Edgar's Second Halloween

Edgar's costume this year is a frog. Get it? He's a BULLfrog :p
1 Year and 6 Months

Many Genres, One Craft (Part 5)

Ten Ways to Avoid Losing Your YA Reader by Patrice Lyle: Teens aren't dumb, so don't dumb down your writing.

Even though I majored in Literature when I was doing my undergrad, I still liked to read YA stuff every now and then to counteract the classics I was studying. I'm actually reading The Hunger Games trilogy now, and am on the third book right now and it's one of the best books I've ever read (and I've read a LOT). I think what I like about YA is that the language is so real and easy to relate too that I get swept up in the story line and with the characters much faster than I do if I were reading a Jane Austen piece. Sure I liked Elizabeth Bennet, but Katniss Everdeen... now that's a girl I would like to sit down and have a conversation with.

When I was younger, all I wanted to do was write YA, but as I got older, I developed my style and genre more and realized that my... let's say taste and language... aren't necessarily for kids. BUT with that said, I'm still very interested in it, and somewhere along my career I would like to put out a YA Paranormal Romance which is why I found this article so helpful. Lyle makes a ton of great points in this piece: "Matters of the heart are major issues to teens," "Teens are dramatic and they love reading about other teens on the awkwardly confusing albeit magical road to love," and "Am up the emotion in your story [and make them] relatable and true to life. This is why every once in a while, I'll pick up a YA vampire book and read it. This way, I can see what writers in the genre are doing and why it works -- also, it lets me see what cliches I hate so I can break away from them and maybe add some flavor of my own.  I just have to watch my tongue-- Mother's don't like it when you use the *F* word a lot in books that their teenagers are reading.

If You Write it, They Will See It: Picture Book Illustrations from the Writer's Point of View by Karen Lynn Williams: Writing for a picture book is a lot like watching  the opening scene to My Bloody Valentine.

Like any sane person, you're probably reading that and going WTF? But stick with me here. For those of you that haven't seen the 2009 (?) remake of the film, the beginning is without a doubt my favorite opening scene in horror.  Harry Warden wakes up out of a coma and slaughters EVERYONE in the hospital, leaving blood splatter on the walls, body parts scattered everywhere, bleeding hearts in candy boxes and (the best part) a severed arm laying on a cart where the blood runs down to the fingers and then drips on the floor. And no one says a word. If a writer could paint this scene for me using words, I would probably shiver from excitement because when I watched it...I loved it, but if I read it... I would go nuts with (creepy) excitement.

Williams states that "[she] came to realized that if [she] writes[s] evocatively and with passion and emotion and honesty that the illustrator will be able to do what is needed to create illustrations that not only match the text but extend it." I think this is why I like graphic novels so much, because the writer says just enough to get the emotion across, and then the artist takes it to the next level.  Would I ever work on a picture book? Actually I think I would. I think it would be cool to do a kid's book about monsters, but from a friendly perspective. And I most certainly would do a graphic novel!! SO if you're an artist reading this and you're thinking the same thing... but are looking for a writer... contact me. I have some crazy ideas I've been working on.

I Write Short Stories by Michael Bracken: Write short stories!! They are fun, give you a break from your novel to explore other avenues and widen your chances of earning publication credits. This I need to start doing... but I have a hard time breaking away from poetry :p (my first, true love).

Magical Realism as Genre: Or Waiter, There's an Angel in My Soup: by Jason Jack Miller: I want to go through the wardrobe and enter Narnia...

I adore Magical Realism and Fantasy, but I've never tried writing it. I love to read it and watch it...but I think it really takes one hell of an imagination in order to do it. One of my goals in this program is to look into world building (please offer a class for me!!) and maybe try mapping some stuff out when I need a break from my novel. Since I like to paint, I think I could whip up some cool exercises in this.. but it's more than just creating and using your imagination. You need to take a basic belief system (whether it be supernatural, superstition, etc.) that is grounded in real life events and then build around it so your readers will start questioning it, and if you're really good... believing it. "[Readers] only consider something supernatural when other explanations have been exhausted. And even then, the suggestion of the fantastic is accompanied by doubt and uncertainty."

Now I'll let you in on a secret. I believe in ghosts, and I believe in magic. So when I read Harry Potter as a child, it took little to convince me that this world was real. In fact, I had deja vu a lot (still do) and was convinced that my owl had just got lost somewhere along the way, but that I would find out soon enough that I was a witch. And hell, J.K. Rowling still has me waiting for my acceptance letter into Hogwarts, so it can happen!

