Tag Archives: creativity

The Monsters of Joshua’s Nightmares

Posted on by under Joshua's Nightmare Updates

Or “I totally just posted about villains not even a day ago, but have some more stuff about villains.  I’m not even a little sorry.”

I wrote what amounted to a love letter to all things villain-related just hours ago, and it spawned another idea that has been bouncing around my brain inconveniently (and preventing me from sleeping, which is awful as I have to be awake in less than four hours from now).  I’ve done a lot of talking about Joshua’s Nightmares here, which makes sense because this blog was born as part of my efforts related to working on it.  I have a page about the novel-to-be (that needs revising, I fear) that gives a solid enough synopsis of its plot.  Beyond that, I’ve not really posted anything from the actual story, whether it’s for fear of it being swiped and used elsewhere (gasp!) or just because I’m overly-picky over who gets to see works-in-progress.

However, it only seems appropriate to share a little, and so I present the villains and monsters (a sampling, so as to not bring out any major spoilers) of Joshua’s Nightmares.  Obligatory “the following characters and locations are my intellectual property, and are not to be used in any way without my express permission” comment goes here. Continue reading →

Creating monsters is my favorite thing to do

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts

Or “This is totally a love letter to writing strong, love-to-hate-and-hate-to-love villains.”

I love me some well-crafted villains.  That’s not exactly news to most people.  There’s a certain appeal to bad guys that heroes can’t capture, and for obvious reasons.  Sure, the hero saves the day, usually by dramatically untying the dude or damsel in distress, foiling the villain’s plan, and defeating/imprisoning/killing off the bad guy in question.  And yes, there’s definitely something enjoyable about writing the hero, flaws and all.  My heart, however, will always have a special soft-spot for creating the villains.  You may find yourself asking “Why’s that, Phil?”

Honestly?  Because we’ve all got a bit of a dark side; that little monster in the back of your head, hiding right behind your conscience and whispering things you’re sure couldn’t have been your own thoughts.  Villains provide the backwards version of our own moral compasses.  That’s not to say all villains are purely evil, and I’ll get to that shortly, but oftentimes they are modeled after a writer’s own view of what is wrong.  You won’t find any heroes tying people to railroad tracks or dangling them above shark tanks.  They’re the thieves, the marauders, the evil grand viziers (or, really, just grand viziers, because that titles seems to belong exclusively to sinister folks intent on taking over the government), the terrorists, and so on and so forth.

There’s so much fun potential for depth and moral gray areas with villainous characters, though.  Can they have redeeming qualities?  Yes.  Why not make them just a teensy bit likeable, too.  Or what if there’s some sad backstory on how they became the nefarious overlord or overlady they are in your story?  Writing villains, at least for me, is the creative equivalent of finding myself on a private beach with a bunch of construction equipment and endless hours to build the most epic, giant sandcastles ever.  That comparison sounded so much cooler in my head.  The best villains are the ones the reader will sympathize with.  The ones who will make readers think “Wow, what an asshole,” but still also cause the reader to want to wrap them in a shock blanket, offer them a mug of hot chocolate, and assure that everything will be okay (just as soon as they put down the remote to their Doomsday Device).  The most fun comes from finding the perfect blend of whatever brand of evil a villain should be and redeeming qualities.  My ideal villain needs to be just evil enough, but have a strong enough pull on a reader’s heartstrings to leave them thinking “Oh, man, did I really just hope this nutcase succeeds over the hero?”

Now you might be saying “Phil, I think you might be a little twisted.”  Maybe you’re right, convenient character helping me transition between talking points.  I would argue, however, that everyone is a little twisted by other people’s standards.  Everyone has at least one or two behaviors or traits that can, and probably would, make another person’s skin crawl.  The fun in writing a good villain is taking a trait like that, mixing it up with other things such as a dash of charisma or a hint of homicidal tendencies, wrapping it in a bow, and then letting it run havoc all over an otherwise perfectly peaceful fictional world.

Villains stir things up.  They screw with the status quo, help get heroes to the moral of the story, and, quite frankly, usually look pretty awesome in the process.  This post was brought to you by me writing a particularly “holy crap, did I just think that” line for a villain in Joshua’s Nightmares.  What are your favorite bits about writing bad guys?  And yes, killing them off in magnificently creative ways is an option.

