The Shock of Being New

By: Eeleen Lee on 3:11 pm

Try not to faff about when it comes to revisions and rewrites. I know this sounds harsh (but I wield a red pencil and I'm not afraid to use it)

"But it's not quite how I envisioned it! Gimme more time!"

You've had your time. In fact, the problem is of too much time in some cases. Try being on death ground and facing a tight deadline. All the faffing about evaporates when faced with $$$.

But ever consider why your revisions are not working? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result each time. For example, your last published story was character- based so you may also approach your newest story based on character. But your writing muscle gets bored easily - the plot dynamics start taking over and you're left wondering how to make your characters fit.

You are a new person every time you write a new story. Perhaps, that sounds insane but consider that it is inevitable with the passage of time. You've had other experiences between stories, perhaps nothing has trickled down from your previous stories or your literary interests have changed.

Writers hate change (I know this very well because I'm also a freelance fiction editor) but sometimes you can't make changes without knowing what is the nature of your change.

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Awards

By: Eeleen Lee on 6:13 am

It is award season again (Grannys. Golden Globes, Emmys, Oscars...) and we look upon them with interest. Some of us may love the pomp, spectacle and glamour while dreaming of our time when we're recognised.

I've been shortlisted for a major national writing award. I went through the stages of surprise, excitement, bewilderment and disbelief (not in that order). Yes, I received my consolation prize, had photos taken and did interviews. Does it sound too self-effacing to say that its no big deal?

Because it really isn't. The best feeling I had out of the entire experience was submitting the story, knowing that it was a job well done.

Work for the sake of the work. Your time will come, along with those awards. But they aren't the be-all and end-all of your creative existence.

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Writing In Your Head

By: Eeleen Lee on 7:39 am

Sometimes we don't have pen and paper, or access to a computer and during those times we panic, as if our bright ideas are like pet goldfish brought back from a fair - w e have to put those ideas in their proper place or we fear losing them.

But consider Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He had no access to pen and paper for six years while interred in a Siberian prison camp and he was granted no priveliges.To have attempted to scrawl anything in secret would have resulted in more beatings and torture. Grim conditions for any human being, yet alone a writer.

What did he do? Dostoyevsky wrote in his head. He composed and memorised novels and essays. In 1857 he was allowed to publish some of his work while still serving his sentence and after his release he churned out novel after novel. You may know some of them: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot....

There is no need for the prison camp treatment, but we are all in our individual wall-less prisons. Confined by day jobs, family and social obligations. No time for writing. You don't have to compose your magnum opus while on the bus every morning, but writing-in-the-head works very well for smaller tasks, such as opening lines, short stories and character sketches. Don't be scared of forgetting anything. I promise you that when an idea grabs you during one of these head-writing sessions, it will be all-consuming.

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Ditch the 1000 word rule

By: Eeleen Lee on 8:17 am

It's a new year and with each year comes all those well-intentioned New Year's resolutions. "I resolve to lose weight, quit nail-biting and/or break the landspeed record..."
Nothing wrong with aspiring to self-improvment but the discouragement sets in when goals are set too high and results do not quickly manifest. (Lose a pound a week, bite one less nail and build up to your target speed...) Think of the time - you have 365 days! 52 weeks! 525 600 minutes....

I tried the 'write a 1000 words a day' rule and found it to be rather unfeasible. No doubt there are
writers who do not find 1000 words too daunting a target (and I salute all of you- please divulge your secrets of prolifacy in the comments below....) but I discovered that as a goal, it creates a lot of anxiety. The writing session plays out like this; 'Check word count........check word count again....'

The 1000 word rule is similar to the 1000 calorie rule - ditch it! Write an 'x" number of words that work best for your work in progress. Just like ingesting 1000 empty calories on a crash diet, you could end up typing 1000 empty words that neither forward or enhance your WIP.

Happy New Year to all!

