We are all stories in the end...

 2021: Year of Forced Introspection

I am writing another book. Yes, it has magic. Yes, it has snark. Yes, it is also about the people you consider family. Do I have a brand to uphold? Yes. Will you ever see it? Maybe. 

It is technically the ninth novel I have written as professional author with people outside of myself editing and conceptualizing right along with me. Nine books professionally, and it still hasn't gotten any easier. 

So like I do when I'm supposed to be doing #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I'm thinking of a million ways to distract myself. And since this is the year of forced introspection, I thought I would go back to the beginning. Like human evolution beginning, because in a time heavy with false narrative, we need to know why we are susceptible to them and our responsibility to use narratives
properly because story telling is a powerful tool. 

Lisa Cron, author of WIRED FOR STORY and STORY GENIUS, is probably way better at explaining all this, but basically, just like food and sex, stories are key to our survival as humans. Food tastes good, Sex feels good, story entertains us, but all three evolved that way because they were key factors in keeping us alive. Food nourished our bodies, sex secured a lineage and children, but stories taught us how to survival on our own. 

The human brain has developed in such a way that once it is keyed into a story and hit the pause button of reality, it is searching for meaning, for a lesson, for a heart, that it can hold on to and take back into reality and make reality safer/better/stronger. In fact, our brains actually activate in the same manor as what is happening in the story, it is so deeply invested. We actually are FEELING what the hero feels when we are lost in a good story.

We as humans are all searching out how to survive this crazy world, and books/movies/comics allow us to gain the wisdom and experiences of a thousands lives find the answers to it all. 

Wow, that got heavy really fast. 

So, as a story teller, I take the art of storytelling very seriously. Knowing how humans work and feel and struggle. I want to honor the time and trust that a reader gives to me. I want to help them on their journey, give them something entertaining that their brains can chew on as well. 

But I am also a human on a journey. I am still actively
journeying myself and I think the one thing that keeps me writing all these novels is that I still have questions about how people survive in this world. I still have experiences that I need to figure out for myself. I am still seeking ways to help make my own reality safer/better/stronger. Ways that I can be safer/better/stronger.

Even when life gets too hectic, I am always writing, I am always structuring my experiences through character and plot and setting. I am always trying to find a way to articulate what I am learning about life, what struggles have come, and what lessons I have learned so that someday, I can pass that along to someone else. And yes, it always has a little magic in it. 

Nine novels. Nine major questions. And I am still curious. 

Until next time, Keep Calm and Make it a Good Story. 

Amanda Arista

Author, www.amandaarista.com

 

TOTAL GENESIS MODE: NaNoWriMo!

Year of Genesis: When you just have to create from scratch

Its NANOWRIMO time!!!

National Novel Writing Month is an online effort to increase creativity across the world by sponsoring a challenge to write a 50,000 book in a month. Yep. 50,000 words in 30 days.

That is roughly 1700 words a day.

Depending on writing speed, that is 2-4 hours a day working on a novel. Or 12,000 words a weekend.

If you have been following the whole Year of Genesis, you'll know that this year was primarily dedicated to THE MERCI LANARD FILES and the creation of three books in that series. Two are out, one is still in the works. It got written in 2020 (super surprised myself), but is waiting to be editing. 

Why am I waiting, you ask? Why aren't I working on that sure thing instead of waisting a month writing furiously on a BRAND NEW THING. 

Well, thank you for asking, because I had to convince myself to make that choice.

1). 2020 has been hard on my writing habits. I've been more like a recreational hopscotcher than an athlete. For the last two months, I haven't been writing at all, only piddling around with words, half reading books. So NaNoWriMo will be like writing bootcamp for me. 1700 words a day will get me disciplined to finish 2020 strong. 

2). My brain is a raccoon. It likes new stuff and when faced with rehashing a murder mystery or working on a brand new secret project (WITCHES!) that my agent and I cooked up together, well, I'll take the new and shiny to help attract me to the hard work that NaNoWriMo will be. 

3). I've had this idea brew for a while and found myself really enjoying creating everything from scratch. This one isn't in the THOSE WHO WANDER universe like all my other books. This is a total top-to-tails creation. So instead of working on something without deadline and potentially squandering a year, I'd like to have a deadline to call it... well...dead. If this doesn't work, if the magic doesn't work, if i can't write it, I've given myself one month to either call it a win or timestamp Time of Death on this idea.

