I just felt like celebrating that a little bit. ^_^
Oct
30th
2014
A Busy November of Literary Abandon · 9:31pm Oct 30th, 2014
Whew! October shot past in a fun blur, and November is less than three days away. How many writers here are also participating in National Novel Writing Month? It has really been a special event for me during the last few years, so I'll be striving to continue "Tirek's Shadow" while crafting that manuscript (alongside a research paper for a graduate course).
Is anyone else juggling a lot of writing projects over this coming month? :D
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LiterarySerenity · 245 views
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I realize this is a bit late, but I've seen on Equestria Daily there are apparently a lot of authors getting together and doing MLP-related writing. It sounds like a lot of fun. I came very close to joining them, but in the end I decided to spend the month wrapping up older writing projects instead of launching new ones. (Those old manuscripts won't edit themselves!)
I wish you the best of luck this month! Nanowrimo is always a real thrill. I look forward to seeing what else you post!
2588491 Oh, yes. It looks like people on Equestria Daily are having a great time with MLP tales this month (and every other month, for that matter). Honestly, NaNoWriMo isn't turning out exactly how I had planned. But what helps is that the entry I had a mind was actually the final draft of a story (based on the same content but going in a new direction) successfully completed for another NaNoWriMo competition--so I might just go ahead and take my time polishing that story instead (regardless of if I go over the time limit), while continuing "Tirek's Shadow" here.
It's sometimes a little hard to switch between different longer writing projects, isn't it? Do you also write as part of a career, or just for fun? ^_^
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That sounds like a good use of Nanowrimo to me! I know several people who wrote books that month, but never finished editing them and ultimately abandoned their stories altogether. That always makes me sad: it's a shame to see such potential wasted. I hope you're able to finish your story and bring it to a satisfying conclusion!
Oh yes! I avoid it at all costs. I just write one book at a time. I may write some simple short stories while working on a novel, but I never attempt two novels at once. That is just too much complexity. If you can handle two at once then my hat is off to you!
I actually write software for a living, which is an altogether different kind of writing! For me, writing books is just a fun hobby (although I have had several books and short stories published). I don't claim to be any good at it, but it's just plain fun. Some people relax by playing the piano or going fishing. I like to write.
It sounds like you're quite serious about your writing career! I wish you well. You clearly have talent.
2589019 Ah. I understand and agree! Writing is a great way to relax, and to simply have fun on the literary playground that is a blank page. I've also heard a few people comment that (for them) doing something like that as a full-time career can take away from its pleasure. Honestly, I do it because I cannot really see myself being as happy doing anything else right now--except for rare book librarianship, maybe (hence the master's program in Library & Information Science).
Creating software sounds interesting, which would involve a lot of technical writing--I think? I've always been curious how that works, exactly. Do you work a lot with programming languages, or perhaps in coordination with different social media platforms?
Thank you for all the encouragement with the next draft of my story. One thing about moving through the first draft of it was that I discovered there was a lot of other territory it would be possible (and perhaps more interesting) to cover with the characters or world itself. But stories are fun like that, right? :3
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I can certainly understand that. One of the challenges of being a full-time professional writer (which I am not!) is that you have to be very responsive to the public and very focused on making sure your works have a lot of commercial potential. If your living doesn't depend on what you've written then you have a lot more freedom to write what you want and let that niche audience find you. There's no pressure because the rent money doesn't depend on people liking what you've done. If you can pull off a full-time writing career, though, then more power to you! It sounds like you would really enjoy that.
The best way to describe what it's like is by way of analogy. About 20 years ago a game called Myst was released. Myst told the story of the D'ni - a race of beings who spent their time writing books. These books, though, were different: whatever the D'ni wrote into the books became real. The D'ni would describe a world of mountains and streams and so forth, and that world would then exist. By touching the first page of the book the writer could visit the world he had made. He could bring things into that world and take things out of it. He could also change the world by editing the book. In other words, the books of the D'ni actually came to life. Their words did not merely describe things; they created things.
Writing software is just like that. When I write a program, my words make things happen. A line of text can make a button appear on a page. Another line of text can make that button perform an action when someone uses it. Through the power of words I can change reality; I can create things that didn't exist before. Each word has the power to accomplish something. Sometimes what they accomplish is fairly mundane; my programs have played a role in calculating sales tax at registers and unlocking doors. My brother's programs have been involved in testing the air for dangerous biological agents.
