WIP Thursday:Getting More With Less.

More and more I am drawn to simple stories, both on and off screen, involving the not so simple complications of the human heart and head.  Don't get me wrong, a great bash-up, blow-up, special effects wonder still gets me rolling.  But give me a handful of well crafted characters, sitting on a June bug lit back porch just talking like folk, and you'll have my attention. 

I figure, if you can't strip a story of it's "special effects" and continue to find interest in its characters or plot, you need another story.  

Here's to stripping our stories down to idiot proof.
 

WIP Thursday: Well At Least I Posted!

*Making a Blog entry.   YES.

*Doing dishes and laundry.....   NO!

*Reading a later tonight.   YES.

*Cleaning up others messes.    NO!

*Writing more than I am.  And by more I mean at all.    YES.

CONCLUSION:  Need a maid.  Or maybe just better game plan...


How about you all?

WIP Wednesday on a Thursday: What Do You Care About?

  

 

 

For the longest time I relied more on my imagination and others experiences and less on my own when making up my fictional worlds and characters. I built stories on experiences I heard of second hand or witnessed from afar. And I copied from characters I had loved and people I'd found interesting over the years. Then I threw all this into big scenes in contrived stories I thought would be interesting to the masses.

 

One could argue that all these things can be good fodder for the muse, but it doesn't make a good end product.  You need more.  Because whats the point of having amazing stories and insane scenes, when the reader doesn't feel a thing for the 2D characters being drug through said stories. 

 

People are the stories, or at least this is the notion I care about.  

 

For me, it was putting more of my own self into the characters and allowing those characters to express some of my own universal concerns, my stories began to breath on their own.  Giving our characters a piece of ourselves bonds us to them, making us care more for what we write--making us better writers.  And in the end giving the reader a character deserving of their care. 

 

Because in the end, isn't that what we all care about and connect with?  The universal concerns, fears and dreams of all man.

 

The Day After WIP Wednesday...

 

     I have decided that no matter if my Wednesday Blog is late, by a day or week, I will post regardless.  And if I have no big topic to rant on, ask questions about or report, I will post something on this blog.  Even if it's a photo of my kids big toe, word count update, or a quote of the day I found somewhere on the net, something will be posted each week.

 

A writing friend of mine once commented that it didn't matter the amount of followers or comments one had, but that you got in the habit of making deadlines.  And blogging is good writing practice.  Well, I am out of practice with deadlines, NEED practice, and if I can continue to bond with other word-slingers once in a while I will sure as hell keep posting.

 

So quote of the day #1 shot a true path to this target.  Belief that my goal (completion of a WIP) is out ahead of me so long as I keep writing and working on my craft, helps my focus to stay true.

 

And quote of the day #2...  

 

 

...bodes well with #1 for all writers.   We are the only ones to blame if we fail.   My goal at this time is simple, to complete a WIP. No grand notions, just a earnest attempt at a childhood love.   So I write.

 

Keep writing team!

 

N. Murray