POV and Narrators

In response to the question: When picking points of view for your fiction, what do you consider? Is there any rules about combining points of view in a longer piece? Any limitation to the number of narrators?

For the most part, my default POV is third person limited, and I like to stick with one main narrator throughout the story. As it is, I like to play around with POV, and switch narrators on occasion. I consider what the story would look like from each perspective, and I attempt to write a chapter in each POV that I am seriously considering. If I like it better in first person, then first person it is. If I like it better in third, then it is third. Simple as that.

As for rules, if the piece is started in first person, it stays first person. It can switch narrators, but not from first to third.

I don't like to put limits on anything. Especially writing techniches. Some very classic books have had dozens of different narrators. However, I usually only write a few narrators if I change narrators at all.

Pre-writing

You obviously haven't seen my sketch-and-paper-filled notebooks, or you'd know the answer to that.

In response to the question:How much pre-writing do you do before starting a writing project?

I do a lot of pre-writing for every writing project I do. In every novel I approach I first define the world. This world is extensive, and I include everything from politics of different countries to any creature that habituate the world not found on Earth. If the world is set as future Earth, I set up and write out all the important events that lead up to said event. If the world is set in historical Earth or province of Earth, I fill my notebook with research from the time period.

There is no such thing as a too detailed world. Why is this?

Because more than one story can branch off of the same world. One story may follow a girl as she grows up through unusual circustances, with other forces of the world shaping and developing who she becomes. Another story may follow a polititian who has to make the decision to join an unstoppable empire, or to stand up for what he knows is right. Another story may follow the path of an ordinary citizen in the world. These stories can interconnect, and overlap, or be completely independant from one another. One may end in death, another in victory.

And once the world is laid out and the plot chosen, I write out what happens in what order, list any key events, outline the story, and make it more outlined, until all I need to do is expand.

So yes. I do a lot of pre-writing, but not without reason. I can skip around and write where I have inspiration. Everything is connected chronologically, and any themes or reoccurring points can be plotted in and tied together from different scenes. It's like I have an underpainting, and all I have to do is add color.

Editing One's Own Work

Here's a slogan- just do it.

In response to the question: how do you edit your own work?

Editing one's own work can be difficult, and often it is easier to edit somebody else's work. But self-editing is not only difficult, it is a necessary process with which a writer will struggle for his or her entire career. With that said, there are some significant ways to make self-editing much easier.

To start, type it up and save a copy under "first draft" or something equivalent. This copy should never be touched, for it is merely a snapshot of what the novel originally was, and if you end up getting rid of a part that ended up being necessary, you can go retrieve it.

After that is done, reread the novel, detach yourself, and start cutting out what is not necessary. This is difficult, as you may have spent so much of your precious time writing that part. Cut if it is not necessary for the novel's story. It will otherwise detract.

Next, go find a grammar Nazi, and ask them to edit your book for grammar. This is always better done by somebody else, unless you are a grammar Nazi, in which case, may I have your email? I should also note that grammar Nazi's are your friends. Keep them close, give them hugs, buy them Christmas gifts or chocolate, etc.

Next, when I edit, I read, and annotate. I ask questions, I read the novel or short out loud to myself, and if I trip up, I circle it. If something sounds off, I underline it. I suggest changes to myself. I analyze my own writing, and characters, to see if it comes across as I wan it. I note smilies and metaphors, and allusions to other literature. And then I add and subtract what needs to be added and subtracted.

And then?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, self editing is over. It's time to give it to your friends and fellow writers and ask them to edit it. And then you have to be a good judge. After your friends edit it, and give you back their copies, you must ask yourself if what they said was what you wanted to do. Use discretion.

Then repeat the self-editing process.

Until you are done.*

And that is how I self-edit. Good luck.

***You are never done with a novel or book or short. Done refers to when you send it in to an editor for even more editing.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Well, I did.

And for even a comic book to movie translation, it was astoundingly accurate. And the changes that were made, well, they weren't terrible either.

Actually, aside from the ending, I could've read the comic and not seen any major differences, other than perhaps Silk Specter's costume. And I'm not complaining about that. What I am complaining about is the change in Dr. Manhattan's role in the end of the world scenario. Which was, I may add a change from not at all to implied complete cooperation.

Suddenly, it wasn't a cold war turning into a threat from aliens, but rather a cold war turning into a worldwide threat from John. Lovely. This is not a change I support, but it did not change the flavor of the film.

I would still rate this film a 4.75 out of 5. It was not perfect, but it was, in its own right, beautiful.

Fantasy or Reality

In response to the question: do you prefer fantasy or reality? And, of course, why?

Well, that is quite the perplexing question, if only because I live in reality, and it is quite a colorful place. But fantasy in its own right, is beautiful, and magical, and completely unrealistic.

I like both. The escape from reality is the glue that keeps fantasy together, the food upon which the subconscious feasts, the warmth that embraces the reader as they fly through a story, observing what would otherwise be unattainable. Reality can be simultaneously cold and warm at the same time, and when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of what happens next, it is clear, and simple.

It is easy to write fantasy, for one can go anywhere they want, solve the problem in any way they want. It is more difficult in the fact that one must create a world and hold true to what they have created. One must keep track of what has happened and minor details that they may want to change, but cannot unless they get rid of other minor details, or change them so the reader does not jump on the mistake.

Reality can be easy to write in that it is a manipulation of the real laws of society and nature, and all is in existence already. The little girl in a story exists, and therefore small details like her age will not be accidentally changed. Reality can also be difficult. Where does one speed up the story, and where does one slow it down? Where does one start, and where does one stop? These details pertain the both fantasy and reality, but I find them more difficult to come up with in a non-fiction setting than a fictional story.

Call me a weirdo.

But to answer the question, I like both fantasy and reality, but had I the need to choose, I'd choose fantasy over reality. It's more fun.

2010

No. This is not the title of some book I am writing. (Though I will admit in first grade it was a hesitant title that did not go through.)

Happy New Year everybody. It is now 2010 in all areas of the world.

And as some bloggers who are active, and most bloggers who are not, my New Year's resolution is to say NO to procrastination and continue this blog until next year rolls around and my next New Year's resolution is to continue the blog again.

Also, I want to continue writing my stories that have died and those that have not. I want to complete Nano. I want to WRITE as I have never written before.

I also want to stop abusing capitalization.

Another resolution, of which is more of a goal, is to find an antidepressant that works so that I can live again. I am sad that in my year and a third of treatment this has not occurred. Oh well.

Happy New Years everybody. May you have luck with your resolutions, and not forgetting that the date has changed.

Bye.