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Pastel Power

By: Eeleen Lee on 9:15 am

The late Paul Arden wrote in his bestselling book, 'Its not How Good You Are- Its How Good You Want to Be' that if you get stuck, draw with a different pen.

I stopped typing words on a screen and bought a set of oil pastels (36 shades). I wrote the entire short story in a sketch book and doodled some designs in the margins. Just for fun I considered sending it to a literary magazine....But please don't send agents and editors pastel sketches if you're serious about a literary career.

But no one has to read your first draft. Make it as messy and  as colourful as possible. Splatter away!

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Training For A Debut Novel

By: Eeleen Lee on 8:48 am

Murakami likens novel-writing to long-distance running. But I've tried long-distance running and my mind and body rejected the activity. I experienced no physical injury or intense strain but I grew increasingly intolerant of the tedium.

 Perhaps in bouts this very tedium is reassuring but it is not really applicable to compare all instances of writing to long-distance running.
To me, short stories are like choreographed dance or gymnastics routines: 90% preparation and 10% execution. Poetry is akin to fire-eating- pulling the flames out in dazzling displays and playwriting is coaching a team of players into a cohesive whole.

I am three-quarters of a way through two novels now. It has been like fencing for a long series of  bouts- just me on the piste and up against opponents I cannot make out. In the beginning I had to sit on the sides a lot and just train until I could step back in again. Now I am a pro but I am still learning.

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What Are You Conscious Admiring Influences?

By: Eeleen Lee on 9:29 pm

The title of this post is taken from this excellent interview with China Mieville - Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of 'Perdidio Street Station', 'UnLundun'  and 'The City And the City'. "Kraken" is his latest novel and it is released this month.



Mieville mentions being influenced by numerous writers and works; elements that you may not be aware at the time of writing, of being influenced by things you hate. However he mentions a strong debt to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy as a Conscious Admiring Influence.

Who or what are some of your Conscious Admiring Influences? They include writers/poets/playwrights/ actors/directors/painters/ etc..., books, poems, passages or even phrases that set off inspirational fireworks in your nascent creative consciousness.

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How to Switch Genres With (More) Ease

By: Eeleen Lee on 10:19 pm

Not long ago I had to write some stories in the crime and erotica genres. Genres that I never tried to write before. Sure I'd read a lot of both but it's like constantly going into a swanky boutique, always browsing and yet never trying on the merchandise. Was I nervous? Did I quiver? After several pithy attempts all I wrote was an analogy for my difficulty:

It is like visiting a distant relative and having to find your way around the relative's home during a power cut. You scream and stub your toe on some table legs that you thought were not there, stumble on the way into the storeroom to find some candles and a torchlight, but only to discover that the batteries are the wrong size and the matches are wet. All you can do is wait in the dark or feel your way around strange surroundings.

Pain! The dark! Being lost in a strange place! After I identified these three dominant elements I had a revelation, and narrowed down the cause of my writing difficulties to four main fears. (Fill in the blanks with the genre of your choice):

Fear #1- Suckage
I can't write ______   because I'll suck at it.


Does the disparity between your current writing and ______ genre appear like a chasm that you cannot bridge? Consider that literary fiction star EM Forster wrote a superb short story called 'The Machine Stops ' as an anti-science fiction riposte to H.G Wells and adult thriller writers John Grisham and James Patterson are now writing YA fiction. Hard work and a little daring should carry you across to the other side of that chasm.

Fear #2 - Unfamiliarity
I can't write_____  because I do not know the genre conventions and expectations.

Feeling your way around strange surroundings maybe awkward but you'll be gifted with a different view. That is precisely why you should write because you are not weighed down by common expectations and cliches. What if you were not aware that zombies are slow-moving reanimated corpses and made them run faster than a normal human being? What if vampirism is curable by homeopathy? Read as much as you can before you begin writing; learn the map of the genre and then chart your own way through the territory.

Fear #3 - Intimidation
I am put off by _______  's (insert name of genre writer) achievements/sheer volume of output in this field.