The Pot-Bellied Pig Method of Critiquing by Kaye Dacus: Be a good listener and grow a tough skin.

I love and hate critique sessions because while I think I'm good at taking constructive criticism, if someone phrases it meanly... I'll break.  You can tell me I suck and you hate my stuff but as long as your nice about it... it's cool. I get it. It's not your cup of tea. Just don't be rude.

What I really liked about this article is that Dacus is so real when talking about critiques that it makes me feel better that I'm not the only one that feels this way. She talks about having a tough skin, being a good listener and keeping in mind that you're NOT writing for your critique partners. I was really excited when I read this, because I can't tell you how many people in my undergraduate groups would read my stuff and go "You're gross. I hate this." Really? You'd think I wrote horror or something. But nevertheless, I wasn't going to stop being gross just because he/she didn't like it. Fact: If I had to deal with his/her sappy, romance crap... then he/she could deal with my cannibalistic, heart eating character.  When it comes down to it "writing is still a solitary business." And if I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times --- you have to be true to yourself. If you don't like a change someone made or commented on... don't use it. But consider why they said it in the first place.

Michael A. Arnzen writes about this more in his article Working the Workshop: How to Get the Most Out of Critique Groups (Even the Bad Ones):

1. Ask for amplification
2. Request Definitions
3. Demand Examples
4. Challenge Vagueness
5. Get Concrete
6. Check Sources

Asking WHY someone thinks the way that they do is important...especially if you don't feel the same way. This will give you insight into how other readers might perceive your work.

My Sex and Blood Filled Dirty Little Secret

When asked why horror? Jack Ketchum, author of The Girl Next Door, responded: Because there's nothing so extreme -- from there you can work your way back to courage, loyalty, community, tenderness.   Then there's that old sex 'n death thing...."

When I was in my exit interview at Seton Hill University, Dr. Arnzen and Dr. Wendland asked me two questions: "What's with the sex stuff?" and "How does this relate to your spin on horror?"

My response: "I don't really know. It's just what I do."

Needless to say, this probably wasn't the answer they were looking for, especially since I had just been accepted into the their Writing Popular Fiction Program as a graduate student. But truth be told, I didn't really have an answer for them, but as I'm working my way through the program now... I think I may have stumbled upon why it is I do what I do.

You see, writing horror as never been an option for me. I live Halloween every day, and I'm in love with being scared and scaring others, so it was no real surprise to anyone that when I sat down to write...it wasn't about rainbows and sunshine.  I live for the horror genre because there's nothing like the feeling of the hair standing up on your back, or the need to keep checking over your shoulder to make sure no one is there. Simply put- I love tension and I love suspense. And if someone gets hacked out of the blue in the middle of it... then we're dealing with my kind of stuff. There's just something about the idea of not knowing if a character is going to live or die that engulfs me in a story and keeps me reading throughout the night, and that's what I want to do for my readers. I want to keep them up at night, reading under a dim light, wondering if the boogeyman is going to crawl out from underneath their bed and snatch them as soon as the lights go out. Fear is one of the most powerful emotions that a person can have because its unpredictable and it makes people do unpredictable things. For instance, you may say that you would never be able to shoot someone, but what if they had your children strung up in their basement? Would you be able to kill them then? It's this backwards way of thinking that lulls me into the genre because it always keeps me questioning how far would I go if I was in this situation?

Fear is intense.
But so is sex.

I have no idea how I started writing erotica to be honest. It just sort of happened one day when I was doing some freewriting and I figured "What the hell? If anything, it might be a good scene exercise." And after submitting my world to a couple of magazines, I found out I'm not half bad at it. So then I thought... hmmm.. let's throw the sex and the horror together. Why you ask? Why not? I like to think of it as horrotica- combining the two most intense feelings a person can have (Fear and Lust).

For this, I blame Mike Arnzen (haha). When I was a Junior, he told me to read Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite and I LOVED it. For those of you that haven't read it... it deals with two serial killers (one's a necrophiliac, the other a cannibal) who find each other and fall in love. While my peers were gagging at the mere notion of why someone would even think to write something like this... I'll admit I was thinking the same thing. But I thought it was brilliant. Who would think of this? Someone that is willing to go where no one has been before, that's who.

And after reading that book and working on my own novel for a little bit, I think I can finally answer their questions:

I write horrotica because of the opposition. I want to make my readers sympathize with the antagonist because they see something humane and relatable in them.

