New Reviews to Come

It's not that I haven't been reading, I've actually been spending my time on "Behold a Pale Horse" until recently. But within the next few days I should have two and a half new reviews ready. I'm not going to give anything away, I'm just going to say that both reviews will be awesome, and one of the new ones if from an author that I've reviewed once before.

Figured I'd post something. There may also be a rant and some erotica on the way, depending on the way that I feel.

The Wind in the Willows Review

Recently, I read the book, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I had read it when I was much younger, and watched the 1980s animated version. Since encountering it again, I remember why I enjoyed it.

I guess this is considered a classic in children’s literature because the target audience is a younger one, or rather, was a younger one. The characters are named after their breed: Mr. Mole, Mr. Rat, Mr. Otter, Mr. Badger, etc. which makes it very easy to keep up with the characters. You really don’t get them confused, even if they had non-breed names, because they’re so distinctly them. However, because the book was written so long ago, and it’s a British book (I’m American), there are phrases and words that are now archaic. I enjoy the archaic words, they add to the charm.

Considering this is a book geared towards a younger audience, there’s quite a bit of violence, and smoking, which is considered rather taboo subjects for the youth of today. I like all the violence and different things, it was surprising, and held my attention. The book is a combination of different stories of the different creatures, although the antics of Mr. Toad do take up the most time.

The version of the book that I downloaded from Amazon was unabridged, so there is an interesting chapter that apparently is omitted from newer versions, including the chapter that inspired the original cover of the first edition (which freaked me out at first).

Even though I’m technically not a child anymore, I think I can get enjoyment of the story for years to come.

As for the digital version, it was a lovely copy. Almost all the archaic words/spellings had definitions that were easily understood. I think this would be the kind of book you would read for a week or more as a bedtime story. I will certainly read this to any kids I might pop out.

Should Writers Work on Multiple Pieces at Once?

While studying writing, I found this website that gives writers advice.

The first thing that Henry Miller says I should do, is work on one piece of writing at a time.

For me, this is the one thing I don't do. I work on multiple pieces of work at one time. Personally, I get blocks on my longer works, and need to write something else to give my brain another direction. That's just how my though process works with my fiction.

Sometimes I take a break from some plot to write a short scene or story. I've figured out that's basically my plan with one of my stories, completely changing my writing style.

I do finish things. I've just finished my story about mermaids, and it's in the editing stage. But working specifically at that one piece of writing, even with an outline, can become stale for me. I have so many ideas flowing, some of them short pieces telling me about my character, and then some of just smut. Either way, I'm going to jump back and forth.

And on top of all the fiction, I also write my opinion pieces down, and those also give my fingers some time away from writing made up stuff.

This is something that I know will always be a part of my style. Do a lot of writers work on multiple things at once? Or is the majority in the single idea mindset?

I guess that's it for right now. I have a lot of writing to get back to.

Writing Terminology: My Way

If there is anything I try to stress about myself, it's that I am not a professional writer. I am not a technical writer. To be quite honest, I don't know much about technical English (hence my reason for wanting to go to school for it), and I skated through all my years of school by knowing how to form sentences, and not necessarily being able to name sentence parts.

In the writing world, or what I've gathered, there are a bunch of fancy terms for literature, different parts, and plot devices. These are also things I'm unfamiliar with. Most of the time, when I write, read or review something, I use descriptive words from my own vocabulary, words that other people might not know or be familiar with. That's why I'm writing this entry. I will start with a word that I use frequently:

Sceney:

A sceney is a short piece of writing. It can be as long as a chapter, or as short as a page. A sceney can be an excerpt from a story, or a small stand alone situation in and of itself. The majority of short stories are sceneys. I think I consider a sceney anything under ten pages, but usually more around five. Better terms for sceney may be excerpt, short short, short story, or essay.

Plush:

Plush is a word I use to describe a certain style of writing. Plush writing has very long paragraphs, incredibly descriptive language, and delves deep into each thing it covers. Plush writing is a double edged sword, because it can enthrall a reader, or make the person drift away. Plush stories are definitely not everyone's taste, and more often than not, are not as awesome as the author thinks. Some examples of plush authors/books are "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" by Gregory Maguire (he's the man that wrote "Wicked").

Fluff:

This word goes back to my fan fiction roots. Fluff is anything that is sweet, mushy, sometimes romance novel-esque. Fluff, fluffer, or fluffy as a character description usually means that the character is sweet, mushy, soft. Sometimes the character is stereotypically good, with predictable actions and responses to certain stimuli. Sometimes a character, especially if a dominant character, is fluffy, it means that they are more of a kind, caring Dominant. I used this in a slightly derogatory manner when referring to Wanda in Venus in Furs. This definition is strictly for literature, because fluff has definitions outside of this when used in other contexts.

