My Aim in Writing

Easter is here! I had bacon yesterday, and we have an eclipse on Monday. Get your glasses! And a doughnut! Since Lent is over, the Tumblog is back for business, so expect Fun Fact Friday, and Movie Munchies reviews if you pay attention to those posts.

I’m reading another Redwall book, in case you’re wondering.

My Aim in Writing

April is Camp National Novel Writing Month–one of the two months (the other is July) designated to help writers practice for National Novel Writing Month in November. I have committed to writing nine hundred words per day. It isn’t really that much, though it feels that way if I don’t get to it promptly. I try to break up the pressure many days by getting two or three hundred words in before I leave for work on weekday mornings.

I feel terrible though, because despite years of practice and working on them, I cannot make myself finish writing a novel. I’m not a very good writer, all told. I skimp out on descriptions, action scenes tend to go same-y, and while I am good at dialogue (I think), I have a tendency to make dialogue take up long sequences instead of things actually happening. Despite what many seem to expect, the problem is never that I’m out of story ideas It’s that I can’t make the ideas good.

I am not aiming to be the next Tolkien, of course–I don’t have the linguistic expertise or worldbuilding power to even attempt that. I would much rather be able to say something like I wish to be a Simon Green, or, if I’m incredibly lucky, a Robert Jordan or Jim Butcher. I want to write things that I enjoy reading, and things that I hope other people enjoy reading. I don’t want to make classics, just really good fun stories. That doesn’t mean that I’m completely uninterested in themes or commentary (you can probably tell that from the Saturday Notes). It’s just that I don’t want to write things that take themselves so seriously.

[I long considered the idea of setting the main chunk of stories in the 2010’s, so that I could use the stories to make commentary on world events; that idea has mostly fallen out for me, because it would feel too much like, “Ha, I have 20/20 hindsight and I know everything!”]

I suppose, like Tolkien, I would like to write stories that are fundamentally Catholic, though not in an explicit sense (at least, not usually–one of my ideas is a story about a deceased priest whose case is up for canonization). I’m not attempting to write conversion pamphlets; I’d like people of any faith to read them and get enjoyment from them. I’d just also like for someone to be able to look at it through a Catholic lens and say, “Oh! It makes sense when you put it like that.” Not in a way that’s like, “Yes, all the good characters are Catholic and all the evil characters aren’t,” because that’s not how I see the world. I’m thinking more, theological takes, hermit characters in the wilderness, and occasional angels popping up.

Also, a butt ton of references. I’ve got a couple of pages of notes that are just ideas for character names, which are generally drawn from mythology and history. I like having these little Easter eggs for people to find. I’m also really bad at coming up with names, so it’s a lot easier if I just take someone else’s, mash it around a bit, and say I came up with an original name. Basically every character’s name means something at this point, unless it’s a high fantasy story, in which it’s kind of a toss up of ‘this is relevant’ and ‘this sounds cool but not too out there’.

There are those who say, “I want to write to express everything about my life!” and, uh, no, I don’t want to do that. Look, obviously my thoughts and experiences are going to shape my writing. At the same time, I don’t want to say, “This is my life! But with dragons.” I am very much against the idea that you incorporate too many of your life elements into a story, because otherwise it’ll sound like you’re hashing out your issues with the people around you. Your characters, aside from maybe a couple of shout-outs, should not be the people in your life. Those people will find out, and they will have Opinions, and it’ll be awkward. There’s a story idea I threw out because it would definitely be drawing way too much on people I know and I don’t want to do that.

Yeah, not doing that. I don’t want people picking it up and saying, “Wait, that’s what you think of me, specifically?!” That will not end well.

And I want to do really memorable, fun, and interesting story arcs that last in cool locations. In my head, there’s a ton of notes for several arcs for one story–the workings of most of an Elphame arc, an outline for an Iram arc, and a ton of conflicting takes for how the final battle should go down. I have one story idea that’s basically a high fantasy version of Puerto Rico, and presumably the second installment would take place in a high fantasy version of the US.

But first I got to lay a lot of groundwork. Which is what I’m trying to do with my writing this April.

But I’m a crap writer so it’s going very slowly. And at this point in my life, I can’t say I have much optimism for accomplishing that.

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