For me, answering that question is as simple as determining what is a) it that I am interested in; b) what am I currently reading (e.g. news, fiction, scripts, and etc.); c) what has changed in my life recently.

As a result of these (simple) criteria, finding something to write about is rarely difficult. I am interested in the political atmosphere – especially during a presidential election year; I enjoy reading books, especially good books – though you occasionally have to delve into crap to find good authors; I enjoy figurI am married which adds to the writing fodder; I am interested in cars and other mechanical things; more, I have a wide berth of interests that (on occasion) take precedence and cause me to want to write.

These are some of the things I will write about when it comes to places like my blog. However, how do these same “topics” inform what I write when I sit down to work on fiction. Again, how you tell a story (voice) is a part of the kinds of things you see as an individual and are important to you. Therefore, the kinds of things that interest you – and how you write about them, what words and phrases you use to describe your interests (and etc.) are directly linked to what you will write about when you sit down and write fiction.

What all of this means (for you) is that by writing what you like, enjoy, or are interested in regardless of what it is will help you when you decide to sit down and write similar descriptive elements into your fiction.

So, choosing what to write is a matter or realizing what you like and are interested in and then making the time to write about those subjects.

Finding outlets for writing, though, can be pretty hard. There are proponents (in the writing world) that would suggest the only real writing you can do (to accomplish becoming a published author) is writing with an emphasis toward fiction. Granted, I don’t disagree with this assertion wholly, I do disagree with it.

To succeed at becoming a fiction writer the burgeoning author does need to focus a lot of his or her time (writing) toward the area where the author wants to be successful. On the flip-side to that, the burgeoning author will also focus his or her reading time in the areas the author wants to succeed. If you want to write horror, chances are you will be reading horror and working through a variety of short and long pieces that deal with very specific horror elements. One of my (current) favorite authors, Kim Harrison, is sold to a horror market, though I find most of the elements in her books to not fit within that category.

However, this does not negate the need for the individual to begin writing toward a very specific end: writing.

You have to find reasons and ways to write often. As stated before, Neil Gaiman has stated, on his blog, that he was a journalist but is not any longer. He wrote as a journalist, made his living that way, until he felt that what he wrote sounded enough like what he wanted to sound like that he started writing fiction. The fiction started to sell, and as a result we have one of the most talented fantasy authors in the genre today. He is also a proliferate blogger, screenwriter, and bit quite a few teeth writing the Sandman series of comic books as well as others. However, he wrote first.

One reason I maintain a blog(s) is to give me a reason to write (at least) once a day. I don’t always need blogging as a reason to write. For some years I made my living writing technical manuals. Then I decided to turn my attention away from technical manuals and point it toward fiction. Yes, I have written some unpublished books – however, it was the learning a new form of writing (e.g. fiction) that became the focus of my attention for some time. I still write technically (as my new job and boss reiterated as a part of my job), but I also spend a bit of time (most days) writing creative fiction as well.

However, if I do nothing else (except during stated periods of hiatus), I write a blog entry.

For me, the act of writing is as relaxing as the process of working through a new idea. I am working through some creative, long-form, fiction ideas (we call these novels). I also have some short fiction I may start shopping around soon. And yet, when I sit down to blog I don’t sit down with the intent of writing something concise and short; but rather to explore my opinions and ideas on whatever it is I am writing, to compact the entry as densely as I can, and to see how well I can express the idea(s) that I am choosing to explore. Because I read news, some of these are news and politically motivated; because I am a husband (and soon-to-be father) some of these entries are family oriented; because I am a son and brother, some of these are oriented in that way; because I enjoy storytelling, television, and movies, some of the things I write about are oriented in that way.

The objective of the writer is to write. In order to write well, you have to do it frequently. In order to write very well, there needs to be some kind of public forum through which your work can be shown. Blogging is one example of a public forum through which you can share your ideas and (if you want) stories, chapters, or the process of development you are going through as an aspiring author.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I was called to be the second councilor in the Elder’s Quorum presidency. Andy, I live with Andy and Debbie, is the President and a gentleman neither of us knows is the first councilor. He told me, when the call was extended to me and I called him on the floor for playing out that he hadn’t called me into the Elder’s Quorum, that he felt very serious about having me as the second councilor, the his initial response was not to have me in his presidency at all, but that he felt very strongly about having me as a councilor.

I also discovered that there was a forest behind the house across 30 acres of field that remains mostly fallow and is allowed to grow to seed. This forest has a path that leads through the woods and ends at a quarry that sits like a scar on beautiful skin. The point in this is that I have found a place where I can walk and be alone.

What was really cool about this discovery is that I found that the quarry was dug down to the water table in a spot, and since it was at night, and since I had a flashlight on me, I started looking at the water and discovered something was living in the water. Something moved and raced away from the light, which had me thinking about Gollum from the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. As I kept looking whatever it was raced away from the shore, made some noise, and raced back – always keeping out of the light, which was really very frustrating.

I’ve also been working part-time (which is still four days a week) at the bookstore and requested that they bring me on full-time. Garth spoke to Paul who said there shouldn’t be a problem with that but had to check the house before he could make the decision. If I go full-time it will happen in the next couple of weeks.

Today, they had me working in Music all day long, and on top of that, I did re-shelves for the bulk of the day. What that means is that I took products that was had in other parts of the store, on displays, and got to put it back in place in the racks where it belongs, normally. Cheryl, music supervisor, was there and kept watching over me as I worked, which was a little weird, but she kept bringing up conversation topics that were interesting, but at the same time weird as I believe that she is married.

