Talking About Your Story Might Stop You From Actually Writing It

If you're friends with a writer, chances are good you've experienced what it's like when one of us has a story to tell. Under good circumstances you can sit with us over dinner and coffee, and spend hours exploring this strange world that lives inside our skulls. Under bad circumstances, you get drenched by the downpour that comes with our brainstorms.

However, there's an issue that I've found a lot of writers have... namely that once we've opened our mouths that we often forget to engage our hands, and actually write the stories we talk about.

It is, unfortunately, the hardest part of the process.

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Undercutting The Process

Before we go any deeper into this topic I want to be very clear, here; talking through your story is always a good idea. For a lot of writers it is an extremely necessary part of the process, allowing us to explore certain ideas, think out loud, and to get around problems in the plot.

With that said, sometimes writers get so enamored of talking about our stories that we don't actually write them. Put another way, it's like we showed up to bake a cake, but instead we just ate all the icing and called it a day.

If you slather it on thick enough, it will still support candles, right?

What I mean by just eating the icing is that, for a lot of writers, talking about the idea is the fun part of the process. Taking notes, building the world, engaging with the characters, asking questions, and sharing all of that with our friends is usually an engaging activity. It's where we have the most fun, and it's where we get the satisfaction of feedback, and sharing an experience with someone else.

However, this activity can actually make us take a shortcut past the actual hard work of writing the story if we aren't careful. Because we sat down and talked through the tale, we walked someone through all of the twists and turns, and explained the ending and themes we're going for, our brains then lose interest in it. It doesn't want to actually write that story anymore. Now it wants a new idea to get excited about, and to go through the whole process of exploration again.

This can be exhausting for everyone involved. If you're the writer who finds themselves constantly avoiding the final step of writing the story, you may feel like you're constantly caught between the boring drudgery of forcing yourself to chronicle an idea you're no longer interested in and taking hits of good brain chemicals while you daydream about newer, more exciting ideas. Those who get pulled into these exercises might also feel tired after a while because for all the fun of the creative process, it can feel like the story is never going anywhere; that it's all just a bunch of hot air that's never going to lead to anything.

How do you fix it, though?

Sadly, I don't have an answer to this. If I did, I'd write a book, become a bestseller, and retire. But the best advice I can give is that you need to want the book done more than you want the enjoyment of just playing around in another sandbox. I'm not saying you shouldn't think about other ideas, and that you shouldn't give yourself moments of play and fun while you're slogging through a novel, but you need to make sure that you don't abandon the story you had just because you've moved from drawing the blueprints to actually building the thing.

If I do find more useful tricks, though, rest assured that I'll share them as soon as I come across them!

Looking For Some Additional Reading?

I don't really have any neat segues, but I figured I'd leave some additional links for folks who just want to kill a little time, and help me out a bit. If you're down for giant robots fighting alien bugs in a life-or-death battle in the grim darkness of the far future, check out Broken Heroes if you haven't seen it yet! If you'd like to step into an ongoing saga about resistance to fantasy fascists, and the deeds of a shadowy vigilante attempting to free the city from the boot on its neck, then read the first of The Silver Raven Chronicles!

And if you're a fan of the World of Darkness, you should definitely take a moment or three to listen to the latest adventure Jacoby has found himself on in The Butcher's Door, dramatized below! Don't forget to subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel if you enjoy it, as well.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Horror Blends Well With Pretty Much Every Genre

Since we're coming up on the Halloween season, most people's minds are turning to spooky stories and terrifying tales. Even if you're not a proponent of the horror genre as a lifestyle like some of us are, this is the season where everyone gets in on the fun. However, I had a conversation earlier this week that bothered me because it's a sentiment I've come across several times both as an author, and as an RPG writer. That is, essentially, that horror simply can't be mixed with other genres.

So I wanted to take a moment to make a very simple statement, and then to get deeper into it. Because horror can be combined with practically any other genre you choose. And if you can't fathom how you could weave some of those dark threads into this or that genre, then I would suggest you need to dream a little bigger.

Oh my, my... how did THAT get in there?

As always, before we go any deeper, remember to sign up for my weekly newsletter! And if you want to help me keep the wheels turning consider becoming a Patreon patron. Because every little bit really does help.

Also, if you're in the mood for some short, snacky scares, don't forget to check out my 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories. And if you like it make sure you spread the word, and leave a tip. I'm thinking about doing a follow-up, but I go where the reads lead me!

