Posts Tagged ‘short story’

What Makes A Happy Ending?

Posted: March 28, 2015 in Reflections, Writing
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“I love a happy ending.”

You hear that a lot. People go to the movies or read books or watch TV shows or plays and they tell you that the happy ending is the best part. Some people won’t even check something out–movie, play, book, whatever–unless they know there’s a happy ending in the story, as if their whole enjoyment of this creative work hinges upon how it ends and nothing else.

But what is a happy ending? What is the definition of a happy ending? If you think about it, it’s not as easy a question to answer as it seems. It can actually vary between genres. In romance, a happy ending is that after many trials and tribulations the hero and heroine finally end up together, madly in love, and the villain, if there is one, either realizes the errors of their ways and repents for it or they suffer for the misery they’ve caused. In fantasy, usually the quest the characters set out upon is accomplished, though sometimes that has its own consequences (the hero dies or, like Frodo in LOTR, has been too affected by the events of the story to truly be happy). And in horror, happy endings aren’t easily achieved. If you’re lucky, you’ll survive and have most of your psyche intact. Anything else is up in the air.

And in some cases, happy endings don’t come at all. Take about a third of Shakespeare’s plays, or movies like Oculus, or the movie Godfather (everyone gets brought low in that film). How about stories where the enemy is defeated but someone dies tragically (Moulin Rouge). Or maybe, as in one of my favorite indie horror film I Am A Ghost, you are left with more questions than answers.

I think happy endings are actually pretty subjective and hard to define. Does everyone but the bad guy win? Do the lovers end up together? Does nobody come away with traumatic experiences? I think it’s easier to look for a satisfactory ending than a happy ending. A satisfactory ending is a conclusion that resonates with you, that you feel is the natural conclusion of this long story you’ve been reading/watching and brings out an emotional response in you that doesn’t involve disappointment. It makes you say, “I like how this ends.” And it’s much less likely to make you burst out crying because you’re so happy that all has turned out well.

How do you feel about happy endings or satisfactory endings?

What’s your definition of either?

Updates on What I’ve Been Doing

Posted: March 20, 2015 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Once again, I’m updating everyone on the various projects I’ve been working on. God knows I’ve got many at various stages of completion. And only God knows why I’ve gotten myself stuck in these crazy projects. It is insane. Well anyway, here’s my updates:

Rose

I’ve just gotten two-thirds of the way through the second draft. I’d say I’ve got about two or three weeks before I’ve finished the draft. After that, I may or may not do a third draft (though I’ve gotten advice throughout the first two drafts, so that feels like a third draft). Once I’ve finished the editing process though, I’ll start the publication process (copyright, cover, what have you). Might get it out later this year or early next year. Either way, it should scare the pants off of people.

Video Rage

I’ve got a lot of people–most of them my family, I’m afraid to say–pissed at me because of the delays in this one. Sorry, my thesis has taken up a lot of my time, so I haven’t been able to devote any energy to Reborn City‘s sequel. However, I plan to get right back into VR as soon as I’m done with Rose. After that, I have a friend who gave me a great amount of help for RC, and after that it’s all publication. Like Rose, I’ll hopefully get this out late this year or early next year. Fingers crossed.

Laura Horn

I still plan to rework and rewrite this book, to make it better than the draft I finished last year. Not sure when I’ll get to it, but hopefully before the year is out. We’ll just have to wait and see.

The Dead and Dying (plus other short stories)

I know I said I’m working on another collection of short stories, but I’ve been busy with…everything and unable to actually do that much collecting. But I plan to get more short stories written after Rose and maybe include them in the collection. I’m still working on that short story involving witches, but it’s taken time to get it right. I’m exacting that way, I want as close to perfection as possible for this story. I might try to take a break with it though, work on some other ones. I have an idea for another witch story that’ll be a bit easier to pull off, so I’ll work on that instead.

Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors

Got a new article coming out tomorrow morning, a very special one. I’ll write a post and include a link tomorrow. Trust me, it’s going to be great.

