believe will work. Anything else is waffling and sinking deeper into this quagmire.

Judgement

So I saw this article over at the most popular blog in the world. My initial reaction was to mentally groan "Noooooooo", and I had to stop myself. This is interesting, bear with me.

Come November it'll be three years since I was discharged. That's a year shy of the length of my enlistment, har har. It surprises me when I catch how much my worldview is still shaped by that experience. Like the idea of Carl Sagan baked out of his mind staring through a telescope and jotting down whatever came into his head.
What's so wrong with that?

Of course, in the military, drug use is strictly verboten with extreme prejudice. Popping positive on a pee test is liable enough to land you in brig, which is to say prison - military style. Despite its posturing, the US military is about as socially progressive as the Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock. But I lived under this kind of absolute black and white for a long time. We all became the silent judges when someone in the platoon or company or battalion was found guilty of the egregious sin of trying to find a momentary escape from the monotonous horror of day to day existence then. We all judged, and we all forgot ourselves.

Nanowrimo idea!

I'm not participating in this year's National Novel Writing Month competition, but my Dad is. What does that say about me? Lazy, busy, and extra lazy. That hasn't stopped me from coming up with a great idea for Nanowrimo :
The Bobbyssey.
Being the account of the only surviving sailor with whom Odysseus set sail from Troy.

This being inspired by late-night watchings of Clash of the Gods on the television.

Another Rejection!

Just got another rejection for submission via email. I'm only sad that it's not as easy to pin an email to the wall. I could print it out, but that would be stupid.

Questions

I was talking with a friend last night, and we started discussing motivation. The Who, What, When, Where, Why questions so familiar to journalists are equally useful to a writer in the predawn hours of writing.

Asking Who your characters are is a no brainer. But the next question to ask is What does that character want? Our literary traditions are based around conflict, and conflict arises when something is sought and met with resistance. What does the protagonist want? What does the antagonist want? Where do they have to go to get what they want? Why do they want it? Some questions to stir the pot.

Guerrilla

The Small wars Journal is running a competition that will pay up to three thousand dollars. The topics manage to be both vague and binding. I just finished about 1500 words dedicated to my experience during my second deployment. The plan is to vomit as much information as I can, and use that as a basis for comparing ineffectual operations and how things could be done differently. I have a feeling that this is an exercise in futility as I was not an officer. There's an old saying in the military, "Stay in your lane". I am going to have to skirt the very edge of that lane to do this effectively.

What's in a name?

I started writing a short today about a guy who happens to have the surname "Hitler". Doing the kind of cursory research a lazy writer is wont to do before embarking on a project of this magnitude, I saw this.

It's interesting to think that there must have been OTHER Hitlers beyond der fuhrer. Did these guys and gals change their name after the war to avoid violent reprisals from the rest of the world? Were there enclaves that welcomed The Hitlers? Was there a club of Hitlers and former Hitlers? What did they talk about?

These questions will likely go unanswered.

Inspiration III

There are times when the blank computer screen is a daunting foe. Like now, for instance. It becomes much easier to write about writing than it is to actually write. This is my own fault at this point -accustomed as I am to writing extremely short (under 2000 words) stories. I have found this to be a fun if slightly masturbatorial experience, and so I endeavor for a higher word count. Right there. The brick wall comes up and everything seems hopeless. I've already committed more words on my opinion of writing today than I have on actually writing something.

So I will turn to a third point of inspiration: Handwriting.

I have found it useful in the past to pull out an unused notebook and a mechanical pencil and start writing. Sometimes I start with one word over and over and over again. Sometimes I fill a page with that, sometimes more than one. But then something weird starts to happen around the five hundredth time I've written the same word (besides hand cramp). Words start to flow. And sometimes they are rather clever, and I'm amazed that I had that in me. Sometimes they are not, and it's just a dull exercise. Either way, there is production where once there was nothing. And that's worth something? I guess.

Inspiration II - Characters.

Inspiration can come from a lot of places. Characters are essential to story-telling. Some believe that the story comes from strong characters - and some believe that characters compliment a pregenerated plot. I've written both ways, and I don't have a preference at this point.

A writer should get a good handle on the major characters of a story, and will probably know more about those characters than the reader ever will from reading the story.
That's ok.
Using a set of well-rounded characters that you can understand will make for believable interactions and conversations. For the dialog alone, it's worth doing a little leg work and figuring out who these people really are.

But... what's the easiest way to create a complete history for an imaginary person? I direct you to the dark and mysterious world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Character Creation is a much-discussed topic in the role playing community. The stereotype of the shirtless barbarian murdering hordes of monsters and stealing their shit is by no means inaccurate, but it doesn't apply across the board. Sometimes playing a character is as much fun as winning hordes of treasure and having sex with decapitated orc heads.

Either way, next time you consider writing a story, try building your characters first, and working around THEM. Might be interesting.

Inspiration

Inspiration is something that is not coming in droves today, so I will try and write about it. Last time I talked about the Muses a little, now I think it's important to talk about where these ideas come from... as opposed to the sheer will to write (which comes from inside and no one can give to you). Here's a video by one of my favorite authors when I was young - I remember reading this guy's stuff when I was much younger. The Cyborg Harpy Trilogy was one of those book series that showed me what I wanted to do when I grow up.


Ok, that was a joke.

October

The tilt of the globe allows for less sunlight to penetrate the atmosphere. It is the dying time for the world, and we have come to accept that. In ancient cultures the gods seemed to shirk away in this season of death, and man was left to fend for himself in the growing cold and the lengthening darkness. Persephone has taken her long voyage down into the darkness amongst the lost.