Writing work can really sweep me off my feet in a way I don't entirely enjoy, and me going dark is one consequence. So it's time for me to put on the brakes and take a moment to round up the latest happenings.
Undead and Inhuman has taken up the bulk of my time. I'm making progress, and lately I've been averaging about two thousand words a day, but I'm still dragging my legs on it. I've taken three days off since I started last month, and I'm about seven or eight thousand words behind. There's really no sense in whining or making up excuses. I slipped, and now I've got to do my best in making up for it.
Chocolate, the latest Andrew Ursler story, was published by Arts Collide this last week, but you guys already know about that. This week, I'm beginning the first draft of the next installment.
I'm also toying around once again with the idea of doing an online novel as a separate blog. I know I tried doing that earlier this year (twice), but it's a challenge that I'd really like to tackle, and I think it'd be a fun thing to do.
I've been looking to put a website together as well, a real one. I mean, writing this blog has been great, and I don't plan on giving it up, but setting up a website seems like a good way to considate all these other little branches that I have; the blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I've never done a website before, so most of today has been me looking around online and learning the ins and outs of it as I see what my options are.
Sooooo...Yeah. I'm sorry I got all quiet, but that's just a sign that I've been writing more than I've been jabbering.
About Mario
- Mario Piumetti
- Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mario Piumetti is a freelance writer of science fiction, horror, screenplays, and nonfiction. He has a bachelor's degree in English from California Lutheran University and an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University. An avid music lover, his work is heavily influenced by rock, punk, and metal. You can contact him at mario.piumetti.writer@gmail.com.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
New Publication: Chocolate
Hey, folks. Sorry for being so silent lately, but work on Undead and Inhuman has taken up a lot of my time. I've got to get back on the horse with blogging, and I promise I'll try to make some time for an update this weekend.
In the meantime, my Andrew Ursler new story Chocolate is up at Arts Collide.
In the meantime, my Andrew Ursler new story Chocolate is up at Arts Collide.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Story Structure
I've talked about creating plot boards and scene weaves, but there's one last thing about plot that I have to touch on, something a little more foundational, and that it the story structure. Truby elaborates on this in The Anatomy of Story, but I'm going to give you a condensed version of it here.
Truby calls all of these story movements rather than structures. I think that's just a matter of semantics because, to me, the way a story flows from one even to another is the same as its basic structure. He identifies five structures.
The first is the linear story, which everyone is most familiar. The hero focuses on achieving a goal and pursues it relentlessly. There's a beginning followed by a middle, followed by an end; A to B to C to D and finally to E. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, particularly the second half of it, can best be described as linear.
The second kind of story structure is the meandering one, which is similar to a linear story but it flows greatly from one direction to another on its way towards the end. Forrest Gump is a good example of a meandering story. Although he thinks about his love Jenny throughout the film, he doesn't go after her every single step of the way. She's a presence in his mind, but external events lead him from one adventure to the next from meeting presidents to fighting in the Vietnam War. This, I think, is the plot structure that closest mirrors real life because we rarely know where we're heading, and we're pretty much bouncing from one thing to the next.
The third kind of plot is the spiral story in which the story is constantly revisiting a particular event or memory. The first story that comes to mind is the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill, the story of a soldier in an alien war dying and constantly repeating the previous day leading up to his death. As a result of this visitation, he finds greater purpose in the war, increasing his combat skills and looking for a way to end it for good.
The fourth kind of plot is the branching plot. In these plots, the story begins from a central point and continuously breaks off into separate threads. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is, again, an example of this. The Two Towers and The Return of the King look at different groups of the Fellowship after they split up at the Falls of Rauros. The downside to this is that you need to divide the reader's attention among a few main characters.
And finally, there's the explosive story in which everything going on in the story occurs simultaneously. This is more of a magic trick than a set-in-stone structure. Even Truby concedes this: "In a story, you can't show the audience a number of elements all at once, even for a single scene, because you have to tell one thing after another; so, strictly speaking, there are no explosive stories." Dennis Quaid and Sigourney Weaver did a movie a few years ago called Vantage Point that, I think, tried to follow this kind of structure. I could be wrong - I never actually saw it - but from what I've heard, the movie showed a president's assassination from the viewpoint of five different people. Unless you split the screen five ways, you can't show all five stories simultaneously. This is impossible to do with the written word because you can't split a page up five ways.