I think these are the big three words that I use that aren't standard. If any reader has any other terms they've found, and are confused by, I'd love to know. I will add more, and I do check this blog frequently.

Kindle Direct Publishing and Graphic Porn

This has left me pissed off.

And rather depressed...

So, I had something of an epiphany when I was writing and working on a short scene. Suddenly, I realized that I wanted to put a lot of little sceneys of mine together in a collection I call "Taboo". It was supposed to contain stories from all the parts of human sexuality that aren't discussed in polite society.

And by this, I barely mean BDSM. I meant incest, underage, rape and zoophilia. I happen to have at least one story that falls into each of the categories (although the underage was written when I was underage). I thought it would be a clever, although controversial collection. Although I didn't expect any one individual to find each story arousing (I only find a fraction sexy), but I thought there was a little something for everyone.

So, whilst on my computer, I go to Amazon.com and I download the Kindle Publishing handbook... I'm so happy I found now, before I put in the extra time writing other little shorts for this collection.

I'm reading through it, looking at the policies that are in place, how to go about it. Amongst the final pages, I find the list of prohibited content. The first fucking thing is "graphic or hardcore pornography". Immediately, I thought a blood vessel in my head popped.

All of my erotic writing is graphic and hardcore. In my mind, that's what makes good erotica, the ability to see, touch, taste and smell what's going on. I want the reader to feel that everything they're reading is happening right in front of them.

Thinking that there might be some other things not allowed by KDP, I went to their forum (I already have an account), and I found that not only are graphic depictions prohibited, so are rape, scat, underage, and anything else that one might find in 120 Days of Sodom.

Most of my stories and outlines for stories contain themes like that. Hell, it's usually a major conflict. What can I say, my first favorite author was VC Andrews.

Even my stories, the longer pieces that I'm working on, cannot be published under KDP. I really feel some sort of way, my head and heart are aching right now. I don't know what's keeping the tears at bay.

Now I'm just wondering what it is I'm going to have to do... I think I will wait, finish a major story, and then see about finding an agent. That will probably be the only way to get out my work, since it's too graphic and "wrong" for me to publish independently.

I have to find a way to get my mind back on track with my work...

Venus In Furs

I had read de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, and I loved it. It gave me a true sense of why the word sadism had its roots in his name.

I'd heard of Venus in Furs, and I knew that Sader-Masoch's name gave way to the word masochism. I came into the book with preconceived notions of what it was supposed to be, what it was supposed to do. I've just now left the book with higher hopes and spirits than I thought I would.

 If you've come to this book looking for hardcore pornography, you should just go to Kink.com's Divine Bitches.

I have to start off: the book, novella actually, moves at what I thought was a slow pace. Being the crass individual that I am, I thought Severin was a whiny bitch, and Wanda and flip-floppity fluffer Dominant. There is lots of crying from the former, and lots of wishy-washy love/hate from the latter.

There are many references to historical people at times, and even though I'm reading it for my own edification, I have to say I'd like to read it again and take notes. One of the biggest misconceptions about the book, is masochism. I'm not sure how to better phrase it... what modern day people see as a masochist, might only be seen as a facet of true masochism based on this book. Most of the masochism isn't physical, but emotional, which I found fascinating.

Depending on who you are, there could be some downsides to this book. If you're picking up a paperback version, I'd suggest being familiar with archaic words, or have the internet close by for quick googles of different things. I still haven't seen an effective image for the styles of furs that he finds so fascinating. Also, the way I've seen some of these movie posters and all that such... it looks a lot different from what was written.

I don't think that Wanda was a cougar, if I'm not mistaken, she was twenty-four at the start of the story, and even back then, that wasn't super old. And well, I don't want to give anything else away, so I'll try to steer clear of any further information.

There's just one curious thing I've noticed since just finishing the story... it hasn't technically loosened the bonds of my fingers. That's very curious indeed. I'll just continue to read some more fantastic literature and see where I'm led to next time.

Trying to Read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

This is the most mis-titled book I have ever come across.

Unlike Frankenstein, which is free for my Kindle, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a book you have to pay for. Granted, it's just under one dollar, but when money is tight, you do your best to save every penny. That's why I downloaded the PDF version of the book. I should probably make an entire blog entry about the Pros and Cons of having PDF files. This is, for sure, not this entry, this is specifically about the book.

