Personal Style

There are two sorts of style when you write fiction: your style and the characters' style.  I can't really dictate the former, unless it involves "don't screw with your sentence structure and remember to proofread and spell-check," but it is possible to offer some advice on the latter.

Like people who are not in books, what you wear is often a part of who you are.  I, for example, wear jeans and a t-shirt every day; I only wear dresses if I have to go to something snazzy or if all my shirts are dirty, and I normally only wear one of the four dresses I brought (because it has POCKETS, which are the greatest invention ever, right behind Moose Tracks FroYo and bookstores).  This could either read "college student" (which would be completely correct) or "reasonably practical" (which I hope is correct).  If you work in high fashion and have to wear dresses and heels and need an hour in the mirror every morning, you could also view my jeans and lack of eyeliner as "lazy."  That's your choice.  I do not see myself in any situation where such effort is demanded of my personal appearance.

Similarly, the characters that have been written, both by myself and by others, also demonstrate themselves through their style.  I once wrote a character that was a knight.  There was a very good reason (her personal comfort and practicality for career choice) that she did not wear skirts and carry a purse everywhere.  First off, what knight wears a skirt?  Second off, you can't KEEP anything in a purse, especially if you're a knight.  Because she has spent so much time around guys (read: HER ENTIRE LIFE), she is not horribly in touch with her femininity and dresses pretty much like the guys do, both on holiday and in school (and in the adventure, because she has nothing else to wear and doesn't really mind it).

I know it sounds superfluous, but it actually does matter.  If you are writing a character where the difference between heels and flats is not going to make a difference in their career, then think about what else they would do: if they wear heels, fine.  If they don't, that's cool too.  If they show up to work in their beat-up hi-tops because they can, that's fine (I don't think too many jobs would actually let you do that, but it's your choice).

Book to Life

Well, tonight marks the second time I've had an experience that reminds me of something I've read in some novel.  Well, the first time was something I wrote, but the first time is not the time we are discussing.
Anyhow, if you haven't read The Name of the Wind, by Pat Rothfuss, you NEED TO DO SO NOW, because it's a brilliant novel.  Also, this post will make no sense if you haven't read it.
But to the point.
So there's this one scene in The Name of the Wind where the main character, Kvothe, plays at a performance venue/ tavern place that is known for its musicians.  You can try for your pipes, which basically means being super talented and performing for judges and an audience, and if you do absolutely brilliantly you get a little charm that is universally recognized as a Sign of Musical Awesome, and you can go to a great number of places and show your pipes and get to play because of the prestige it takes to earn the pipes.
But to the point.
My friend did something similar tonight.  Though Ashland Coffee and Tea does not offer any sort of prestigious Sign of Musical Awesome, you can sign up for an open mic night that's held once a week.  You sing two songs, and the judges judge you, and the audience votes.  Once all the votes and scores are in, there are callbacks; after that, I guess you vote again and then a winner is chosen (I missed this part; I had to go do homework that still hasn't happened yet because of laundry).  Anyway, the cool bit is that the first place winner for each week gets called back for a Shootout (their term), which is a head-to-head of all the Weekly Winners of the past six months.  It's super cool.
I'm glad I went, though now I have to study.  Farewell.

Endings

It's hard to say when I started to be a writer.  Was it in third grade, when I started trying to write a story that was a barely concealed fanfiction of Harry Potter?  Was it when I created one of my favorite characters to write, ever?  Was it when I began to take creative writing classes in high school?  Was it when I attempted my first novel?

Whenever it was, I have had a notorious lack of ability to finish anything.  Maybe it's because I don't like saying goodbye to the characters.  I've always had a bad history with saying 'goodbye' to stuff.  

Well, regardless of the reason why I could never finish anything, I've FINALLY gotten to the point where I'm about to reach the end of a novel I'm writing.

It's the novel I started last November for National Novel Writing Month.  It's kind of exciting, but also slightly terrifying, and I'm already thinking I want to change what just happened.  But enough of that now.  Right now, I need to finish it.

Actually, I need to finish my Intro to East Asia homework, and start some FYEC homework.

THEN I'll finish it.

dialects and accents

Ahoy, fair readers! Since today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I'll be talkin' like a pirate for t' rest o' this post.