EX: A vampire bites into his mortal mate in order to survive, and she willingly gives herself over to him, only to be almost killed by the power of his thirst. But when he gives her some of his blood to revive her, the chemicals of his blood interact with hers, causing a blood lust that leads to seriously hot vamp sex. Come on... blood, vampires, fangs... it's horror and it's sexy. Why do you think TRUE BLOOD is popular? Everyone wants to see Eric Northman rip out someone's heart, drink from it's valves and then go fuck Sookie. Why? Because it's a weird kind of hot. It's not something that we should like. It makes us feel naughty. And I want my readers to feel like their doing something wrong while they are reading my stuff. Almost like it's our own dirty little secret ;)

Many Genres, One Craft (Part 4)

Tomorrow’s Kiss: The Duality of SF Romance by Heidi Ruby Miller: Spinning romance within your genre can aid in attracting readers that might not normally pick up your book.

Heidi’s article really spoke to me as a horror writer because I like to explore the lines between erotica and violence when I write, just as she likes to explore romance and science fiction –“If a writer sways too much in one direction or the other, she fears losing part of her audience.” This quote could not ring more true for me, and it’s something that I’m constantly reminding myself of when I’m writing. I don’t want to focus too much on violence and forget the emotional connection of my characters, but nor do I want to focus strictly on the sex, and forget about the big murder scene that’s going on while they are doing it. Hence finding the balance between writing horrotica. 

“...It’s also the way the character’s interact, how much time they spend looking at each other, thinking about each other, and how intimate they become.” – This is a wonderful quote when it comes to the small details that add substance to your story’s romantic subplot.

Description on the Edge: The Sublime in Science Fiction by Albert Wendland: Using the indescribable in your writing to evoke tension and fear.

When I was a second semester sophomore doing my undergrad at Seton Hill, I had the pleasure of taking a course strictly devoted to the sublime with Dr. Wendland.  It was easily one of my favorite classes, and I learned so much about the concept of the sublime and how to use it in writing, film, art, and marketing to grasp the attention of your target audience – “What gives the passage a sense of the sublime is not the description of the objects, but the description of the effect on the viewer- the drawing out of oneself, the demolition of oneself…”

When dealing with the sublime, telling typically precedes the showing which applies to writing horror just as much as writing science fiction because a 200 year old monster popping out of the grave is just the same as an alien race using technology to try and destroy Earth. Both are otherworldly being with an intent on killing humans, and the fear and panic that they will most likely instill is sublime, as probably is their actions in how they plan on doing it.  The only thing that makes me nervous when dealing with the sublime is the potential to info-dump when trying to explain it (which is ironic since the sublime is indescribable, ha!).

Ruining Everything: Tips for Plotting a Mystery by Victoria Thompson: A simple, less complex strategy for plotting your first mystery novel

I’ll admit that one of my favorite things to do is curl up with a good mystery novel and get lost in the suspense, but trying to write one seems horrifically overwhelming to me what with all the clues, suspects, plot twists etc. But what’s really neat about this article is that Thompson outlines a basic way to keep your thoughts straight and develop a plot triangle that will have everyone wondering “Who did it?”

                (1) Who is dead?

                (2) Who wanted ‘X’ dead and why?

                (3) Who could have killed ‘X’

                (4) Who would want to solve ‘X’s’ murder?

She recommends having about five suspects, but that is strictly up to the writer. She concludes by recommending to keep a list of all of the clues, and arrange your novel carefully to time when each clue should reveal itself – “Every scene reveals at least one clue.” Then, halfway through the novel, you need to kill off another suspect, who up until this point was probably who the reader was convinced that did it.  Now, writing a mystery still terrifies me, but I think by figuring out your basics early on will help make the process a little less scary. Needless to say, this isn’t a genre that you can be a pancer with! HA!

NOTE:  David Shifren’s article Talking the Talk in Crime (and Other) Fiction is a great follow-up to Thompson’s article because it talks about the fine line of including enough technical jargon in your story to sound authentic, but at the same time not using too much that you confuse your readers.

The Element of Surprise: Psyching-out Readers of Horror, Mystery and Suspense by Michael A. Arnzen: It’s always worse than we expect (ex: David Cronenberg’s The Brood).

There are so many great points in this article for a horror writer, like myself, that I don’t even know where to begin so I’ll guess we will just start in the dark. Arnzen talks about putting your character’s so much on edge about one thing, that something else completely ends up going on around them. He uses an example of a group of people walking through a cave that is rumored to be haunted with ghosts. It’s pitch black, so their focus is naturally headed to where their flashlight is, thus playing with the factors or light and dark, which he likes to call the striptease of horror. So the whole time while these characters on focused on a ghost, the real threat is a giant snake that is tracking them while they gently ignore the clues because they are so caught up in something else.