All these structure types have their pros and cons. Some are simpler than others, like the linear plot versus the explosive plot. Others, like the meandering plot, offer more realism. It's ultimately up to you to decide which one will be the most useful for your purposes.
Truby calls all of these story movements rather than structures. I think that's just a matter of semantics because, to me, the way a story flows from one even to another is the same as its basic structure. He identifies five structures.
The first is the linear story, which everyone is most familiar. The hero focuses on achieving a goal and pursues it relentlessly. There's a beginning followed by a middle, followed by an end; A to B to C to D and finally to E. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, particularly the second half of it, can best be described as linear.
The second kind of story structure is the meandering one, which is similar to a linear story but it flows greatly from one direction to another on its way towards the end. Forrest Gump is a good example of a meandering story. Although he thinks about his love Jenny throughout the film, he doesn't go after her every single step of the way. She's a presence in his mind, but external events lead him from one adventure to the next from meeting presidents to fighting in the Vietnam War. This, I think, is the plot structure that closest mirrors real life because we rarely know where we're heading, and we're pretty much bouncing from one thing to the next.
The third kind of plot is the spiral story in which the story is constantly revisiting a particular event or memory. The first story that comes to mind is the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill, the story of a soldier in an alien war dying and constantly repeating the previous day leading up to his death. As a result of this visitation, he finds greater purpose in the war, increasing his combat skills and looking for a way to end it for good.
The fourth kind of plot is the branching plot. In these plots, the story begins from a central point and continuously breaks off into separate threads. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is, again, an example of this. The Two Towers and The Return of the King look at different groups of the Fellowship after they split up at the Falls of Rauros. The downside to this is that you need to divide the reader's attention among a few main characters.
And finally, there's the explosive story in which everything going on in the story occurs simultaneously. This is more of a magic trick than a set-in-stone structure. Even Truby concedes this: "In a story, you can't show the audience a number of elements all at once, even for a single scene, because you have to tell one thing after another; so, strictly speaking, there are no explosive stories." Dennis Quaid and Sigourney Weaver did a movie a few years ago called Vantage Point that, I think, tried to follow this kind of structure. I could be wrong - I never actually saw it - but from what I've heard, the movie showed a president's assassination from the viewpoint of five different people. Unless you split the screen five ways, you can't show all five stories simultaneously. This is impossible to do with the written word because you can't split a page up five ways.
All these structure types have their pros and cons. Some are simpler than others, like the linear plot versus the explosive plot. Others, like the meandering plot, offer more realism. It's ultimately up to you to decide which one will be the most useful for your purposes.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Gillian
Warning: this post might border on insanity.
I am not in charge of my book. Gillian is.
Let me rewind a bit. Yesterday, I went back to Antioch University to visit some of my professors, catch the student reading of the evening, and hang out with some friends of mine. While there, I caught up with my friend and former teacher Alistair McCartney. He asked how I was doing, and I said that I was okay considering that I've pretty much been laid off for the summer from my tutoring job. Then he asked how my writing was going. I told him about Undead and Inhuman, and said that I was pushing forward on it but that I was still a solid several thousand words behind.
"But I DO have a deadline for myself," I said.
Alistair said that it was important to set deadlines for yourself. But writers also need bosses looking over their shoulders. It's not a free-for-all. Writers need bosses, even if they're known only to the writer. Leonard Chang, another writer who once taught at Antioch, went a step further and created a boss for himself named Ted. The logic was simple: writers, especially freelancers, need the discipline to finish a project. You can't say, "Oh, if I don't finish this story, it's okay because I'm my own boss. I answer to myself." That won't do. That simply will NOT do!
That's where Gillian comes in. Gillian is the literary agent who doesn't exist. She's a loud, foul-mouthed, leather-clad harpy currently working on her fourth divorce. She has a fondness for cigarettes, and when she's particularly pissed off, she'll blow smoke in my face to make sure I know it. I put up with her because at this point in time I don't have the literary clout for a real agent. I think she's a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives, though I have a hard time believing she's ever heard of their ethics code.
