What did you feel like when you finished writing your first novel?

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for organizing and hosting the Insecure Writers Support Group every month. Go to his blog to see the other participants, and understand what the group is all about.

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I’ve been away the past two weeks, traveling, writing, offline. I wrote the last two chapters of my novel. They came easily, but also gave me a lot of anguish. I don’t know how much of myself I’ve put in the novel, in the characters, or the plot, but it is clear that parts of it upset me. The darkness of the subject matter, I suppose. Nearly all my writing has dark undertones. Though I almost always end on a note of hope, it is definitely painful for me and those who live with me!

The view outside my window in Malaysia

This time, I had a beautiful horizon to gaze at while I wrote (thanks to a very kind Malaysian friend who lives in front of this view), so the words came easier. Something about gazing at the open seas makes me feel small, unimportant, and with little responsibility. That’s how I want to feel sometimes — because then the onus of finishing, say, a 91,000-word manuscript, is not so much on me. The sunsets were gorgeous, and made me think not-so-sadly of the sunset of my characters.

Sunset from my Malaysian window

I lay down and did not get up for four days after I finished, flattened out by a series of backaches and headaches after I came back home. No amount of stretching and medication helped, so I went into hibernation. I’ve emerged after the weekend, shaky, sore, and ready to take on the world. I’m not sure what caused the systemic breakdown, but I’m glad it’s over.

Now, a break while I brush my blogs (namely, the A to Z Challenge — sign up now, if you haven’t already!), short stories, my reading, and my life. Then it is back to the novel — the grind of revisions, of edits, re-writes, more revisions.

What have You been up to in the last month?

Does Your Story Choose You?

Vrishchik Chaturvedi: Character Storyboard

The last few days, I’ve been researching my latest project, (I dare not call it a novel yet) and some of it has been nauseating.

I had to figure out everything possible about flaying  (don’t ask me why) and I was a little apprehensive–material like this would be hard to find, I thought. Apparently not. When I fed various sadistic keywords related to skinning a human body into Google, I was shocked to see the graphic details available on certain websites.

I have now borrowed books from the library which have diagrams and descriptions, and am making notes in between drinking camomile tea to keep myself calm. It is kind of hard to comprehend what humans are capable of doing to other humans.

All this begs the question (which someone asked me yesterday) : why do I have to write on a subject I can’t study with a straight face?

Because, like I told my questioner, I can’t help it.

The story has been haunting me for a while, three years, to be exact. It started with a voice that wouldn’t be denied, a character who spoke first in my notebook at a group writing session, then at a blogfest, and several times afterwards, including this week at another blogfest. His name is Vrishchik Chaturvedi. He is real now and has known it for a while– has said so, too. And his story is now taking shape, and tormenting me while at it.

I’m in control in the outside world, but he’s the lord of the world of my writing, and that is why I find myself, a girl who is afraid of the dark, who cannot sit through gory movies (not even relatively non-heavy-duty, harmless ones like I Know What You Did Last Summer), now writing about this guy who scares the living daylights out of her.

My story has chosen me, and I’ve decided I might as well get it out of my system.

So my question to the writers amongst you: Do you choose the story you’re going to write, or does the story choose you?

On Days When I Don’t Want to Listen…

….I write quite a bit, because:

Writing to Shut You Up

This is true. When I keep writing, I don’t really have to listen to anyone other than me and the characters in my head, and that is a blessing for those times when listening to real people in real life becomes tiresome.

Do you ever write to shut out the noise?

Writers, Why Are Character Lists a Waste of Time?

Different writers have different takes on building characters.

Last week you read Melody Kaufmann’s take on Characterization, and this week we have writer Derek Flynn with his take.  Would love to hear what other writers think…tell us your take in the comments!

Handing over the blog to Derek….

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Characters, characters

As aspiring writers, we all search out any and all advice on writing that we can find. When I started writing seriously, one of the pieces of advice that I saw a lot (when it came to creating characters) was to compile a list of your character’s traits, likes, dislikes, etc. Often, you would find huge lengthy lists which you were to fill in so as to get to “know” your character better. Having written for a number of years now, I can safely say these “character lists” are a complete waste of time. (In fact, they’re up there with the “Write what you know” rule. If we all only wrote what we know, there’d be no science-fiction, no fantasy, no horror, and so on. All we’d have is novels where people went to work every day, watched some TV at night, and went to the cinema at weekends. Exciting!)

