RIP Akira Ifukube, 1914-2006

I've written a long post on the death of Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube at my Giant Monster Blog. Truly a sad day.

Emerging from inactivity

Today was a day I felt like writing. I wrote a whole section of my short story and I feel the pull to write more. This is good as it comes after four days of inactivity (in writing). Those are always dangerous times for me, when I'm away from a story for that amount of time, the inspiration, the love of the idea, can all float away.

This story though, I have good feelings about it. I intend to finish writing this first draft and then really revise it. This is territory I've not much explored. I'm terrible about a) not finishing stories, b) not doing anything with finished first drafts. So once this story gets past the first draft stage, it will be revised. This may be the first story I feel confident enough in to send out. We'll see.

In the meantime, I have a few more pieces to finish, then I have to assemble them into a semblance of story. I've been writing in the third person. I'm going to read it over when the first draft is finished and see if I think it would be better in first person. I've thought about even just going ahead and doing a second draft in first person.

All that will be decided later though. Right now, I just have to keep my eyes on the prize and get to the end.

Building things out of words

Some good blog entries about writing (or simply "writer's porn" as I've heard others call it.) Elizabeth Bear writes about writing better than almost anyone else. Read her
journal. This entry on thematic and narrative concerns in fiction is
absolutely terrific. I've been listening to Mur Lafferty's podcast I Should be Writing lately and have been enjoying it. As the title puts it:

A podcast by a wanna-be writer for wanna-be writers. Let my stack of rejection letters and battle scars benefit you.

And so far, it has at least helped me feel better about my writing to know others go through similar things. Author Tim Pratt is pretty great too. I've only read a few of his short stories, but I've loved them. He posts about writing his novel and the pit of despair he hit after rereading some of it. That's the way I feel most days I reread my stuff.

But today, I feel pretty good. I reread what I wrote yesterday and I thought it was quite fine -- for me anyway. I started on another section of the story.

I've been taking an unusual approach to writing this story. I first plotted it out, which I've never tried before. Then I wrote a possible beginning for the story (though, now I think it won't be). Yesterday, I wrote the climax of the story. Today, I started writing an incident that happens half way through the story. Each of these sections of the story have been written on seperate Notepad files. When it's all written, I can combine them all and figure out how they should properly be arranged. In the meantime, I can open up any file on any day and pick up on a different part of the story, or edit a different part of the story.

I don't know if there are any benefits to writing this way, however, it does give me a more tactile sense of the structure of the story. I have all these pieces and then I'm going to build my story from them. It's like I'm building a desk, but it's made of words. Or something. I'm not sure I'm describing this well, but I'm enjoying this method. Your mileage may vary.

More writing tomorrow.


Technorati Tags: writing

A climax and thoughts on genre

Another day's writing is done. Today, taking a cue from yesterday's thoughts, I wrote out of order. I decided to write the climax of the story, when the narrator is confronted with the transformed protagonist. It came out more soft, less scary than I hoped. I'm wondering if maybe I'm writing a fantasy story rather than a horror story? I won't know until I write more of it. Even if it's purely fantasy, it will have some dark moments.

The question about whether this is a fantasy or horror story brings me to something I've been thinking about. In a podcast of The Agony Column's interview with The Rolling Darkness Review (Glen Hirshberg, Dennis Etchison and Peter Atkins), Etchison says that when he sits down to write, he never thinks "I'm going to write a horror story," he just thinks "I'm going to write a story." I've heard this from a lot of professional authors, and with some it shows. (Etchison is one. Many of his stories, always sold as horror, could be published in literary magazines with ease.)

But as a wannabe, new writer, I sit down and actively think "I'm going to write a horror story now, in fact it will be a ghost story and it will be about the transformation of a character." When I'm deciding on a story, that's the starting point. If it strays
off from that genre course, I let it. It doesn't have to end up a
horror story, that's just my initial idea.

John Gardner in his book "The Art of Fiction" tells young writers (I'm trying to remember this off the top of my head) that the easiest way to begin is to pick a genre -- a ghost story, a relationship story, a romance -- then combine it with another genre or an unusual technique.

So, I don't think I'm completely wrongheaded to start out thinking about what genre a story is. I just can't become caged to a genre.

Tomorrow, with some knowledge of what's going to happen, I'm going
to write other sections of the story, whichever parts interest me. I'm
thinking I'll write about the protagonist and his dreams. I'll also go
back and edit what I've written so far. I've been doing a little of
that every day. Maybe I can make better sense of the climax I wrote today.


Technorati Tags: writing, genre

The Dark Crystal returns

SciFi Wire says that a sequel to The Dark Crystal is in the works and Genndy Tartakovsky (of Samurai Jack and Clone Wars fame) will be directing.

