IWSG on Thought Experiments

Hey everyone! Today you won't be able to find me on the bloggosphere, but I wanted to stop by to welcome the Insecure Writer's Support Group. 

Also, thanks to everyone who've commented on yesterday's post. You're all awesome. 

Thought Experiments

Have you ever engaged in a thought experiment? 

Albert Einstein’s famous Theory of Special Relativity came to be in part because of a thought experiment he conducted when he was a young man.  He imagined what it would be like to chase a light beam.  That act of imagination was the beginning of a revolution in the way we understand our universe.  Imagination is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal.

The ten authors featured in the Insecure Writer’s Support Group anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here engaged in a thought experiment of sorts when they sat down to write their submissions.  The task was to write a speculative fiction story that uses an alternate timeline or parallel universe.  That means asking some interesting questions.  If you’re dealing with parallel universes, how does the parallel universe differ from our own?  If you’re dealing with alternate history, what historical event happened differently, and how did the world develop because of that change?

Any writer must harness the power of their imagination when writing their stories.  Though the thought experiments that helped make this anthology possible won’t revolutionize the world of science like Albert Einstein’s thought experiment did, these stories will hopefully entertain readers and make them think about how the world could be different.  That is also a valuable outcome, and one that most writers hope to inspire.

Imagination can change lives.  It can change the world.  If you’re interested in entertaining new possibilities, Parallels: Felix Was Here may have something to offer you.

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Parallels: Felix Was Here

An Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology

Available Now!

Enter the realm of parallel universes!

What if the government tried to create the perfect utopia? Could a society linked to a supercomputer survive on its own? Do our reflections control secret lives on the other side of the mirror? Can one moment split a person’s world forever?

Exploring the fantastic, ten authors offer incredible visions and captivating tales of diverse reality. Featuring the talents of L. G. Keltner, Crystal Collier, Hart Johnson, Cherie Reich, Sandra Cox, Yolanda Renee, Melanie Schulz, Sylvia Ney, Michael Abayomi, and Tamara Narayan.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will expand your imagination and twist the tropes of science fiction. Step through the portal and enter another dimension!

Purchase Links:

Amazon (Print)

Barnes & Noble (Print)

Kobo

Smashwords

Anyone else engage in thought experiments? What stories did they inspire? 

My thoughts on Clean Reader and Censorship

This morning, I woke up with a link to this post in my Facebook feed. Wait wait wait! Before you go, be warned that Chuck doesn't mince words and doesn't delete expletives. Still curious? Then by all means. I'll wait.

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Back? Good.

For the TL;DR crowd:




And it's upsetting quite a lot of writers. For good reason.

From my point of view, if profanity has been placed in books, it's there for a reason. And no reason justifies someone changing any words in a book without the author's consent.

End. Point. Period.

This is coming from me as an artist, being upset at other artists' work being damaged. Yes. I'm calling this damage.

I believe that most authors publish wanting to feel like they've remained true to their original vision warts (and profanity) and all. Yes, that might mean that they don't sell as many books or that their books might not be as widely popular as other books. But it's not as bad as having rabid fans demanding books you don't like writing.

And sometimes, I wouldn't like the book I'm writing unless there's profanity in it. For no reason other than the fact that if I'm writing someone like, say, a battle hardened bad-ass with scars and emotional damage, having him say: "Gosh darn son of a buck" just won't cut it. Why?

Well this goes back to my whole belief about writing. This has come up before, and every time I DO bring it up, someone disagrees. (Which is fine. I'm lucky enough that the people who disagree with me are usually mature about it and that means we all still get along afterwards.)

To those of you who don't know, my point of view on writing is as follows:

Fiction writers shouldn't be expected to teach, preach, or lead anything except for (maaaaaaybe) thought. Yes, our art could do all that, but it's not our main mandate. Our main mandate is to 1) be true to ourselves and 2) create a world and story that's as real and visceral to the reader as possible (as determined by the story's needs.) 

Having any effort of creating this experience for the reader to be ruined (whether they choose to do it to themselves or not), completely goes against everything we writers are supposed to do in the first place.