Or at least that is what I am telling myself. 

So as far as NaNoWriMo goes, if you haven't heard of it before, click on the link above. If you have heard of it and think that we are crazy, we are. If you've been itching to maybe try your hand at the creative life, please do! Your story is important.

Have to go now: NaNo-ing!

To the Writers Cave-- see you in 30 days to see how this little experiment went!

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Amanda Arista
Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther Series

The Merci Lanard Files
www.amandaarista.com

High Fives with Amanda: Things for NanoWrimo

High Fives with Amanda: Top 5 things you need for NaNoWriMo

The time is upon us. The one month of the year where writers buckle down and try to write 50k words in one month. Its approximately 1600 words a day. Which for some writers is not a lot and for others is the biggest ask ever.

I've been participating or cheering on people for NaNoWriMo since the beginning. I remember doing it in college. My first book, Diaries of an Urban Panther, was a product of NaNoWriMo.

If you have never heard of it, you can check out more about it here.

 So being a veteran of the event, here are my top fives things you need for NaNoWriMo.

1). New notebook and pen. Not all of us are office supply nuts, but there is a certain magic evoked when you crack the spine on a new notebook and pop off the cap of a fresh pen. You'll need this new energy as you start writing and think of things in chapter 12 when you are only one chapter 3.

2). Tea. I KNOW! I'm such an avid coffee drinker, but I'm also an avid believer in ritual and not overdosing on caffeine. I need a hot cup of something to write and when you are squeezing in an extra hour of brain time at 1130 at night (like I usually do), a cup of coffee is not the best thing for your sleep cycle. So I recommend finding a fancy tea (decaf, obvs) to make special for yourself as you sit down to write.



3). A comfy chair. A coffee shop. A spot where you feel safe and
focused. I usually pick the big green chair in my library and that is where I will write and write only. No reading, no watching TV. Writing only in this chair. It always helps my brain get back to what it was doing last time I was in this chair. Also, its comfy and feels like a hug when I need it.

4). Inspiration that is not the entirety of the internet. And you know me, I'm a Pinterest girl. But during NaNoWriMo it becomes important not to get lost in research and the unknown depths of the web. Pinterest allows for a surface understanding of most things and that is all you really need for drafting a book. Weeks of research on medieval poisons can wait until December as long as you get a dead body on the page in November.

5). Community! Friends! Compadres! I've spoken about the power of supportive writing buddies a
million times, but this is the time that you will need a few to commiserate with about why you do this instead of pottery or macrame. You can also connect with friends on the NaNoWriMo site or through Twitter #NaNoWriMo2019.

There you go. The five things you'll need to get through November!

If you have a Top Five list you'd like me to cultivate, please let me know in the comments below or at @pantherista. 

In the meantime, give yourself a high five!

Amanda Arista

Author, The Lanard Files (Coming January 2020) 

& Diaries of an Urban Panther (re-release 2020)

www.amandaarista.com

Step Away From That Manuscript--After #NaNoWriMo

This post was going to be about monsters, but it's not, because things are happening all at once again, as they sometimes do in my life. Due to these mitigating factors, this will be a much shorter post than my previous two.

Initially, I had wanted to talk to you about the importance of monsters in fiction. However, I am under a deadline, and it's the end of NaNoWriMo so I figured most of you were under deadlines, too.

Anyway, I thought I would impart a bit of writing advice to you.

Or make that non-writing advice, as the case might be.

That's right. I'm telling you not to write. Let me explain:

If you participated in NaNoWriMo, I'm sure you're excited about your story. You should be. Writing a work of fiction can be a major undertaking. Whatever else you do, finish your story.

If you intend to submit your story for publication, I would like to make a suggestion. this will be the hardest thing you will do, but I suggest that you set your story aside for one week at the very least. One month is optimal.

Don't look at it. Don't think about it. Write something else. Start a blog. Play on Twitter. Take a workshop. Read. Read. Read. Read books and stories within your genre and outside your genre.

But whatever you do ...

Do.

