Stronger

So I think I've found our theme song. :) It's be Delirious? (the question mark is part of their name ... *grin*), and it's part of the album of music inspired by Narnia. Let me know what you think. (If you don't post I shall assume you haven't read it ... *glances at appropriate people*)

We're getting stronger every day
We're getting braver in every way
Halleluia, here we come

We're getting stronger every day
Push through the waves that fall our way
Halleluia, here we come
We're much stronger when we're one
Halleluia, here we come

Oh, I love You from the depths of my heart
And nothing here can tear us apart
Everything's beautiful with You
Everything's beautiful when You
Invade my life
And I'm living just to say
That I love You.

We're getting closer every day
Chasing the dreams that Heaven gave
Halleluia, here we come

We're getting closer every day
Into Your arms I'm here to stay
We're much stronger when we're one
Halleluia, here we come

I love You from the depths of my heart ...

etc. (Not typing out the refrain again.)

There isn't a line of this song that doesn't apply to us, as Quillbearers, in some way, shape, or form. I can elaborate in the comments if you wish. :)

ALSO. Those of you who know my cousin, Joseph (Fayle on Inkies), know that he is temporarily gone, serving as a full-time volunteer of sorts in Chicago. Well, he just emailed me, and I sent him the link to this blog - and he would love to join. I intend to send him the invite today or tomorrow; that ok with everyone?

'It was enough to have laughed.'

*looks very pleased with herself*

Isn't that an awesome line? Isn't it? It is, in fact, the last line of a scene that will be written in the nearish future. (Though I know better than to say when, as it will be longer than I think.)

It's a snippet, and when it came to me I scribbled it down in a little notebook - one with a rose fairy on it. It's a pretty little book; a Christmas present from Liz. This is, in fact, the first thing I've written in it. I was scared to write anything before. You know how it goes - right? A set of beautiful, unblemished pages, holding so much promise - but what if you write something horribly unworthy of that promise?

But this snippet came to me. And you know, it's been a very long time since I received a snippet, at least for Shanlara. I realized I couldn't write this particular scene just yet; but I had to write that sentence down. The other two mini-notebooks that rest on my bedside table are both nearly full, and it's almost impossible to find a specific jotting amongst all the scattered ideas and such that crowd them. But here was Liz's book, all fresh and new and waiting - and so it has begun a hopeful career.

I have been very frustrated with Shanlara lately. I absolutely hate Kentigern. It's all his fault. The moment he happened along, I felt myself wading into a quagmire; and now it seems I am rather firmly stuck. Up to my hips in a muddy mess. Sluggish, because I simply can't move. And when I try, it turns into a desperate struggle that ends leaving me more hopeless than before.

It's all Kentigern's fault. But that's alright - he's got it coming. Adrian will laugh at him.

You see, I'm not sure exactly how it happened. I know I thought of one thing, and then another; but I can't remember in what order, or what degree of importance each had. But there is that moment - a precise moment in time that you can never quite pin afterwards - when it all clicked, and I realized I'd fogotten something.

Adrian can laugh.

I remembered the scenes early on - scenes that are good, that are well-written, that I love - where he is with Tristan, and laughing, and happy, even in the midst of rather dire circumstances.

And I saw him listening to Kentigern's ridiculous bragging, and I realized - how petty to be so angry over such a small person's insults. Adrian is above that. I realized - he is not burning with anger he's trying to keep in.

No. Instead, he is trying desperately not to laugh.

Adrian does have a tendency to become absorbed in his own, dark thoughts in bad situations. But really, how long can anyone continue in such a state before they go completely insane - before they sort of cave in?

Tristan brings out the best in Adrian. But does that mean the best in him ceases to exist when Tristan isn't there?

I have long known tha Fyndra brings out something in Adrian that is gentle, beautiful; but how can that happen when he is not being himself? There can't be a sudden transition. He has to be open to it.

Hehe. I just realized that half of this doesn't make any sense unless you have some idea of Shanlara. :) There is a thread in the novel section on Inkies, that has a link to the old Inkies, that contains part of my novel. Go read it if you like. It only has the first few chapters, though, so you still won't know what I'm talking about.

But in the meanwhile, I shall be making Adrian laugh. No more bitterness. No more sullen anger.

Thank goodness.

I was grumbling to myself about having nothing to read – a rather unacceptable complaint, considering the number of books we have on our bookshelves. (Which collection I glance at as I type this, feeling very proud of my ability to continue typing while doing so and make NO mistakes!) But then I remembered a little blue book – not kept down here with the rest, as it is of my own possession – and I realized it had been at least six months since I last read it. I decided it was time to pick it up once more, for the sake of both my reading and my writing.

