Category Archives: Writing

Tools for Writers

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Posted by Craig on September 1, 2010 – 6:10 pm
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Yesterday a most tragic event happened.

I lost all my writing.

Well, I lost what I had done that day, 1,942 words. And I have no idea how it happened. I keep backups, and incremental versions of each file I use. So when I begin my writing for the day, I make a copy and rename it. IE: Noah Vale v1.08.odt would become Noah Vale v1.09.odt. Then I go about my writing for the day. I use both my PC and my Laptop, so I regularly copy the files between them, and haven’t had a problem until now.

Somehow, my V1.09 disappeared completely. The only possibly explanation I can think of thus:

  1. I copied the latest files to my laptop
  2. I updated the version numbers
  3. I did my writing
  4. I forgot that I did my writing.
  5. I copied the files to my laptop again.
  6. I remembered that I did my writing, but couldn’t find it.
  7. I paniced.

Of course, this makes no sense, as I’m very careful about my writing. But this mishap made me thing more closely about the software tools I use when I write.

For the actual writing, I use a combination of OpenOffice.Org and Q10. Q10 is a nifty little program that removes all distractions when you write. All you get is a black screen, and text. Nothing else. It even replicates the sound of a typewriter, which strangely enough, helps immensly. I heartily recommend it if you have trouble being distracted by the internet. Q10 is my program of choice when writing the first draft, because I can just pump the text out with no thought of anything else but the story.

When I’m doing the second draft, I want more formatting abilities, so I use OpenOffice.org. I used to use MS Word, but I truly hated the latest version, when they introduced the horrid ‘ribbon’. Open Office Writer is what Word used to be, a simple easy to use word processor.

My programmer friends would have be use LaTeX. It’s a document markup language, and if you don’t know what that is, think HTML for writing books. And I tried it, I honestly did, but what they don’t understand is there’s a difference between programmers and writers. I don’t care what is working behind the scenes when I write my book, I just need it to be as easy as possible so I don’t need to stop and think about how to do things. LaTeX is good if you have a scientific mind, or if you care about how the software treats your files ‘behind the scenes’. But if you just want to write easily, then forget about it.

Another piece of software my programmer friend tried to get me to use was GIT. It’s a version control system, meaning it handles revisions of documents, keeping every version of the file as you make each change – which basically means it would automate what I was doing manually. On the surface, this sounded great, but when I tried to use it I found it was immensely complicated, and not designed for writers at all. It’s programmers software. I want something easy and simple, because I should be concentrating on writing my book, not trying to remember how to commit the changes I made.

As long as I’m talking about tools for writers, I want to mention one more that is extremely useful for planning out your story.

yWriter is a great program for planning a novel. It helps you break up your novel into chapters and scenes, plan out the timeline, flesh out the characters… it does pretty much everything. I used to use this a lot. Now, I just write everything out in office documents, but if planning a novel is confusing to you, check out yWriter. It’s great.

A self-doubty kind of feeling

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Posted by Craig on August 24, 2010 – 7:30 pm
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Today, while searching for something that doesn’t really matter, I came across some old writing I did about ten years ago. The first book I actually set out to write was called “Roovantis in Mesunoc” (which,by the way, were just words I made up).

I’d forgotten all about this. It was an extremely lame story about a guy who was kidnapped from Earth, taken to a fantasy world and given an epic quest. But it got me to thinking, so I went back and re-read a lot of other things I’ve written as well.

And it led me to one conclusion. I was a really awful writer when I first started. The text was full of cliche’s and one-dimensional characters. The plot meandered all over the place, with no clear direction or focus. It was abismal.

And now, the trouble is, reading that has left me with a depressing, self-doubty kind of feeling. When I wrote that stuff ten years ago, I thought I was good. I had no idea how bad it was.

What if that’s still the case? What if I’m wasting my time writing, when I should be doing something completely different? What if I’m like those horrible people on Australian Idol who think they’re amazing singers, but end up being incredibly bad? They had no idea.

I know some people would say, write for yourself. Therefore it doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, but I disagree. I write so that other people can read it and be entertained. I’m already a writer, but my goal is to be a GOOD writer.

