Flash Fiction

The Killer Chicks are having a contest of Epicness! There are three ways to win, and a total of $100 at amazon up for grabs. (See what I mean when I say total Epicness?)

Go HERE to enter. You have into Halloween.

Anyways, one of the ways to win is to write a flashfiction entry. I've never tried to write one before and it was actually really fun. Nice and quick. You have to include the words Killers, Chicks, and Halloween. It isn't necessary to post your entry on your blog but I felt like sharing:

Killers, it’s such an ugly word. We’re just three chicks doing what we can to better our community. We help people. There are far too many people who lie, cheat and steal their way through life. They don’t appreciate what they have.

We watch them; see how cavalier they are about the blessings in their lives. And then, we help them. They don’t ever want the help, but we give it to them anyway. That’s what good Samaritans are supposed to do, isn't it?

Once they learn their lesson, realize the error of their ways and pray for life with fervour, we release them. Set them free from this plane of existence before their neighbours can lure them back into the vortex of carelessness that haunts so many these days.

Why do we love Halloween? Nobody notices a few extra screams. 

Surprises

I read a book the other week and it's been haunting me ever since. Not in the can't-get-it-out-it-was-so-great kind of way, either. No, it was more something the author did.

Halfway through the book after the MC makes a terrible mistake (almost killing the boy she's in love with) she starts talking about her supernatural abilities, how all the popular kids at school and her parents are like her too. She explains everything and her abilities become a natural part of her thought process for the second half.

I think the author was going for suspense and intrigue, a sort of mystery of why the school was so strange. But the entire first half I was wondering if the MC could seriously be that oblivious. Then surprise she isn't an idiot she's just kept her thoughts empty of the situation so the reader wouldn't know what was happening.

Seriously, what the hell?

If you're writing a first person novel and there's something huge like: I'm a fairy; I'm a wizard; I'm a werewolf (you get the idea) how can the MC never think about it?

I felt like I'd been cheated. Like, the author couldn't create real suspense on her own without her cheap manipulation of the MC's thoughts.

There's a difference between shocking your reader but offering them chances to figure it out through subtle hints and foreshadowing and intentionally lying to them in order to shock them. At least, I think there is.

So I'm curious, how much surprise do you think is okay? Where do you draw the line when keeping facts to create suspense? As a reader, as a writer?

Five Things

I wanted to do this post last Monday because it was Thanksgiving day in Canada but I was sick with the stomach flu (all better now!) all week and was about as productive as a sloth - actually, I was probably less productive.

Five things I'm thankful for (in no particular order).

1. That I actually love family dinners. My aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents are absolutely hilarious. The teasing never gets old and the all around insanity makes every meal novel worthy. I'm so happy I don't have to dread family affairs.

2. That my cat is so attuned to me that when she saw me loosing my guts in the toilet, she did the same beside me. It may be gross subject matter but you just don't find bonds like that every day.

3. That technology can keep us close to those we love even when they are far away.

4. That Jen gave me the final shove I needed to get over my excuses (University! Books! TV! Friends! Homework!) and sign up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for those of you unaware). I've figured it all out and I need just over fifty thousand words to finish my book.

5. That my own moral ambiguity is such that it has allowed me to justify finishing my own novel during NaNoWriMo instead of coming up with a new idea. (I mean, come on fifty thousand words in thirty days? This kind of real pressure is exactly what I need.)

What are you Thankful for? Anyone joining NaNoWriMo? If you are, add me as a writing buddy!

Thursdays Tomfoolery

I ended up looking to Mom to help me pick the new title of Thursdays because there was several that I really liked. Thank you everyone who offered suggestions! Mom and I agreed on Thursday's Tomfoolery (with another commenter Lisa seconding the title) so congratulations Melanie!

Melanie, please enjoy your immortality (you will now never age and never die unlike the stars! Tell us how great it is, all right?).

On to today's tomfoolery. (I need to use this word more often, it feels good under my fingers!)

Today is all about sharing the weirdest, silliest, oddest or worst assumptions we've ever made.

I'll call it the Assumption, Gumption game because it sounds cool.

I'll use an anecdote to explain my silliest (absolutely no foundation at all) assumption:

All my life, I avoided anything with artichokes. No matter how many times my friends told me eat it, I refused. Adamantly (and, many times quite meanly).

In grade eleven, my friend L, annoyed with my adamant refusal when I'd never tried spinach and artichoke dip told me she'd buy me my dinner at a nicer restaurant if I would eat a quarter of the appetizer. I weighed my options and decided to swallow past the rising bile in my throat and agree.

Tentatively I dipped a salted chip into the steaming dip then threw it into my mouth. My brow furrowed in contemplation, "This doesn't taste like fish at all."

"Fish? Why would it taste like fish?"

I stared at L wondering just how stupid she was, "Artichokes are fish."

She laughed in my face. (It's a good thing I don't get embarrassed easily. Just saying) "It's a vegetable. Who told you it was a fish?)

No one. I have no idea why I thought it was a fish. I knew anchovies weren't artichokes but somewhere in my mind, one day, I simply decided it was fish too - for no reason.

I wasted so much time! Artichoke is great in dips.

As a human race our strangest assumptions?

The world is flat.

The sun orbits around the earth.

Artichokes are fish. (Okay, that's just me......)

So what are some of your assumptions?

Let the Assumption, Gumption begin!

Themes and Glee!

 So over the weekend my friend had a Glee themed birthday party. 


