metafiction

I saw an interesting movie this past weekend The Words.
This is a metafiction film. Here, by metafiction, I mean fiction about fiction, or more specifically, fiction which refers to or takes as its subject fictional writing and its conventions.

In a nutshell, here's the plot: a famous author, Hammond, reads portions of his novel to the public. Hammond's novel is about an author, Jansen, publishing a novel via a circuitous route. Jansen's novel is the story of yet another author, referred to as "the old man."
Are you confused yet? :) Actually, the levels within levels aspect of it really reminded me of the 2010 movie Inception, which had dreams within dreams within dreams.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed this. Of course, writers are predisposed to like movies about writers. One of the neatest aspects of it was the concept that writers might prefer their fictions to their reality. I know I like some of my fictional characters better than some of the real characters I know. :)

Can reality ever live up to our imagination?

Or, put another way, are the sacrifices an author makes for their art worth it? At what point has a writer given up too much of his/her real life?

What do you choose: fiction or reality?

optimism or pessimism in fiction

I just finished an awesome book This Shared Dream by Kathleen Ann Goonan in which the characters tried to eliminate war and suffering on Earth.

It reminded me of fascinating comments made by Robert J. Sawyer in reference to his WWW Trilogy in an interview. I asked about the idea of a moral arrow through time: "the same force-complexity-that produces consciousness also naturally generates morality, and that as interdependence increases, both intelligence and morality will increase."

He said, You may say I'm a dreamer-but I'm not the only one. My own thinking on these issues has been informed by many other people, including the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and nonfiction author Robert Wright, who wrote Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny and more recently The Evolution of God. Bob and I were recently both speaking at a public-policy conference in Washington, DC., sponsored by the New America Foundation; it was the first time we'd met, and we've become friends. But, yes, I'm a dreamer, and an optimist, but I'm also a realist, I think-and I don't think those are contradictory things to be.
This fiction is uplifting and optimistic! Optimism in fiction can be very effective.

At the other extreme, I just started reading The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi. This book is very dark and dramatic. The teaser copy says Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.

This reminds me of fascinating comments made by Warren Hammond in reference to his KOP Trilogy in an interview. I asked: SF academic Edward James has said "the ability of the writer to imagine a better place in which to live died in the course of the twentieth century, extinguished by the horrors of total war, of genocide and of totalitarianism." Do you agree? Disagree?

He said, I've never heard that before, but I have to agree. I don't think it's true for all writers, but it is for me. I've seen the ovens of Auchwitz and toured S-21, the Khmer Rouge's infamous prison that held an estimated 17,000 prisoners between 1975 and 1979. Of the 17,000 prisoners who went in, there were only seven survivors. Seven.

The truly horrifying thing is knowing these atrocities were committed by regular people. Not all Nazis were monsters. And not all Khmer Rouge were monsters. Many were patriots. Many were idealists. Many were just scared to stand up to authority.

Knowing how easy it is for humans to kill each other, I find it impossible to imagine a future where our problems will all be solved.
Very dramatic! Clearly, pessimism can also be very effective in fiction.

What's your preference in reading and writing? Optimism or pessimism?

keep learning

This week is exciting. Starting Friday Sept. 7, I'll all be at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's annual conference: Colorado Gold. I can't recommend this conference enough. There will be lots of special speakers and guests including Jodi Thomas, Debra Dixon, Beth Miller, Jennifer Unter, Katharine Sands, Anita Mumm, Carlie Webber, Nephele Tempest, James Minz, Erika Imranyl, Peter Senftleben, Liz Pelletier, Libby Murphy, and Terri Bischoff.
There will tons of panels and workshops. In short there will be many, many opportunities for learning about writing. If you've signed up already: Great! See you there! If not, there are a few spots still available, or consider it for next year.

The point I'm trying to make, however is, writers need to keep learning and improving their craft. How? Well, I'll tell you. :)

• Write! This is the most important thing. Your writing can't evolve if you don't write.
• Get feedback and consider it. This can be a critique group or beta reader or whatever, but it needs to be honest feedback. As a writer, then, you need to consider this. I'm absolutely not saying you need to do what readers or critiquers tell you to do.
• Read and study fiction. Try to decipher what works and what doesn't work. Think about it. Write it down. Talk it over with your significant other or writer friend.
• Read and study writing about writing. There are a lot of good books, articles, and blog entries out there about writing. What are my favorites? That's a tough choice, but some good books include: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon, On Writing by Stephen King, Story by Robert McKee, and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. I'm sure you have your own favorites. If not, find some. :)
• Your learning suggestion here.

Happy learning!

the publishing process

Even though this is making the rounds I can't resist... Former awesome agent, and current awesome author Nathan Bransford has a hilarious blog post: The Publishing Process in GIF Form. Check it out!

Phew! The End!

I just sent off the last chapters of my most recent novel. Phew! This was a tough one. I think I've been working on it for about three years (along with several other projects). What took so freaking long? Well, I'll tell you...I didn't know where I was going when I started out. I ended up having to do a lot of rewriting regarding plot. It's a kind of thriller and it has a lot of twists and turns. I also decided I needed an antagonist, so I added an entire other pov character.
Suffice, to say, I don't recommend this process. BUT I do recommend doing whatever works for you. My methods are inefficient, but they work for me.

So now, I can rest on my laurels, right? Nope. I have to work on the synopsis and query for this project and update my webpage.

And then there are those other projects I've been working on...

Good luck with your WIPs!

lay and lie

For some reason, I still struggle with the whole lay versus lie thing.
The most common verb forms of lay are:
lay (present), laid (past), laid (past participle) and laying (present participle).
While the most common verb forms of lie are:
lie (present), lay (past), lain (past participle) and lying (present participle).

Furthermore, lay means to place something or to put something on something, while lie means to recline. In other words, "lay" means the subject is acting on something or someone else, and so must take a direct object. But, "lie" means the actor is doing something to herself, and so is a complete verb.
So, as someone who usually writes in past tense, and often has her characters recline, I need to remember lay! How about you? Do you lie? lay? get laid? :)

Why do I have so much trouble remembering this? It's a mystery.
Good luck with your own grammatical conundrums. :)

writers emotions

I went to a two-day writers conference recently. It was busy. We had various workshops in which we had to do a bunch of writers exercises, and there was a panel, and a performance.

I've never seen so many tears at a conference! A lot of the tears were from the authors themselves when they shared their pieces--several of which were inspired by real life experiences. I myself wasn't immune. Of course, when writing is emotional and when writers are emotional, it does tend to be a bit contagious. Also, there were some tears during the panel when the question was raised if writing is "worth it" when success is so elusive. All writers wrestle with this question. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to define "success" in way that enables him/her to keep writing.

But bigger picture... It's imperative for writers to bring emotion to their work. It's difficult to evoke emotion in the reader if there's no emotion on the page. I know for my part, the pieces I got emotional while writing were the ones that sold.

So, good luck being emotional!