Now, before I go any further, I’m not here to disabuse anyone of any techniques that work for them. Whatever floats your boat. This is just my two cents.

So why are “character lists” a waste of time?

In my time on Twitter, I’ve seen so many writers talk about a voice or a character entering their heads and how they just had to tell that character’s story.

This is very true. It happens to us all as writers; we’re inspired to write a character’s story. And we KNOW the character. We must do. They’ve inspired us enough to want to tell their story after all. We don’t know everything about them. We may not know what kind of car they drive, what they eat for breakfast or what TV shows they watch, but we know the kind of person they are. And that’s enough to begin with.

We can start the story there and as we write we will find out more about the character. Indeed, that’s the fun: watching the character grow organically as you tell the story, rather than requiring them to meet some preset list of traits. Surely, if we want to create believable characters – characters that readers will empathise with – they should react to the situations we place them in, rather than merely have them ticking off a checklist? (Drives a Porsche? Check. Eats muesli? Check. Watches True Blood? Check.)

Joseph Campbell famously outlined the journey of the “hero” character in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, describing a set of stages that is common to all myths and stories.

And while this may be the case – while there may only be a finite number of plots or character types – the fact is, every character is different. Every character should react in their own idiosyncratic way to whatever situation they find themselves in.

As author Neil Gaiman has said: “I think I got about half way through The Hero with a Thousand Faces and found myself thinking if this is true – I don’t want to know … I’d rather do it because it’s true and because I accidentally wind up creating something that falls into this pattern than be told what the pattern is.” And I have to say, I agree with him.

Am I wrong? (It’s very possible. It wouldn’t be the first time.) Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Derek Flynn

Derek Flynn is an Irish writer and musician. He’s been published in a number of publications, including The Irish Times, and was First Runner-Up in the 2011 J. G. Farrell Award for Best Novel-In-Progress. His writing/music blog – ‘Rant, with Occasional Music’ – can be found here . You can also find him on  Twitter .

What D’n D Taught me About Characterization

As part of the continued guest post series, today we have writer Melody Kaufmann, a lovely blog-friend and twitter buddy!

I love the characterizations in her work, and invited her to talk about it in this post. Take it away Melody!

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D&D is a group of friends essentially “acting out” a story, not unlike a movie.  In any story, good characterization is essential. Good characterization, in a novel, avoids author intrusion, and provides the reader with what my oldest child calls “movies for the brain”. For this to occur the author needs to “build the characters” which is what each player does at the start of a D&D game. In both there is a challenge and reward to “artistically representing human character and motive” in a believable and engaging manner.  The purpose in both cases is to create a story that others will enjoy.

Everything I know about characterization I learned by playing D&D. Ok not everything… but many things I learned while role-playing influence the method I use to create my characters. Webster defines characterization as “the artistic representation (as in fiction or drama) of human character or motives”. Characteristics and motives are what the reader uses to identify each character as an individual. Any writer can become published but real success for a writer comes from being read. Characterization is a part of what determines whether or not a work will be read. Here are a few tips for making your characterization work:

1>    Don’t kill everyone – parents, siblings, extended family give a character, particularly a main character, depth. If they have nothing to lose & no one that matters to them then why do we care about them? Relationships forge a character’s personality. Would Dr. Yueh betray Duke Leto if he had no one he loved? The Pet Sematary is only a local legend if Dr. Creed is a single man with no family.  The ties that bind sway character actions, change the entire plot, provide a WHY, and make us laugh. Don’t cut them.

2>    All good / all evil = boring – Even Voldemort’s back-story is one that evokes a certain amount of pity.  Batman is more popular than Superman because he is a less-than-perfect Dark Knight unlike the Man of Steel. Humans are rarely flawlessly good or entirely evil. This is why there are so many different alignments in D&D. A character’s identity is built from education, race, religious beliefs, and cultural background. Who he/she is and how he/she thinks should flow from the logical impact of each of these elements.

