Writing Update: Summer - May 1 2023

I just had a sobering realization: I am a Writer. Now that The Job is finished I have completed 3 short stories and a novella. That makes me either a Writer or an Author, and I'm not picky. Previously I would always think in terms of how I want to be a Writer or how I am going to be a Writer but I just am one. Anyway The Job is completed and posted. My excuses if you care: I have a full-time job and work has not been great lately for a slew of reasons. I think it was poor timing for me to write a positive story about work. I needed some time away and I'm happy I took it, as I finished the story I was able to regain some of the fun I had when I was outlining.

-Lessons learned from The Job. Never write down 'The End' until it is finished. I've heard the advice 'stop writing before you want to,' and I see the wisdom in this now. I improved my dialogue writing, there's more work to be done but progress is good. I've changed my mind, I'm going to finish the dialogue before moving on to the next chapter instead of waiting until the end. Story circle is useful. I'm going to get creative with what it means for a character to return to a familiar situation having changed but I think it makes sense to reference this in my outline. I wrote a song for the story, that's something I can do now. The song wasn't any good but it didn't need to be for the story.

-Characters: Moving forward my priority is improving my characters. I keep reading and listening to stories and the characters are just so interesting and so far mine do not compare. More research is required.

-Titles matter: I have to stop titling my works without any thought. The reader should be able to know something about the story from the title, they should have assumptions about the plot and most importantly they should have questions.

Good titles: Game of Thrones implies a lot about the story but doesn't reveal any of the plot, Lord of the Rings is an awesome title, who is the Lord of the Rings, why do they want the rings, I could go on.

Bad Titles: There are millions, I don't like 'The Shining' really (as a title, the only question it offers is 'what is the Shining?)

-Imagery: My writing has practically no imagery. There are 3 situations where I am going to try and implement imagery. When I want to combine to unrelated sentences (ex. He was as short as his temper). Second, to contrast fantasy with harsh reality. Third, to differentiate character's views of the world.

I'm planning a website update soon as well. I likely won't be updating here frequently and I am behind on about 10 book/audiobook reviews, don't expect that to change this month. However, it is very important to me that I keep writing and making updates to the stories I have cooking up. I think this time away has given me a new perspective on what I value in story and how I should be approaching my improvement. I'll end this by just saying that I am full of excitement which was something I lost for a little bit there.

Thanks,

-Scott