Do not be daunted by bookshelves and Amazon wishlists dominated by a few names. They hit their rhythm and never let up but they've had their hard beginnings. Stephen King wrote 'Carrie' in a trailer laundry closet, JK Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers and Agatha Christie went through 2 divorces and depression.

Fear #4 Restriction
I do not want to write genre fiction because its defined and confined by set tropes and boundaries.

Some writers like working within confines and coming up with variations on the tried and tested, whereas some would rather endure quadruple root-canal than to write according to a set of genre rules.  Perhaps this is more of a personal than a literary choice. Hence please determine whether making the genre switch is for you in the first place.

Never fear failure, but fear being not brave.
What are your ways to overcoming fear of change in your writing?

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Alien-ation

By: Eeleen Lee on 8:54 pm

I could buy aliens, but not aliens that
look  like  Fifties’ comic art.  They’re  semiotic  phantoms, bits  of  deep
cultural imagery that have split off and taken  on a life of their own

          from ‘The Gernsback Continuum’, William Gibson (1981)

Eeleen’s blog, stardate 29/05/10: My attempts to people (hah!) my science-fiction narratives with workable aliens have resulted in unusual abdominal pains. A xenomorph, or the green curry I had for dinner last night, could emerge from my stomach at any time.

You, sitting there and reading this blog, what comes to mind when you hear the word, ‘alien’ ?(and I don’t mean for immigration purposes..) Little green men waving ray-guns? Thin bug-eyed grey men wielding rectal probes? Colourful outlaw folk that frequent the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars? Those beings in Star Trek uniform with bizarre facial markings? (Oh sorry, those happen to be Star Trek fans …) Some of you may recall HR Giger’s Alien and the Predator with a shudder. How deeply these images have permeated our popular culture. Now, GET THEM OUT OF YOUR HEAD!!!

Finished? When you have banished the last pop culture alien from the orbit of your intellect, sit down with your preferred poison (An ice-blended sencha, Diet Coke and Nutrasweet in my case…) and ponder on alien possibilities.

Notice that I didn’t say, ‘possible aliens’. Then the usual stock questions would emerge, "What if they have six eyes, no mouth and communicate by telepathy? What if they look like giant praying mantids?". Cutting and pasting from a bizarre Identikit does not help your cause.

The most plausible alien possibility is that mankind will find an alien artefact. Only because humans have jettisoned so much rubbish into space, we do stand a chance of chancing upon some debris, even if it is the interstellar equivalent of a soft-drink can. We haven’t actually seen aliens upfront (despite accounts from hillbilly truck drivers) so your story become more credible when it rests on evidence of aliens.

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Character. Actor #1 : Michael Biehn and Naming

By: Eeleen Lee on 7:04 pm

The first in a series of posts that connect acting and characters in a literary and creative writing sense. (Note: 'Actor' is used to include actresses too, its just that 'Character. Actor' sounds catchier...and I stress that I'm not a professional actor, I'm just writing from a literary POV)

"What's in a name?" asked Shakespeare, who was an obvious master of naming his characters.  As a writer you have the potential to give your characters power through your choice of name; just take care that there's no potential for confusion. The question should not be,"What the $%@# is that name?".

Here's a personal example; when I was young, I used to have the following discussion with other girls about the actor Michael Biehn (right):

Variation #1

"Did you see 'The Terminator' on TV last night?"

"Yes."

"How do you pronounce that actor's last name?"

"Err, 'Sch-war-zen-neg-gar'?"

"No, not him! I'm talking about the cute guy protecting Sarah Connor."

"Ahh, 'Michael Bi-' 'Bine'? 'Behn?' 'Bin'?"

Variation #2

"Did you see 'Aliens' last night?"

"Yes."

"How do you pronounce the name of-?"

"'Si-Gour- nee-Weaver"

"No, not her! I'm talking about the cute guy playing 'Hicks'. The little girl bit him on the hand?"