 

Well, that’s my updates. I’ll let you guys knows if anything comes up that’s worthy of knowing. And with school ending for me in a little over seven weeks or so, I’m sure there will be plenty of things worthy of posting about, my Followers of Fear. Good night everyone (or if you’re reading this over your morning coffee, good morning).

Back to the Original Idea

Posted: February 23, 2015 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that I’ve been struggling with some story ideas, trying to make them much more terrifying or compelling or just plain better. One is a potential novel, the other is a short story I’ve been struggling with on and off for about nine months or so. Both involve witches, strangely (maybe it’s a sign of something).

The novel has been a big struggle for me. The way I work with potential ideas, I write down a short summary of the story, like a blurb for a back cover, which allows me plenty of time to come up with ways to modify it, come up with new scenes and characters, and whatever else you do when you create a story. For the past couple of months, I’ve been looking into ways to modify this one novel. Maybe it’s been my experience with the initial story path of Rose, which was so expansive and crazy that it required modification and a new outline a month into writing, but I was worried I was going the same direction with this novel idea, and that I had to find some way to simplify it while keeping the original theme the same.

Well, I haven’t been able to think of anything yet. Ideas come to me but they don’t work out, I just shove them aside because they’re not what I’m looking for. I really like this idea, but I can’t think of anything that’ll work for this story. I’m a bit of a perfectionist that way. I don’t want to write a story that I don’t think is any good.

And then today while I was walking to class (to History of Magic and Witchcraft, ironically), I was thinking about this story, wishing that I could think of some way to make the story work and at the same time wishing that the original idea could still work. And then that errant voice that is in all of us, the voice that questions our beliefs and convictions, asked me, “Well, why can’t the original idea still work?” It actually made me pause (metaphorically, I still had to get to class) and think. I looked at the bare-bones idea of the story and thought. It made me realize that the idea’s original plot wasn’t as expansive as I thought it would be. It might make for a long novel, but it wasn’t so expansive that I had to create a whole world in several books. It actually was pretty solid.

Why was I so worried? If I wrote it right, it wouldn’t have the same problems as the initial draft of Rose. In fact, it might work.

So I’m not thinking about how to modify the story right now. Instead I’m thinking of this initial plot, how it could work after all and how I might support it. I’m not too worried about changing the plot. I can make this one work, if I’m careful.

And as for my stubborn short story, I had another idea on how to fix that. Don’t know when I’ll get around to working on that, but the idea will stick in my head for sure.

You know, authors are constantly learning something new, improving their craft and looking for ways to tell better tales. I learned this past fall that you have to be careful not to get too crazy with your story’s plot or you’ll lose the point of your story and it’ll be boring or confusing. That was the problem with my first attempts with Rose, which I made so big and sprawling because I was worried that if I kept it simple it might get boring.

That lesson is important, but one I got today is that you shouldn’t let fear of being too expansive get in the way of trying to make a good story.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to get some schoolwork done, and leave it at that for the night. Expect another blog post soon, my Followers of Fear. It’s about halfway through the semester, after all. Until then, goodnight and pleasant nightmares.

My Weird Idea Anxiety

Posted: February 16, 2015 in ideas, Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before, but I feel that it could use a reiteration. If you don’t know, I have a number of ideas for novels, short stories, and articles. During the semesters I usually have a hundred more ideas, which I put down on one of three lists, depending on what sort of idea it is. This can sometimes feel like a double-edged sword, because I have only so much time between school, homework, and my job, among other things, to write. So these ideas just pile up, up, up. And I worry that I won’t be able to write them any time soon. On the other hand, if I go too long without having an idea, I start worrying that I’m losing my creative edge and start looking for new ideas left, right and center.

Lately though I’ve been less anxious, which is odd because I usually have more ideas at this point in the semester than I’ve had lately (maybe it’s the cold?). I’m actually not complaining or feeling too anxious either. I think that might have something to do with how busy I’ve been and how my mind’s been on other things. School, the job search, work, etc. It keeps you busy, so I have less time to worry about how many or few ideas I’m having.

