Filed under The Writing Life …

Feb 22 2012
Leave a comment
book review, Entertainment, fantastic points of ignorance, literature, The Writing Life, Writing

The Thinker’s Thesaurus

We like words here, don’t we?

Chuh-huh… yeah! That’s why today’s fantastic point of ignorance goes out to all of you wordsmiths, literators, storyweavers and spelling bee champions out there. I asked for free stuff this Christmas, things like carols and cider and snow cones and oral stories involving hearts five sizes too small but my Grandma’s a gift giver like most of my family. She bought me a copy of The Thinker’s Thesaurus.

Touché, granny. Touché.

Here’s the thing, I’m a recovering academic. I root out ivory tower talk when it rears it’s out-of-touch head. I also doubt I’ll be publishing a story, a non-fiction feature or even a poem in the New Yorker any time soon. Though I’m an avid reader, they’d scoff at my work if it ever managed (against all odds) to land a manuscript on their desks. Because of these disqualifications, I find little practical use for such a book as The Thinker’s Thesaurus.

Don’t even care.

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , ,
Feb 20 2012
4 Comments
fantastic points of ignorance, impulsive pastimes, literary interpretation, The Writing Life

Firefly: Power and Poise

Saturday, February 18th, I lost my Firefly virginity.

I waited right around seven years to do this – ever since I stepped onto the college scene and my newfound friends began badgering me to watch the show. I borrowed the series from a friend, sat down on my Saturday at 7:45am and watched the series straight until 9pm. Yes, I was that hooked. This show’s amazing, and I completely understand why Firefly fans beg so often, so long and so convincingly  about making a second season.

It’s like all of you told me all these years that there was gold in them there hills, but I blew you off because, let’s face it, there’s always gold in them there hills. But seven years later I walk over the tops of them there hills on the first open Saturday it crosses my mind and find out what you meant was “there’s gold on them there hills.” Lying around. In hunks and nuggets and bars. What you meant was “take a walk over this hill and pick up all the friggin’ gold you want, dummy.” That was Firefly for me, walking around and finding gold everywhere. That’s why I imbibed all of it in a single day: gold rush. Three things stood out to me: a lesson, an interpretation and a longing.

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , ,
Feb 17 2012
Leave a comment
censored opinions, Entertainment, literature, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: World Building

Ever look at one of these, these, these or these?

Fantasy writers perfect cartography. We have Tolkien to think for that, for he coined the phrase “cartographic writing” – writing from the map. You create the world, the mythology of the world and then you write with a character inside that world. Unfortunately, many fantasy writers focus so long on the what and the where that they neglect the who and the why questions. Good answers to these questions create great stories. Today, we turn to the fantasy writers to teach us about trade, authority, ceremony, and ethics.

Trade

What can your characters do to make a living? Awhile back on Twitter, I asked people to list out medieval professions. Piper, Karl, Matt and I came up with the following list:

Tagged , , , , ,
Feb 13 2012
Leave a comment
Entertainment, film, The Writing Life, video, Writing

Typewriter Short Shorts

Who wears short shorts?

Nair wears short shorts.

Actually I’m talking about a complete different pair of shorts today. Some of you work with churches to communicate truth in relevant ways. To help you out, Derek Hammeke and I cranked out a couple of illustrations on Sermon Spice. Find our profile under Flying Treasure. If these two videos do well on the site, we hope to increase the length and production quality of our future films.

Both of these humanize a typewriter that interacts with the audience. Tell me what you think…

They Have Punch

This short mirrors the message of the series I wrote for CIY. We compare God’s words to typewriter keys that instantly produce words.

Here’s two screenshots:

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , ,
Feb 10 2012
Leave a comment
censored opinions, film, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Antagonize

When I was young, my brother and I could get one another into trouble if we needed attention or if life bored us. My brother would steal stuff and hide it, I would give him wedgies or worse. I laugh now because I strive to lead a peaceful home, strive to keep my cool and strive to plant gentleness and joy and ultimately fun wherever I go. But that’s not always the case.