Am I wasting my time?

To be honest, I was perfectly happy until I read these old writings a few hours ago. Maybe its just a bad mood. Maybe it’ll blow over, and I can go back to being blissfully ignorant.

I really wish I had something published. That’s like professional validation that you have reached the next level of writing skill. If writing were an RPG, then I feel like I’ve been grinding for years and have never levelled up.

I hope tomorrow brings happy thoughts.

I’ve spent half the year so far writing.

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Posted by Craig on June 30, 2010 – 7:33 pm
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I’ve been keeping a daily writing log since the beginning of the year, writing down how many words I do each day, and what I worked on that day. Now that the year is half over, I thought my writing stats might be interesting.

Out of 181 days so far:

  • 61 days were spent writing The Spiral Dilemma 93,725 words)
  • 25 days were spent writing Milaan of the Mind (19,137 words)
  • 4 days were spent writing Noah Vale (3147 words… I’ve only just started)

That’s 90 days out of 181 that I have written. So basically I spent half my time writing, half my time bludging

That’s not bad, when I think about it, but I’d like it to me more. So I hereby vow, as a new half year’s resolution, the stats for the second half of the year will be above half!

What I’m Writing

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Posted by Craig on June 29, 2010 – 7:38 pm
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As of recently I was writing Milaan of the Mind, which is the sequel to The Spiral Dilemma. ‘Dilemma’ is the completed fantasy novel that I am currently sending to publishers and agents (which is a whole other post).

The trouble is, ‘Milaan’ just refuses to come together. I like to have everything planned out before I start writing. Its like going on a holiday, I need to know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there before I begin to pack. But I just can’t get the ending worked out! I know everything that will happen in Milaan, up to the ending, and that’s where I stall. It’s like there’s some mental wall in my head stopping me from thinking anything related to a great ending to this book.

So to give myself a break, I’m putting ‘Milaan’ aside and writing something completely different. If and when ‘Dilemma’ is published, I will pick up Milaan again and write the second book. But the way I see it, it could be a while before anyone publishes it, so I can take my time and write some other things.

So the new ‘What I’m Writing’ is Noah Vale. Noah Vale is a story about a troubled man who hears voices. While out on a picnic with his sister’s family, his niece goes missing. It is set in Sydney, Australia, with supernatural elements (everything I write has supernatural elements :D ). The way I see it, I could write a whole series of books about Noah Vale, but unlike fantasy novels, there doesn’t need to be any over-aching storyline. I can just take one story at a time. I’m not sure how long this first story will be, but I’m trying not to worry about it. Quality not quantity, as they say.

The Half Draft

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Posted by Craig on May 29, 2010 – 7:39 pm
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I’ve been writing the sequel to The Spiral Dilemma for a few weeks now, and finding the first draft pretty hard to write. I think its because I’ve been revising The Spiral Dilemma for so long, I’m still in that mode of changing what’s there, rather than writing completely new stuff. I know that once I have something finished, no matter how good or bad it is, I can work on it, and mould it into something good.

So instead of working on the first draft, I’ve decided that what I’ve been actually doing is writing the ‘half-draft’. At the moment I have a list of the scenes, and details (in point form) of what happens. So I’m basically taking those points and writing a sentence or two, in some cases a few paragraphs, about what happens. Then once I get a sort of simple narrative of what happens, I can work on it to produce a proper first draft.

I think at the moment I’m placing too much importance on the words I put down. The quality of my writing, at this point, doesn’t matter, because I will be revising it two or three times anyway. For me, its easier to change what’s there rather than write new material.

Hence, I’m writing my half-draft. It’ll flow more quickly since its only a half-draft, because I won’t worry about it so much. Also btw, I’m just past chapter 3, and planning on 20 chapters. I’m doing just about a chapter a week, but hoping to increase that a bit as time goes on.

But first, I’ve got to in the ‘write-new-material’ mode.

To publish or not? That is the question!

