Tag Archives: writing

November 11, 2013

I’m bored: Come on, give me a challenge

Okay, so I’m not really bored. In fact, I’m insanely busy. But that’s life.

I’ve decided to do another Open Prompts story this Friday. I haven’t done one in over a year, so for those of you who don’t know what that is, let me explain.

I take five story elements that you suggest (one per commenter, please) and write a story around them. Examples are:

– the title

– the genre (fantasy, mystery, horror, etc.)

– the tone (dark, humorous , serious, absurd, etc.)

– a character’s name or other details about them

– plot elements (e.g. a silver dagger, a rainstorm, identical twins, etc.)

– the length (something between 50 and 1500 words)

– anything else you feel like.

Nothing sexual, overly graphic, obscene, etc, but I’ll take the first five suggestions I get in the comments. Feel free to make them as random as you want. Come back on Friday to see what I make of it all. As always, you are free to write your own story around the same set of story elements. Please do, because that would be awesome.

15 Comments | tags: blogging, Open Prompts, writing | posted in Uncategorized

November 9, 2013

Nanowrimo? More like Pernofinmo…

By David Stewart

Ah, Nanowrimo. There is always the annual debate among amateur writers: to Nano or not to Nano? Some love the idea and some are against it for various reasons.

Personally, I like Nano. I like the energy and even the deadlines that push you to get things done whether you feel like it or not. I’ve done Nano eight years in a row and won seven of them…until this year. This year I’m not doing it and it’s your fault.

Okay, so it’s obviously not your fault. It’s my fault or at least the fault of this blog. My usual modus operandi for novel writing has been to write a novel in November and then spend the next year (and more) editing it. However, since I started this blog, I have done much less novel editing and consequently, I have two novels from past Nanowrimos that are fifty thousand words long, but are still unfinished stories. As much as I would love to do Nano again this year, I don’t need another unfinished rough draft sitting on my hard drive. What I need is to finish the ones I have.

So I’m not doing Nanowrimo this year. Instead, I’m doing Pernofinmo (Personal Novel Finishing Month) and honestly, it’s a lot harder. For one thing, there’s more editing and retooling of things, which is much slower than just pedal-to-the-metal rough draft writing. Plus, the story I am working on has remained unfinished for two years for a reason. The main theme of the novel is that the main characters (and the whole world for that matter) are struggling with a intractable situation with no easy answers. The problem is, that I don’t have any easy answers either and I have spend tons of hours over the last two years trying to figure out how to end it plausibly. I’ve been making progress, but it’s still slow. I don’t know if I’ll actually finish the story in November, but I’ll try. I still have 21 left.

I get the feeling this guy doesn’t like Nanowrimo

Do you do Nanowrimo? Why or why not? I’m just curious.

13 Comments | tags: blogging, Nano, nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month, novel, outside the tower, writing | posted in Uncategorized

October 8, 2013

Nike was on to something

By David Stewart

There are a lot of mottoes and slogans like “Carpe Diem” and “the early bird gets the worm” but no one puts it as succinctly and bluntly as Nike’s longtime slogan: “Just Do It”.

I think this is going to be my new motto since I tend to struggle with being consistently productive. I’m a great one at making lists and goals and schedules, but it’s a whole other thing to actually stick to them. It’s not a matter of being too busy, it’s just a matter of…just not doing it.

It’s not usually the pressing things; those get done right away since they need to. I prepare for my classes and pay my bills, but the larger, more long term things often get put off.

As an example, I have an elderly relative whom I write letters to from time to time. She is probably the last person I know who doesn’t have Internet access. However, I haven’t written to her for months. I’ve thought about her a lot, but haven’t written. How long does it take to write a letter? 5-10 minutes, at the most. So, why don’t I just do it?

The same is with submitting stories to literary magazines. It’s something I want to do and is part of my (hopefully) future career, but I haven’t been as proactive as I’d like to be. I’ve submitted some, but not nearly as many as I could have by now.