Because o' International Talk Like a Pirate Day, now be t' time t' discuss DIALECTS and ACCENTS!
How a character speaks be rather important. It reflects where they be from and how they were raised - I don't have t' same accent as me cousins, even though we be blood relatives; it be because I grew up farther north in t' US than they did.
Now, ye may be thinkin', why is Knitter talkin' of talkin'?  What be so important about t' way t' characters be speakin'?  T' importance be two ways:
First, the character be havin' a back-story.  T' manner of speakin' reflects that.  It makes yer characters more real, if ye know how ter write the dialect right.  Jus' be wary o' overdoin' the dialect an' gettin' too far inter it, because then nobody will understand it, except ye.
Secondly, yer character's dialect can be a plot point.  If Pakpla's long-lost cousin cannot understand what she be sayin', thar can be a drastic misinterpretation and t' Grand, Villain-Defeatin' Plan can go horribly awry because Pakpla's cousin does not know what he should be doin'. Also, Pakpla's long-lost cousin, due t' their different dialects, might not even realize that they are related, even if Pakpla has been lookin' for her cousin for t' last twelve years.

Since dialects be important for tellin' where a character be from, you could use them for character tension. There could be stigma between Pakpla and Habroje because Pakpla's accent says she be from t' West, and Habroje's says he be from t' east, and EVERYONE KNOWS that Easterners and Westerners hate each other. (not really. I made that up). People make assumptions based on how someone speaks, and an accent or a dialect be a way for someone t' pass judgement on someone else. I do not condone judgin', but if it makes for a good plot point, I may have me characters judge each other.

Grammar

Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today in the presence of the Internet to discuss something very, very, VERY important.
Grammar.
Friends, I fear that the apostrophe has died of misuse.  To mourn its passing, it is time to go over some very important terms.  There is, in fact, a difference between "it's" and "its," and the same thing goes for "you're" and "your."  The latter is my particular pet peeve.
The differences?

As stated in A Writer's Reference, Seventh Edition (which also reminded me that you italicize book titles, which I sometimes forget), the difference is that "Its is a possessive pronoun; it's is a contraction for it is." (Hacker and Sommers, p 147).  Translation: it's means that IT has a current state of being; its means that you don't know the gender identity of something that owns something else (or it doesn't HAVE a gender identity), so you're calling that thing 'it.'

Now, for your and you're.  Unlike with it's/ its, which is forgivable up through freshman year and sometimes beyond if you didn't pay attention in freshman year English class, your and you're is actually a thing you need to be aware of, if only because Spelling and Grammar Check may not yell at you for it.  But the difference between these two is similar to the difference stated above: that is, you're is a state of being that YOU inhabit; your is something that belongs to you.

What I see here is a trend: many users of the English language can no longer differentiate between states of being and nouns.  This is disturbing.  Are we really that materialistic?

Whilst you are pondering the deep questions of the universe, I need to also mention something that is a peeve of mine as well.
I have noticed that some people (who shall remain nameless) use "yea" and "yeah" interchangeably. I did look up the definitions of each, and they are both statements of affirmation; however, PLEASE remember that "yea" is pronounced like "yay" and not like "yeah."  If you wish to say "yeah," please do not text me the word "yea."
Thank you, and goodnight.

Random Thoughts

I know NaNoWriMo is still a month and a half away, but I've already started thinking about what I want to write about.  I've also started thinking about what I should put on the whiteboard on the door during the month of November.  I've decided on something akin to the following:

Happy November!
Knitter and Pat are doing NaNoWriMo.  Because we are writing novels and trying to pass college at the same time, please excuse any blatant lack of actions taken to complete laundry, ironing, sleep, and/ or showers.  We promise to remedy the situation in December, and possibly during Thanksgiving break.  In the mean time, feel free to trace our progress here:

Wild Card's word count: ________                     The Physicist's word count:__________

And there we have it.

Now, time for me to stop procrastinating.

thanks, y'all

All right, I know this is kind of early, since I've only had this blog for... what, two and a half weeks? Three?  Anyway, Blogger has a feature where I can track how many hits the blog has gotten.  And by the end of the first week, the hit count has exceeded the post count.

This is ridiculous.

And I'm kind of excited.

It shows that people actually kind of care about what I have to say.  Even if it's only my mom.

