C. L. Norman

Yep. That’s what I need to do.

I have a lot of fun imagining the story ideas in my head. The Ah Ha! moment when I think of some neat little piece of plot or a particularly cool character. But when it comes time to transfering those ideas from the wilderness of my mind to the orderly lines of text on my computer, the fun goes out of it.

When I was in junior and senior high school I wrote constantly. Every spare minute I had at school and several of the extra minutes I had at home. I had fun with it. I didn’t care that my words were awkward or juvenile or not quite right. I wrote. I was not self conscious of my own language then.

Now, every word is a struggle with myself. That inner editor screams in my head arguing with every word choice. I keep trying to scream back “This is just a first draft. Shut up!” but I am still nearly paralyzed by the shouting contest.

What is funny is that I actually have fun with revision and rewrite. I try to dangle that in front of me as a reward for finishing the draft. After all I can’t very well revise what isn’t written.

I have started turning on the TV while writing which helps a little bit. The distraction helps occupy part of my brain and muffles the voice of that editor in my head. I wish I could gag her and shove her in a closet and hide the key until I need to let her out.

On the other hand, blogging so far has been fun and I’ve been enjoying developing the habit of writing here every other day.

        

I’ve been working lately on a map for some worldbuilding for the story I’m working on.

The story started as a timed writing practice that when I pushed it farther is leading to a tale much broader in scope than I anticipated. So a map and then some worldbuilding is in order.

I love drawing maps. I have been drawing them for fun since high school. After I married, I showed my husband the set of maps that were my favorites. Three continents with close ups of each of the countries and a brief description of them all. He perused them for only a moment before pointing out that rivers flow down hill and not from the ocean inland. So many details to keep straight.

There is a big difference though between drawing for fun and drawing with a purpose. At least in my mind. The coastal lines and the major geographical features; hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, marshes, etc. These are easy to draw (keeping in mind gravity). What I find hard to do now is make up the names for all the places. I am now really self conscious of my made up names. I spend a lot of time tossing out letter combinations as “stupid” sounding. Then mentally huffing and just throwing down the latest word when I feel I have taken long enough with a name.

Character names are easier. I feel the names I come up with sound more like people names and not place names. Weird.

        

I finished a very good book yesterday. Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara is the fourth book in a series featuring a character who I think can be classified as a rogue. 

Kaylin Neya is part of law enforcement but she wasn’t always. She also performs her duties in a way unique to her and not necessarily by the book. She has a funny way of opening her mouth before she thinks things through. A tendency I can heartily empathize with. Just ask my coworkers, family, and friends.

Kaylin lives in a world that is very different than many other fantasy genre settings. Her world is peopled by races you don’t usually see in other places. No elves or dwarves here.

One thing I particularly admired about this book, now that I can’t help but read with an eye toward writing technique, is the dialogue. In many places the dialogue provided exposition. However instead of explaining every little thing, I noticed that there were “holes” in the exposition. Places where the characters involved had figured out something but didn’t belabor the point or spell it out to the reader. This encouraged me to keep thinking and wondering and brought me deeper into the scene.

I have a terrible and chronic leaning towards overexplaining things. I hope to one day master or least reach journeyman level in holding back from my reader enough to keep them guessing and engaged.

Thank you, Ms. Sagara, for a great read.

        

I work at a bookstore and one of my duties is updating the frontlist bays. Unless you work in the book business, you may not know what a “frontlist bay” is.  A frontlist bay is that set of shelves at the beginning of the different genre sections that has that pretty “New Arrival” sign on it. The one with all the covers of the books displayed in such a way to show you what is new or has just been released.

Recently the way our store handles the frontlist titles has changed. It use to be that while all new release hardcovers were displayed prominently, mass market (pocket sized) and trade paperbacks were rarely placed there. Now anything new, usually three months or less, no matter the format it is released in, is displayed in these bays.

This means that if you are a new author and only one or two copies of your small mass market books is sent to our store, your book gets equal display space next to the more established authors. The book won’t be stuck in the backlist section with a narrow spine being the only thing visible.

We have seen more folks picking up those books by the new authors. And as we all know, more people picking it up means more people buying.

As a potential new author, this is very cool. I hope to show off my sweet cover art to the world and draw readers in like bait hooks a trout.

        

Mouse. A gnome rogue character from my first D&D game. Of course then it was known as AD&D.

I created her when I was in college just after the invitation to join a game that was run in the student union between classes. I was intimidated by all the language; D20, THAC0, AC, etc. I glanced through the book and reasoned out that a fighter had to know too much of the combat rules, a wizard or a cleric had to know the magic system, but a rogue, a rogue is a free spirt and not constrained by the roles the others were crowded into.

Then it became time to choose a race and I saw the line in the gnome’s description that stated they were curious, their noses led them into trouble more often than not. I was attracted to this idea. This meant my character could poke around as much as I want to and it would be “in character.”

Next lets throw a little personality into this character. Yes, I am one of those gamers. One of those who state things like “My character wouldn’t do that.” I decided that in addition to being curious she was cowardly when it came to physical confrontations. She also loved the shiny stones and disdained those flat dull metal coins. Now I had a hook into how she would react in any situation she could possibly get herself into.

And she got herself into a lot of “situations.”

Mouse was named for one of my most favorite rogues, Phillippe the Mouse from Ladyhawke. And like a mouse she poked her nose in anything that crossed her path: doors with “Do Not Enter” signs posted on them, unexplored caves, and most importantly unemptied pockets.

Those pockets were never left empty for long though. Once emptied of the shiny rocks, those dull coins her adventuring companions kept sharing with her were distributed in those convenient spaces.

If a fight resulted from her explorations then she didn’t stick around to trade blows with the foe. That task fell to her bigger and bulkier companions. She ran and sometimes hid but more often than not found more trouble to bring back to her friends.

She remains my most favorite character in my entire career of gaming. What is your favorite character?

        

Greetings.

Rogues. Scoundrels. Scalawags. Hustlers. Rascals. Thieves. Bandits. Pirates. Pickpockets.  These are the kinds of characters I love reading about the most or seeing up on the big or little screens.

These men and women are occasionally the hero of the tale but more often reside in a grey area between the two sides. Three qualities I have noticed in these characters include:

• Don’t live by the rules. These folks make up their own rules. Sometimes they pretend to the follow along for their own ends but if a rule gets in their way they are very quick and willing to ignore it to get their desired results.
• Always have a snarky comeback. These are the one liners that everyone remembers and more often than not cause their audience to laugh out loud. Or have a milk out the nose moment.
• Fun. These folks are fun. They may be in the deepest of dangers with no hope of rescue, death riding on their shoulders, but they remain fun. They laugh in the face of danger. They crack jokes as they skewer their enemies with a dagger. They are always fun.

I will be writing about these guys when I am not writing about my own writing. Yes, I am a writer. Or rather a wannabe writer. I write primarily sword and sorcery fantasy though I have recently delved into the urban fantasy genre. The short story is not your typical urban fantasy. It involves a semi-retired dragon-slayer called into action once again in the Pacific Northwest. John St. George is a rogue at heart. Not many take up the call to slay dragons but he does it anyway, despite the dangers, despite his bad knees.