Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: Anthology of High Fantasy
Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian was just released! It is a compilation of high fantasy novellas from members of Fantasy Writers International, a group of writers gleaned from the web’s largest fantasy/ sci-fi site, elfwood.com.
Overview of Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: An Anthology of High Fantasy
a pair of commoners are on the run after accidentally killing their Count . . . a lass with psionic powers must save her Duke’s realm, and the peasant woman who raised her . . . a spoiled Lady and her bitter heir protector put aside all differences when wizards and Orqs attack . . . an alchemist takes in his wraith-haunted nephew, then his wife disappears . . . hunters face-off against environmentalists in a dragon-rights demonstration: an inept Elf/ freelance diplomat comes to the rescue (ever read a fantasy satire?) . . . three warriors defend a village against a dark beast who’s summoned a foreboding storm as hunting cover . . . a wizardling is quested to recover an artifact in order to save his land from an army’s onslaught
You can read more about the anthology if you go to http://fwi.thewriterscafe.com/FWIBookstore.html
Editor: Cynthia MacKinnon: The Writers’ Cafe
ISBN: 978-1-4116-9407-1 $19.95US trade paper or $7.41US download from lulu.com
Author list: Larry N. Morris, Jamie Hughes, Frank Creed, A.P. Reckert, Brian David Smith, Jaren Schroeder, Eugene Erno.
There’s No Such Thing as Writer’s Block!
Donna Conger, author of Forgotten, had this to say about “Fiction Outlines,” my previous blog article:
“Frank,
Great blog. Good information. For me, an outline is extremely
necessary, because it helps me keep the story organized. It shows me
where I’m repeating myself, where the story is contrived, etc. Often,
when I’m writing an outline, I get so deep into the story and
characterization that I start writing actual dialogue and mixing it
with the chapter synopsis. When that happens, I get a much stronger
handle on the whole project. I remember the story better, so that
when I don’t get the chance to work on it, it’s still with me quite
strongly.”
For those who outline in depth, Donna’s method must be a wonderful tool. Such a detailed outline would mesh well with the subconscious mind for creative inspiration. Because of a mental handicap that cripples my short-term memory, I’m stuck with re-reading pages of notes plus my chapter-in-progress in order to “tune-back-in”. My own inspiration only comes either in light-bulbs throughout the day (that I scribble down and transfer into my three-ring-binder), or, more
productively, as my left-brain is running SO full throttle that I can’t type fast enough to capture all my thoughts.
Reflecting upon Donna’s technique brought back a conversation that my father (who was also a writer), and I had years ago. He’d been experiencing a period of writer’s block. As he lamented about his problem, it occurred to me that because I’m so used to troubleshooting ways around my mental condition, I’d been manhandling writer’s block for well over a year!
This was my e-mail reply to Donna:
“I’ve experienced that detailed kind of hyper-outlining before, but this topic leads into my definition of writer’s block. I don’t believe in it. Creative writing is left brain stuff. If I find myself sliding into creativity, I open my WIP and go-to-it. When word-count refuses to turn a phrase, that means my right brain is switched “on”. That’s when I work on my marketing plan or pull out my writer’s notebook and organize thoughts.”
A writer’s best quantitative standard of productivity is word-count; we set goals and we record daily figures. Then we get so focused on this single unit of measurement that we forget about less quantitative
aspects of the craft. Those one or two thousand words are our eight-days-a-week mandatory discipline; but what about e-mail, research and critiquing? I once read that there are other spheres of life beyond
writing: like enjoying family, community, worship and creation around us. It’s so easy to get caught-up. Balance your spheres, and engage yourself in His moment’s gift.”
We who escape into our craft are not unlike junkies; once we admit our problem we can balance our lives. Once we balance our live’s spheres, we’re living as He’d intended. –Frank Creed
CREDITS:
Thanks to my guest quotationist:
Donna Conger
http://www.donnaconger.com
I urge anyone who questions whether or not true love exists to read
Forgotten. You will know it is alive and well. –Janet Elaine Smith
http://janet_elaine_smith0.tripod.com/
Fiction Outlines
My last blog article detailed the categories into which I’ve broken down my own three-ring-binder writer’s notebook. It finished with thoughts about a tab I call “SEQUEL NOTES” but what happens when a sequel graduates to a WIP?
