Category Archives: Writing

3 Ways to Distinguish Between Fantasy and Magical Realism

30 Saturday Jul 2011

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I’ve read a fair amount of fantasy in my day, enough to understand that the genre is split into sub-categories and sub-sub-sub-categories that look as different next to each other as a Western novel and a psychological thriller. The fact that Robert Jordan’s classic (if formulaic) Wheel of Time high fantasy series shares shelf space with Francesca Lia Block’s fractured, whimsical stories of fairies in L.A. boggles my mind.

Actually, what really boggles my mind is the fact that libraries and bookshelves continue to insist on combining science fiction and fantasy, as though they weren’t fundamentally opposite from each other, but that’s another story for another day.

What I’ve been thinking about lately, though, is the tissue paper barrier separating fantasy and magical realism. Some people, in fact, don’t think there’s any real distinction between the two at all (Terry Pratchett called magical realism a “polite way of saying you write fantasy”). I think there is a difference, though, and, just as importantly, a reasonably clear way to tell:

1. What is the character’s reaction to the magical event? In a fantasy novel, the introduction of a magical element is cause for immediate wonder or alarm. In magical realism, characters will take magic at face value, or treat it with no more emotion than something that is possible in the ‘real’ world.

2. Does the magical element seem to be a symbol? Magical realism often uses the supernatural in almost a poetic way–in one story I read, white moths flew out of the mouth of a dead grandmother when the granddaughter finished washing the body. In fantasy, for the most part, a dragon is a dragon.
Note: It is, of course, always possible to find metaphorical meaning in fantasy novels as well. The Harry Potter books alone have sparked countless interpretations. The distinction for me is that fantasy’s magic metaphors are often extremely clear (Aslan=Jesus) or extremely general (discovery of magic=discovery of self/coming of age), whereas magical realism often has moments that are both subtler and more precise (like the moths in the story I mentioned).

3. What does the magical element do for the plot? In fantasy, the magic is the catalyst to the plot, its lifeblood. Magical events or characters are inextricably tied to the story. In magical realism, you could theoretically strip the magic out and have a functioning story. Magic deepens and enriches certain moments, but doesn’t usually drive the plot forward.

So there you have it! These rules aren’t completely set in stone–I’m sure plenty of people can come up with exceptions–but these three guidelines can give you a pretty good sense of what you are reading.

Post-Show Blues

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

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Great news–I got an A in Book Design! It took what felt like every spare moment I had (and then some, considering the several evenings I forewent dinner in favor of fiddling with the placement of a title or trying to learn what to do in Illustrator to keep my pictures from getting pixely), but the class is finally over, and yours truly rocked it.

I’m feeling a little adrift, though. When I was in high school doing summer theater productions, all of us in the cast used to dread the end-of-show crash, when we would wander aimlessly around the house, missing the rigid rehearsal schedule we’d complained about half the summer, and wondering what to do with these memorized lines and lyrics and dance steps that no longer had a useful outlet. It was the loss of a little identity.

Sometimes, ending a class is like that for me. I know, HUGE academic geek moment. But it’s true. I throw myself into these courses so hard that for eight or 16 weeks, I identify as a budding book designer or what have you. I’ve been taking it easy (or, you know, as easy as I can) the last two weeks, because I know I need a summer. I went to the pool a few times, actually sat down and watched an episode of So You Think You Can Dance all the way through (so those are the Top 10!), and on Saturday, my family and a representative sample of Andrew’s got together at my parents’ house for a BBQ engagement party. I even got to see my best friend for the first time in about six months (because we live in different states–neither of us is that busy).

I think I’m already gearing up to get some new project percolating, though. I’ve got stuff to revise, I’ve got a tentative idea or two, and I’ve got a “write daily” resolution that’s fallen by the wayside for too long. I’ll try to make time to do some more substantive stuff here when I can, but my real goal is to be able to come back here in not too long with some good writing news, so if I’m quiet, that’s why.

Mid-Year Report

07 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in Goals, Publishing, Work, Writing

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It’s been a whirlwind three months! It’s amazing to think that only a few days after I posted the Quarterly Report, Andrew and I got engaged. I kind of wish I was reporting on progress in wedding planning: we’ve already figured out the guest list, set a date, booked the ceremony and reception sites, picked a pastor to officiate, picked bridesmaids, picked colors (more or less), started our registry, and scheduled tastings with local caterers. We are winning at wedding planning.