Set hundreds of years after the first movie, the sequel follows a mysterious girl made of fire who steals a shard of the crystal in hopes of reigniting the dying sun.

Dark Horizons reported a bit about the sequel back in May. They include this important tidbit:

"The Dark Crystal created its own world. We are now going to fully explore this universe through the sequel film, which will be followed up with an animated series as well as interactive games and other media," said Lisa Henson. "Knowing the franchise's worldwide appeal, we're thrilled to leverage Odyssey's expertise in family entertainment within the independent film-sales community."

That report also includes a much longer (and somewhat different) description of the new movie.

This is great news. I absolutely adore the original. And most importantly, Brian Froud is returning to help design the new characters for the film. Froud did a lot of work behind the scenes on the look and history of the Dark Crystal. I have a copy of his book "The World of the Dark Crystal" and it's one of the prettiest books I own.

The only thing that concerns me is that the Henson company will go too far. The original film is great in and of itself. There is the potential that the company will take this chance to drain the "franchise" for all its worth. If all the books, movies and cartoons are good that's not a problem. But there's always a fear they will besmirch the memory of the original. (Although, I still have a copy of the original. It's not going anywhere. So I can always ignore sequels if they turn out to be bad.)

Here is a decent (and almost up to date) Dark Crysal fan site: The Book of Habidad.

UPDATE: Chris Roberson writes about his obsession over the movie's novelization when he was younger. I can relate. I loved that book and still have it around here somewhere. I have no idea how it would hold up today. It was written by A.C.H. Smith, who wrote the novelization for Labyrinth as well as a few other books, but I really don't know anything else about him. This page includes a few small excerpts from the book, mostly dialogue. Also, Smith seems to be a playwright.
I'll also note that the original screenwriter, David Odell, appears to be returning for the new film as well.

Small update

Not much to say today. I wrote a few hundred more words on the story. It's moving along, but I need to spend more time with it -- which won't happen tomorrow, unfortunately. But I'll fit in what I can. So far, I haven't run into any problems with using an outline for my story. But then, the plot hasn't progressed much yet.
I do think that I may be writing this in the wrong order. Currently, the story follows the chronology of events. But I think the story will have to start in media res in order to attract people's interest in the first page. I don't think it's necessary for me to change the order I'm writing it in now. That will be something I can approach in the rewrite stage.

Technorati Tags: writing

Richard Kelly's new film

Richard Kelly, the director of Donnie Darko, appears to have another movie in the works. It's called Southland Tales. From the brief description at the Internet Movie Database, it sounds like a science fiction version of Magnolia.

Southland Tales is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of
Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social,
economic and environmental disaster. Boxer Santaros is an action star
who's stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now, an
adult film star developing her own reality television project, and
David Clark, a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast
conspiracy.

If you are looking for information on Kelly, check out Richard-Kelly.net, they seem to keep up with all he has and will do.

New story begins

I've been very inactive online today, but this was for a good reason. One, I needed to build a bookshelf and wash some dishes, but two I managed to get some writing done on the story. It's the first section of the short story and I know what I'm leading to tomorrow. I always feel pretty good with all of the story before me, let's hope I keep feeling good as I go along. Again, right now the goal is to finish the story and edit it. The last story I wrote I've put aside with the potential for editing at a later date -- when I don't hate it so much. I want to make this story a complete process, continuing from creating the outline to writing the story, to editing it and then sending it out somewhere.
Anyway, I've got a bunch of things I want to write about on the blogs (especially Giant Monster Blog, I've watched a slew of giant monster movies latey) but it has to come second to the writing. So expect things to remain slow here for the next few days, with the exception of these writing updates. (Hope I don't bore you too much.)

Technorati Tags: writing

Background set, story to begin

I didn't do too much writing today, but I think I accomplished something with the background of this story. I have a reason for everything to happen, a history of what's happening to the protagonist. That history won't be revealed, only hinted at in the story.
Starting Monday, I will write the actual first draft of the story. A plot has been built, point by point. The story could veer from that, but it creates a solid skeleton for the story. I also think I have both main characters pretty solidly set in my mind. Now the real work begins!

Technorati Tags: writing

Building character

Well, I wrote again today. Not very much. In fact, most of it was looking over what I did yesterday to try and determine if I'm creating a distinct character, if Jackie (that's her name) would interest me as a reader. So far, I think I could give a tentative yes. She would be a realistic character, though I think I may need to give her more characteristics, some distinctive quirks, something to make her stand out. But for now, the character sketch gave me a better sense of Jackie. I worked a little on the other main character, Bobby, today as well, though no character sketch yet.

