The muse coughs!

I finally have the next project I'm going to be obsessing over for the next few months.


It's a novel. No, I don't have a title for it yet, which is one of my problems--I just can't start on it without knowing that I'm going to call it. I also don't have an ending yet, which is another problem--I need to know where I want to wind up before beginning the journey.


It's going to be a horror novel with science fiction overtones, set on a spaceship in the distant future. Yes, it'll be Alien-like but hopefully that's where the similarities will end.


It's an idea I've had for a while, actually, but it was lacking one important thing--I didn't have the monster that was going to terrorize my intrepid band of explorers. The idea for one finally came to me earlier today, and it's a doozy, I think. Should scare the holy crap out of most of the people who read this thing.


So, I'll be mapping this thing out, thinking about it, plotting it out over the next little while, before I sit down to write it. I've got most of the cast of characters thought out, and I've actually written down their names and a little bit about who each character is. I've got the Universe they'll call home developed, the rules thought out, the culture and the conflicts all mapped out.


The muse coughed, and I listened, dammit! At least, I hope that was a cough . . .

Chilly Saturday night randomocity

I've been thinking about making music again.


It's been a while but that urge is starting. Problem is, the music I want to make will require a female vocalist--and, what's more, a vocalist with a really specific type of voice. I don't know anybody like that--or, rather, I don't know anybody like that who I could persuade to work with me.


What I need is someone with a sort of smoky, rough-edged voice. Think Melissa Etheridge.


If the muse gets more insistent and I just have to do something, I'll just record the instrumental tracks and worry about the vocals later. I do need to come up with some lyrics, though, as well.


Ah, the problems creative types have.


It's cold here, but not as cold as my internal thermometer seems to think it is. I hope I'm not turning into my dad, who kept the thermostat at his house at 80 and would have cranked it up higher if we'd let him.


Nothing new going on with me, as far as writing goes. I think The Sorcerer's Daughter is as ready as it'll ever be to start submitting, but the publisher I want to get first crack of it isn't taking submissions for another few months. So, that has to sit.


I really need to be thinking about another project. I've got a couple of ideas but nothing that has seized my attention yet. Something will, eventually, I'm sure.


I guess part of my malaise is the idea that football season is nearly over. It's going to seem like years before it starts up again.


Speaking of football, the Superbowl is a week from tomorrow. My prediction? Seattle - 24, New England 21. No, I'm not putting any money on it, and no, I don't especially care who wins. I've got not particular love for Seattle, and (unlike lots of other people I know) no particular dislike for the Patriots.


Just give us a good game, guys. That's all I'm hoping for.

A writing exercise

I just thought of this today. I'm sure I'm not the first one to come up with it, and I don't ordinarily care anything about this sort of thing, but this may be a good way to kick start some ideation.


Go to a place where there are a lot of people--preferably people who don't know you. Like a mall, or a park. Watch the people around you, and pick one or two out and come up with a story to fit with what you see them doing.


Here's the rub, though--don't use this as the starting point of the story, or even a scene in the story. Instead, use this as the ending for the story.


Say you're at the mall and you pick some guy sitting in the food court sitting alone, eating cheap Chinese food and reading a science fiction novel--probably me. How would this person sitting here, reading a book and eating, make a suitable ending to a story?


Yeah, it's not easy, but that's where creativity comes in. Maybe this person has agoraphobia and this is the first time he or she has left home in years. Maybe this person just separated from his or her spouse and is contemplating a long life of eating alone, with only a book for a companion. Maybe this person lives in a house full of children, most of home are shrieking and shouting as they play, and being able to sit alone and eat and read a book undisturbed is a triumph of the human spirit.


Anyways, give it a shot, let me know if you come up with anything interesting.

A question for my writer friends . . .

Yeah, I'm still sick. Stayed home from work today. I'm hoping if I take it easy today I'll be able to resume my regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.


In the mean time, while I wait for the meds I took to kick in, I thought I'd ask this question of any writers who happen to read this--to what extent do you feel a reader should be allowed to interpret your work?


For example, take my story, "Warden," published on this blog if you are so inclined to look for it. The story is about duty, and about how jumping to a conclusion can lead to tragedy. Set in the distant future, light years away from earth. Yes, it was my attempt at a "hard" science fiction story, and let me tell you, it is hard. Anyway, I was pretty happy with how it turned out, and the one or two others who have read it have given me complements on it.


Which is well and good. But what if someone read it and told me it resonated profoundly with them, because it's about dealing with grief and adapting to a life without a loved one. To my mind, while there is a little bit of that, it's not what the story is about. However, who am I to scold a reader who found comfort and enjoyment in the story, even if he or she saw something in it that either isn't actually there or which was outside of my intent?


Once you make a story, poem, song, whatever, available to the general public, you are at the mercy of its sometimes bizarre and inexplicable interpretations of your work. I've known writers who get really angry when someone--to their minds--misinterprets their work, even if they loved it.


Now, I could see this in some circumstances. If someone took my little story as an embracing racial purity, for example (which it certainly does not do), or eugenics (ditto), or glorifying war, and he or she loves it for that reason, that would be a bummer. That might actually hurt my feelings, as those ideas are so outside of the intent of the story I'd feel like maybe I failed as a writer if people get that from it.


But what if someone just sees my story as in the example above, about grief and acceptance and toleration? While that was also outside of what I was trying to do, I don't think I'd get all that worked up about it.


So, how important is it, to you, that your audience interpret your work the way you want it interpreted? How would you feel if people enjoy your work, but don't seem to understand it? Once the work is made available for anyone to experience, are your responsibilities as an author now done and it's now the audience's job to define and interpret the work?


I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts.

Influenzal Randomocity

Yes, I'm sick. I'm guessing it's the flu.


I've felt poorly the past several days but it never seemed to get any worse. No better, either, though. Yesterday, though, it finally reached a point where I had to leave work. I came home and died for most of the afternoon.


I'm still feeling it today. I'm up and around because I have things I must do, but as soon as those things are done I'm collapsing again. Hopefully I'll be back to sufficient strength to go to work Monday.


I did make a decision, though, as to what skill set I want to cultivate in this new year. I've always admired those artists who can meet someone and quickly draw a sketch of them. I've decided this is something I want to be able to do, too.


How am I going to do this? I may look at some books and videos for guidance, but mostly I'm going to develop this skill by practicing. A lot.


I tried this before and didn't get very far, and I finally figured out why--I was sketching the faces of people I actually know, people who are important to me. That sort of put too much pressure on me to get it right, I think. Now, I'm going to practice by sketching celebrities, people I don't know personally, and I'm having a little more luck with that.


I mean, if I sketch Johnny Depp, say, and I screw it up, I won't feel like I let him down in some way, since I don't actually know him. But since I know what the man looks like I'll be able to tell if it's not a good likeness.


My first subject is this alternative model I follow on Facebook--"alternative" in the sense that she has tattoos and piercings, and dyes her hair freaky colors. Anyways, to me she is almost superhumanly hot so I don't mind spending all this time looking at her lovely, lovely face while I try to capture her beauty in my sketchbook. No, I don't know her personally, but that's kind of the point. The first few pics I did were pretty bad but I just turned the page and started on another one.


Anyway, that's my goal for the year. I'm going to get much better at this over the next few months, I can guarantee it. Eventually I'll be able to draw people I actually know and have it actually look like them. Instead of looking like some sort of freakish mutant with huge eyes and lips.