Really, writing software is probably as close to magic as anyone will ever come. With the right spell - the right sequence of words - you can do pretty much anything, even fly a plane. (I really love my job.)
Speaking of words, a while back I decided to combine my two passions and create some software to help writers. One of the things I made was a webpage that generated character names, character profiles, book titles, chapter titles, and a lot more. I wanted to see how far I could go with programmatically-generated content. I turned my tools into a webpage, which is freely available right here:
The Writer's Toolkit
It was a fun project. I think I could do more, but there are so many other fun things to do...
Oh yes! That is one of the really fascinating things about writing: the books and characters have a way of coming alive, and leading you in directions you did not expect. They seem to have a life of their own. It's very rewarding!
2591963 Ha. Reading what the creation of computer software means for you is inspirational. You have clearly found your true passion and have used that towards making the world a better place. I think being able to do exactly that is one of the keys to a long and happy life, and congrats on the great work your brother is doing as well. ^_^ Thank you also for The Writer's Toolkit! I'll have to test it out during upcoming writing projects, and just for fun (of course).
Using words to create new things and make them happen is a wonderful talent. Actually, your mention of computer programming coming the closest to magic is exactly how I feel about writing as a whole. Writers and storytellers of all kinds are true wizards, because their work can turn seemingly impossible dreams into reality on a page or other medium. Stories can cast a spell on those who enjoy them, giving people ideas or driving them to do things they otherwise might not have done--not to mention that a well-told tale can cause readers or listeners (if it's an oral story) to experience a myriad of emotions or sensations.
Actually, I'm hoping to develop or explore new ways for people to experience literature as a medium, such as with Metafiction. Playing with words, having characters aware of readers or their place within a story, and actively breaking the fourth wall have always sounded and been so much fun to do. Have you ever heard of the literary scholar, Wolfgang Iser? He pushed for a new field known as "Literary Anthropology," which examined how readers experience texts or connect what they read with their waking lives. His biggest work in this area was The Fictive and the Imaginary.
I don't know how far it got in this area, but I do know some of his theories are getting placed towards such things as literacy programs and scientific studies on the benefits of reading.
Do you know if Myst came out with any novels related to their game? If so, it looks like there is yet another book to add to my already extended reading list. :3
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This is very true! It's a fantastic thing to be involved in, and can accomplish a great deal of good. I don't think I could even begin to list all of the books that have impacted my life.
No, I haven't! I looked up that book on Amazon. His views on "the fictive" are interesting, and I can see what he was getting at. The world of fiction seems to be real in a different way - not "you can reach out and touch it" real, but yet it still changes our lives and impacts our emotions. These fictional characters become almost as dear to us as actual real people. The act of writing can bring entire worlds to life.
Which is what was so interesting about Myst: the D'ni actually could bring their books to life. If I was ever given the option of choosing a superpower, that is the one I would pick.
There are three books based on the game Myst. The first one is Myst: The Book of Atrus. I found the books fascinating, but of course I had played all the games. At the time, the only other games I had played were things like Super Mario Brothers. Myst, though, was radically different: it didn't feel like I was playing a game. I felt like I was visiting a place. They just don't make games like that anymore.
It sounds like you have some fascinating ideas! I'm sure there is a lot more that could be done. Storytelling has become so traditional in some ways. It would be great to see a new way of doing things - especially in this age of technology and HTML and social media. There has to be some way to leverage all of this to make a more satisfying (and even interactive) experience. But I'll leave that to the experts.
2594422 Ha. Perhaps one wonderful thing about certain books is you can tell how much the author loves literature in general. Have you ever heard of Walter Moers' The City of Dreaming Books? It is all about a dinosaur searching for whoever wrote a flawlessly written short story amid a city filled with bibliophiles. There are also other tales like The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafron and The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield, which are essentially dedications to books in general. Besides the Myst series, what are some of your favorite stories or books?
Ah, the power to bring books and their contents to life.... I feel the same way! ^_^ Speaking of the magic of a page, have you by chance heard of the anime series Read or Die TV (R.O. TV). The main characters are three sisters who can control paper and use their talents and book knowledge to solve mysteries. They even wind up staying with a Japanese author fighting to overcome writer's block, and over the course of the series she kind of becomes their fourth sister. Apparently, it's a manga.
