Category: Uncategorized

All good things must come to an end

I have a daily ritual.  Every morning, after I do my email, I check the news.  I always look at the same three websites: the Daily Telegraph, the London Times, and MSNBC.  Between them, I think I get a fairly good spectrum of news coverage.  But today I learned that the Times is going to start charging for access to their site, starting in June.

I have mixed feelings about this.  I understand why the Times is doing this.  Fewer and fewer people are buying print newspapers and online journalism looks to be the way of the future.  They still need to make money, so charging a subscription for online content makes a lot of sense.

The subscription price is going to be $4 per week and I’m undecided as to whether or not I’ll subscribe.  I’ve really enjoyed reading the Times over the years, but I’m only interested in the news and, although they occasionally present a different perspective, a lot of it isn’t that much different from what I read in the Telegraph. The columnists are what makes the Times unique and, while I do enjoy reading some of them, I don’t think I want to pay for them.

If I’m going to stop reading the Times, I’m going to be looking for a third news website to incorporate into my daily routine.  Any suggestions?

Goodbye productivity

I stopped at Borders this evening looking for something on which to use my 40 percent off coupon.  I was in the mood for a good mystery set in ancient Egypt, say something by Lynda S. Robinson or P. C. Doherty.  Alas, there was nothing in stock.  I can’t say I’m surprised.  Borders had to get rid of something in order to make room for the parade of vampire novels that is attempting to cash in on the Twilight craze.

I browsed the fantasy shelves for a while and I found an interesting looking book called The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg.  The concept of a fantasy world where natural science and sorcery are fighting for dominance seemed really cool.  But as I walked toward the checkout counter, I passed by the kids section and I saw it: the complete first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Avatar is probably my favorite anime of all time, so Carol Berg ended up going back on the shelf.

Now I need to make sure that I don’t let all that Avatar goodness keep me from revising AToB.  Must resist the urge to slack off!

What I’ve watched: NieA_7

I really wanted to like NieA_7.  I really did.  When the Physicist and I first started it, it seemed like it was going to be a lighthearted romp.  The characters were quirky and interesting and the series’ premise of aliens living peacefully among humans seemed like it could be really cool.

Alas, our enthusiasm was short lived.  The characters in NieA_7 manage to be even flatter than those in Wolf’s Rain.  Niea, the titular character, is amusing to watch, but her antics never progress beyond pratfalls.  Her roommate Mayuko spends the entire series moping and sulking like she’s the Queen of Emoland.  The other characters occasionally have funny lines, but, for the most part, they just exist.

Given how flat the characters are, it should come as little surprise that the plot leaves a lot to be desired.  Not much actually happens beyond Niea hamming it up and Mayuko sulking.  Subplots are hinted at: the bathhouse where Mayuko lives is facing financial difficulties and Niea has a difficult relationship with the other earthbound aliens.  But neither of these subplots end up going anywhere and few things about the series’ underlying mythology are ever explained.  For example, towards the end of the series, the wreck of the mothership that brought the aliens to earth disintegrates into a multitude of shining lights.  It’s hinted that this is a Big Deal, but we’re never told what the hell happened.

Also frustrating was the awkward attempt at drama.  After about seven episodes of lighthearted comedy, NieA_7 tries its hand at drama and fails miserably.  Drama only works if you have a compelling plot and interesting characters.

Pros

Funny.

It’s short.

Cons

Flat characters.

Forgettable plot.

Deliberate obscurity.

FINAL GRADE: C.

Shifting gears

Last spring, I took a break from my WIP and wrote a short story involving the novel’s antagonist.  I submitted the story to my writers’ group and, while it received generally favorable comments, one member made a particularly trenchant criticism: he said that my writing was too academic.

What he meant was that I had unknowingly structured my story much like a paper.  I started out with a ‘thesis’ and the rest of the story consisted of the ‘proofs.’  Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for suspense and, consequently, the story kind of plodded along.

That incident taught me that I’d have to unlearn (or at least ignore) a lot of the writing skills I’d picked up in grad school.  In academia, you’re supposed to make your point as clearly and concisely as possible with a minimum of obfuscation (though I’ve read many articles where that wasn’t the case!).  But in fiction writing, you must delight in deception in order to build a sense of suspense in the reader.  Instead of giving them a road map, you’re often giving them vague or even misleading directions.

As I work through the revisions of my WIP, I’m on the lookout for any instances of ‘academic’ writing.  Thankfully, I haven’t found any yet, so perhaps I learned my lesson.

Saying goodbye to my Mac

The other day, I decided that the time had come to purchase a new computer.  I’d been using a MacBook for writing and most day-to-day stuff and a Dell Inspiron for gaming and I was hoping to find a system that could replace them both.  In other words, I was looking for something both portable and powerful.

Being a huge fan of my Mac, I naturally checked out the MacBook Pros first.  I was hoping that they’d finally have decent graphics cards that would allow me to play games but, alas, that’s still not the case.  The more affordable MacBook Pros only come with an integrated graphics card; you have to spend over $2000 before you get a dedicated graphics card and, even then, it didn’t look to be that great.  I’m not going to be playing Crysis or anything like that, but I do enjoy graphically-demanding games such as the Total War series, so I wanted a system that will hold me in good stead for the next few years.

So I began looking at PCs, namely those made by Asus.  I was pleased to discover that they make affordable machines that get very good reviews.  I didn’t like most of their dedicated gaming machines because of the fugly decals and lights they tart them up with.  But I eventually settled on the Asus N61JQ-X1 since it seemed to give me the power I was looking for in a (relatively) portable body.  (At least it’s smaller and lighter than my old Dell!)  I also loved the price.

