Personal Note: I am SO behind on EVERYTHING!

 Dear Reader,

I made the mistake of looking at the writing calendar I set up way back in January of this year. It is a brutal reminder of just how much my writing schedule got destroyed by the effects of Covid-19 on my community. Distance learning was a big thing for the first half of the year. Theoretically, that meant that the kids were working on their laptops and I could be working on mine. In actual practice, that meant that I had to sit and active monitor their work so that they weren't spending school time looking at cat videos and listening to fart sound effects. (It was a daily battle with one child because he finds these things hilarious and will sneak around to watch/listen to them.)

I have a list of projects that are all stuck in a holding pattern because I just haven't had the time or the energy to work on them. Camp NaNoWriMo was supposed to be my "finish last year's NaNoWriMo project" and it was spent focusing on distance learning with the kids. It was frustrating but we got through it. I thought that maybe the summer session of Camp NaNoWriMo would go better, it didn't because then the kids had distance learning summer school.

My editing time has been eaten up by household chores and depression. I'm still to some extent reeling from spending half a year acting as a teaching assistant for both of my boys who are learning disabled. The rapid switching between grade level work and different needs was exhausting. I used to be able to do this fairly well but ever since I became disabled, it's gotten a lot harder. Thus, when the time came to consider if we were going to risk sending them into school or continue distance learning, we chose to send the boys into school.

The school has been taking safety precautions very seriously and making sure that everyone follows them. The boys are in a classroom with the academic support that they need. And their grades are doing well. My youngest boy has taken to trying to write his own books in his free time. I am entirely unsurprised by this as he's become hyperfocused on the Captain Underpants books. We might be writing the author a letter and sending him some fan art in the near future. In the meantime, I have been attempting to provide gentle guidance in the art of writing a manuscript. While this has been taking time away from my working on my manuscripts, he is getting better at organizing his writing which is helping his grades go up.

With the kids going to school, we have settled into a routine that is allowing me to get some writing done. Currently, I am trying to finish my third NaNoWriMo project from this year. The projects for NaNoWriMo are focused on a casual book offer that came from an associate of mine. I originally wrote about two novels worth of fan fiction for his Live Action Role Play game system. I sent it to him with a note to use it as he wished. Next thing I know, I'm being asked to create some fiction that is set in that universe to help give some flavor to the game system. This turned NaNoWriMo into my writing like I was on fire. (I think this was assisted by a hypomanic episode, because I turned out two books in two weeks, one 50k and one 60k words.)

Now it is December and I'm trying to do multiple things at the same time. I have the crafting of yule presents (I'm almost a third of the way through my list. I started late this year.), cleaning up the apartment so we can decorate for the kids, the act of decorating, and my holiday baking. In the midst of all this, I'm still trying to do my daily writing in my journals and my creative writing (like finishing the 3rd NaNoWriMo project in short order). Blogging keeps falling a bit low on my list of things to do because I'm a bit disorganized right now.

December has always been a chaotic month for me in the form of getting things done. It always arrives with a hefty dose of Seasonal Affective Disorder, Bipolar II related depression, and a laundry list of trauma anniversaries. As such, it's really hard to get into the holiday spirit because almost everything about "holiday cheer" triggers revulsion and a powerful aversion to it all. So, I have to push through that to get the holiday stuff for the kids done. Because we're a heathen oriented household, yule isn't just one day like christmas. We observe it for thirteen days, starting around christmas for the convenience of the rest of the extended family. During yule, I take my time off from 'work' which means my blogs tend to go quiet and my manuscripts languish as I focus on relaxing and spending time with my family.

I confess, I am tempted to spend yule working on back work. I'm not going to do it because it will shoot my stress levels up through the roof, but I am tempted.

Anachronism: the Good, the Bad, and the WTF

 Dear Reader,

Anachronism is a tricky thing to work with. Some authors wield it like a surgeon's scalpel and others are more ham fisted about it. If it is done well, anachronism can enhance your story and add some interesting nuances that one doesn't typically encounter in the genre. If it is done poorly, it breaks the suspension of disbelief and can devastate your story's continuity. (Perhaps some day, I will share the tale of the romance novel with modern clocks in a medieval setting. It was bad. At least the cover art was ok.)

Anachronism is placing things or concepts in to the wrong time setting. Like the medieval romance novel with modern clocks is an example of an object in the wrong time period. Now, there are modern anachronism where things of antiquity pop up. You see this happen as a common trope in urban fantasy where some kind of ancient relic is a major plot device. A fine example of this can be seen in Neil Gaiman's short story Chivalry. His handling of both the relic and the knight seeking the relic is excellent. These elements of the story remain true to their time period despite the fact that they are transported to the modern era. (I'd give more details but I wouldn't want to give spoilers.) 

A bad example of this can be seen in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The grail scene is poorly executed and campy at best. The only good version of anachronism that pops up in that movie is the motorcycle jousting scene. (I have more opinions on the Indiana Jones franchise, but I can summarize them by saying it's a pulp series of movies with big name actors that are the only reason why it made it to the box office.) And then you have a series that just throw anachronism and nonsense at the wall to see what sticks and use that as plot fodder. (Xena and Hercules, I'm looking at you.)

Badly done anachronism for the purpose of humor is fine. It is a hallmark of some authors' work. Historical fiction that's slap-dash and full of speculation about alternate timelines that include anachronistic elements can make for a fun read. Terry Prachett's Nation is a great example. The best part of how Sir Pratchett handled it was the fact that he had characters recognize and comment on it. Because Sir Pratchett was the master of breaking the fourth wall intentionally.