Gillian is nothing new. She just sort of popped into my heard around the time I began doing research work for Undead and Inhuman. She was impressed that I got the research and the plotting done in one month rather than two, but now I'm lagging behind with the first draft. She knows this. She knows the work is hard, that life can be a bigger bitch than she is and that sometimes there are days when you really can't get any work done. And maybe - MAYBE - she might be willing to cut me some slack and give me an extra week to finish the first draft is there's no other way around it and I can't meet the deadline to the hour. But now that the cat's out of the bag, she'll be there to nag me every day until I get up to speed. Even if I do get caught up, she'll probably keep showing up just to make sure I don't slack off again, because the longer it takes for me to finish the book, the longer it'll be before there's any possibility of me getting paid for it. And like any agent, she takes a percentage out of my soul. Uh, I mean, my royalties.
It's nearly 2:30 AM now, and I should get some sleep. If I don't rest and get a good amount of words out today, Gillian threatened to turn my ass into an ashtray, light up a cigar, and grind the burning embers into my sphincter.
I am not in charge of my book. Gillian is.
Let me rewind a bit. Yesterday, I went back to Antioch University to visit some of my professors, catch the student reading of the evening, and hang out with some friends of mine. While there, I caught up with my friend and former teacher Alistair McCartney. He asked how I was doing, and I said that I was okay considering that I've pretty much been laid off for the summer from my tutoring job. Then he asked how my writing was going. I told him about Undead and Inhuman, and said that I was pushing forward on it but that I was still a solid several thousand words behind.
"But I DO have a deadline for myself," I said.
Alistair said that it was important to set deadlines for yourself. But writers also need bosses looking over their shoulders. It's not a free-for-all. Writers need bosses, even if they're known only to the writer. Leonard Chang, another writer who once taught at Antioch, went a step further and created a boss for himself named Ted. The logic was simple: writers, especially freelancers, need the discipline to finish a project. You can't say, "Oh, if I don't finish this story, it's okay because I'm my own boss. I answer to myself." That won't do. That simply will NOT do!
That's where Gillian comes in. Gillian is the literary agent who doesn't exist. She's a loud, foul-mouthed, leather-clad harpy currently working on her fourth divorce. She has a fondness for cigarettes, and when she's particularly pissed off, she'll blow smoke in my face to make sure I know it. I put up with her because at this point in time I don't have the literary clout for a real agent. I think she's a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives, though I have a hard time believing she's ever heard of their ethics code.
Gillian is nothing new. She just sort of popped into my heard around the time I began doing research work for Undead and Inhuman. She was impressed that I got the research and the plotting done in one month rather than two, but now I'm lagging behind with the first draft. She knows this. She knows the work is hard, that life can be a bigger bitch than she is and that sometimes there are days when you really can't get any work done. And maybe - MAYBE - she might be willing to cut me some slack and give me an extra week to finish the first draft is there's no other way around it and I can't meet the deadline to the hour. But now that the cat's out of the bag, she'll be there to nag me every day until I get up to speed. Even if I do get caught up, she'll probably keep showing up just to make sure I don't slack off again, because the longer it takes for me to finish the book, the longer it'll be before there's any possibility of me getting paid for it. And like any agent, she takes a percentage out of my soul. Uh, I mean, my royalties.
It's nearly 2:30 AM now, and I should get some sleep. If I don't rest and get a good amount of words out today, Gillian threatened to turn my ass into an ashtray, light up a cigar, and grind the burning embers into my sphincter.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Fear of Failure
I went out to the library today and got a few hundred words done for Undead and Inhuman. I got home and told myself that I had to keep going forward, but I didn't really want to. The truth is that I don't like my book. I've got sixty or seventy pages, and I pretty much hate every bit of it. It's a war story when I don't know how the military really runs. The details seen very flimsy a lot of the times.
I told a friend of mine tonight that maybe writing a novel just isn't in the cards for me. I just felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into despair. I felt like giving up on the story. But then I sat back and thought, "If I do stop this book, what's to keep me from flaking out on the next one? Or the one after that?"
I probably have moments like these daily. Actually, that's not a probably. I do have them daily, in spite of all the tips I can offer about increasing word count and plotting a story. There are a lot of times when the idea of writing a book seems so pathetic and ludicrous that it's hardly worth getting up in the morning.