I'll start by saying I'm a reader that's somewhat familiar with older English phrasing, reading it, and enjoying it. This book is not only in older English, it also has many Latin phrases, and historical references. This is not a book about Quasimodo. This is not a book about his life, his times or anything like that. This book is quite literally about the the world of Paris surrounding Notre Dame Cathedral. The French name for this book literally translates to "Our Lady of Notre Dame". I don't know who in their right mind decided that a good English translation of the title would center around one of the characters.

Quasimodo doesn't even show up in the book until 50 pages in. This book spends most of its time telling the reader about the world around Notre Dame, the streets, the buildings, the neighborhoods. It does mention some pivotal characters, but the characters lives haven't been as elaborated on as the steeples and bells.

I'm 200 pages in the book, and I've realized that I have to stop being a cheepie peepee and fork over the buck to buy the Kindle version. When reading this book, I feel like I need two things: a map of Paris, and a direct internet connection to look up the many phrases and historical people that are mentioned. Without them, I'm really not going to get all out of it that I want. I refuse to give up on this book; I love Gothic literature, but I never thought it would be this tough.But, for all the tough parts, there is a beauty in the world that Victor Hugo is painting, and a music to the sentences that just isn't found anymore.

I think, after reading it, I'll write a formal review, instead of just a review of how difficult it is. But I know that it's worth the work.

Reading About Writing, Trying to Write More

I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing.

I haven't finished it yet, but I've already read two places where I was--am lacking-- as a writer. Besides my horrible habit of having passive verbs (which I'm still not even sure I can identify while reading), the worst thing that I've done to my craft is not writing enough.

King suggests, at a minimum, to write two thousand words a day. Two. Thousand.

There's a short story (it's more like an elongated scene to be honest) that I'm writing, and as of right now, it's 1700 words. It has taken me three of four days to get up to 1700 words. I'm supposed to crank out more than that every day.

That's like five pages (regularly spaced) a day. If I write more than one page a day, I feel like a G, a super ultra mega G. Hell, if I really write five pages, it's surely not for the same story. It's like doing one of my stories that has an outline, and writing a bullet point a day.

That's really imposing for me. I have to admit, I have almost no discipline. I can barely spell the word. The worst thing, at least for my writing, is that I type up most of my stuff on a laptop that has the internet.

If there is any one particular thing that I can say fucks with my writing, and really helps me procrastinate, it's the internet. On my laptop, I can surf through thousands of pages of ridiculous stuff. It's not intentional, and sometimes reading other things actually helps my writing. For the most part, it just keeps me from doing what I need to do.

I think that I'm going to have to implement an entire routine just to make sure that I do everything necessary to increase my writing skills.

Today, I'm going to change the way my desk is sitting, so that it faces a wall, and while I'm having my writing time, there is no use of the internet. If I can't write, I'll read (I should read right now anyway instead of watching this documentary), and if  I can't read, I'll throw around ideas. For that entire period of time, I have to do what I need to do.

I think that's what i'm going to do, start getting my room together, to get my reading together, to get my writing together.

All this makes me want a blunt... but no! I'll smoke after I make some progress in my writing.

Making God a Character

Sometimes when writing, you have to take a seemingly limitless concept, and give it a form and tangible essence.

That's what I've had to do in one of my stories, to God.

It was really challenging for me, seeing how I would put an omnipotent being, a formless spirit, and make it physically exist. The one good thing about that particular story, is that it really has next to nothing to do with religion, and none of the characters are human, so I can just slide over that entire idea without any sort of mentioning of a particular belief system.

However, there is a scene, where the protagonist comes face to face with the Creator.

Because of the plot, and the very solid personification that I gave Lucifer, I had to do one that was the opposite, and yet, seemed more powerful. To be quite honest, the God in my story may be my favorite character to write.

If you ever have a chance to have a character have a talk with a being that is all knowing, the Alpha and Omega, do it. To know that one of the parties in the conversation already knows every word that is spoken, every idea flowing through the other's head, is fun. For the character, it's incredibly intimidating, although the form God decided to show Itself in was not one that was intimidating.

At this point in my life, the only book I've read where God is a character, with words, is the Bible. I've actually decided to download Paradise Lost on to my Kindle so that I have another source of ideas for God, although God in my story is already one that I know rather intimately.

I wish I was one of those writers that could go into great detail about the reasons why I chose what I did. I honestly don't know the reason why I chose what I did, or rather, I can't explain them in fancy literature talk. But I do know that I'm very much in love with my current form of God, and how It's working for my character.