"Oh, him again....'Michael B-i-e-h-n?"
"Eeleen, I know how to spell his last name but how do you say it?"

I was genuinely stumped. Movie encyclopedias entries listed him but did not say how his surname is pronounced (this was before the Internet, Google, Wikipedia and Imdb) I waited patiently for interviews and news snippets on programs such as Entertainment This Week (broadcast in Singapore one month late) just to hear his name pronounced by a presenter.
Nothing. Nada. I dubbed him 'Hicks' after his character in "Aliens" just for easy reference. But I felt like I wasn't doing him justice because he was in other major films before and after "Aliens".

One afternoon Karuna Ti and I took matters into our own hands; we sat down and dissected his surname. I decided that the name 'Biehn' could be Germanic , as in 'Bein' whereas she proposed that the 'h' was silent,  towards the Gallic sounding, 'Bien'. To pronounce the 'h' resulted in 'Michael Be-hine', which did not sound respectful at all. We agreed to disagree and use our individual pronunciations. Hence once we settled this issue, we talked about his other films such as 'The Seventh Seal', 'Navy Seals', and how I missed a brief screening of 'K2' at the cineplex.

As writers we all know that the naming of characters is important. "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names." goes an ancient Chinese saying. Name your characters well for the sake of first impressions. When in doubt, try the names on your beta readers and friends.
A good name does not have to be simplistic, for example an unwieldy monicker did not harm the careers of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sigourney Weaver. My name has six 'e's in it and people always remember it. But beware the nebulous name which can be problematic. It's not that your readers are lazy or stupid, it's just that they want to be certain. Imagine your readers are meeting a new best friend; they want to get the name absolutely right and not offend the person.

Now I know Michael Biehn's surname is actually pronounced 'Been' (both of us were wrong although common sense told us the 'h' is silent) and I was right about the German origin. But it would've been nice to have been (no pun intended) sure in the first place. Just because he's a brilliant, versatile yet underused actor, ranging from the heroic :"Aliens" ,"Navy Seals"to the psychotic ;"The Fan" (1981) and 'The Abyss'.  Here's a website if you can't get enough of Mr. Biehn. And he meets all the eye-candy criteria for this blog.

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Zen Pen

By: Eeleen Lee on 8:29 pm

Zen wisdom come in sayings or  the koan- a lightning bolt of impenetrable, illogical profundity. Answers are not required as the enigmatic sayings and axioms are intended to induce enlightenment by moving the mind to a different position. This is called a mental 'precipice'.

Whether you leap off the precipice or sit and admire the view, the Zen approach benefits the writing process. If your writing sessions sound more like "Arghhhhh!" instead of "Ahh!" read on.

1. "Water that is too pure has no fish" (Hong Zicheng)
You may have created a great protagonist/ antagonist. But no one is 101% goody-two shoes or evil. Not only are these characters stock, two-dimensional and boring, they are also implausible.  Characters are conflicted and flawed, they are rattling bags of contradictions and they transform over the course of a story. Or even a sentence.


2.  "Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done - it's just doing it" (Alan Watts)
Story plans : structures or strait-jackets? Try not to think of extremes in the early stages. Instead, put your story in an open space and explore it. You don't have to know all the answers yet.


3. "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?" (unknown)
A koan-like philosophy question but not a Zen koan.  Can something exist without it being perceived?
You may have manuscripts tucked away somewhere, stories you don't show to anyone. Without exposure they are as good as non-existent. Go on, dig them out, have another look. Since you wrote them, you owe them their existence.


4. "In serving, serve.
       In fighting, kill."   (Jinzu)
Let me append another line, "In writing, write."
I see this as a warning against multitasking, which detracts from your intention. We all do it, but perhaps it is better to turn off the technological distractions and just concentrate on your work. 


