Finding Theme.

About two and a half years ago I went to a writer’s workshop taught by Kelly Sue DeConnick.  I talk about that workshop a lot, because it pretty much changed my life.  I had been writing for as long as I could remember, but that workshop was the first time I really started to see how stories are made.  She also said she often starts with characters, which leads to plot, which leads to theme.  

Not everyone writes this way of course. In both novels and comics, there are great writers out there that start with plot, or theme, and work at it from another angle.

Do what works for you.  If you are not sure what that is, play with with different ways of approaching a story.

This is what works for me, most of the time:

I start with character, sometimes I have a plot or backstory in mind for them.  That’s when I start to think about theme.  What do I want this story to say?  What do I want to say?  I may have a draft started or even finished at this point, or I might be half way through and not sure where the story is going.  Theme helps me focus those ideas.

I’ve been working on a lot of shorter stories lately (along with revisions on my first novel and the first draft of my second) so theme has been on my mind often lately.  For me, theme definitely does spring from character.  For short stories especially, you want that theme to run throughout the story, but not be so obvious that the reader feels like they are being hit over the head with it.

Theme can often be a way for the author to share their voice in a more subtle way.  In my story Teeth, Nails and Pain the theme was about overcoming an abusive relationship.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t write that story with a theme in mind.  That story sort of wrote itself, but the ones that followed were not quite so easy.

Once the story is written, the theme maybe clearly stated or just implied.  It is up to you as the author the approach you take.  In one of my more recent stories, the first words we read the characters saying are actually the theme.  I felt that it set the tone for the story and let the reader clearly know what I was about to write about.  Your story may start out with something like “The world is a wild place.” and follow with a plot about living in the wild, or maybe it’s about how humans live in cities, but we’re still savage animals deep down.  Either way, you’ve mentioned your theme, and in that story, your reader will know what to expect.

In  Teeth, Nails and Pain, I did the opposite.  The theme isn’t completely revealed until the twist ending.  Though my theme may have been less intentional in that story, the twist was not, and that is what ties my theme and plot together.

If you have written a story but you’re not sure what the theme is, go back through it and look at what the characters are fighting for or against.  What do they want?  What have they done to get it?  Why is it important?  Did they fail?

What does that all say?  What do you want it say?

 

Ready Or Not, Here I Come – Music Monday

I dig a lot of spy things.  Spy TV, spy movies, spy stories.  I have a particular fondness for Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow.  So this week’s playlist is inspired by my favorite red-headed femme fatale.  There’s still a lot of debate over whether or not she’ll get her own movie, but I think a few of these songs would make a great James Bond style opening.

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Ready or Not, Here I Come – A Natasha Romanoff Inspired Mix:

  1. Ready Or Not – Mischa “Book” Chillak ft. Esthero
  2. The Police and The Private – Metric
  3. Cheerleader – St. Vincent
  4. No One Said This Would Be Easy – The Postmarks
  5. Who Are You, Really? – Mikky Ekko
  6. Female Of The Species – Space
  7. Miss Jackson – Panic! At The Disco ft. Lolo
  8. Your Body Is A Weapon – The Wombats
  9. Move Away – The Killers
  10. Ricochet! – Shiny Toy Guns
  11. Bullets – Archive
  12. Gold Guns Girls – Metric
  13. Disappear – My Brightest Diamond
  14. Iron – Woodkid (Mystery Jets Remix)

 

 

 

Short Story Elements: Themes

I’ve been studying up on what makes a good short story lately, as I work on my own short fiction and submit it for publication.  During this time I’ve learned a few things along the way that I wanted to share with you.  I have listened to several podcasts, watch youtube videos and read articles about what makes a good short story and there was one thing that came up in most of them:

Your beginning needs to match your end.

What does this mean exactly?  It means that if you read your beginning and your ending one after the other, that some of the same elements should flow through each of them.  For example, if your beginning is all about saving the planet from aliens, your ending should not be about how your hero has decided to be a chicken farmer.  They don’t match thematically.  Your protagonist doesn’t necessarily need to be fully triumphant, she can fail, but it still needs to match your beginning in terms of theme.

In this video about short stories, David M. Harris discusses how to get ideas for short stories, but he also discusses how the protagonist can fail.  You simply need to make sure the failure is still a satisfying end for the story.  Going back to my previous example, maybe our protagonist fails at saving the planet from aliens, but she manages to steal a ship, save a portion of the human population, and plot a course for a different planet where the human race can start over.

She failed, but it’s a satisfying end for your reader, if you do it right.  It can leave them thinking of what the planet is like, what the possibilities are for this new version of the human race.

All parts of the story must contribute to the story as a whole.