I might also be a bit more mellow than I have been. And I’m actually trying to have more ideas about modifying ideas or stories I already have. I’m thinking of ways to rewrite my novel Laura Horn (which I hope to get around to later this year), There’s that short story I’ve been working on for about eight or nine months. I’m still looking for ways to modify that one till I’m satisfied with it. And I had this one idea for a novel about witches last year, I want to modify the plot to make the story flow better. Just need to figure it out. Perhaps so much of my imaginative powers is being sent in that direction it explains why I haven’t had other ideas.

Well, whatever it means, I doubt I’m losing my creativity. I had an idea for a short story today, and it’s not too shabby. And even if I was, I have about 200 ideas for novels and other long works, and over 400 ideas for short stories. And don’t get me started on articles or blog posts! Plenty of creativity left.

Well, that’s all for now. I plan to do some editing tonight, so wish me luck on that front, my Followers of Fear.

A Little Today, A Lot Tomorrow

Posted: February 8, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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I’ve been busy this past weekend, attending my cousin’s bar mitzvah in Detroit and when not doing bar mitzvah things, I was busy with homework or being in the car (hard to get Wi-Fi while in the car). Otherwise I would have posted something Friday or Saturday. Well, better late than never, right?

And on the subject of writing posts, I want to talk about something that’s a subject of controversy for writers: a daily word count. I’ve heard plenty of writers give their opinions on the topic, from being proponents of 500 to 1000 words a day, to others who say that the daily word count is some draconian form of masochism for writers. Me, being “ambitious”, as my English major advisor called me (or was it “overachiever”?), have tried to at least get 500 words typed out each day, whether it be short story, novel, or blog post. 500 words seems to be the amount of words most proponents seem to advocate, whatever the reason that be.

Well, the other day I was working on a short story that I’ve been working on and off for about eight months. That night I barely got three or four hundred words written and I was feeling pretty ashamed about that. This story’s been wrestling with me for ages, and I’ve been trying to get a version of it written that I feel would be up to the standards I (and possibly the magazines I could submit it too) like of my short stories.

The next night though I had a different idea of where to go with this story, and I wrote about fifteen hundred words. Obviously, I felt elated by that. But I also had a bit of an epiphany that evening. The night before I’d been unsatisfied with the direction the story was going and obviously it stalled. The next night I had a different direction for the story that I thought might work better and I got out over a thousand words.

I won’t be worrying about word counts while writing any time soon.

It made me realize that some days, if I’m enjoying how the story goes or if I’m really in the flow, I’ll write a huge amount. And other days, if I’m tired, if I’m not really liking the direction of the story, or if it’s just not my day, I might not get a hundred words out. It’s not any fault of mine, it’s just the way sometimes these things go. Writers have bad days too and on those days we just have to deal with it, and maybe try again tomorrow.

These past couple of days, outside of homework, I haven’t gotten anywhere near five-hundred words written. Am I upset? More about not having the chance to write than anything else. The word count isn’t important to me anymore. Or it isn’t as important as it used to be. I’ll definitely try to get more written out than I have previously over these next couple of nights. Since I’ll be editing Rose starting Tuesday, I might just get a lot out depending on how much I want to change from one draft to the other. We’ll see.

But I’m not that concerned. As I said, some days you’re going to get plenty done and some days you’ll only get a few words out. It’s important at the very least that you try. And believe me, I’ll be trying.

How do you feel about daily word counts? For or against? Why?

Are you planning on asking me how many words this post is?

If you are, you shouldn’t! Because if you ask, I won’t tell you! I’m evil that way.

And by the way, thanks once again to everyone who contributed to Buckeyethon this past year. Even though I could not attend the dance this year because of my cousin’s bar mitzvah, I heard about the great achievements of my fellow students and I this year. 1.2 million dollars towards cancer research! Thank you so very much for your spiritual and financial support in this. You helped make the difference with me.