Jan recently asked the following questions:
“Just curious…. I realize some writers never use outlines, but I’m
trying to get various viewpoints on them to make some decisions….
So, if you use an outline, what format do you use? Basic roman
numerals? Topical? Do you outline chapter by chapter? Outline the
entire book before you write? Outline a chapter, then write it?
Outlining was recommended to me, and as a former English teacher, I
definitely see the benefit. BUT when I tried it for my novel, I found
I ended up changing stuff as I got more involved with my character’s
lives…. Just looking for other opinions, I guess. Thanks, Jan”
This is like a painter asking if it’s better to use watercolors, acrylics, or oils. In the arts there is no shortest route between two points, and each artist will develop their own techniques. There are writers who can only work from a strict outline and others whose creativity would be stifled by this technique. While I myself lean more toward the latter variety, my WIP has proven to be a real organizational challenge, teaching me lessons from which any writer might benefit.
To preface Jan’s questions, I first need to define the braided novel. While writing Flashpoint, my own comfortable method of thought-organization worked very seat-of-the-pants-informally-functional. That story is very linear and straightforward. But that was then and this is now.
I’m writing its sequel in a form of which I first discovered while reading Michael Stackpole’s afterword from his novel Wolf and Raven. An anthology, as we all know, is a collection of short fiction. A braided novel is different in that it’s a series of shorts revolving around the same main characters and occur chronologically with each story building on the history of its predecessor. The functional beauty of a braided novel is that each freestanding short can be individually marketed before completing and compiling the stories into a single work. I fell in love with Wolf and Raven because it’s told in the same first-person sarcasm as Flashpoint, but I fell in love with Stackpole’s braided novel form because of its pragmatism.
For a mentally handicapped closed-head-injury victim like myself, keeping story threads alive and organized throughout seven (planned), shorts of a braided novel called for a level of outline complexity that I’d never before required. Because my writer’s notebook is of ye olde fashioned pencil and paper variety, Roman numerals are too rigidly unforgiving: while my characters and setting are fairly concrete, I’m a firm believer in letting a story tell itself. This means I have too many new ideas as I write, and my plot development must remain very fluid.
Flashpoint’s jagged notes scribbled scene by scene. I added chapter breaks later, always at action’s peak in order to create a page-turner effect. But, because a braided novel’s shorts are told in parts (Part One, Part Two…), this technique cannot be employed.
To sustain this form where each tale had to be supported by its former layer, work had to progress methodically. Before entering into any word-count writing, I motored up the olde speculative binder. I first chose the themes that I wished to include, followed closely by which plot-vehicles I’d use to deliver them. Using one loose-leaf notebook page for each story, I gleaned details from my notes on scene ideas, concepts and snappy lines then fleshed out the first details. I gave each short a working title, and listed them in a table of contents, for a quick organizational overview reference and major notations.
With this framework in place, it came time to plug-in the threads that I wanted to chronologically develop throughout the stories. Because this is a sequel, a solid cast of characters already existed, and over the years I’d worked up a few new character profiles. This is where I got to cheat a bit, because I already had ideas on how to develop characters with whom I was intimate. In my humble opinion, the most important element of any tale is its characters. They are the beginning point. You can have the best plot ever, but if your characters fall flat, I’m shelving the story. Conversely, if I care about strong characters in an ugly plot, I’ll keep turning pages. My five threads all dealt with character/ relationship development (a real shocker, I know). For easy reference, I listed a thread index on a separate sheet, and assigned each thread a capital letter. On those seven story pages I tracked each thread with its corresponding letter in the left margin.
In the end, every writer’s approach to the art is different. Whatever is right for you is a mantra that fails morally, but preferences are a freedom that we’re all allowed. Each artist must choose the medium and tools that their gift requires. As I’ve said before, every writer’s bag of tricks is of unique cloth but when each of us dumps it out, our work must have detail and depth.
“Trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.”–Michelangelo Buonarroti
To God be the glory,
Scott “Frank Creed” Morris
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e-mail: frankcreed@insightbb.com
Home: http://www.frankcreed.com
Blog: http://www.frankcreed.com/blog
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The Notebook
Since my childhood in the 1970s, I knew I wanted to write. I cannot
recall when I first read that a writer always needs to carry a pen and
paper for inspiration’s lightning strikes, but a few months later I
was the proud owner of scrap paper piles. I said to myself “Wow, this
is helpful.” Then I heard about keeping a writer’s notebook; the
concept impacted my skull like a brick. This eleventh Commandment
(somewhere in Leviticus I think), inspired me to load a three ring
binder with two hundred sheets of filler paper and two packs of index
tabs. Many hours of scribbling later gave me a full trash bin and an
invaluable personal fiction reference resource: my notebook has become
a lifestyle.
Later I began writing in another genre: my first act was to split my
notes into a second notebook. Duct tape could not revive my original
binder, may it rest in pieces, but the system upon which I’ve come to
depend, lives on. It doesn’t matter if you write notes in a hard copy
folder or type in e-file, the important thing is your ability to access
your own catalog of ideas.
THE TABS:
These will vary depending upon one’s form and genre. I write
speculative and fantasy fiction so my own look like this:
MARKETING/BUSINESS PLAN
NAMES LIST
SLANG DICTIONARY
ONE LINERS & PHRASES
SETTING AND BACKGROUND
CHARACTER PROFILES
RESEARCH
RPG/COMIC NOTES
WRITING TIPS
WISDOMS
NON-WIP IDEAS
SEQUEL NOTES
I’ll detail each of these categories in coming months, but a recent
question from the Fellowship of Christian Writers Newsgroup makes me
focus on the last in this list: the nebulous SEQUEL NOTES.
gificor@gmail.com asked, “I am trying to organize some of my short
story ideas into coherent story outlines. Does anyone have advice and
examples?” The following methodology serves either long or short
fiction:
I begin with a concept, an inkling of story-line and characters, then
turn to my SEQUEL NOTES tab to gather up some particulars. My loose
outline is left intentionally rough in order to accommodate brainstorms
that occur as I create.
Themes: this is where I start. Meaningful fiction carries messages.
List here the social concerns that have weighted your heart to address
in future fiction.
Plots: I’ve begun with a kernel, but this treasure of notes fleshes out
the skeleton.
Scene Ideas: little mind’s-eye concepts that add silk leather and
velvet to each tale.
Characters: the heart of any story. By now I have enough of the story
constructed that I can fill one page bios.
Concepts: The little things that would otherwise slip the cracks
between characters and construct: symbolism, misdirection, strategy,
etc.
Snappy Lines: a record of THAT’S-what-I-should-have-said. One of the
advantages of our craft is time.
Every writer’s bag of tricks is of unique cloth, but each of us dumps
it out our work must have details and depth.
“Trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no
trifle.”–Michelangelo Buonarroti
To God be the glory,
Scott “Frank Creed” Morris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
e-mail: frankcreed@insightbb.com
Home: http://www.frankcreed.com
Blog: http://www.frankcreed.com/blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Writer’s Tortured Soul
April third, 2006
The news yesterday of my father’s death obviously blew the day’s
creative productivity right off the itinerary. I am so thankful for the
sixteen years He allowed dad and I to have together. My mom and dad
divorced when I was about five, and she kept him out of my whole
childhood. It wasn’t until 1989 when I was living in the Chicago burbs
that my sister located dad here in Lafayette Indiana, and set up our
first meeting in nearly two decades. Over the next five years we
visited regularly and developed a wonderful relationship. In May of
1994 I moved to Lafayette and stayed at his house until I got
established. Back then I was working on my fantasy work, White Iron.
Dad had focused his lifelong creative efforts into entrepreneurism, and
had started several companies, but never enjoyed any degree of success.
