Creative Writing Corner

Through Eden made their solitary way

Remember that novellla-like thing I've been trying to write for months now? About a man's adventures in the afterlife? Of course you do, I've been talking about for ages! Well, it's putting up a fight. Every page has been an uphill battle because it just gets so darn metaphorical and heavy-handed. It's difficult to balance such an archetypal story and characters (some of the characters don't have names; they're just called "the writer" or "the seer") with actual good, convincing prose.

So I've made a decision. What really appealed to me about this project was writing something of substantial length, maybe a novel or at least a novella. I still want to do that, but the prose is suffering. So let it! For my first novel, I just want to see if I can finish and fill out the structure of an entire novel. It won't be my best writing by far, but I've stopped letting that worry me and I'm seeing if I can actually finish the darn thing. It's going to be an interesting challenge, and now that I'm not worrying so much about perfect prose, the story is coming more easily.

Want a taste?

Bad Lands

Remember my short story "Bad Lands", about a man's adventures in the afterlife? Well, it originally started as a much longer, much darker novel I was working on, but for the short story assignment I cut it down to write "Bad Lands". Now, for national novel writing month, I'm finally getting the chance to write my director's cut, so to speak. It's very allegorical and I'm not sure if it's working or not, but I'll post bits and pieces once I type it up. That's the other thing -- I started it handwritten in a beloved notebook of mine, so now I've decided to try and write the whole thing in the notebook -- all 50,000 words of it. Wish me luck and may my hand not cramp!

I'm working on a new novel...

Probably a full year ago, I got an idea for a sci-fi story. My short stories are always realistic fiction, but my longer works are always science fiction or fantasy for some reason. Well, as soon as I got the idea I started writing, and I wrote the way I usually do -- hours at a time, pounding at the keyboard, words flying across the page, and never looking back. I got about fifty pages of it and then, as usual, suddenly and abruptly lost interest. I'm constantly cycling through stories in this way, abruptly abandoning them after getting fifty or a hundred pages down because I can no longer deny the fact that it stinks! but it seemed a shame to trash the whole thing, so I kept it on my computer. Now a couple of weeks ago, I happened to open it up and started reading. I read the whole thing, and I was sort of pulled in by it (that's a good thing, right?). In the next couple of days, the idea of the story kept coming back and pestering me. So, I've decided to take the same idea and same characters, and start over. The writing just stunk before; maybe it'll be better this time. And I'm determined to finish, even if it is royally awful. I've already gotten about ten pages out. Anybody wanna read an excerpt? The concept I'm playing with isn't very original -- just that some people in the human race are able to change their bodies and faces at will and are called Shifters.

For Fantasy Lovers...

Currently I'm working on a fantasy novel. It involves four major characters and how their paths cross in unusual ways. Anyway, enjoy an excerpt, about two of the four characters: Adam Ikaia, a poor farmer, and Elric Hasgund, son of the King.