Well, that’s all for now. It’s getting late, and I’m going to head to bed. I’ve had a lot of late night recently, so I need some sleep if I’m going to be able to deal with school and work and the writing tomorrow. Have a great night, my Followers of Fear.

Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite

Posted: February 1, 2015 in Reflections, Writing
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I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but I’ve rewritten a number of stories, especially short stories, over the course of my writing career. It’s annoying to a certain degree, to have to start from scratch while writing the same story over and over again. It’s easier to just edit a single story, but when things need to be changed to such a degree that rewriting the story is either simpler or the same as editing the story.

I’ve rewritten What Happened Saturday Night more than once (especially the last third of it), still have to rewrite Evil Began in a Bar (as soon as I figure out how to go about it) and I’m in the process of doing a major revision of Miranda’s Tempest that was inspired by one of my History of Witchcraft classes. Plus I plan to rewrite Laura Horn as soon as I have a moment. And you remember when I had to writ a new outline of Rose because the story was getting way too crazy for my advisor Manny (finally asked if I could name him here on my blog) and he told me to rethink where it was going? That was basically an outline rewrite. And it was after I had to rewrite the first four chapters because they were too light and campy for a horror novel.

Oy vey! That’s a lot of rewrites!

Still, as much as I hate having to do it, I know that a rewrite is ultimately beneficial. It makes the story much, much better. The difference between the first draft of What Happened Saturday Night, “Frauwolf” and the second draft was immense. And the third and fourth drafts showed even greater improvement. The Murderer’s Legacy improved a great deal once it became Miranda’s Tempest, though it still had its flaws. And now I’m doing another version of Miranda’s Tempest, though I’ve renamed it Strong’s Trial due to the new content and theme. It resembles Harry Potter a bit, though I think it’ll end up much removed from that. The rewrites of Rose have vastly improved it and I’m sure when I get to rewriting Laura Horn it’ll be much, much better.

And a lot of great works have been rewritten before publication. The Book Thief was apparently written 200 times before being published, and that’s a famous work. And I hear every script that gets turned into a movie in Hollywood goes through several rewrites before finally going into production. So perhaps my constant rewriting of my stories might make for a famous story someday. We’ll see someday.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to spend some time relaxing this evening before going to bed. I’ve done a lot of (re)writing today, so I’m going to take a break and try to relax. I’m setting up an account on my roommate’s PS4 and I’m going to play my first survival-horror game, Outlast. I’ve heard good things about it. Should be very exciting (and if I don’t like it, I’ll rewrite it!). Wish me luck!

Self-Pub Authors: Short Stories That Are Too Short

Posted: January 29, 2015 in Journalism, Reflections, short story, Writing
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My latest article from Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors is Short Stories That Are Too Short. This post was inspired by things I learned in my creative writing class last semester, and details one of the lessons I learned there. If you’ve ever worried that the short stories you write are too long or too short, this article might be helpful for you.

And if you’re a writer, traditionally published or independently published, this website might be what you’re looking for. We have hundreds of articles that are devoted to helping authors of all stripes write, edit, publish, and market their books effectively and without too much cost. Check it out if you get the chance.

Well, I’ve got work to do. Goodnight, my Followers of Fear. Pleasant nightmares.

Interview with Rami Ungar

Posted: January 29, 2015 in Author Interciew, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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I’m happy to let everyone know that I’ve recently been interviewed by Tricia Drammeh of Authors to Watch about the short stories I published in the Strange Portals anthology last month and which she appears in as well. If you get the chance, please check out the interview. And while I’m talking about it, I’d like to thank Tricia for featuring me. It really means a lot to me and I hope I can return the favor sometime.

State Fair: Finished

Posted: January 12, 2015 in Living and Life, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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A picture from the Ohio State Fair, which was a big influence on my own “State Fair”.