At first, I was... reluctant. 


I didn't want to dress up. I wasn't feeling the theme. To be brutally honest, I thought the whole idea was stupid. So to spite the whole thing, I figured: why don't I make my own theme?


I planned it all, I would wear a skirt and white blouse, pin my slytherin crest on, wear my tie lanyard and finish the look with my scarf. My excuse? Glee could totally have a Hogwarts episode. They'd sing about cauldrons and witchcraft and Wingardium Leviosa-ing themselves on a magic carpet ride through the sky with the love of their life (after they'd glamored themselves to be a prince).


And then I stopped being a jerk (even though I still somewhat liked my idea). In the end, I went all out. 


Once I started, I actually had a lot of fun putting together the costume and getting ready. 


I went as Tina. 

The idea of the theme freaked me out, I guess, but sucking it up and doing it was actually a really enjoyable experience. (Also, I got a red velvet cupcake at the party so any and all pain of trying to figure out how to make my fishnets a shirt was totally forgiven.) 


It's the same with writing though. When I think, actually think, about the themes that are entwined with the core ideas of my book I don't think I can pull it off. I mean, there's just so many: family, love, friendship, betrayal, hate, believing in yourself, death... The list is longer and is more specific but I can't really explain any of it without ruining the book. 


Sometimes, I get so worked up with thinking about what I'm trying to achieve that I don't do anything. It's too big and too much and I can't possibly pull everything together into a seamless whole, into something I can be proud of. 


But, I'm trying to think of it like my costume. If I just sit down and write and stop thinking about what I'm trying to do, it'll be a lot funner then I gave it credit for.


And who knows, maybe I'll even surprise myself with how awesome it turns out. (I can dream.)


Are there any themes in your writing? Do you plan them or do they just happen?

Help!

Last Thursday we played the If game. I read and reread all your comments and laughed and smiled and it was such a success I've decided to make Thursday's a regular feature on my blog. It'll be a day for random games (whatever I come up with) and all around silliness. Because it's fun. And who can't do with a little more fun in their life?

So, after I decided this:

I bounce ideas off what to name my Thursday of epic gaiety with my friend Ramona.

I ask, "Too fun Thursday?"

She shakes her head.

So I try, "Too loose Thursday?" Another no, "No but don't you get it? Everyone will loosen up and stuff."

Still, no. Actually, I'm pretty sure the no solidified.

"Two bit Thursday?"

"Stop with the Too's." She says.

A little desperately, I say, "Two pence Thursday?"

Ramona, tired of my lame offers (I'm not being very original for a supposedly creative person,  I know. I blame it on school. University steals my soul!) comes up with, "Tyrannosaurus Rex Thursday."

I stare at her for a moment, then laughing add a slogan, "We'll bite your head off."

As we're lost to giggling fits like every other mature adult she offers, "Tranny Thursday!"

I exclaim, "We've got it all!"

Obviously, all pretense went out the window and our immaturity got the better of us as we laughed until my eyes watered and Ramona couldn't breathe.

But obviously, all ours suck. So, yet again, I find myself looking to you. Come up with a name for my Thursday games and all around silliness in the comments and I will pick my favorite and it will be immortalized forever! And if paranormal trends are anything to go by, immortality is in.

Thanks in advance. Also, I encourage you to read each others comments because you are all brilliant!

History is Relevant

Why are clocks circular when we see time in a linear fashion (there was a beginning and there will be an end)? Why are circles 360 degrees? Why does February only have 28 days?

Maybe you've thought about these questions or maybe you haven't. I mean, really, why do you need to think about it? Clocks have always been circles and a circle is 360 degrees and February has always been the shortest month. But if we do think about why, and look to our past we can find that there are actual answers.

Clocks are circular because the Mesopotamians saw the passage of time as a cycle: winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring....(you get the idea, I'm sure).

Circles are 360 degrees because the Mesopotamians divided their cycle of time into 360 days. They just picked it, for no real reason, other than their best guess. The circle being 360 degrees is fundamental to our understanding of all geometry and figuring out the values of other shapes.

February being the shortest month takes a little more explanation. Julius Caesar liked the Egyptian calendar so he rearranged time - telling all the romans that their former calender system was no longer valid. In adopting the Egyptian calender, Caesar picked one of the nicer months of the year and named it after himself (July). (Talk about having power, right?) After his unfortunate end, his grand nephew Augustus took over. Augustus didn't want to have less then his great uncle so he picked another month with gorgeous weather to name after himself (August, obviously). The only problem? August was shorter than July. How did he solve the problem? Augustus stole the days from February. Seriously.

The decisions of these ancient civilizations have a profound impact on our society today. So much so that we don't even question any of it. Everything they did was relevant. I could go on and on and on about the sort of innovations ancient civilizations had and how much they changed the course of history. I won't bore you.

My point to this history lesson? When you are writing a novel, history is important.

Your History is shaping and influencing the novel you're working on.

Your characters act the way they do because of their history.

History also serves as the foundation for world-building. Whether you've fabricated your own world or are using an already established location, you need to know the little historical details. The more you know, the richer your setting will be. The more real your world will become.

You don't need to tell the readers why February is the shortest month or why clocks are circles but you do need to recognize that history shapes everything.

My advice? Don't overlook history, in any aspect of your novel.

As an aside, I want to thank all of you wonderful people who participated in my game yesterday! It was so much fun and I loved your contributions even more than I thought I would (meaning: they were more amazing than I thought they could be).