Not.

Look.

At.

That.

Novel.

Why?

You will be amazed at the things you see when you go back and read it after being away from it for a week or more. You will find missing words, badly phrased sentences--sentences that sounded so profound in your head when you first wrote them now seem trite and underdeveloped! You will discover poor transitions between paragraphs, and scenes that were fun to write, but don't actually move the plot forward.

By leaving the manuscript alone for a period of time and returning to it, you will find the themes that stand out clearly, and the muddled subplots that need to be eliminated.

This past summer, I was on a deadline to complete Without Light or Guide and did not have the luxury of a week away from the manuscript like I had with In Midnight's Silence. The difference between the two was that Without Light or Guide took a lot more editorial guidance and rewrites than In Midnight's Silence.

With my last novella in the series, I had the luxury of that week. I'm rereading the manuscript now with an eye toward clarity and plot. I'm catching simple errors and more complex ones in order to fill in the story so that it reads more smoothly.

So at midnight on November 30 (or on the date you finish the first draft), step away from that manuscript. Let it simmer. At the end of the month, you'll be able to see precisely what the story is missing, and you will make it better with each pass.

Giving it Voice

Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany

With #NaNoWriMo in full swing, I’ve seen more than a few questions pop up in the social buzz about #VOICE. For example, a post yesterday questioned writing multiple characters. It had everyone talking.

The smartest answer?

Make it sound real.

This reminds me of ​Tatiana Maslany's incredible delivery of - what is it now, twelve -  cloned versions of herself? The writers give each character a different personality, back-story and voice, and Tatiana delivers in a way that feels authentic. Not forced.

And those accents!

Editor Ariel Hahn says voice is the absence of artifice. It’s what comes out when you have just yourself. She says not to worry though; it will develop on its own if you keep writing!

China Mieville

China Mieville puts it like this: Every book I write, the first thing I have to do is get into the voice, and the voice varies from book to book - that's part of what's interesting to me . . . Of course, who you're writing for is part of the decision about the voice of the book . . . but the person you're writing for is (sorry to repeat what is a cliche, but it's true) yourself - though yourself at different times and in different moods. So when I wrote Railsea, I was very much wanting to write a story for myself at a certain age. I tried to inhabit the voice that would excite and win over and appeal to and interest that me, rather than thinking "now to write to appeal to children". I wouldn't know how - but I do know how to tell younger-me a story he would like, I think and hope.

It takes self-reflection for a writer to pull this off. Les Edgerton suggests that the best way to find your voice is to write autobiographically. "Writers will never find a powerful, evocative voice until they learn to be bone-deep honest with themselves, open and vulnerable”.

As the saying goes, if you’re a writer, who needs therapy?

Here are examples of voice in two different projects I’m currently working on:

Black Tuesday (w/t) - NY, 1926 Paranormal Romance

The secretaries were like birds on a hot wire, all a chatty flap. Hammond’s door was open, the man shouting on the phone.
    “What happened?” Charlotte asked the receptionist.
    “He was actually here!”
    “Who?” Charlotte knew perfectly well who. It was all she could do to keep from running after him.
    “Leon Marcottie!” the office girls said in unison.
    “Him?” Charlotte managed to shrug one shoulder. “I hear he’s a real cake eater . . .”

The Blood in the Beginning (w/t) - 2020, LA Urban Fantasy

The detective and I went way back, not in a cozy, family friendship way, hell no. He’d set me straight when I went a little wayward.
    Okay. A lot wayward . . .
    Rourke kept me out of juvie, for the most part, and though there’d been no luck finding decent foster care, he started me in the LA-MMA junior circuit, and that saved my life.
    “You want to fight, you might as well learn how not to get killed.”    
    When I showed up for my first class, he was leading it. Yeah, we went way back.

VOICE is like a fingerprint - if you listen closely, you’ll find the writer’s unique signature. Do you have a favorite voice in film, TV or novels? I’d love to hear more! Comments welcome. :)



Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, YA and epic science fantasy novels.

You can find out more about Kim at kimfalconer.com or on the 11th House Blog, and on FaceBook and Twitter. She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month. Her latest release is"Blood and Water" in Supernatural Underground: Vampires Gone Wild.