So, thanks!

Character Building

So some of you might not know, but I play Dungeons and Dragons. A new campaign is starting at my school, and I was working on building my character today. It really helped my perspective on character building on a whole - I mean, I'm going to be stuck with this chick for a while, so I might as well like her, and build her as well as I can, in both ranks and her story.  Since I'm playing a human bard, there are things that I have to work with - the bard can do magic, but only a certain amount and in certain ways and stuff, and the human has a lot of adaptability, but isn't perfect.  There are certain languages she can't speak because she's a human, but she might be able to learn them because she's a bard, and she travels a lot.
So, how does DnD character building relate to the character building of normal building, including non-fantasy genres?

Though it may be really annoying, you could look up the character sheets for DnD and just look them over.  Though a human bard is not going to be built the same as someone from "The Devil Wears Prada," both of them need to be built well.  DnD has Skill lists that certain classes can do - look those over, modify them to fit your genre, and think about it.  You don't have to roll for Charisma, Intelligence, and Strength, but think about what alignment they might be if they lived in the DnD world.  If you aren't familiar with the alignments, look up alignment memes in any image search engine, and you'll be able to find one that has various characters for each - there's one where Superman is Lawful Good and the Joker is Chaotic Evil.  Additionally, tvtropes.org has a good explanation of them (just be wary: that website is very like Facebook: it can suck you in.  The difference is, you'll figure out different archetypal things, whereas on Facebook you're just watching other people's drama unfold).
Anyhow, that's all I have for today.
Have fun!

Week Two

Week two of college started today.  So far, it's still sort of manageable.
Greek is beginning to creep up on me, but I've established friendly contact with another freshman in my class, so I'll have a study buddy/ reference point if I'm confused about what the homework is.
I had a panic attack about whether or not I should stay in chorus, but I decided I should - music is my sanity, and the Requiem that we're doing, by John Rutter, is kind of amazing.  I love it, and we've only done a bit of two movements.
In Ancient Egypt, I have also established friendly contact with two other people (who are also in choir), and we're doing a mandatory major group project together.  We were initially going to do Cleopatra, because one of them was doing something on her for another class, but the professor apparently emailed him back, saying that 1) This is ANCIENT Egypt, not Egypt Transitioning out of the Dynasties, and 2) Cleopatra was technically Greek.  That was kind of unfortunate, so now we're thinking about doing Hatshepsut, because we covered her today and she seemed kind of cool.  She also seemed like kind of a butt, but whatever.  In all, I think she came up with a decent compromise - and if you're unfamiliar with Hatshepsut, look her up, because I don't have time to explain this.
In FYEC, we had class outside, where we saw a possum playing dead because a hawk was in a tree nearby.  After a few minutes, I think the hawk left; at any rate, the possum got bored of shutting itself down and woke up and walked away.  It had no relevance to the discussion of Buddhist and Taoist principles, except for the possum's being one with its state of being for a good ten minutes.
I also went to the activities carnival, where all the clubs try to get you to sign up for stuff.  I put down my name for so many things that I KNOW I'm not going to make, but I've got info now on everything from Outdoors Club to Campus Ambassador to a co-ed service fraternity (which, honestly, I'm more interested in rushing for than the sororities; YES, MOM, I'M GOING TO RUSH SORORITIES ANYWAY, BECAUSE I PAID THE MONEY AND YOU'RE MAKING ME DO IT AND EVERYONE SEEMS REALLY NICE ANYWAY).

So far it's been a good week, I think.  I'm getting used to being at college, though it still feels kind of odd to be living away from my parents and being responsible for my sleep and drinking orange juice and getting all my dairy and exercise and stuff.
Yes, Dad, I did discuss being Workout Buddies with one of my friends today, and I AM working on getting my daily orange and stuff.
And yes, one of my daily glasses of dairy IS chocolate milk.  I know it's not healthy, but still.  It's good.  I COULD BE DOING WORSE.  Like someone just outside our dorm who I think is drunk and trying to yodel or sing "We Are Young," or whatever that song is called.  It's kind of hard to tell.
But anyway, I need to go to bed now, because I have to study in the morning.  It's what I do.