Well, it took me a day longer than I wanted it to, but I got it done. This is my final short story for winter break, and I got it done. This one’s called State Fair, and it’s about a ghost haunting a state fairgrounds who becomes infatuated with a girl he sees one day. It’s different than some of my other short stories, very literary but also very ghostly. I also think that this short story’s first draft is much better than my usual first draft, and I wish I could have submitted this one to my creative writing class to critique. I think they would’ve liked this very much.

From the moment I had the initial idea for this short story, I knew this one was different, that it was special. It’s probably why I decided to work on it over winter break. I also got to integrate many of the lessons I got from last semester and from some books I’ve been reading recently with this story, which I think might have contributed to the quality I feel this first draft has (though I still can’t keep a short story under forty-five hundred, it seems).

I’m still deciding what to do with this short story. My ultimate goal for State Fair is to submit it to a contest on campus for short stories. The deadline’s in mid-February, so I have a little time to edit and maybe get another person to take a look and give me some feedback. I got an honorable mention for my submission last year, so I think that this year I’ve got a pretty good chance with State Fair. Whatever the case, I’ll keep everyone posted and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I’m watching my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Oregon Ducks, and I want to see how this game ends. Tomorrow I get back to working on my thesis Rose, with the hope of getting that done by late February. I’ll keep everyone updated on what i’m doing and how things are going. Wish me luck and have a goodnight, my Followers of Fear.

Meditation and My Idea Process

Posted: January 11, 2015 in ideas, Living and Life, Reflections, short story, Writing
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I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that I do a kind of meditation called Sahaja Yoga, and I have to say, it’s been an amazing influence on my life. Not only is it really relaxing, but it’s invigorating and I feel calmer and more balanced and focused after meditation (though nothing can ever seem to take away my wild, silly side). And, during the three years I’ve been meditating, I’ve been given a lot of ideas for stories or on how to modify stories that I’ve been having trouble with.

The first time this happened was after I started learning Sahaja Yoga. I was having trouble trying to figure out this short story I was working on and make it flow as a story. I knew something was missing, but I couldn’t figure out what. At one point I just sat down, started meditating for five or six minutes, and then went out for a walk. During that walk I felt much calmer and more open minded, and I found a way to make the short story work. I went home and finished the short story within the week.

It’s been like that a lot since then, especially during classes on Sundays. I’ll meditate and while I’m cleaning chakras and relaxing, my mind will go into a very different state, in which ideas just come much more easily to me. It’s amazing. Today, I was having trouble figuring out which direction to to go with this short story I’m working on, and I was hoping that today’s class would help me figure out where to go with this story. I put myself into a meditative state and let my mind go. And about ten, twenty minutes into the class, I had it. I knew how to make this story work. And after we finished the meditation, everyone looked very happy to hear that I’d had my idea (everyone in the class is very supportive of my career, and one woman has even read all my books and reviewed one of them). I also had four other ideas for stories today, which is a bit more than usual (don’t know if they’re all related to my class, but I like to think they are).

Why does meditation make me so much more creative? Like hypnosis, meditation puts you into a different state of mind that helps you unwind, relax, and sometimes make you a bit more suggestible. I think that state of mind allows me to hold onto passing thoughts and twist and turn them into workable ideas for stories. In any case, usually after meditation I’m pulling out my little notebook and writing down my ideas, making Sunday one of my more creative days of the week.

Whatever the case, there’s no doubt that, in addition to all the other benefits of meditation I receive, Sahaja Yoga definitely makes me a much more creative person and gives me several more ideas for interesting stories. I never know when I’ll write any of them (that’s how many stories I have and how busy I am trying to get through just one story at a time), but it definitely means I’ll never run out of stories. And it’s another reason why I won’t be giving up meditation any time soon.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Tomorrow’s the first day of classes, so I’m going to finish up and call it  a night. I’ve got a busy first day (2 classes, a shift at work, and a phone conference, plus Buckeyes take on Oregon tomorrow night. Go Bucks!) so I have to get as much sleep as possible if I’m going to get up tomorrow and take it all one with my usual chipper temperament. Wish me luck, and goodnight, my Followers of Fear!

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