How early is too early to plan a sequel?

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts, Joshua's Nightmare Updates

Or “How to handle being too attached to your own characters without killing them all at the end of the book.”

I skipped out on writing and reading yesterday (ignoring my journal entry last night, which doesn’t really count since it’s not creative writing and the goal was some creative writing each day).  I’d like to say I took a day off for a good reason, but it was mostly just a mix of laziness and being tired from work.  Excuses, excuses.

Naturally, I felt a bit guilty about that today, and so I focused on getting some new bits added to “Joshua’s Nightmares”.  I had errands to run today in preparation of an important interview of the job variety, which meant I had to get a shower at some point.  In the process of getting ready to shower (yes, I know, there is a lot of process to me not being lazy on my weekends off), I found myself thinking about certain prominent characters from “Joshua’s Nightmares” and where they’d end up at the end of the story.  Yes, there would be closure for them, but it felt like there was more that could happen.

And that’s when an idea happened.  It met up with similar ideas, which in turn met with other similar ideas.  I realize this presents a bit of a bothersome situation, as I’m not even close to halfway done with “Joshua’s Nightmares” and I’m already thinking, “Hey, there should be a second book.”

So the real question to you writer-type people is how soon is too soon for sequel-oriented thinking?  Or is it just one of those things you should embrace as it happens?

Either way, I’m afraid to say I’ll have to stash the ideas away in my little red Moleskine for the time being.

The best sorts of creative outbursts

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts, Joshua's Nightmare Updates

Or “How doing the dishes triggers the best kind of daydreaming, unless you daydream about doing the dishes.”

Tonight has turned out to be a fairly average Wednesday night, and I found myself washing the dishes I’ve ignored for far too long.  This is, of course, not my favorite activity, but there are only eight bowls in the house, four of which are only large enough for a small serving of cereal, and I can only justify pretending Tupperware is a solid alternative for so long.  I’m completely unashamed of the fact that I heated up soup in, and ate the aforementioned soup from, a microwave-safe container, by the way.

Veering back toward my point: I found myself listening to music on my trusty iPod, going through the robotic motions of washing the dishes, when a hint of an idea for something later in “Joshua’s Nightmares” popped up in the forefront of my thoughts.  I considered the revisions, then stored them away in their usual spot in my memory (which, by the way, probably looks something like the top of my dresser: riddled with notebooks, writing utensils, and a good deal of unused origami paper).

That’s when the idea exploded, becoming so much more (at least, as of now, to me) than it had been in its initial drafting.  It’s probably one of  my favorite parts of the writing process, because it’s something I have no control over.  The thrill of having an idea go from being a spark to an inferno is one I have yet to fully recreate elsewhere (except maybe on rollercoasters, and I think I’m mistaking the rush of creativity for the rush of blood to my brain).

The siren call of sleep

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts, Joshua's Nightmare Updates

Or “I know I said I’m going to bed, and I totally am right after I write this entry.”

About now, I should be getting ready for bed.  Writing tonight’s journal entry, brushing my teeth, and so on and so on.  The cursor in Microsoft Word is blinking at me in a way that says “Why are you leaving me?  I have so many words you’ve not added to your story yet.”  That’s true, by the way.  I’ve reached that creative stride where I find myself writing almost effortlessly.  I’m sure the editing phases of this novel-to-be will be less smooth, but let’s not think about that now.

My bed, of course, is calling to me.  It’s saying how comfortable the comforter is (with emphasis on how those are practically the same word, obviously), how fluffy my pillow is, and how I will hate myself if I don’t get to sleep soon because I have a solid eight hours ahead of me at work tomorrow, and that’s a thought that makes my blood run cold these days.  And, really, any day because work is indeed work.  I’m not overly fond of work.  Mind you, I still can’t complain because it’s a great job that’s been a tremendous help.  It still isn’t writing for a living, but it helps enable the act of writing in my spare time and so I’ll take what I can get.