3>    Individuality is important but so is commonality – Characters with commonalities in same education, race, religious beliefs, and cultural background will share similarities. This doesn’t mean that all characters of a certain race or religion will be identical. It doesn’t happen in life so it doesn’t make sense in writing (unless you are writing about clones).  The point is that you must balance logical commonality with character individuality.

4>    Give your character a voice – Writers must think carefully about how each character sounds and behaves.  Different speech patterns and personalities add flavor to a story but not if it flies in the face of logic.  Favored sayings, personality quirks, and speech patterns should make sense as the by-product of the character’s background.  A lot of what connects readers to one character over another exists in the form of facial expressions, movement, and personality traits. This is the meat of characterization– getting the reader intimately acquainted with the characters. Here is where the reader decides who they like and who they hope doesn’t make it.  Characterization is the writer’s tool for sculpting the reader’s opinion.

5>    Make a Question list – I have a list of 20 questions that is indispensable. The idea came from my amazing husband who did much DM’ing (Dungeon Mastering) over the years. Moving from basic things (place of birth, appearance) through personality details (their goal in life, would they sell out) brings each character alive. I have multiple versions for short stories, novels, and series. An abbreviated version is usually enough for supporting characters. The list reminds me what the reader wants to know. It gets me fully acquainted with my characters. Not every bit of it appears in my story but as a writer, intimate knowledge of a character is an utter necessity to maintain consistency.

Sample Characterization List

There are many other things I’ve learned and not all of them from role-playing. Characters can save or ruin a story.  Invest in them and your reader will become invested as well.

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Melody-Ann Kaufmann

Melody-Ann Kaufmann is a Systems Developer for University of Florida, wife of a techno genius, a student completing her MS in Information Security, mother of two autistic children, writer, geek, gamer, anime & manga consumer, avid reader of eclectic works, web comic connoisseur, and the owner of a horse-sized dog. She can be found on Twitter @Safireblade & FaceBook here. Her fledgling website can be found at Safireblade.com.

Writing Memories for Your Characters

Childhood Memories by Pigarot on DeviantArt

One of the first memories I have of myself is burying a lamb bone in the garden, hoping to grow a Meat Tree. I was two/three years old, loved lamb curry, and meat was scarce in our diet.

While I don’t know if that particular memory would some day make its way into a story, I know quite a few incidents/scenes in my published stories have transformed from memory to page. In doing so, they may have lost some of their circumstantial  truth, but they have gained a fictional truth, and a wider resonance…I’ve been told by readers it made them feel it was them out there, that it brought back memories.

I think most authors use their childhood/growing up/adult memories in their writing. Most fiction borrows from truth. An author is like an hourglass, memories trickle down and become fiction.

But nowadays, I’ve begun to indulge in a new activity: writing memories for my characters. Using exercise from the book “Old Friend From Far Away” by Natalie Goldberg, which is all about writing memoirs, I pretend I’m a character, and then write down his/her memories—sense impressions of an event or a particular moment. Writing character memories helps in two ways: getting into the skin of the character, and also generating new material for my WIP.

Fiction is all about the game of pretend, and I’m quite enjoying this particular game that helps me shape characters and write scenes.

Have you ever tried writing the memories/memoirs of your characters?

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Rule of Three Fiction Blogfest

Sign up for the Rule of Three Blogfest, a month-long shared-world fiction extravaganza starting 5th October— with some great prizes, and of course, a lot of fun and exposure for your writing. This is one Blogfest fiction authors ought not to miss. 

Bad Movies Give Birth to Fiction

Alex J Cavanaugh decrees in his blogfest:

On Monday, September 19, post a list of up to ten of the worst movies you’ve ever had the misfortune to watch. Films that just oozed awfulness and featured plot holes so big you could drive a bus through them.

Alex's Worst Movies Ever Blogfest

So without further ado, I present the 10 worst movies ever, imho, but instead of writing about them, I’ll use as many of their titles in a piece of flash fiction (that would hopefully make more sense than the movies it was inspired by, lol.) Hopefully Alex forgives the liberty I’ve taken…(* I’ll run hide under the table right after posting this*

So here are my 10 worst picks:

1.   Heaven’s Gate (1980)                           2. Mommie Dearest (1981)

3. Showgirls (1995)                                     4.   Battlefield Earth (2000)

5. Sweet Home Alabama (2002)              6. Gigli (2003)

7.   The Room (2003)                                 8.   Derailed (2005)

9.   Alone in the Dark (2005)                   10.  I don’t know How she does it (2011)

So, ahem, now for the flash fiction:

Mommie Dearest, M.D.

