Sunday, July 31, 2016

Writing Traditions

Traditions
Zombies are a July tradition here at Wriye. Do you have a writing tradition of your own? How did it come about?

Bonus: Share an example of your tradition!

I think the closest thing to writing traditions I have are NaNoWriMo and WriYe. Even the prepping is part of the tradition because it gets me excited to do what I have planned. Then I fall flat on my face (with WriYe) half way through. But I try. I really do.

How I came about NaNoWriMo was by accident one year. I don't even remember how it happened, I just stumbled upon it my Freshmen year of high school (12 years ago) and I've kept going since. I don't normally get involved with the local writing events that happens with NaNo. I mainly just use the site to keep track of my word count, and to lurk in the forums from time to time.

I came about WriYe a few years later. I can't remember how though. Probably by accident - like everything else.  WriYe is a huge commitment and I have a hard time staying on the forums for the whole year but that doesn't mean I forget to accomplish my writing goals. Though, I do tend to lose track of where I'm at in my goals.

That's really all I have to say about my traditions involving writing. I don't really participate in any other writing events, not yet anyway. I'm trying to get everything organized and I have too many manuscripts to edit. Though, I might stop editing from time to time to write a new novel to add to the stack.

...Editing my own work is hard but I'm slowly getting there.

Critique and Criticism

Critique and Criticism
What is your method of critiquing a piece of writing? What do you expect out of people critiquing your work?

I haven't critiqued in a really long time. In my head, I do it all of the time, but I haven't critiqued someone's work (with them being willing) in years. But, I guess I could say, that I look for inconsistencies or anything that stands out to me that really shouldn't be there (misplaced plot, forgetting to delete a passage before continuing, etc). I tend to ask a lot of questions when I'm looking over someone's work, mostly to benefit them. Instead of telling them that something is wrong, I ask them specific questions so they will figure it out and hopefully, it will help them improve other places of their story as well.

I also look for grammar issues and sentence structure flaws, if they ask me to, but I mainly focus on the story itself, rather than the syntax. At least at first. Unless the same mistake is consistent throughout the story. Then I'll point it out. For example: I was reading someone's story and they lacked commas.  I had to go back and read several sentences to figure out what in the hell they were trying to say. I definitely pointed that out.


When someone is critiquing my work, I would hope they would be honest with me and ask me questions as needed. Questions are beneficial, and so is being straight forward. Though, I haven't gotten close to this yet, I would hope that they would do their best to help me improve my writing rather than just be an asshole about it, but there is always that group of people who will be flaming jerks and just straight-up tell me that my work is crap. If they aren't going to give me a reason why my work is crap, then they aren't worth my time.

I don't mean to sound like a bitch about it either. I'm asking for constructive feedback to help me improve. Telling me that I suck at writing, isn't telling me where or why they think I suck at writing. It's just telling me that this person isn't into my story. That happens. I'm not delusional to think that everyone is going to enjoy my writing, since I know I don't enjoy every piece of writing that I come across.

Telling me how I should write my novels or stories is also something that I would like them to not do. My plot is written like this for a reason and trying to sway my story line isn't going to happen because the chances are, my story is already finished and the way I wanted it. They can question my plot if there are some major plot holes that need to be fixed or if the plot is weak (or has weak points) but their opinion on how my story should go is a big no-no. I can forgive small adjustments but not if they are suggesting that I go back and change everything. Just - no.

When critiquing, you're supposed to let the writer know where things really didn't connect with you, as a reader. If the characters come off a bit wooden instead of real, or if there is an incomplete subplot that never got resolved - these are things that should be pointed out. If they are a bit harsh about it, I'm okay with that, at least they are telling me where I need to improve. Let me know where my sentences get too wordy or if my sentences are too choppy. It happens. I catch them when I'm going through my edits. I hope that someone will catch them when reading through my story too (the ones that I miss).

Again, I haven't gotten to this point as I'm still going through my edits, since it's long and tedious but I'm getting to it. It's on my list of things to do once I finish editing the first short story of District Pluto.


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

My Genre of Choice

Genre
What’s your main genre? Why do you write in that genre? Do you have a tip to share for someone wanting to break into that genre? What genre would you like to break into?

Bonus: What is your favorite book written in your genre? (Written by you or another great writer!)

The main genre I write is Fantasy. I like going into different worlds that I've made and having my characters encounter some really strange things. I also like the freedom I can have with writing in this genre but there are also "rules" that one must follow. Things need to make some kind of sense. You can't just have something work without really knowing how it works. It kind of makes it complicated but I really like this part of it. Sometimes figuring out the mechanics to certain things can change the plot of your novel to something even better or it helps you get a better understand of what is supposed to happen.

My only tip is to know your world and don't allow it to bend to make it easier for your characters. Just because you have the power to do so, doesn't mean that you should. Always give your characters obstacles to face, even smaller ones, because it helps with character development.

I've read a lot of books in this genre but my absolute favorite is almost anything written by Tamora Pierce (almost - some of her books are good but just don't catch my attention). I never have issues going back and rereading her work. Also, Harry Potter is a good book that I can always go back and reread. To be honest, that is how I judge a book. If I have the ability to go back and reread it without pointing out flaws from both the writing and the characters, then it's a good book.