Testing The Waters

So I've talked about a few different writing strategies now, so I thought that maybe, although I'm not supposed to make this a blog about my writing, I thought I'd try posting a bit of my creative writing to just show that I can pray what I preach. Plus maybe I thought it'd give you some inspiration to do a quick write too, a writing exercise that's nice for all writers to try once in awhile.

The idea is just to think of a quick prompt, something simple; the devil walking down the street, A rose in a field of daisies, a boy looking for his dog in the woods. Quick, easy stuff that allows you too let you're imagination roam and confidence soar as you write with out worrying about critique or judgement. For my little quick write, I think I'll use the first example; the devil walking down the street, just because I prefer darker writing.

The crowds of Chicago were brutal, always moving, always pulsating, never stopping for anyone. It was the blood that powered the city, giving it life. As I walked with the group to my daily nine to five, all I could think is that if we're the blood, then this man is the virus. 

It was so perplexing to me, the contradicting normality of him. A plain black vest over a red button up, slick black pants, a cocked fedora on his head. Even his walk was normal. He kept his hands in his pockets and slouched ever so slightly, his pace not slow or fast, but a medium speed that kept him in stride with the rest of Chicago's veins and arteries. Because of this he always stayed in my sight, a set distance away.

This man was the Moses to Chicago's sea of people, splitting the crowd effortlessly with his presence. His aura was like a magnet, pushing away everyone more and more the closer they get. Especially those who dare to look at him. I could see, very discretely, people look under the brim of his hat as they pass by Him. The subtle horror that invaded their expression spoke volumes as they avoided their eyes and sped up to walk past him. What could be wrong with his face? Was he disfigured? A monster? Or did he just have a cruel pair of eyes or a terrible scowl?

I was so entranced by my imagination and the wonders of what was hidden under his brim that I was taken aback when I found myself in an tight alleyway. Still in front of me stood the man, his back to me, facing a solid brick wall.

I stared in a mix of terror of curiosity. Time seemed to stand still as I waited for him to move, speak, twitch, anything to end this moment of stillness and silence.

It was suddenly so different, the way he moved. It was like liquid, the way he turned around. Smooth and effortless, graceful like a dancer with even such a basic movement. As he faced me I realized he was closer then I had realized, a mere five feet. I could see the sly smile that sat under the rim of his hat. Slowly, ever so slowly, he looked up to meet my gaze.

I was sucked in by his bottomless, black hole eyes.

"Been following me, have you"?

B.R. of The Alchemist Series

For my second book review I wanted to not only choose a book that had different strengths than my last one, but I also thought it'd be cool to review a whole series rather than just a single novel. Also just the topic and tone of the two books are about as different as they can be!

So a brief summary of my series, the Alchemist. It takes place during modern day and is from the point of view of two twins, Sophie and Josh. The opening scene alone sets the tone for the whole book as it opens up with the two witnessing a fight between two powerful magicians in a book store. Before they know it the twins get sucked into a conflict that has been raging for thousands of years, and we get thrown into an insane mixture of gods, legends, and magic. Throughout the books we see the twins go through hard training in order to become magicians themselves. It truly is a fantasy lover's best friend!

What makes it such an enjoyable book though? Well, first of all, it's another story that demonstrates the classic archetype of loss of innocence as the twins gain more knowledge, go through training, and realize that their lives are much more complicated than they think. Secondly, the writer is fantastic at creating suspense and writing fast, in your face action scenes that are not only clear but really concise and accurate. It never seems jumbled or rushed, like many fight scenes tend to be. Lastly, the author does a great job of pacing out the book, something I really haven't talked about much yet. If you're a reader who gets impatient easily or loses interest in slow books, then this is a good one for you. The series is a constant course of up and down, like a coastal tide of action and calm. I think he does a fairly good job of disguising it though, which is nice because if the pace is too uniform then the book becomes predictable and monotonous, but if you make the ebb and flow of action seem natural then the story flows well and keeps your attention the whole time, and trust me, this book will hold your attention with ease, from cover to cover.

