My Voice

If I were asked what my favourite thing about C.S. Lewis is, I'd have to answer that I love his writing habits. It wasn't until later in his career, but towards the end he used to write, then go over the piece once with a pen, and then he'd sent it to his editor. Isn't that beautious? I think so. I think he's fantastic.

When I was a young little bull frog, I used to try to write in the style of the ancient gothic romances that I used to read instead of in my own voice. When I look at my really old writing I wonder exactly who I was trying to kid. It's not me. When I write I feel like one of the most important aspects of the piece I'm writing is self-expression. How I view others and the world around me.

You see, I've been trying to figure out how Tesai in Ghost Mist is going to sound different from Hitomi in my Escaflowne stuff and you know what? They aren't going to be that different. Even if I switch to a different perspective, I may describe things differently, but it's always going to be my voice that follows me around. I really struggled with this concept while I was writing chapter 8 of Mark of a Goddess because I had to write from Akira's perspective and I felt that it should be different than Hitomi's perspective. I really felt that no one appreciated that I was trying to make it different. It was also a written document as opposed to the internal monologue that goes on in Hitomi's head, so I felt like it should be distinctly different. Welp, no one seemed to appreciate it. I think I'm learning that it's okay to use my voice no matter what I write. Things seem worse when I try to be someone I'm not.

Anyway, that's what I think C.S. Lewis learned. That if he spoke with his own voice than he always knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. What could be a better accomplishment than saying EXACTLY what you want to?

Just to cap this off, I'd like to make a quick list of the things I accomplished in my Escaflowne trilogy that really pleased me. There were a few things that pleasantly surprised me.

1. Eries. Her character's original name was Nicole and she wasn't anything like the Eries that came out once the novel was renamed Dragon's Moon. I wasn't sure how her character was going to fit in, because the original character was very happy and cheery and the Miguel character was in love with her. Also, Nicole was Jeremy's girlfriend (Allen's). I obviously had to cut all that, but I was really pleased with Eries - especially in the chapter called Poolside Confessions. I love how she's difficult to the last moment.
2. Chid. I love Chid back in Dragon's Moon. There's one part where he's flipping through channels on the T.V. He's standing in front of the T.V. with a remote in hand and his feet spread apart on the carpet and the image I have of him in my head of that moment is really ... unforgettable. When I wrote it the first time, things got really confusing once they got to the farmhouse. I was running out of steam the first time I wrote it, so it was getting really sloppy, but for some reason Chid doing that cleared my brain and helped me see the scene clearly, so that I was able to write the rest of it.
3. Van burning down the church after their wedding. I don't know why, but I flipping love that.
   
4. Hitomi jumping on the back of Allen's motorcycle and skipping gym - excellent.

I'm going to stop there. I'll have to write a big flashback show here after the last chapter is released.

Beta Reading Jungle

I'm not a very good beta reader. Anyone who has had me beta read for them knows that I am seriously lacking. My problem is that I usually don't buy different aspects of their story and I can't keep my friggin' mouth shut. I've become much better at this recently. I'm probably a weirdo, but I think my creative consulting has become more valuable lately, and I am the type who remembers to compliment when I see something good. So, I'm not all bad, but I'm definitely a grouch.

As for a beta reader for myself, I've had lots. Here they are:

Beta Reader No. 1

Kalis Deleira - This girl wasn't bad. I did a Slayers beta exchange with her a couple years ago. I like to update once a week and as I recall, she couldn't keep up with me. But a majorly nice kid. I think she posted my Shadow Magic: Zelgadis and Lina on her webpage. Darling!

Zue - This girl was a writer I admired. She wrote a Slayers fanfic called Hit the Ground Running, which was very enjoyable to read. But I think I wrote too fast for her too, but to be honest - my work didn't interest her so eventually our relationship just trailed off and ended, but that's okay. She's still a good writer, except that she hasn't been on ff.net in ages.

Shavaineth - I argued with this woman so much. I wasn't a huge fan of her writing and she didn't write very much so it was hard to admire her and the work she did on my writing was always too detailed. She would rewrite entire paragraphs until she was satisfied with them and when I asked her her opinion on stuff she would usually raise the skank to a level I was uncomfortable with. So I always felt that she overdid it until it wasn't my work anymore. She was a good friend to me in a lot of other ways though. We just couldn't get along regarding writing.

Kaeru Shisho - This one is part of a writing team that writes on ff.net. The frog portion I believe (frog and rat). She (I think) writes good stuff and doesn't stop writing. She gets really good acclaim for what she writes too. Another person from when I used to write Slayers stuff. I learned more from frog's comments than anyone else's ... ever. Occasionally, I write her little love notes to say how much her comments helped me. I never would have been able to get my Escaflowne stuff to be as good as it is without her telling me exactly what readers want and teaching me how to deliver. I would still be going to her if I was still writing Slayers stuff. She was awesome!

