Tag: Writing

Approaching: NaNoWriMo 2008

by Shoshana, posted in Writing Testimonial, Writing Update

Two years back I took on the challenge of doing a National Novel Writing Month. That meant attempting, in one month, to write 50,000 words of a novel and getting it knocked out by the deadline. In 2006 I did it with three days to spare, if I remember correctly. In 2007, I did it with two hours to spare, punching out 12,000 words or so of it in one sitting and driving myself to the point of delirium so I didn’t miss the deadline. This year, November’s coming up really quickly and I am literally petrified at the notion of doing this again.

This year is different than last year. Where last year, taking on NaNo was difficult because I had just taken on a new job to which I was just acclimating, this year I have even more work. I am going to school, working, worrying about my future potentially in the police department, and trying to find time to run a full-scale live-action roleplay game and write in my spare time. Call me crazy but that’s a damn full schedule. Oh yes, and I’d like to sleep, eat, and maybe see my friends in between. It hasn’t been a fun ride so far since the semester started and now… NaNo.

I’m by far sure I’m insane for even considering this malarky; adding a deadline of 50,000 words by the end of November to my already hectic work week is not something I’m sure I’m ready for. Yet there is a tradition for me to uphold and frankly, it might drive me to get in more work. So I’m going to give it the old college try. To me, it’s worth kicking in some extra work to make myself meet the deadline. It’s good practice for forcing myself to sit down and write. 

Now if only I knew what the hell I was going to write about this year…

The Mania of Short Stories

by Shoshana, posted in On Reading

It long ago came to my attention that the writing and reading of short stories was an acquired taste as well as a dying breed. It wasn’t until I read the introduction to a collection of short stories that I realized that published authors felt the same way that I did about it. Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union edited a collection of short stories called McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales and expounded on the following idea: short stories with a substantial plot are hard to find these days. 

One of the reasons I never put much credence into modern short stories was this problem exactly. Most modern short stories, that is to say those written after WWII, seemed to be lost in the notion that a short story could only capture a single moment in time, an epiphany or important moment in the character’s lives. There was usually no substantial plot to speak of, nothing to anchor it to any story, and mostly left you feeling as though you had just glimpsed into a world that lent you a little of its time and then sent you away wanting more. These epiphany stories, these single days, were all one kind of short story, but where was the short stories that made authors like Twain, Poe, Faulkner, and Lovecraft stand as classics. Where was the full story, the idea that went from start to finish, the adventure or horror or ghost or mystery or detective story? They all didn’t have to take up hundreds of pages, they could just be what they were, and they sure weren’t getting into the public eye.

Sure, there were the exceptions. You had authors like Stephen King, mightily carrying on the banner of plot-driven short stories, and his success proved that it was possible to take something that wasn’t being done and parlay it into not only success, but movies based on short stories as well. With the success of his films 1408 and The Mist it proved that short story writing did not take a backseat or sidecar to anthologies or giant sweeping opuses like Lord of the Rings when it came to the box office. Yet when it came to finding more stories with plot that weren’t just ‘days in the life’, there was very little to be found.

My creative writing teacher this semester, Ms. Phillips, is constantly telling our class that a story has to have one question answered: why now? Why are the things in the story happening then, what makes that story focus on that time period and that place and in that time. That is the kernel that brings a plot to life and takes the story away from the realm of just a rambling story about an epiphany, a discovery, a single moment of whatever it is, and turns it into a story with full substance that you can sink your teeth into. Somewhere down the line these stories might get called genre pieces but not if they’ve got oomph to stand on their own and sneer prettily at the critics.

(A side note: It’s been my experience anyway that calling a piece or writing a ‘genre story’ is just a snobs way of saying they’re afraid to use the jaws of life to ratchet their mind’s open any further. It’s what I like to call lazy reading habits, literary snobbery and general jackass-ery. )

So in the spirit of supporting the little short stories that could, I have been delving myself deep into the well of short story anthologies. Of course, being myself, I’ve chosen anthologies that have themes I enjoy. The few that I’ve got my claws on are the following:

