Better Writing Through Diversity

As someone singularly-focused on making that step into publication (and beyond!), it’s easy to lose sight of the craft itself, of the foundational aspects that every writer needs to have in his bag of tricks. Things like Dialogue, Characterization, Exposition, etc.

All of these things should come into play in the normal course of a story. However, I have a tendency to spend more time on the areas I am comfortable with and enjoy (Dialogue) and less on the parts I don’t care for (Descriptions - yuck). I try to force the issue in my stories, but find that the confines of the story don’t give me enough room to grow.

To that point, I’m going to start doing different kinds of writing… I’m not talking Fantasy vs Sci-Fi, but rather, short stories vs poetry. Or screenplays. Here’s my thinking:

• poetry: improve my descriptive prowess and add a lyrical quality to my writing
• screenplays / comics: writing for the visual arts places a heavy emphasis on dialogue and characterization through action

The idea of writing a screenplay or comic book is intoxicating, something I’ve always wanted to do. Poetry… not so much, but I feel it’s necessary to introduce some different kinds of fiber into my writing diet. Still.. maybe I’ll put-off the poetry lessons for a bit longer… I’m suddenly dying to pen my own superhero comic.

Book Report for February

Continuing with my goal to read a writing-related book each month and post my thoughts here… I just concluded Damon Knight’s Creating Short Fiction. Like the book I read for January, I snagged this one at the library.

I’d heard mention of Knight’s how-to on writing several times over the years – in other books, forums, etc. The context was always positive, many considering it a must-have, if not the book to own on crafting short stories. So going in I had high hopes.

Boy was I disappointed.

It’s not that it is a bad book by any means. Knight knows what he’s talking about, and I respect the fact that he had a long career. He must’ve been doing something right.

It’s not that I didn’t learn anything from him either. My biggest problem with the book is that Knight’s approach to writing is overly formulistic, to the point of drawing elaborate diagrams, reducing art into equation.

As someone who writes from the gut, I had a hard time plodding through the material. Writing may not be the sexiest of topics, yet I always feel a thrill when browsing the shelves for my next how-to on the craft. I love to read about writing. But though I finished the book (once committed, I rarely walk away from something), my excitement died before the quarter mark.

Still, I always enjoy hearing from those who have done it before, and well. The portion I valued most was one of Knight’s published shorts annotated with the author’s comments about what he was thinking at the time, decisions he made and why, etc.

Worth a read? I have a hard time saying anything on writing is not worth reading. Let’s just say your mileage will very based on your approach to the craft. 

Worth a purchase? Not for me.

Kindle v 2.0

A new version of Amazon’s Kindle is coming. Version 2.0 delivers longer battery life and a huge increase in storage capacity – from 185MB to 2GB. However, the Kindle’s Achilles heel remains – the whopper price tag - $359.

I love the concept of the Kindle, and the idea that you can shop, download, and start reading in a matter of seconds is awesome. I also like how Amazon is forcing a lower price scheme for eBooks - $9.99 a pop. There is no reason that eBooks should be more than $10.. one can even make a case that they should be more in the $5 range, but as an aspiring author, I’ll not complain too much. Still, price is a major factor – the price of eBook readers (and the content itself) is going to have to come down quite a bit before widespread adoption is possible. For now, for me, I’ll stick with my PDA.

The digital revolution is coming, there can be no doubt. It will be interesting seeing how the industry changes as a result of things like the Kindle. As someone looking to break into the field, I’m paying close attention, hoping my dream of becoming a full-time author isn’t sent careening into the wastes like a lonely tumbleweed.

Quick Update

Just a quick update… got my entry out for the Spectra Pulse contest right on time. I actually had the story done two weeks in advance, which let me sit on it for a bit before coming back for the inevitable tweaks. Luckily, the story held-up at second & third glance. I hate it when I go in hoping for cosmetic tweaks and am instead faced with a major demo project.

Next up – I need to brush-off my NaNo novel. Gosh, has it been 2 months already? I haven’t even looked at it since early December. More & more, I have the feeling that I need to go back and do some documentation to support the thing – a rough outline and a bible to keep track of who’s who.

Also on the horizon – I have 3 contests coming due within about 2 weeks of each other: WotF (March 31), Jim Baen’s Memorial (April 1), and Parsec (April 15). Yikes… guess I better skip the novel for now and keep pushing shorts out.