“Avoid clichés. Jump scares are too easy, too arbitrarily manipulative- and they don’t really work as well in fiction as they do in the movies (and even in film, everyone hates a cheat).”

In horror, I struggle a lot with gore and I never know when enough is enough until my reader is probably puking on the floor.  But Arnzen tackles this balance perfectly—my favorite part being, “Less is more. Parts always imply wholes.” And when I read this and took some time to think about it, it made perfect sense to me. Horror is all about the unknown and when you don’t know what’s chasing you/haunting you/etc, it’s always the monster that you can’t see that is worse than the one you can because your imagination takes over:

“If you write these kinds of things, you have an opportunity to “surprise” your reader with prose and description akin to erotic poetry, using the power of language to present an image in a way that we can feel deep down in our belly. Gore is a surprise that often generates revulsion, but it also works to raise caution and to remind the reader that curiosity often really does kill the proverbial cat. It backs up the threat of peril with imagery that confirms it. The choice between giving the reader a snippet of gore or rubbing their noses full bore into the ugliness of something ultimately depends on the context of the scene, the genre you’re working in, and the degree to which the reader trusts you.”

Arnzen also talks a good bit about the ending and how to ‘tweak’ it, for lack of a better word. He talks about the concept of infiltration and dues ex machina- “a surprise that drops down from the heaven to save the day.” To me, this is the same thing as a cliché because nothing makes me angrier than the solution to a problem that I’ve became so engrossed just falling out of the air. IT MAKES ME FEEL CHEATED, SO DON’T DO IT AND I PROMISE I WON’T EITHER.

Writing Sex Behind Closed Doors

As many of you know, I like to dabble in writing erotica every now and then, mostly just for fun. It’s a light way for me to get away from the horrors of my usual writing style, even though my stories are typically chalk full of sex to begin with. But mostly I’ve been writing erotica because eventually I would like to try tackling the genre of paranormal romance in the future and I figured that this would be a good way of practicing some short scenes to see exactly how I go about writing sex just for the pleasure of depicting a hot, steamy scene (minus all the blood and gore). So when it was time to pick our focus chat in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction (WPF) program, it should be of no surprise to anyone that I gravitated to the one about writing sex in genre fiction (lead by author and professor,  Dr. Nicole Peeler).

Nicole wrote a really great article about writing sex that can be found here, and I urge anyone that is interested in finding out more about the style to check out what she has to say.

The main points that I gained from her blog entry are as follows:

1.) Write sex like no one is going to read it

2.) Using personal experience is ok, but make it character’s experience, not your own. If you did something your character probably wouldn’t do, you have to spin it in their favor or else it won’t be believable to your audience.

3.) Make it real. Let’s face it. Sex is pretty mechanical when it comes down to ità insert a into b and c will happen. Normally it’s not what we see on TV so don’t let your fantasies overtake the reality of sex. That’s not to say that it can’t be hot and exotic, but know your limits.

There were also a lot of good questions asked during our conversation that I thought were beneficial to learning about myself as a writer.

1.) Why do I write it?

I write it for practice for an upcoming project I want to work on, and because it’s fun!

2.) Am I comfortable writing it?

The first time I wrote a sex scene, it was awful. I was nervous and felt dirty writing it so needless to say it was uncomfortable. But just like sex itself, the more you do it (or write it) the easier and more fun it becomes. Now I have no problem writing it…although I do still write my raunchy scenes behind closed doors.

3.) Is it harder to write sex than violence?

No. At least not for me. To put it bluntly, I’ve had sex so writing about it isn’t that weird because I have personal experiences to compare it too. But I’ve never butchered anyone, or shot someone in the face so that’s a little difficult—especially because I write horror and violence is a given. Therefore, I have to do a ton of research to learn about weapons, other people’s experiences, how the body works, etc., not to mention the tons of documentaries that I’ve watched on serial killers to get into the mind of how a killer works. So yes, sex is easier for me to write, but violence is much more fun to explore.

4.) What is something that I need to still work on?

