The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: writers

  • Backwards, Forwards

    Disclaimer: Given I’m always late on my submissions, I get to peek to see what everyone else is doing during the weekly assignments. I see that many folks are looking at all of the various assignments and weighing in on the entire body of work that is Confabulator. I, however, originally thought the question posed to us was intended to focus upon only our own postings, so that’s all I originally looked at while working up my answer. As a consequence, my musings below may seem a bit egotistical. That’s not at all the case. I get at least as much enjoyment and food for thought from my fellow contributors as I get from my own efforts.

    I like this assignment. It encouraged me to go back through the last year of Confabulator posts and revisit them, which allowed me to recognize how much insightful commentary and inventive fiction we’ve generated as a group during the last twelve months. It’s pretty damn impressive. (more…)

  • Books, Mostly.

    I don’t know that writers are all that harder (or easier) to shop for than real people. When you’re buying someone a gift, you either want to give them something they didn’t know they wanted (like the year we got my brother Storm Front) or you want to give them something they told you that they wanted.

    That said, a great go-to is a book. I don’t know a writer who doesn’t get a little giddy about a new book, be it an e-book or a new hardback. It can be a bit of fiction or a reference book. You can never have too many books, and there are so many different kinds.

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  • The Do’s and Don’ts of Shopping for Writers

    Doctor Who journal
    Riversong’s Journal, from Doctor Who. The perfect gift for a writer who is also a fan of the television series.

    Despite what you may think, writers are some of the easiest people to shop for. Want to know why? Because we usually want books, whether they are in hard copy or electronic format.

    Last year, my wife purchased me a Kindle Touch from Amazon. I don’t need the latest Kindle Paperwhite. But you can always buy me a few books off my wishlist.

    First, let me say that owning an e-reader does not preclude wanting hardcover books. It just makes me more selective about what books I want in hardcover. Some books — coffee-table books, for example — are always going to be in hardcover. I am also very fond of my Easton Press collection of science fiction novels.

    But what do you get for a writer besides books, most of which are likely to be read and forgotten in a month’s time. How can you make an impact all year long with the proverbial “gift that keeps on giving”?

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  • Presents for Your Writer

    All a writer really needs is paper and some sort of writing instrument. If a story wants to come out, and all a writer has at hand is a stubby red crayon and a napkin, it’s gonna happen.

    So, let’s assume the writer in your life already has the basic tools of choice covered–paper and a pen, a typewriter, or a computer with whatever word processing software is most preferred.

    What can you offer as a gift to make the writing experience better, easier, or more comfortable?

    1. Liquid fuel

    You know your writer best. What do they like to drink? Coffee’s usually a good bet. Running out of caffeine in the middle of an intense scene is catastrophic. You could gift them with a pound of their favorite beans or even sign them up for a monthly coffee delivery. Some prefer tea, so you could gift them with a special blend, a whimsical steeper, or a beautiful new teapot. I know a few writers who prefer something more potent for after-hours writing. I’m sure a really nice bottle of their favorite would be much appreciated.

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  • If you can’t gift me happiness, give me tequila instead

    In the past, my Christmas wishlists were miles long and filled with one item after another that I wanted. This year, it was a fairly short list. Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe I’m realizing that material things just weigh me down. Maybe I realize that I’m moving in a year and a half and I don’t want to have to pack all of that stuff up and haul it to yet another apartment.

    Books are always a great present. But books are heavy. Allow me to reference you back to my aforementioned comment about moving again in a year and a half. I love books. Lately though, I’ve barely made time to read the mountains of books that I already own, much less discover new series. I’ve fallen in love with my library. I can check out books, read them, and return them when I’m done. And sometimes I’ll love a series enough to want to own it.

    That’s becoming more of a rarity, though. (more…)

  • You Can’t Go Wrong with Books

    Writers are not hard to buy for. I promise you, they are probably the easiest group of people (aside from kids – why do I have twenty things I want to buy the five-year-old but can’t think of a single thing to buy my Dad?) to shop for.

    Why?

    Easy. We love stories. Anything that comes in story form is perfect for us.

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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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  • The People You Know are a Well of Knowledge

    If my current hobbies end up informing my writing, it’s mostly on an accidental basis. For instance, I started out the last novel with the idea that I wanted to write a cyberpunk retelling of a fairy tale. That didn’t really happen, once the novel was edited to focus more on what it actually was. Instead, it turned out to be a sci-fi novel that was influenced by a lot of my thoughts on Internet culture and computer use.

    It makes sense; I pretty much live on my computer. I love the inside of it — I love the outside of it. I have a lot of feelings about it, and the way it shapes us as people. I don’t have nearly as many feelings about fairy tales.

    But you know whose hobbies I do like to use? Other people’s. All of my friends and family have interesting, varied hobbies (and lifestyles) that work as a knowledge base. Sure, I could Google information that’s relevant to my characters, but I would rather make a phone call or send off an email. For instance:
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  • A Strange Mash-up

    To quote the Zen Master Lucas in the 1995 movie Empire Records: “Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear.”

    Ok, so he wasn’t really a Zen Master, but he makes a valid point. It’s hard for writers to answer the “where do your ideas come from” question because they are like any ideas. We get them from everywhere.

    Some of my ideas come from life experiences, in attempt to follow that old adage to write what you know. Most of what I know is boring, so I have to add monsters to all of my stories, but I make my characters as real as I can by infusing them with organic feelings. Any sorrow, any joy, any outrage can be magnified to create a vivid character.

    What I read and watch and see and hear influences my writing a great deal. While I sleep, or even while I daydream, my brain will come up with strange mash-ups from different sources which result in some of my best story ideas. My subconscious mind will work overtime to take a news story combined with a fantasy novel then weave in something I overheard at work, and the finished product will surface in that surreal place between sleep and awake where you have control over your dreams.

    Sometimes instead of a plot unfolding, a character will bubble up from the depths of my mind and demand I tell his or her story, or a setting will beg for a story to be told within it.

    For writers, anything can become a story. I probably announce on a daily basis that something I’ve seen or heard would make a good story. Just the other day I was walking through a crowded mall full of Christmas shoppers and a horror story emerged from my social phobia-induced panic.

    Nothing is safe from writers. If you know any, be very careful not to do or say anything interesting around them, because it will inevitably find its way into one of their stories. We very rarely credit our sources and tend to over-exaggerate every detail. You never know where our ideas are going to come from, and we steal whatever we can.

    And sometimes they just appear.