J. Mark Miller | A Writer's Fantasy |

A Writer’s Declaration

I am a writer.

I am a writer because I choose to be, not because someone else tells me I am.

I am a writer because I cannot not write.

I am a writer because I write, not because I have been published (or not).

I am a writer, and no agent, no editor, no rejection will deter me from writing.

I am a writer because I have stories to tell, even if only to myself.

I am a writer, and therefore I will make time to write.

I am a writer, and therefore I will continually hone my craft.

I am a writer, and therefore I will work hard to breathe life into my characters.

I am a writer, and therefore I will enjoy the journey.

I am a writer, and I will not allow obstacles to become insurmountable.

I am a writer, and I will write until I can write no more.

What’s your declaration? What would you add?

Happy writing!

Hey there readers. I’ve been AWOL yet again, but in my own defense I’ve been busy. This week should be a good productive week of writing, revision, and blogging as I’m taking half a week of vacation.

In other news, LOST is over. Whether you did or didn’t like the finale episode, and even if you lost interest in the show somewhere along the way, you have to admit the series was a game changer, and television producers will be hard-pressed to find its like again.

There have been some rumors and hints around that LOST may come back again in the future. The producers said they wouldn’t have a hand in a sequel series, but ABC themselves may think otherwise. The plot was certainly left open-ended enough, and there are still more questions than answers about the island. Realizing the losties in the Earth-2 universe were actually dead and preparing to move on into the afterlife showed us evidence of further possible adventures.

What about Hurley and Ben as they continued to shepherd the island? Did Desmond escape the island and reunite with Penny and their kid? What’s up with Eloise Hawking? What about Lapidus, Richard, Kate, Sawyer, and the others who escaped on the plane? What about Walt, Aaron, and Sun and Jin’s kid? How do they figure into things?

I had a dream a few days ago that felt very much like the opening scene of a continuation of the series. Now roll with me here. There were many weird, impossible happenings in LOST, so you know what I’m about to share could make complete sense in that universe.

The scene begins with Jack and Hurley walking through a dark, damp cave with torches aloft. They fight their way through offending roots and cobwebs, followed by a gaggle of nameless, faceless losties. They’re searching for something, and Hurley keeps asking, “Dude, where are we going?” I’m not really sure if Hurley sees a dead Jack, or if Jack’s really there in the flesh. One clue is Hurley is holding a torch while Jack is not.

They round a final bend in the cave to find their way blocked by a large, blueish-white slab of something. Jack announces, “We’re here,” and Hurley steps up with his torch to see what’s going on. It’s a giant block of ice. There’s a shadow of something encased within, and Hurley reaches up to wipe the frost away from the ice’s surface. He gasps when he discovers what Jack has led them to.

John Locke is frozen inside.

Hurley whispers, “Dude,” and the LOST logo appears.

I get excited just thinking about it. What do you think happens next?

Happy writing.

With a name like Chaotic Shiny a website’s gotta be good right?

I have to thank Lynn Viehl at Paperback Writer for posting a bunch of links to Chaotic Shiny’s generators. I’ve already put one of them to good use.

I’m sure many of you have used name generators before—and this site has those—but the real beauty here is the sheer number of generators I’ve never seen anywhere else.

The Civilization Generator helped me flesh out an idea for the central culture of a novel I hope to write in the next year or so. You’ll find generators for superstitions, mottos, laws, languages, and much more.

I highly recommend you bookmark Chaotic Shiny.

What’s your muse? I always find it fascinating to read or hear about how authors come up with ideas. For many it seems they are given literal bolts of inspiration, something they can’t explain but are nonetheless thankful for. This type of inspiration is rare, and in truth is probably born less of serendipity than possessing a mind aware of the world around them and processing what they see, hear, and read on a subconscious level.

I grew up being a heavy television watcher, and for a long time I led myself to believe all that watching would percolate deep within and result in a myriad of ideas for future use. Sadly, the opposite always seemed to be the case. What I failed to realize at the time is, while enjoying the creativity on display before me, rather than having it spur unique ideas within it seemed to sap my imagination because all the thinking was being done for me.