Tree and Leaf by J.R.R. Tolkien. *sighs happily* I love this book so. For those who aren’t aware, it contains two works: “On Fairy-Stories”, and “Leaf by Niggle” – both incredible writings that hold much wisdom for us as writers. I bought this particular copy online, because it’s out of print. It was, in fact, very difficult to obtain (omw, can you tell by my tone I’m reading Tolkien?!) … and it was only AFTER receiving it in the mail I was informed both these works were included in another, much more available book - The Lost Road and other Stories. (Other Tales?)

Anyway. I wanted to share a page with you. I think you’ll like it. :) He’s exploring the origin of fairy-stories, and how it is related to the origin of language itself.

“…But Language cannot, all the same, be dismissed. The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tales are in our world coeval. The human mind, endowed with the powers of generalization and abstraction, sees not only green-grass, discriminating it from other things (and finding it fair to look upon), but sees that it is green as well as being grass. But how powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty that produced it, was the invention of the adjective: no spell or incantation in Faerie is more potent. …The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceivedof magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already and enchanter’s power – upon one plane; and the desire to wield that power in the world external to our minds awakes. It does not follow that we shall use that power well upon any plane. We may put a deadly green upon a man’s face and produce a horror; we may make the rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm. But in such “fantasy”, as it is called, new form is made: Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.”

Sub-creation!!!!! *dances in sheer excitement* Sub-creation! Sub-creation! We are all sub-creators! Isn’t it so exciting??

The Elusive Comma - Quality of Writing

This post (which I actually wrote earlier, offline) actually grew out of a problem I've seen over and over and over again at DKA and Critters: people not getting their commas right. It's one of the easiest mistakes to make--and one of the most annoying for editors. (Speaking, of course, as an editor myself.) It's also a hallmark of an inexperienced writer.




Probably one of the hardest aspects of writing to get 'write' is the comma. In some ways, that's understandable, because where a comma goes in a sentence depends on the meaning you want the sentence to have. But there are a few totally basic rules that should never be overlooked in writing with commas, and yet that always are. Here are a few of those rules. You have no excuse now!

The Serial Comma:

When writing with lists, a comma should go after every item except the last one--and that includes the item before the conjunction! "Apples, oranges, and banannas" is correct; "Lions, tigers and bears" is not. Nor does this apply only to lists of items; consider the following sentence: "He opened the door, picked up the newspaper, and brought it back inside."

It's worth noting that 'lists' are compilations of three items or more; if you have two items (e.g., "He opened the door and picked up the newspaper."), you would use the conjunction without the comma.

The Parenthetic Comma:

Brief pauses in sentences, such as this one, should be surrounded with commas. It is inexcusable to use one comma and omit the other. Strunk and White tell us that "It is frequently hard to tell whether a single word, such as however, or a brief phrase is or is not parenthetic." They're right, of course; it is hard. But it's not impossible. A good rule of thumb is to try placing the phrase in question in parenthesis; if the sentence still makes sense, you can probably put the phrase in commas.

"He might have noticed (if he were not so busy with work) that MaryAnn rarely bothered to curl her hair anymore."

"He might have noticed, if he were not so busy with work, that MaryAnn rarely bothered to curl her hair anymore."

The Direct Address Comma:

Strunk and White tell us that a name or title in direct address is parenthetic, and should be surrounded with commas, but I find that it's easier to remember if I list it as a separate rule.

If someone is speaking directly to someone else, then the name (or title) should be surrounded in commas. The first comma should be dropped if it's at the beginning of a sentence; the second one, if it's at the end of the sentence.

PAY ATTENTION!!

The vast majority of comma problems I see, both at DKA and at Critters, have to do with this rule, and I don't know why, because it's fairly straightforward.

WRONG: "John why do you insist on wearing that ugly hat?"

WRONG: "Why do you insist on criticizing everything I do Mary?"

WRONG: "When you were outside Tom did you happen to see if the mail had come yet?" (Also wrong: "While you were outside, Tom did you happen to see if the mail had come yet?" and also wrong: "While you were outside Tom, did you happen to see if the mail had come yet?")

RIGHT: "John, why do you insist on wearing that ugly hat?"
"Why do you insist on criticizing everything I do, Mary?"
"When you were outside, Tom, did you happen to see if the mail had come yet?"

The Independant Clause Comma:

If you have a sentence with an independant clause, and the two clauses are joined with a conjunction, then you should use a comma before the conjunction. (If the clauses are not joined with a conjunction, then a comma should not be used; a semicolon should be.) For example:

The razed land was ugly, but we knew the trees would grow again.

Or:

The waterfall sparkled in the sun; each drop looked like a diamond.

You would not, however, omit the comma in the first example (The razed land was ugly but we knew the trees would grow again.) nor include it in the second (The waterfall sparkled in the sun, each drop looked like a diamond.)