Mother to Son, Mary Gallagher Stout

I don’t know how she does it, but Mommie dearest manages to derail my life every time she steps into it, which is often. By Mommie dearest, or MD (as I call her when I’m alone in the dark), I mean my wife Gigli’s mother.

Mine, bless her, gave up the ghost when I was still a fairly runt-sized boy, and just about the only thing I remember of that woman is the smack of her hand on my bottom.

MD uses big words like Heaven’s Gate, Hellfire, the Earth as a Battlefield Between Good and Evil. I’ve grown up with small words like cold, hunger, roof, money, food, knife, rain, dark, sun, blood, water, hate, winter, and done just fine.

So MD’s words are lost on Gigli and me, who, unknown to her mother, is a showgirl at a gig I got her in the next town, Muck City, in our sweet old state of Alabama. Gigli is what they call her there, and what I call her ever since I married her ten years ago. MD calls her Gertrude.

Just yesterday, MD stopped by, and tried yet again to take me to church, being Sunday and all. She calls herself my soul-doctor.  It has always been like that in my marriage; me, Gigli, and MD makes three.

I left, of course, so Gigli could deal with her mother like she always does. I got drunk as a skunk, and came back home hoping MD had left. Not.

So I went to The Room, where I take all ladies who remind me of MD, to be alone with them in the dark. Knife, blood, Heaven’s Gate, we did it all, as usual—me and the woman I found. I left her in a trash bag, the letters M and D scrawled on her pitted bottom.

I’m tired now, and if you know me, you’ll know I’m a man of few words. I like it straight and narrow. So the next time MD stops by, she comes with me to The Room, and I don’t care what Gigli has to say about it. I’ll make an honest, spiritual M.D. out of her yet.

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A to Z Stories of Life and Death

If you liked this piece and would like to browse through more of my work, check out  A to Z Stories of Life and Death, available on Kindle and Smashwords.

P.S: The story came from the movie titles and the picture, and I took it down as it came. It is not meant to offend sensibilities.

In which Kartar Singh Fights Himself

Kartar Singh, the Betta Fish

Uncle Kartar Singh fought with everyone. And no, he is not a character out of fiction.

He was our neighbor, and as a five-year-old I remember how his kids could never go out and play on the street with other children their age, because their father had had words (and blows) with almost every male in the neighborhood.

I have a beautiful pale orange Betta fish which reminds me of Uncle Kartar Singh. He hated all the algae-eaters when he was put in my 4-ft aquarium, and wasn’t shy about expressing himself.

And now the quarrelsome fish, all of 2 inches, has a home of his own, a tiny 1ft aquarium, to himself.

He moped throughout yesterday when I put him in, finding no one  to pick a quarrel with.

But today, he is busy fighting with another orange Betta fish. He flares and flashes, feints, rushes up and down, threatens and head-butts the glass wall.

Of course Kartar Singh’s enemy copies him, because I have put a mirror right outside his aquarium.

I’m so tempted to put a Kartar Singh in my book, only I already have a flash piece featuring a Betta fish.

Meet more people from inside my head

Picture Writing Prompt: The Ascension of Roth

The regular posts in April (thanks to A-Z challenge) brought my blog closer to its name: Daily (w)rite.

I’m by no means a disciplined blogger. I have created a schedule on Amlokiblogs, my writing blog, and let it go to the four winds.

And for this month, life will be a little busier than usual, which means I have to be a clever thief, steal a little time here and there, to get down to what I love doing best, writing.

I used to do picture prompts before, so I’ll attempt one now, to see if I can make my escape in ten minutes before I go to bed, visit unknown people and regions inside my own head:

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Roth felt Dagar pressing down on him, the relentless hand pushing into his head, bidding him to kill and get it over with. He would be King, and Dagar would remain the Kingmaker.

Roth knew he could spill a little blood, and win this whole thing. People respect you if you can kill, or fear you. Most people confuse the two, but he knew the difference.

