Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Mar 19 2010
Sun over your story
Think back to the most depressing story you ever heard, whether fictional or real. Did you enjoy reading it or do you remember it simply because it was such a downer of a tale? Stories have to have conflict. Conflict often involves bad news and awful events and sad choices. One of the most famous stories in the universe is the story of the angels' fall from Heaven. It's sad and terrible and maybe even violent on some level, since it was described as war in Heaven. Our stories here need to have conflict in order for characters to grow, to learn, to makes changes. Some characters may progress. Some may slide into the space of their own private abyss. Are we going to leave the reader there? I suppose we could, but the darkest days are only a temporary cloud cover that blocks out the sunshine. Somewhere, somehow, a story should probably contain a glimmer of hope within its words. It could be a peek back at something that almost was or maybe a hint at something that might still be there if only one can get through that cloud cover to touch the warmth of the sunlight.
posted at: 18:21 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Think back to the most depressing story you ever heard, whether fictional or real. Did you enjoy reading it or do you remember it simply because it was such a downer of a tale? Stories have to have conflict. Conflict often involves bad news and awful events and sad choices. One of the most famous stories in the universe is the story of the angels' fall from Heaven. It's sad and terrible and maybe even violent on some level, since it was described as war in Heaven. Our stories here need to have conflict in order for characters to grow, to learn, to makes changes. Some characters may progress. Some may slide into the space of their own private abyss. Are we going to leave the reader there? I suppose we could, but the darkest days are only a temporary cloud cover that blocks out the sunshine. Somewhere, somehow, a story should probably contain a glimmer of hope within its words. It could be a peek back at something that almost was or maybe a hint at something that might still be there if only one can get through that cloud cover to touch the warmth of the sunlight.
posted at: 18:21 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Thu, Mar 18 2010
Don't steal stories. Steal story inspiration.
When I have trouble writing from a standing start I've been known to pick up other people's short stories or novels and write them again, not in order to plagiarize, but in order to practice my own writing voice. Rewriting and editing someone's else's work can often be just what I need to get my own creative juices flowing again. I've even printed out excerpts of stories online and then cut them up and shifted paragraphs around in hopes of jump-starting my own ideas. When I'm finished using them as inspiration I can just shred them and begin to focus on my own new work. Bonus: No authors were harmed in the creation of the new story.
posted at: 15:05 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
When I have trouble writing from a standing start I've been known to pick up other people's short stories or novels and write them again, not in order to plagiarize, but in order to practice my own writing voice. Rewriting and editing someone's else's work can often be just what I need to get my own creative juices flowing again. I've even printed out excerpts of stories online and then cut them up and shifted paragraphs around in hopes of jump-starting my own ideas. When I'm finished using them as inspiration I can just shred them and begin to focus on my own new work. Bonus: No authors were harmed in the creation of the new story.
posted at: 15:05 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Wed, Mar 17 2010
Have you ever seen a novel go this way and that way...?
The kind of novel that will make me give up reading is one in which there are too many stories going off in all directions. Some are so bad that I find myself wondering whatever happened to the one I considered the main character because he or she hasn't been mentioned for three chapters while we've been taken off to see the circus with a clown because the main character's sister was married to a detective and went with him to find the lost elephant. Because of my own dislike for meandering too many stories away, I tend to avoid writing anything with too many subplots. This is easy with short stories, but longer tales actually need more than one story going to carry the action and give dimension to the whole thing. It's tricky to do this without making your characters go off in too many side adventures and without having too many principal characters for readers to follow. Awareness is probably the key, just so that subplots don't drag readers too far afield from the main characters' journey. If worse comes to worst, killing off a few minor characters might be the smartest thing a writer could do.
posted at: 21:56 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
The kind of novel that will make me give up reading is one in which there are too many stories going off in all directions. Some are so bad that I find myself wondering whatever happened to the one I considered the main character because he or she hasn't been mentioned for three chapters while we've been taken off to see the circus with a clown because the main character's sister was married to a detective and went with him to find the lost elephant. Because of my own dislike for meandering too many stories away, I tend to avoid writing anything with too many subplots. This is easy with short stories, but longer tales actually need more than one story going to carry the action and give dimension to the whole thing. It's tricky to do this without making your characters go off in too many side adventures and without having too many principal characters for readers to follow. Awareness is probably the key, just so that subplots don't drag readers too far afield from the main characters' journey. If worse comes to worst, killing off a few minor characters might be the smartest thing a writer could do.
