Fiction Writing - Blog #7: Writing/Workshopping VS Blogging/Sharing Writing

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely hate blogging.  Can't stand it.  Writing in a room filled with fellow writers and personally getting their constructive critiques about my work will always reign as the far superior option in my eyes.  However, not everyone has access to a room and other writers to fill that room with to provide constructive critiques.  So for writers for which reviewers are hard to come by, blogging and sharing their writing with other writers over the internet would probably be the most viable option.  Not to mention when you're on the internet you're presenting your work to a much broader audience than you ever could presenting it in a classroom.

I prefer the classroom option because the feedback you get from a room full of writers is so much more in-depth than what you would get from someone posting a comment on a website.  This is not to say that there are no knowledgeable writers on the internet.  I'm emphasizing the fact that in a classroom, you can be bombarded with countless ways to improve your work because the people in the room with you can just keep giving you suggestions and explain themselves much more quickly than they could if you didn't understand what they had written in their first comment for your work on your blog.

If you had to choose one, the choice is entirely personal preference.  Both options are equally very helpful.  So it's just a matter of which you're more comfortable with.  Maybe you'll like to utilize both options.  Knock yourself out if that's the case.

Fiction Writing - Blog #6: Good Writing

Take a quick look at this:
http://grammar.about.com/od/yourwriting/a/characteristics.htm

Everything there are the concise general fundamentals of what would be considered "good" writing.  I whole-heartedly agree with the proposition that good writing is writing that responds to the interests and needs of the readers.  When you write, you're trying to do so much more than just show the world how good your grammar and spelling is.  You're trying to stir up something that is much deeper within your readers when you present your work to them.  When your readers are done reading your work, you want them to be different after they've read it from before they ever set eyes on it.

FIction Writing - Blog #5: My Literary Magazine of Choice

I don't think I have ever picked up a literary magazine in my life.  So this makes it practically impossible for me to post up one I like or would recommend to my fellow writers.  I can, however, direct you all to a source that will provide you with names and information on hundreds of literary magazines.

Check this out:
http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazines/

Fiction Writing - Blog #4: My Writing Process

My writing process, I think, is pretty simple.  As someone who rarely reads, but loves to write, I tend to rely on several sources separate from literature:  video games, films, music, and life experience for inspiration.  These four outlets provide me with all I need to get my fingers typing.  Insert lots of moments of staring off into space here and there while I ponder these sources, and you pretty much have my writing process.

I'm an avid gamer.  I've been playing video games all my life, and I play just about every genre excluding maybe two or three.  Over the years lots of gamers have begun to shy away from the single player experience in favor of the games that feature online multiplayer, allowing players from all over the world to face off against each other over the internet.  I'm one of the few gamers I know who still indulges in single player games.  Why?  Because, for as long as I can remember, I have always been enchanted by the various characters, creatures, locations, architecture, and plots that populate these electronic worlds.  For my more fantastical work, the digital realm holds heavy inspiration.

I'm not a movie buff.  Actually I'm quite the contrary.  I'm one of those people who hasn't seen a lot of the movies that everyone else has seen, and I will disappoint you if you ask me if I've seen them when I tell you I haven't.  However, that doesn't mean that I don't love films.  I rarely watch TV anymore.  So I often find myself browsing Netflix for a new movie to watch or just putting on a favorite film I have on DVD for leisure or just background noise.  I love films because I can actually see the characters and how they interact with each other, how they behave by themselves, and how they react to the plot as it takes its course around them.  I get to see the different environments the characters find themselves in as well.  I take all these visuals, and then find my own way to articulate what I see on paper.

I believe these last two sources I'm about to mention have the most influence on my writing once I actually get to putting words down.

Now we have music.  Music...music...music.  When I write, music is imperative, a must, mandatory, a necessity, and you can fill in the rest of the blanks on the list with words synonymous to those mentioned.  When I have a scene in mind, and the time has come to put this scene down in words, I have to be listening to music when I do it.  When I listen to music, I can visualize the scene happening right before me as I begin to write.  Depending on what kind of scene I'm writing, I'll listen to a song that fits the mood or bears very relevant meaning to it.  I have Last.fm on my Xbox360 playing hip-hop as I type this blog post.  Music in general just makes my writing process go a lot smoother.  Without it, I'd be spending a much more significant amount of time staring blankly at my unfinished pages.

Finally, there's life experience.  Nothing has ever helped me more with writing about an experience than experiencing it for myself.  After having lived through a significant moment, I can effortlessly translate this instance to words on the page.  Since these experiences are so vivid to me, I can recall just what I did, or how I felt, and then project these actions and feelings onto a fictional character.

Another writer's writing process:
http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-writing-process.html