As Chuck said in his post, there's a social contract between a writer and a reader. The reader has the choice of supporting our work or not. And we have the choice of putting whatever the hell we feel is necessary into it. If that means a reader or two thousand is lost as a result, so be it. But I don't see why we'd have to stand by and have our work butchered simply for the comfort of someone who shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

I'm not here to comfort anyone in my writing. I'm here to create stories. If you don't like my story, go buy something else. Point. Period. The end. You as reader do not, at any point get to dictate the look, feel and dialogue of my story without my permission.

Why not? Because of what comes next. There's a very small step between people telling writers which words are allowed in the story and telling them which types of scenes aren't allowed in the story. Yes, here, Clean Reader is painting this as the reader's choice. But the point is that if the reader is reading the book, he/she should be trusting that the stuff inside it is there for a reason. Because they are. 

After screwing up our books by taking out scenes, it's a small step to banning books for having scenes and words in them in the same place. For burning them for because they were written in a way someone just didn't like. Where exactly would this end?

Oh? Someone might say. It's not that bad. I'm just blanking out some words. 

No. You are betraying the social contract between the writer and readers. Once you start doing that, all bets are off.

Change my story and take out any of the dark/twisted/violent/profane or otherwise *gasp* challenging to you, and you've destroyed hours of dedicated work that I and/or my editors, crit partners etc have put into putting the thing before your eyes in the first place.

We writers don't expect much. We don't expect everyone to buy our stories. Hell, we don't even expect everyone to even like our stories. But when we do sell a book to you, we do expect you not to fuck it up. For whatever reason.

If you want to read something I've written that has profanity, but you don't like profanity, suck it up. If you're worried about your children reading profanity... get them to understand why their reading my books aren't acceptable to you.

But you DON'T teach your children how to be censors from a young age. 

Because this is exactly what this app was originally designed to do. And if it takes... if children do take to bleeping out expletives, because they weren't taught to respect the work, thought and time put into writing the book they're reading... we might as well kiss our artistic expression good bye, because the rest will be sure to follow. 

It's really that simple. 

Thoughts? 

My Biggest Challenge as an Author

My Biggest Challenge as an Author

By Michelle Pickett

Thank you so much, Misha, for having me on your blog to discuss briefly what challenges me the most as an author. I'm excited to be here!

The greatest challenge I face as an author is time. I know what you're thinking. Nearly everyone can say they need an extra hour or two in the day to get everything done that demands their attention. But that's not the kind of time I'm referring to.

Creativity doesn't turn on at eight am and off at five pm. I can't get up send the kids to school and then sit down and write for the rest of the day, producing page after page of publishable material. It would be wonderful if I could! But ideas don't work that way. They don't come with an on and off switch. They keep their own hours, and that is a major challenge.

Sometimes inspiration hits at the oddest times. While I'm standing in the checkout line at the supermarket or waiting in the carpool line to drop the kids off at school. Sometimes they come at times when I absolutely do not want to write. Like when I'm playing Chutes and Ladders with my 7 year-old twins or I'm at my son's basketball game. When I'm spending time with my family I'd like my day to be idea free—that doesn't always happen. I'd like a weekend off…or just an evening. I'd like to go to bed before two in the morning or sleep past seven. But time doesn't always play in my favor when it comes to inspiration. Someone needs to explain things to my muse. She obviously doesn't get it.

There are some days, today for instance, that I can't write a word. Not because I don't have the "actual time" to do so. I do. The kids are taken care of, the house is quiet, there isn't anything vying for my attention. It's a perfect day to write. The weather is even bad, so a pretty day isn't calling me outside. So what's wrong? Time. Inspiration doesn't work on a timetable and because of that I've written a total of eighty-four words on my work-in-progress today. Considering I write two thousand to twenty-five hundred a day on a good day, eighty-four words is not a good day.

