I love that title; it says so much. I've been in a personal writing slump for quite some time, and by writing I mean stories; I almost always mean stories when I say writing. I have not written a thing in many months and it bothers me, or rather it used to really bother me. These days I find I'm not all that worked up about it, though I have by no means given up. Instead, I think I have found a rationalization for my lack of writing, and if I am right about it (which I am by no means certain) then it's not a bad thing at all.

Before I got married I considered myself a hopeless romantic. Since I've been married I haven't quite lived up to the “romantic” part as much as I thought I might, and so I've stopped thinking of myself in these terms. And yet I still have a fondness for black and white movies, and not just he gangster and detective ones either. As I've been reading and listening to books since my wedding I've also come to notice a sensitivity I don't remember; I have a hard time reading or listening to stories where the sanctity of a marriage is at stake.

Why is it the Mystery genre is flooded with murders? How many times can we sit through a murder mystery anyway? How many creative ways can you solve them? Whatever happened to other crimes that need to be solved? As I recall Sherlock Holmes did far more than solve murders. In fact, I have a hard time bringing murders to mind when I think of the corpus of his cases. Why are we so enamored with killing people and catching the killers?

I was reading Ludanta Retero and ran across this snippet in an article about Hope:

So you’re reading a book, right? And there’s this character who’s cute and engaging and he’s had some hard lumps so far, and in the part that you’re reading, things are finally turning his way and it looks like he’s getting a brief little spot of sunlight. And you think to yourself, oh, I hope that he’s going to get to be happy for just a little bit; I hope that nothing goes wrong to spoil it. And of course, since it’s a story, something does go wrong. Something has to go wrong. In fact, things have to keep going wrong on a regular basis or else the story will just dissolve into rainbows and bunny rabbits. And you know this. It’s lurking in the back of your mind that it can’t last, and you want to hope but you know that you shouldn’t, cause sure enough, something comes out of the bushes and screws up everything even more for the character. And when that little hope is crushed, you aren’t really that disappointed, cause you knew it was coming. Right?

A story is an amazing thing. It is something wholly different from a lecture, or an essay, or a technical paper. Stories have characters, places, events, and plots. I cannot and thus do not claim to be an expert when it comes to stories. I have read a great many, listened to many, and have made feeble attempts at telling some; despite this I think I can say with a degree of confidence that all good stories must have at least one conflict (try as I might I cannot really think of any story that doesn't have something that doesn't function as a conflict, but I could be wrong). Conflicts drive plot, move characters into action, and create events. Conflicts also have resolutions, or at least they should.

Inform 7: "A Design System for Interactive Fiction Based on Natural Language"

I have fond memories of playing Zork (the first one) on a Kaypro machine at my grandparent's house. I loved playing that game, and ever since I have had a soft spot in my heard for the entire genre of interactive fiction. Strangely, I haven't really played many games of this type. I've dabbled here and there with some of them, and I've always enjoyed them when I take the time to dig into them (but I've never actually finished any of them).

So along comes Inform 7 and all of a sudden I am whisked back to something I was quite enamored with. So I downloaded the public beta, and I happened to discover Zoom, a really good OSX Z-Machine (so I can play the games). I've pulled some old games out of mothballs, and downloaded some others which have won some awards (thus I hope they will be good). Despite all this something is still gnawing at me, and that is Inform 7 itself. Having read some of the examples and features I am utterly impressed with the language and desperately want to try my hand with it, only . . . what will I write? I have a hard enough time writing fiction and now I want to write an interactive fiction game?

I am mildly shocked and most definitely surprised at a recent achievement of mine. The achievement is a happy side-effect of my Promethean Logophile project: I have authored 25 short (very short) stories, and I'm working on number 26. I have been so focused on just meeting the challenge each week that I have not noticed how many stories I have actually created. A year ago I would have complained how horribly inept I was at crafting stories, pointing to piles of unfinished work, but now I can see I have a pile of finished drafts (believe me, most of the stories should not be considered complete).

I would like something from you, my reader. If you have not already read my stories, please, indulge me, because I want to know which one(s) are your favorites, which ones show promise, and which ones you would like to see me continue and extend. I'm feeling more confident with my writing skills now; instead of whining about not getting anything done, I should be happy I have put up so many stories, even if some of them aren't very good.

On the way to work this morning I was listening to The Dragon Page's Cover to Cover (#161) and an interesting statement was made that has caused me to become embroiled in the thinking process. The interviews on the program were both with young adult authors, and William Sleator made the statement that young adult fiction is better than adult fiction, and this was due to the more strenuous editing the books go through in order to make the points clear. Along with this comment another was made, that being adult fiction books don't have room for flowery descriptions and “boring” sections; a young adult book needs to be full of action; something always needs to be happening.

