Random Writing Tips – Using common words for weird things

Over a year ago, I wrote a post on why writers should Chill on the weird words.  The basic idea, is if you jump right into a story and have characters drinking regilum and eating roasted glarthen all in celebration of Clathenmas Eve, you’ll end up with a lot of readers who are more confused than engrossed in the story.  Using weird words isn’t bad, it’s pretty standard in fantasy and science fiction after all, but if you use too many of them too quickly, you run the risk of the readers not knowing what is going on in the story, which is generally a bad thing.  You can use glossaries so you don’t have characters explaining the meaning of words they should likely already know, but there is a difference between learning a few weird words and learning a weird language.  Like most things in writing and life, there are balances that need to be found.

Anyway, I was thinking about this the other day and realized you can have the opposite issue: using common words for weird things.  I was able to think of an example, but it wasn’t that great of an example.  So instead, I came up with this extreme, hypothetical example to show what I mean.

Imagine a book where in Chapter 1 we’re introduced to Queen Whoever.  You would naturally assume that Whoever was the ruler of some kingdom.  But in Chapter 2, the Queen receives an order from some Emperor.  Well, maybe this empire conquered the kingdom, and in return for bending the knee the royal family was allowed to remain in charge of this area of the empire.  Then in Chapter 3 we learn that Queen is just the title of the head of the Emperor’s Dragon Guard.  Okay, so maybe this conquered kingdom was known for their dragon riders, and the royal bloodline was allowed to remain as the head.  But in Chapter 4 we learn anyone can work their way up through the ranks of the Dragon Guard to become Queen.  At this point we wonder why didn’t the author come up with some other word, maybe Clethex or something, to be the title for the head of the Dragon Guard in honor of Clethex the Brave, the first Dragon Rider. 

Sometimes, misleading terms can be used to set up a joke, or as a red herring, or whatever.  Like, if you’re writing a post-apocalypse story, I’m sure there will be plenty of current terms and slang that will have their meanings warp in their world.  Like, maybe they use netflix to mean die, because they found something about “Netflix and chill,” and they know that after you die, your body grows cold.  That may seem convoluted, but explain how “Netflix and chill” came about.  In other types of stories, if you use a common word for something weird, the readers will either be confused wondering what they’re missing, or waiting for a punchline.  And if you don’t deliver on either, it can leave a bad taste. 

***

Image from Pixabay.

Writing in these dark times

I recently had an idea for a story.  Some 10,000 years from now, humanity is on the verge of extinction – for reasons – and they use all of their knowledge and the last of their resources to build a time machine to send someone back to tell us we need to change the path we’re on.  Not a terribly original idea – I think I’ve already written four or five stories like that – but the way this person arrives in our time was kinda new. 

I started thinking about it, and quickly realized that there will be a lot of history between now and then.  They’re not going to come back and just say, “To change your path you need to support this politician’s bill,” or whatever.  They might show up and be confused that the Roman Empire isn’t still around, or be like, “Oh, I guess this is before Nigeria took over the world.”

So what future message would they give to help us?  I played around with this for a while, and that was when I ran into an issue.  Maybe ten or so years ago, just the message, “The path you are on leads to our extinction,” would probably bring enough of us around to try to make the world a better place.  But now, it seems the more likely result would be, “How dare you say we are on the wrong path!” Do you really think the people that willingly voted for a convicted felon would heed warnings? 

Working through how this person would arrive and what message they could give us was fun; it was the joy of creation we get when we write.  But that joy was tainted by the bitter reality we currently find ourselves in.  And I almost threw this idea on the “Interesting idea, but not worth spending time writing it” pile, but the idea didn’t want to give up that easily.  Originally, I figured the original story would have to be a novella, at least.  But if I can figure out how to get it down to a short story, I’ll put it on the list of stories I want to write over the next few years as part of my Sisyphean task of rolling our reality towards a better world.  It is, as they say, “Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” and sometimes, those candles take the form of stories.

Random Writing Tips – You’re allowed “sick” days

 

It was probably over twenty years ago I read the advice that if you wanted to be a capital W Writer, you needed to write every day.  I thought that was a great idea, and so I started keeping track of how many days in a row I wrote.  At first, hitting a milestone, like 30 days, or 100 days, or 365 days, was great.  But after a while, there aren’t that many milestones.  The day this is posted, we be the 2853rd day I’ve written.  (That’s 7.8 years.)  