Once I've done that, I plan to hammer out the plot summary a little more thoroughly and then, finally, I will begin on actually writing the story. Again, this feels like it's a lot more prep work than the average writer does for a short story. On the other hand, I'm not other writers. I won't know whether this works for me until I've written the story. Always must remember this.

All right, enough. I'm going to go and try to do some more writing today.

Background writing

So I'm still writing in preparation for a short story. I'm probably doing way too much prep work for a short story, but I just want to really go overboard with this method and see how it comes out. So today, I wrote 1,570 words of my narrator out on a date. It's just an attempt to get in the character's head. Next, I'll have to more on the protagonist of the story, the one fantastic things will happen to. He's a little more mysterious, so I'm not going to do quite as much prep work on him. The important thing was I did some writing today and I do feel like I'm moving forward.

Moonshine

All right, I'm interested in this both as a proud Connecticut native and a horror fan. There's a new movie making the rounds at Sundance called "Moonshine." It's a vampire flick directed by a 20-year-old Stafford Springs, Ct. resident that stars local actors. The trailer looks pretty good, at the very least it's pretty. It certainly doesn't look like it cost this little:

ABOUT THE FILM:

Director Roger Ingraham, at 20 years old, shot his first full-length film, Moonshine, for a budget of $9200. His two years prior to the production were spent writing the script and researching how to shoot a quality full-length film with a very limited budget. As a vampire film, one of the essential elements that Moonshine strives for is the feeling of realism: the feeling that it's your town, your home, your family, and that, if something unexpected were to happen, you might react the same way.

At the forum on the site, the director talks a little about the production and the tough things he faced to get the movie made.

Anyway, I hope the movie is good and I'm looking forward to seeing it in theaters.

And while I'm thinking about horror and Connecticut, at Flickr a set of photos from the 1975 World Fantasty Convention (the first one) has been posted. Among the people pictured is Joseph Payne Brennan, one of the last famed Weird Tales writers and a librarian in New Haven.
Lots of other good people there as well, including a fascinating picture of a young Ramsey Campbell with long hair.

Moving on

I took "Airjack!" (formerly "Zeppelin Hijack") out to pasture. I brought it to an ending and I'm putting it away. Once I've forgotten about it, maybe I'll give it another look. Right now I hate it.

Today, I started on another story, and with this one I'm taking a detailed approach to planning it. I've created a summary, an outline and character sketches. I think I'm going to do more work with the character sketches next and then, when I feel like I've got all the pieces planned out, I'll start writing the actual story. It's another attempt on my part to find out what method would work best for me. This way will start out slower, but I'm hoping it keeps me from petering out on it before the end.

This new story is a horror story and concerns two main characters and a terrible transformation. It's a fairly traditional type of horror story, which I hope helps me with the structuring of it. I usually have good luck with horror stories, I think its a form I gravitate towards.

And while I'm thinking about writing, have you checked out Glen Hirshberg's blog yet? Besides being an interesting blog by an interest writer, he offers some good advice for writers. His most recent entry was about dialogue and how it's written. He's also written two entries on his Platitudes (Part 1 and Part 2). And one of his first entries was about getting your writing engine started. It's all good stuff and be sure to check out Hirshberg's fiction if you haven't yet.

Relax, books are here to stay

Some of the arguments for and against ereaders (like the SonyReader, which I originally talked about here) seem to turn on the idea that its either new technology or books, not both. I find that the most frustrating part of the argument. Even if ereaders do mean the end of the book, it's a long way down the line. People will have to be very used to ereaders before that ever happens. And I'm not sure it will ever happen.

Books have proven to be great technology. People still own books going back centuries. As Nick Mamatas once pointed out, how many 5 1/4" floppy disks are you still using? Books will always (at least, as far as I can imagine) have that leg up on other technologies: it doesn't become obsolete. If everyone is using an ereader a hundred years from now, they can still pick up a real book and read it.

As I see it, ereaders will be a choice, something we can use to read with if we so choose. It's for reading on the go. It's for reading things in the public domain that corporations don't want to publish. It's for reading manuals and technical stuff that you need to keep with you. With any luck, it will inspire new ways of reading short stories published on the Internet. (Wouldn't it be great to download the latest issue of The Fortean Bureau, for example, and read it on the road?)

Now, can we stop the hyperbole about the future of books and just talk about the possibilities ereaders can open to those of us who enjoy reading?

Winchester rifles and Gary Lucas

The end of the classic Winchester rifle and the closing of a factory here in Connecticut has sent guitarist Gary Lucas off into a fine reminiscince of his days as a sharp shooter at Yale. Fun post, check it out.