So what’s the answer? I’ve been trying to be very disciplined in how much time I spend on time wasters like games (read Minecraft) and online videos and I’m trying to make small goals each day.

What do you do to make sure you get the things done that you need to?

8 Comments | tags: carpe diem, Just Do It (Nike), Nike, productivity, writing | posted in Uncategorized

September 9, 2013

Minecrack – The Confessions of a Recent Addict

By David Stewart

When my good friend Mike finally got me into Minecraft, I went into it like someone who decides to take up recreational heroin. Of course, that was also the reason why I resisted buying it for so long: I knew it was insanely addictive. And now that I have it, it is exactly as addictive as I had expected, although in a good way (unlike heroin, in case someone thought this was a convoluted endorsement of hard drugs). Now, I find that anytime I have trouble writing or am just feeling too tired, the lure of the game beckons me. However, despite the slight loss in productivity, I still don’t feel that lingering feeling of regret when I finish playing, like that sour feeling you get when you eat an entire bag of gummy bears in one sitting (hypothetically). Here’s why:

Here is how I imagine the real Green-Walled Tower.

1. It’s Totally Creative: drool… This is the kind of program I have been looking for for a long time. This is the reason that I want to have a room full of Legos someday. A very long time ago, I had a Lego computer program that was similar, except nowhere near as powerful. After one house, the landscape started disappearing as the computer ran out of memory. But now, I can create almost anything that comes into my mind. And believe me, I can come up with some pretty freaky stuff. The only sticking point is time, since I like things big and you still have to place every block individually. Currently I’m working on a setting from the first novel I ever wrote. It’s a pool, surrounded by five temples, on top of a fortified hill, in a huge city in a deep cleft of a valley. After about an hour or so, I’m almost finished the pool.

2. It’s Open-Ended: I’m using both the creative mode to make the aforementioned pool/city, but also playing in survival mode, where you have to find food and not get killed by monsters. It is way better than most games because you can manipulate everything . Currently, I’m at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft with monsters all around. In a normal game, I’d have to fight my way out to get back to my house and recharge. Not in Minecraft. There, I can block off a shelter, dig it out bigger, make a crafting table and make more weapons and armor, even smelt ore into metals, all while I’m stuck at the bottom of a mine. I can make my own staircases or ladders, dig straight in any directions or basically do anything I want.

The upper room, where the creative magic happens.

I realize I’m late in the game (as usual with technology; I just got a smart phone a few months ago) and that over half the world has already played Minecraft. But to those few out there who haven’t played it, I would just say that it’s awesomely creative and awesomely addictive. I’m still exploring what I can do, but I would like to make stories and set them in a Minecraft world that I create, recording the whole thing on video. So we’ll see. You never know what will come out of the Green-Walled Tower.

11 Comments | tags: addiction, blogging, creativity, games, gaming, Minecraft, outside the tower, The Green-Walled Tower, world-building, writing | posted in Uncategorized

August 20, 2013

A Sneak Peak at “Giselle”

By David Stewart

Well, my story “Giselle” is finally out. Thanks again to Amy at the Bumble Files for the inspiration and Sorina at Chosen Voice for the awesome cover. Here is a sneak peek at the story:

Giselle

1. September 5, 2008

Rashid

The Lebanese restaurant and bar, Al-Diwan, was a place where strange characters would appear from time to time. No one knew this better than Rashid, the bouncer. The bar was located between the docks and the warehouse district and besides the regulars, sailors and lonely weirdos would often come to drink a quiet glass of arak and ogle the belly dancers. As long as they paid up front and did not bother the dancers, Rashid didn’t mind.

It was a Tuesday night and business was slow when a man walked down the road from the direction of the warehouses. He wore a jacket and jeans, with a bulky knapsack slung over his shoulder. He looked to be in his 40s, and the bouncer was surprised to see a thin plastic tube snaking out of the backpack and into his nose. The guy must have smoked ten packs a day since elementary school to be on oxygen this early in life.

“Excuse me, what’s the date today?” the man asked.

“It’s September 5th,” Rashid said.

“You sure?”