But tomorrow is another day and holds a new set of time issues. It's Saturday. As much as I Wanted my creativity to clock in on time today, I won't tomorrow. Saturday I won't want anything to interfere with my family time—and that's when it will happen. My muse will tap me on the shoulder and say, "Oh, yeah. Now I remember what I was supposed to tell you yesterday. You know chapter twelve? Well, here's how it should go…."

Time takes on a whole new meaning for a writer. Instead of one, two, three o'clock, I measure my day in one, two, three creative hours. The challenge is keeping those hours confined to a certain part of the day and not letting them overtake life in general. And that's one of the biggest challenges I face as an author.

Michelle's Bio:

Michelle has been an avid reader since a young child. She began writing for personal enjoyment in college, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in accounting. Deciding sitting in a cubical all day was her form of cruel and unusual punishment, she decided to do what she really wanted to—share her passion for reading and writing with others.

She wrote her debut novel Concilium in 2010. It was released July of 2012 by MuseItUp Publishing. The sequel, Concilium: The Departure will also be published by MuseItUp Publishing with scheduled release date of November 2012.

Her Debut young adult novel, PODs, will be published by Spencer Hill Press and is scheduled for release in paperback June 4th, 2013.

Michelle was born and raised in Michigan. She now resides in a small community outside Houston, Texas with her incredibly supportive husband, four wonderful children, a 125-pound lap dog, a very grumpy cockatiel and a cat that thinks she's queen.

Michelle writes adult and young adult Sci/Fi and urban fantasy romance.

Concilium Blurb

Leslee hit a strange animal with her car. Now she’s marked for death.

It was a simple car accident – the animal didn’t even die – but it drew the attention of the Cruor Imbibo. Driven by their insatiable need to feed, the secret society of Imbibo has devoured the dregs of civilization for centuries. Afraid Leslee will expose them, and put an end to their meal ticket, the Imbibo want her dead.

The Concilium is Leslee's only protection. Guardian of the ancient secret and the protector of humans, the Concilium fights to control the Imbibo and end their feeding frenzy. Miller works for the Concilium. Keeping Leslee alive is his next assignment.

Now Leslee is on the run, and the only thing between her flesh and the snapping jaws of the Imbibo is Miller. He and Leslee quickly form a bond, but will falling in love make Miller’s job more difficult? Because if he fails, Leslee will be next on the Imbibo menu.

The Cruor Imbibo are coming, and they're coming for Leslee.

Buy Links:

MuseItUp Publishing 

Amazon

Want your copy of Concilium signed? I'd be happy to do that! Just go here and send me a message and I'll send you a personalized inscription for your copy of Concilium.

I LOVE to hear from readers and other authors!

Links and Contact Information:

Website

Email            

Blog  
            
Facebook       

Twitter

Goodreads
    
Trailer
            
Linked In
      
Book
             
PODs            


Thanks again, Michelle. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So lovely people: What's your pet challenge as a writer?

Wondering about the competition? Well... Follow this link.

Faster, Higher, Stronger

I was the first person to volunteer for the Olympic Blog Relay on Nicole Singer's blog, but even as I did it, I wondered what I'd write about today.
And just as I opened the editor to improvise today's post, a phrase jumped into my head:

"Citius, Altius, Fortius" or as it is famosly known: Faster, Higher, Stronger.

I must say that of all the mottos I've ever known, I've never seen one that better represents what it stands for. It's the Olympic Games Captured in three words.



Because that's what the Olympics is about. Always pushing harder. Always trying to excell.

But this motto could apply to writing as well. Just like athletes can't just rest on previous successes until they retire, writers are never done learning their craft. They have to continue pushing themselves to learn more, to achieve more.

Faster, Higher, Stronger can serve as a special reminder for writers to keep striving to be the best they can be. How?

Faster

We can push ourselves to work as efficiently as we can without sacrificing the quality of our writing. So when the procrastination bug bites, we can do our utmost not to give in to temptation. We can resist the urge to waste time and sit down and write.

Higher

Writers must never stop dreaming. Because our dreams are the way we aim for our futures. Never give up on your dreams for publishing. And NEVER give up on a story idea just because you don't think you have the skills to write it.