Of course, either sentence could be written as two: "The razed land was ugly. We knew the trees would grow again"; "The waterfall sparkled in the sun. Each drop looked like a diamond."

These are the most important rules for commas, and the ones that are most often violated. I've listed theme here because bad use of commas makes for bad writing. Sometimes the difference between poor writing and good writing is nothing more than the difference between knowing how to use a comma and not. No writer who wants to be really good can afford to overlook this little mark.

Miscellany

First: Where IS everybody? *severe glare* Keesa is the most busy of all of us, and yet notice who has made the majority of the posts. Casey … I suppose I can accept Casey’s absence. I know he has limited amounts of time. So does Liz. Gen … eh. Not as much excuse as the others. Mara and Lyn …

Guys. Can’t you at least COMMENT?! You don’t have to post something eloquent or even SENSIBLE every time. You can just update us on what you’ve written or meant to write this week, or something you read that you liked, or want to read, or music that inspired you … or something!

That being said. Second: I’ve been meaning to post, and haven’t, and have some excuse but not enough to really excuse myself. (Redundancy? Where?) I’ve fallen behind on everything to do with writing, from letters to stories and down the line. I’ve been debating whether to settle down to one of two or three short stories or tackle Shanlara. (Again … *sigh* Can you guys please pray for this story? I am having so much trouble, and it’s to the point I don’t feel like hammering it out anymore. I feel like I’ve completely lost touch with my characters.) Of course, this debate is procrastination … but I think I’ll end up with one of the shorts, simply so I can have something completed. Once I get into the flow of things, there are two posts I’d like to make here. The first is about an article that fits us beautifully; the other – well, let’s just say I think I’ve found our theme song. *grin*

Third: this is the main reason I’m posting. March 13-17 is spring break for me. And Liz and I had an idea -–a writer’s retreat! We want to spend at least a few days together, preferably spending the night once or twice. Part of the time would be spent at my house, part at hers. Writerly (authoritative ;) ) snacks and drinks would be in abundance, of course.

But we wouldn’t just be getting together with the intention of writing. Because, good as your intentions may be, socialization has a way of ruining them. We will have an actual schedule.

For example: Get up at ___ am and watch the sun rise. Eat a good breakfast, grab your cup of coffee, sit down and write for an hour. Go out for a morning walk – being sure to bring your notebooks for inspirational jottings – and talk. Preferably about writing related matters (and heavens, can Liz and I jabber on about them for hours!), but good conversation (or silence) of any sort is acceptable. Come back and do a bout of speed writing on anything you like – just write for about five minutes without thinking. (Perhaps writing about your walk?) Make a lunch, and go out for a picnic. Stay outdoors and write for an hour. Go online and blog about your experience on Thunder.

And so forth.

Now, I very highly doubt that anyone else has this stretch of free time during this precise week. I also doubt that we could get all our schedules to coincide so we could do it in unison. But wouldn’t be awesome if we could all do a writing retreat together? Everyone could do whatever they could manage, and we could compare experiences, and so forth. I think this would be so much fun! Let me know your thoughts.

Please. *firm glance*

The Quality of Writing

There are two sides to good Christian writing; one is the closeness of the writer to God; the other is the writer's devotion to his or her craft.

I can't stress enough how much a Christian writer should be working at improving her craft. There are a thousand books and a hundred-thousand websites devoted to the particulars of improving your craft, so I won't go into all the details here (not that I could, anyway; not in a single post), but it is vital.

It depresses me, the number of submissions we have at DKA that are really well written, but that don't fit our theme. It depresses me even more, though, to see the ones that do fit our theme. Christian stories, yes, but you'd think the authors didn't care anything about the story they were trying to tell or the King the story was written for! There's often little plot or character--even basic spelling and punctuation are ignored! Surely our God deserves better than that?

My challenge for today is to find one book or article about writing; plot, character, dialogue, it doesn't matter. Read it through, then look at your own work and ask yourself, Does my writing measure up in this way? How can I make it better? What aspects do I need to work on? What parts am I doing fairly well? Then, use our forum at Inkies (or any other crit group) and post your story there. Ask your critters to read it through, looking specifically for whatever area it is you've been studying, and ask them to tell you how you can make it better. One thing I've learned over the years at Critters is that there is no such thing as a perfect story; there's always something else you can do to make it better. It isn't easy to find people who can tell you what that something is; sometimes you have to train your critique partners not to just blow the story off with an "Oh, this is awesome!" It's wonderful for your ego, of course, but how much help is it really to you as a writer? Does it make you a better writer? I think you know the answer to that.

So there's my challenge. Read up on some part of writing. Apply it to your own writing. Then put it up and ask for crits specifically about that part of the story. And mind you, I'll be watching to see if you actually do!