“Every sentence must do one of two things – reveal character or advance the action”
– Kurt Vonnegut.

Because short fiction is condensed, you cannot have fluff or parts that are not doing the work of moving the plot forward in some way.  Kurt Vonnegut has great advice about this (As well as some great guidelines to short fiction, here), “Every sentence must do one of two things – reveal character or advance the action.”

If a sentence or paragraph is not showing us something about the characters or moving the plot forward, that you may want to consider either revising or cutting that section of the story.

The way I write characters drive the plot.  Plot drives the theme.  This is why both of these elements are things you should carefully consider as you craft your story.  If your theme does not match the story you’ve written, it may be time to reconsider the theme and do revisions with your new theme in mind.

Look to what the characters do and the plot to determine what themes would work for you.  As for the alien story, the themes we could play with could be something like “Woman faces her fear of her alien overlords and rebels.”  If we boil that down a bit more, it might look like “Woman rebels against corrupt system.”

What are your favorite tips about writing short stories?  What are you favorite short stories? I would love to hear them.

 

Music Monday – Find Me Where The Wild Things Are

I think we all meet people in life that try to shove us into boxes we don’t fit into. It’s easy to let those people hurt us or tell us who we are, but today’s playlist is all about pushing back against those preconceived notions, and continuing on toward the life we want.
Most of the songs on this playlist are used to inspire me to write, to show the people that told me I wasn’t a good enough writer or tried to use my writing for their own gain. As the inspirational Kelly Sue DeConnick once said:

“Sometimes spite is the only reason I get out of bed in the morning.”

When you get blocked or frustrated, I hope you’ll listen to this playlist and use a little bit of that fury within to get yourself back on track.  Here’s the track list for this week:

  1. Wild Things – Alessia Cara
  2. You Will See Me – Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip [Explicit]
  3. Giving up the Gun – Vampire weekend
  4. Renegades – X Ambassadors
  5. Cheap Sunglasses – RAC featuring Matthew Koma
  6. (All Along The) Watchtower -Devlin featuring Ed Sheeran
  7. Superstar – Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos
  8. Through the Roof ‘N’ Underground – Gogol Bordello

Music Monday – And Drift Away

So this playlist was going to be angsty one, about ditching bad friends and moving on, since that’s where my head has been at this weekend thanks to a dream I had about a person no longer in my life.

Instead, you’re getting light, fluffy, electronica-ish music.  Partially because I need a pick-me-up since it’s been sort of a rough weekend.  I had a blast with friends at the Superbowl and our monthly game night, but the Mr. has been working night shifts at work, so we’ve been ships in the night for the last few days, passing each other by and sleeping on opposite schedules.  I’m the kind of girl that loves a good routine, so it’s throwing me off in all sorts of ways.

So yeah.  Let’s float on and drift away.  Here’s the track list:

  1. How Did I Get Here – Odesza 
    • This song has been out awhile, but I only recently discovered it.  The music is sort of fills you and wraps around you, like you’re entering some kind of Alice inspired Wonderland.
  2. Pretty Thing – Broods
    • Broods plays with form a lot, which is why I love them.  What might sound like indie or pop songs takes on a different shape entirely.
  3. Illuminate – Afrojack, Matthew Koma
    • I fell in love with Matthew Koma when he sang on Zedd’s Spectrum.  He seems to work with a lot EDM artists.  Illuminate feels really positive to me, “Somewhere, you keep all your halos, scared of what they don’t.  Open your window shades and illuminate.  There’s nothing in your way.  Go on and shine on.”
  4. Professional – Halou, Robin Guthrie
    • This is probably the most chill song of the playlist, but the lyrics are really interesting.  They’re probably about a butcher, but the first time I heard the song it reminded me strongly of a blue-haired ninja/assassin character a dear friend writes about.  Despite the implied violence, this song always makes me feel tranquil.
  5. It’s Alright Now – Bombay Bicycle Club
    • This song has a very airy feeling, compared to the other songs from this band that I’m familiar with.
  6. Serotonin – Audien, Matthew Koma
    • If you don’t know, Serotonin is thought to be the chemical in your body that induces feelings of well-being and happiness.  And it’s Matthew Koma.  So I dig it.
  7. Soon Come Soon – Young Fathers
    • I’m not sure where I found this song, but it’s one I’ve come back and listened to over and over again.  It’s got a vibe that combines both hip-hop and electronic elements and they jive really well.
  8. Fantasy – Kozoro
    • If you like the kind of music in this playlist and you haven’t checked out MrSuicideSheep on Youtube, you definitely should.  There are no lyrics on this song, just really lovely flow.
  9. Shadows – Camikaze ft. Zoe A’dore
    • I’m a sucker for light, airy vocals over electronic backing.  This song is super lovely.
  10. Heartbeats – Grum
    • And we end this one on a high note.  Dance-able and upbeat, this is the kind of song I find myself tapping and jumping around to now and then.