I agree. There should be more games out there that make players feel almost like sightseers or visitors to strange yet marvelous worlds. However, with advances in technology and graphics, the gameplay for certain titles (along with their backgrounds, scenic views, etc.) is breathtaking. You also feel as if you are getting to move around in a real place, at times. But Super Mario Bros. really takes me back too. Did you play Sonic the Hedgehog as well?
Ha. Experimental literature is fascinating as a whole, and finding ways to interact with the audience or explore the relationships between writer, text, and reader. This happens surprisingly often in the theater, such as whenever the actors jump into the audience or make reference to them. If it would be possible to get this same type of feeling from literature, where readers can feel like they are part of the story or helping to make it happen, that could be a powerful direction in which to venture.
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Thanks for the book recommendations! No, I hadn't heard of any of those. They sound like great stories! I've added them to my list.
When I was young I read voraciously. My Mom would take me to the library every week, and I would max out my library card, my brother's library card, and my sister's library card. I'd take 20 or 30 books home, read all of them, and then come back for more. It eventually got to a point where I was trying to find books in the juvenile section that I hadn't read.
Back then I mostly read what was called "series books". Most young people today haven't even heard of them. I read Rick Brant, Tom Swift, Ken Holt, Tom Corbett, Tom Quest, The Three Investigators, Ted Scott... Sherlock Holmes was amazing. I enjoyed G K Chesterton, C S Lewis, Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein, James Blish... it was a great time. With inter-library loan I could even get books that my library didn't have, and boy did I ever take advantage of that. I loved adventure stories and science fiction. I suppose that's why I eventually started writing science fiction adventure stories.
These days I almost exclusively read non-fiction books. In fact, the only fiction I read is MLP-related. The last fiction stories I read (excluding fan fiction) are the three official Daring Do books that were just released. (They were quite a bit better than I expected.) Modern adult fiction just seems so dark; I prefer happy and fun stories. If I want to be depressed I'll just turn on the evening news.
No, I haven't! I know almost nothing about Japanese manga. That does sound along the same lines of Myst, though. Wasn't there a movie a few years ago where a person could read a book aloud, and by doing so take something from that book and bring it into real life? I just don't remember what it was called.
This is very true. I think the modern game that impressed me the most was Fallout: New Vegas. What astonished me about that game (beside its scope) was that your choices actually mattered. In the Mass Effect series the game pretended that your choices made a difference, but no matter what you did you ended up in the same place. The same is more or less true for Season 1 of The Walking Dead game. The choices you are offered are more or less an illusion.
But not in New Vegas. Your choices had wide-ranging consequences: you decided who lived and who died, who gained power and who lost power, and what cities thrived and what cities withered. There were big choices and small ones, and all of them counted. It was amazing.
Sadly, no. I've heard it was quite a good game, though - although not an easy one. I think games used to be much harder.
I saw on Slashdot this morning that the author of the Choose Your Own Adventure books had died. Those books were pretty fun: as a reader, you actually got to make choices and drive the narrative. It was a different kind of story.
With the advent of modern technology it should be possible to make a novel that responded to the reader. It would be quite interesting if the reader could step into the story and push it in a different direction, and see how that affected the rest of the tale. What if Twilight already had her own circle of friends when Nightmare Moon returned? What if Twilight ignored Celestia and never went to Ponyville at all? What if Twilight had failed her entrance exam into Celestia's school and had done something else with her life?
The downside is that someone would have to sit down and write all these alternative scenes, which would be a pain. What I would rather do is build some sort of engine that understands the story. Once you properly defined your story and the world in which it takes place, the reader could choose different paths/choices and the engine would use the rules laid down to determine the course the story would take. You wouldn't have to write out every possibility; all the engine would need are the rules. It would be something like playing pool: once you hit the ball, it will take the course laid out by the rules of physics.
I'm sure it's easier said than done, but I bet someone will do it eventually. It would be a fun project.
2597091 You’re welcome!
Ah. The library is an enchanting place, isn’t it? It is too bad so much of their funding has been cut, and many libraries have had to close down, limit personnel, or operate for fewer hours as a result.
Ooh. Do you know if the Daring Do books are available on store shelves, or only on-line? What did you think of them? But, argh! I know what you mean. I tend to avoid the television news for that same reason.
