Way to fail.

So, long hiatus, me being lazy, generally being a slob. Reason being? Lazy. Reason that it will continue? I've stopped being a slob and I'm knuckling down on my novel. Once the first three chapters are finished and I've sent it in for copyright, I'll begin posting again, at least relatively regular. From there, I'm going to attempt to get a sponsor of some sort so I can work on it full time. For the few readers I have, thanks, and stay tuned.

-Cathan

Word of the Week: Immortality

immortality

1. the condition of not being susceptible to death or aging

Quoted from wikipedia.

Immortality is a peculiar thing, something that I'd like to expand upon, as it is one of a themes that grossly encompasses my novel. The ideas behind it, both in literature and popular culture, have always been a tad dry in my opinion, in some ways misguided, and I think even-more-so, shallow. The concept of being immortal has always been an interesting subject to me, most probably because of my childhood adoration of the the Highlander series, but there are definitely other influences on it. Immortality has always been reduced to the inability to die, but this leaves for a vast expanse of areas that are very few times explored. Immortality is not simply the inability to die, because no matter how you look at it, immortality never inferred invincibility, only that age's time restriction has been lifted. This can, at face value, be viewed in many different ways. In one story, it could mean everlasting youth, and in another, the ability to never die, but still age. Sickness is another venue, though I could see that particular road being traversed by Sci-Fi action series. But the other aspects, the unexplored territory of immortality, is so much more complex, it makes my head spin; but for sake of definition, Immortality means:

immortality

1. the condition of not being susceptible to death by aging

So the reason that I delve into this particular idea is that the main character of my book is an immortal. He will not age, no matter how old he gets, and he is completely impervious to illness, stemming from this same trait. There are a few specifics that I won't go into that modify this version of immortality, but that's tangeal for now. My main point is that, in our world today, I have personally not witnessed the aspect of immortality reviewed in all of its complexities. Characters are simply described as immortals, and that's only a descriptive word that means they will not die, it does not drive their character or influence their personality in many ways, rather it is as if they are simply humans that live a long time. One of the most focal questions that plague humanity is death, and it is also the question most feared. Whether we are affected by religion, creed, cult, or simply left to our own devices, we as humans fear death. So what, then, happens when one of the main drives of our existence is wiped away? Would this not drastically affect the personality type and mannerisms of someone? Everything that we do in this world is affected by an invisible ticking clock, so when that clock stands still, what else is there to drive us?

Equally, after thousands upon thousands of years, how would a person change? How would they experiment with themselves and with others, when they have so much information packed into them, and so much free time? To manipulate your fellow man, politics, the world. Time means money, money means power? From Capulet to Montague, every part of the cast could be fulfilled, at one time or another, by the same actor. What affect would this have on someone's personality? How much would it change, and how much of its past selves would it truly remember or hold valuable? The amount of possibilities are mind numbing; I figured I'd share.

Cathan

Apology stacked on apology. It's like Jenga.

I have to apologize for the extreme delay, its not something I would have asked for to be honest. I had time to post erratically, but the muses of a convoluted man wouldn't seem to be of interest. I'll try and make up for the missing posts these next few weeks by releasing bi-weeklies.

Up till now, my life has always been in the moment; second to second and minute to minute, never thinking too far ahead, valuing now and guiding myself only by desire... but it seems the fates sought to change that. For the first time ever, my life has surfaced, however, lit only by a dim fluorescent glow. It's as if the bones of a prehistoric being had been set upon a table, completely alien in nature to what we know, and from those simple remains, deteriorated and foreign, we must draw out the meaning and usage of each bleached vessel. My bones have been placed, a rigid structure from which an unfathomable amount of futures can stem, but these bones are fact and can never change. The unknowings of my world now have solidarity. It is an obscure and unsettling feeling... but I'll take it.

And it's odd to understand the fact that my writing will change drastically, washed in the same iridescent light. But I digress from the point of this blog, forgive my musings.

Origins

My Father asked me something recently that I feel needs addressing, a digression for explanation. To me it is a self-evident, something that I've known so long just because of who I am and what I am; but this isn't universally true for anything. To be self-evident is to understand at a base level, we see it throughout our culture because between us and our peer, there is a basis that is consistent that we can connect and reflect upon as a whole under one idea. Something that universally connects us in this world view. But between writer and reader, there is a gap that is not traverse-able (Usually.) that we sometimes forget about. We are explaining a world view alien to anyone but ourselves.

The question my Father asked me was simple: "How do you come up with this stuff? Where does it come from?"

And to be honest, the answer is not so simple, but I'll try my best to articulate on a personal note. For me, everything originates from experiences, and every variation that they are capable of. Every sound and voice I hear, vision I see, texture I touch, taste and smell, each of these creates a facet of originality, and uniquely alters every experience before and after.