5. "The reverse side also has a reverse side" (proverb)
As a writer you are encouraged to be investigative and look beyond the obvious. There is never just one aspect or story to anyone or anything.

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Writer Olympics

By: Eeleen Lee on 8:29 pm

Let's be honest with ourselves: writing is not very physical. Heaving the laptop/notebook to the cafe is probably the most active a writer gets when they are working, or pacing the room and tearing your hair out while threatening your Muse to show up. Not that I'm saying all writers neglect exercise, some make the best exercisers. Yours truly loves her gym, belly dancing and core-strength vinyasa yoga with Sadie Nardini (not necessarily in that order...) 4-5 times a week and Murakami wrote a book on long-distance running.

But I'm sure you are an athlete in your mind (otherwise you won't be insane enough to be a writer.) you train yourself everyday to bang out those words on paper. You can create a team of characters in the time it takes to run 100m! Your plotting strategy is worthy of field sports! You run multiple marathon writing sessions!  You tell yourself mental exhaustion/burnout is for amateurs!

Citius, Altius, Fortius! Pay tribute to the upcoming highest manifestation of human athletic ability the 2010 Winter Olympics, by taking the following quiz, inspired by the Guardian guide to Winter Olympics

Which Winter Olympics Sport Matches your Writing Style?


1. You prefer to___
a)Work alone
b)Work with a friend/ buddy
c)Write and then present work to a group for critque
d)Write as part of a group for the competition


2. Once started on a piece, you___
a) Stick to it and block out outside intrusions - its gonna be a long hard slog.
b) Contact your friend/buddy regularly
c) Need a nudge or a push from your team (friends, family) to get you going
d)Brace yourself against all odds.


3. Which best describes your progress?
a) Slow and steady. With scheduled breaks
b) A sustained effort as long as your friend/buddy performs well.
c) A hard fast start but with a tendency to get sidetracked.
d) A furious intensive session. Other people have to referee on your behalf


4. Which response best describes your response to writer's block?
a) Take a break and resume writing when recovered.
b) It's their problem too!
c) Should've seen that coming! 
d) Head on. With a long stick and body armour


5)How do you react to unjustified negative criticism?
a) Shrug it off.No one said it was going to be easy when you're alone.
b) Smile at each other. All judges are biased anyway.
c) Blame your equipment ("@#$%ing spellcheck!")
d) Pick a fistfight, it never hurts to entertain your audience too....


If you chose:


Mostly As:
Cross Country Skiing
Endurance and tenacity are your main strengths. But know when to pace yourself. 


Mostly Bs:
Figure Skating
Something genuinely beautiful can emerge from collaborations if you can both master your egos.


Mostly Cs:
Bobsleigh
Your team are behind you all the way but you are driving your bobsleigh, and have to figure out the best way along your personal track.  Maintain control and don't lose it


Mostly Ds:
Ice Hockey
You play fast, and score goal after goal. Writing feels like a full contact sport and you tell yourself you thrive on challenge. Beware of mid-career burnout and play nice with the other team.




Post your results in the Comments section

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Compelling Readability

By: Eeleen Lee on 4:48 pm

I gave up an entire weekend to "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman last month. I took the book everywhere with me, even to the smallest room in the house and other peoples' houses.
How does a writer like Gaiman achieve it? When reading the first sentence is like slipping down the Winter Olympics track on a luge, when progressing from chapter to chapter distorts a reader's perception of time.  I call this seemingly magical quality Compelling Readability.

Gaiman is not the only one: Armistead Maupin wrote of Clive Barker possessing the 'easy confidence of a tribal storyteller - an elder who has seen everything and committed most of it to scripture. '. No matter how outlandish or outrageous the tales, the reader trustingly surrenders to the writer. Those first storytellers appealed to a mass audience gathered around in a large collective.

Remember, the first stories were not written down to be individually read, their word-of-mouth was literally, word of mouth . Shakespeare would laugh if he saw students writing essays about his plays and sonnets.  Literary theory, admiration and analysis hijack sheer experience; 'How?' becomes more important than ,'Wow!'

