A while ago I wrote about some experimentation that I wanted to get into. Among this was the idea that "I want to try some of the quicker things first, such as flash fiction,
since I have dozens of simple scenarios or stories that I want to tell
before I lose interest in them".
Well I'm finally getting around to that. I've written one story down that's a page long (single-spaced) and have plans for a few others to write in the near future. The idea is to use these micro-sized stories to give myself a break from the brain-gymnastics of writing and planning out my novel as well as to get some completed content out there into the world as soon and quickly as possible.
I plan on getting some form of new content up on the site before the summer ends, so right now the two likeliest possibilities are my finished short story or a collection of flash fiction stories. Of these two I really have no idea which has a better chance of being released by the end of the summer, as I need to talk to my editor regarding my short story, and I need to have enough completed works of flash fiction to justify a collection. I also hope to self-publish both of these on e-readers.
Wish me luck!
-Ryan
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Transition from Gamer to Reader
I've undergone an interesting change over this past year.
As I mentioned in a previous post I obtained a Nook Color at the end of last year. It may come as a shock that I never read much for pleasure. My hobby was always to play video games every chance I got. Needless to say my request for a Nook at Christmas was somewhat out of character.
I had been spending less and less time playing video games for the past few months due simply to a lack of time and an altered interest in writing. But still, I hadn't exactly been spending a lot of time reading before I asked for a $200 e-reader as a gift. However I knew that with my reinvigorated desire to write that reading was something I definitely wanted to get into.
The result has been pretty good, so far. It turns out books can be pretty awesome, and I can crunch a bit of reading into a smaller time frame than gaming requires me to have. Essentially, reading has been a great hobby that works within my busy twenty-something-year-old schedule.
What does this mean for you, my friends and anonymous fans? Well hopefully it means that I'll learn a thing or two about what makes a good book good, and it will translate to my stories being a little bit more epic. I think it's working, too. I just read through The Girl Who Played With Fire and then read the beginning of my work-in-progress novel. In doing so I realized that I definitely need to rewrite the beginning of my novel because it's rubbish by comparison.
See? Progress.
Also from a personal accomplishment standpoint, reading just feels more meaningful. Sure, video games are the way the future is heading, but our society still holds reading to a higher regard, and it's easy to see why.
Remember to follow me on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
-Ryan
As I mentioned in a previous post I obtained a Nook Color at the end of last year. It may come as a shock that I never read much for pleasure. My hobby was always to play video games every chance I got. Needless to say my request for a Nook at Christmas was somewhat out of character.
I had been spending less and less time playing video games for the past few months due simply to a lack of time and an altered interest in writing. But still, I hadn't exactly been spending a lot of time reading before I asked for a $200 e-reader as a gift. However I knew that with my reinvigorated desire to write that reading was something I definitely wanted to get into.
The result has been pretty good, so far. It turns out books can be pretty awesome, and I can crunch a bit of reading into a smaller time frame than gaming requires me to have. Essentially, reading has been a great hobby that works within my busy twenty-something-year-old schedule.
 |
| A busy schedule that somehow includes catching snakes. |
See? Progress.
Also from a personal accomplishment standpoint, reading just feels more meaningful. Sure, video games are the way the future is heading, but our society still holds reading to a higher regard, and it's easy to see why.
Remember to follow me on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
-Ryan
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
All The Little Things
As I've been rewriting my novel tentatively titled "The Slightest Moment" I've been greatly expanding on what I had written in my first and second drafts. For example, so far I've extended the events of the first chapter to go beyond the length of the first two chapters of the second draft, and I have plans to expand upon every chapter thereafter in a similar fashion.
What I do is come up with more plot points to intertwine with what I had already planned. The challenge is that it has to be in a way that not only lengthens the story, but enhances it as well. One way that I've been trying to enhance the story actually has a bit to do with a blog post I made over a year ago about the crisis of how to deal with technology in stories today. Specifically in this case I'm experimenting with lots of modern culture references.
My last two drafts, while based in the modern day, could have easily been based in an earlier year with a few tweaks to minor details. There were few mentions of texting on cell phones, but otherwise absolutely no references to anything else that would tell you what time the story takes place in. I was completely focused on telling the plot (so much so that I forgot to make the characters likable, but that's a different topic) which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but now it's time to try something different.
I'm even attempting to use a modernization as a key subplot point. I think it's going along well so far, though nobody else has read it to tell me otherwise.
Hopefully this isn't all going to blow up in my face.
-Ryan
What I do is come up with more plot points to intertwine with what I had already planned. The challenge is that it has to be in a way that not only lengthens the story, but enhances it as well. One way that I've been trying to enhance the story actually has a bit to do with a blog post I made over a year ago about the crisis of how to deal with technology in stories today. Specifically in this case I'm experimenting with lots of modern culture references.
 |
| Modern culture is so rich and fascinating, after all. |
My last two drafts, while based in the modern day, could have easily been based in an earlier year with a few tweaks to minor details. There were few mentions of texting on cell phones, but otherwise absolutely no references to anything else that would tell you what time the story takes place in. I was completely focused on telling the plot (so much so that I forgot to make the characters likable, but that's a different topic) which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but now it's time to try something different.
I'm even attempting to use a modernization as a key subplot point. I think it's going along well so far, though nobody else has read it to tell me otherwise.
Hopefully this isn't all going to blow up in my face.
-Ryan
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