posted at: 21:56 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Tue, Mar 16 2010
Health and its stories
The whole health care discussion in the U.S. is providing tremendous material to fiction writers. If you write science fiction you can be thinking ahead to what care (and the cost of it) will be like down the line. If you delve into historical fiction you might be taking a look at health practices of the past and how they compare to present-day care and compensation. If your story is novel-length you will undoubtedly touch on health and/or health care at some point, no matter what time period or location you choose for your characters. Health is one of those things that affects each of us in powerful ways, which is probably why the whole battle to change the system has been so passionate and has pulled people through a whole herd of emotions. We've all seen someone we love suffer. We've all see the suffering of large groups of people when it comes to lack of nutrition, natural disaster, war, epidemics or even political oppression. Health affects everyone and almost everything. Including health issues in your novel in some way is probably going to be a must. The only question is when, how and how much?
posted at: 17:33 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
The whole health care discussion in the U.S. is providing tremendous material to fiction writers. If you write science fiction you can be thinking ahead to what care (and the cost of it) will be like down the line. If you delve into historical fiction you might be taking a look at health practices of the past and how they compare to present-day care and compensation. If your story is novel-length you will undoubtedly touch on health and/or health care at some point, no matter what time period or location you choose for your characters. Health is one of those things that affects each of us in powerful ways, which is probably why the whole battle to change the system has been so passionate and has pulled people through a whole herd of emotions. We've all seen someone we love suffer. We've all see the suffering of large groups of people when it comes to lack of nutrition, natural disaster, war, epidemics or even political oppression. Health affects everyone and almost everything. Including health issues in your novel in some way is probably going to be a must. The only question is when, how and how much?
posted at: 17:33 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Mon, Mar 15 2010
Is a whole novel impossible? Maybe, if it's handled as one big task.
Peter Graves passed away this last weekend. We remember him for many things, but his time on Mission:Impossible is probably the first thing that the majority of us recall. His character halped make those impossible series of tasks come together into an achievable goal. The stories were fiction, but the principal of planning was there in every story. Even when things went wrong there were enough other details in place so that the missions were accomplished, time after time.
The other thing about the show that impressed me, once I took time to think about it, was the idea that a seemingly impossible task can often only be accomplished as a series of very small tasks put together with ideal timing. When we sit down to write we're often overwhelmed with the thought of producing a story long enough to be a whole novel. But with planning, strategic timing and the breaking down of the project into a series of smaller tasks, novels happen.
posted at: 09:30 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Peter Graves passed away this last weekend. We remember him for many things, but his time on Mission:Impossible is probably the first thing that the majority of us recall. His character halped make those impossible series of tasks come together into an achievable goal. The stories were fiction, but the principal of planning was there in every story. Even when things went wrong there were enough other details in place so that the missions were accomplished, time after time.
The other thing about the show that impressed me, once I took time to think about it, was the idea that a seemingly impossible task can often only be accomplished as a series of very small tasks put together with ideal timing. When we sit down to write we're often overwhelmed with the thought of producing a story long enough to be a whole novel. But with planning, strategic timing and the breaking down of the project into a series of smaller tasks, novels happen.
posted at: 09:30 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Thu, Mar 11 2010
Deep-fried writing
A lot of comfort foods are rich. They're full of cream and butter and some are coated with batter and lowered into hot oil and deep-fried. They're not necessarily fancy foods. They're just rich and tasty. The best fiction writing is like that. We don't have to use the fanciest words, but they should be so satisfying and rich that we love soaking up the goodness from all those deep-fried words.
posted at: 23:51 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
A lot of comfort foods are rich. They're full of cream and butter and some are coated with batter and lowered into hot oil and deep-fried. They're not necessarily fancy foods. They're just rich and tasty. The best fiction writing is like that. We don't have to use the fanciest words, but they should be so satisfying and rich that we love soaking up the goodness from all those deep-fried words.
posted at: 23:51 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Wed, Mar 10 2010
Late nights, early mornings and slow brains
We had a rather late night last night. We drove to meet a great friend for tasty food and conversation and a movie. Then this morning we had to jump out of bed at the usual time. I can feel the physical effects of a severaly altered schedule today as I work. In spite of all those anti-hero writers you read about who lived life on the edge and then wrote tales of intrigue, getting even a bit off-schedule can make a mess of your writing habits and your ability to think. Consider this before you attend a party with the notion that you'll produce brilliant copy the next day. It sounds romantic and exciting. The reality is that it will slow down your ability to concentrate and to create. We writers shouldn't be hermits, but we need to pace ourselves and probably lead a bit more dull life than the average rock star.
posted at: 16:30 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
We had a rather late night last night. We drove to meet a great friend for tasty food and conversation and a movie. Then this morning we had to jump out of bed at the usual time. I can feel the physical effects of a severaly altered schedule today as I work. In spite of all those anti-hero writers you read about who lived life on the edge and then wrote tales of intrigue, getting even a bit off-schedule can make a mess of your writing habits and your ability to think. Consider this before you attend a party with the notion that you'll produce brilliant copy the next day. It sounds romantic and exciting. The reality is that it will slow down your ability to concentrate and to create. We writers shouldn't be hermits, but we need to pace ourselves and probably lead a bit more dull life than the average rock star.
posted at: 16:30 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