Unfortunately sometimes, just like then, I get bored or need attention or need to feel heard or ache for respect and honor. When I was a kid, I’d give my little brother a wedgie or hide a bag full of his year-old Halloween candy and call it good. Mom’s response?

Quit antagonizing your brother!

She meant, “Quit escalating things, Lance. Quit stirring crap up. Quit harassing him – especially since the tone of our household was peaceful/fun/creative/controlled/kind a moment ago. Antagonism escalates things at home, in interpersonal conversation, in the world and basically everywhere else. But what antagonism achieves is integrity. I’m using “integrity” broader than normal. Normally I mean  integrated, whole, uncompromising, good. For the characters in your novel I mean consistent. The framework. Integrity, for our purposes here, means what lies at the core. Want to see consistently what kind of man I am? Look at what I chose to do when my brother or best friend or wife or father or school antagonized me and opposed what I wanted most. That’s the measure of my integrity – my choices when faced with antagonism.

Your protagonist is only as good as your antagonist.

Continue reading →

Tagged , ,
Feb 08 2012
3 Comments
film, The Writing Life, video, Writing

Recent Gigs

Back when “The Writing Gig” banded together every week, we shared small victories and portfolios. Since November, we started sharing on our own personal sites.

I bring three projects to show-and-tell today: a completed one, an in-progress one and a future one (or ones).

The Word Animation

MD Neely and Johnny Scott of CIY hired me to write narrations for four short episodes tracing the history of Scripture as they understand it. Their faith-based non-profit hosts conferences for youth trying to enrich their lives and move them to care for their communities.

I wrote the following for their Jr. High conferences that go by the name “Believe”:

Used with permission from MD Neely of Christ in Youth
per contract line with Johnny Scott: “Author retains the right
to use this material in his personal portfolio compilations.” Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Feb 03 2012
3 Comments
censored opinions, Entertainment, literature, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Emotional Structure

Our stories breed three species of emotion.

These three species unearth the temperament of our stories and life perspective as we write. One species, the Cynic, rides the downward trend of the world. The Cynic sees everything ending stoic and stark. Another, the Visionary, envisions an uphill battle. There’s a hill to charge. Once we take it and stand on top, we shall all be kings. The last species, the Paradoxical, trusts neither in hope nor revels in despair but meditates on the fascinating contradiction called “life.” He thinks you can get your true love, but only if you die for her. You might achieve success in the financial world, but only after you sell your soul. You could earn honor for your family by submitting yourself to public disgrace.

These three species (The Cynic, The Visionary, The Paradoxical) influence every realm of story: novels, screenplays, plays, documentaries, old radio, commercials, TV series, the miniseries and narrative performance art. They “prove” their ideas through subtle swelling swings in emotion:

Whatever drives your current work, whatever thought you aspire to smuggle into your audience’s mind, start on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Your story will swing wider and deeper, back and forth between the positive and negative ends of your story spectrum until climax. Some stories end up, some end down and some end with the bittersweetness of real life – both beautiful and grotesque, wonderful and awful. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , ,
Jan 27 2012
3 Comments
censored opinions, literature, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Protagonist

Ever watch a fat soprano shatter a wine glass with her voice?

It’s called resonant frequency – the pitch at which something vibrates. Everything has it – the table I’m typing on, the car keys hanging from my carribeaner and the engine block on my car that, judging by the smell of burning rubber, may or may not need a check up.

Friggin’ serpentine belts…

Vocal chords vibrate a column of air to its resonant frequency, allowing the sound to fill your mouth with song and then enter the world by leaving your sound hole. I wonder if musical mothers ever use that phrase in vain? “Shut your sound hole!” If the frequency exiting your sound hole matches the exact resonant frequency of, say, a glass? BUM-CHINSH go shards and wine all over your table.

The glass says “that sounds like me” and explodes in an emotional encounter. Protagonists are the songs we writers sing, the notes that resonate deep in the caverns of our readership’s soul. Each of us is a glass begging to find something that “sounds like me.”

Protagonists come good or bad, evil or righteous, living right or dead wrong. They can be rich or poor, powerful or weak, accepted or rejected. Regardless of looks, they must resonate. They must sound like us often enough that when their story finds the breaking point at climax, we too shatter. Analysts dub that phenomenon “catharsis” – our human desire to discharge emotion in one satisfying purge.