I am sad to be bidding farewell to my MacBook though.  I still really like OS X and Scrivener is a great program for writers.  But I couldn’t justify spending almost twice as much money for a machine that would be technically inferior to the Asus I ended up buying.  Someday, when I have more money and more space, I might buy a Mac just for writing.  But until then, I’ll just have to muddle through with MS Word.

A brief history of my work-in-progress

The initial seeds for what would become my current work-in-progress were planted in 2002.  A friend of mine was trying to join a fraternity and, out of curiosity I checked out their website.  I was amused to see that they seemed to think that they were singlehandedly saving the world through their charitable work and it struck me: what if there was a fraternity that actually did save the world?

Given that I’ve always loved contemporary fantasy, it only seemed natural that they’d end up fighting demons and other supernatural nasties.  I decided that, while this group masqueraded as a traditional Greek fraternity, they would really be an ancient order dedicated to fighting the forces of evil.  Early on, I’d ruled out any connection with either the Knights Templar or the Freemasons, since those tropes have become rather tired by now.

I then set about coming up with a suitable protagonist.  The result was Derek, an all-American guy who was descended from the Nephilim, which explained his physical prowess.  He had a best friend named Andrew who functioned as a sort of dorky sidekick.  While Derek was your typical college jock, Andrew was your typical nerd who lived for his books.  Ultimately, both of them were to end up joining the fraternity.

The main antagonist was going to be a demon that had been trapped in a mirror that was in the college’s museum.  Some students would be messing around with the occult and accidentally free him from his prison and then of course carnage would ensue.

Following advice I’d gleaned from some writing book whose name eludes me now, I made ridiculously detailed character bios for each of my main characters, including everything from their physical characteristics to their most embarrassing moments and their favorite songs.  In retrospect, I spent way too much time on all this.  Not only did it keep me from focusing on the Big Picture, but very little of it would likely be relevant to the story itself.

Once I’d finished everyone’s biography, I started writing.  I got through about a chapter before I realized that I hated my main character.  Writing him was like pulling teeth and I suspect it was because he was a Marty Stu.  He was like those strong-chinned guys that you see in the razor commercials who have an admiring female pop out of nowhere to rub their freshly shaven jaw.

I knew it was a bad sign when I as the author was bored to tears by my main character.  I was also less-than-impressed with the demon who functioned as the antagonist.  Despite his copious backstory, he didn’t really have much of a motivation beyond being evil.  And it really bugged me that he was little more than an ethereal Snidley Whiplash.

So I stopped writing for a long time and went back to the drawing board.  All was not lost.  I still liked the idea of the fraternity and I really came to like Andrew.  He was a lot more interesting to write than Captain Cardboard.  He wasn’t gorgeous and he had flaws, but he was witty and sure of himself.  Upon reflection, I decided that, since I enjoyed writing him so much, he should be the main character.

Because I got distracted by many shiny objects, it was years before I seriously revisited my novel.  It remained in the back of my mind and, off and on, I’d come up with new ideas for the plot.  Then in Fall of 2008, I started to get serious about it again and I took the disparate ideas I’d collected over the years and molded them into a new plot.  It was apparent that the story I wanted to tell was too big for just one book, so I started outlining subsequent books in the series.  By the Summer of 2009, I had a series of four books roughly plotted and I was ready to start work on the first book in earnest.

I should add here that I actually began the first book in January of 2009, but I stopped after the first two chapters.  In April of that year, I submitted the first chapter to a critique group at a local fantasy conference and was pleased that it received generally positive reviews.

Once again, I got sidetracked, this time by writing a short story involving the main antagonist from my novel.  The story had some good points, but it was ultimately rendered un-usable by changes I made to the antagonist’s character.

During the Fall of 2009, I plodded away on the novel some more and managed to get ab0ut 20,000 words done by the time winter break rolled around.  I basically devoted all of my winter break to writing and, as a result, I cranked out another 60,000 words by January 1, leaving me with a complete first draft.

So now I’m focused on editing my manuscript.  I started by rereading it its entirety about a week after I’d finished it, but I decided to put it away for a while since a lot of the advice I saw on the ‘Net indicated that you should try to push your first draft out of your mind for a while before you start editing it.  That advice chafed at the time, but I’ve come to acknowledge that it’s probably for the best.  When revising, I need to be ruthless and I can’t do that if I’m still in love with my writing.

Even though the journey so far has been convoluted and at times frustrating, I can’t say I’d want to do anything differently if I had the chance to do it over again.  My first attempts at a novel look painfully amateurish now, but they were mistakes that I needed to make.  (And thankfully I saw the error of my ways before I’d written an 80,000 word manuscript featuring a boring protagonist and a stock villain!).  This long, drawn-out process has also taught me that I really do love writing fiction.  Even if I never get published, the satisfaction I’ve gotten from inventing this wonderful world will make it all worthwhile.

Welcome!

I’ve finally gone and got myself a blog.  I always swore that I would never become a blogger, but I’ve come to the realization that railing against the blogosphere is kind of like railing against the printing press c. 1445.

As you probably guessed from the URL, my name is Jason Loch.  By day I’m a graduate student, but by night I write fiction.  I’m currently in the process of revising a contemporary fantasy novel, so I’ll be using this blog as a place to rant and rave about life as an aspiring author.

In case you’re wondering, Terra peregrina is Latin for ‘foreign land.’  It seemed like an appropriate name for a blog written by someone who loves writing about the fantastic.