I won't apologize that the writers mentioned in this post are are deemed popular, I never trusted the demarcation between popular and literary because the two are not mutually exclusive and a poor gauge of merit. To paraphrase Donald Maas, readers mostly want a good story, not merely fine writing. (Jane Austen's novels were not popular when she was alive, John Kennedy Toole committed suicide because of the negative reception to "A Confederacy of Dunces") But I am not championing airport novels and trashy bestsellers except to say, perhaps the readers of these books may benefit from the writers being deceased...

How does a writer cultivate this tangible yet elusive quality of Compelling Readability in his/her writing?  Classes, courses and books only teach craft and technique of words, not how to make words fly to a reader's heart.

Write your stories as if a stadium of people is listening to you. If that visual is too daunting, reduce audience size to a group gathered around a campfire. Any school kid will attest to the fact that the best stories are told around a campfire.

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Eat and Drink Write

By: Eeleen Lee on 2:29 pm

Workshops, websites and how-to books do not address the issue of health. To be frank: you can't write when you are ill.
This post will only address physical health, but please read on, as a sound body =  a sound mind.

1. Illegal drugs/alcohol - Anything you write will be embarrassing when the substance wears off.  Yes, some famous writers wrote their best work when under the influence but they sacrificed their life expectancy for forced prolificacy. Don't touch the stuff unless you're William Burroughs, Phillip K. Dick, Aldous Huxley or Hunter S. Thompson- where some of their best work was about being under the influence.

2. Coffee -  The cliched tipple of choice for writers. The law of diminishing-returns applies after your second or third cup. All coffee needs is a cup to contain it, therefore sugar and cream will weigh you down, and those chocolate/ vanilla sprinkles will get scatter over your notebook or get stuck in your teeth.

3. Tea- black, green, white, red etc...as above. A pox on those who add sugar and cream to their macha - it's like Jackson Pollacking a Zen painting.

4. Ice cream. You can't eat it quickly, which is always conducive to dreamstorming. But you can eat too much of it, which is conducive to nodding off in front of the computer. Go out, buy a coneful and walk around if you're stuck.

5. Tidbits. Avoid mindless munching or you will inhale that can of Pringles or crisps in the same time it takes to delete a paragraph. Prawn and fish crackers make your fingers greasy and stain your keyboard, mouse or touchscreen. ICK!!

6. Pomegranates, pistachios, artichokes etc..., any food you have to peel will make you slow down and think.

7. Water. I am not advocating x number of glasses a day, but consider that when you quaff enough at regular intervals you will have to get up from your chair/desk and go to the toilet. No harm in scheduling mini-breaks and stretching your legs. (apologies to those who have to wear adult-diapers...)

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Make It 'So'!

By: Eeleen Lee on 10:39 pm

Title: So
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Release Year: 1986
Tracklisting


Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Don’t Give Up
That Voice Again
Mercy Street
Big Time
We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)
This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)
In Your Eyes

# Why should this album soundtrack my writing process?

Bored? Has the creative font in your head dried up? Need fresh inspiration?  If dunking your head in a bucketful of cold water is too messy, try water in the sonic sense. The theme of water runs through this album: Samples of hi-hats that sound like drizzling rain, looped triangles that resemble trickling streams and Prophet keyboards emissions like breaking waves. Gabriel extends the water theme in 1992's 'Us' but 'So' is more accessible, danceable,and fun.


Which albums do you play/ blast through earphones when you write?

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Shit Ideas? No Problem!

By: Eeleen Lee on 10:44 am

Ideas for stories. Stories for ideas. Contrary to all those cartoons and comic strips, ideas do not manifest as a lightbulb above your head. If they did, mine tend to be of the low-powered and energy-saving kind. The rest have fused. But I don't throw them away, I analyse why they have fused and admire the dead shell of the firmament and the blackened interior. I keep everything I've jotted, doodled and scribbled down. Only because you never know the later usefulness or potential of the once discarded.