But this isn’t a wedding blog (yet :-P), and I had made myself some goals for the kind of writing work I had wanted to accomplish over the last three months. They were:

Submit 120 pieces

Write and revise 4 pieces

Okay. I have to admit I didn’t complete either of those goals as I had intended to. Here’s what I did do:

  1. Submitted about 10-12 pieces
  2. Began heavy revision of one story
  3. Started several stories that died after the 1st paragraph
  4. Wrote class material (Experimental Forms) that I ended up submitting to a contest
  5. Designed 2 completed book projects (Book Design) that definitely involved thoughtful revision
  6. Started full-time work in publishing
  7. Subscribed to Poets & Writers and The New Yorker
  8. Maintained reasonably regular blog postings and updated What I’m Reading and Home pages of my site

So while I didn’t turn into the warrior of submitting that I wanted to be, I haven’t been sitting on my butt for three months, either. What I think I’m doing well:

  1. With the new job, I’m simultaneously immersing myself in a word-driven atmosphere, improving my editing skills, and freeing up time to write (my commute’s two-thirds shorter now)
  2. I’m devoting significant time to creative work (design lately, analysis of experimental work and writing experiments of my own before that)
  3. I’m spending more of my reading time reading material that can help me with my writing

What I think I’m doing badly:

  1. I’m not actually writing
  2. I’m not submitting enough

Scheduling writing is a problem for me because, since so many of my day-to-day responsibilities are deadline-driven, anything that can be put off will be if I get into a crunch. I’m still struggling to make writing enough of a routine that I won’t drop it when academics or other deadlines need my immediate attention. I do still read every day, after all, so having that time in my schedule is possible.

Part of me really wants to give myself the same goals for the next three months (10 subs/week, 4 new polished stories gleaming on my desk), but I’m not sure that’s the best way to go. Instead, I’m going to try something tough, but hopefully more doable:

  1. Write and/or revise fiction at least five days a week, aiming for 500 words a day or 2 revised pages a day
  2. Submit at least five pieces a week (simultaneous submissions count)
  3. Keep doing the good things I’m doing (blogging, reading good stuff, working hard in class)

Hopefully I’ll have better luck achieving what I’ve set for myself in the next three months!

Writing Like a Rock Star

25 Wednesday May 2011

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I spent last Saturday at the DC 101 Chili Cook-off with Andrew and my 14-year-old sister, Becca (I figured that if the end of the world were to happen, listening to music and eating free chili with two of the people I love most would be a good way to go out).

Becca loves Weezer. She loves that band with the passion that many people only get for a few years in their teens. Becca’s a musician herself on piano and guitar (lucky for my dad, who had to wait a long time for a fellow musician in a daughter), has committed all the lyrics to the 100+ Weezer songs in their repertoire to memory and is learning to play as many as she can. You should hear the way she talks about Rivers Cuomo. He stood within a few inches of her at one point in their set, so she got a good look at one of her idols. The phrase, “the face of glory” came up more than twice. What amazes me is that this is her second-favorite band we’re talking about. If she ever sees her favorites live, we might need to have a stretcher handy.

One of the things that stood out to me, though, is that Becca mentioned that Rivers Cuomo has a reputation for having kind of a big head.

“He thinks he’s better than everybody,” she told me, and I heard admiration in her voice. “He’ll probably insult us when he comes onstage.”

They came onstage late, in fact, which sounds like the norm for a concert, but you need to consider that 1. the Cook-off started at 11:00 a.m. and they weren’t due onstage until 6:45 p.m., so they had plenty of time to get ready, and 2. the other bands played on time. When Weezer did saunter onstage, though, the crowd went nuts.

I meant to be annoyed at this swaggering behavior, but I found myself intrigued. Imagine the sheer confidence it takes to show up to work late, announce over a microphone that you intend to attempt to have sex with everyone present before the end of the day (as the lead singer of Panic! At the Disco did – make the announcement, that is, not necessarily follow through), and expect people to cheer? It must be exhilarating.

I’ve noticed that in general, musicians and writers and the like tend to fall in one of two camps. The first is the down-to-earth, approachable, fan-friendly type (Switchfoot and Neil Gaiman come to mind). The second is those people who know their music or writing is boss and don’t feel the need to tell a crowd that they’re looking beautiful tonight, or anything else for that matter (think of Harlan Ellison, who’s said he sees no reason for fans to expect autographs or meetings with him, that the books he’s written more than cover any obligation he may have to them).