  1. The Living Dead, edited by John Jay Adams, with stories by Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, George R.R. Martin, Clive Barker, and more. As the title suggests, its an anthology of stories about zombies and has some amazing choices in it. My particular favorites are Ghost Dance by Sherman Alexie, George R.R. Martin’s disturbing Meathouse Man, How the Day Runs Down by John Langan, and Calcutta, Lord of Nerves by Poppy Z. Brite. If you have a weak stomach, maybe not for you, but if you can stand a little core, this anthology has some stories that will knock you the hell off your feet.
  2. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, editted by John Jay Adams, which includes stories by Stephen King, Octavia E. Butler, Orson Scott Card and Gene Wolfe. While I’m still working through this one, the sort of wealth and breadth of the imagination people have brought to the interpretation of the end of the world here or post-apocalyptic worlds is absolutely intense. My favorite has been so far a story called Bread and Bombs, a post 9-11 take by M. Rickert. This one’s a little more bleak, a little more dense, and hosts a story that’s perhaps one of my favorites ever now, The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King.
  3. McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, editted by Michael Chabon, which focuses on bringing back the short story with some substance, adventure and excitement. Included in the stories in this volume are originals by Stephen King (sensing a pattern?), Glen David Gold, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman (another favorite of mine), Michael Crichton, Michael Chabon and Sherman Alexie. So far I haven’t gotten too far into this one, but the first two stories, The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter by Glen David Gold and Tedford and the Megaladon by Jim Shepard have managed to not only thrill me but positively nail me to my seat.

I’ve got two more short story compendiums, Who Can Save Us Now? which focuses on original superhero stories, and McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, also edited by Michael Chabon. I think that I will be purchasing more of this McSweeney goodness as time goes on, as it is fostering in me perhaps some of my best appreciation for short stories that I have found in a long time. That and The Living Dead has brought me back to the notion that while short stories aren’t always the most in depth when it comes to content, they can be brutally emotional in their quick punch to the reader. 

And as if it had to be said, this has only inspired me to more writing. That is, after all, what its all about.

Workshop submission sent, now begins the nail-biting

by Shoshana, posted in Workshop update, Writing Update

I’ve done workshops before in college, in writing groups. This time, however, something seems to be different. The class I’m taking is called the Advanced Writing Seminar, and its the most dedicated writing students who are willing to brave a late-night class to work throughout the semester to better their writing. Perhaps that’s why I’m so nervous? I submitted a short story set in a super-hero setting and for the very first time, my stomach was twisting. I was pretty sure that I had created an absolute piece of dreck.

Now, I know that those who know me are going to say “but how is this any different from you always freak out about your work?” The truth is, I really do tend to… freak about my writing. I don’t have much by way of confidence in it, deep down, and so I fidget and freak and worry and bite my nails. That’s normal. I find it part of the process that allows me not to get too big-headed about writing. This time I didn’t transition from the nervous stage into anything else. This story just sat there like a dead cat, as if to say “You got close, but no cigar, buddy.” 

Sigh. Maybe I’m freaking over nothing and maybe I can’t accept that not everything is going to be perfect on the first try. I gotta get used to smacking at something with the literary hammer until I get to the place where the story is perfect. This one is not perfect by far, but maybe that’s a good thing to. I can attend a class and be nervous once in a while. I can be worried. It’s not against the law.

The story’s called “No Hero” and it’s about three girls who work at a convenience store in a world where superheroes run rampant. Many of the heroes in the story are homages to the LARP I ran recently called Heirs of Prometheus, with mentions to other people’s characters, just as sort of an in-joke for me and my friends. Of the three girls, two are obsessed with superheroes while the other one is disdainful of the whole superhero craze and culture and the story follows what develops between the three of them one night at work. Its really, in the long run, about what makes a hero. The main character, Karen Unger, was a non-player character creation of mine for the LARP as well and I always had a fascination with her. Her whole story seemed to live in my head, as did a couple of other of those NPC’s. I’m glad I still have them in my head. More fodder for stories later.

I don’t get workshopped for two weeks. Plenty of time for me to bite off my nails in worry.

Let’s start at the beginning.

by Shoshana, posted in Writing Testimonial

Let me give you a no-bullshit assessment: Being a writer is a disheartening life choice somewhat akin to asking Fate to put you on the Sisyphus jogging team. It blows rocks.

Writers are thick on the ground where I come from in New York. You couldn’t swing a dead feline without hitting one. Everyone’s got a short story, novella, full-length trilogy or movie script tucked away somewhere that they’re just dying to slip under someone’s door. Everyone’s aching to get a shot at the big time. I, sadly, am one of those crazy masses just trying to get something together. My name’s Shoshana Kessock, I’m from Brooklyn New York and if I have anything to say about it, I’m going to get published. This blog is going to follow the process of my grinding away until it happens. 

