Way back in the late spring of 2008 when I'd first began to blog, I decided that one of the cornerstones of my blog would be to talk about my adventures in writing. So talking about my adventures we did. We blathered on how difficult it was to write, how much pain/sweat/tears it took to do this, that and the other thing. Etc., etc., etc. ad nauseum.
But we had some fun along the way too. In 2009, while I was doing a self-publishing of this lovely little book:
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| Books by G.B. Miller |
Then after that was completed, we got bitten by the bug of flash fiction, and spent the rest of '09 thru the fall of '10 cranking out some five dozen two to three page short stories (about 500-700 words each) of mostly mediocre quality. But, we gained valuable insight and great writing tips from fellow writers and readers.
Around 2011, after closing my short story blog, we decided to once again get serious about our writing (having published a short story in 2009), and some time later that year, we got another short story published (unfortunately, the online magazine that it's currently housed on has seem to taken a powder, so we're gonna try to get the rights to it back).
But I slightly digress.
In 2011, I had gotten the seed of a story idea during Super Bowl weekend, and within the span of 3 months, had a first draft of my novel "Line 21" written. I then spent the next several months revising, re-writing, and most importantly, sharing some of the results with people I respected. I also decided to share my adventures with this particular novel with my blogger friends and readers, especial my female readers. Why? Because the main characters were female, I wanted to make sure that I was portraying them as accurately as possible, which meant asking lots of slightly personal/open-ended questions.
Remember kids, research is everything when it comes to writing a good story. I researched the daylights out of this thing, so that meant asking my colleagues at work and my blog readers here, pointed questions about women, not only their characteristics, but their clothing/hair/physical limitations as well. I also researched motorcycles, especially on how to shift/drive a manual.
I actually had a good time writing this particular novel with input from my friends and co-workers, simply because it made it 100% authentic/believable.
With my next novella, I think I got away from that particular concept of asking open-ended questions about certain things with my readers. As the old cliché goes, writing is often a solitary occupation. Especially if you find it easier to express yourself via the written word as opposed to becoming severely tongue-tied/engaging mouth before putting brain into gear like myself. So I basically wrote the story sans input from almost everyone save a couple of beta readers. and even then, not all the input was applied.
I do have a 3rd completed novella on-deck waiting for yet another round of editing by me as well as by a freelance editor (if you're gonna self-publish, do it right), so I might explore another facet with that novella, like a title for example. And more importantly, a title that meshes with the previous novella that I have out, since the original goal was to write a trilogy.
However, like most goals that one sets for one's self, that original goal has fallen by the way side (or more like pounded into oblivion the way Alice does with Elbonians), and was replaced with another modest/doable goal of writing a series.
Like most potential plans/outlines/goals, in order to properly tackle the said plan/outline/goal, one has to minimize most outside distractions, lest they create a viable sideshow to the main attraction. What is the main attraction you might ask? Tune in next week when we confirm the answer that I hope everyone has acquired non-exclusive rights to at this point.
(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.
Always focus on the main attraction!
ReplyDeleteSadly, this is what I'm increasingly leaning towards.
DeleteIt's good that you asked for input from women when writing female characters. I've seen a few documentaries about gender that include trans women talking about what it felt like to start taking female hormones, and they are usually quite surprised by their inner transformation. I conclude that while it's not possible to generalize about all women, females as an aggregate population do have some commonalities not shared by males on account of our glands. It's not true for all women all the time, but it's a place to start.
ReplyDeleteI will be the first to admit that I knew very little about what makes a woman tic, beyond what I was able to glean from my friends/co-workers. Because of this inadequate knowledge, I knew if I wanted to make my stories believable, I needed to do a ton o' research/ask a lot of pointed questions to get the job done.
DeleteI always try to imagine how you manage all your writing and keep a full time job at the same time. I can't keep up and am a retired person. You have lots of great information.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I manage my writing in bits, pieces and parts. It's not the greatest way of doing it, but it basically works for me.
DeleteI wish there was money in flash fiction. I sure do love writing it.
ReplyDeleteI love writing novellas, but as they say, there is almost no money in that either.
DeleteI shall tune in! Good point about research. It's so bleeding obvious when writers don't do that.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth.
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