Writing every day for over seven years sounds impressive, and if I had been writing a thousand words a day, it would be.  But several hundred of those days my “writing” consisted of opening a document, reading a couple of sentences, changing a word, and calling it a day. 

There are plenty of reasons why one would not feel up to writing.  Maybe there was a death in the family, or you broke a rib and can’t get comfortable so you basically haven’t slept in a week, or maybe half your country voted for an authoritarian asswipe.  If you hold yourself to the “I must write every day,” mindset you’ll end up with many bleh days of writing.  And yes, bleh writing can always be edited into good writing, but after years of following it, I think Write Every Day should be seen as a guide, not a rule.  So if you want to try writing every day, just remember that writing is like any other job, and you can take sick days. 

Will I be taking any sick days?  Well, maybe after mid-April when I hit 3,000 days.  We’ll see.

***

Image from Pixabay.

Election Day Sale

This election is almost over!  In a matter of days we’ll know if America will remain a land of democracy, or if it wall fall into fascism.  That’s assuming in the months after the election the fascists don’t burn the country down in their attempts to steal the election.  But that’s Big Challenge Number 2.  Big Challenge Number 1 is getting out and voting to show that the majority of Americans don’t want Orange Hitler back in the White House. 

Therefore, as with every election for the last decade plus, I’m having an Election Day Sale on several of my ebooks.  From Friday November 1st, through Election Day Tuesday November 5th, the following five ebooks will be free to download.  All I ask is that you vote.  If you need it, this site will help you find your polling place.  (Also, apparently, it’s technically illegal for me to give you something to get you to vote, but if a free ebook from an unknown author was the deciding factor on whether or not you voted, then the case could be made that anything could have been the deciding factor, like choosing not to vote because you didn’t want to stand in line after stubbing your toe that morning.  And it’s not like I’m dumb enough to just give people a million dollars.  Anyway, there’s no way for me to know if you vote or not, so you can take a book and not vote.  Which is fine, except in the sense that this election will determine the very fate of the United States.)

If you’ve already voted, then reward yourself with some free books.  If you haven’t voted yet, then grab something to read while you wait in line.  And if you’re not an American citizen, grab an ebook anyway and participate in your government however you can, because if nothing else, this election has shown that the forces of authoritarianism are everywhere, and they unfortunately don’t sleep.

***

 

Political Pies

Everybody complains about politics, but does anyone do anything about it? My attempt to do something about it is to collect forty of my short stories with a political element into my Political Pies anthology. The stories are either politically neutral or equally condemning of the national parties. Instead of trying to sway you to one ideology or another, my goal is to just get people thinking about politics in the hopes a rose might grow out of all the political manure.

 

The All-You-Can-Read Buffet

The All-You-Can-Read Buffet is a collection of forty stories covering various genres and themes ranging from six to over 4,200 words in length. Some of these stories I wrote a decade ago, while others were written especially for this collection. All together, they are a buffet of my writing. As such, I encourage you to read as much as you want. Go back for seconds, thirds, fourths even. I won’t even mind if you skip over the stuff you don’t like, but, to quote your mother, “How do you know you don’t like it? Have you tried it?”

 

Relics

This work contains some profanity and sexual situations. It is intended for mature audiences only.

A plague that kills men has devastated the world’s population. Only a few thousand boys and men were able to be quarantined. But Mike Shay is the only man known to have a natural immunity to the plague. Therefore, he is practically the only man in a world of women. He spends his days reading, playing video games, and making the occasional sperm donation. Then Dr. Veronica Barrett shows up, disrupting what passes for his life. She says she’s there to investigate his “mental wellbeing,” but is there more to her visit?

Instead of the normal, adolescent, heterosexual male fantasy of being the only guy on a planet of women, “Relics” tries to give a more realistic view of Mike’s life.

 

The Future is Coming

As a science fiction writer, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how technology will change the way we live. I’ve come up with these ten short essays about science fictional elements that will – almost certainly – one day become science fact as a way for people to start coming to terms with them. Because I’ve spent time thinking about clones and AIs, I feel I’ll be okay when they do finally show up whereas most people will probably freak out. I hope these essays will get people to start thinking about the future because, no matter what we do, the future is coming.

 

Lonely Phoenix

Partway to a new colony world, board member Geoffrey Ames is woken from hibernation by the caretaking crew of the Lucian. They require him to look into the matter of their fellow crewman Morgan Heller. Morgan’s claims – such as being over 1500 years old – would normally land him in the psychiatric ward, except he can back up some of his other claims.