The perk of the first camp is that I think you have a much more meaningful connection with people who like your work. Especially in an age where publishing is going through all kinds of changes and authors are expected to take a much larger role in marketing their work, I think it’s valuable to create a sense of community and connection. The other important fact to keep in mind is that people like Rivers Cuomo and Harlan Ellison earned their attitudes by virtue of a large quantity of excellent work. If I go around acting like an ass with no credit to my name, I’m just an arrogant jerk.

The perk of the second camp, though, is that I think on occasion people who do put out a lot of excellent work try so hard to be approachable and friendly that they almost end up apologizing for their success. My other sister, Elisabeth, has a tendency to downplay her accomplishments. She’s studying theater and business management, has worked on short notice and on plays that have been nominated for awards, but getting her to take a compliment can be like trying to catch a fish with your hands. Allowing yourself a certain confidence and awareness of your talents can be really empowering, and if the Weezer concert is any indication, as long as you have the talent to back it up, your fans will even embrace some swagger. I’m having fun adopting a bit of this attitude while I’m writing, complimenting myself on my word count or a sentence that comes out particularly well.

If you’re creative, do you find yourself more on the side of ultra-confidence or humble approachability? If you’re consider yourself more of a fan than an artist, do you admire arrogance in writers and musicians, or is it a turnoff?

If You’re In Enough Places, One is Bound to be the Right One

22 Sunday May 2011

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This past Friday, when I got home from work, I went to check my emails, as one does when gmail is blocked on the work servers. I was going to drag this out all suspenseful-like, but I just want to say it: I had an email from Tanya Frickin’ Egan Gibson! (Note: it’s possible that only three of those names are legally recognized).

She wrote me an awesome email, thanking me for writing about her book and telling me how glad she was that I’d connected to it emotionally. She told me my post made her day. And I was like, “Holy crap, this is just my tiny little blog that I started for a class project and continue to prod myself into spending more time writing. Real authors don’t see this.” But they do, apparently, thanks to the modern magic of Google Alert, and I’m starting to learn something.

All the magazines say showing up willing to write is what counts. Ha ha, they don’t really say that, they say it’s the query letter, or the hook (get ’em by the first paragraph or the editor will deliberately spill coffee on it!), or the setting, or 5 (7, 10, 3) Easy Tips to Get Noticed that make or break you, but they start with the assumption that you’re willing to put yourself out there.

I don’t always think of blogging as the “real” writing, but maybe I’m wrong. Writing here means putting myself out there and connecting with people as much as anything else I am doing in the written world right now. Serendipity means I got a thank-you email from someone much farther along in this whole writing game than I am, which made my day. This exchange has just recharged me, and I am looking forward all over again to getting back to the two stories I am currently working on, and hopefully making a connection to someone again soon.

A Birthday Present and a Door

09 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Breaking Boundaries, Goals, Publishing, Writing

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So I got a Kindle for my birthday, which is awesome because a. with the life and career I’m trying to make for myself, I can’t justify not having one and b. I was genuinely more excited about this present than my family expected. Most of my life, you see, I’ve been the old-fashioned one by far when it comes to the technological. My mom sometimes spins it kindly and calls me an “old soul.” My sisters just shake their heads at the fact that even now I send a text maybe once a week. When Kindle first came out, I was one of those people who started talking about the magic of holding a book, smelling the paper, etc.

So what happened? I was on the Metro one day, people-watching for a moment, and realized that all these people on the car with me with their heads bent over a screen were reading. And it didn’t matter at all whether they turned a page or swiped the screen with one finger, because it was the same story. Lizzie rolled her eyes when I told her that (“You mean you changed your mind about Kindle because you were pleased that society was reading? I thought it would have been the weight, how many books you have access to…”), but it’s true. What matters to me is people reading, is stories making it to people who might be entertained or educated or changed by them. That matters to me more than any feature, although I’m sure as I play with my Kindle I’ll start to pick up some excitement about those, too.

