Science Is A Method

I get so tired of people exclaiming "science!" as though it was a tangible thing. Science is not lab coats, test tubes, telescopes, and all of that stuff. It is exactly that: stuff. At best, they are tools of the trades. But even still, science is not chemistry and biology and astrophysics.

Science is a method.

Science is an approach to understanding things. It is something most people do every single day without acknowledging it. When we hear a sound and find out what it is, that's science. To do otherwise would be to assume that the sound is a particular thing, but never find out for sure.

Consider a slightly more complex issue: your laptop isn't turning on. You press the power button, but nothing happens. There could be several possible explanations. You notice the power indicator light is off, but it's plugged in, so there must be a problem with the electricity (and the battery might also be dead). You check the connections to the computer and to the adapter to see if they came loose, but they are solidly connected. So you check the power strip to see that it also has a good connection, which it does. You look at the other things plugged into the power strip and notice they're all off; none of them are getting power. You plug the power strip into a different outlet and everything is suddenly working again. Now you know that your laptop was not turning on because one of your wall outlets has blown out (or so it appears).

There's nothing terribly fancy about this. Nothing that just happened needed a laboratory or a master's degree. But still, it was science. No matter how big or small, how simple or complex,no matter what tools are needed, science is an approach to life, nothing more.

Build Your Sandbox

So last night, I told you that there are two legitimate ways to tell your story - either leading the protagonist down a linear path, or giving them a sandbox to explore. It is up to your discretion which you choose. That said, whichever path you take, make sure you set it up.

If you are giving your character a sandbox, build that sandbox. If they are in a city, make a map (or steal one from the internet as a starter). Where do people live? Where does work get done? Where's city hall? Police? Hospital? Utilities? Who works in the various places? What're their stories?

I don't think you honestly need to go out and write 200 character bios in order to write your story. 20 might be decent, though. Characters can't know what to do or where to explore if the author doesn't even know what's there to be found.

Linear vs. Open Storytelling

There are two ways to tell a story: give people a linear story where the end of each segment points in the direction of the next, or  give people an open world and let them explore until they piece things together. The very nature of the written word seems to demand the linear style, but I would argue you could do either. The difference is the nature of the character.

Imagine the stories where the protagonist enters a dangerous place, like sneaking into enemy territory, or even walking around town when their face is on wanted posters or shown on the evening news. They can't wander around. They can't strike up conversations with strangers. Whoever they may find that they can trust, that's about it. They have to hope that every new piece of information they get will uncover some key factor that will open up the next step.

Now imagine a story where the protagonist is doing everything in their home town. They know all the important people, all the usual places. They can go back and forth, checking in on the same places over and over again as necessary.

It may seem like a written story is linear because everything is preordained, but I think that's an illusion. The character was working within a sandbox; you the audience merely saw what the character chose to do with their time in it. That is different from a character who always seems to have only one option and the only real question is whether they succeed at the next part or not.

Electronic And Classical Music

I grew up listening to classical music, not by choice. It's what my parents listened to exclusively. So every car ride anywhere, it was classical music. By and large, I did not care for it. It was dull and boring to me.

I never got more than a taste of any contemporary music, which was way more appealing to me. Modern music had obvious melody, things you could sing. It also had lyrics that people could sing. Classical music was nothing more than a semi-random assortment of sound. No instrument ever had a melody. It was always jumping back and forth. To hear any instrument's part alone was like looking at a single girder and some bolts and trying to envision an office building.

As soon as I got to college, I had almost immediate access to modern music, thanks in large part to my friends exposing me to their various music libraries. From there, I found my way into electronic music, and as the years passed, I got deeper into electronic dance music, house, drum and bass, dubstep and all that jazz.

Recently, I decided to listen to the classical music station, and I was really shocked. Everything I love about electronic music I could find in classical music. And the extra irony is that it is actually all the things I originally hated about it. Basically, I had to go through an evolution from simple melodic tunes, to similar tunes with electronic influence, to pure electronic tunes, at which point I gained the appreciation for the high-level goings-on of this music.

That said, not all classical music is equally great, just like all other forms of music. And it also helps listening to music of a certain period that resonates with me (the Romantic period, like Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Beethoven all do that kind of sound more than Baroque or Classical period music). Still, I was amazed that I could gain an appreciation for music I once couldn't stand by listening to music that most classical musicians can't stand.

This easily translates to the written word, both as a reader, and a writer. Stories have more in common than they have different. You may find as you grow up that you have gained an appreciation for a form of writing you once hated. Partly it comes from new understanding; partly it comes from evolving tastes.

When It Rains, It Pours

I find myself suddenly loaded with projects. I am doing a collaborative work with a fellow writer. I am poring over horror mythos in creating an adventure for several friends. I'm keeping up with Cheff Salad, and I am trying to fit my fantasy story where time permits.

I am reminded of the saying: when it rains, it pours. It feels like I just went from doing minimal amounts of writing to being flooded with it. But I don't feel bad. I'm a little overwhelmed, but I'm not concerned. Between college and my jobs after that, I am fine with time management and I can juggle several projects. This is more than I was doing, but not more than I've ever done.

It is weird how things tend to stack up quickly. But that can be a good thing. A writer who isn't writing isn't really being a writer. So this principle means that whenever you want to write, you can be engulfed in it. You can write as much as you want, forever. And that's awesome.

On Double Spacing

I don't care for double spacing in general. I find it a needless and annoying aesthetic. The only time I used it was when my teachers demanded it.

From a mechanical perspective, I find the amount of space between lines distracting. By its definition, double spaced lines are so far apart that you could fit an entire line of text between them and it would still be legible. My eyes get lost going from line to line, because it feels like I'm jumping to a new paragraph after every line break.

From an environmental perspective, it is literally a waste of space. If you are writing something of any substantive length, you will be going through excessive amounts of paper to print it out, which irritates me more than it probably should (I truly hate paper waste.)

Similarly, what I dislike the most about double spacing is the mentality of people who prefer it. All too often, people are so concerned about page numbers. It's this whole dick-measuring contest where the higher your page count, the better you are. People talk about how much they love double spacing because it instantly blows up their page count, which makes them feel more accomplished, despite having done literally nothing to add more.

The only value in double spacing is for editing. It's nice to have that space to write notes between lines, rather than shoving them all in margins. And that alone is enough for me to say that it's not completely useless. I just don't like it outside of that single function.

A Good Excuse To Write

I'm not a huge fan of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I appreciate what it does in encouraging people to not worry about anything other than getting their ideas written down and banging it out in a relatively short time. And I definitely support anybody who uses it. What I don't care for is how people tend to think of November as a writing month, and then not thinking of any other month as a writing month.

Meeting deadlines and completing projects is awesome. It is a crucial skill for a writer. But another skill is writing every day. I've never really been interested in NaNoWriMo because I already am writing, so it seems silly to dedicate a month to something I do every day.

That said, I do enjoy a good excuse to write. I was planning a collaborative project with a fellow writer friend, and since November was right around the corner, it made sense to use NaNoWriMo as a framework for our project. Each of us will work on our respective parts through November, and when we have reached our limit, we will trade off to read and edit each other's work, so that we will end up with a finished and polished piece.

If we had come up with the idea in March, we would not have waited half a year to do it now, but things lined up well, so we are taking advantage of the existing structure to focus and motivate us. And, I suppose, that is what NaNoWriMo does best: give you a good excuse to write.