Writing Women, Part 1

Continuing my epic quest to be as intellectually arrogant as I can in as short a time as possible, I turn now to the question of writing female characters. And I will begin by saying: Not That Hard.

My immediate corollary, twain: If you know people and if you can write characters. My bonus conclusion: If you know the true extent of Culture.

How many strangers have you talked to in your life? Talked to as in had a conversation with: you know at least part of whatever name they gave you, have a reasonable understanding of the person's public personality, and've got one or two snippets of information about their background and present lifestyle as told by them.

How many strangers have talked to you? Would you say there are 2, 5, 10, 20, 100 people in the world who can say about you about what you can say about the strangers above?

Describe your native culture. Describe two other cultures you've interacted with. How different are they, how similar? How many people are in each culture? What is the geographical scope of these cultures? Internet cultures only count if they're not anonymous. What does the word 'sub-culture' mean to you? Does it even exist?

If you can answer all those questions to your own satisfaction, you might just be ready to write characters. Even if you can't answer all the questions, write characters anyways. You'll figure it out as you go. But can you (I imply that you the reader are a man since I the writer am, if that be not the case, add whatever other gender herein that you are not, it'll scan the same) write women characters? We need to answer that question with one more question.

How much does Culture shape behavior?

Answer that question to your satisfaction and you can write any character, regardless of gender, as long as you have a firm grasp on the culture that character exists in, and to what extent the character has a choice in subscribing to that culture.

The massive project continues tomorrow with Part 2, where let's discuss Women In Culture

Link

#

Speaking of massive projects, THIS is what we should be doing with technology. That's a proposed mega-irrigation system for the Sahara Desert. I didn't waste my youth and young adulthood playing every version of Civilization for us to not have irrigation or other such improvements absolutely everywhere we can fit it. Let's get busy, it's a recession!

We have a Kardashev scale for a reason, people.

----
2000 words? Yes
Book "Lived Too Long To Die"
- - - -
Reading - "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" (Ursuala K. Le Guin)

Life Experience

Reading writer biographies, I'm struck by how many people started Writing (that is, writing and attempting to publish fiction) when they were teenagers. So be it, I suppose, if that works for you. Obviously, I didn't take that path, because I started Writing three years ago today, polishing (in the loosest sense of the word) off those First Million Words about a year ago.

Yet when the Official David Barron Biography comes out, I want it noted that I was Reading (that is, critically thinking about the structure, themes, and meaning of fiction) for ten years before I started Writing. That is to say, I read my First Million Words well before I was a teenager, and then I rolled into making sense of it all and figuring out Why and How a particular something was good. That this was for lack of any video games or (for the most part) television, this fact shall be glossed over in the History.

But, most importantly, I didn't start writing until I had built up a body o' experience. Success (some), Failure (much), Exploration (plenty), Disillusionment (just enough), Wearing a Tie (too many), Washing Dishes For Food (twice), Living in the Lap of Luxury (briefly), General Debauchery (pleasant), Stand-up Comedy (boo!), Getting Chased Out Of An Entire Country (sortof). In short, Going Everywhere, Doing Everything and Talking to Everybody, while at the same time developing my innate talent for mythomania towards a useful goal instead of pure self-aggrandizement. But there's got to be some aggrandizement, people, so it might as well be of me.  

All that's to say, now I can set empathy on High and draw from the feedbag of my own reading and experience to inform my Writing. It wasn't too long to wait, and there was plenty to do. And there still is.

#

Now that I've convinced Blogger to cooperate with the help of Feedburner, I can present to you a new feature, most likely irregular: excerpts from my recordings of completed pieces. They'll be about thirty seconds (about one paragraph block of text) long and you must excuse the sound quality. If they're not integrated into the main body of the post, they'll be in a little subsection like this until I get around to making a more elegant package for them. Thoughts are appreciated re: site design, if that's your thing.