This wasn’t always going to be my plan. Originally, I wanted to be a police officer or a teacher. Not so strange, when you think about it: I’ve got this hard-on for helping the community and (get ready for the big capitol letters) Making the World A Better Place. This is what I was taught since I was a little girl, that your job is to Make the World A Better Place. What that meant exactly, I never quite understood, but I read a lot of things (mostly comic books) and I thought I knew a basic idea. I wanted to help people out of jams, protect people, that sort of jazz. What I didn’t realize while I was doing all that is that I had a particular talent, you see, for doing that helping people thing in one way: I told stories. I could put together a mean sentence that could inspire, that could bring an idea to light, anything. And while I was slaving away, trying to lose weight to go into the Army (that was part of the whole Be A Cop plan), I was neglecting that little bug that lived in the back of my brain that said write this down, don’t ignore me, you know I’m here, now listen to this story idea and put it down on paper, get out your damn laptop and STOP IGNORING ME-

Anybody who has ever had the writing itch knows what this is. This, ladies and gents, is the writing fever.

It starts when you see something that intrigues you. You think ‘hey, wouldn’t it be great if that happened like this’ and suddenly you’re crafting the start of a whole tale. Now, if you’re anybody else but a writer, you put it aside, you run it through a quick fantasy, and that’s that. If you’ve got the writing fever, that itch? Then it just sits there and gnaws at you. Your eyes glaze over and suddenly, you’re gone and thinking about a whole world of ideas and if you could just get them down on paper, then what would it turn into? If you don’t get it out on paper, you tell a friend. Or you blog about it, in modern day, or you put it up on YouTube or you just forget about it. If you’ve got the itch real bad, sometimes that won’t do it. Sometimes, it will just keep gnawing until you have an outlet and the idea has been given birth to and then its gone.

That’s what being a writer is like for me.

Here’s what that does to my life. I work at a part-time job while going to college full time. I also run a role-playing game (yes, I’m a gamer, so that gives me an outlet) and try to have a social life. When the itch comes, sometimes I can’t write, because I’m too busy (classes, work, whatever) and then? Then it starts to get annoying. And if I don’t do it for long enough because I have to go vacuum or go to the gym, it starts to actually be more than annoying. It starts to get downright irritating and then I don’t know how to describe it. It feels like, to steal a term from Stephen King, like my brain is ready to do the junkie jive. So I suppose you’d say that to me, being a writer is like what I imagine being a junkie is like. You get it out there, you write, and by God you have to, because these ideas won’t stop.

I didn’t write for a long time. I didn’t have the stones for it. Rejection is a bitch, ladies and germs, and I didn’t like the notion of having to put myself up there to get pot-shots tossed my way. But I couldn’t stop writing. I would start short stories and stop. I would come up with novel ideas and toss them aside. Then, on a whim, I took a writing class and… yikes, the floodgates just about killed the hoover dam in my brain and out it all has started to come. I’ve got more ideas than I know what to do with.

Now? Now, I’m serious about it. I’ve done things like the NaNoWriMo writing challenge two years running and pumped out stories that were, while not my best writing, good practice. I’ve taken more writing classes and I’ve started talking to people at conventions (gamer conventions are great places to meet people). I’m taking advice where I can and getting my stuff together. And this time… I know what I gotta do.

No matter what, I gotta write. I don’t care if it means staying up late, not going to that movie with friends, or cramping up my hands due to typing too much, I’ve got ideas that just need to get out of my brain and onto paper. And so this blog is born. I’m going to chronicle what I’m up to, what I’m working on, and what I’ve bee doing to drive myself onward. I want this blog to be an inspiration for me when at the end of the day, when I’m discouraged or just plain tired of all of it, that it was worth it. I’m going to keep working and this blog is going to remind me of why.

Because in the end, I want to see my work in print. Because I might not get to be a police officer (that’s still up in the air) and I might not be a teacher or someone who saves the world, but I’m going to write something that somewhere, touches someone in a good way. I’m going to write something that gives someone a good time at the end of a sucky day of work. I’m going to do this because these characters are alive in my brain and they want out into the world to say hello. I’ve got dozens of them, hundreds maybe, and I’m going to let them come out and say hello. Because while writers may be a dime a dozen? I’m going to quote an author that I adore, Jim Butcher, who said that being a writer is like being chased by a bear. You don’t have to be the fastest one, you just have to be faster than the other guy. I don’t have to be better than the authors out there, I just have to be better than the guys around me who want to be authors. I just have to Do Something. 

Because, in the mathematics of my brain, when I Do Something I can get to my goal and maybe Make the World a Better Place in some small way. That’s my goal.

So welcome to my brain. Step over the old plate of cookies, don’t trip on the cat, and come on in.

– Shoshana Kessock /  Summer 2008