Here’s the Spotify Link:

 

Stranger

Here is my piece for the weekly challenge over at the 100 Word Stories Podcast.  Please check out the link to see the other stories, or to joy the challenge yourself.

This story is particularly dear to my heart, because it’s about one of my dearest and closest friends.  I, of course, read it off to her before hand to get her approval, and we giggled.

I’m really enjoying the tight-knit challenge of the 100 word story.  It’s no-nonsense, devoid of thrills.  I still feel like it’s going to take me awhile to really get the hang of it, but I learn a bit more every week.

Stranger

My best friend takes me down rabbit holes now and then.  Most of the time I don’t even realize she’s done it until we’re already falling.  She takes my hand, and leaps headfirst down, and I can’t help but be pulled along with her.

But I like that sensation, free falling towards an adventure, even though I’m terrified to jump.  Too many people in the past pushed me down the rabbit hole but didn’t jump.

Now I like the thrill when things get curiouser and curiouser. Strange and then stranger.

It’s not an adventure, unless things get a little weird.

Music Monday – It’s just a Reflektor

My love of music was definitely something that I got from my parents, especially my Dad.  As early as I can remember, he’d challenge us to name a song, the artist/band or something else about a tune on the radio.  Usually he’d reward us with a quarter or fifty cents for a correct answer.  I’m sure the incentive helped, but it was more than that.  My father loved music in a way that ran deep in him.  We’d sit in the car and wait until the song finished before going in the house.  He’d have things you just “needed to hear” and he would play them for you and listen in wonder.

So this week’s playlist for Music Monday is dedicated to the bands he loved and the work they’ve done with some of the bands that I love.

The Tracklist:

  1. Read My Mind (Pet Shop Boys Stars are Blazing Mix) – The Killers featuring the Pet Shop Boys
    • If you listen closely, you can hear Neil Tennant’s voice echo that of Brandon Flowers, each time he says “Can you read my mind?” Tennant is of course the singer for the Pet Shop Boys.
  2. Who – David Byrne and St. Vincent 
    • David Byrne, known for his quirky 80s pop hits with Talking Heads, pairs up with one of my favorite ladies in the music industry for this one.  It’s just as quirky as you’d expect from the two of them.  There’s actually a full album to go along with this one “Love this Giant”  which is definitely worth a listen.
  3. Reflektor – Arcade Fire (with David Bowie)
    • Arcade Fire tends to have a running nostalgic theme in their music and Reflektor definitely holds true with that.  Bowie plays mostly a background role in this song, but if you listen closely, you can definitely feel his vibe in there.  He can be heard clearly in the line “Thought you were praying to the resurrector, turns out it was just a reflektor” as well as some of the backing vocals through out the song.
  4. Speaking in Tongues – Arcade Fire ft. David Byrne
    • I think the title of this track may be a nod to the Talking Heads album of the same name, and toward the end of the song you can hear Byrne’s voice sing “Ahhhh, speaking in tongues.”
  5. Rise Above 1 – Reeve Carney, Bono and the Edge.
    • This song is actually from the Spider-Man Broadway Musical.  Though it perhaps is meant to be about Peter Parker and his father figure, Uncle Ben, you can definitely hear Bono’s own connect to his father in the song.  For me, this song reminds me a lot of my own father and what’s left in his wake now that he’s gone.  “You’re silence in a crowded room, louder than the loudest tune, I hang on every word.”
  6. Save Rock And Roll – Fall Out Boy ft Elton John
    • I don’t think my dad was a huge Elton John fan by any means, but I do remember a few tracks he enjoyed from John.  Like most slightly rebellious people my age, Fall Out Boy resonates with me.  I specifically love this line:  “You are what you love, not who loves you.” It’s become a personal motto of mine.
  7. I can change – Brandon Flowers
    • Another collaboration, sort of, between the Killers and the Pet Shop Boys, or at least from their singers.  I didn’t even realize Neil Tennant was on this track until I watched the lyrics video for this song.  After further research, apparently Tennant recorded the spoken line “And when you’re looking for a change…” onto Flowers’ voice mail, and then they added it later to the track in the second verse.
  8. Clocks – Rhythms Del Mundo and Coldplay 
    • This is more of a bonus track, since it does not feature musicians from two different generations.  This song used to play in a cafe I worked in, and I loved the re-invented sound of it.  My father spent 2 years in Chile and kept up his fluency in Spanish until his death.  I like to think he would have enjoyed this song.