Kaytala - By the time this girl found me I was pretty jaded towards beta readers. She wrote me on ff.net about DM and told me that I made lots of mistakes and I grouchily asked her if she wouldn't mind sending me a list, which she did. So, I gave her a quiz on how to be a good beta reader, because I was sick of working with people who were more of a liability than an asset. People took too long to get the work out, and I still wanted to update once a week. She answered my questions well and then she became my beta reader and she was the best one I've ever had for just doing the work and not hounding me about my lack of description (not my strong suit and I get tired of hearing it. I know my writing is pretty bare. I've gotten a bit better, but I KNOW - I UNDERSTAND - LEAVE ME ALONE). She also got it done quickly and gave me her thoughts on the chapters. She was wonderful, but she's gotten really busy and so she's gone away. I'll gonna be bummed for awhile about her departure.

Sharlee - Yup. We've been working together for two days since I've been trying to fill the void Kaytala left. I went and asked her if she wouldn't mind doing it and I'm still shocked she agreed. I'm such a crank.

Anyway, that's my story about the beta readers in my life. I get dumped all the time. I must be hard to work for. Thibbit!

Creating a World

This might seem like cheating, but while getting ready to write 'Ghost Mist' I went on a little field trip through the internet looking for pictures that sort of described what I wanted for locations for the story. Normally, I don't do this sort of thing, but I need to make a little brain room for myself, so I decided that I could use a visial aid for locations to help inspire me. But I have to point out that when I went on this little field trip I did not make compromises. I saw a lot of really beautiful pictures , but I only selected ones for this photo gallery that already described what I had in mind. So please enjoy. This is a picture of what I imagine the Demon Goddess Lyla's shrine would look like. The only thing is that I imagine that the pool would be larger with a couple shoots of water springing from the still surface, but other than that - I think the pillars and the scenery outside neatly describe what I want her shrine to look like. Tesai's coffin is laying at the bottom of the pool. I'm also thinking that Lyla's throne is the perspective we're looking at the room from.


There is water in this picture and that's sort of regrettable, but only sort of. I think it adds a nice touch. This would be a picture of The Silver Bottle Plains. The grass is white there, and it was very difficult to find a picture of white grass since there doesn't seem to be much of an example of white rolling plains in our world. I mean, we have white grass, but it doesn't look the way I want it to. The other good thing about this picture is the dark mossy background that seems to indicate a depth to the place that is not necessarily pure. Nice, eh?

This would be a picture (not actually, but we're pretending) of the city of Starlach, and more specifically - the castle. There is mist on the ground, and so it's white, but I mean for Starlach to be set in the middle of the Silver Bottle Plains, so the mist works in this case because it's white like the grass is supposed to be.

This would be a picture of the forests of the Duchy of Aurantium. The trees there are orange in their prime instead of green. When they turn, they turn black and fall into the bluest sea. When the orange leaves fall - it's a terrible omen.


Finding this picture was sort of a miracle. It's not exactly what I want. I mean I don't want the tropical forest in the background. But the shape and style of the fountain are so much like what I want for the fountain that is in the middle of Spindle Wood. The fountain in Spindle Wood is in the middle of a burned-out clearing, so there would be nothing but ash around the fountain (no grass at all).

OOOO! Now I'm starting to get really excited.

Plushing it up!

Okay, so remember how I always say that I have a really hard time writing description? Well, it's still 100% true. However, I think I may have found a way to deal with it.

Generally, when I write I focus so hard on what people are saying and the plot line that I don't focus on the description- it's secondary so I sort of pretend that it's not there at all and keep going. Basically, unless the description is crutial to the plot, I generally don't even worry about it when I write the chapter for the first time. Naturally, this creates the kind of lack of description that people generally see when I write.

So, when I was writing 'Mystic Wings' I was honestly surprised at how far a little bit of plot went. I'd say, 'I want to do this, this, and this in this one chapter', and the chapter would turn out to be way longer than I expected. So, when I started writing 'Mark of a Goddess' I sorta started giving fewer instructions as to what I wanted to happen in a single chapter. So now when I finish a chapter it's only about 3000 words, and frankly, that's not good enough. People like the longer chapters and I've been pumping out some bigger ones, so when I wrote chapter 14 'The Dragon vs. The Sorcerer' I finished and I looked at my word count and it was only about 3200 words and I was sitting there going 'crapity, crap, crap, CRAP!' So, I started looking at the chapter and seeing what was missing in it. I think it was pretty obvious what I was missing - a giant opportunity for fun! So, I went back and inserted the said 'fun' and when I was finished I went to look at the word count - 4200. Go ME! I was pleasantly pleased.

Anyway, the point is that without this extra stuff that I added, the chapter would have been left extraordinarily naked - which wouldn't have been a good thing in the least.

I think I've been pressing myself to get my chapters right the first time instead of offering myself the opportunity to write them several times with different concepts in mind. In my case, it's fine to type out the chapter all happy with the dialogue and the action the first time I write it, but I need to forgive myself for not always being able to focus on all aspects of the story during the initial writing process. So, I should just give myself a cookie and let myself go over the chapter as many times as I need to in order to perfect the description (since I'm so crappy at it).
Today I added an extra 1500 words to chapter 17 and that made me feel pretty pleased.