I offer four solid words to describe protagonists: volition, ambition, predisposition, qualification, and fortune. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jan 20 2012
6 Comments
censored opinions, Entertainment, Storyssentials, The Writing Life, Writing

Storyssentials: Research

All good stories start like all good speeches – in the hard chair. You know the kind: wooden, no thoracic support on your back, flat on your butt. You will shift in this chair once every twelve minutes. If you don’t shift in this chair once every twelve minutes, it’s because we’re talking about two entirely different chairs.

Hard chairs seldom occupy our living rooms and dens. They hide out in libraries, coffee shops, and offices. In the hard chair, we dig through slush piles of info, hoping to find diamonds in the rough. In the hard chair, we prep for the soft chairs.

Here’s the thing: I used to believe in writer’s block. Then Rothfuss said, “Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block,” and I started to think, “Well yeah, but…”

Aspiring writers say, “I have nothing to write about.” Maxwell recounts how people come up to him declaring their aspirations to write. He asks them what they’ve written and they typically answer, “nothing yet, but I’ve got a lot of ideas.” Maxwell’s response?

Writers write. Painters paint. Leaders lead. You want to be a writer? Then write.

Yeah, but what about? Whether from fear of jump-starting a career or from “writer’s block,” writers eventually have nothing to write about. They have nothing to say. Research heals that festering wound. Three worlds give us material and we’ve got to travel to all three to get good research. We have to hit the books, dream it up and reminisce. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , ,
Oct 05 2011
Leave a comment
fantastic points of ignorance, poetry, The Writing Life, Writing

Swamped with Words (via The Gig)

It’s that time! Time to give the word counts of our works in progress booster shots like the little kids they are. Swamped with Words gathers together writers of all kinds who set aside time to shut up and write. That’s the banner on my phone, “Shut up and write, Lance.”

It’s not all night.

It’s not NaNoWrimo.

It’s just six hours on a Friday where a bunch of writers encourage each other to keep it up. Yes, there will be prizes (though I was tempted to write, “there will be blood”). More importantly, you don’t have to be there the whole time! We look for commitments of all kinds:

  • 6+ hour Superheroes - This is for the crazies like Colby who will start before we start and end after we end
  • 5 hour Heroes – This is for people like Ellie and Anna who wanna write, but need rest for their hubbies and kiddos
  • 4 hour J.V. - This is for people like Jennifer Joseph who need to show up a bit late or leave a bit early
  • 3 hour Owls/Birds – This is for the early birds who start out sleeping but wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to join us or the night owls who kick it with us in the middle of the night randomly. Perhaps Coy fits into one of these, even though he’s between projects (wink wink!)
  • 2 hour Cranks – My sister Lauren probably qualifies for this. She’ll probably go on this writing spree where she’ll crank for two hours and then peace out
  • 1 or less hour Cameos – This is for people who’re too busy to stay (maybe Abby?) but want to show, or for the internet celebs like Piper,Kristen or the Pen Monkey who wanna peek their head in and see what’s up.
read the rest here.
Tagged , , ,
Sep 23 2011
3 Comments
censored opinions, The Writing Life, Writing

Writing Roundup

Though I haven’t written about writing on here for some time, I’m not idle. I’ve been over at the Gig every week, wrestling through the issues that come up in the craft as they come. Here’s a roundup of posts over there as well as a roundtable of posts I’ve been reading:

Lancelot Grapples Style 001: I finally read the end of Strunk & White (instead of just reading the first 3/4 for the sixth time) and posted lessons learned. There’s also a part 2.

When Did Self-Publishing Begin?  – This is a rant on issues I’ve had with the discussion of self-publishing, as well as the issue of legitimizing the writing craft in a world that doesn’t take it seriously.

What About First Lines? — Wrestling through the first sentence of a novel.

What Right Have We to Write? — Weakness is strength in writing.

Is Writer’s Block for Real? — Mythbusting writer’s block.

