The Confabulator Cafe

Author: jcampbell

  • Rise Above the Tears

    Grandpa Joe

    Sometimes, tears can be our greatest inspiration. They force us to react, and rise above ourselves.

    Almost a year ago, I really kicked up my writing output. I wrote a lot. I read a lot. I started to find myself as an artist. Then, in December, my Grandpa Joe lay in hospice, dying of cancer.

    This affected me in many ways. Perhaps the most direct is the blog I wrote while struggling with my feelings about his impending death: A Train Ride to an Unknown Stop

    I wrote it in the middle of the night, right after finding out. I bought a domain name so that my blog would be easier to find, and then I posted it. My post had nearly six hundred views in December.

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  • It’s the Hard Knock Life

    Being a writer is the hard knock life.

    There is this image that writers get out of bed at around noon, get to the computer by one, work a couple of hours, and then take a nap. There might be writers that do this, but I don’t know any.

    Being a writer involves long hours, even if you make your living doing it. It involves self-promotion, networking, reading, writing, research, re-reading, rewriting, correspondence, rewriting again, contractual obligations, and God knows what else.

    In addition, a lot of writers, even professionals have day jobs. If you are a writer with a day job, you don’t get a free pass on all that stuff. Instead, you do it when you get home. After forty-plus hours at work, in the time when other people are relaxing or playing with their children, you are expected to be a writer.

    All told, you can expect to spend around eight hours on a polished three thousand word short story. If you manage to sell it to a professional market, you will get five cents a word.  That is $150.00, or $18.75 an hour. That doesn’t sound bad. You’ll see that money in six months if you are lucky. That is the best-case scenario. (more…)

  • Scratched

    Credit to mrheinzelnisse at deviantart.com

    Game Room — May 7, 1970

    I racked the balls tight, just like I taught him; just like my father taught me. I pointed the number on the black 8-ball straight up, for luck. The varnish on the rack had worn away, leaving light circular thumbprints. He always wanted to rack the balls. I always let him. I felt the place his fingers always touched as I put the rack away.

    I circled the table, examining the rack of balls. I traced my fingers around the felt bumpers as I walked. They grazed the spot where we engraved our names. We built the table together. Billiards had always been a family game. Building a billiards table is a major undertaking. It requires so much precision, so much commitment. If the slightest measurement is off — the level, the square — the game suffers. The slightest mistake changes the game.

    I positioned the cue ball at the first mark, lined up to the right. I set myself, exhaled, and then struck. I pocketed a stripe. I always took stripes. He wanted solids. He had loved the bright colors ever since I had to hold him up at the table. He had been so excited to build this. All he could talk about was the game. The game excited him. Everything excited him. When I was with him, everything excited me. (more…)

  • Sharks Have to Swim; Writers Have to Write

    From Wikipedia

    During elementary school, I drew comic books in class. My first character was Outback Jack, a whip-toting bad-ass inspired by Crocodile Dundee and Indiana Jones. By the time I reached high school, I spent a lot of time writing and drawing comics. I came up with the brand name Power Comics when I was in sixth grade, and made business cards on printer paper. I even had a logo.

    With the exception of Outback Jack and a couple of other characters, I didn’t have interest in continuing their adventures. I loved coming up with characters and writing their origin stories. I’ve always loved a good comic book origin story, even to this day. All told, I invented around fifty title characters. Many of them shared powers with published super heroes, but that has never stopped DC or Marvel from ripping each other off.

    Looking, back, that is how I began writing. I felt a rush and kept seeking it. I used to think I started writing in college. I wrote a scene for video production my sophomore year and attended a screenwriter’s boot camp as a junior. But when I really look at my life, writing has always been there. (more…)

  • My Macabre Mentor

    After Ray Bradbury died, I wrote a blog for my personal website about how I have never had a real mentor when it comes to writing. My original writing instructors were too early in my development to be much of a use as serious mentors. My peers in the community are generally around the same level as writers. As such, I have gotten advice about particular bits of particular stories, but not so much about writing in general.

    Most of the advice I have gotten about writing has been gleaned from quotes and books from famous authors. I read a lot of writing books. I read a lot of essays. I read internet blogs, forums, commentaries, and anything else I can find on the craft of writing. That has been my writing education. That is why people like Bradbury are so important to me.