My mom and I ended up getting into a whole conversation about the publishing process and what e-publishing means. How I could get involved in it. Sometimes I focus so narrowly on my day-to-day to keep from getting overwhelmed by my schedule that I forget to remind myself that I’m not in this to be a clerk at a law firm forever. I need to keep looking at the bigger world of what I want to do, and let myself get excited, and maybe even take a leap. Maybe I do need to consider putting together something to publish myself, in addition to sending manuscripts and queries the traditional way. Maybe I use the design knowledge I’ve picked up in classes and internships to help other people make their work stand out. Who knows? In any case, I’m excited about what I want to do again, which is just what I needed to start another year in my life.

Is This a Step Forward or Back?

11 Monday Apr 2011

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I submitted my first three things of this month today. According to the goal I laid out for myself, these should be Submissions 11-13, instead of 1-3. I had a wonderful, wonderfully busy week, but procrastination creeps into the picture as well. On the other hand, I did get three things out, which compared to most days is a success. I guess what I am wondering right now is if I’m doing better than usual, but not as well as I want to be doing, is that a step forward or back? Do I mark this day up as a (small) success, or a mad scramble to cover last week’s slacking?

I’ve historically struggled with how to judge my own achievements. I tend to have much higher standards for myself than for other people around me, so that the fact that I think a fellow student or co-worker is doing a good job is not enough to translate for me into thinking I am doing well, too, even if I am doing as well or better. One of my best friends got used to me having a crisis whenever a new story was due.

“Of course it won’t be a train wreck,” she’d say. “How do I know? Nothing else has been a train wreck so far, and you are working really hard on this.”

And when I do work hard, it’s true, I tend to do very well on the projects I take on. But is this working hard? If I do three or four submissions every day this week, I can catch up, so maybe today is good, but that still leaves all the other days to consider. What I think I would really like to do is join one of those writer’s groups I hear people talking about from time to time. Kind of like my MFA classes, except instead of pushing us to read new, good stories and try to write new, good stories ourselves, this group could just kick all of us in the pants to send things places. I’d probably still get paranoid about whether I was making any progress, but it would be nice to ask some more people if they feel the same way I do.

 

Quick One

06 Wednesday Apr 2011

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Hey–the realization is dawning that if I’m going to keep that sending-things-out promise, I need to get cracking. It’s been a busy weekend (and a happy one), but for various reasons (including simple procrastination), writing’s fallen to the side a bit. In lieu of doing a chipper, dutiful job of writing a post here, I think I owe it to Writing Me to let to licking some envelopes. I’ll be back with a proper post as soon as I have some mailing to tell you about!

Quarterly Report

30 Wednesday Mar 2011

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All right.  So I know the blog has technically been up since October of last year, but this January is the more fair mark of when I got started with this whole ‘develop a web presence for yourself’ thing. I’ve been trying to take my writing life more seriously this year, so I think it’s a good idea to make myself more accountable. We’re at the 25% mark in the year, and I hear businesses like to do things in quarters, so let’s give that a shot here, shall we?

Okay, for serious this time.

What I’ve Done So Far:

Blogging has gone spectacularly well, I think. I’m posting regularly, sometimes even more frequently than the once a week I planned in January. I’m updating several areas of my site–my What I’m Reading page has seen a few updates, and I even posted a mini-essay to my Stories & Things cache. Making the leap to post blogs to Facebook gave me a wild jump in traffic for a little bit, and then it fell off again. I’m reading other blogs here and there to learn about what it is that’s working there to keep people’s attention. Maybe there are elements that translate to other kinds of writing, as well.

Speaking of, writing ‘serious’ things (read, creative work that I intend to send out for publication) is a mixed bag. In January I was high on resolution-fuel, pumping out words every day like a machine. Toward the end of the month, though, I realized I was starting to get lost in the novel, and not in the good way. I had so many gaps between scenes that I was losing the thread of what I was trying to do in the story, and felt like I was just meandering. It stood at about 15,000 words then, and hasn’t grown since.

I did write the Story in a Day, but didn’t revise it, and a few pieces for my Experimental Forms class, as well as the aforementioned mini-essay, so I’m turning out some product here. I’m also keeping lists of potential article ideas to submit, and I’d estimate I sent out around 10 pitches and manuscripts this last quarter. Low as that is, it’s a step up from what it’s been in the past, so I’m smiling, albeit with slightly gritted teeth.

Where Do I Need to Improve?