Everything . I’m never satisfied with my writing so I know that I can always improve on something. But in regards to writing about sex…there is a ton of things that I could improve on. I hate to admit that I like to break out the purple prose every now and then, and metaphors and euphemisms are def. something that you want to avoid at all costs. The same goes with details; it’s the small details in writing a sex scene that really matter because while sex may be a mechanical process, you don’t want your writing to sound that way. I also tend to lose track of body parts every once in a while, which is only funny if you catch it before you send it out to a publisher (haha), but what I really want to work on is the fine balance between the visual and the emotional because I want to appeal to both genders when I write. I have worked with both heterosexual and homosexual relationships in my writing, but I would like to do more writing with same sex couples  in the future simply because it’s something different than what I’m used to, and I want to be able to reach everyone with my writing, regardless of their sexual preferences.

If you have any other questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer it.

Haiku: Little thoughts to get you through the night

Fountain of Worm

Molesting maggots

Twitch and squirm from diseased blood

Spreading infection

Reading: Many Genres, One Craft (Part 3)

Ron Edison's article "Put a Little Love in Your Life: The Perks and Perils of Romantic Subplots" -My characters only have scary, life destroying sex.

When I read Edison's article, my mind went in a TON of different directions. In the Character Goal section, I realized that the main focus of my novel was the notion of escape. Escape from danger, a bad relationship, the past. Just escape in general. But at the same time, I realized that at times its a little too Debbie Downer, and I do want something nice to happen to my character...eventually -- which is why I liked how at the end of this section, Edison wrote "they may just fall in love...or at least into bed." Now, I'll admit that I'm a pancer when it comes to writing, but I'm pretty sure that Rhea isn't going to fall in love and have a happy ending, but hey you never know... she may get some hot sex along the way? Wait.. can psych ward patients have sex? I suppose they can if it's with a ghost ;)

Susan Crandall's article: "Setting as a Character: It's more than a Backdrop:" Pick the setting that will maximize the conflict.

What I particularly liked about this article, is that the following two after it built on what it talked about -- setting and how to properly use it. Crandall talks a lot about how the little things sell the story -- such as "the nuances of the people, the feel of the air, the smells and the sounds." Then, right after this article, Jason Jack Miller goes on to talk about how concrete nouns and how they can strengthen a piece without all of the fluff (aka adjectives).  Then, my favorite piece of advice that I incorporated into the idea of the setting came from Karen Lynn Williams: "One part of me is experiencing life and the other part stands back and asks, how can I use this information in my writing. It is a constant, this writer who is always looking over my shoulder taking in the details that will make my story authentic." So case and point -- you need to be believable. You need to know how the people are going to talk, what the landscape is like, and what the air smells like. These details will not only make your setting a character in itself, but will help to strengthen the authenticity of where you are  writing about and how it is effecting your characters.


Michael A. Arnzen's article "Genre Unleashed:" KNOW YOUR GENRE. CLICHE'S ARE BAD.

What I really liked about this article is how empowering it was for genre writers. I remember when Dr. Arnzen and I had our first conversation about me wanting to write horror. He told me that before I could write horror that I had to learn the genre. Pick up a variety of authors in the market and read what they wrote. Read the classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, Psycho...etc) and watch horror movies. TONS of them. Even the really bad ones. So that's what I did. I read and watch horror like it's part of my job and ultimately I think it helps me to be a better writer because I have a pretty good idea of what's been done to death, what the cliches are, and how to stop that pesky cat from jumping on my character's shoulders when they least expect it. Case in point... do your homework. As a writer, you'll never stop learning. And you shouldn't want to.

Thomas F. Monteleone's article "No Such Thing as Original Sin:" Go out of your comfort level.

When I read this article, I had to laugh because I realized that no matter how many cliche's I could spit out about the horror genre, or how sick I was of seeing the same stereotypical gothic setting in a movie... that I still did it in my writing. Maybe not as blunt, but it's there. Trust me.  One piece of Monteleone's article is now quoted and taped on my writing desk where I can see it every time I sit down to write : "Take the small-twon horror story and turn it inside out. Big city. Daylight. No fog. No moon." Just because it's horror doesn't mean it has to take place at night. And sometimes, even though I hate to admit it... I forget that.


Dana Marton's article "Creating my Niche in Romantic Suspense." Just do it.

I LOVED this article because it started so simply what a writer must do in order to be successful. Write. No matter if you get published the first dozen times or not. Just do it anyways because it makes you feel good. And in the end, when you finally land that contract, you'll find out that the growth from all those other pieces that you wrote was worth it in the end, thus making them even more successful in a way.

I did have one question though and I'm hoping that some of you folks can help answer this for me. In Marton's article, she mentions how she used to go through the Romantic Times and do research on what different publishing houses were looking for, who they sighned, what their submission guidelines were, etc. Is there something like this for Horror? I mean I don't expect to find Horrific Times Magazine... but maybe something similar?