Thanks to The Dragon Page I found out about Wizards of the Coast's open call for manuscripts and am in a bit of a fix. On the one hand this is a fantastic opportunity and could be fun. I'm not looking to be famous, make a lot of money, or receive recognition, all I want is an audience; with that attitude I would not mind a rejection letter. The problem is I would have to have my manuscript finished by the end of March and I'm still about 100,000 words away from it and cursing myself for not writing in December or January (and in truth I have been one part lazy and two parts busy). I still find this good news, even if I do not apply for it.

It is good to know of a new place to submit manuscripts should I ever get to that point. I might one day actually be published, but not until I finish a manuscript. If any of you, my faithful readers, have anything to say on this matter get in touch with me and let me know.

I have had opportunity to examine fantasy literature from a different angle, questioning what makes a story fantasy as a genre. Most of my life I would have simply said all fantasy stories must have magic, swords, dragons, etc. I no longer think that way, and I finally understand what Tolkien was getting at in his preface to The Lord of the Rings. A novel should not be classified as a genre based on its setting, rather its content and/or focus. A mystery story will always be a mystery even if it's set in the ancient past, an historical situation, the near future, or contemporary times. Likewise fantasy novels should have something to define it apart from its setting. How then should we classify a novel as fantasy?

November is over, and so is my successful attempt at writing 50,000 words in November. I will not go into a full reflection of my time here as I noted it elsewhere. I will say that I enjoyed my time, and I have been feeling more creative, more “empowered”, and more at ease. Words, thoughts, and ideas have been flowing out of me, of late, with an ease that I have not known before. I used to be clogged up, unable to come up with interesting people to put in a story, and boring plots (or no plots) to make the characters dance to my tune. Now I seem to be nearly flooded with them. In fact, I'm almost so flooded I'm thinking about fulfilling another dream of mine, but more on that if I actually try to develop it. After all, I still need to finish my novel.

It is official, I am a participant in this year's NaNoWriMo. Along with a friend we will be blogging our experience (read: trials and tribulations) as we attempt this. You can get all the details here. The aim, hope, and goal of that site is to not only allow us to vent, or seek community encouragement, but to be able to later pinpoint our problem areas in writing to better our skills on future writing projects. Feel free to drop by and drop off a comment (no discouragement please).

All that said, come November I might be very silent on most fronts.

Up until this afternoon I was happy to announce the launch of my newest project Promethean Logophile, a site presenting a writing challenge to any who want to become participants. The idea is to take an unused, or abused, word once a week and write something showcasing that word in 300 to 1,000 words. I thought of the idea on Monday and by yesterday I had all the software and infrastructure in place, ready to assign my first word on Sunday and hopefully provide the first example, enticing others to join the project. I was perfectly happy and excited about this until this afternoon whereby I was reminded of the impending National Novel Writing Month.

The more I consider my writing style the more I realize I have to have a context: I cannot write ex nihilo. I enjoy the task of writing (not necessarily the research I sometimes have to put into my writing) but when left to myself to come up with a topic I will usually flounder for a while. This is especially troublesome when I am in a mood to write, because I usually cannot find something to write about. The really odd thing is this has not always been the case, so what has made me this way?

I did what I do not normally do. Friday afternoon I found myself desiring to read a good fantasy story, the only problem, I was already in the middle of a fantasy book, and had a gothic book I felt pressured to read (so much for joining a reader's group). I usually finish one book before I start another, but on this particular day I had no interest in continuing the book I was in the middle of; I had read the book once before, but forgot too much of it to read the sequel, and it's mood was darker and more serious in tone than I was looking for. Months back I was fortunate enough to find a small cache of cheap but new fantasy books (the three-in-one kind) at a local used book shop. One of those mammoth books (1300+ pages) I had read, as a youth, and enjoyed. I am speaking of "Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles".

As I have been reading this book I have been whisked back into my youth (which surprisingly enough is more than a decade ago!) to times that were most pleasant only when I was reading. I can still recall reading books on the school buss on the way home (that buss was a nasty ride, and the worst part of any given day). I can also recall spending lazy times in my backyard reading, and then looking up at the clouds replaying the scenes in my mind. The best part of it is, these happy memories are returning as I read the story once again. (I do not yet know if it's a blessing or a curse that I do not remember the details of the story, but nonetheless I am enjoying everything thus far!)