Writing Newsletter Third Quarter 2024

 

This quarter I continued writing a story each month on my website, publishing, “Sink to Their Level,” “Hot Enough for Ya?” and “Other Means.” I also reposted “Choices,” “Same Old Line,” and “Flaunt It” on my Ko-fi profile.  I also reposted the story “Hot Heads” on one of my blogs.

#

If I counted correctly, this quarter I posted seven microfiction stories, which can be found on my Untitled Works Page.  I also, if I counted correctly, posted 17 haikus.  The links to them can be found on my Haiku Page.

#

I think the only other writing news from this quarter was a decision I made about my writing plans for next year.  I’ll write up a blog post about that around the end of December, which will explain everything, so you’ll just have to wait until then.

***

Image from Pixabay.

Fourth of July Voter Registration Drive Book Sale!

I know a lot of people are tired of being told that every election for the past decade WILL DETERMINE THE VERY SURVIVAL OF THE NATION!  But it’s true.  It seems every election now is a choice between democracy and the literal forces of evil.  And the fastest way for the forces of evil to fully seize power is if We The People can’t be bothered to vote.  To keep our democracy, we need to vote, in this election and every election.

But in order to vote, you need to be registered.  If you’re an American citizen who will be eighteen by Election Day, November 5th of this year, and you are not registered, I ask you to register.  Your state’s website should have all the necessary details.  

To try to sweeten the pot for people doing their patriotic duty, the week of the Fourth, three of my ebooks will be free to download.  All I ask is that if you download them, you register.  There’s no way for me to check if the people grabbing my books for free registered, so we’ll just go on the honor system.  Read them now, or hold on to them to have something to read while you wait in line to vote come November. 

But what if you’re already registered?  In that case I ask you to check your registration.  The list of voters needs constant updating as people register, move, and die.  And even without nefarious voter purges, it’s possible for mistakes to happen.  But if you catch the mistake now, you have plenty of time to get it fixed so that come Election Day, things will be smoother.  Your state’s website should also have the details on how to check your registration.

But what if you’re not American?  Well then, all I ask is that you participate however you can in your government.  The literal forces of evil aren’t just working here in the states.

***

The following three ebooks will be free to download from Monday, July 1st, through Friday, July 5th.  The title links take you to the US site for the book.

Political Pies

Everybody complains about politics, but does anyone do anything about it? My attempt to do something about it is to collect forty of my short stories with a political element into my Political Pies anthology. The stories are either politically neutral or equally condemning of the national parties. Instead of trying to sway you to one ideology or another, my goal is to just get people thinking about politics in the hopes a rose might grow out of all the political manure.

A Man of Few Words

A Man of Few Words is a collection of fifty of my flash fiction stories. What would really happen if a “T-Rex on steroids” attacked a city? Why do science fiction writers make the best lovers? How does a company get to Second Base with VIPs? I explore these questions and more using less than 1,000 words and in various genres from humor to horror and general fiction to science fiction.

Duty

For reasons of safety and avoiding paradoxes, Time Travel Incorporated assigns a Guardian to all its travelers. So when there is an accident during political historian Roj Hasol’s trip back to 1968, it’s his Guardian Susan who sets out on the arduous task of cleaning up the mess.

Writing Newsletter Second Quarter 2024

 

In my last newsletter, I wrote that I had submitted a story for the first time in years, and I was waiting to hear back.  Well, I did hear back, and while they didn’t accept my story, they did say it was close and they hoped I’d consider them for another story.  Now I just have to write another story.

#

This quarter I continued writing a story each month on my website, publishing, “When You Put it Like That,” “Let That Be a Lesson,” and “Die Trying.”  I also reposted, or posted, “Let it Rain,” “All the Money in the World,” and “A Whale of a Tale” on my Ko-fi profile.  I also reposted “I Just Write Stories” and “Ben’s Time Carriage” on two of my blogs.

#

Two projects I’m slowly working on have me posting more microfictions and haikus.  In previous newsletters, I just had a link to each.  But that was somewhat tedious.  (If I counted correctly, I’ve published 18 microfictions and 16 haikus this quarter.)  I had made a page just for my microfiction, where I have the story with links to where it was published.  My haikus had been part of my poem page, but since I’ve been publishing so many of them, I decided to just make a new page for them. 

#

I don’t really have any other writing news.  I’ve been busy getting our garden ready, and now I’m trying to keep the weeds from taking over.  So I haven’t had much time to write.  Will I get more time next quarter?  We’ll just have to see.

***

Image from Pixabay.