Ciro Tries To Be A Writer

View Original

Here goes nothing...

So, 2016 is the year, I've decided. 

I'm going to do something with my writing. At the very least so this doesn't eat me up inside anymore. 

About 15 years ago I started writing up a story and I quickly came down with worldbuilder's disease.  At the time I was sitting outside my then girlfriend's (now wife's) physics lab waiting for her to come out, and instead of studying (as I probably should've been doing), I found it infinitely more fun to make stuff up. 

I kept at this for the better part of half a year and wound up having a 60-thousand-word half of a manuscript for what I thought would be the start of a trilogy set in a far-future earth where magic had appeared after a great catastrophe.

It was bad. Laughably bad. Of course I didn't know that at the time and when I got my rejection letter from Tor (aim for the stars, right?) I was crushed. 

What's funny is how common all of this was, and maybe if I had done some research I might have figured out that that's how most writers start. But no, I was discouraged, I was despondent, I was not cut out to do that, so I quit.  I gave up. I focused on other things and got on with my life. 

Except the bug never left me. It was always there gnawing at the back of my brain. Two things fueled this:

a. Whenever I read something awesome I thought: Wow, I wish I could write like that!
b. Whenever I read something bad I thought: Wow, I could probably write something better!

I dabbled here and there, tweaked the original story. Came to terms with how much of a rookie I was. I wasn't magically and miraculously gifted, but I learned that writing is just like any other skill. You get out of it what you put into it. 

Around 6 years ago we moved from our home country, left everything we knew behind because of a terrible and decaying situation and moved to Puerto Rico. Nice! Year-round beach and no currency exchange issues. During that time I took a stab at writing again, but I decided to try something different. Not rehash my old "great idea".  

This decision was one of the best I've ever made because it was the foundation of what I later heard 3rd hand through Brandon Sanderson's BYU lectures online, where he quotes Jim Butcher:

(paraphrased) Ideas are cheap. It's the skill of the writer that can turn any idea into a good story. 

This was something I'd never understood. I though, much like music, you had to have a natural talent, that sure, you needed to work on it, but 80% of it would just flow from you. Not so. You have to pay your dues. You have to practice, practice, practice as if you were going to Julliard.

This is what 2016 is for me. I'm trying to pay my dues. To put in the work and learn my craft. 

I can't speak highly enough of the Writing Excuses podcast, not only did it humanize this great idol of mine (Sanderson) but it gave me the insight into the struggle of writing, the sacrifices that have to be made, and actually really reaffirmed for me how much I want this. 

As an aside it introduced me to the great John Cleaver books, which are a lot of fun, and Shlock Mercenary, which is great (although Howard's pronunciation of the 'h' in 'why' and 'where' drives me insane, I feel like it's Stewie Griffin talking)

As of this writing I'm in the middle of season 4 of the Writing Excuses podcast so hopefully I'll keep getting better at it as I incorporate more of their advice. 

So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make my best effort to take up the "Writing Prompt Challenges" the podcast throws out. In between working on my novels which I've lovingly declared to be:

My fantasy book
My vampire book
My zombie book
My apocalypse book
My teenage comedy book

I have plans to turn my zombie book into an entry for the Writers of the Future contest, as I think the 17k word limit would help make the whole concept leaner and meaner.

The vampire book, well... I actually had 97k words down on it, but I'm not happy with it anymore. I think it's too easy, a lot of things in the story, looking at it with a more critical eye now, can be scrapped or reworked. I also think I might do a perspective change from 3rd person limited to first person. Also more gore. Vampires were always my favorite monster growing up. Christopher Lee as Dracula scared the be-jeezus outta me and the whole idea of a creature that stalks you in the safety of your home at night has always utterly terrified me. 

Suffice to say I am not a fan of the "handsome, dashing and sensitive" vampire. I think it's a huge disservice to the myth and is actually a dangerous idea to perpetuate, for example: young women who might be emotionally tied to dangerous and abusive men because they're so mysterious and brooding and "there's good in them" and "he would never hurt me", but that's just my opinion. Rant over. Vampires are monsters and that's where I want to take mine. Those 97k words did not paint my vampires in bright bloody red as I want them, so that will need to be reworked.

The fantasy book I'm really excited about as I did a complete revision of the concept and mythology. Added what was really missing to the magic system, mainly limits (I'm a true believer of Sanderson's Laws of Magic, now). Plus, I've switched one of the 2 POV characters to a girl, which is going to be a huge challenge, but if it works it's going to be awesome. Another big change I'm making is that I'm dropping the Tolkien races. 

I can hear you laughing. Yes, Elves, Dwarves and Trolls, oh my! I took a long glance at it and realized something about my story: they don't need to be there. I need different tribes of humans, different cultures, but not different races. They were legacy ideas from the first draft, which read like Tolkien meets Shannara meets Wheel of Time meets Jedi with a very loose and poorly fleshed out magic (groan) so I've done away with them. I think the story benefits from this and am excited about the new direction I'm taking with it. 

The other ideas (and about 5 more) are all in outline stages so nothing put down aside from 1-3 page of fleshing out, so those will get worked on at some point. 

For now, I realize I've spent 30 minutes on this when I planned to spend 5, so I'll just post the first 2 writing prompt challenges and be on my way until the next one. 

Chair!