I'd like to use an analogy if you'd permit, but it requires a bit of explanation first. One of the key principals of a gun, is the concept of rifling. Riflings are grooves that spiral around the inside of the barrel of a gun used to stabilize a bullet by imparting a spin. When a bullet is passed through the barrel and over these grooves, albeit doing its job of stabilization, it also marks each bullet with a kind of gash along its sides. This is a very powerful tool when it comes to forensics as each gun has a unique type of marking that will be left, based on the slight variations between the spacing of each groove, the depth, and speed the bullets are rotated between the varying gun types and guns within the same type. Relating this to writing, the author's mind is "grooved" by every experience he or she has, and each of these things is unique from the next. And while the mind is the barrel, each idea or new thought is a bullet, locked into the chamber and ready to be fired. So as the new idea is ignited, every one of our experiences carves its way onto its face, creating a unique entity. And being that we experience things at such a rapid rate in our lives, the variations upon each new idea or type of "bullet", unlike a gun, will be vastly different than the last. Although, the core will remain the same, the key word is addition.

So to speak plainly, these original concepts are merely an interesting idea, dragged through my head, being marked away at by experiences, other dormant ideas, and extrapolated upon to craft something that could only be generated from within me. It is a reflection of everything that constitutes the inner workings of my mind.

Reaching back to the first paragraph, as a writer, one must take into consideration that their readers don't understand everything in the way we do. It is up to our explanation in its entirety to shed light upon an imaginary world that exists only within us. There's no aftermath, there's no encyclopedia ala your brain. Just what's written. Explain it.

Cathan

#1. Progress

On a more topical note, I've been stumped recently; whether or not that is merely a question of laziness, I'm not sure. I've had a hard time recently being able to devote time to my writing. Oddly enough, I do most of my writing at work when I've got spare time, and lately its been unusually chaotic at work, not that that is an excuse, but a trend I've noticed.

But this is the first time I've spoken about my novel, so I'll give some background on it. Spurring from my adoration of Mythology, I'm beginning to craft a fantasy novel based on Norse mythos. Though surrounded in fantasy, it is also a type of sci-fi. It has to deal with immortality and the shackles it holds, as well as the mindset of someone who has seen near the entire life span of human society. It delves into the Gods themselves, their reign and fall, and the new Gods born from the ashes. Equally, it eventually has to do with the mechanics of the universe and how one's horizon grows as they reach new levels of consciouseness; how someone created by a God can somehow surpass even their Creator.

There are really so many themes... and so hard to articulate consicely. Once I finish the first three chapters and get the piece in the works of being copyrighted, I will start posting segments here and breaking them into pieces to explain. For now though, I ask that you bare with me and its infancy. I'm nearly three-fourths done with the first chapter, and once I knuckle down again, I don't suppose it will take much longer.

Cathan

Word of the Week: Motive

Motive
1. something that causes a person to act in a certain way, do a certain thing, etc.; incentive.
2. the goal or object of a person's actions: Her motive was revenge.
3. (in art, literature, and music) a motif.

Simply put, motive is drive. A human can't exist without a drive for something, and though that something may lie underneath a thousand leagues of water, it is still very present in everything that we do. Every action is driven, and we never act in a way that we don't see best. These particulars are incredibly important to an author, most so because as writers we attempt to create beings most similar to ourselves as possible. If we even slightly diverge in this, all things become unhinged; once a character loses credibility of humanity, or rather the attribute of identification and projection (As humanity oft only refers to humans.), there is no mitigating the damage to the story's immersion of the reader.

The "why" of this is that one of the main goals of an author, although we may not even know it, is to craft a world for our reader to delve themselves in to. It is the human condition to become a part of this world and to draw parallels to their own world (Identification), and more, to apply themselves to a character in that world as if they, themselves, were that person (Projection). It is not a goal to cleanly aim for this, as its near impossible to didactically target the plethora of demographics, but to give realistic characters without unbelievable flaws, or worse, no flaws at all... but these are blurred lines. Both of the above categories have a name, nearly one in the same, in fact, that was coined over characters that became too flawless. The term is Mary Sue; a Mary Sue is a character that is flawless, can do no wrong, and incites only jealousy and self-esteem related conflict. The general theme is: More powerful, more beautiful, more agile and cunning, more intelligent and better than the best at everything they do (Also note that Mary Sue was derived from Fan Fiction, wherein an author would interject a new character, sometimes themselves, into situations with other pre-made, Fiction, characters. Writing one's self into a story is usually considered a Mary Sue character.). This may seem over-the-top, but the concept is that of a scale. It is only once a character reaches a certain tipping point that these terms apply, and even then, it is a hard call to make. The anti-thesis to the Mary Sue is just that, the Anti-Sue, or Anti-Mary Sue; a character that does everything wrong, everyone hates them, nothing is correct, evolution seriously failed and-if-that-thing-ever-breeds,-we're-all-fucked.

Some Anti-Mary's end up becoming under-dogs of sorts, but they're still just as powerfully cliche that it hurts. The main error in Mary Sue's is that they lack true motives. The motive lies in the author, the one who's writing the character, it is their motive, not the characters, and though we as authors understand our motives, it is something that leaves the reader wondering. Characters must eat, breath, sleep, and construct their own story - personally, to me, they are not finished until they themselves write their own story, I'm just the guy with the keyboard.