exposition

Well, since I've gone over random little things about writing, I might as well go over some big stuff.  Like exposition.
Before exposition happens (aka before you start writing), there's something you need to consider.  You could consider it and decide to see what happens, but you need to think about how you're going to do your exposition.  One way is that you explain everything as you go - "this is how the monarchy works;" "this is how the trade route works;" "this is where the dragons live;" "this is what I eat for breakfast," and so on.  Another way it could happen is that Plot could happen and, with A VERY WELL ESTABLISHED WORLD, let the reader figure stuff out for themselves.
These are only two ways to do exposition; you might combine them or think of a completely different way to do it.  However, if you go with the former, you can't explain the way the trade routes work if your character has been summoned for an audience with the king.  Similarly, your character can't be thinking of the monarchy when they decide to slip onto a trade caravan headed South (unless, of course, your character is running away from the palace, in which case you should have established why they're leaving, unless you want it to be a mystery).  If you jump right in to the exposition, it might be a good idea for you, the author, to already know about the Senate's plan to assassinate the King, whether there are multiple trading peoples and where they might be headed in any given season, and what the current dragon population is.  If breakfast is generic, don't go on about it in either form of exposition.  Most people, when going about their daily routine, don't give their breakfast more than a few moment's thought; similarly, you should only give your character's meal more than a sentence or two if Senate has decided to poison the King at the Winter Festival, and the character, while surveying the scrumptious feast, is trying to remember whether the poison in question is derived from spinach or potatoes.  In that case, something should give it away.  Funny blue stuff on the spinach.  A bit of red that might be cinnamon, but probably not, on the potatoes.  Things like that.

When dealing with exposition, there are several things you have to establish.
1. world exposition - this is especially important in fantasy novels.  As mentioned, you should only bring up dragons and the oligarchy if it's of moderate to severe importance that one is destroying the other.  Otherwise, only bring up dragons and government in forms of complaint.  Still, remember to set up your monsters and government even if your novel is a romance set amongst fairies.  Even if one of your lovers doesn't get captured by a dragon, think about how the dragon population might affect them.  If you know that, you could use it as Plot.
2. Character exposition.  This is more directly important to your novel.  The characters run the show, so make sure you know each one starting out.  This isn't just what Regreeya's height and hair colour are; this is how she gets along with Grescire and what each thinks of the other.  Though Regreeya's height and hair colour might be a contributing factor to why Grescire never really liked her, despite the fact that Regreeya is madly in love with him, this is also a way to develop Plot.  Does Regreeya KNOW that Grescire doesn't like blue-haired girls that are a foot shorter than he is?  If she does, what does she do about it?  If she doesn't, what does she do to try to get his attention instead?  How does this affect their relationship?  Think about motives as well - why is Regreeya trying to get his affections?  Why doesn't Grescire like blue-haired short girls?  Additionally, though appearance should be taken into account, an important thing is also character strength.  Regreeya can't be only good at trying to win over Grescire.  NOBODY would like it if she did that.  Sure, she could be a relationship therapist, an avid reader, or an advice columnist for fictional characters.  Whatever.  But what she and Grescire are good and bad at - and what their core values are - are going to determine whether or not the readership wants them to get together.
3. Plot exposition.  This is on par with Character exposition for importance; frequently it's higher than Characters, depending on whether the plot drives the characters or the characters drive the plot.  Establishing the plot, whether it's Regreeya's futile attempts to win Grescire's affections, or Grescire's accidental arrival on the scene of the king's death and the subsequent accusation of his guilt, it's important to establish what it is your characters are trying to accomplish.  Even more importantly, is it Regreeya, Grescire, or both of them who are trying to clear his name?  This also ties into motive - Grescire doesn't want to get put to death (king-killing is a capital offense, you know), and Regreeya wants to be with Grescire, so she helps him - so what do they do about it?  More importantly, how do Grescire's traits as the town's Resident Snotty Hunter and Regreeya's skills as the Shy Fictional Advice Giver help (or hurt) them in the course of the story?