Lancelot’s Roundtable Miscellany:

The Millions discuss the Agent Shift to Genre Fic

Ellie Ann and pretty butterfly sails (and a tall tale)

Patrick Rothfuss to teach Creative Writing

Kristen Lamb on Talking Down to Your Reader

The Pied Piper on Writer’s Conferences

My interview with a Film Analyst on Symbolism

Alberg on Description = Salt

The Pen Monkey gets honest about Self-Publishing

Neil Gaiman on the Difficulty of Writing a Fantasy Series

— quote: “George R. R. Martin is not your bitch.”

Kristen Lamb on Self-Publishing and Stickiness

On Screenplay Rewriting

My Goodreads Today

Tagged , , ,
Apr 14 2011
Leave a comment
Entertainment, Harvard Classics, Kingkiller Trilogy, literary interpretation, poetry, The Writing Life, Writing

NYKR Short Stories, HVC & Novel

Several things have been waiting on my list for nearly a month now, but between the Manhattan/Long Island trip, the school load and teaching it’s all backlogged, leaving a void that’s ready to implode like that house. Black critique ink covers the pages of fiction from the New Yorker issues I’ve yet to analyze. Three movies call my name from afar: The King’s Speech, True Grit & Exit through the Gift Shop. In the corner of the house, the Harvard Classics echo that call, begging for May 23rd.

My novel’s at a stopping point (NO it’s not writer’s block… it’s merely a temporary pausal form of the language I’m using… stretched over two weeks). The Cartographer’s Guild encouraged me by praising my map. The Wise Man’s Fear discussion kept me occupied until I picked up A Game of Thrones, then the muse who analyzes literature on the white shores

of my mind went into angsty-conflicted mode and freaked out (explaining the lull in my alchemy posts). The 46 @ 23 poetry thing kept a frequent flow of poetry, but let’s face it – the only people who read poetry, write poetry.

As a result, I’ve posted few quality thoughts of late and this is something of an apology for the handful of you that read this puppy consistently. Ironically, the last few weeks doubled the amount of hits on the site, but I attribute that mainly to the words “sex” and “kvothe” being used in the same breath.

I hope, after the 46 @ 23 gig to get back on pace for the usual, but as for now, suffer through the lull with me. The end is in sight.

With love from your home-grown subversive Literator,

Lancelot.

Apr 12 2011
Leave a comment
46 @ 23, poetry, The Writing Life

46 @ 23: commit (#26)

Once upon a time, I read that the perfect age for writing quality poetry is twenty-three.  Apparently most of T.S. Elliot’s stuff came out then, the rest having to do with non-poetic words. I realized January 19ththat I will turn twenty-four in three months, and since I started writing some poems before it’s too late: forty-six poems at twenty-three.  I’ll post each Friday until the last week of March, then I’ll post one a day until my birthday on April 30th.  Here’s number 26:

Commitments constrain
profane
illuminate the same old same
Sometimes you keep
Sometimes you slip
Sometimes you miss them in your sleep

Best to let ‘em make you come
alive than to help ya
die

Apr 11 2011
17 Comments
Kingkiller Trilogy, literary interpretation, literature, New York City, The Writing Life

Kvothe’s Sex Life Part 2: Felurian & The Adem

Well, gang, here we go again. Last time, I talked on Kvothe’s Sex Life, I had only finished NOTW and started WMF. Having finished WMF, I got a flurry of questions about sex and literature and “where do babies come from” and “go ask your parents, they’ll hate me if I tell you” and so forth.

Since then, I keep returning to a handful of themes. (1) Rothfuss, as charitable and joyful as he is, would not call himself a Christian from what I’ve gathered on his blog. Because of this, it’s not helpful for Christians to super-impose theology on his books. (2) However, the man has a robust idea of what redemption is/isn’t and how resurrection plays out. He certainly expresses those opinions in the legends inside his books and in Kvothe in general. Because of this, I learn all sorts of things from him. (3) In light of these two, Christians keep asking me what I do with all the sexuality. Since Literating is a diverse place, I’ll do what I can to hit both sides of the fence, although it’s a sticky question. There will be spoilers, so if you haven’t read the book, you should not Continue reading →

← Older posts