“It’s my mother’s birthday tomorrow. I’m sure.”

The man nodded vaguely. “Today’s Friday, right?”

“It’s Tuesday,” Rashid said. He was beginning to suspect there was more than just oxygen going through the tube into the man’s nose. “You wanna know the year too?”

“No, no, that’s fine. I’m pretty sure it’s still . . . 2008. Still, do you have the time, by any chance?”

Rashid sighed and glanced at his watch. “9:23. And fifteen seconds. You coming in or you got some more questions for me?”

“No, no, I’ll come in.”

“You gonna eat supper or just go to the bar? There’s a two drink minimum if you’re not eating.”

“I won’t be eating or drinking, thank you, but I’ll go to the bar. Here.” The man pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and handed it to the bouncer.

Crackpot, Rashid thought as he pocketed the money and ushered the man inside. Some loser thinking that the dancer was his own private show. Sure enough, the man went to the bar and sat down close to the stage. He waved off the bartender’s inquiry and didn’t even touch the complimentary peanuts—just sat and looked up at the dancer.

The man had good timing. Giselle was dancing tonight and Rashid had to admit she was one of the best dancers he had ever seen. The sinuous way her body flowed with the music seemed almost magical. It was mesmerizing. Rashid would have asked her out in a second if he wasn’t already dating one of the waitresses.

The man with the backpack seemed entranced and barely took his eyes from her. That was nothing strange—Giselle was gorgeous, but the oxygen tube, and the way he didn’t eat or drink anything made Rashid keep an eye on him. Half an hour later, the man went to the bathroom and never came out. Rashid finally went to check on him. The bathroom was empty. The man was a damned magician.

Later that night, when Rashid was counting his money, he found that the fifty was missing. He searched everywhere, but it was gone. Damned magician indeed.

2. February 19, 2024

Isaac

Dr. Isaac Chu stepped off the steel platform with shaky legs. He unhooked the oxygen tube from his nose and took a deep breath. It had worked. After all this time, it had worked. This would make history and make him the most famous man on Earth, if he dared to tell anyone.

“Computer: record video, start.” A small camera moved to track his face and a green light came on. Isaac looked up at it. “Personal notes, 02:45, February 19, 2024. I have made the first successful journey back in time, arriving at 19:44, September 5, 2008, as corroborated by a local source. Energy required was 1.9743 gigajoules.”

He paused. He needed to document everything while it was fresh in his mind, but she kept crowding out all his other thoughts. He saw her face in his mind and the way her body had moved. Giselle Guerin. It was like that line from Casablanca: of all the Lebanese bars in all the towns in all the world, he walked into hers. It was like fate.

It had been a shock to step into that darkened bar and see someone from his university physics class dancing on the stage. And not just anyone, but Giselle. He had had a crush on her all the first year and just when he had built up a critical mass of courage to ask her out, she had disappeared; dropped out of the physics program and out of the university, never to be heard from again. It was hard to believe that she had quit school just to become a belly dancer. No normal person would throw away a chance at studying at MIT to dance in bars. He felt bad for her, but also he suddenly had the desire to find her.

***

If you liked that and want to find out what happens, click on the link or on the cover below to read the rest. It only costs $0.99 so please, go check it out.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/348796

18 Comments | tags: fiction, Giselle, romance, science fiction, Smashwords, sneak preview, Sorina, time travel, writing | posted in Dusk

August 16, 2013

“Giselle” is almost here

By David Stewart

Riddle: what does belly dancing have to do with time travel?

You will find out when my new short story, “Giselle”, comes out, hopefully next week.

I first started working on this story in February. It all started as an Invitational Prompts story. I have only done three of these, but they are where I ask one person to give me some prompts and I write a story around them. The first was “The Circle of Unbeing” which I did for Sharmishtha Basu. “Giselle” is actually the second one, which I did for Amy at The Bumble Files. The original prompts were: a sci-fi/time travel genre, a professor, a belly dancer, a message in a bottle, and an empty warehouse.