Okay, I know that was a lot, but I was on a roll.  Also, exposition is important.
SO, a summary:
1. Know what you're doing, even if your audience doesn't.  Yet.
2. Know your world, who inhabits it, and what your characters are doing.
3. Don't talk about it if you don't have to.  Grescire's ability to identify the native flora and fauna should only be mentioned in foreshadowing his attempts to identify the poison used on the king.

languages

Languages are fun.  Though it can be really difficult to learn sometimes (aka all the time), Ancient Greek is kind of cool.  I just finished my first bit of translation.  It took forever, since I've never actually translated anything before, but still.
Though the paragraph they were having us translate was kind of boring.  It was about a farmer.  The farmer worked hard.  Then the farmer was like, "O Zeus, I work hard, but I don't have a lot of food."  And then he worked and then he rejoiced because he was free and everything was beautiful and he loved life.  The end.
In all, though, I'm ready to do more.
Tomorrow.

alpha
beta
gamma
delta
epsilon
zeta
eta
theta
iota
kappa
lambda
mu
nu
xi
omicron
pi
rho
sigma
tau
umicron
phi
chi
psi
omega

Yes, I DID just recite the entire Greek alphabet, in case you were wondering.  I needed the practice because I have a quiz on it on Friday.  I need to keep up to date on this stuff, you know.

Anyhow, languages are important in writing, especially if you have a multinational fantasy novel on your hands.  You could go the Tolkien route and set up two complete languages, right down to grammar, syntax, genitive verb tenses, and a complete vocabulary, AND set up a few others but less complex, but most people don't opt for this route.  This is why people can write their dissertations on Tolkien languages and not any other fictional languages (seriously, my Elvish grammar book is, I think, the author's final Ph.D. thing for linguistics or something).
Anyway, the point is, keep language in mind.  It's an important part of a culture, and you can have your characters cuss in whatever words they want.  Just remember consistency - you can't have your character say Argana and have it mean 'poop' one time, and then have ganega mean 'poop' the next time.  (that also means that argana and ganega should also always have their own assigned meanings, too, and not mean 'poop' one time and 'procreate' another time).
And that's where I leave you, because sleep is something I have been lacking.  Farewell!

music

Music is probably one of the best inventions ever.  It helps people express feelings. You can use it for writing.  It sets the mood of countless movies.
Most of all, if it's composed by Hans Zimmer, it's probably epic and suitable for all occasions.
Well, most occasions.  You probably wouldn't play the Dark Knight soundtrack at your high school prom.  The Prom Queen would probably hate it, and the King would like it, and the whole committee would cave under the pressure of the Prissy In Charge.
Also, I don't know how many DJ's (or live bands, for that matter) have the entire Dark Knight soundtrack on hand.
Anyhow, music can be, as I said before, a very good thing for your writing.  Especially movie scores.  They're instrumentals (if you're like me, that's a good thing, because if a song has lyrics, I'll probably wind up focusing on their words rather than mine, which is rather counterproductive), and they're very scenic, meaning they help set the scene really well - that's part of the point they were composed, except for a movie and not your novel.  Except you can use it for your novel anyway, because you're not going to be quoting it so it's only for helping you come up with something to put on the page.
So. Food for thought. :)

Class

Fact: College classes are harder than I expected.  Welcome to college life.  Right now, I'm procrastinating on doing said homework, because I just got back from a choir audition.  I did okay - I kind of screwed with the high notes but the director agreed with the statement that I'm an alto.  Now I'm  just procrastinating on all this homework that I have to do.  I've already studied an hour for Greek (which you have to study an hour every day, apparently, including weekends and holidays, even though we're only learning the alphabet right now), and I need to do some reading for Ancient Egyptian history and some journal entry things that are due on Sunday for my FYEC, which I can probably work on tomorrow because I have more time.

You know what's important for characters?  Learning stuff.  If there's no character development, there's no story.  If there's no story, then what are you there to do?  But be wary of putting your characters in class - if you do, whatever you write the teacher saying invariably MUST come up in The Final Countdown.  That's the way Plot works.
You know what's also important for characters?  Surprises.  If they're not surprised, then the story's really boring because the characters are really bored.  Boredom can be the inciting action - someone is bored, so they Go Off To Seek Their Fortune or something - but it can't be the journey.  That's just boring.  Duh.
But surprises are also important for Plot.  If the reader isn't surprised, then they'll stop reading.  That's the short of it.  If someone can predict every twist and turn of a storyline, then there's no fun in going along with it.
Sure, you could stick a princess in a tower and send some noble after her.  But the noble could be a complete idiot.  The princess could be found having tea with the dragon.  The prince could have attended Hero's University, graduated with full honors, and be blundering around the area wreaking worse havoc than the dragon.  There could be a mistake with the dragon - the Hero could be really stupid, so he doesn't realize that the princess and the dragon have become great friends.  In that vein, the princess could just climb on the back of the dragon, char the Hero to dust, and ride off into the sunset.
Or the Hero could have arrived twenty years after that had happened.