Here’s the Spotify Link/Playlist for this week:

 

Next week I hope to do a full playlist of at least 10 tracks.  I’ve got a lot of ideas for themes but I’d loved to hear what themes you’d like to see.  Leave them in the comments and I get working on a playlist to match!

Also, what tracks did you share with your parents or your parents shared with you?  What bands did they love that you now love?  Which of their bands inspired your favorite bands?

Camera

Here is my piece for the weekly challenge over at the 100 Word Stories Podcast.  Please check out the link to see the other stories, or to joy the challenge yourself.

Camera

Most of the time when people see me wandering around with my nice camera, they figure I’m into photography.

I guess they’re not wrong, technically.

A part of me wonders if that would be better, maybe easier, than what I actually do.

Sitting in a car, outside a seedy motel or a bar isn’t exactly glamorous work. But catching people at their not-so-finest moments? It pays the bills.

I suppose maybe I am a photographer, the subjects just don’t know their secrets are no longer secrets.

It’s not art, but it is lucrative. That will have to do for now.

Productively Tools: RescueTime, Momentum, and Strict Workflow

If you are anything like me, you probably hop on the computer and at first you’re totally ready to write, but only after you check facebook.  And tumblr.  And several other sites that suck your time into the void, never to return.

I won’t lie, I still do this, but I’ve found a few handy tools that help me cut into that time and ensure I stay productive with my writing time.  Here they are:

Rescue Time

Rescue time can be install via the link above and I also have the Chrome extension on my browser.  With the Chrome browser extension, I can check my productivity for the day at the top of my browser.  You can also go to their website and sign-in for more detailed information.

REscuetime
My weekly dashboard at Rescue Time’s website

My favorite feature?  The weekly productivity email I get on Sunday.  Each week it shows me how productive I was, what I spent most of my time on and how my productivity compares with the week before.  It’s an easy way to see how much time I’ve spent on facebook, or other sites, and how much time I spent in Scrivener writing.

You can categorize your activities however you like, which is great!  If you actually use facebook for business on a regular basis, you can change its category to reflect that.

Momentum

Momentum is one of those awesome little extensions/apps you use so often you forget how helpful it is.  Momentum is replaces the new tab page with a dashboard you can personalize.  It includes: A place where you can put your focus for the day, a to do list, a place for your favorite links, the weather in your area, a beautiful background image and inspirational quotes.  

momentum

I don’t use the to do list as much, since I have my bullet journal for that, but the reminder of what my focus is helps me stay on track for the day.  The background images tend to be very breath-taking and inspirational for me as a writer.  It also helps you remember that you should be working, when you open that tab to check out what’s happening on Twitter.

Strict Workflow

I’ve written about the Pomodoro Technique before, where you work in 25 minute on/5 minute off productivity units.  Strict Workflow extension works with that template, except it works for your browser.  When you press the little red tomato at the top of your screen, it blocks distracting sites for 25 minutes, so you can work uninterrupted by your need to see what that friend from high school is doing.

What the 25 minutes is up you’ll hear an alarm go off, and you can then click the now green tomato for a 5 minute break.  You can surface facebook, tumblr and any of your other blocked sites for 5 minutes, then the alarm will ring again and you can again click the tomato to start another 25 minute work session.

STrictworkflow

Be aware, once you install this extension the only way to see the sites you have blocked during that 25 minute work session is to uninstall the app.  You can also change which sites you have blocked and what amount of time you want to work/have a break.

 

Hopefully these help you!  Let me know what you’ve used to be more productive!  I’m always up for new tools.

Music Monday

So in addition to loving writing, geeky things and comics, I’m a huge fan of all kinds of music.  I regularly make playlists for what I’m working on or have playlists about random things that help me get into the right writing mood.

Each Monday, I’ll give you my recommended tracks for the week, as well as a link to a spotify playlist for your listening pleasure.  Sometimes there will be a theme, other times there won’t be.

This week, I’m just going to share some of stuff I’ve recently discovered, or found myself listening to all over again.

  1. Force of Nature – Bea Miller
  2. Somebody New – Joywave
  3. The Ghosts of Beverly Drive – Death Cab for Cutie
  4. Adventure of a Lifetime – Coldplay
  5. Cream on Chrome – Ratatat
  6. Compass – Zella Day
  7. Lose It – Oh Wonder
  8. Run – Daughter
  9. I Found – Amber Run
  10. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1 – The Flaming Lips

Here’s the Spotify Link/Playlist:

Let me know what you liked, or share a track you fell in love with this week.