Trout

“What’s for dinner?” I asked Father as I stepped into the kitchen.

“Trout,” he answered. His voice was hardly audible above the sizzle.

“Again?” I scrunched my face and peeked into the pan.

“Would you rather go hungry?”

“No no, I just wouldn’t mind the occasional variety, either…” I backed away from the stove to my usual spot leaning against the door frame. “I could pick up some things in town, you know. I can try to make Spanish rice or even some Thai food.”

Dad scoffed at the notion. “Have a higher chance of your mother rising from the grave than getting me to eat that foreign bullshit.”

I sighed, defeated. Again. That may be, I thought, but that’s still a higher chance than me telling you I’m gay.

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The above came from an exercise we did in Write Club last night. Each person wrote a random word on the board, which acted as word-prompts. Each person picked one of those words to use in 10-15 minutes of writing, whether it was in prose, poetry, or something else entirely. Trout was my word. (Side note: we debated out to spell it. Because we’re writers, we don’t know how to spell!!)

I’ll probably continue to post about the different activities we do in Write Club when I get the chance to every week. If I think I can manage the upkeep of a blog again, I might try to do some of those activities with my faithful followers, if people are interested. Otherwise, I hope you guys find a use for some of the activities in your own ways.

I also signed up for a creative writing course for next semester (for clarification, “next semester” is May-June at my university). I’ve never taken an official creative writing course before, so I’m a little nervous. It’s also at 8am, which is a bucket of fail. But nevermind that. Depending on how the course works, I might bring some of the activities and course work from that into this blog as well.

As I’m nearing the end of my current WIP, I’m wondering what to focus on next. I might take a break during May and June while my creative writing class is going on. After that, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll jump into revisions, or maybe I’ll revive Ms. Evalise Beaumont. Remember her?

What have you all been working on lately? Anything you would like to share with the class?

Title is optional? What mockery is this‽

(Interrobang dedicated to Gar-Gar)

 

I discovered a thing! It’s called Write Club! And it’s awesome!

Apparently, my university has a Write Club that I didn’t find out about until recently. Tonight was my first attendance and I quite enjoyed myself. I’m still a bit hyper off the excitement of meeting new people weeeee

*ahem*

I got a couple critiques on my current WIP, Corrupted, and I thought I would discuss them with you all. You’re okay with that, right? You’re interested and stuff, right?? Right???

The critiques all boiled down to one big idea — Information. What information are you giving your reader? Should you? Similarly, what information are you hiding from him and should you? What balance of hidden and given information will keep the reader reading?

I didn’t expect to have this balance right on my first draft, especially with my minimal experience. That said, the people in Write Club who critiqued the first bit of my novel suggested I add information that I thought was fine to leave until later.

(Side note: They pointed out some very useful things. I’m not trashing their advice — any and all advice is helpful and welcomed. Such is human nature that advice contradicting my thought will get extensive attention until I understand it fully, which is why I’m focusing on this advice.)

With the last 20% or so to write, I’m not too concerned with figuring it out immediately. I’ve added some notes for revision, when I get there, and started looking at things from a slightly different perspective. The critiques did their job and I can’t complain with that result.

So my question to you all is thus: How do you decide what information to give your reader and when?

As a reader, when do you expect to know what the protagonist looks like, what his friends and family are like, what his social status/job is? What about information about the world, it’s political state, its geography, its technology?

Ambition!! 野心的でいいじゃん～

Brief update on my life — My co-op is over and I’m back in class. I’ve been slacking on a lot of things lately, from studying to communicating to cleaning, and quite frankly… I’m sick of it.

Yesterday was my day of being super-mopey for no reason. Well, there were a few reasons. Certain big stresses compiled by some trivial ones, on top of it being winter and overall a depressing time of the year. So today, I am going to get rid of all the excess crap like you dump out a junk drawer.

Today, I am going to take care of all the clothes sitting on my floor and bed. I am going to organize my school stuff instead of just tossing things into notebooks. I am going to clear off my desk so I can actually move my mouse without bumping something.

One thing I didn’t slack on yesterday was writing. I held true and wrote for 20 minutes, with my goal only being 15. Not exactly lofty goals, but it’s much easier to oblige when “it’s just 15 minutes.” That aside, I noticed an odd parallel between by novel and my life.

In Corrupted, I am heading into the lull just before the second plot-point, which oddly describes how yesterday was for me. Yesterday was the lull, and today is PLOT POINT TWO! The chase is on, and it’s time to kick names and take ass!!

So why am I sitting here telling you all this? So you can keep me on track, that’s why!! You all are now my personal ambition trainers!

RAWR!!

My gods, it’s a blog post!

“I need to hurry up and finish this WIP so I can tear it apart and rewrite it…”

That was my foremost thought as I finished Brandon Sanderson‘s Mistborn this evening (it’s 11:30pm, can I still call that “evening”?). I don’t know if it’s due to reading, Brandon’s novel, or just being on holiday and thinking more, but there are many changes I want to make to my current WIP.

Big changes.

Well, not quite main plot-altering changes, but there are things I missed that I so desperately want to fix. I could have raised stakes here. I should have increased tension there…

This is why I have a very love-hate relationship with writing. I am a person addicted to progress. A perfectionist. I see a flaw and I seek to correct it immediately.

You can’t do that with writing. And it drives me mad.