Overall, it's no American classic or anything, but it's a good read that keeps you interested, has a great cliff hanger, and provides good examples if you're planning on writing on lots of fight scenes. I'd definitely say it's worth looking into if you're ever looking for something new to read. Until next time guys, peace.

-Ink

B.R. of "Someone Named Eva"

So while I work on my book and use writing techniques that I know, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite books and review them in a Book Review type fashion. This way I can provide you guys with not only what I think our entertaining and gripping books, but books you can learn from as I talk about some of the strengths and weaknesses of the stories.

The first book that popped out as I was going through my personal library was a little historical fiction novel called, 'Someone Named Eva'. It takes place around the time of World War Two in Czechoslovakia and focuses on the story of a young girl as the Germans slowly move in to her country. The story focuses more on the psychological aspects of the war as the Germans separate the girl from her family and attempt to turn her into, "a perfect German girl." Over time we see them educate, abuse, comfort, and reconstruct her, attempting everything they can to change her and make her forget her past. It really is a brilliant book, having good themes and a touching story as we indulge ourselves with Eva's story.

But, from a purely analytical approach, what makes this story so good? One, it has a classic archetype of corrupting innocence as the young girl we first meet is transformed into Eva and forced to take part in German culture. In my opinion it's a archetype you can't go wrong with, and even though it's a pretty common one it seems to be one people are always willing to see. This leads me into my second main point; how great her character building is. Throughout the book we see lots of people come and go, and yes some of them are pretty flat, that's inevitable, but Eva herself is amazingly built up. In any book where we actually get to see someone's personality change and fluctuate is amazing, it's a real sign of life and avoids making what my favorite author would call, "another bag of bones." It really hits home the impacts of the German's attack as we see her transform from innocent, kind, and free spirited to polite, bitter, and introverted. My last point would be the realism of the book, which kinda spreads of many things. What I mean is it's a culmination of many things that give the book a sense of nonfiction instead of fiction. The first would be the great context of the story, created by the authors well done research into her topic. Secondly, it's raw, yet not over dramatic. It has that perfect balance that creates a life like feeling while reading, as you'll see in many well written nonfiction books. Lastly, the characters and dialogue are very real. The dialogue always fits the relationship between the characters, ranging from formal and stiff to colloquial and lighthearted.

All in all it really is a great book, especially if you're fascinated with World War Two like I am, or are just a history buff in general. It'll suck you in and next thing you know the story's over and you're sitting there wondering where the time went! If this isn't really up you're alley however, don't worry I'll be doing some more book reviews soon, peace!

-Ink

Good Characters

This is probably a topic you've heard a lot about from just about any L.A. class, but I think it's an important topic to talk about when it comes to your own writing as it does when discussing books in L.A. That is creating nice, round characters for your stories. A round character, by my definition, is a character that is realistic in the fact that he/she may face problems most of us face; they have good and bad sides, conflicting morals, misconceptions, ideas, hopes, dreams, etc. Everything that a normal living person would have. 

In your books it should be more then just good and bad guys, more then just, "he's like this, and she's like this, and here is how he feels." It's never simple when it comes to making characters, and you should always consider that before writing a story. Every character is a person in and of themselves. They should have back stories, history, experiences, everything. Now do you have to go in as much detail with minor characters, no, maybe not quite, but you still need some. Flat characters result in a flat story. 

So remember when creating characters, bad guys have good sides too, and visa versa. Many times the best characters are ones with conflicting morals, so that even if they're labeled a bad guy, they may have good ideas at heart. (Those are my favorite characters, personally.) Hopefully you guys create some great characters for your next story. Peace.

-Ink

Extended Motifs

If you've ever taken any language arts as a class, then you've probably heard about extended motifs; lessons or morals we're suppose to take from a story. You've heard you're teacher ask you stuff like, "what does this passage mean," or "how does this pertain to the stories meaning." Well in my humble opinion, that's bull. If you find yourself having to go back and take notes and look for metaphorical meanings in every chapter of a book then you're over doing it. You shouldn't have to force yourself to look for meanings in a book, and although there are times where I agree with L.A. teachers and their interpretations of books, often very good interpretations actually, but other times its looking for nothing. A book shouldn't have an obvious, stereotypical meaning, but should find the medium between a deep and meaningful motif that is complex and subtly introduced as well as well as clear and applicable.