My bouncing ideas off the old guy nourished a drive that he never knew
he had, and in the late nineties, he funneled his creative energy into
his first fantasy novel. Like the work of any new fiction writer, it
was bad, but he had a natural gift for plot-development and in six or
seven years really learned how to turn a phrase. I’d been driven to
write my whole life, so my father’s new interest opened a commonality
that gave a new depth to our relationship. A few yeas ago dad
discovered elfwood.com, the web’s largest fantasy and science fiction
site. He made many friends there and after a year, founded Fantasy
Writers International, a writer’s club for aspiring novelists. In
January of 2005 he solicited FWI’s members for contributions to an
anthology of high fantasy. The anthology’s completion was delayed my a
family crisis involving his sister in California. He and my grandmother
flew to California to support my aunt. The trip dragged out longer than
anticipated, and the decision was made that dad would fly back to
Illinois and drive my grandmother’s car to San Deigo. On the evening of
April first, somewhere around Fort Worth Tx, the car left the road and
rolled. He was ejected from the vehicle and found some fifteen feet
away by paramedics. Dad was immediately alert and responsive, but once
in the ICU the only movement of which he was capable below the waist
was the movement of his big toes. Then he went unconscious. My brother
informed me that dad coded four times in the early AM hours of April
second and never regained consciousness. At about 7:30 PM my brother
again phoned phoned, this time with the news that dad had been declared
brain-dead.
C.S. Lewis wrote A Grief Observed after Joy, his wife of three years,
was taken by cancer. After weeks of his soul’s torment Lewis turned a
corner. At this point he wondered why he couldn’t see that there was
nothing to do with suffering but suffer it. In 1996 these words
comforted me when my mother died of complications brought about by
Multiple Sclerosis. Lewis’ same words sustain me now.
Dad was so happy in the last years of his life, and although he was not
able to hold the finished book in his hands, assembling this anthology
for his fantasy fiction club was his dream come true. My wife, Cynthia,
is the anthology’s editor and told me last night that she’s decided to
see this project’s completion. Dad’s dream will be posthumously
realized. It has, over the last twenty-four hours, slowly occurred to
me that this book will stand, in my mind, as a memorial. Regardless of
any future success that I may enjoy as a novelist, this secular fantasy
anthology will undoubtedly stand as my life’s most meaningful published
work. It will be a physical symbol to the years with my father with
which He blessed us.
Thank you Father for the time with my father.
SP: Frank’s Counterpoint
How can we bridge the gap and give both professions more courtesy and respect they deserve?
I chose to address the second question first because its implication answers the first question. We’re asked to bridge the gap, give courtesy and respect to two different PROFESSIONS (?): SP writers and ‘traditionally’ published writers (?) The fact that the latter doesn’t even have an abbreviation (that I’m familiar with), speaks of the
distinction. I fear this prejudice to be wide-spread. For example: I turned eight years old in 1974, and decided then that I wanted to write story-books. Since then I dreamed of the day that I’d open an envelope, find an acceptance letter, and leap in the air for two-weeks-straight like a Publisher’s-Clearing-House winner. OF COURSE anyone who’d PAY to be published MUST be a loser!
Then in January of this year I’d read something that made me Google…
Do you feel there is a stigmatism that says, “self-published writers aren’t as good of writers as ‘traditionally’ published writers”?
“In 1994 Barnes & Noble reported that books from the 10 largest publishers accounted for thee quarters of their purchases. By 1997 these 10 leaders accounted for less than half of the books bought.”–Jump Start Your Book Sales, by Marilyn and Tom Ross. Indies and SPs are biting into traditional houses’ market shares, which is why the big boys only solicit famous authors, why it’s harder than ever for a new author to receive an acceptance letter, and why Random House has entered the POD game. RH is either trying to snatch up all the little fish, or has entered into the if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em wisdom. Even if a ‘traditional’ house accepts an author, all they get is a little shotgun marketing; you’re accepted not because you’re good, but because you can sell books. The days of holing-up with a muse and a keyboard in a comfortable apartment, are over. The only person who’s going to publish a new author is the new author. This concept is what changed my mind about SP.