Stronger

Writing to a large extent is about strength. Our word choices have to be strong. Our love for our stories have to be strong. The quality of what we've written have to be strong. But there is no such thing as "strong enough". There is, however, "stronger", and that can only be done by challenging yourself when you write and edit.

So, writers, keep reaching. Keep dreaming. Keep pushing yourself to improve your writing. Look for critique so that you can hone your craft.

Keep growing.

Keep striving.

How could you apply Faster, Higher, Stronger to your writing?



Derailment

Hmmm... I realized something about my writing process today.




My muse is a rather fickle thing, so when I write, it sometimes happens that my writing just dries up.

And that generally doesn't bother me. But now, I picked up an old half-finished WiP (Don't Look Back) and finished it in less than 2000 words.

Except I'm not sure that it feels right. Well, the contents of the end feels okay. But the thing is that it feels like my flow has been interrupted.

So much time has passed (months to be exact) that even though I adore the story, it feels as if someone else wrote it. And it's an incredible pain in the ass to finish something "someone else" wrote.

That's probably why I chopped the story off at approximately 25000 words, regardless of loose ends and story issues. It's better for me to rewrite it and fix everything then than spend months trying to pick up a derailed train of thought.

Sad thing is, I never had this problem with Doorways. But I guess that has a reason too. It's on my mind all the time. It's my priority. Even when I write something else, part of me is thinking about it. When I work on Doorways, it consumes everything else in my mind.

Which has me wondering.

Isn't it better to keep pushing myself to write even when I don't want to? Or does it even matter? Because after all, I will definitely be rewriting regardless of whether the book is perfect. Should I maybe just get the whole Doorways series out of my system before I try something else?

And most of all, I wonder if I should start rewriting Don't Look Back today...

Do you have a story that consumes or threatens to consume most of your creativity? What do you do when you get another (very) good idea?

I'm going on a writing fast.

I've been sitting without writing anything new for almost two months now. It's not that I don't want to write. It's just that the drive isn't there. So... instead of feeling bad about this, I decided to go on a writing fast.


Which I guess is good, since I'm supposed to be in the edit mode while I finish up Doorways.


Still, I can't just sit down and laze around in front of the TV. Or I could, but I don't want to.


This obsessive-scribbling-free time can be spent on refueling my creative tanks. And boy am I.


I spent about a quarter of my salary to buy canvasses, paints, papers, charcoal, erasers, brushes etc. to rekindle another love that I've left to stagnate when I was at university. Painting and drawing.

Credit

And you know, rather than itching to write, I'm itching to paint. Sadly it will have to wait. I (in a moment of passion and stupidity) bought oil paints. WONDERFUL on canvas. TERRIBLE on drying time. And I only have five weeks until we have to move. Five winter weeks. In the Cape. Where it's humid.


Siiiiiiiiiiigh. I am not going to take that risk. What if I love the painting only to have it be smudged?


Canvas + oil colors + smudge = HORRIBLE disaster.


I'll just have to make do with sketches. Actually it's good, because it's been years (almost six) since the last time I painted. So charcoal drawings are a great way to get my eye and hand in. Getting the flow and light and shades right.


But it's not the only thing I'm doing. I also joined the gym, so the flow of oxygen might do my muse a world of good.


And I can read more. Maybe even finish the library books that I've been loaning for six months now. Yeah there's an idea. I can get out more.


With all these different activities, it will only be a matter of time before my muse returns demanding that I write. Can't wait. But in the mean time, I'm going to change things up and expand my horizons.


Have you ever gone on a writing fast to focus on refueling your creativity? What do you do in that time?

Oh Christmas Tree

I wanted to put this post up last night, but because of the nature of the Christmas holidays, I wasn't able to, but I just have to show off this year's tree.

I admit that it looks a little bare in daylight...

But at night, it is magical:



Before I sign off, I want to ask that you please think of/pray for my friend Helen, who lost her husband in a car accident yesterday. She's about to enter a massive battle, as the accident has triggered a serious illness that she had when she was younger.

