Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, Characters, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, novels, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 27 Aug 2012| 2 Comments »
You’ve heard it before; my big deal when I’m writing is to “Write, don’t edit.” You know…don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can put off for months, right? Well, now that I’ve finished the writing bit, I can’t put it off any longer. I have to sit down and do what I’ve successfully avoided.
Editing is hard; everyone knows that, but why? I mean, why edit at all? Just run that puppy through the spell-checker and send it out, right? Wrong. Seriously wrong. (more…)
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, Characters, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 23 Aug 2012| 2 Comments »
The end of any writing project is an emotional time for me, and the level of that emotion marches in lockstep with the amount of time I’ve invested. Be it poem, short story, or novel, there is a point at which it’s time to say “goodbye.”
With novels, it can be a tough period to get through. As a kid, I was always labeled as “too sensitive.” I was the easy target for gibes and teasing. I’ve grown a tougher hide in recent years, but it’s just a façade. I still feel things deeply, and goodbyes are never easy. (more…)
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, Characters, cherryh, creative writing, eddings, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, Writing on 22 Aug 2012| Leave a Comment »
Folks, we are literally days away from completion of the first draft. It’s been a looooong time coming, I know. My readers have been exceedingly patient and very encouraging. My thanks and appreciation to you all.
In the last days of any project, I get rather manic. Okay, “testy” is probably a better word. “Obsessed” probably fits in there, too. All right, go ahead and add “hard to live with.”
I want to do nothing more than call in sick, stay home, sip whisky, and finish the damned thing. (more…)
Posted in Writing, tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, Characters, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, novels, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 07 Aug 2012| 1 Comment »
I’ve often heard actors say that they really prefer playing bad guys to good guys. Good guys are generally so…good. They’re simple, where bad guys are complicated; straightforward, where bad guys are conflicted.
I can understand this view and, based on how characters are written in most movies these days, I agree with it. In books, though, I think we have to do better than that.
Posted in Writing, tagged believable characters, books, Characters, novels, observation, research, Writing, writing novels, writing techniques, writing tips on 29 Jul 2012| Leave a Comment »
For me, the most powerful tool in a writer’s toolbox is the power of observation. It not only helps me create believable characters, it also gives me the ability to fill my worlds with believable detail. Some examples…
I was in the office when the wind-up clock stopped. It didn’t go tick-tock—tick—-tock, slowing as it reached the end of its wind, but just went tick-tock-tick-tock—-, ending suddenly and abruptly like some metronomic cardiac arrest. Odd.
My stomach growled at me this morning, and it sounded for all the world like it said, “Hello, Chuckles.” My guts have never spoken to me so explicitly before, but I’m glad we’re on such friendly terms; that hasn’t always been the case.
For her 60th birthday, I gave my sister a vintage electric clock from the ’40s. It didn’t tick like a mechanical clock but hummed as it worked the sweep second hand around the dial. My sister liked this especially, as it matched her feeling of time as a continuum. I prefer the mechanical heartbeat of a tick-tock clock, as I like to think of time having a constant, measured passage.
These details of life and character are just the sort of things that inform my writing, providing snippets of description or personality. Observation is such a critical skill that it has actually become a pasttime for us.
We can play this game anywhere–at a restaurant, waiting at a stop light, anywhere–just by looking around at the people around us. (Coffee shops are perfect for this game.) I’ll pick someone or she might pick a couple, and we’ll start building backstories for them, weaving a tale of why they are there, what they’re doing, and what they are feeling. These aren’t just wild imaginings, though; we base our story on the subject’s dress, movement, and behavior. Couple on their third date? Construction worker doing the shopping for a sick wife? Woman contemplating divorce?
The key to the game is that the stories must be believable, and must tie into the person we observe. While my wife enjoys the game simply for the mental exercise, I find that it hones my skills and heightens my awareness. If you aren’t aware, you cannot observe, and if you aren’t observant, then you’re creating characters and descriptions in a vacuum.
Characters have to be believable, consistent, and comprehensible to the reader, even if the setting is as alien as a moon or the 9th century. In all the historical research and reading of memoirs I have done in preparation for my novels, the one thing I have learned is that we, as people, have not changed much. The world surrounding us has transformed, technologies have changed, but human behavior remains remarkably consistent.
So keep your eyes and ears open. Stay frosty. Inspiration may be standing ahead of you in the checkout line.
k
Posted in Movies, tagged Characters, Movies, Writing on 23 Jun 2012| Leave a Comment »
One look at the cast list and we knew we had to see it, but I have to say, this is probably not a movie everyone will love as much as we did. And no matter how many superlatives I throw its way, for some folks (like many with us in the theater today) this movie will somehow, for some reason, miss the mark, fall flat, or just make them go “Hunh?”
For my money, though, it was brilliant. It was a perfect piece of craftsmanship. The acting, the writing, the cinematography, the art, the direction, it was all superb, absurd, and totally hilarious.
But humor is such a subjective thing. Ilene and I were laughing out loud through the whole movie–every shot, every scene, every performance was…just…a little bit…off center, over the top, surreal, comic. Every shot had some little bit of business in the background. Every scene had just a little bit of business as an aside. Every line, every angle, every bit of costume and set design was thoroughly thought out, and it was all both spot on for the period (1965) and subtly heightened, exaggerated, and lampooned.
This is, I think it fair to say, a movie goer’s movie. You have to have an appreciation for the craft to get many of the jokes, whether it’s the nearly clumsy camera work (each tracking and pan shot started with a little jerk and went a little wide of the mark at the end) or the nods to other movies (I dare you to watch the flood and not think of “The Shining”).
But even if you aren’t a devotee of the cinema, I still recommend it. The deadpan performances, the stiff-limbed gestures, all evocative of a school play or church pageant, are there for laughs, and the characters that populate the story are unique, memorable, and priceless. When Bill Murray comes into the room, half naked, bottle of wine in hand, goes into the closet, takes out an axe, and announces, “I’ll be out back,” it’s a marvel of understated comedy. And the movie is chock-a-block with moments like that.
See it.
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 