Horror Really is a Universal Spice

I know that not everyone out there is a lifelong horror fan the way I am. However, the more I've talked with people in the general populace, the more often I come across folks who have very specific ideas of what horror can be, and even more important ideas of what it cannot be. But before we get into debating this or that particular scenario, I would suggest folks take a moment to watch something from Scaredy Cats, as this channel has perhaps the most succinct definition of horror that I've ever come across.

It's those three, simple requirements that I think can solve a lot of issues when it comes to discussions of horror. While I don't necessarily agree entirely with the first (that the piece of media must be fictional, though inspiration and retellings are fictitious enough to pass the smell test), the second two standards (it must concern the macabre, and the characters in the story must be scared) are actually very useful indeed.

And if more people looked at horror from this perspective, I would get into a lot fewer fights on the Internet.

Because it is this broader definition that really showcases how flexible horror is as a genre mixer. You can take horror and mix it with comedy, and get something like The Addams Family or Krampus, for example. You can mix horror with science fiction to produce something like Alien, Event Horizon, or large swaths of the Warhammer 40K universe. You can mix it with melodrama in order to make something like Dark Shadows, you can swirl it into sword and sorcery to get adventures of characters like Conan, Kull, or Solomon Kane (or my own novel Crier's Knife). You can put it into high fantasy to create something like the Midnight RPG setting, and you can blend it into a coming of age story, a period drama, and nearly anything else you feel like.

The Thousand Faces of Horror

This might be a bit of a soapbox topic, but for fans of horror like myself, this is something that I feel folks need to stop and think about. Because so many people will either assume that horror A) has to be something that they would personally find frightening or uncomfortable, or B) that it can only concern certain topics, and that if those topics are absent or rendered moot by another element then horror cannot exist.

Rather that singling any one person out, though, I wanted to discuss some of the conversations I've run into, and why I find them so infuriating. And, hopefully, the responses I have to them will help show folks a broader perspective on my favorite genre.

I've got a lot to choose from, okay?

"Fantasy can't have horror in it because death isn't permanent."

This is a paraphrase of part of the most recent conversation that started me off on this topic, and it refers to how in traditional high fantasy RPGs players usually have the ability to be resurrected from the dead to continue the adventure should they meet an untimely end. The idea that if death isn't permanent then what do you have to be scared of exemplifies the kind of mindset that only thinks of horror in terms of a single facet. Because surely dying is something people are scared of, even if it can be undone? Especially since, in these settings, heaven and hell are very real places. If you know you weren't a good person, and you wound up in hell (even for a few moments) what would that do to your mind? Especially since (in most settings, at least) you're still going to die eventually... barring become a lich, a vampire, or some other eternal creature.

Which, in its way, makes those monsters even more frightening. Because for every power mad duke or arrogant wizard, there's going to be someone who would rather live a tortured, eternal half life than face what lies beyond the coil of their mortal flesh. And if that's not horror, I don't know what is!

"This isn't a horror game because it doesn't make me uncomfortable."

Vampire. Werewolf. Mage. Changeling. I've had this conversation about fully half of the World of Darkness RPG setting with my fellow players, and it never ceases to baffle me. Because make no mistake, these games as they're written are horror games through and through. Whether it's questions about whether you can cling to your humanity for eternity, about whether you can control the violence surging through you to keep those around you safe, about whether your hubris will be your downfall, or about not being able to fully trust your own mind and the world around you, these games all deal with a variety of different flavors of horror.

Something that I feel needs re-iterating is that horror doesn't have to scare you. Most of the time that's not what it's going to do. It doesn't have to leave an impression of lasting terror, either. It can, but that's not required for it to still be horror. And while a lot of horror will leave you asking hard questions (What does it really mean to be human? What will people do when driven to desperate measures? What makes someone a monster?), it's not required to be harrowing or to include elements you find distasteful.

"That's not a horror story, it's just dark X/Y/Z."

This might be something of a controversial opinion, but people will go to ridiculous lengths to avoid stories they like being associated with horror. Up to the point that I've seen it said several times that the film category of "psychological thriller" was invented by the Academy Awards to ensure that no movie labeled a horror film (like Silence of The Lambs would have been) won prestigious awards.

In my opinion this is where a lot of stories, books, and games will label themselves as a "dark" version of a particular genre instead of just admitting they're mixing in horror elements. Dark fantasy has questionable themes and monsters more familiar to the horror genre. Dark thrillers go further than normal thrillers do, punching up the stakes and usually including deeds that would be more common in an Argento film than a John Grisham novel. Dark romances touch on sensitive topics that can be as titillating as they are triggering, and so on, and so forth.