There are no good or bad ideas, according to the above book, and you can judge this book by its cover. I just bought this book yesterday and can't recommend it enough. 'Whatever You Think,Think The Opposite" is a compact guide full of tips, tricks and advice on creativity and life by the late great Paul Arden, advertising maverick and creative genius.

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CPR For Fictional Characters

By: Eeleen Lee on 11:04 pm

Lots of elements make up a story: Words. Sentences. Paragraphs (not necessarily in that order...) But there is no formula and no chemical equation:


Words + Sentences= WorSen
(Q.E.D)


As listeners fixate on the lyrics of a song, readers tend to focus on fictional characters as a convenience. It's more accessible than waxing lyrical about plot mechanics and symbolism. The most common question is,'Who's your favourite character?'
Characters are assigned dimensions (such as E.M Forster's famous categorizations of 'flat' and 'round') tonalities (one-note) and shades ('dark', 'light') They are as diverse as people.
As I mentioned in my last post, characters are not people (Soylent Green is). As a writer, they come from you but they are *not* you. I'm not recommending you try spirit channelling as inspiration (Shirley McClaine went there in the late 1980's and wrote books about it) and this is not multiple personality disorder. Consider the following Zen saying:


'You are not the reflection in a mirror and yet, the reflection is you.'


When your reflection is all bad hair day and pimply eruptions, that is not the actual you, just an aspect manifesting at that time: ugly/beautiful, good/evil, etc....all the polarities are correct and present. Often too many words are devoted to physical description. Forget about outsourcing ideas at this stage, now focus on 'in'sourcing.


I am often asked how to breathe life into characters. (Due to my propensity for garlic bread,  I tend to nauseate mine). I never liked that image, as it conjures up dodgy images of life-size inflatable dolls. How do I make my characters stand out? Apart from making all the characters in my next novel, sore thumbs...


A revelation sprang from another creative craft - ACTING. The connection between writing and acting is not new. Shakespeare and Marlowe were actors. Rod Serling once observed that writers are frustrated actors. You may think Mr. Serling spent too time in front of the TV cameras filming 'The Twilight Zone' but he observed that a writer inhabits, 'The hidden auditorium of his skull."


If Serling's imagery sounds too mentally suspect, bear in mind that actors don't have the luxury of conveying the character's thoughts and emotions to the audience as words on pages.  Feelings must be conveyed through succinct action and speech. The message is clear to writers - move out of your characters' headspaces. Write less of "he/she thought/felt/wondered." and more action and precise choice of dialogue.


Watch serious interviews with renowned actors/actresses about their craft. I recommend PBS' excellent Inside The Actor's Studio series. But do not complain that the acting process is contrived. Well then, what are you doing creating people and worlds that don't exist?

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Nobody You Know: Snappy Answers to Questions About Character

By: Eeleen Lee on 5:20 am

I've never done those stereotypes attributed to writers: I don't chain smoke at my typewriter, have crazy hair, take long brooding glances out of my study window or start fights in literary cafes. But I may have to resort to fisticuffs if a particular trend keeps persisting - I've had to tolerate silly questions about character.

 It is vaguely insulting to assume that a writer's fiction is confined to his/ her experiences - Did Agatha Christie write about murder by going out to commit a few? Did Ray Bradbury make any trips to Mars? Has JK Rowling ever run a school for wizards? Did Philip K Dick converse with sentient beams of pink light? (hmmm, perhaps PKD is not the best example...)

 This assumption especially applies to the issue of character. "I don't put people into my books", Evelyn Waugh once wrote, "they *take* themselves out." meaning that someone, somewhere may take a shine to your work and claim that character A/B/C resembles someone they know. Hence that useful disclaimer on the inner flap of your work, "any resemblance in this work to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."