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Posted by Craig on April 13, 2010 – 8:39 pm
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I’m at the point where I don’t think there’s anything else I can do with The Spiral Dilemma. It’s completed, and it’s a great book even if I do say so myself. I love it.

So now I’m at the point where I need to start looking for publishers/ agents. The trouble is, in Australia there are very few of them that will accept fantasy from a new author. Not only that, but I’ve been reading about everything that else that happens even after you get a publisher, and its really depressing me.

The reason why I write is that it’s fun. But part of the writing process is having people read it. Now I realise that technically I don’t need to be published to have people read my book, but sure would help.

The other thing I’ve been worried about relates to the fact that currently I’ve been taking care of my Dad. Now at the moment that’s fine, it gives me a lot of free time to write and I get Carer’s Allowance. But one day the time will come when Dad is no longer around (hopefully a LONG time from now), and at when that time comes I will need a way to make money. If I have some books published by them, I may not need to find a regular job. That’s the plan anyway.

I really don’t think I’m cut out to work in an office. It was fine at first but gradually it was sending me quite insane. If I have to go back to work in an office again, I don’t know if I’d cope. Plus working full time cuts into my writing time dramatically.

So I should get published! The trouble with that is I’ve been writing about all the hoops you have to jump through, and that even after you get published, most authors won’t be very successful anyway  and will never make enough money to live off. It almost doesn’t seem worth it.

I just want a lot of people to read my book and enjoy it! That’s not too much to ask is it?

I realise I could just put it up here on my website for free, but then that dramatically cuts down on the number of people that will actually see it, plus I’d make no money so I’d have to eventually get a job at some point.

I know I sound like I really don’t want to work – but it’s not working in itself that I’m dreading, it’s the type of work. The only real skills I have are for boring office work that I absolutely hate, and even then I’m not convinced that I was any good at it to begin with. Writing is what I’m passionate about, but can I make money from it?

I suppose time will tell.

The tangle in my Mind

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Posted by Craig on April 4, 2010 – 2:15 pm
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The Tangle in my MindNow that I have finished my first book (well, almost), I’m taking a well earned break from it, and putting some thought into the plot for the second book. It’s a series books, so the second book follows on from The Spiral Dilemma, and introduces a new character named Milaan.

The problem I am having is that at the moments, all my thoughts about this new book are like the jumble of cables in this picture. I have lots of ideas about different characters and different plots all tangled together in a confusing mess.

My goal now is to extract each idea one at a time and arrange them in a nice neat pile. Then once I have that, I can begin to piece them together, so that I’ll end up with one long, smooth line.

The trouble is, it’s harder than it sounds. I’ve been writing the last book for so long (4-5 years), so it’s been a long time since I actually worked out the plot for a new book. I’m confident that I’ll get it in the end, but when that end will come, I have no idea.

I know everything that needs to happen in this book, I just need to work out when and where, and make sure it paces nice and smoothly. Also there is one character whom currently isn’t doing much of anything at all. I really need to think of something for him to do, or think of a reason to get rid of him all together. It’s no good having him tag along just watching and not participating in events.

Stephen Donaldson once said “writers don’t get ideas; ideas get writers”

Well Ideas, come and get me!

The Spiral Dilemma: Second Draft Complete!

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Posted by Craig on April 2, 2010 – 11:23 am
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First of all, I haven’t blogged in a while because I had a bad stomach bug. I had no energy for anything except sitting around and doing nothing.

Since then I’ve been catching up with my writing, and I finished the second draft of my novel! This is the fourth book I’ve finished, and I’m aiming for this one to be the one I get published. I’m very proud of it, and its the best thing I’ve written so far. I love it.

So what now? I need to spell-check it a bit, then I’d like to get some constructive criticism. Then I guess I can start sending it around to places. Exciting stuff!

I’m going to start planning the second book pretty soon. I know what needs to happen, but I don’t know how or when exactly. I need to plan out the plot so I know where I’m going before I begin writing the first draft.

I also would still like to write more of Diary of a Survivor, but because I’ve been sick I haven’t done anything about it yet. It’s good to have something I can write that isn’t Dilemma related. Although I like the book, it’s okay to have a break every now and again.