I quickly had an idea for the story, but it was slow going and I restarted it several times. Time travel stories are also quite complicated and necessarily non-linear, so it also took a while to root out all the pesky plot holes. As well, the story kept growing until I knew that I could not do it justice by simply breaking it up into installment like I did with The Circle of Unbeing. So, I will be releasing it on Smashwords as an e-book.

Incidentally, do you know Sorina M? If you are a blogger, do you follow her blog at Chosen Voice? If not, go check it out right now. I’ll wait. I have been a blogging friend of hers for a long time now and her work is absolutely amazing. Here is one of my favorites of her recent work, called Wearing a Nebula.

You can understand how honored I felt when she agreed to make the cover for my story. Here it is:

I’m currently putting the last touches on the story and getting ready to upload to Smashwords. I’ll post again when it is available.

6 Comments | tags: cover art, ebook, Giselle, Invitational Prompts, publishing, short story, Sorina, time travel, writing | posted in Uncategorized

June 22, 2013

Baker’s Dozen preview

By David Stewart

A man named Forrest goes to work one day, worried about his small problems in his insulated world. Then a mysterious message appears on his computer screen, telling him to get out of the building. He does, just as it explodes. He is quickly thrust into a maelstrom of chaos, warring factions and uncertain allegiances. Everything seems to be centered around a medallion that his father gave him before he died. They say it has hidden power and powerful, shadowy forces will stop at nothing to get it.

This is the premise of a collaborative story with 13 chapters that has been ongoing for a couple months, run by my friend Joe Owens. Next week, on Tuesday or Wednesday, my installment of the story will be posted, which will be the 12th and second last chapter.

If you are interested in reading the ones that come before, here is the link to them. It starts with the most current chapter, Chapter 11, but the links to the earlier ones are there too.

6 Comments | tags: Baker's Dozen, blogging, collaborative, Joe Owens, writing | posted in Uncategorized

May 10, 2013

The Story of My Story Queue

By David Stewart

Today, instead of writing a story, I’ m going to write about writing stories. Friday is my hardest day of the week, work-wise, and if I don’t have a story ready to post when I get home, there is little hope of getting one written in the evening. So instead, let me tell you about my story queue.

As long as I have been writing, I have had a file for story ideas. This is just a place where I can write random thoughts and ideas that might develop into a story later on. Some of these ideas are terrible, but at least several of my novels sat for years as one-line premises in a story idea file before I developed them into full-length novels.

For my blog, I have a separate story idea file that is mostly for short stories. It has about 45 story ideas in it now. Some are quite terrible and will never be written, but most could have a shot at being decent if/when I get the time and chance to write them.

Recently, however, I have a new thing developing, which is my story queue. These are stories that I have either committed to writing or that I am actively planning to write, and this is growing quite fast as well. Here is what it looks like at the moment:

– a full story based on my Visual Fiction story, Blue Storm (monsters raining from the sky)

– a full story based on the Visual Fiction story, The Sundering Fog

– a longer story based on my Classics Arguments story

– a longer story based on The Lake

Are you sensing a theme? These are either flash fiction stories or teaser stories I wrote that people have commented that they’d like to hear more about. Of course they are stories I am interested in too, or I wouldn’t even consider writing more about them. I don’t mind sharing these, since they’re all based on posted stories. However, there are others that I am working on, or planning, that I am more hesitant to share, since they’re still just ideas. Here are a few of them:

– a time travel story that I’m writing for Amy of the Bumble Files, as part of my Invitational Prompts series. I’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s about 10,000 words, but soon it will be finished and I will post it in sections.

– a story about North Korea (#3 in the Invitational Prompts series), which I will be writing based on ideas provided by nightlake.

– a story about a (fictional) friend named Sammy. We all know a Sammy. He’s quite a guy, and not always in a good way.

There are a few others that are less defined or that I don’t want to share yet. I am going to write all of these eventually and I will give priority to the Invitational Prompts stories, but the main problem with this list is that about half the stories I write come from sudden inspiration. I get an idea, sit down, and just write it, maybe in half an hour or an hour (not including an equal amount of time for editing). So, it always takes me a while to get through the list and then more things make their way onto it.

