IWSG: Still Writing, Little of it Fiction

Has it really been two months since my last post?! Time has completely gotten away from me. I apologize for missing last month's IWSG post, but my daughter was having her Bat Mitzvah that week and we were camping that weekend AND I started in a new department at work and have had to learn far more than my 42 year old brain had any intention of assimilating. Therefore, writing was out the window. But I'm back this month with another entry in the never ending saga of my attempts to write something worthwhile.

In the last couple of months, I have written quite a bit. I have posted at my other blog a couple of times. Those are my Torah teachings, so it's a totally different writing mindset from this blog or any of my fiction writing. I also wrote a short story for a contest. I wasn't selected to compete, but it forced me to write something, so I'm still chalking it up in the win column. I have some other ideas that have been percolating for some more short stories that I hope to start writing soon.

Since I wasn't getting much writing done due to being too busy with work, church, and school, I decided to make a big change. I added more classes and took a new position that requires occasional travel. That should definitely make writing time easier to find. Right?

Y - Yarny

Yarny is one of the best tools I've found for my writing. It was designed by writers with NaNoWriMo in mind. With Yarny, you are writing in the cloud. Your writing is saved automatically, with auto-versioning. And did I mention it's free? Check out their website to learn more about their features.

I found Yarny when I participated in my first NaNoWriMo in 2011 to write Dogs of War. I was able to write from anywhere that had an Internet connection. I also exported my writing to my laptop so I could work on it offline if necessary. When I had a connection again, I just copied and pasted the new text into Yarny. I didn't really have time to learn all the features of Yarny that first year. I didn't take advantage of the snippets to divide my work into chapters and subchapters. I didn't realize until I was editing several months later that Yarny will export the snippet titles as chapter titles. I used it again for 2012 to write Dogs of War: Infiltration, knowing more about what I was doing. I also upgraded to the paid Premium version of Yarny. It's not really necessary, but it allows you to save multiple titles. With the free version, you can only have one writing project in the cloud at a time. I upgraded so I can keep all of my writing together and edit one while writing another, etc.

Yarny added a new feature for 2012 that has me really excited. It's called Publification. Like Yarny, it is free. It allows you to export directly from Yarny to Publification's online self-publishing site. Remember that feature of exporting snippet titles? Publification automatically recognizes them as chapter titles if you choose, saving you a big step in formatting. You can import cover art, apply for an ISBN, share links to your e-book through social media, and sell your book right from their site. And the best part is, you retain all rights to your material. Publification does not get any rights to your book. They simply collect a percentage of sales.

Both of these tools are great for the aspiring author. Together, they can be indispensable.

Q - Questions

Questions abound. No matter what topic I decide to write about, whether here on my blog, in one of my novels, or in a puppet script, I always have to answer questions. Most of the time, the answers to the questions are what make up the story. For example, in a novel, the questions may be "What happened to the Admiral after the war and why did everyone believe he was dead?" The answers to those questions will move the narrative in a specific direction and have impact on other characters and the answers to their own questions.

Oftentimes, the questions themselves can be the story. Many good stories don't give you all the answers and allow the reader to furnish those answers for themselves. This makes the story more personal as each reader may answer it in a different way. "Did this character survive at the end?" "Why did that character betray his comrades?" "Is the story really over or will there be a sequel?"

Sometimes when I write, even I don't know the answers to all of the questions. Often, the story will simply tell itself and I feel like I'm just taking dictation. If the story doesn't tell me the answer, I can't tell the reader. While this can be very frustrating at times as a writer, I've found in rereading that it can make the story much more interesting.

It is always good to ask questions about everything you read, hear, or see. But don't always expect to get an answer right away, if at all. Sometimes you just have to answer it yourself, or leave it ambiguous. What is best left ambiguous you ask?

...

P - Puppets

If you read my post for the letter B, you know that I voice two puppets for an upcoming show on Hebraic Roots Network called Torah Puppets. If you have ever done a puppet show, you know that it can be a lot of fun. It can also be very tiring on your arms if you're not used to holding them up for a long time. With practice and experience, it gets much easier. Until you get older and start getting weaker and your arms start to hurt all over again.

I've discovered recently that performing is not the most difficult part of puppeting. Writing is much harder. I (foolishly?) volunteered to assist with writing episodes of Torah Puppets so our head writer and creative genius Stan wouldn't be stuck doing it all and losing what's left of his sanity. I now understand why he's mentally unhinged at times. I've written one novel and part of a second. Both are still works in progress. It was hard work. Writing this show is harder.

It seems fairly straightforward.

• Have a topic.
• Pick which characters are going to focus on what part of the topic.
• Write dialog.

Simple, right? Wrong! There are several other considerations.

• Character personalities
• Does it make sense to pair this character with that character?
• Filming schedules
• Who is available to film with whom?
• How many different scenes should there be?
• Many short scenes
• Fewer longer scenes
• Timing
• 26 minute episodes

All of these things have to be juggled and balanced when writing an episode of Torah Puppets. You can guess what that means. That's right, I'm behind. Again. I don't know why, but the episode I'm writing right now just does not want to get onto the page. It's the worst case of writer's block I've ever had. And that's saying a lot for someone who (attempts to) write(s) novels. Oh well, I'll just have to keep praying and keep writing. It will all work out. As long as Stan doesn't find out how far behind I am.

(Maybe I shouldn't have written that last part on a blog that Stan reads.)