Now if I were to go back in time and tell myself I would have written over seven thousand new words worth of “Joshua’s Nightmares” over the course of a couple days, I would ask myself why I’m not putting time travel abilities to better use.  My moral compass points to get-rich quick schemes involving time travel.  That’s not actually the point, though.

I have made tremendous progress in terms of drafting “Joshua’s Nightmares”, which has in turn made me even more enthusiastic about working on it.  Being tired from my day-job becomes a non-issue when I get home and open Microsoft Word.  This is what I went to college for, and why I have continued to write; to recapture this feeling of happiness and accomplishment.  Okay, and maybe because I think I would just die if I stopped writing.  Nobody say that’s a good thing.  I know one or two of you are thinking it, and you are so on my shit-list.

Small confession, by the way: I wish I had some moderately decent artistic skills in terms of drawing or painting.  Down the road, I may have to pony up the money to get someone to draw a map of the Sleep State to go with “Joshua’s Nightmares”.  It would look so cool.  Trust me.  I’m probably not trying to be an unreliable narrator in this post.

The siren call of sleep has reached the point where I can’t ignore it any longer, and so I’m going to head to bed.  Wishing you all a good night, and plenty of highly productive days of creativity.  Oh, and don’t freeze tomorrow because apparently there’s more frigid fun on the way.

Not-so-brave new announcement

Posted on by under Short Story a Week

Well, I would’ve called it “brave new announcement” but it isn’t particularly brave, but it is at least new for me (we’ll get to that) and an announcement.

First, it certainly has been a day of things being frustrating.  This post would’ve happened sooner, but switching internet providers made getting the wireless network to cooperate top priority.  It still is, so that means that nonsense will be continuing into tomorrow at some point.

In the spirit of maintaining a regular writing schedule, and in light of “Joshua’s Nightmares” once again hanging out on the backburner, I’m going to start a rather large challenge for myself.  It’s been done before, in several different capacities, and so I’m pleased to introduce my Short Story a Week.  The strongest inspiration for giving this a try is, no doubt, Jonathan Coulton.  His version, “Thing a Week”, can be seen detailed here.

The Goal

To push myself to maintain a regular schedule of creating new content, for a year.  That means fifty-two unique short stories.  They may end up with related bits, they may not.  Ideally, I’ll just create.  This means one week there could be a dark comedy, the next a fantasy set in Medieval times, and a horror story the next.

The Process

Since this new beginning is starting on a Monday, and it’s going to be a weekly short story, the posting will occur on Sunday.  This gives me a full week to come up with an idea, draft the idea, and at least tweak it to some degree if nothing else.  The process may change and evolve as this goes on, but the plan is to keep this relatively simple while still accomplishing the overall goal.  However, keeping in mind how life generally likes taking plans and flipping them upside-down, I also acknowledge there’s a change the story may have to be posted early some weeks in favor of keeping it a Short Story a Week (no late stories ever, though; even if that means a little sleep deprivation now and then).

Here goes nothing.  One short story, every week for a year, starting now.

Getting a bit zen

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff

With an alternate title of “I wanted to at least do a little writing tonight, and I actually have no drive to do anything beyond blogging (so deal with it)”, but titles like that are irresponsibly wordy.

I made my very first origami crane today, and I’m probably far more proud of it than I should be.  I say this in the sense I’m proud I managed to complete it on my first try, without tearing it in half or lighting it on fire, but it looks like its head went a few rounds with a brick wall.

Pictured: my sad little crane, sitting on my fancy, blue laptop.

Pictured: my sad little crane, sitting on my fancy, blue laptop.

What I learned from this creative endeavor includes, but may not be limited to, the following:

  • YouTube really is a great place to go to learn how to kill time in new, creative ways
  • I have the hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills of an ex-boxer who had taken too many blows to the head, while drunk and wearing boxing gloves
  • When I set my mind to it, I can accomplish most anything.
  • Most anything is really emphasized here, because I’ve set my mind to making boatloads of money materialize out of nowhere and I am still none the richer.
  • Origami, while not necessarily something I’m naturally talented at, necessarily (Would you look at the head on that poor, paper bird?  Seriously, look at it.  It’s a tiny paper tragedy.), but it’s still something I’ll keep trying at.  It was a lovely distraction.

