I was talking with a friend the other day. She was remarking how there seemed to be a Facebook group for everything. She had the idea to find a noun or noun phrase that didn't have a group. I decided to join her, though we ended up taking very different paths.
My friend tried to think of things that were so crazy and out of the norm that nobody else would have thought of it. It didn't work. Nothing she tried, no matter how unusual or disturbing, didn't already exist as a Facebook page.
I tried the opposite approach. I tried to think of things that are so common that everybody would overlook them, thus not thinking to make a page for them, either. I also failed. It seems like anything that exists just so happens to be somebody's passion in life and they love it enough to make a fan page for it.
However, despite our collective failures, I still think it is a good exercise. Try to think about things that you never think about. Make a list.
Write five things so thoroughly bizarre that they would never cross your mind unless you were specifically trying to think of it. Then write five things that you come across every single day, but never pay attention to.
My List:
1. Juggling rhinoceros
2. Cowboy on stilts on a unicycle
3. Parachute pants
4. Maracas
5. Stamens
1. Floors
2. Zippers
3. Trees
4. Bananas
5. Pens
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Broader Scope, Same Core
When I started this blog, I had a fairly limited view of what I was doing. Although I was writing about my craft, I was very focused on my main interest, which was comics. In particular, I often wrote about comic strips.
As I continued, I realized that the advice that I gave about comic strips worked just as well with long-form comics like graphic novels. So I widened my subject area and started talking about comics as a whole.
Time progressed and I realized that as I talked about comics, the advice I was giving was actually pretty good for writing in general, so I widened my scope again.
The last step in the process (so far) was to see that the advice given about writing is largely good for life. So now I often find myself talking about life and then tying it in to writing as an example.
Sometimes I feel like I am cheating, like I have lost my purpose by widening my scope. But I know this is not the case. I am still talking about writing and still giving advice to writers. The fact that the advice may be useful to non-writers does not diminish what I am doing here. Although I have a broader scope, I still have the same core.
As I continued, I realized that the advice that I gave about comic strips worked just as well with long-form comics like graphic novels. So I widened my subject area and started talking about comics as a whole.
Time progressed and I realized that as I talked about comics, the advice I was giving was actually pretty good for writing in general, so I widened my scope again.
The last step in the process (so far) was to see that the advice given about writing is largely good for life. So now I often find myself talking about life and then tying it in to writing as an example.
Sometimes I feel like I am cheating, like I have lost my purpose by widening my scope. But I know this is not the case. I am still talking about writing and still giving advice to writers. The fact that the advice may be useful to non-writers does not diminish what I am doing here. Although I have a broader scope, I still have the same core.
You Are A Subject
As writers, we often look around ourselves and see subjects to write about. People in particular are interesting. We see them all the time, sometimes doing the same thing over and over, and we speculate on what may be happening in their lives. But we should remember that we are no different ourselves. We, too, are the subjects that other people write about.
Consider a story about a man who comes into the same restaurant every day, sits in the same booth, gets the same meal, never talks to anybody, then leaves when he's done. I may not be an exciting story, but it is a character study. It's certainly a good subject to use as writing warm-ups.
This is a nameless, impersonal being, more of an object than a person. Except, it isn't. That's me. It's what I do during my lunch break at my day job. The thought struck me that I have become a fixture of sorts and that if I was to describe it, it would sound just like the kind of character study I would do.
We are all subjects to others. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just means that there are two things to consider. First, every nameless being that you come across in life is a human with thoughts and feelings, living a life that you are seeing a small glimpse of. Second, although you are very intimate with your own life and goings on, you may be nothing more than a nameless being to others, so try not to feel too self-important when you're out there.
Consider a story about a man who comes into the same restaurant every day, sits in the same booth, gets the same meal, never talks to anybody, then leaves when he's done. I may not be an exciting story, but it is a character study. It's certainly a good subject to use as writing warm-ups.
This is a nameless, impersonal being, more of an object than a person. Except, it isn't. That's me. It's what I do during my lunch break at my day job. The thought struck me that I have become a fixture of sorts and that if I was to describe it, it would sound just like the kind of character study I would do.
