Happy New Year, you lovely, awful world

I woke up this morning and checked my news site. I'd entirely forgotten that Saddam Hussein was going to be executed, but there they were: pictures of the man having a noose looped around his neck, then lying dead and bloody.

I remember when I was a teenager that this man scared me. There were always rumblings coming out of Bhagdad that Saddam had a Nuke or a Bio-weapon that could wipe a lot of us out. I remember the photos of the UN inspectors dressed in apocalyptic bio-hazard suits on the covers of Time and Newsweek.

Then, years later, came the invasion of Iraq. Like most Americans I was thrilled by how quickly victory seemed to be ours. I remember listening to radio broadcasts of Iraqis celebrating in the street. I stopped by a Starbucks on my way to work and ran into friend; we were both grinning ear-to-ear, drinking our lattes. Finally I remeber the gung-ho capture of Saddam himself. What did the soldier say? "George Bush sends his regards." How cool!

But seeing those pictures made me sad. Is this how it ends? A fat old man getting his neck broken and going to hell? Revenge is not as sweet as I expected.

Now I have new things fear: North Korea is the new Iraq. Did you hear that they're testing Nukes? One of those things could take out the west coast. Or what about Iran? They've gone Nuclear too and they hate us. We've got to do something!

The story continues to put out the same plot. I've lost the desire to see Kim Jong or Ahmadinejad meet Saddam's fate. I wish this whole thing would end like a Disney movie. But it won't end; it'll just start new loathesome chapters.

This isn't an anti-war rant. That's possibily the worst part of this whole thing. The peace crowd is hiding it's head in the sand. All the stuff that the hawks say is true. The world is honestly a bad place. No amount of protests are going to change that. Nice idea but it's time to come back to reality. (Oh and by the way, science and "progress" are largely to blame for most of our problems today. Yes, thanks for antibiotics but I'm fairly ticked that you gave us massive pollution and the ability to wipe out whole contenients in seconds. I eagerly await what you'll bring us next.)

Ah, but it's just as bad over here on the conservative end. We had six years of government control and not much has changed for the better. People are still killing babies. War has increased. Again, this is not a put-down to President Bush. But I've lost the neive belief that polictical leaders can change the world. They might be able to change situations but changing men's hearts is another thing.

In short here's a prediction for 07: Continued degredation of society, news headlines that keep us up at night, war, rumors of wars, disease, death, chaos.

Last night I was putting my two kids to bed. Jack is four and Lily is two. We have a new tradition of singing a song together to help Jack not be afraid of the dark. "Sing the shield song," he says. We turn out the lights and huddle close together in the dark, Lily under one arm and Jack under the other. We sing:

Thou, O Lord, are a shield about me;
you're my glory;
you're the lifter of my head;

Hallelujah, you're the lifter of my head;
Lord, I love you, you're the lifter of my head;


Jack likes the part about the shield. So do I. Their little off-key voices join with mine and we soulfully sway back and forth together, singing.

All my life, from my earliest memories, I've been singing that song when I'm afraid. I remember lying on my bed singing it in the dark when I was no more than three. I sang it when I was a teenager and I was scared stiff of UFOs (don't ask). My list of fears grows with each year so I find myself singing that song often as an adult.

I feel optimistic about this year. The world is going downhill fast if it ever was uphill to begin with, but all will be well in the end. I've lost faith in many things. I no longer believe that war brings the victory we desire. I don't think politicians make the kinds of changes we want them to. I find little satisfaction in the American dream. I never really had much trust in science in the first place but I think it will only usher new horrors upon us. But Jesus has not failed me. The older I get, the more my idol collection shrinks; more and more I have to cling to the living God.

I don't know what my children will face when they're grown but I don't think it will be any better. It will probably be worse. I hope they remember the song when they're afraid.

Amazing, isn't it? I still find great hope in things I understood before I knew how to use the toilet. The Lord is a shield about me. World, bring what you will. Hallelujah, he's the lifter of our head. Come quickly, Jesus. Only you can end this wonderful, awful story.

This year I'm going to pursue him more than I ever have. What else is there to do? This will be a good year.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Merry Christmas, Everyone! God Bless.

I'd like to do novel stats. I really would. Tonight I sat down at the computer and wrote:

“If we make good time we might reach Whitecloud by tomorrow,”

Then my 3-month-old boy started crying and the evening went downhill from there. So now it's midnight and there's nothing to report.

