Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, blogging, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, Writing on 13 Aug 2012| 1 Comment »
Another chapter down.
For the professionals out there, this may not seem like much, but for me, especially after the last two weeks I’ve had at the day-job, it’s very good progress.
More to the point, for my patient readers, I have completed a major group of “character” chapters (see post on Pacing), and those are always the hardest to write.
Now comes a group of “action” chapters, which tend to go much more quickly.
k
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, blogging, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 13 Aug 2012| 3 Comments »
A word about pacing.
In my books, chapters tend to fall into two categories: chapters that deal primarily with characters, and chapters that have a lot of action. When I outline my book (yes, way back at the beginning), I think about these two types. Do I have the mix of action/character chapters that I want? Are they interspersed the way I want them to be?
The answers to these questions dramatically change the result. The extremes explain it. Go all-action chapters and you get “The Bourne Ultimatum” where if you go with all-character chapters, you get “Little Women.” Of course, each of these (especially in novel form), you have some of the other type of chapter. You might not think of it as such, but a chapter with Jo and a meeting of the Pickwick Society is an action chapter; important things happen, and the characters do not resolve major internal conflicts. Character chapters in a “Bourne” novel are easier to spot, mostly because nothing blows up and speeding cars aren’t involved.
And, naturally, each chapter has a soupçon of its counterpart. Nothing in writing is Boolean.
Then, once I’ve determined the mix of chapters in my outline, I look at how they’re arranged and see the “rhythm” of the pacing. Consider these two examples:
Which of these seems like the more interesting? Which one looks like the pacing of the action “beats” will better drive the story? I vote for the second.
Of course, there’s no hard and fast rule, but most successful stories have a rising level of action as the plot unfolds. Tension rises, and partially relaxes, rises some more, and relaxes, rises more and more, to the climactic moments, and the story resolves. Action, in its various degrees, helps drive the tension. Action provides the pace of the conflict.
k
Posted in Writing, tagged blogging, creative writing, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 10 Aug 2012| Leave a Comment »
I’m wrapping up my second month on this blog (boy, do I wish there was another word for this thing; “blog” just sounds so…indiscreet), and I thought it proper to do a little retrospective on the process.
First, a big thank you to all those who have visited, read, and decided to follow this “scream of consciousness.” It’s always humbling (and not a little surprising) when complete strangers from around the world take an interest in what I write. Your attention is noted and greatly appreciated because, after all, writing is only half the process; readers are key. (more…)
Posted in Writing, tagged amazon, Amazon Sales Rank, blogging, books, creative writing, novels, publishing, statistics, Writing, writing tips on 27 Jul 2012| 2 Comments »
Yesterday was an interesting day on the KRAG blog.
Being supremely new to blogging (Week 5), I’ve been watching the “Stats” page with interest. WordPress provides a nice collection of statistics which—depending on what you see—can be either fascinating or depressing. I’ve been watching the blog-stats bounce along: the number of daily views within easy reach of zero, fewer followers than eggs in a carton, most traffic sourced specifically from my “author” page over on Facebook.
Then, yesterday, a spike: I had views from India, Canada, the UK, Israel, and New Zealand; the number of views was more than double the average; and several folks took the time to leave comments. I asked myself: What the hell happened, and why?
And this reminded me of Amazon.com and their maddening “Sales Rank.”
Of course, I had been aware of Amazon’s “Sales Rank” for a long time, but it really meant nothing to me. I never buy a book because it’s a bestseller. I only buy books because they are recommended or because they just sound interesting. Sales Rank? Who cares? Pas moi.
But when my first novel went for sale up on Amazon, I did a complete 180. Suddenly, nothing was more important than that damned Sales Rank. I began tracking it, checking in on it hourly, in fact, entering what I found in a spreadsheet. I found websites devoted to the tracking of the Amazon Sales Rank. I watched my book’s ranking trend upward, break upward into the 6-digits, into 5-digits, back to six, up again, back again. It would change radically, without discernable logic, bouncing from a low rank of over 1 million up to under 60,000. Then, one day, as I repeatedly hit F5 to refresh my screen, it bounced up to around 1,400.
Number 1,400!! Out of millions! Boy-o-boy! I was on my way!!
When I hit refresh again, it was back at #90,000. What the hell happened? And why?
I did more research, found article upon article purporting to divine the math, method, and meaning behind these numbers. Taken in the aggregate, however, it quickly became clear that no one really knows how the Amazon Sales Ranks are calculated.
I stepped back, and thought again about what the Amazon Sales Rank meant to me as a reader. This arcane, inscrutable number meant nothing to me as a reader or purchaser of books, so it probably meant little to the public at large.
Of course, the stats associated with my blog have a little more meaning—each new reader is potentially a new person who might want to read one of my books—but should I spend time tracking the stats and trying to discern the reason they spiked or dipped? Shouldn’t I spend my time on more meaningful and productive efforts? Damned straight.
It comes back to why I do this: for the love of writing, and for the conversations it engenders. It doesn’t matter to me if this blog has 20 readers or 20,000; it’s the writing, the connection, and the interactions with readers and other writers that count most.
k
Posted in Writing, tagged blogging, creative writing, novel writing, short story writing, Writing on 02 Jul 2012| Leave a Comment »
No one has said it yet; they don’t have to. There’s already a little schoolmarm voice in my head that says it loud and clear:
You shouldn’t be wasting time with a blog! You should be writing!
True, and yet…
Working on posts and pages for this blog takes time; I cannot deny it. But what I have found is that the time spent on the blog isn’t really wasted. On the contrary, I find that writing here invigorates my drive to write and exercises my technique. It also reinforces my love of the written word as I play with phrases and concentrate on the structure and focus of the much shorter form a blog post requires.
Just as a musician must work at scales and etudes, and just as a painter may create a small study for a larger work, so must a writer flex and build up literary “muscle.” When I had more time (and to be honest, more discipline), I would exercise my chops by writing a short story, but that in itself is a large expenditure of effort, especially when compared to the usually small and isolated payoff.
Thus, most importantly, I find that a blog post gives me an immediate payoff, as well as providing possible feedback via comments and re-blogs. These two things are very strong motivators, and are simply not part of the long marathon of writing a novel (especially for a Basher, like me).
So now, when that schoolmarm voice goes off in my head, I shall remember that time spent on this blog is not necessarily time wasted, and that every art and skill requires practice and study.
Posted in Culture, tagged blogging, General on 23 Jun 2012| Leave a Comment »
Okay, folks, here we go.
I’ve decided to give this blogging a try, since Facebook is not a good place for rumination and Twitter–well, Twitter is just silly. Also, I rather like the interface here on WordPress, and can combine my old website, my shared files, and this greater discussion venue together into one big package.
I am laying the groundwork for several static pages; these will replace my old TimePaths website and my GoogleDocs file-store. these will come online as time permits. We’ll start with the novel chapters, move to recipes, and then include smaller works.
For now, though, let’s get the ball rolling.
k
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 