"Writers tend to work early in the morning, or late at night, when brains are naturally able to focus deeply on one thought. In the middle of the day, distractions are unavoidable. I wonder if anything worthwhile has ever been written in the afternoon."

Scott Adams: Like a Night Watchman (via Marco Arment)

#fiction

As the Internet continues to grow and develop, writers will continue to flock to it to express their emotions, showcase their expertise, and discover themselves. Six years ago, it would have been impossible to find any of these stories, unless you happened to come across a fun gem online, and it went through the normal email chain. But now, with Trending Topics, and blog tags, and NaNoWriMo, there are more ways to read and find interesting content that relates to your needs.

Recently, I used Tumblr’s relatively new tag channel feature with the trend “#fiction”, just to see if it was filled with others’ work reposted, or quotes from authors on writing. To my surprise, it wasn’t; rather, the majority of the page was filled with original fiction, written by people just like myself. I fell in love with it instantly, checking the page at least five times a day, and liking the stories that I feel I’d want to revisit. It’s truly the triumph of technology.

So, from now on, I’ll be tagging my short stories with #fiction, and, if you’re a writer, I hope you’ll do the same. If not, be sure to at least check out the tag channel, and see if there’s enough content to keep you around. I guarantee there will be.

Him

I walked into a typical history class, eight-fifteen on a Monday morning. The classroom was half-asleep, wishing the weekend was still upon them. However, despite any of their fantasies, their dream would never come true.

“Class,” He began, sitting at the front of the room. His large mustache looked like a monkey’s tail, and, when compared with His bulky, brown glasses, He looked like He walked out of an eighties teen movie.

“I hope you’re wide-awake, for, today of all days, we can’t stop,” He continued, staring down his students with a maddening glare. It was these times when I was glad to be smack dab in the middle, where, no matter how hard He tried, I was out of sight, surrounded by imbeciles who droned on and on about women or wrestling.

“So, let’s begin by going over this weekend’s reading.”

Simultaneously, nineteen desks opened, grabbed a rather heavy textbook, and paged through until they found the pages that they were supposed to read over the weekend. None of them did, including myself, but it wouldn’t matter that much. While He reviewed the pages, the class normally slept, or texted below the view of the teachers.

“Please, if you could,” He started, “put away your textbooks.”

Confused, and somewhat frightened, the students closed their books, and placed them back in their desks.

“I’ve been noticing a lack of participation throughout this class,” He said. “I want to find a solution to this problem. So, I thought, why not see what you can remember?”

The room grew extremely silent. We all knew what was about to happen, and we all would have wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground and disappear off the face of the planet.

He knew we were catching on, and smiled evilly.

“Why don’t we start with you, Tim?”

Read More

"Well, you may ask, what can you do about it? The subject is one on which you have few convictions and little information. Can you be expected to make a dull subject interesting? As a matter of fact, this is precisely what you are expected to do. This is the writer’s essential task. All subjects are dull until somebody makes them interesting. The writer’s job is to find the argument, the approach, the angle, the wording that will take the reader with him. This is seldom easy, and it is particularly hard in subjects that have been much discussed: College Football, Fraternities, Popular Music, Is Chivalry Dead?, and the like. You will feel that there is nothing you can do with such subjects except repeat the old bromides. But there are some things you can do which will make your papers, if not throbbingly alive, at least less insufferably tedious than they might otherwise be."

Apostate Café’s “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words”

Very interesting read for anyone who writes anything, which means everyone. You may think these tips are normal, and that you already know how to avoid them, but, in reality, no one can truly master them. I still struggle day-to-day with them.

Post-NaNoWriMo has left me feeling unaccomplished. I’ve finished the first draft of my novel, and, though I’ll eventually have to do it, don’t feel like editing right away. I think the story deserves a break, for my own sanity.

However, I still find this need to write. Write something, write anything. Except I don’t want to write a long novel, as I’ve done with The Constellations.

So, here’s the plan: I’m thinking of writing short stories, written in the first person, of people who have had odd encounters with fantasy creatures. (I won’t go into detail, in fear of my story ideas being stolen.) The theme has been done to death, but I still would love to give it a go.

So, what do you think? Would you read the stories?

"If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf."

Lemony Snicket in Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid

I sent out a mission to Twitter, and thought it would only be fair to pose it to my blog followers as well. Since NaNoWriMo is over, I want to try short stories. However, I have no idea where to start.

So, all I’m asking from you is a noun, a name (just a first name; make it male, and try not to be too common), and a season. If I use your suggestion, I’ll credit you with the story’s idea.

This just in: I have won NaNoWriMo 2009.

I can now officially add on to my writing portfolio that I’ve written a novel (though I still have about 2,000 words left until I’ll be satisfied with the book myself). As of now, I’m feeling a crazy whirlwind of emotions, filled with joy, confusion, accomplishment, and tiredness*. It’s a great feeling, one that makes me feel as if my brain has shut off from the thirty days of pain I’ve enforced upon it. But it’s a beautiful feeling nevertheless, knowing that I’m in a small group of people who have written 50,000 words in one lone month.

I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family, who at first thought I was crazy for trying to take under such a large task, and the Internet, who is much crazier than me, so they convinced me it was doable. In the end, the Internet was right.

This is the first image I saw on the NaNoWriMo winner’s page, and as soon as I saw it, I filled up with joy. It’s an amazing experience, with an amazing community, that I’d suggest for any writers in a slump. Pushing yourself to write is a major pain in the ass some days, but in the end, you feel like you’re on top of the world.

All right, I’m going to get some sleep, and finish this homework. Thanks once again to everyone who encouraged me to do this project. I wouldn’t be here without all of you.

* Mainly the tiredness. But, who knows? I could just be crazy.