My list of possible names

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Posted by Craig on March 8, 2010 – 1:41 pm
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I have always enjoyed using unusual words for the names of my characters. For example, two of the main characters in my novel are Dilemma, and Ocean. I have kept this list of possible names for a long time, and pick from it whenever I want something a little different. I decided to post it, because it might provide someone with some inspiration.

MALE

  • December
  • Manoevre
  • Cage
  • Both
  • Coil
  • Bolt
  • Trying
  • Tumble
  • Prime
  • Handle
  • Dusty
  • Waft
  • Anvil
  • Folder
  • Strafe
  • Thursday
 FEMALE

  • Fickle
  • Trampoline
  • Vicinity
  • Tiara
  • Honesty
  • Saliva
  • Gentle
  • Innocence
  • Local
  • Geometry
  • Armada
  • Patella
  • Channel
  • Adrenaline
  • Velocity
  • Twelve

Are video games a flawed medium for storytelling?

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Posted by Craig on March 7, 2010 – 10:40 am
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For a long, long time I’ve been waiting for a game that puts the story first. A game that can tell a brilliant, engaging story just like a movie, tv show or book. But lately I’m beginning to wonder if that is even possible. Maybe I’m waiting for the impossible?

The latest game I’ve been playing is Heavy Rain. It was publicized as an ‘interactive drama’. It really does put the story first, and yes its a good story. The trouble is, I think this interactivity interferes with the storytelling. If you play it just once, then walk away, then yes you got a good, engaging story. But with the way the story can branch to much, nobody will play it just once.

So you play it a second time, get a different end result, and then your first story is diminished. You realise that there is really no set path for the story to unfold. For me, it ruins the immersion and surprise when you can steer the story in whatever way you want.

Of course, I realise not all games are like this. But still, even in games with linear storylines, the quality of the writing is lacking. Resident Evil games aside, the Survival Horror genre tends to have quite good storylines in their games. I’d probably say Silent Hill is the best at story, but even that too has multiple endings.

So what else? Uncharted 1 and 2 both had interesting linear stories, but I wouldn’t want to read a book about it.

No matter how many games I play, I really can’t think of one that has satisfied me, story-wise, the way a really good book can. Perhaps I should stop looking.

So what makes up an interesting story? Well written characters for a start. Most video game characters are pale, one-dimensional and badly written. But when it’s an action game where all you care about is killing the next alien, it really doesn’t matter how bad the characters are.

Heavy Rain has the best characters so far. They felt like real people, displayed emotion, and were well rounded. But still, it failed on plot. The plot changes so much depending on how you play, and each time you realise that a branch exists, a small part of the magic dies.

The Secret World (insert link here) is a MMO in development that promises to put an emphasis on story. The only other MMO I would say that has a good story is Lord of the Rings Online, and that’s only because it’s based on a story that has already been written. TSW has already revealed a lot of back-story, and currently there is an ARG centred around the New England town of Kingsmouth. Ragnar himself has stated that he wants people to get to know the characters, which is an exciting prospect. But the game is far from release. Can it deliver on story? Who knows… Perhaps being an MMO means it fails on story automatically?

Two games that perhaps come close to having a good story are The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. The trouble is, I haven’t completed The Longest Journey and never played Dreamfall. While the story and characters are good, it’s a basic point and click adventure game, and the boring, illogical puzzles ruin the pacing of the story for me.

That’s another thing, in a story, the pacing is very important. You want the story to flow smoothly, not become too slow or boring, and not move so fast that the reader can’t keep up. But with a game, they can’t control the pacing. Perhaps you’ll get stuck in a puzzle and not advance the story for a few days? Perhaps you’ll skip a few cut scenes? I found the pacing of The Longest Journey too slow, and I got bored. So I stopped playing.

Until now, when a new game comes out the first thing I look for is a good story. I’m always disappointed. I think perhaps I need to change my priorities. Maybe one day I’ll find a game with an exciting, engaging story, but when I do, it’ll be a surprise. I’m not looking for it anymore.