Category: fiction

Productive, elevating and exhausting retreat

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Safely back, 16,000 words later, and ready to have a break now to catch up. Lovely environment, by a river with morning birds and waving pine trees, hardly anyone around. I took some photos with the cellphone, when I scrape them off that, I’ll upload them here and at flickr.

Productivity? Lots of stories completed to a first draft stage, others re-written from abandoned first drafts and much better for it. Now to print these out and start work on them all over again.

Funny thing, I seemed to go mostly sci-fi and some fantasy, very little horror or literary.

Writing retreats …

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

So I’m going away for three nights on retreat, with a bunch of notes and the laptop, expecting to come back with some first draft stories and some editing done on others.

Why? Why should I need to get away? Shouldn’t my workspace be set up well enough that I can write at my desk, in my home-office?

Well, it is – I have an excellent encouraging set-up with two desks, one for handwriting one with a computer, great lighting, an armchair for reading, packed bookshelves for inspiration. But there is something else that being elsewhere brings – a new space, different sounds, different views, different distractions. No internet, no laundry or dishes, no house repairs to be done or garden to be weeded (and boy does the garden need weeding) – nothing hovering: just concentrated writing time.

Orson Scott Card – Keeper of Dreams

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Orson Scott Card – Keeper of Dreams

This collection of stories by sci-fi superstar is a patchy mix of a variety of odd pieces from a variety of sources – most of his stories have been compiled in earlier collections and since he focuses on novels more than stories there are fewer stories left to put into a volume.

While the stories are cool and compelling, what Card does so well is offer commentary about each: about the history and writing process that went into making the story, whether it be something he thought might be a novel, or a quirky idea he had or what have you. As a writer I find this aspect of the book the most interesting – more so than the stories themselves even. How does Card’s mind tick, why does he write the way he does, and so on. Fascinating, and perhaps as good as almost any writing course might be. I once had a friend to ask me to recommend a good guide to writing a novel and I suggested reading Card’s Pastwatch: The Redemption

Card’s official site is here.

Voice-over

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Following yesterday’s post on movie voice-over as a telling rather than showing technique, I was thinking about the seminal cult movie Blade Runner whose initial release included a narration, but later “Director’s Cut” versions eliminated that – making the movie, to my mind, stronger and more engaging. I sometimes wish I’d never seen that original, which seems to diminish the later “Final Cut”.

The invention of telling

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One of the popular credos of creative writing is “show, don’t tell”. This is a kind of multi-cellular thing – sometimes for the sake of brevity or pace you’ve just got to write some exposition or state an emotion – but mostly not. I’m guessing it also depends on your audience too – who are you writing for?

Last weekend I watched the first few minutes of The Invention of Lying before switching it off. Now the movie has garnered some good reviews, and I do admire Ricky Gervais’s talent – his moment was the best thing about Night at the Museum (don’t get me started on that movie, whew) – and his energy, his comic timing and skills both on and off screen. The premise behind The Invention of Lying seems pretty cool too: a world where no one can tell a lie, upset by someone who discovers how to. The thing was – and here’s the point about show, don’t tell – the movie begins with a voice-over explaining all that.

Why explain so explicitly? Where’s the elegance, the subtlety, the build? I guess it’s worked on a level, given the positive reviews on IMDB, and since I didn’t watch the rest of the movie I can’t speak about it’s merits later on (just that the first voice over, and the first couple of lines of dialogue were enough to put me off). From the cover and blurb I already knew enough about all that – I guess I was looking for some chance to discover this world, to learn and grow with it, rather than being slammed with the obvious right off.

I’m in no position to dis the film – that’s not my intention – I just want to examine that technique and question it. What if they’d begun just with that city fly-over, then in the building as the nervous man (shown through his demeanour and actions) heads to his blind-date’s door, without the voice-over? What if their first moment of conversation was a little more subtle? Certainly, that would have engaged me more – and I likely would have watched beyond that.

David Niall Wilson, interview on Flashes in the Dark

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Lori Titus, editor at Flashes in the Dark interviewed David Niall Wilson about his novels and writing process. I especially enjoyed his discussion about beginning writing a novel as a series of independent short stories (but completing the novel without it all being independent, because that’s what it needed), something I’ve worked with a little, well, interlinking stories anyway: I know it’s a tough thing to do.

Read the interview here.

David Niall Wilson’s website is here

Twin Fish

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

I drew this years ago when I was drawing with pen and ink a lot more. It seems to fit with the idea of Jacob’s Naked Aquarium.

Inspired by Ian Miller’s art – especially his Hollywood Gothic, I drew loads of fish. This must be from later on in that period, when I was being less imitative – not quite as mechanical as some of my others. I will track down something more mechanical for a future post.

Jacob’s Naked Aquarium – flash fiction at Bewildering Stories

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

My magicpunk story Jacob’s Naked Aquarium appears in issue 390 of Bewildering Stories.

While all my stories feel like favourites, this is something different and extra – I feel more attached to this one than some others. I look at it now and can see a few rough edges, though some of those have been neatly smoothed by some great editing from the Bewildering Stories team.

Is magicpunk a sub-genre? It’s not a “magic realm” story, though it exploits magic. It’s not “steampunk”, though it has elements of that – no computer technology as such. But it’s some kind of mix between the two. Oh, does it really need a genre label – can’t it just be a story?

Funny doodle – I think I’ll grab one of my old fish drawings and put that here to look a bit more classy.

Writing on … love to be busy

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

Well, with the excitement of the publication of the first part of my novel still hovering, I found loads of energy over the weekend to write.

I got busy with my dieselpunk serial. I completed the tidied up the ending of the first draft last night. I will work on a couple of other stories over the next few days, then tear into revisions on the dieselpunk piece. Somehow in the midst of that I managed a rough cover for my Lame Goat Press chapbook – more on that later this week.

I’m having another quick retreat in a couple of weeks – heading away for three nights in a cabin: just me and the laptop. I’ve got a bunch of outlines and beginning drafts for flash stories I’ll be working on.

And I’m prepping for another Pecha Kucha night – doing some creepy slides to go with Zombie-Eyed Girl which I’ll be reading aloud.

And then, of course, there is tutoring prep – reading and re-familiarising myself with the lectures and readings. Must make some time to create some new music too. Love to be busy.