Maybe after I read Milton, I'll have another opinion on the subject. But as for right now, all I can do is suggest to people to put God in their stories, if It fits, because it will be a very rewarding experience.

How Many Outlines is Too Many Outlines?

I've never been one to plan out my writing.

I've actually not planned it out so much, that it's rare that I get through anything that I was writing. It was my worst habit, starting something, having a great idea or scene, and then allowing it to fade off into the sunset.

It was a miracle that I finished my play, and I think the only reason I was able to finish that, was because it reminded me of bare bones. I'm still not good at writing very long pieces, and the full story for Elah is going to be an incredible feat.

This isn't about Elah, it's about outlining. I'd like to think that the play is something of an outline for the story, although there are large differences, and sub-plots that I couldn't even write in, I know where the story is going, and what kind of people the characters are.

The first story I've actually fully outlined is called Front of the Whorehouse. It's a fantastic piece, and it's so settling that I know exactly where it's going to go. I love that I know where it's going. With each page I write, I know I'm one page closer to the next bullet mark. With each bullet mark, I know that I'm one step closer to finishing the story. I love that idea, it lets me know that I have 70% more to write (and, maybe 100 more pages). It's not that staggering anymore.

But with that first outline, it made me go gung-ho, and I'm on an outline kick. I've written full outlines for five more stories. Five more full short stories.

I haven't even started these others, and I'm afraid to. I don't want to overwhelm myself with too many projects, but at the same time, I don't want to focus too much on one story, and have my creativity burn out with it. This is such a jacked up conundrum. Considering that I can only go through a few pages a day, if I'm lucky, it might be better for me that I try to spread myself a bit more.

For the moment, I'm just going to continue writing for this particular story as much as I can. I want to complete this, before I start putting all of my energy into something else. I'm trying to learn how to throw myself into my work.

I wonder if anyone else goes on an outline bender...

Well, I should get back to my work.

Do Not Mention 50 Shades of Anything To Me

Let me start by saying: I have, and will NOT read that book series.

If there's anything that I know a lot about, it's fan fiction. I've written fan fiction (mostly Harry Potter) since I was 13 years old. Sometimes, I still read fan fiction, enjoying alternate universes that readers can see the characters in. Hell, I also write it still, on occasion.

There are works of fan fiction that are great, such as the Cassandra Clare's Draco Trilogy, which I'm downloading as I speak. It is a masterpiece, this is not.

That is the immediate reason why I am not impressed by this series.

At first, it piqued my interest: BDSM in a series? Well sign me up for a copy! The first strike from the story, was that it was Twilight fan fiction. I read the first book, it was alright, but the culture that spawned from it irritated me to the point where I would refuse to read them.

The more I learned about the book, the more it irritated me. For one, it's not even a well written fan fiction. I've read excerpts on Evil Slutopia, and I can't help wanting to bash my head into the keyboard. The way that the character thinks, the way that the character responds, not to mention the Christian Gray... There are only two Mr. Gray's that I'd have anything to do with: Mr.E. Edward Gray from the movie Secretary, and Mr. Dorian Gray from his novel.

Not only do the characters annoy me, but the way the relationship unfolds annoys me. The story is an entirely inaccurate portrayal of Dominance and submission, and how it should occur. From what I understand about Christian Gray, he's no different that the hundreds (and I'm being quite literal) of Seme's that I've read in yaoi. Hell, I take Iason Mink over Christian Gray every time. Every time.

Unfortunately, every day, I'm forced to hear something about this moronic book, to see the author on day time television, to hear discussions about it. This book is not the Story of O, but people seem to put it in the same category (although I don't consider O to be erotica, but that's a different blog). This book just goes to show me that the state of literature in the world.

I do not want to sound like an asshole/hater, but I know I write better than that. My friends and I write better stories than that. Hell, we wrote better stories than that in our freshman year of high school. I just dislike that this book is seen as the bees knees, when it's really not.

I've heard from people that the book does have upsides; it's bringing to light BDSM, and having it discussed, is a good thing, especially for those that are shy about such things. I guess that's a good thing. Anything that opens up discussions is a good thing.

But this book is a Twilight fan fiction. That is badly written. That has been mentioned to me so many times that I make sure to let people know my feelings before even bringing it up. And for these reasons, I want nothing to do with it. Some people may think that I'm just talking a big game. I'm not.

I just realized something positive that this book has done: it's forced me to be even more diligent about my writing, so that I can show people what good erotica reads like.