Goodnight. :-)

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 480 today, 11.9k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Rosie Thomas, The Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

The good:
Lilith sang softly:

And Jesus looked down in the pen
Where the sheep played poker and drank gin
So he broke the gate and let wolves in
The day the music died
And noise played on the radio
And dirges sounded deep and low
While we all danced close and slow
The day the music died


Bad writing skill that needs to go away: I'm haunted by all the usual specters. Nothing new to report.

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I've been filling out the backstory of the first few chapters. Post-apocalyptic is a really fun setting to write in. Nothing is off-limits. I can have a knight program a computer while singing "Hard rain's gonna fall", if I want. Not that I would. But I could...

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 400 today, 11.6k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Rosie Thomas, The Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

The good:
At this Lilith opened her eyes and blinked at us across the fire. “Enough about Dark Friday; such things should not be spoken of in the night,” she said ominously and then closed her eyes again.

Bad writing skill that needs to go away: All the usual problems. Nothing new seems to have cropped up in the past few days.

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Work is still insane. It's taken away from my writing time. I'm making it a priority that this next week, I'll make decent time for writing.

I saw Lady in the Water last night. I loved it. It almost made me cry. If you like fairy tales, you should see it.

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 630 today, 11.3k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Jeremy Enigk, Copeland, Tolkien, The Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

The good:
“The Diekost once crossed the length of Postworld. The Imperial Express ran this length of track, but its whistle has not sounded for more than a hundred years. Still, the tracks of the Diekost have not curved with time and they will lead us to Whitecloud – and who knows? Maybe even to the end of the quest... But Jack will tell us such things.”

Bad writing skill that needs to go away: Same as before. Where's the urgency? I'm worried that this section is lacking in some basic logic. Don't the questers worry that they don't know much about their quest? Stuff to fix in a rewrite.

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Moving forward. Thank the Lord for Tolkien. The man is amazingly inspirational.

JMeadows posted three chapters of Toil for the Wind to the OWW. Looking forward to reading those.

Work is insane!

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 500 today, 10.7k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Jeremy Enigk, Copeland, Tolkien

The good:
As we spoke I felt a mysterious sense of relief and soon Lilith didn’t have to prod me for details and memories spilled out of me. Things I hadn’t thought of since Dark Friday found their way to my tongue. She laughed with me when I told of the how one winter I had carefully laid a snow trap to catch my brothers only to fall in it myself. I recalled how disastrous my first riding lesson had been and my father swearing that I added a gray hair to his beard each time I mounted a horse.


Bad writing skill that needs to go away: This chapter is lacking any sense of urgency so far. I've got to get people running instead of sitting around talking. I need some Black Riders to chase my Hobbits.

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Looking for some good writing music? Try Copeland.

Otherwise, it's been a slow weekend. The kids have decided to not take their naps and inspiration is hard to come by. Here's hoping for a better next-week.

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 570 today, 10.2k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Jeremy Enigk, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Tolkien

The good:
“If only...” Lilith said softly then shook her head. "The woods are not safe anymore. We must travel with more care." In the moonlight I could see her eying me and Fin. "This quest is already waking things that have slept for many years..."


Bad writing skill that needs to go away: I need to keep the plot focused, which is hard to do if you don't do any significant plotting beforehand. I don't want to bring in too many elements that I'll have to ditch later.

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Still loving The Fellowship of the Ring. Still loving writing.

Dialogue as narration - a few examples

I was talking about this with Simon the other day and was saying how I'm trying to use the dialogue to convey action more often. I don't think I communicated the concept clearly enough so here's a few examples. Hopefully they might serve as inspiration.

First from That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. The setting is a rainy night. A group of people are searching for a man.

"If once we start changing course," said Dimble, "we shall go round and round in circles all night. Let's keep straight on. We're bound to come to the road in the end."

"Hullo!" said Jane Sharply. "What's this?"

All listened Because of the wind, the unidentified rhythmic noise which they were straining to hear seemed quite distant at one the moment, and then, next moment, with shouts of "Look out!"--"Go away, you great brute!"--"Get back!"--and the like, all were shrinking back into the hedge as the plosh-plosh of a horse cantering on soft ground passed close beside them. A cold gobbet of mud flung up from its hoofs struck Denniston in the face.

"Oh look! Look!" cried Jane. "Stop him. Quick!"

"Stop him?" said Denniston who was trying to clean his face. "What on earth for? The less I see of that great clod-hopping quadruped the better--"

"Oh, shout to him, Dr. Dimble," said Jane in an agony of impatience. "Come on. Run! Didn't you see?"

"See what?" panted Dimple as the whole party, under the influence of Jane's urgency, began running in the direction of the retreating horse.