Just some ideas.

Teach your characters well.

Matriculation and classes

We had matriculation today.  Honestly, the most interesting part about it was seeing all the professors in their super-snazzy gear and commenting with one of my friends about what sort of character each of them could be.  For example, the Provost, if he grew out his beard and got a pointy hat, could TOTALLY be Gandalf or Dumbledore (and that makes him kind of awesome).
Anyway, this gave me an idea for a writing exercise that I want to try, and also share.  Take notice of a stranger - that one person in the park when you walk your dog, or the person that's sitting across from you on the Subway tomorrow morning.  Anybody at all, really, as long as you don't know them.
Study them as discreetly as possible - their clothing, their hair, their appearance, their fidgets, everything that can come up that could define a person.
Then, when you get to somewhere where you can write something down, come up with a back story for them.  Why are they fidgeting so?  What's the story behind their hair?  Why THAT pair of shoes?

I also have a bit of a confession, come to think of it.
I've done something similar in creative writing class a few years ago.  The assignment was to go somewhere random and find someone that you could focus on as discreetly as possible.  Then you had to write down a description of them and come back to turn the thing into the teacher.  I did it in my normal corner of the library.  I didn't know it at the time, but I also managed to pick the guy who would wind up as my boyfriend.  (sorry, you can't see it; I don't know where it is.  Bug me about it next time we're on break).

Anyway, my charge to you today is this: as the school year starts, try to get to know people.  Figure out what the backstory is for your professors, and then get to know them and see how right you were.  Or wrong.  But the point is to be ridiculous if you want, and then get to know the person.  Though it would be awesome, I highly doubt that the Provost at my school is actually Gandalf or Dumbledore.  Now I should probably talk to him at some point (hopefully not when he has to put me on academic suspension or anything), and find out something else cool about him.

letters

You know what are awesome?  Letters.  Not the alphabet, not emails, letters.  They can say a lot about a person, I think.  For example, if they're bothering to write down the stuff at all, that makes them awesome.  And if there's a lot of cross-outs, they probably doubt themselves or something.  Or they just are writers and need to find the EXACT WAY TO SAY SOMETHING.
A letter is also a good literary device.  Again, it can tell a lot about a character.  What do they say in this letter?  How much subtext can be implied from this?  How much subtext can come from the words, and how much subtext can come from the action?  What do you think the motivation was for writing someone the letter in the first place?
Most importantly, is it a letter of love, or something else?  I mean, a lot of time friends write to each other.  I got a letter from my youth group leader yesterday with a lot of advice for college and life and stuff.  I haven't become pen pals with my boyfriend yet, but it could happen if he'd give me his snail mail address (*looks significantly at him*).  You could have your villain write a nasty and provocative letter to your hero(ine) if the villain knows that it will goad the person into saying or doing something that's utterly stupid, but may or may not serve the villain's plans very, very nicely.  If it doesn't serve the villain's plan nicely, then it at least should probably play to the weakness of the recipient if it's from the villain.  The truth is, if you write fantasy, like I do, most of the time the villain is there to stir shit up (sorry for my language, mom) and do little else.
But there are also character things that need to go with letter-writing.  You can't have people be pen pals if it's a dystopian society where pens, paper, and pencils no longer exist.  They could be e-mail pals, sure, but it doesn't serve quite the same function.
Additionally, if the sender is not one for communication, they should only be recording their thoughts and mailing them off in one of two situations:
1. a massive confession that can considerably change the course of the plot/ the recipient's feelings/ etc
2. NO OTHER TIME.

Naturally, 1 is a broad spectrum, but if it's out of character for someone to take the effort to write something (or type something) and send it to someone, don't have them do it.  If it's part of the character arc, go ahead.  But if they don't like to write unless they're forced, they probably shouldn't be asking around for a pen pal.