Ooh! Do you mean Inkheart? The movie came from the first book in the series by Cornelia Funke, where a man named Mortimer Folchart could read characters out of books—and he accidentally read some villains out of one (while reading his wife into it). That was an interesting one, although there might be others out there where this happens as well. ^_^
Games that take the player into account, and provide multiple endings are awesome. My brother has played Fallout: New Vegas, and he praised it in the same way. Skyrim was another game along those same lines, and the scenery was gorgeous.
Sonic the Hedgehog was a pretty fun game. Actually, I think one thing that made some of its older games like it difficult came from the fact that you couldn’t save and had to play through the whole thing in one shot. Later games made up for this, though. If you have ever heard of Sonic Generations, it basically lets you play through many of the levels found in each of the games that have been released so far with updated graphics.
Sorry to hear about the author for the Choose Your Own Adventure books passing away. That was a truly wonderful series of books, especially since it felt like you could have a different experience during each reading. I always tried to find out how to make the storyline last the longest. But that was surprisingly difficult to do at times, given all the various twists and turns.
Have you tried Pretty Little Mistakes? It is a novel-length take off on the same concept. The contents are a little raw at times, but you do get a wide array of directions to go from the perspective of a college student (apparently).
Wow. That would definitely be a fun project to try, but I agree. It will probably be quite a while before a program is able to come up with a satisfactory alterative scene on its own that really helps the narrative to flow along. Although, being able to arrange a computer program for a particular outcome based on a reader’s/player’s decision is already a part of many games or similar media.
There are certainly many opportunities to create new forms of storytelling. Ha. ^0^
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I really don't know if you can find them in stores; these days I do all my book shopping online. (There are no bookstores anywhere near my house.) The books were quite good, though - much better than I was expecting. They were fun to read. If they come out with more I will buy them.
Yes, that's it! I knew it was ink-something. I was going to say Inkscape, but that's a vector-based art program.
Skyrim was a great game. I think I put more than 200 hours into it, easily. The scope of that game was breathtaking, and the visuals were very impressive. I keep hoping they will come out with another one (or a Fallout 4), but so far they haven't.
I was always terrible at that! The only old-school video game I ever beat was Super Mario Brothers. All the others defeated me. Oh well - they were still fun!
2602269 The Daring Do books really do sound like fun. Sorry to hear there are no bookstores near where you live. I've always been a little worried a bookstore like Barnes & Noble would go out, having watching Borders/Waldenbooks as a chain and the nearest Crown Books disappear. Oh, well. At least we have local libraries to help in that regard as well, right?
Ooh. There are truly a lot of great programs out there (like Inkscape). But Inkheart was a book series for young adults that were eloquent to read and similar to a fairytale in many ways.
Did you play Skyrim on Playstation 2, or for the PC? My boyfriend once mentioned just how many mods there were for new or fun features in the game, such as being able to raise a family or have pets.
Ah. Being unable to save or reset without dire consequences made those old school games even more fun at points. It could get frustrating, but you felt so accomplished after each level.
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This is true! It will be a sad day when those disappear. I hope that day never comes.
I actually played it for the XBox. That's where I do all my gaming. (The last time I tried to play a modern game on my laptop, it overheated its processor and shut it down!) The neat thing about the XBox is I can play online with my brother, who lives on the other side of the country. It is a real blast.
Now, I have read about all the mods that are available for Skyrim and Fallout, and they look pretty amazing. It's very sad that none of them work on the XBox.
Now that is quite true. There is a genuine feeling of accomplishment that is fantastically rewarding. The harder a thing is to do, the more satisfying it is to see it finished!
2602554 Oh, me too! I really don't think libraries will ever "leave," exactly. From what I've been learning, what they have to provide should always be important. But they are in danger due to budget cuts and the like, so people have to stand up for them. ^_^
Ah, the Xbox. It's too bad the stores are not selling games for the console anymore, unless you go on-line (which is the same way now with Playstation 2 materials). Their big emphasis right now seems to be on the Wii U devices and Playstation 3. At least you can play from across the country with your brother. That sounds like a lot of fun!
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I do apologize! I keep forgetting about the original XBox. What I actually have is an XBox 360 (which I should probably start calling a '360', and not 'an XBox'.) I've never actually seen an original XBox in person.
2604372 Oops! Ha. The Xbox 360 would definitely make a lot more sense, especially if you're doing on-line activities. ^_^ You see, my brother actually has an Xbox, though because of a lack of games he tends to use it to listen to music instead.