What the Heck is Going On?

Seems I'm doing a lot of posts directly in Blogger, which is weird for me: I usually prefer to write them in Word, then paste. I don't know why. Probably for the same reason I don't converse much: what the heck do I say, and what if I say something really stupid? You can't take it back. Well what if I write something stupid?

And all the critics say: "Too late."

Nasty weekend/first two days of the week. Ick. Homework, housework, work work -- and no write work? That's just wrong. I've neglected most of my friends, my fiancee a little, my work-outs, and God. Funny that in chapel today the speaker talked (spoke?) about extravagant devotion to God. Gee, just when I wasn't doing that.

Thursday on a Saturday

I promised you guys a short story on Thursday, and through no fault of yours, you didn't get it. Mostly because I was spending most of Thursday writing the story. So I decided to break with tradition a little bit here, and post it now. This myth, running mostly in the Endolin Mountains, took a little longer to present, so you're only going to get a snippet of it. In the short story, a boy named Doliger has been sent to a cabin deep in the mountains to learn falconry from a man named Garutan.

Whose Story, Again?

I've had two questions pop up that, put together, give some interesting thoughts to ponder. They're theological questions, ones which I assume will have no answer this side of Heaven; and I'm not advocating a religious stance upon these questions. But they're questions that, I think, are fun to think about.

The first one came up in Bible class last semester as we were talking about consummation and the new heaven and new earth. I wondered, suddenly and for the first time, if God can renew the heavens and earth, and if in these new heavens and the new earth, sin will be no more, why couldn't he make it that way to begin with? Why originally create a world that sin can enter?

Literature

So let me jump right out the gate here: Why don't we burn books? If there's a book in the library I disagree with, that just rubs me the wrong way, that I really feel is bad -- why can't I burn it? We might answer: Because that's what the Nazi's did. Generally, if the Nazi's did it, we probably shouldn't. There are exceptions: They had an extremely disciplined military force, which is generally a good thing.

So why can't we burn books?

Emotion du jour: Excitement

Excitement. “I’m excited: are you excited?” “I could go for a beer.” As with just about any emotion, it’s always easiest to just say, or make the character say, what they’re feeling. But also as with any emotion, there are generally physical and verbal cues that go along with the emotion. These are what will lend “showing” to your story instead of “telling.” That’s the very definition of that oft-used literary admonition. With setting, show the character interacting with the pieces of the set; with emotion, show the character living the emotion. An easy place to start is, of course, with yourself: how do you act when you’re excited? Do you forget things, everything else except what you’re excited for? Say random bits of nonsense that pop into your mind? Laugh uncontrollably and without normal reason? Split your cheeks with grinning? And again, find ways to show this, not just tell it.

Work

The short story I’ll be working on this week is skating two different edges. It first begins to resemble the myth of Prometheus, being tied to a mountain. Then it switches to the story of Elijah, when the protagonist is kept alive by birds. At least, as much of a synopsis as I have right now: today is brainstorming day, so all sorts of plot details are yet to be worked out.

Research, What?

I played around (swiftly, and in my mind) with putting the comma in that title. It really could go both ways. See, I started writing fantasy because I didn't want to do the research necessary to write military fiction like Tom Clancy. I didn't want to do research at all -- and in fantasy, the question may be: "Research what?"

And, for a long time, that worked. I had an itinerant love for the medieval period, so I had a basic working knowledge of castles and swords and knights and the like; and dragons and other beasties are easy to write in. If I had to write combat, I did what I could and made the rest difficult to follow.

Myth of Salme

One of my classes this semester is an independent study, writing an anthology of short stories based on my novel. I begin planning the story out on Monday, write it Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and revise and turn in on Friday. They're a little too big to put the entire story on here, but what I'd like to do is put a portion of it up on Thursdays, leaving Tuesdays still (if I can get to it) to continue Emotion du jour.

So, for today, this is an excerpt from the Myth section of the anthology, concerning the formation of the country of Salme. Enjoy.