As a child, his grandma had never raised her voice, but he jumped to her requests. He got the crap beaten out of him by his father, often literally, who took Slash to him at the least excuse. Slash left welts all over his back, but strengthened his resolve to punish his father one day, and free grandma from her son’s clutches.

But punishment did not extend to snuffing out a life. Especially if the death led to his ascension, just as it had for all his ancestors. Dagar made sure the son killed the father and enslaved the mother, generation after generation.

But today, in the corner of Roth’s head where no one had even stepped in, not even Roth himself, the first seed of thought had burst open: I will forgive. I will not be King.  No King, no Kingmaker, no Dagar.

Amid his blinding anger and hate, the fumes of incense, the chanting of a thousand voices, and the tolling of a million bells, Roth resisted Dagar’s hand.

The knife meant for his father crept towards his own throat: I will not spill any blood save mine.

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A-Z: O is for Okay

Writing prompt: OKAY

Provided by:  RosieC , fellow participant of the A to Z challenge.Visit her! Please leave me prompts if you haven’t already!  And many thanks also to Vicky Roy for the photograph, and the inspirational story behind his life. I have added links to unfamiliar words.

Genre: Fiction/Flash

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O=Okay, Photo Copyright: Vicky Roy, Ragpicker turned Lensman

Raju woke up each morning to the sight of his mother’s rear end. She lay with her back turned towards him, her flower-printed maxi knotted between her thighs, not two feet away on a metal bunk fixed to the wall opposite.

As he clambered down from his perch, taking care not to awaken his siblings asleep on the various bunks beneath him, he wondered how people lived in a house which had a room for each activity: one for cooking, one for sleeping in, one for people to just talk and watch TV, yet another to sit and eat. In the Bollywood movies he had seen, the heroes and heroines lived in such palaces, and walked from room to room. They seemed so lonely.

Beneath the lowest bunk, he fumbled around for the matches, lit the stove and set water to boil. Mumbai never grew  cold, but it was December and the air in his kholi held a  slight chill at dawn. He made himself some tea, but left the milk alone. Mother needed it for his toddling sister.

In the semi-dark, he pulled on a t-shirt from the nearest peg, threading his fingers through the holes that riddled its front, stifling a giggle.  His younger siblings liked to tickle him through the holes on the evenings he babysat them.  From under the sink, he dragged out a pair of mismatched boots his mother had found, stuck some rags into them so they won’t hang loose on his small, nine-year-old feet, and tied the pieces of string that worked as shoelaces. In his sack, he took some extra rags to tie on his hands and mouth later when he reached the dump.He had learnt in the last two years that a nose without roiling stink and a hand protected from cuts found more booty.

He bowed to the picture of Lord Ganesha, and waved a salute at the poster of Shah Rukh beside it, under the lowest bunk on the wall opposite the sink.

“One day, I’ll rule Mumbai,” he said, mimicking Shah Rukh’s screen accent and hiccupy laughter. He picked up paper soap and tooth brush from the carton in the corner to try his luck at the common restrooms of  the chawl. He had woken early enough to find an empty sink, or maybe even a vacant toilet.

“Raju, you’re leaving?” groaned his mother from the top bunk. As usual.

“Yes, Ma.”

“Make sure to bring everything in different bags, okay, and today try to find something we can really sell, okay?”

“Yes, Ma.”

Maybe today was the day, who knew? Just like Lakhan two months ago, who had found a stash of notes  in an old carboard bag while rifling through the trash.

As he pulled the door of his kholi shut, Raju whistled a tune. He thought not of the stench to come, the filth, or the sun on his back, but instead of the surprises the day might bring. He knew he was going to be okay.

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I’m tweeting A to Z posts at #atozchallenge  There is also the A to Z Challenge Daily with links to Tweeted A-Z posts over the last 24 hours.

Thanks and shout-outs to organisers Arlee Bird (Tossing It Out) , Jeffrey Beesler’s (World of the Scribe),  Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh) , Jen Daiker ( Unedited), Candace Ganger (The Misadventures in Candyland) , Karen J Gowen  (Coming Down the Mountain) , Talli Roland ,  Stephen Tremp (Breakthrough Blogs )