Finally, I told my friend, "Fuck it. I'm going to keep going with it. I'll keep going with the first draft. And if it ends up being a complete failure in the end, at least no one can say that I didn't try my best with it."
One of my favorite sayings is, "You know you're going to fail if you don't try." If failing is the goal, then not trying is the best way to do it. Hell, I'd kick ass at being a failure. But I'm not trying to be a failure. I'm trying to write my damn novel. The only way to do that is to keep going, keep writing, even when I'm saying out loud, "This is a crock of shit."
I told a friend of mine tonight that maybe writing a novel just isn't in the cards for me. I just felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into despair. I felt like giving up on the story. But then I sat back and thought, "If I do stop this book, what's to keep me from flaking out on the next one? Or the one after that?"
I probably have moments like these daily. Actually, that's not a probably. I do have them daily, in spite of all the tips I can offer about increasing word count and plotting a story. There are a lot of times when the idea of writing a book seems so pathetic and ludicrous that it's hardly worth getting up in the morning.
Finally, I told my friend, "Fuck it. I'm going to keep going with it. I'll keep going with the first draft. And if it ends up being a complete failure in the end, at least no one can say that I didn't try my best with it."
One of my favorite sayings is, "You know you're going to fail if you don't try." If failing is the goal, then not trying is the best way to do it. Hell, I'd kick ass at being a failure. But I'm not trying to be a failure. I'm trying to write my damn novel. The only way to do that is to keep going, keep writing, even when I'm saying out loud, "This is a crock of shit."
The Cure for the Common First Draft
I've said it before, I'll say it again, and I'll keep on saying it until my dying day: first drafts suck more jagged Klingon cock than a Carpathian prostitute. I'm not kidding. Mention first drafts to me and I'll sigh deeply, shake my head, and crave scotch.
I've been working on Undead and Inhuman's first draft for two weeks, and I've been behind on it for most of the last week. I hung out with some writer friends last weekend. I didn't get any writing done on that particular Sunday, but I figured I could just haul ass and catch up. That's how it worked in theory. In practice, I began feeling more and more lazy, and now I'm six thousand words behind.
I wish I could blame my friends, but I can't because when I told them I was leaving, I ended up staying for another hour or so.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up missing my deadline for the first draft by a day or so, a week at most. That's not me feeling sorry for myself, that's just me being realistic. I've been thinking tonight about what I can do to help get back on the horse. I came up with some ideas that might help, and I'm hoping they might help any of you caught missing your word quota.
Wake up earlier (and on time)! I hate saying this. I'm not a morning person. I'm a night owl. Sadly, nighttime isn't really the best period for writers. They say nothing would get done if it weren't for the last minute, but if you leave everything until the end of the day, you're setting yourself up for an ambush. What happens if you've got stuff piling on from earlier in the evening or if a sudden emergency comes up? That precious magic hour suddenly vanishes. Switch things around. Try waking up a little bit earlier so you won't feel rushed at night.
Write in 100-word bursts. I once said that Seth Grahame-Smith advised me to write a thousand words before getting up to pee. He told me this about three years ago. I haven't been able to do it, and I don't think I ever will. Think of writing like sprinting. You can't sprint for a mile, but if you sprint for a hundred meters, take a breather, and repeat, you can get it done after about a dozen bursts or so. Similarly, if you take your daily goal - 1,600 words. 2,000 words. Whatever - and break it up into smaller pieces, it'll feel less stressful. By the way, don't take hour-long breaks in between bursts! Otherwise, you'll be sitting at your computer for, like, sixteen hours!
Unplug the Internet. I like having the Internet handy in case I need to look something up really quick, if I have to confirm a street name or double-check on a quick fact. While the Internet is a great tool for a writer, it's also a massive distraction. Facebook. Wikipedia. Youtube. They get hard-ons distracting you. So disconnect from the Internet for a little while, or at the very least, give yourself a strict no-online policy until you've finished your latest 100-word burst.
Drink coffee. Seriously? If you need someone to explain the necessity of a steaming hot mug of coffee, you might as well dunk your face in it.
Ignore self-doubt. A good and simple piece of advice is always worthy of repeating. No day will go by when you're not feeling like a failure. That feeling sticks in your mind and you can't get it out. It's there 24/7. But even though it's there, you can ignore it. If you want to be hard on yourself, be hard on yourself...after you finish the first draft. Remember, don't worry about how good it is, just worry about finishing it.