Writing is a very private thing, but I’m curious: how do you write your stories or blog posts? Do you have ideas that you plot out, or do you write everything off the top of your head? Since I do both, I see the merits of both, but I’d love to hear what you have to say about the matter.

http://www.fanpop.com

18 Comments | tags: blogging, story ideas, writing | posted in Uncategorized

May 8, 2013

Story Premise Challenge: And the Winners are…

By David Stewart

Last Tuesday, I posted a challenge where I put up three pictures, with random words below them and asked people to come up with story premises based on them. I got 16 premises and picked out my favorite one for each picture. They are:

1. “Mermaid/Jerk”

Winner: nightlake – “Mermaid sighted in disputed waters sparks territorial fight between warring neighbours.”

2. “Car/Peacock”

Winner: Michelle Proulx – “Reginald Hammersworth, secret agent extraordinaire, is ready for his next big mission … until Z gives him his new ride: a cute little red car with a sassy AI named Mrs. Peacock.”

3. “Kneeling Man in Woods/Violin”

Winner: Jilanne Hoffmann – “Please Mom, if you help me find my way out of this jungle, I promise I’ll practice the violin every day for the rest of my life.”

I promised prizes for the winners, but since everyone is different, I’ll let them decide what they want. So, Nightlake, Michelle, and Jilanne, read carefully and let me know which one you would like to receive.

I will write a story and dedicate it to you. You would suggest a few key story elements (theme, genre, characters, plot elements, etc.) and I would use them to write a story. I call this Invitational Prompts and I’ve done it twice before. The first was the story The Circle of Unbeing, which I wrote for Sharmishtha Basu. The second is a story I have been writing for some time for Amy of The Bumble Files, which should be out soon. If you choose this one, email me at greenwalledtower@gmail.com and we’ll talk about it.
I will email you a picture of a word or phrase of your choosing (e.g. your name, your blog address, etc.) spelled out creatively (e.g. with jelly beans, in Korean, spray-painted on the side of a police car…)
I will mail you a small souvenir from Korea, which is where I live (you will need to email me your mailing address because I suck at guessing mailing addresses).
I will give you one (1) piece of advice. (Note: NOT RECOMMENDED. My only piece of advice is “shape up and fly right”)
I will make a video in which I will read a short story of your choosing in a creative location (i.e. not in front of my computer). It could be either one of mine or yours or one that I won’t get sued for using. I’ll give a shout-out to your blog on it.

Let me know which you’d like, and if you didn’t win, there’s always next time.

8 Comments | tags: challenge, contest, premise, prize, short story, writing | posted in Uncategorized

April 30, 2013

Story Premise Challenge: Ready, Set, Go!

By David Stewart

A couple days ago I posted a quote on Facebook that said, “Original ideas appear at the nexus of dissimilar concepts.” I didn’t get a lot of comments on it, but what I meant by it was that I sometimes come up with novel idea by sticking two very different things together. For example, I might put the picture of cogs below with the word “chocolate” and come up with the premise: “A chocolate factory in Switzerland is sabotaged by the Jelly Bean Army, sparking the first of the Candy Wars.”

Okay, I just made that up on the spot. They’re not always very good, but it’s a good way of getting the creative juices flowing and thinking of things from a different angle.

So, now it’s your turn. Below there are three pictures with random words attached to them. The words were provided by my wife, who didn’t see the pictures and wasn’t sure why I was asking her to give me random words, as evidenced by the first one.

Your challenge is to give a one-sentence story premise based on one of the picture-word combinations (do as many as you want, of course). Multiple entries are encouraged. I’ll let this go for a week and then pick the best one and give them some sort of prize. I’ll let them pick from some choices and although it won’t be money, I’ll try to make the choices cool. So, here are the three pictures:

1. “Mermaid/Jerk”

2. “Car/Peacock”

3. “Kneeling Man in Woods/Violin”

Ready, set, go!