From "Moving In, Moving On":
042 - MovingInMovingOn 1

Link

#

It's blog post 42! Let's have some Absurdity to go along with the new site design! Everything is ultimately meaningless except the quest for meaning itself. Time Travel is the only way to see the future. There's one universe for each possible vibration of every atom. Your mother doesn't really think you're a genius, she's just glad you moved out of the house.

Albeit temporarily.

----
2000 words? Yes
Short Story "The Language of Ice Cubes" - not quite done
Book "Lived Too Long To Die"
- - - -
Reading - "The Hobbit" (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Listening to Myself Read

As you may recall, I record myself reading my short story manuscripts before I send them out so I can make sure it flows right (and to see if the transliteration works for things like gwan' and the foreign languages). It seems to help. Then I put the .mp3 with the manuscript in the folder and listen to it every once in a while just to hear myself talk.

From "Deep Sleep":
041 - Deep Sleep 1

This has improved two things about my writing, enumerated after the period. (1) If I can say it out loud with a straight face, I can write it, and practicing saying increasingly ridiculous things out loud can only weaken my already thin filter. (2) Listening to the soothing tones of my own voice reduces my need for human contact to preserve my social animal mojo, and so I can isolate myself in my writing chambers and tap away at Friend Computer with the help of my speculative pals.

As a bonus, my glib tongue remains well-exercised. This warm-up saves strain when I'm seducing pretty ladies at parties.

#

"So, gentlemen, we are agreed: We'll take a harrowing journey to the uncharted corners of the Earth, do some weird stuff, no women (of course). Then we'll return in triumph with a Pterodactyl (of all things), this to rub our success into their smug skeptic faces."

"Um, Professor Challenger: SPOILER ALERT?"

"No time, Malone! We must find somebody whose mysterious past can complicate up this expedition so that you can learn a valuable lesson about proper motivations for adventures."

----
250 words? Yes
Book "Lived Too Long To Die"
- - - -
Reading - "The Lost World" (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lovecraft

Someone recently gave me a collection of H.P.Lovecraft audiobooks, a bunch of the good classic short stories (and a few of the especially silly ones). The performer quality ranges from great to goofy, but some chills exist where you'd expect it. The only unfortunate lack is "At the Mountains of Madness". I would have liked to hear somebody intoning the description of the giant mutant penguins without laughing, besides which it's my favorite story.

H.P. Lovecraft has been an inspiration not so much on the substance of my writing as on the format and source of my writing. Regarding format, short fiction, clear plot, emotions. I like the idea of concocting a loose-bound Mythos. Regarding source: wracked by dreams? Write 'em down! Here's David: "Oh, you're allowed to do that?" Hurrah!

But I don't really write Cosmic Horror. My vision of an uncaring universe doesn't even care enough to have cultists ready to destroy itself.

Link

#

Anyways, Lovecraft was scared of girls and afraid of money, and was probably much more racist than even the abysmal average of his time. So screw him, the insane weirdo. Party!

In this picture, the umbrella represents the thin barrier of sanity between you and my complete understanding of the universe. The raincoat represents staying dry in the rain.

----

250 words? Yes

Short Story "The Language of Ice Cubes"

Book "Lived Too Long To Die"

- - - -

Reading - "The Call of Cthulhu" (H.P. Lovecraft)

AudioShorts

I've listened to a short story "audiobook" for the first time and I like it a lot more than audiobooks. Maybe I don't have the attention span for book-length audiobooks, because I read really fast. Maybe I just like short stories better than books. Anyways, these Audioshorts are an interesting entity.

[...snip...snip...]

I've ordered a few more genre and "literature" collections from various sources. I also know that there are some magazines that have an audio division for their short stories, which I wouldn't think would be awesome until now.

I do have some audiobooks, which I listen to while I'm doing something that's not reading or writing (video games, photo editing, falling asleep, cooking, cleaning, sewing, sex), because I hate sinking time into one thing when I'm perfectly capable of reading-that is, training my writer's brain-at the same time.