Horror gets around, and like a flexible wine you can pair it with practically any meal. It might go better with some than it does with others, but it's everywhere once you learn to recognize the flavor.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

The Boy Who Cried Censorship

I spend a lot of time on the Internet talking about stories. I talk about my process, I big-up other authors who need signal boosts, and I try to offer advice that's worked for me in the past. However, there is something I've noticed that has become a part of online discourse in general, and a part of writers' groups in particular, that I wanted to talk about. It's the cry of censorship as a defense against someone else having a differing opinion to yours.

Because unless the government is demanding you stop talking, no one is censoring you.

Yes language means more than what's in the dictionary. We'll get to that.

Meaning, Usage, And Your Opinions

We love the idea of the freedom of speech, but most of us don't actually know what it means. In the broadest of broad strokes, it means you can say what you want without legal reprisal from the government. So if I want to say that Donald Trump is a leaking sack of suet re-purposed for sexual misadventure, I can't be arrested for that. Plenty of people may disagree with me about that, but at least at the time of this writing I'm perfectly within my rights to say that thing.

Now, that right to speak doesn't guarantee anything else. It doesn't guarantee me a right to be agreed with, or the right to use someone else's podium, or the right to be granted equal time by other people. Nor does it mean that I am free from the consequences of my speech.

The arena of public opinion isn't particularly forgiving.

Let's take an example we've all seen before. You're on social media, and you see a conversation that catches your eye. Maybe it's someone lamenting that a new major motion picture has cast a white performer in a role of a character that was originally an ethnic minority. Perhaps you agree with the original poster, or you share a differing opinion, but the next person to comment after you says something like, "Ugh, stop trying to shut out other people's opinions. You're just want to censor people who don't agree with you."

That statement is stupid for a number of reasons.

First and foremost is that, according to the definition we're all working from, only governments can censor people. However, in the sense that some people will attack or shut out dissenting opinions, that does happen. Most of the time, though, that's not censorship. If you go to a Facebook group, or a subreddit, or an open mic night, you are not guaranteed the chance to speak and be heard. You're on someone else's page, and your ability to talk or not talk, to be a member or be banned, is decided by the people who actually run those facilities. If the moderators, bouncers, or page owners decide no, they don't want you in their group, they can shut you up, and kick you out.

That's shitty, sure, but it isn't censorship. You still have the right to say whatever you want to say, but that group has made it clear they don't want you saying it there, and that's why they've closed their door in your face.

What Was That About Consequences?

You know how, when you were a kid, your parents would sometimes tell you that you wouldn't get in trouble if you just told them the truth? Even if you said or did something wrong, they were more interested in honesty than they were in punishment? A lot of the time we think that's how freedom of speech works. You can say whatever you want, and you won't get in trouble for it. Especially if you're just being honest with people.

With the government, that's usually true. With everyone else, not so much.

Yes, I heard you. That silence? That's the sound of judgment, sweety.

From big, important issues of the day, down to issues of nerd emphemera, we all have our own opinions. Whether you feel that Jared Leto is the worst Joker in the series, or you think that writing accents phonetically is a bad idea, those are your opinions. If you put those opinions forth in the public arena, wherever that might be, you'll likely find folks who agree with you. However, you'll also find folks who disagree with you. Their disagreement is not your ideas being censored, any more than if you disagree with someone else that you're censoring them. That's just the open market deciding whether your ideas will be accepted, or wadded up and thrown in the trash.

No one likes to admit it, but sometimes we're the ones the general consensus tosses on the trash heap.

And if there are extreme repercussions for the views you espouse? If you lose friends because they find out you hold particularly sexist views about why it's perfectly okay for women to be paid less for doing the same job? Or if a partner breaks up with you because they found your racist rants on a forum? Or if you get fired because someone caught you berating and belittling someone who is supposed to be part of your team? Well, none of those are censorship. Those are the consequences that come from speaking your mind.

You can say whatever you want. However, you can also hit a hornet's nest with a stick. If the hornets fly out and sting you so badly your eyes swell shut and you can barely breathe, that's not them censoring your stick-swinging agenda. That's reaping the consequences of what you chose to do.

If you're still not sure about the difference, read the comments below. People espousing their opinions? Just fine. But it's my blog, my page, and my soap box, and I don't have to let anyone up here to speak if I don't want to. Is that narrow-minded, or prejudiced, or rude? It might be some, or all of those things. But it isn't censorship.

So, it seems I accidentally did two Business of Writing posts in a row. Next week, something on craft, you have my word. If you want to keep up to date on all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. And if you want to support my efforts, head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. All it takes is $1 a month to get some sweet swag, and my everlasting gratitude.