We are all subjects to others. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just means that there are two things to consider. First, every nameless being that you come across in life is a human with thoughts and feelings, living a life that you are seeing a small glimpse of. Second, although you are very intimate with your own life and goings on, you may be nothing more than a nameless being to others, so try not to feel too self-important when you're out there.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
On Tradition
Tradition is a strange thing to me. It's got this weird cultish feeling to it. Things are the way they are because they've always been that way. It's the height of ignorance and foolishness. But there's more than one way to look at it.
I remember asking a teacher about traditional versus contemporary songs and what the difference was between them. He told me that the only difference was that traditional songs were ones that we kept on singing and new songs are ones we have only started to sing. In this case, tradition is just a fancy way of saying something's old.
It's easy to reject tradition, but that can be just as foolish. Things that last are usually good, or at least beneficial. Things should be evaluated periodically to make sure that they're still useful, if not optimal. The only thing that can determine whether or not something is of use is not whether o not it is traditional, but whether or not it does what it should.
I remember asking a teacher about traditional versus contemporary songs and what the difference was between them. He told me that the only difference was that traditional songs were ones that we kept on singing and new songs are ones we have only started to sing. In this case, tradition is just a fancy way of saying something's old.
It's easy to reject tradition, but that can be just as foolish. Things that last are usually good, or at least beneficial. Things should be evaluated periodically to make sure that they're still useful, if not optimal. The only thing that can determine whether or not something is of use is not whether o not it is traditional, but whether or not it does what it should.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Contradictions Are Compelling
Us human beings are pretty rational folk. We like things that make sense and the things that don't make sense bother us. Us writers, we thrive on stuff that doesn't make sense.
Contradictions are compelling. For one thing, they exist in real life, so we know they can be possible. For another, they make no sense at a glance, which makes us want to know how it can be possible.
For example, I had the idea of a vegetarian butcher. This is a person who is a butcher, and a fantastic one at that. She can cut the best slice of meat you'll ever find, but she refuses to eat any herself. On its face, a total contradiction. Why would somebody be a vegetarian, but work as a butcher?
There are a ton of possibilities. Maybe she is a vegetarian for health reasons, avoiding meat because of risks for salmonella and mad cow disease. But if that was true, why would she be ok with selling it to others? Maybe instead, she is a vegetarian for religious reasons, but somehow her religion only forbids consuming animals, but not butchering them. Maybe, she is a butcher because she is the best damned butcher around and she makes a good living doing so, even though it sickens her and twists her stomach every day she goes in.
Whatever the reasoning ends up being, the presentation of a vegetarian butcher is something so strange that a morbid curiosity will have people want to find out how and why.
Try coming up with your own rationale for a vegetarian butcher. If not, come up with your own contradiction. Then write a page showing this person's life, the contradiction they have to deal with, and how it is that they deal with it.
Contradictions are compelling. For one thing, they exist in real life, so we know they can be possible. For another, they make no sense at a glance, which makes us want to know how it can be possible.
For example, I had the idea of a vegetarian butcher. This is a person who is a butcher, and a fantastic one at that. She can cut the best slice of meat you'll ever find, but she refuses to eat any herself. On its face, a total contradiction. Why would somebody be a vegetarian, but work as a butcher?
There are a ton of possibilities. Maybe she is a vegetarian for health reasons, avoiding meat because of risks for salmonella and mad cow disease. But if that was true, why would she be ok with selling it to others? Maybe instead, she is a vegetarian for religious reasons, but somehow her religion only forbids consuming animals, but not butchering them. Maybe, she is a butcher because she is the best damned butcher around and she makes a good living doing so, even though it sickens her and twists her stomach every day she goes in.
Whatever the reasoning ends up being, the presentation of a vegetarian butcher is something so strange that a morbid curiosity will have people want to find out how and why.