"There's a man on his back," gasped Jane. She was tired and out of breath and had lost a shoe.

"A man?" said Denniston; and then: "by God, Sir, Jane's right. Look, over there! Against the sky... to your left."

"We can't overtake him," said Dimble.

"Hi! Stop! Come back! Friends--amis--amici," bawled Denniston.

That section is a very action filled scene and most of it is conveyed through the dialogue. It works so much better than paragraphs describing how the party was confused by the darkness, how Jane saw the person on the horse, how they realized that Jane was right. These details are all communicated through a few lines of dialogue and the result is a fast-moving scene that reads great.

Another example from another master: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. The setting is The Rat and The Mole rowing along the river when The Rat hears something.

It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. "So beautiful and strange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is a pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!" he cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound.

"No it passes on and I begin to lose it," he said presently. "O, Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us."

The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. "I hear nothing myself," he said, "but the wind playing in the reeds and rushed and osiers."

***

"Clearer and nearer still," cried the Rat joyously. "Now you must surely hear it! Ah--at last--I see you do!"

Again, do you see how the dialogue not only conveys the action but what the characters are hearing. You could re-write the last few paragraphs to be entirely inside the characters heads but when he uses dialogue it's much more natural and interesting to read. Obviously you could go way overboard with this but it's one area that I can stand to improve in.

Can anyone think of some other examples of this?

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 700 today, 9.6k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Jeremy Enigk, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Tolkien

The good:
Forgive me if I said, “I’d like to sit closer to the fire – no, don’t carry me – I can make it fine just leaning on you. But put your arm around my waist... There. Thank you.”

These were grim tactics. I’m not a flirt. But the situation seemed to be calling for it.


Bad writing skill that needs to go away: I'm having a hard time striking the right note between Fin and Hattie. How do you start a relationship that you know is going to fail? They need to have some sort of connection but it can't be too good otherwise there's no reason for them to fall apart.

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I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time in nearly six years. I'd forgotten how good it is. It's odd how different the movie feels from the book. I like it that way though.

Tolkien is such an excellent writer too. Great inspiration material.

I'm heavily barrowing from Kenneth Grahame for this chapter. The characters in his Wind in the Willows encounter a creature in the chapter called "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" quite similar to the one my characters also run into. Except they have very different reactions. BTW if you haven't read Wind in the Willows you are seriously missing out on one of the best books ever.

Novel Stats

Metrics for HAPPY, THE END

Daily Word Count: 300 today, 8.5k total (out of a likely 40-50k)

Inspirations: Jeremy Enigk, Anberlin

The good:
Ms. Lilith continued, “I don’t even remember my family name – but I think it was plain, like ‘Smith’ or ‘Jones’.”

“At least it isn’t Sourburger!” Fin said and snorted a laugh.

There was a silence.

“Was that a joke?” Lilith asked presently.

“Well...”

She sighed. “...at least Heroes aren’t supposed to be funny. If that was the case I would pack up this quest right now.”


Bad writing skill that needs to go away: Same concerns apply as before: I need to give my characters unique voices.

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Back in the saddle. I'm having lots o' fun exploring these characters. My book is a happy book so far. Horay!

Sunday links and excuses...

It's been an interesting and non-productive-writing-wise week. I haven't wrote a line since Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday, it was an interesting day. I woke up feeling feverish and sick but the thermomator kept lying and saying I was fine. Nonetheless I decided to "work from bed" for the day, which consists of 20 percent actual work, 20 percent YouTube MS3TK videos and 60 percent sleep. In the middle of this, I got a call from my work partner who informed me that we had lost "the big contract" and just like that 80 percent of my income went "poof!". Interesting...

I'm not freaked out by this development. The same thing happened to me about three months ago (then I freaked out) but everything worked out fine. This smells suspiciously like one of those trust in The Lord moments. I spent the rest of the week scrambling to get some new contracts and writing got pushed to the side. Tomorrow I'll pick things back up.

So for some muching, here's a few links:

• Ever struggled for that perfect metaphor and things just didn't come out right? You're not alone. This is a must-read BTW.
  


• I just got the new Anberlin for my wife and she loves it. Yes, she's that cool.
  


• Looking for visual inspiration for your Fantasy story? Google Maxfield Parrish, Arthur Rackham and Michael Whelan.
  


• Looking for visual inspiration for your Fantasy story? Google Maxfield Parrish, Arthur Rackham and Michael Whelan.
  


• If you haven't watched The BBC version of The Office, you're missing out.