I've been working on Undead and Inhuman's first draft for two weeks, and I've been behind on it for most of the last week. I hung out with some writer friends last weekend. I didn't get any writing done on that particular Sunday, but I figured I could just haul ass and catch up. That's how it worked in theory. In practice, I began feeling more and more lazy, and now I'm six thousand words behind.
I wish I could blame my friends, but I can't because when I told them I was leaving, I ended up staying for another hour or so.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up missing my deadline for the first draft by a day or so, a week at most. That's not me feeling sorry for myself, that's just me being realistic. I've been thinking tonight about what I can do to help get back on the horse. I came up with some ideas that might help, and I'm hoping they might help any of you caught missing your word quota.
Wake up earlier (and on time)! I hate saying this. I'm not a morning person. I'm a night owl. Sadly, nighttime isn't really the best period for writers. They say nothing would get done if it weren't for the last minute, but if you leave everything until the end of the day, you're setting yourself up for an ambush. What happens if you've got stuff piling on from earlier in the evening or if a sudden emergency comes up? That precious magic hour suddenly vanishes. Switch things around. Try waking up a little bit earlier so you won't feel rushed at night.
Write in 100-word bursts. I once said that Seth Grahame-Smith advised me to write a thousand words before getting up to pee. He told me this about three years ago. I haven't been able to do it, and I don't think I ever will. Think of writing like sprinting. You can't sprint for a mile, but if you sprint for a hundred meters, take a breather, and repeat, you can get it done after about a dozen bursts or so. Similarly, if you take your daily goal - 1,600 words. 2,000 words. Whatever - and break it up into smaller pieces, it'll feel less stressful. By the way, don't take hour-long breaks in between bursts! Otherwise, you'll be sitting at your computer for, like, sixteen hours!
Unplug the Internet. I like having the Internet handy in case I need to look something up really quick, if I have to confirm a street name or double-check on a quick fact. While the Internet is a great tool for a writer, it's also a massive distraction. Facebook. Wikipedia. Youtube. They get hard-ons distracting you. So disconnect from the Internet for a little while, or at the very least, give yourself a strict no-online policy until you've finished your latest 100-word burst.
Drink coffee. Seriously? If you need someone to explain the necessity of a steaming hot mug of coffee, you might as well dunk your face in it.
Ignore self-doubt. A good and simple piece of advice is always worthy of repeating. No day will go by when you're not feeling like a failure. That feeling sticks in your mind and you can't get it out. It's there 24/7. But even though it's there, you can ignore it. If you want to be hard on yourself, be hard on yourself...after you finish the first draft. Remember, don't worry about how good it is, just worry about finishing it.
Friday, June 14, 2013
My Corner of the Catacombs Anniversary
My Corner of the Catacombs will turn two years old next month, and you (yes, you) have a chance to participate.
To celebrate the blog's dos años, I'm calling for any and all questions from the readers; questions about the craft of writing, the work itself and balancing it with real life, movies that might annoy me, my favorite sandwich, etc. The door is open for you the reader to ask me anything.
Then on July 17th on the blog's second anniversary, I will read and answer your questions. Me, in a video. That way you'll know you're not talking to Skynet. At least, that's the plan. I've never posted video on this site before, and I've got my fingers crossed that I won't screw up.
Questions can be sent either through the blog itself in the comments below, or via Twitter or my Facebook page. The links for both are to the right.
The deadline for questions is July 15th, and the video will be up a couple of days later. So pick your brains and ask away.
To celebrate the blog's dos años, I'm calling for any and all questions from the readers; questions about the craft of writing, the work itself and balancing it with real life, movies that might annoy me, my favorite sandwich, etc. The door is open for you the reader to ask me anything.
Then on July 17th on the blog's second anniversary, I will read and answer your questions. Me, in a video. That way you'll know you're not talking to Skynet. At least, that's the plan. I've never posted video on this site before, and I've got my fingers crossed that I won't screw up.
Questions can be sent either through the blog itself in the comments below, or via Twitter or my Facebook page. The links for both are to the right.
The deadline for questions is July 15th, and the video will be up a couple of days later. So pick your brains and ask away.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)