Portfolio Progress - Editing

As I'm writing my portfolio, I've come to realize how much a story can change from its initial inception. So much has been altered from my original idea. With editing my piece, I've successfully altered things in my story from the focus of the main character and the mythology I've been trying to fabricate to character names and even time frames in the story. I have to ask myself if all writers experience this much change as they write their stories.

I like the changes I've made so far, but at the same time, I feel as if though I am betraying my vision as a writer. How does one strike that balance? I think, in the end, I'll be happy with my piece, but, at the moment, it's far from polished and still requires that balance.

Sources for Inspiration

As a writer, I am always inclined to think where my work will take me one day. Don't we all want to get published and make it big? I'm hoping that, one day, I'll become enough of a recognized writer that someone will come up to and ask to me "where do you get your ideas for stories?" While I'm sure that day is far off, I thought I would post a few links to events and phenomena that inspire me to write the things I like to write Let's go on a tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

The Dyatlov Pass Incident seems like something straight out of a sci-fi /horror movie. Nine hikers, on a trek to Mount Ortoten, are found dead in the Ural mountains of Russia.  Official reports declare that the group died due to a compelling unknown force. All sorts of theories have risen regarding the event, ranging from radioactivity found on the bodies, to hypothermia, to UFOs.

http://www.zmescience.com/science/archaeology/stonehenge-under-lake-michigan-3125445/

This year, archaeologists found what could be argued to be a Stonehenge-like series of stones at the bottom of Lake Michigan. On the stones are petroglyphs appear to depict a mastodon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript surfaced in 1912. Beautifully illustrated, the manuscript is completely unreadable, in that no one has been able to translate it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

Back to Russia for this one. Just over a hundred year ago, an explosion covered 2150 sq kilometers of land. While scientific theory states that it was an impact from a meteor, again, many more theories have sprung up, including a natural hydrogen bomb, a black hole, and, again, UFOs.

Hopefully this will be an entertaining read for you. Bear in mind that my views aren't reflected in the commentary of these articles. I just believe they make for interesting fodder to write on.

Why Creativity Fails

As I sit here, attempting to work on my portfolio for my class, I can't help but be drawn to browsing the internet. I found this article on one of the regular websites I visit.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/168

It's an article called "Six Ways to Fail at Creative Endeavors" by Doug Beyer. While I first saw it as demoralizing, it helps remind us as writers the pitfalls we can fall into as continue our process. It's definitely worth a read if you have the time.

Attempting to Write

Chances are, when I don't post for a long time, I don't feel like I have anything interesting to say. I don't know if it's that I don't have anything witty to remark or what, but I feel like I needed to post something on here. Perhaps to keep my sanity for another long night of work.

As of right now, I'm wrapping up my two story submissions due for tomorrow. I've been really attempting to experiment with different styles of writing for these two assignments. One is extensively reflexive and meta, while the other is attempting to encapsulate the mundane almost to an absurd degree. Needless to say, these two stories are far from my comfort-zone. I'm not sure whether or not these stories will succeed in their goals. Only time and grades will tell.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun to experiment with different styles of writing. I mean, how else can you grow as a writer if you don't attempt anything new? It's certainly worthwhile to try to expand your writing style just to even see what works and what doesn't.

Anyways, I'll try to post on here more regularly as I work on my final project for my Creative Writing class. The challenges I am expecting to face with my story is working in the epistolary format. Namely, the diary of a suspect that is slowly losing his mind.

Hippocampus Press

When I was writing my honours paper on Lovecraft, Hippocampus Press was an invaluable resource for me. They publish a plethora of books on the man, many other writers during Lovecraft's time, and writers of horror/speculative fiction further back in history. If you're a writer of horror/fantasy/speculative fiction, I find that this press is perfect if you want a sense of where these genres have come from.

http://hippocampuspress.com/

Based on a True Story: How Truthful Are We?

I was having a discussion with my father one day and somehow we ended up on the topic of books/films/etc. based on true stories. We talked about the purpose of adding that phrase to a work and what it meant for the person who consumes that work.

For example, look at the author James Frey in his highly popularized and subsequently denounced book A Million Little Pieces. When it was first marketed, it was based on a true story about an addict and the struggles he went through in his life. After it came out that much of what happened in the memoir didn't actually occur, Frey was deemed a monster. He fooled Oprah, which I doubt is a small feat. When accusations of his book came to light, readers and viewers learned that eighty-seven days in prison was only a few hours and hitting an officer while high on crack was actually only a minor offense, to which Frey was released on bail. After his exposure as a fraud, Frey was demonized. We couldn't trust him anymore and anything he said henceforth was obviously a lie.

I feel that what Frey did, whether consciously or not, is borderline brilliant. He blends and blurs the line between truth and falsity. Everyone was caught with their pants down. While he is lambasted for being a liar, I believe that Frey exposed a side of the public that we tend not to think about or purposely ignore outright. I think that when we see the phrase "based on a true story," we don't realize that we have been unconsciously conditioned. We've been conditioned to believe that the film/book is going to take us to a world of depravity, exposing aspects of the world we never considered before. However, after this exposure, there is a sense of hope at the end, that feel-good moment where we know everything is going to be alright. Almost any sports movie based on a true story demonstrates this to us. Frey tears down the wall between fact and fiction, making his readers question how much of his work actually occurred. If we don't know whether or not it's true, do we then feel that we have been deceived and, subsequently, should we disregard his story entirely?

In Frey's note to readers post-exposure, he contends "People cope with adversity in many different ways, ways that are deeply personal. [...] My mistake [...] is writing about the person I created in my mind to help me cope, and not the person who went through the experience" and "I wanted the stories in the book to ebb and flow, to have dramatic arcs, to have the tension that all great stories require." Frey is a writer and he is also the person being written on. He wants his story told but he also wants a story told. I think all writers have this problem. How much truth is there in what we write? Is it enough to say that it's based on a true story? Is there too much to call it a work of fiction?

Black Static

In fulfilling my class requirement, I present to you the literary journal Black Static. Black Static is a British horror magazine that I've taken an interest in. While I'll confess that I am not up-to-date on the latest genre journals, I find Black Static to be interesting mostly in part because of their dedication to their website. They publish what stories that they have accepted so far, their competitions, and links to the blogs of their contributors. I believe that I'll be grabbing myself a subscription in the near future.

http://ttapress.com/blackstatic/