This is not a case against television or visual media, but it is a kind of call for moderation in our use of it. I enjoy watching Battlestar Galactica or LOST as much as any other speculative fiction lover, but those shows do nothing to spur my own internal creativity. Sure, there are people out there who get into all the hidden meanings and crazy theories, but by and large they are not creating anything new, but rather only speculating on what already exists. The closest they come to creating something new are wild speculations about what might be coming next.

I’ve come to see the fact that many of the most successful authors are those whose minds are constantly open to the new. Great authors are often lifelong learners, individuals who’ve never ceased to be students. Students of what? Well, it seems this is a great question, because it doesn’t seem to matter what is being learned. The simple expedient of acquiring new knowledge spurs creativity in a way nothing else seems to do.

I read in the forward of a book recently how the author got the idea for the foundational structure of the world featured in his book while attending a lecture. He took notes at the lecture, combined it with further research, and embarked on a spree of worldbuilding to make his entire novel possible. The plot as presented would have been impossible without the creation of that foundation.

For me, I’ve found I’ve been able to weave numerous ideas into stories in a way that would have been impossible if not for information gleaned from a few choice websites. I’ve found io9 and Futurismic to be especially helpful, as well as a nifty little site called iCurrent which allows me to customize aggregated news content. There have been several little gems which have contributed toward a sci-fi short story I’ve got in the works.

Lastly, don’t give up reading. Ever. If you want to be a writer, you’ve got to be a reader. Even if you have problems reading works in the same genre in which you usually write—because you find yourself constantly analyzing, or are afraid you’re going to steal ideas—read something. Read in another genre. Read history or biography. Read, read, read.

Happy writing!

If you are a frequent reader of agent and editor blogs like I am, much of the information below is old news. If, by some chance, you are just starting out and trying to figure out what a query letter is, and how to promote yourself and your writing, here are some great, down-to-the-basics posts written over the last couple of days.

The Query by Natalie Whipple

What is reasonable in a book contract? by Chip McGregor

7 Blogs Every Author Should Follow at Author Tech Tips

Terms to Know: Right of First Refusal at Pimp My Novel

Will I Get Published Any Other Way? at How Publishing Really Works

Infographic: The Mechanics of Book Publishing at io9

Happy writing!

Last night my wife and I took our kids down to a small local bookstore to attend a stop along author Bryan Davis’s book tour. We had never heard of him until just a few weeks ago when we learned he was coming to town. We found his first novel and my two older children have since read and enjoyed it.

I’ll be honest, it’s a little embarrassing that I, as an aspiring author, have never been to a book tour or book signing before. I think I can chalk most of it up to inattention or lack of opportunity, but I won’t be able to use those excuses in the future.

What I appreciated most about Mr. Davis was his lecture on fantasy and heroism in literature. He weaved examples from Lord of the Rings and his own writing with his struggles to become a published author. Most of the crowd last night consisted of homeschooled children, some of whom were there as aspiring authors and not simply fans.

I know not every author has the kind of time or the financial ability to go on tour like this, but I can’t help but think about what a boon it is to not only his own career, but to the lives he touches at each stop along the way. Personally, I was inspired to hear how someone else’s publishing dreams came true. His visit gave me hope that I too could one day see my books on shelves across the country.

Sometimes I think I’m too worried about whether I’m worried enough about my writing. Some of you know what I mean. The constant questions the internal editor makes you ask yourself.

“Is this story good enough? Do I measure up as a writer? Is this story interesting enough? Was the query I just sent my best effort? Did it convey the proper sense of voice while evidencing plot, conflict, and character?”

The list goes on and on.

I’ve read several agent’s blogs lately where there seems to be an increasing influx of poorly crafted queries. I’m sure most of this is due to the internet, and the subsequent ease of firing off a quick email rather than sitting down to craft a letter by hand before typing it up on stationery. There’s no longer a significant cost of time and materials to consider. Even so, there has always been a small percentage of so-called writers whose queries just seem to be lazily thrown together.

Because they didn’t worry enough.

Somehow, these rogue query writers got it into their heads that simply writing up a short synopsis of their story and firing off multiple carbon copies to a myriad of agents is somehow going to land them a contract. They’ve done no work to learn the agents name, or what genres they will and will not represent.