There are courses, manuals and dissertations on how to create characters, but I assure you, a writer does not sit in Starbucks all day with a sketchbook and pencils, transcribing other people's conversation and sketching their likenesses. A story may shape the characters, not vice versa

In short - a writer has no control over his/ her characters. In the initial planning stages, characters flit around like ghosts and if you're lucky, they may relay to you some clues about the purpose of their existence. Nor does a writer have any control over the responses to the characters. In that respect, let me help you answer the following awkward questions:


1) Is Character X/Y/Z based on anybody you know?


Give me more credit! I don't actively people my fictional worlds with people I already know. What a total mismatch. It would be like pasting newspaper clippings onto a fresco.



2) Is Character X/Y/Z based on anyone *I* know?


Print out and hold your Facebook friends list next to the character description and draw your own conclusions.


3) Did someone piss you off and you put them into nasty situations in your stories, to get back at them, if only in an imaginary sense?


Wow, what a twisted question! (Writers of horror fiction are especially afflicted with this question.) All fiction is about pain and conflict. If you want to read about hearts and flowers, then go buy a Hallmark card.

4) Is the protagonist based on yourself?


This question is probably why I've shied away from using first person in my published work. Or even worse, if the protagonist is a male : "Is the protagonist a male version of yourself?" I don't conceive of male versions of myself unless I want a very specific type of cheap operation performed in Thailand...

5) Miss Lee, is male character X/Y/Z based on any of your exes?


Now its getting too personal. Stop your prying, my handheld bowel-disruptor is set to 'Unspeakable Gut Horror'. Fiction is not a confession, and I'm not trying to get onto Oprah's Book Club shortlist by splattering my guts on the page.

6) Are the parental figures in your stories based on your own experience?


Hahah, a question that springs from the assumption that all writers must have had horrid childhoods. Some early history of trauma or tragedy, because artists seem to suffer for their work and if there is evident pain then the work is deemed 'genuine'. The proliferation of all those child abuse memoirs lining the shelves these days only proves the commercial viability of this flawed thinking.

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E6n1's Tough Guide To Writing: Overcoming Writer's BLOCK

By: Eeleen Lee on 7:58 pm

Photo credit: Wikipedia

I have received numerous requests (not including those from the voices in my head...) for the following post. Only because last month, I turned professional- as in writer (and not wrestler). I am happy to share what works best for me.

The proverbial writer's block differs for anyone who has sat down in front of a blank screen/A4 sheet to string words and sentences together. The block maybe monolithic and impassive like that alien enigma in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or a gauntlet of barriers, uniforms , spot checks and flashing lights like a border police roadblock during the Cold War. Both inspire the same daunting feeling of, "ARGHHH!! HOW DO I GET AROUND THIS?!!!"

To quote Rudy Guiliani, the former mayor of New York, "If the ends don't justify the means, I don't know what does." Do whatever it takes, of course within reasonable limits and consideration for your personal health and sanity. After all, *you* are the one crafting a written work of art, or meeting an important deadline.

I find music works for me, mainly the music I used to listen to when I was 8-16 years old. Only because it recalls a time when I was open to new ideas. Perhaps it could work for you. Don't want alot of cheese on your mp3 player? Well, it's *your* mp3 player, hence the name 'Personal Stereo'. Put on more music that you like, than music that you'd like other people to see when they browse through your playlists.

The other method I use, is baking. It has many parallels to writing: Your first few attempts will be pitiful and laughable. You will cringe, curse and swear never to leave out key ingredients or add them in the wrong order. You will learn the value of aquiring the proper equipment and not cutting corners. You may vow never to let your creations see the light of day, but when you do, the reception will invariably be, "It's not too bad...". And in the end, your efforts will be rewarded.

Unlike written FUBARs, baked FUBARs are never totally indigestible or unusable. If you have burnt the dough mixture into blackened carcinogenic lumps, and back to carbon (C), use as aquarium charcoal.

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