Eventually, I hope, I’ll be able to share some less battered paper cranes.  Or, should my skill only get worse with practice, an extremely detailed paper rock or two.

 

Google, thou art a villain

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff, General Writing-Related Posts, Joshua's Nightmare Updates

I mean, Google isn’t really a villain in the sense I want to mean.  The just-tied-a-woman-to-railroad-tracks-while-twirling-a-handlebar-mustache kind of villain is the kind I want to mean, by the way.

What I do mean is Google is the purveyor of information that can, and often will, make you feel a little unoriginal.  I’m almost 100% sure this isn’t just my standard, run-of-the-mill crazy rearing its ugly head (or heads, because I’m fairly certain that much crazy can only be contained in a hydra).  For every amazing, fun, new, whatever sort of idea that crops up, there seems to be something almost identical (even if only in name) somewhere in Google’s search results.

Surely, Phil, you must have an example in mind…right?  Right indeed, me-asking-myself-a-question-to-elaborate-on-my-point (side-note: I’m not sorry for all the hyphenated phrases in this post; not even a little).  A good deal of my creative efforts and energies will be going towards Joshua’s Nightmare, or that novel (that needs a better name, I think) that resulted in this blog becoming a thing.  I’m finally coming up with bits of a world I feel is a bit better than its original incarnation of “all the stuff located in your dreams”.  That could get awfully Freudian awfully fast, and I’d rather keep this from becoming some sort of erotic horror.

However, I feel like the only possible solution to this is to push past the urge to accept any similar results on Google as being defeated as completely unoriginal.  Mainly because it’s possible to argue that no idea is truly, completely original (no, I will not go into that, thank you very much), but also largely in part to knowing it’s possible to take something and make it my own anyway.

Driving forces in my writing

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff, General Writing-Related Posts

It’s a pretty standard Saturday night at home for me, in that I’ve got a video game system somewhere I can easily gain access to it (tonight’s choice is my PS Vita, on which I have recently completed Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection; suck it, Zeromus) and I’m lounging in my extremely classy polar bear-print lounge pants.  My dogs have taken over most of the other furniture on the first floor, saving the dining room table for the eight thousand bags my parents brought back from the Home and Garden Show, and the only other noises in the house are my laptop slowly screaming as it cooks itself and the heater as it kicks on once every three hours to pretend it’s working (I wish my job were this cozy, by the way, because if I could get paid to be a lazy ass I would be a very happy lazy ass).

It’s only natural I found myself wondering how many Big Macs in a canvas sack it would take to beat someone to death with, right?  I mean, you’d probably have to have a lot of them.  And would keeping them in their boxes make a difference in terms of the number needed to commit the aforementioned McMurder?  Would it be more sensible to buy less and let them get stale/ferment/whatever they do as they McAge?  At the very least, it’s this kind of thinking that ends up leading to some real, and really strange writing on my part.

For example, and this story will find its way here eventually (once I write it, obviously): I found myself wondering what would the crew of a spaceship do if they found its on-board computer went haywire and decided to replace the outside of the ship with styrofoam (styrofoam is so a word, Firefox; shut up with your red squiggles on my screen) only a few hours before the ship’s auto-pilot takes it back to Earth.  Hilarity ensues, right?  I mean, at the risk of some fictional characters burning up upon reentry into the atmosphere, which I also classify as comedy in case anyone wasn’t sure about that.

Mmmm, atmosphere-roasted astronauts.

Honestly, though, it’s thoughts like bag-of-Big-Mac-Death (not related to, associated with, or endorsed by the McCathedral, Our McChurch of Ronald McSaints, in any way) and how they drive me to write that really fuel me.  They also remind me how getting a degree in writing was really the only viable route for me, because thoughts like that would have made me a remarkably bad therapist.  Have you tried placating the voices in your head with a mallet?  How about gluing a phone to your neighbor’s cat?  No.  I somehow doubt therapy like that would be appreciated as much as, say, writing a story about someone going around gluing things to animals.  Even if it ended up being terrible.