A query is indicative of the writer’s product. If a writer doesn’t care enough to do a little research about proper queries, it’s likely their prose suffers from the same laziness. Why would an agent waste their time on such an author?

At the same time, I’ve come across those who constantly worry about getting the query just so, and end up talking themselves into inaction. They are so worried they’re about to do something wrong and wind up offending an agent in some way, permanently dashing any hopes of ever being published.

Get over it.

Have enough care to make a concerted effort, but don’t let the worry overwhelm you into a state of constant worry. Do your best to make it right, and the agent will notice, even if they decide not to take you on as a client.

Zachary Petit at Writer’s Digest recently posted 10 Solid Writing Quotes From the Past 10 Years over on his blog Promptly.

There’s a lot of good quotes there, but this one is my favorite.

“When I’m working on a deadline, I put in eight or nine hours at a time. But I don’t get writer’s block. I think writer’s block is really just an excuse. It’s anxiety. The best way to get through this is to sit down and write about your writer’s block. This works like Drano. It will unclog you immediately.”
—Augusten Burroughs, April 2005

That makes me feel guilty and inspired all at the same time.

Happy writing!

I have no idea how, when, or why it developed, but I’ve had something of a disdain for fan fiction—at least I did until the last few days. I recently introduced my son to David Eddings’ Belgariad in the hopes of developing in him an interest in reading. He’d been pretty staunch in his dislike for reading, avoiding it at all costs unless it was specifically assigned for school.

Thankfully, the Belgariad opened his mind to a whole other world of reading, and he has since devoured several other series. Among those was Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

What’s more, he’s started writing his own fan fiction based on Riordan’s series. I’m ecstatic let me tell you. This is a boy who’s gone from barely tolerating writing to jumping in with both feet. I think he’s written well over 5000 words in the last week or less. I don’t think he’s written the many words previously in the last year or more.

What was a strange revelation to me was this poor opinion I’d developed concerning fan fiction. I myself wrote my own fan fiction as a kid, namely weaving Eddings’ characters with Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance characters and putting them through all kinds of misadventures. It was with those little stories I discovered my own love of pen on paper.

How many published authors have mentioned they too got their start by kidnapping characters from their favorite books and placing them within their own plot? It was there many of today’s successful authors learn structure, character, pacing, and a myriad other writer’s disciplines.

I wonder if my dislike stems mostly from the internet age. Maybe I’ve seen far too many forums full of shoddy prose written by rabid Star Wars or Buffy fans. The advent of Twilight and the fanaticism surrounding it certainly hasn’t helped.

The real problem is I was dismissing an entire genre of the written word, that of fan fiction, based on the dregs. I had become what I hated, namely the kind of person who snootily looks down on a certain genre as inherently lesser because of some illogical personal opinion. How many times have I read, and agreed with stories and blog posts decrying those who refuse to see speculative fiction as real literature?

So write on fan fictioneers. May you hone your craft and show the rest of the world what you’re capable of producing in the future.

David Eddings has been one of my favorite writers for many years. While his works were never hard to read, they were fun, and rather innovative for their time. Here’s a quote from an SFFWorld.com interview that I’ve found particularly inspiring over the last few years.

What advice would you give a younger David Eddings concerning his writing career? Looking back, would you have done anything differently?

I think a passage from “THE RIVAN CODEX” (a non-fiction book) should give you an answer:

This is what I was talking about earlier when I suggested most aspiring fantasists will lose heart fairly early on. I was in my mid-teens when I discovered that I was a writer. Notice that I didn’t say “wanted to be a writer.” “Want” has almost nothing to do with it. It’s either there or it isn’t. If you happen to be one, you’re stuck with it. You’ll write whether you get paid for it or not. You won’t be able to help yourself. When it’s going well, it’s like reaching up into heaven and pulling down fire. It’s better than any dope you can buy. When it’s not going well, it’s much like giving birth to a baby elephant. You’ll probably notice the time lapse. I was forty before I wrote a publishable book. A twenty-five year long apprenticeship doesn’t appeal to very many people.

You can read the entire interview here: http://www.sffworld.com/interview/170p0.html