Robert E. Howard, 100 years old (if he weren't dead)

So Sunday was the 100th birthday of Robert E. Howard, famed creator of Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane and Bran Mak Morn among others. Howard was probably my second most important author when I was a child, the first being Tolkien. But my entryway to Howard came through The Savage Sword of Conan comic book magazine (here's one which may even be one of the one's I read back then).
My neighbor, a man in his 30s, gave me a copy of his Savage Sword comics because he thought I'd like them. And I did. They are perfect young male teen reading: lots of strange places, bizarre creatures and tough guys who knew exactly what to do. After a few issues, I started talking about them to my neighbor and he started saying things like, "well, if you liked that you should see what he did in the original story when..." That was it, I was hooked. I grabbed the first two books in the paperback series that was available in those days, the one's with the Frank Frazetta artwork and additional stories by Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp. The stories were second only to "Lord of the Rings" in my world.
I've loved them ever since and have reread many of the stories over the years. My favorite of what I've read was "Red Nails." How could I not love a story that begins with Conan and a woman being chased by a dinosaur and only gets weirder from there?
Over the last few years, I've been buying the new Conan collections as they come out and I look forward to reading the stories I never had a chance to read in the past: "The Hour of the Dragon" and most of the King Conan stuff. The books get the recommendation of Michael Dirda at the Washington Post, which makes me happy. Apparently, there was a big celebration of Howard's birthday in Texas, wish I could have been there.
Here's a few Web sites about the man:
REHoward.com
Cross Plains Howard page
The Robert E. Howard United Press Association
Wikipedia entry
Conan official Web site
Robert E. Howard archive
The Cimmerian journal
The Hour of the Dragon online
Howard ebooks

There is also a movie about Robert E. Howard called "The Whole Wide World" starring Vincent D'Onofrio and Renee Zellweger. The packaging of the DVD makes it look like a romance movie (which, I guess it is, a bit) but it's mainly a character study of Howard and Novalyne Price. D'Onofrio does a great job. I recommend it.

I want to read them

I must admit that the pictures of Beauty and the Book are pretty cool, as is this Book Bar. Nevertheless, the whole idea bugs me. Can you pull a book out of these structures to read it? If not, what's the point?

A fun day

Words came easy and I was happy with today as I followed "Zeppelin Hijack" (or "Airjack!) through its twisty path to nowhere. This pleasant feeling came despite starting writing later than I wanted to. I'm still a terrible procrastinator who avoids writing until the last second. And there's no good reason for it, because I feel so good after I've done it (or at least I feel that way today.)

At the same time, I'm thinking about my next story. I'm really going to do some prep work on this one, have characters and a plot worked out before I put a pen to the page (or fingers to the keyboard). It already appears to have a good structure and the beginnings of characters with real personalities. Now, I need to spend some time in a notebook scribbling down these basics. I do worry that doing that will kill the inspiration for the story, but we'll see.

There's a really thoughtful essay by Paul Graham called How to Do What You Love. It really makes you think about whether you really love what you think you love and what you should do about getting there. It has given me a lot to mull over, and I really think I should take some time and more seriously contemplate the questions. Anyway, it will be well worth your time. (Link found at But Wouldn't It Be Cool?)

Check out "Healing Hands"

Derek Kirk Kim has unleashed the first part of his new comic series, Healing Hands. I read his story Same Difference back when it was coming out as a serial and loved it. (It's now out in book form.) He does great work with characters, his visuals are pretty and, best of all, he can be very funny. I think you'll enjoy Healing Hands, I'm certainly looking forward to more of it.

Meandering

For the story I'm working on, I had no ending in mind when I started it. I just liked the concepts I was playing around with. But now I'm finding the story squirming out of my control. Things keep happening with no sense or purpose to them. There's no larger sense of things. Plus, I'm despairing that all my characters are either uninteresting blobs or parodies of characters.

Again, this is my problem once I start a story, nothing is ever right. Eventually I think the whole thing is crap and I should just give it up. After all, it's just a big waste of my time, right? I've managed to keep pushing through, but now I'm just looking for an ending, somewhere to get off this crazy ship.

Which gets me thinking about future stories. Maybe part of my problem is a lack of advance planning. Maybe I'm the type who needs to write outlines and character sketches and have detailed endings in mind. The reason I've avoided that is it doesn't feel like writing. I feel like I'm wasting time. Or, it just causes my doubts all that much earlier. Nevertheless, I think that's what I'm going to try next.

I also wonder if I'm more suited to writing novel length stories. I've completed Nanowrimo novels. I rarely complete first drafts of short stories (although, I would note that the short stories I do complete are almost always horror stories.) Maybe I'm just better at meandering.

Anyway, I wrote for another hour or so after I posted last night. This morning I wrote another page of story. I've put my characters into deep trouble and have no idea how I'm going to get them out, or how it will all end. We'll see what I can do by tomorrow.