What gives us our meaning in life? What gives you your meaning? Really think down deep, claw your way down if you have to, and think hard. When you find your meaning, maybe it will give you a real glimpse of what it is to be unique, and how you can generate that uniquely. All characters are a part of you in one form or another, they cannot be unique of you, but unique amongst themselves is very possible. Family, Friends, Money, Love, Hate, Anger, Martyrdom, Warmth, Blackness, every reason you can think of to wake up in the morning, all its positives and negatives, that is Motive. What is your character's reason to wake up in the morning? Don't stray from that. Don't patronize your reader with it either though.

With that in mind, it is hard to say what will and will not be received positively. Some characters are considered annoying or spoiled by some, but adorable by the next. It is when the majority can easily tag the idea, stereotype or character type that things tend to become uninteresting, which breaks the reader from the world you've made with a discomforting abruptness.

Cheers,
Cathan

Word of the Week: Purpose

Purpose
Noun (plural purposes)
1. An object to be reached; a target; an aim; a goal.
2. A result that is desired; an intention.
3. The act of intending to do something; resolution; determination.
4. The subject of discourse; the point at issue.
5. The reason for which something is done, or the reason it is done in a particular way.

For such a simple word, the complexities of its context are astounding, if only because of how generic the term and the amount of subjects it can pertain to. Purpose, to me recently, has become something of an interesting subject, and this is ignoring the all-to-often crisis an author faces of forgetting the many types of purpose within the pages of a chapter, and outlining something more crucial and more pivotal to the over-all concept. When one questions purpose, they ultimately confront the reason they are writing in the first place, and to articulate that into words correctly the first time poses extreme difficulty.

For myself, I've known for a long time that one of my major purposes is to grow as a writer; to become better adapted, stronger in verbiage, to be able to say more with fewer words, and to be able to harness the reader's emotions. But the last idea brings into the concept the idea of the reader, of audience, and here lies another question of purpose. Who are you writing for? Words like "Young Adult", "Sci-fi", "Mystery", "Romance", all categorical notes that have their own following, and somehow define the books within them. And though most books can be classified within one genre or another, it seems to me personally that these have over-taken some of the older ideas that had persevered and proved themselves worthy by somehow letting us forget. English classes attempt to revive these ideas, but few are successful. In their wake, people become interested in novels of novelty, though stories are conveyed, the writing bears little in the way of higher communication of ideas. Buzz word is the name of the game, and admonishing the task of truly reading has become common.

In my seeking to write a novel, I've thought long and hard, whether it have been day dreaming or focused thought, over many ideas. Some come and go and are never thought of again. Others are transcribed into my own little mental tablet, and a portion of those forgotten. Sometimes I have to revisit the forgotten though, because they are necessary pieces of the grand puzzle I call my story. One of these is the following: Who am I writing for?

It took me awhile to answer, honestly, after having the question posed to be twice. It begged for a response, and nothing I could give it was satisfactory; they were all unfinished sentences, inconclusive thoughts. But it was a simple answer that I only needed think back upon: Myself, and anyone who wishes to tag along on this journey. After a long period of thought, it's become clear that writing for the audience's supposed "intelligence level" limits the power of the word, and limits the power of an author's craft. The piece should be written how it, itself, dictates, and not be restrained by ideas of "audience" or "large words" (This, however, does not excuse use of superfluous words. There is a method to writing, and using big words for the sake of big words contradicts that, and hampers the flow of sentences.). As with any piece of literature, if you don't understand a word, find out what it means, it very well may be pivotal to the story; a hint or a clue, forboding and foreshadowing. And as a reader, know, that sometimes there are things you aren't supposed to understand, the author, despite letting the piece construct itself, is inherently guiding your hand through the pitch of night in a place unfamiliar to you; trust that hand, because it desires to share everything with you. Maybe not in that moment, but somewhere further, all will be explained. Or at least, that's the goal.

And it is with this goal in mind that I say this: I wish to write a masterpiece; I wish to write something timeless and powerful, so much so that even English Teachers try to curb the flow with it.

Cathan

Where we begin.

Hello and welcome to my blog. This is a place about me, but in a light different than normal; it is about my inherent need to create, and my personal experiences in writing my first novel. I will be making an effort to keep this blog updated weekly with my progress as both a writer, and as a type of learn-by-experience guide for anyone else who has similar goals. Frankly speaking however, this is a way for me to spread my work and to gain somewhat of a following. Earnestly, I want this to succeed more than anything else in my life, first and foremost this is my goal and all my eggs are in this basket. So please, sit down and take your time to read; any comments, suggestions, hate mail, or critiques I can take, though I would prefer they be constructive. I'm also willing to answer any questions anyone may have about my work, my process, or the struggles I will be going through to get published.

Cheers,
Cathan