I'm not actually sure where this train of thought is going, but suffice it to say: David Likes AudioShorts and Can't Organize the Paragraphs of His Post Properly.

Finally [fixed].

Link

#

I did a lot of research a while back into hydroponics and off-Earth farming while writing a few stories. It's interesting, but also frustrating. It always makes me feel that Earth is just not properly organized and we should really get our act together. This isn't a "Where's my jetpack?" whine, this is a "Where's my basic food security for everybody?" question.

A lot of science fiction is too concerned with all the cool stuff we might have in the future without considering all the cool people we'll need to properly use it.

----
250 words? Yes
Short Story "The Language of Ice Cubes"
Book "Lived Too Long To Die"
- - - -
Reading - "The Dunwich Horror" (H.P. Lovecraft)

Inspiration Is Fickle

Beware the bitter curse of Inspiration, lest it be clearly labelled.

I read a lot, as can be seen, and I read fast enough that only the last three books plus the best article of my most recent exposure can be credited with influence on my writing. My theory of writing is that if you're writing two-thousand words a day, in possession of your own faculties, whatever other influences are upon you will be subordinate to that goal. If any other writers don't understand that drive, they're more inclined to be remonstrated by more Successful Writers than for you to be mocked as a plagiarist.

Inspiration, as I reckon it the most useful writing skill, is also the least useful. The Most Useful writing skill is perseverance. That is, writing down all that inspiration that haunts your imagination and, sometimes, your dreams. HEY! I can't be too sarcastic, or too insulting. Here and now, sarcasm and insult are only the impetus for you to set out on the writing path

Make it happen.

#

I"m drunk. This fact must be understood from time to time, because I have terrible dreams otherwise. Let's give you an example: One night I dreamt I approached an editor with an exactly plagiarized copy of Shakespeare's King Lear, committed to memory for unrelated reasons. Waking up, I was plagued by ways to make the play unique. I came up with a few before I fell asleep again. And so I dreamed of....well, never mind what I dreamed of.

Oh, America. Even your rowboat ladies are sexy.

----
250 words? Yes
Short Story "The Language of Ice Cubes"
Book "Lived Too Long To Die"
- - - -
Reading - "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" (Robert A. Heinlein)

I'm Back!

But I never really left.

I find it a lot easier to write a big ole' novel when I'm stable, and easier to write a bunch of short stories when I'm not. But here I am writing 'sequels' to short stories. Weird.

I wrote a sequel to "Jeremiad" because it had been bouncing around in my mind. For those not aware, "Jeremiad" is the monologue story of the titular lounge lizard revolutionary. It's not the stuff that books are made of, but if it expands naturally, I could put it all into an anthology.

Likewise with Alan. Alan is just a guy, but he starred in "Moving In, Moving On" and proved himself capable. I've started him in a new story, that's outlined and just needs writing. Shouldn't take two days, if unmolested. Then I'll run it by a native speaker just to be sure and then roll "The Language of Ice Cubes" out to markets. Apparently Alan needs longer titles to be confident.

When it comes to the book "Lived Too Long To Die", that's making slow but steady progress, and the next stages of plot are firm in my mind. I have a proposed ending as well, but hey! Why ruin everything with finality?

#

I never have been and hope to continue to avoid being accused of falling into the 'Mary Sue' trap. Nonetheless, I personally have engaged in a variety of adventures that inform my more free-form characters. From time to time, I venture to say that some situations, when appropriate, are colored with my personal experience as a guide. I'm not 'writing what I know', I'm taking what I know best and applying it to a speculative framework. To varying degrees of success.

This picture will be hilarious to precisely three people and various degrees of mystifying to the rest.

Bonus: damn, everybody loves 'Laterally', for the most part. This is Unheard Of.

----
2000 words? Yes
Short Story "The Language of Ice Cubes"
Book "Lived Too Long To Die"
- - - -
Reading - "Dragonsdawn" (Anne McCaffrey)