I’ve also seen Peter Bowerman’s self-publishing strategy reflected in the January’s Writer’s Digest (cover story I think, but the cat messed on it and we had to toss it out). The upshot is that internet has forever changed the industry because SPs now have access to all the privileged information that used to keep us at the mercy of the
pedestaled ‘traditional’ houses. I own a 2002 Writer’s Market (stop laughing), and in that year compiled a list of Christian Fiction publishers. In 2004 I subscribed to WM online, and discovered that MORE THAN HALF of the publishers on my list were either out of business, or ceased accepting unsolicited unagented manuscripts. As long as one has a polished edited manuscript and successfully creates market demand, booksellers will be driven to the SP. I’ve spent a decade on Flashpoint, and now I’ve CHOSEN to make five dollars per copy instead of bowing before the altar of tradition, and netting less than one dollar. In order to use the talents He’s invested in me as a
full-time income in our modern world, I have to make ends-meet, and pay the bills. If I can do that on one fifth the book-sales of tradition, then SP seems the wiser choice.
From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was
convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. — Groucho Marx
Naming Characters
Trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Italian architect, painter, & sculptor (1475 - 1564)
I’m a perfectionist. When a reader takes in my work, I want them to see flawlessness. While fiction is a collection of description, action and dialogue, names are an element, a detail, a common thread that crosses all phases of one’s work. Over the years I’ve worked out some logistics on getting good names to where they need to be.
My need for names began in High School, with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I’d create likeable characters, outfit them with sharp blades and flasks of oil, then stare off into space with only one blank space on my character sheet: NAME:. Of course a week later I’d come up with the perfect name, but Jonathan Doe had already set out on his quest, and the moment was lost. I was stuck in the that’s-what-I-shoulda’-said mindset. So I began writing down the names I-shoulda-said, and tucked that paper inside the cover of my Players Handbook.
A fellow gamer was inspired by my growing names list, and for our College-Prep class’ weekly journal assignment, filled one whole side of notebook paper, three columns wide, with NAMES! Scott Krebec’s Journal assignment is the oldest of my dozen sheets of notebook paper, three to four columns wide, filled with names.
As my writing became more important than gaming, I kept gathering names in my writing notebooks. Names of places, company names, first names, last names, nick-names; I keep two three-ring binders, labeled Fantasy and Sci-Fi. When I have a need, I flip to the genre ‘names’ file and start scanning. Even if I can’t find exactly what I want, the least I’ve come away with are syllables that sound appropriate to the character I’m writing.
Apart from my nagging about keeping a writer’s notebook, here are four more name tips:
- Suitability – Have you ever met someone whose name fit them so well, that every time you’ve heard their name, your mind’s eye sees them? Seek that level on naming intimacy in your character creation.
- Connotation – Here’s a trick for when you need a name that carries an idea. Select a word archetypical to the personality that you wish to convey to your reader. Now, stuff the word into a pillowcase, and beat it until it’s beyond recognition. Poke a funnel into the top of your computer, and empty the pillowcase into aforementioned funnel. Shake pillowcase to get every drop. Burn pillowcase to destroy forensic evidence. Now then, the word you see on you monitor is totally unique, but still has enough phonetic similarity to the-word-you-just-bludgeoned, that the connotation of its meaning still carries over to your reader. EXAMPLE: In my Fantasy Novella White Iron, I needed a name for a primitive group of Orq barbarians. I landed on the word Neanderthal, and one pillowcase later, Clann Nintrithaal was born. There’s more. I informed my first two critiquers of my naming strategy, then asked them to guess the connotation word. Twice, the word Neanderthal was Bach to my ears!
- Aesthetics – Be a word-smith. While selecting a name suitable to your character, craft syllables that are pleasing to both the eye and ear.
- Simplicity – Don’t get so carried away making nice syllables that your reader trips over the name every time he sees it. An example of my own: Zuielmann. I thought the reader would easily pronounce this, Zool-men. I was wrong.
The moral of this non-fiction story is that names are an author’s fingerprint on their work. Story details last on a reader. I read Terry Brooks’ Sword Of Shannara when I was sixteen. I’m nearly forty now, yet the exotic name Panamon Creel still lingers in my memory. Do that!
His Will be done, Frank Creed