You should keep that in mind when writing, that you need to find that motif balance in you're works, whether its a short story, poem, or novel. These are what define many books as classics, because they have clear motifs, but are still loose enough that they can be interpreted in different ways and be discussed. These are the types of books you'd read in you're L.A. or English classes. For example, lets look at To Kill a Mockingbird, a really great book. Possible spoiler alert by the way. It takes place during a time of great segregation and racism, a time in the country when equality is not truly recognized and African Americans are seen as less than the white population. Although this plays a large part of the story, it is very rarely addressed in the first third to half of the book. Even on top of the topic of racism and equality, a rather typical motif, we get an extra layer of specificity on it, something every story's motif should have. We learn about not only recognizing racism and social inequality, but about having the bravery to stand up to it and to speak for the unspoken, literally in the case of To Kill a Mockingbird. It's really a great meaning or motif, and the best part is that it isn't truly realized until the end of the story and when it is, it's pretty clear with a bit of consideration.

This is how your extended motifs should be; clear, opinionated, strong, and unique. This will give your readers not only quality reading, but a quality lesson to learn from your writing, something you should always strive to have in your writing. Again, a good story will have quality characters and plot, as well setting, writing style, tone, and other things. But a story must have a strong motif that the readers can take away from your writing for it to be truly considered great. I hope you guys learned something new and that you will try incorporating some of these things into your writing in the future, peace.

-Ink

Paragraphing For Tension

Just as length can affect tone, so can other writing skills, one of which being the way in which you use your paragraphs. In typical (or in other words boring) writing, paragraphs are used to separate single points from each other, so every time your focus switches you begin a new paragraph. This makes it clearer to the reader what you're talking about and emphasizes your transitions. However, this doesn't exactly apply to modern fiction writing. Don't get me wrong, that is how most authors still typically use paragraphs; to show a change of focus, change of perspective, new event, or beginning of dialogue. But the paragraph is so much more useful than that! The most common use of the paragraph is to emphasize and create drama in a scene, typically at the climax. Indenting right before the action can help create loads of tension for the reader. If you remember my length and tone post, it goes hand in hand with that. Using short sentences can create tension, but adding an indent right before that just acts as a booster to the effect of the shortened sentence. It'll make that one word sentence pop out to the reader, putting a huge amount of emphasis on whatever you have it be.

"The tension in the air was almost as palpable as the fear in that moment. The soldiers had a quiet disposition, an eerie stillness mixed with jittery, uncontrollable sense of impending death. Silent prayers were mouthed, loved ones were remembered, and old sins were confessed on that hill, in that trench. The screams from the woods below drowned out all of the soundless last thoughts, and then they appeared.

Grey was the largest color they saw, swarms and swarms of grey. Like a cold porridge mixed with the hard steel of bayonets and bullets. The sound was what reached inside you and squeezed your heart, wrenching any bravery right out and filling it, no, flooding it with terror. It was the scream of dead men as well as the shout of resilient, defiant men. All that, but the captain held, and as long as the captain held, then so did the infantry. Closer and closer the rebels came, charging up the hill, bullets flying over the heads of the entrenched. The captain raised his sword, the mob of men now only one hundred yards away. Closer and closer they came, fifty yards away, forty. The captain brought down his sword.

'Fire!'"

Here's an example of building up tension and then using the paragraphing strategy to create drama and initiate the climax. Notice how the words seem to change throughout the passage as well, not only becoming more straight forward but shortening in sentence length, like I said, adding to the emphasis on the one word paragraph. Although this is about as effective as it gets when it comes to building tension, I should say that it should be something you use rarely. Use it too often and it'll lose its effect, or even appear corny to the audience. I hope you learned something though guys, and I'll talk to you later, peace!

-Ink