This really got me thinking, as we forget how fortunate we are to have everyone who is sharing Christmas with us. So if you haven't yet, go hug them and tell them you love them.

*HUUUUUUUUUUUUG!*

I love you.

Merry Christmas. 

So... what now?

As some of you may remember, I kind of got to this point where my muse just wouldn't spit out anything about any of my two books.


I've basically been stuck for weeks, waiting for something to write. It really was as if my words had dried out. People have so much advice about this: Force yourself to write (that got my muse into an even bigger snit), don't write at all (I was close to Godzilla-like rampages) and to write something else to get the inspiration flowing again (thanks Cassandra and T.J.).


The last is very likely one of the best pieces of writing advice I have hear in a long time. Since it's the same as writing through a block, but without forcing bad work into your Work in Progress. Eventually I got sooo tired of not writing that I gave up and bought yet another notebook to scribble in.


I found myself a nice little spot and stared at the blank pages for a while and started writing whatever was at the top of my head. And... it wasn't a poem. It wasn't a short. It was yet another book idea. Sigh.


I suspect that my muse - without telling me - went behind my back and worked on this story, which is why I just couldn't write what I am busy with. But the question is now: Where am I going to get time to write this one too?


Part of me is thinking about spending two days a week writing a specific book. Another part want to stick to the Fantasy in week, Western on weekend schedule. The urban fantasy (the new one) can get written whenever an idea occurs to me. But I'm worried that this will become a problem if all the ideas I get have to do with the new one causing my other two to stall.


I'm also worried about getting my characters confused, since I've now got a lot of people running around in my head, begging for attention.


How do you all deal with new book ideas? Do you write them down and forget about it until you're done with whatever you're busy with? Or do you multitask? How do you do it?

One person... three tragedies (and no, I'm not talking about me)

Why do people do things like this to themselves?

My flat mate and I were having a loooong and wide-ranging discussion about emotions and guys and everything in between yesterday. You might think that I'm stretching the word long a bit, so I will have to explain that we can sit down and talk for hours... and not about fluff.

So during yesterday's four hour discussion, she mentioned that she knew she wasn't a practical person, and that she felt she was supposed to be creative, but just wasn't. For the purpose of showing rather than telling, I will now paraphrase that segment of conversation. I'm sure that you're dying to know about the rest of it, but as  said, a lot of words flowed... And... A lot of words were pretty out there. Any way, back to the story. (I think you might now understand why  never use a narrator.)

"You are creative," I introduced gently, "I actually think you'd make a good writer."
"No... I don't think I will... I'm not as good with words as you are." It took a lot of restraint for my mouth not to hang open. Sure I'm good with words, but to lower her belief in herself due to my skill?
"Honey, I've had years of practice. I've been writing since I could spell out words." Truth, if somewhat exaggerated. I see myself as seriously having started at the age of twelve. But I was trying to get the point across. "You have a way with words."
"No I don't," she insisted. "I tried it once and it was rubbish." She ducked under her office table and took out a box that had been shoved right against the far corner. She opened it and dug right to the bottom. She took out some pages and handed them to me. "Don't you think?"

On the pages were three poems. When I read them, no amount of self restrained could have kept my jaw from dropping.
"No I think this is good. Very good."

Brilliant even. Her words carried every ounce of feeling she had while she had written them. How many people have you met that can do that? Translating feelings to writing is one of the most difficult aspects of writing. She had it down.

And I'm not kidding. I was partially raised by a woman that writes poetry and books for a living. I like to think that I know what I'm talking about when I say a poem is damn good.

So that's the first tragedy. Marg just can't see how good she is.

The second is that I told her how good she is... and she refused to believe me. I even went on to show her one of my more recent poems (due to the fact that she said she's not as good as me) to show that her work wasn't far from mine. That she just needs practice. She didn't see it.

The third is that she showed me those poems because she trusts me (good taste. not tragic), but she'll never let the world see her talent, because she doesn't believe that she's good at it.

It really saddens me to think how many good writers out there are lost to us just because they refuse to believe they are good. But what can I do to help my friend find her writing voice?