Try coming up with your own rationale for a vegetarian butcher. If not, come up with your own contradiction. Then write a page showing this person's life, the contradiction they have to deal with, and how it is that they deal with it.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Fate Can Be Meaningless
I believe in a sort of fate. I believe that everything that happens is a direct result of what happened before it, which is itself a result of something that happened even further back in time. If you take this all the way back, once the universe was created everything was set into motion. We can't stop it because whether we try to stop it or embrace it, we are equally bound to choose so.
However, this does not involve any kind of planning. Nobody is making specific things happen. You may have been destined to be born, but that doesn't mean you were born for a reason. You simply happened to be the particular combination of genes that grew and didn't die and was raised in a particular area and time. Call it dumb luck that you are exactly who you ended up being (even though you couldn't escape becoming it).
Traditionally, any stories dealing with fate imply a purpose. Somebody becomes The Chosen One because they have the purest heart or maybe because they needed to realize their self-worth. But that is not the only way to treat the subject.
A story that mentions fate could try tackling the idea that the world is predestined, but not crafted. Characters would have to struggle not against fate, but against their own ideas of self-importance, eventually finding ways to cope with it, however they may be.
Actually, the more I talk about it, the more I like that idea. Give it a shot. Write a section of that story. Try covering a moment of revelation, where a character either begins to understand the gravity of fate, or one where a character comes to terms with it. If you like it, then carry on with it.
However, this does not involve any kind of planning. Nobody is making specific things happen. You may have been destined to be born, but that doesn't mean you were born for a reason. You simply happened to be the particular combination of genes that grew and didn't die and was raised in a particular area and time. Call it dumb luck that you are exactly who you ended up being (even though you couldn't escape becoming it).
Traditionally, any stories dealing with fate imply a purpose. Somebody becomes The Chosen One because they have the purest heart or maybe because they needed to realize their self-worth. But that is not the only way to treat the subject.
A story that mentions fate could try tackling the idea that the world is predestined, but not crafted. Characters would have to struggle not against fate, but against their own ideas of self-importance, eventually finding ways to cope with it, however they may be.
Actually, the more I talk about it, the more I like that idea. Give it a shot. Write a section of that story. Try covering a moment of revelation, where a character either begins to understand the gravity of fate, or one where a character comes to terms with it. If you like it, then carry on with it.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Cheap Thrills Are Cheap
Action movies are boring to me. Sure, they're a visual marvel, but they're painfully predictable. The most insulting thing to me is putting a protagonist in near-death experiences. It's the protagonist; they're immortal.
People still do it because it's supposed to be thrilling and exciting. Well, if we insert ourselves into a story and live vicariously through the protagonist, it may actually be exciting. The rush of a fast-paced sequence that brushes with death, but still laughs in its face would totally make a normal person feel alive. But as a storytelling technique, it's worthless.
Heroes don't die. There are certainly exceptions, but by and large, this is the case. It's especially true for anything that hits the main stream. And once you are aware of this fact, no amount of peril is concerning. When it comes down to life or death, life wins.
This is why we should focus on character development. It is so important for stories to be about characters and their journeys and growth because they can never be in true danger. When protagonists fall off of cliffs, you know that something will save them, so it really is a pointless scene. When a guy has a nasty fight with his wife, goes to a bar to blow off steam, and a woman starts hitting on him, that is a scene whose outcome you cannot guarantee.
People still do it because it's supposed to be thrilling and exciting. Well, if we insert ourselves into a story and live vicariously through the protagonist, it may actually be exciting. The rush of a fast-paced sequence that brushes with death, but still laughs in its face would totally make a normal person feel alive. But as a storytelling technique, it's worthless.
Heroes don't die. There are certainly exceptions, but by and large, this is the case. It's especially true for anything that hits the main stream. And once you are aware of this fact, no amount of peril is concerning. When it comes down to life or death, life wins.
This is why we should focus on character development. It is so important for stories to be about characters and their journeys and growth because they can never be in true danger. When protagonists fall off of cliffs, you know that something will save them, so it really is a pointless scene. When a guy has a nasty fight with his wife, goes to a bar to blow off steam, and a woman starts hitting on him, that is a scene whose outcome you cannot guarantee.
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