Anachronism breaks the fourth wall when done poorly. If you are deft and subtle, however, you can use anachronism to crack that fourth wall a bit to add new dimension to your story.

What is your writing style? Don't know? That's ok.

 Dear Reader,

Before I started writing books, I worried about if my writing style would appeal to the masses. I worried that I wouldn't find my 'voice' and that my work would be confined to the perpetual slush pile of shame. I spent a lot of time in college working on academic papers along side working on my first book. (Well, revision two of my first book, because revision one got destroyed. I'll get to that in a minute.) Some of my academic writing leaked into my fiction work. Some of my fiction work leaked into my academic work. It was a weird period in my writing life.

The thing I learned from that period was that it didn't matter what my style was like or what my 'voice' was. The thing that mattered was to be precise in what I was conveying. I had to demonstrate conclusions in a manner that was clearly understood by someone who wasn't an expert on the topic. When I did use jargon, I did so in a manner that allowed my reader to figure out its meaning through context cues. In some situations, I gave definitions with the first time I introduced a term that I expected would be unfamiliar to my reader. My work had to have a logical progression, something that tied the narrative together in a fashion that made sense.

The biggest lesson that I carried away from that mixed up writing period of my life was that I had to support what I was presenting with the strongest arguments I could give. One may wonder what these practices that are more typically applied to writing non-fiction have to do with writing fiction. The ability to suspend reality is necessary for good fiction. If you can present your work in a way that holds together with an internal logic that isn't too far beyond the scope of reality, that helps suspend reality and gives you the opportunity to do some pretty nifty things in your fiction. If you have invented terms, you need to make them accessible to your reader. This will give depth to your writing and will work to draw your readers deeper into your created world. Action in a story must follow a logical progression that comes to a clearly illustrated conclusion - even if that conclusion is a cliff hanger - that would make sense to someone who hadn't read any of your work before.

I still don't know how to describe my writing style. I don't know how to describe my writing voice. It's alright, though, because I am focusing on my content. Focusing on your content and your work, the rest will fall into place.

Craft of Writing: Grind your way through or not?

 Dear Reader,

It's a tough question when you are just burned out and you have a project sitting on your workbench. Do you grind your way through the writing process to get at least something down on paper or do you stop and take a rest? There's merits to both approaches. It gets complicated, however, when funky brain chemistry gets added to the mix. You may be the sort of writer who gets a dopamine hit when they reach word count or plot related goals. You may be the sort of writer who finds writing an escape from their stress and anxiety.  Regardless of the type of writer you are, depression sucks a lot of the joy out of the task of writing and turns it into an exercise in endurance.

Grinding your way through a project when you are depressed is a heroic accomplishment that feels like it is just not good enough to see daylight. Setting the project aside when you are depressed feels like further evidence that the lies of depression are accurate (i.e. you're not a real writer, your work isn't worth the time you put into it, etc.) and that can make your depression worse. There are times, however, that it is wise to put aside a project. If grinding your way through the project is making your depression worse, set it aside. If grinding your way through the project is making your anxiety spike, set it aside. If grinding your way through the project in anyway negatively impacts your mental or emotional health, set it aside until you are well enough to work on it again.

This is not a defeat. Your project will be there waiting for you to return to it with fresh ideas, fresh eyes, and a renewed sense of purpose. This is a tactical withdrawal from a struggle that you are heavily burdened by. This is you taking a breather so that you can come back to the project with more energy and focus. If you need to step away, do so with no shame. Shift focus to something that is restorative and spend time refilling your reserves so that you have it in you to continue to fight the good fight of writing or creating art.

NaBloPoMo 13? I surrender.

  There's no way that I am going to make up the missing posts for the remainder of this month. Being sick for two weeks with that sinus infection threw everything off. Then I got hyper-focused on writing books. Add to that the chaos of a few days of distance learning, the kids being off from school for a few days, and the typical afternoon/evening chaos when they get home from school ... Well, you can see why I made it to thirteen posts before I hung up my hat on this front.

NaBloPoMo 12: Two fisting coffee and water, come at me, bro!

 I've a full night of sleep. I'm on my second gigantic mug of coffee. I feel like I'm warmed up for working on my novel. Now I have epic music playing on my play list. Seriously, listening to this makes me feel like I've got a horde of vikings at my back cheering me on. If I get organized enough, I may take a break from the novel to write something for my pulpy scifi. I'm leaving my options open for the next blog post for today. But, if you're writing fantasy or urban fantasy, I highly recommend epic music to play in the background. It can make the scene gel in your head as you're working.

NaBloPoMo 11: Music.

 I've been playing this song on repeat since the election. It just feels appropriate. It's also been useful inspirational music for scenes that I've been writing. I have it on my NaNo2020 playlist on Spotify. The biggest scene that Dear God inspired was a massive fight scene where my characters chewed through a stronghold that was lit on fire. It was inspired by a LARP scene that my character was part of a team that did that. It was brutal and chaotic. And it seemed like all the other PCs and NPCs were just throwing everything at the big bad guy and his minions to no effect. Then my PC got the drop on him and put him out of commission. It was a fun game. It's been fun writing in this universe and recreating the LARP scenes out of memory from a different perspective. If I could share excerpts, I would. I'm doing the next best thing by sharing music that I'm writing by.