Shoot from the hip...

I have been sucking with this lately, dunno why. So I'm composing this within Blogger (gasp!) so, Judge, if I could be granted some latitude....

Still pressing on with the more regimented writing, which is being great. This time it's for a class: Monday, hash out plot ideas, focusing on one story and getting in my head what I want it to do; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, write about 1,000 words a day; Friday, revise and turn in. 12 stories in 12 weeks, with two weeks to re-revise and arrange in book form.

Today In The News

It’s a new day, in a couple ways: going back to college in about an hour here; and it’s day 1 of a certain 90 day fitness routine. I can’t remember its name, but it’s like P90...something or other. I’m hoping it’s normal to kind of want to puke after the first workout.

But also (joy! joy!) I get to start my independent study this week: an anthology of short stories based on the history of my fantasy novel. I may be able to share some of them here, or at least parts of them, so keep an eye out for that.

Weekends are always tough for reading, and this past one was no exception.

Seeking The Unexpected

I realized the other night, talking to my fiancée, why I like Deed of Paksenarrion so much – and, consequently, why I didn’t appreciate Great Gatsby or East of Eden. Here’s a little bit about me.

I like the unexpected. In humor, I love Mitch Hedberg because there is no possible way to see his punch-line coming. Usually the subject matter is something you would never even think of. In general comedy, I prefer the punch-lines that are left to the audience to supply because it makes you think, and usually because it’s an unexpected concept, one you might never have thought about. I like physical comedy to the extent that action is unexpected; when it’s just action for the sake of largeness, like Dane Cook, I’m less impressed. I don’t like crude humor, and not only because it’s, well, crude, but because you can see the punch-line coming a mile away if you realize you’re watching crude humor.

Emotion du jour: Despair

Despair: when Satan laughs. I like the line Eowyn delivers in The Two Towers film: “and all hope of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.” Most of us may not hope for valor, per se; but there is something we want, something that – should it go beyond recall or desire – to lose would most certainly engender despair. That is when I must turn to Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” If I were to lose God, I would despair utterly; but I also know that nothing can separate me from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).

So despair most often comes to those who do not realize they have had, or can have, God’s love. We make, all of us (even Christians), other gods – success, reason, action, health, a certain job or lover – and when those gods “abandon” us, we despair. Do I mean that faith in God will make everything better?

Errant Spelling

So yeah, I can take the internet off of this computer to help it run faster; I’ll just borrow the computer from the person whose life dream is running their online business. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?

I finished East of Eden at about 3am last night. I’ll have to read Life of Pi to make sure, but I think it might just be that I’m not a huge fan of American literature. I mean it was good, well written, and I kind of want to spend more time with my dad after reading it; but it didn’t get to me like other books do – and not just fantasy, British literature too. Not entirely sure what it is.


So by the time break is over, I should have read six books. Plus, after my final revisions, I’m going through my book front to back, just reading, for two reasons:

Emotion du jour: Desire

Desire: according to Mrs. Hood, the pitfall with this one is to jump to the easy sexual desire. I think of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (I always wonder if the catch with this verse is that your desire will be for Him...) Now, I am a man of few desires, so this is another kind of tricky one for me. But there is one, aside from the Lord and my fiancée, that I think I can adapt for this sketch. I hope you enjoy it.

So This Is The New Year

There’s something about weekends – or maybe it’s just that the past two weekends have been holidays. Some reason, I can’t seem to keep up with my blog on Thursday and Friday. I apologize for that, and for how long this means I’ll be running the “Emotion du jour” series...we might finish this year.

What I wanted to do for you guys on Friday was give a glimpse of what I’ve been seeing when I have a day where I have no obligations but to write. When I can wake up after enough sleep, and spend my time reading, writing my book, writing my blog, and et cetera. Unfortunately, the day I decided to keep track of what I did was the day the hard drive on my computer failed. My three-month-old computer.