At lunch, as I was trying to work on some writing, there were four girls sitting in the break room who started peppering me with questions about what I was working on, why I typed so fast, why I thought I could get published, why now – to get published and write something, etc., that it was rather awkward. On top of that, I didn’t get any writing done, and really just sat there staring at a screen and only wrote crap.

It’s November 1st and things are going pretty well. I still like the east coast, New England, and what’s happening. In case someone is curious, I have no intention of moving west anytime in the foreseeable future.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2004/11/november-1st-2004/feed/ 0 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2004/10/its-october-now-and-i-needed-to-do-an-update/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2004/10/its-october-now-and-i-needed-to-do-an-update/#comments Mon, 04 Oct 2004 05:18:45 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=24 It is Sunday and the LDS General Conference has just ended. This is the first time in a lot of years that I have not watched or listened to all of the sessions. I do not work, as a rule, on weekends and in coming to New Hampshire I’ve discovered that this rule, of mine, is neither hard nor fast as I now work Saturday’s. In fact, the days off I seem to be getting, at present, are associated with my school schedule and Sunday’s. I refuse to work Sunday’s.

This leads to a conversation, rather one sided I am sure, on work. Work is what it is: meaning, that I stand for about eight hours a day at a register and act as pleasant as possible to as many people as possible and, at the same time, encourage those same people to purchase as much as possible. Lately, that goal has extended to selling a pair of lightsabers we have on display for $99.99 a piece. Several times a day, when crowds are around, we have the tendency to pull one, or both, down and show the people what they can do. You would think, given the nature of impulse buying that goes on, that it would be easier to sell something like that. So far, within the store, the only person who has been successful in that regard is a rather well endowed blond (meaning she has large breasts and it shows) who is also somewhat personable and has this uncanny sense as to what to suggest to people… guys, and then the ability to get them to purchase that same item. Watching her is both impressive and sad all built into the same mold.

Since I work four days out of seven and my schedule is all weird I don’t get a lot of time to sit down and work on other things. My goal for this weekend has been to edit a story I started, and then finish the story, so I can submit it for consideration of publication. Basically, it is a scifi story dealing with a post-dark ages earth where the inhabitants had developed so far that they literally caused the cataclysmic events that turned humanity backward for more than 700 years. The story follows “Ed” who is a survivor of that period and, seeing an end coming, develops a ’stasis’ booth that keeps him alive for x-1000 years in a specially built cave in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico somewhere. In essence, he’s cheated death and returned to life in a time when technology does not exist, outside of blacksmiths, etc. And those who live near the old cities (or on top of them) believe that the ’spires’ and ‘columns’ and ‘blocks’ of the old world are haunted and dangerous and therefore lend themselves to a religion (that religion or those beliefs changing on region, area, distance, etc.)

Anyway, Ed is looking for his wife who was supposed to be in the cave with him but was not there on waking and her chamber was also missing. In his searches he believes he’s located her, but, at the same time, can’t get to her. There are very real dangers that lead to the mythology and folklore that the people, living above the city, have created; and which, only the people who live above the cities can go through – if they had the right knowledge and abilities.

As I’ve been reading the material I wrote a month or two ago I have discovered that it is not the material I’d thought I’d been writing. This goes back to the philosophy of successful writing where no first draft is ever a good draft. William Forrester in Finding Forrester said, “The things we write for ourselves are so much better than the things we write for others.” I wonder if what is meant in this is that the things we write for ourselves, that are intended for eyes only are really only meant for the authors thoughts, not meant for distribution, and therefore are much better as a result.

Since I had written that in the creation of a document meant entirely for my use, purpose, etc. it is interesting to me to walk back through it and think I have thousands of words of usable material to find that I have hundreds of words of usable material and other areas that, in hindsight, need to be fleshed out. I have thousands of ideas and I want to expand on the ideas so much, for this piece, for other pieces, and yet, I am stepping back, literally, and saying, “I can write this much here, this is what I want to do to introduce this world to my audience, and then I will stop for now.”

My thoughts have never really worked in the direction of multiple plots/subplots in a story before. Sure, you have the main plot, which is what the story is about, and then subplots, which exist to support the main plot(s), characters, events, settings, and dialogue; but through it all I guess I’d thought that the process was a little less… involved. That isn’t to say that I didn’t understand that the writing process wasn’t involved, but rather that the elements worked together, differently, to form the finished product.

There is a significant difference from reading amateur fiction and fan fiction than from realizing all the parts and how they compliment each other and then, in turn, how they end up creating a full end story. My intent, with the story I am talking about, is to introduce people, and myself, into a whole new world and see where it takes me. There are a couple of other ideas that I want to throw out there, see where they lead, but right now this one will work for me.

Outside of all that, I did get some positive news at work the other day. Specifically, that we are having a 40% off weekend in two weeks on almost everything in the store AND as employees we get to cull the shelves for the next two weeks for items we want. I am buying books on writing and mythological storytelling, finishing some book collections I’ve got, and trying some new things. The weekend should prove to be expensive but not as expensive as it could be.

As a final note: Having moved from Utah where the majority of people are all of a religion and have missions, church, family, friends, church as a common denominator to somewhere where people know each other principally because they work together or go to school together, they don’t know families and they don’t go to church together; I’ve discovered that the common conversation among people is relationships and drinking (as it applies to having sex and relationships). Further, there is a lack of understanding among a certain age group of one person’s willingness to be himself in the face of overwhelming peer pressure. The experience is interesting.

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