    As such, it is difficult to come to a decision regarding the best and worst advice I have received. I will have to go with the best and worst tips I have come across.

    In some ways, I am torn by writing influences. I am heavily influenced by classics and literary fiction. However, the horror genre has also been a big influence on me. Stephen King gets a bad rap as a writer. If you haven’t read On Writing, there is no time like the present. King has a great blue collar work ethic behind his writing that really speaks to me. Look at the numbers.  King has written forty-nine novels, nine short story collections, and five non-fiction books since 1973.  That is an amazing amount of work output. He hasn’t needed the money in decades. He must work because he loves it. I think some of his work is underrated because it is popular and there is so much of it. (more…)

  • Now Boarding: Subplots

    If a story is a train track, a subplot is the trestle. The main plot takes you where you need to go, from point A to point B and all destinations in between. But without the subplots, it would never make it over the valleys that inevitably manifest during a story arc.

    Some people define story as characters acting within a setting. I’ve never totally bought in to that, but I do believe that characters generate subplots. Whether you are a pantser or a plotter, your characters have histories and quirks that lead them in certain directions, giving birth to subplots.

    A good subplot tells us things about characters that we need to know in order to strengthen the main plot. It helps develop three dimensional characters, and encourages showing rather than telling.

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  • Punch the Boogeyman in the Throat

    “One reason I don’t suffer from writer’s block is that I don’t wait on the muse, I summon it at need.” – Piers Anthony

    I know some people will hate me for saying this, but there is no such thing as writer’s block.

    Writer’s block is built on shaky self-confidence and not much else. It’s like being afraid of the boogeyman. We can all relate, but there is nothing there. Get out of bed and if something grabs you, punch it in the throat. It’s probably your significant other. That will teach them.

    Chances are, you can think of something to write. You just can’t convince yourself that it is going to be worth a crap. Then it snowballs. You become convinced your ideas suck. Then you start thinking that your writing sucks. Next, you are questioning whether you are really meant to be a writer, at all.

    Just…stop.

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  • Whose Woods These Are (Flash Fiction)

    Hank woke up, drenched with sweat, cold from the dying campfire. His slimy body felt slimy, sandwiched within a soaked sleeping bag. For Hank, every morning was a reminder of age. His shoulder ached, jammed into the socket by the bone-dry ground. Hank winced as pain shot through his spine. His muscles played tendon tug-of-war. Hank always lost.

    Hank unzipped the sweat sponge sleeping bag and stood, careful not to surprise his left knee with any quick movements. If the fire died, he would have a lot of cold, cranky cub scouts. He had promised to keep the fire going, lest the dark consume them. The campfire stories were too effective. Already stressed by the lack of Xbox and what terrors may wait in the woods, the lack of a fire might make them snap.

    Hank decided to keep his promise and look for firewood, rather than risk playing the role of piked pig’s head in a live rendition of Lord of the Flies. He rubbed his eyes. His tears pushed away the fogged protein-haze of smoke-dried contacts that felt like scratch-and-sniff stickers on his eyeballs. Hank then noticed he was alone.

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  • Poetic License

    “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.” – Paul Valery

    I have a lot of respect for poets. I wish I could do what they do. My great-great-great grandfather was a poet. He wrote some of it as an underage kid fighting in the Civil War. I have a great admiration for the things he wrote, especially considering his writing environment. I’ve always felt a common artistic bond with him.

    A lot of people who read my writing assume that I must also write poetry. I have a pretty literary style and like to work with sounds and syllables. Unfortunately, I’ve never learned to write it, though I do jokingly call myself a warrior-poet.

    Poetry has rules, oddly complex ones that require the bending of words into works of art. I wouldn’t even know where to start.

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  • Submit or Perish

    Writers are masochists. They have to be. Otherwise, they would never put up with the whole thing. Writing is a painful process.

    Don’t get me wrong. Everyone loves the first draft, some writers even enjoy re-writing, but I don’t know a single person that loves submission.

    Even the name sounds bad, as if you are giving in to the world, bending under its crushing weight. Unfortunately, it might be the perfect name for it.

    Submission requires market research. You search to find a publication that you think might have some sort of interest in whatever piece of writing you are trying to sell. Then, you have to read through their submission guidelines.

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