The perfectionist side of me wants to say “across the board.” I’m nowhere near the ideal of getting published regularly, earning enough to make a noticeable contribution to my budget (or, um, anything), and living that daydream writer’s life. Trying to make that happen in one swoop, however, is utterly unrealistic and a bit stupid.

I want to be more intentional about my writing. I feel like I’m heading there with some of the things I’ve done so far this year, but other times even successes have felt like happy accidents. I want to be more deliberate about growing in this area, so I propose that in the next quarter of the year, I try to meet the following goals:

1. Submit 10 queries or mss/week, total: 120 pieces. This is really scary, because as you can see I normally take something like three or four months to steel myself to send out that much. I have a good list to start me off, though, and if I want to make this happen, I need to get serious. Just try for 3 months to keep that level going, and see what happens.

2. Write and revise 4 new pieces. My problem is that I like starting things, but my enthusiasm dims toward the middle, and really fizzles out when it comes to reworking a first draft into a polished product. I need to force myself to finish what I start, and take the time and effort to make it something I’d (gasp) let someone else read.

And I’m going to end the list there for now. Both of those goals are ambitious enough to keep my attention for a while, so let’s get on top of those and see what happens from now til June. Business meeting adjourned, and back to writing!

Waving in the Dark

16 Wednesday Mar 2011

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The discouraging part of trying to kick off a writing…presence…is the feeling of being to small to be noticed. It took me several years to identify as a writer without cringing as I said the ‘W’ word. Writers are the successful people who know how to look appropriately thoughtful in black-and-white pictures, or at least they’re the people who write every day without falling in and out of good habits like I do. I’ve finally got myself in a place where I’ll admit that I can wear Old Navy sweaters and write little bits on lunch break and the Metro and in evenings that I am not too exhausted (read: one evening every two or three weeks), and it still counts.

There’s a new cringe word now, though. I’m allowed to daydream about what it would be like to be an official, full-time writer, in the same way that I can daydream about how it would have been to be a professional ballet dancer, provided I had better turnout, extension and metatarsal arches, and lost 15 pounds or so. What I can’t quite bring myself to claim is an idea that such a life (the writing one, not the dancing one) is maybe something I could try to put together for myself in real life. I can’t quite bring myself to say the word “career.”

The thing is, if we’re being completely honest, my chances of being the kind of writer who makes a steady, comfortable income doing nothing but writing are comparable to my chances of going into dance full-time, even after a vigorous stretches-and-strengthening routine and a diet. There are so many of us out there, and not enough people buying books and magazines to support us all, or even half of us, or even one in ten. But we want to be those chosen few who can do it, the Margaret Atwoods and Neil Gaimans and Junot Diazes (although even Junot Diaz is listed teaching at a college and editing a magazine as well as winning all manner of prizes for his books, so there’s a thought), and everyone is slamming away at the same goal.

So what happens for me is I end up reading WAY too much in whatever is going on in my life right in that moment. If it’s a good week, that’s not too bad, cause if I write a story in a day, or send out a bunch of things, or my stats say a bunch of people read my blog today, then I’m all like, “YEAH! I’m the best. I’m going to win at all of this!” And I immediately rewrite all my goals to see what I could get done if I kept succeeding at that rate. And that’s where the mistake comes in, because if the next week is a slow blog week, or I’m too exhausted to write, or a rejection letter comes in, I’m all like, “Everyone got together and decided I am worthless at writing, and now they will shun me forever until it gets through my thick skull that I should never type another word ever ever again.”

And that’s where having other people to talk to helps a bit. I had the following exchange with the boyfriend last night:

Me: “No one read my blog today! They read the Midnight Snack story, and decided no one should ever read anything I write ever again.”
Boyfriend: “I don’t think they thought that.”
Me: “Then explain why everyone stopped reading immediately after I posted it.”
Boyfriend: “I think if you write another post, people will read it.”
Me (narrowing eyes): “Why? Are you going to tell all your friends to read it? Am I going to get a bunch of pity views?”
Boyfriend: “No, I think if you write another post, people will want to read it.”

All right, boy. It’s on. I have a new writing project in mind to work on today, and I’m not going to tell what it is right now because it’s in the earliest of stages and I make no promises, but I am working. And there is a new post today, so even if all it does is give me a tiny kick in the pants to do something worthy of having a writer-ish blog, that’s something, too.