Posts Tagged ‘discworld’

Apr

What to Write, What to Write?

Posted by: Michell in About Writing, Irreverent Muse

I’ve been thinking a lot about my writing the past few days. Not thinking about it in terms of “Why am I bothering” or anything like that. More about “Am I going in too many different directions?”

To give you some idea of what I’m talking about, I have written six books with one underway. One is an adult, traditional fantasy, one is a YA mystery adventure (coming out soon), one is a science fiction comedy and three are YA superhero (same series). Now I’m working on a collaboration project that is a YA steampunk superhero mashup (with JR Murdock). If you were counting, that is five different storylines/series.

Granted, the traditional fantasy may never see the light of day, but that still means I’m working on four different series. Is that the smartest thing I could be doing?

Perhaps I should focus on one or two and work them through to their logical conclusions rather than spread myself out so much. The problem is, that isn’t how my mind works. The story ideas that I get are all over the place. I love challenging myself to write in different ways/genres.

But what will my readers think? Will they say, “Michell, you need to finish this series because it really interests me. The others don’t. Hurry up.” Or will they like my writing style enough that they will discover all of the characters I write and eagerly await the next installment, whatever that may be?

One of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett, has done what I consider to be the penultimate series. Discworld. Within the Discworld he has written many, many different story arcs and characters. Sometimes they interact and most times they do not. He has the Rincewind arc, the Commander Vimes and the Anhk-Morpork Guards arc, the Witches arc, the Tiffany Aching arc and several others. He’s even done a number of one-offs. All within the same world.

Is that what I should be doing?

I know that I have several story arc ideas for my “Mik Murdoch” world. That is the YA Superhero series that I have sold the first book of to 5 Rivers Publishing. I’m already looking ahead to some of the other series I hope to write in that world. The thing is, I also have stories I want to write (or have written) don’t fit here.

Should I abandon those in favor of the common world?

I don’t think so. I know it will cause me additional stress to spread out my writing in so many directions, but I also believe it will help me to grow and continue growing as a writer. The downside is the books for the various series will take longer to write, but I hope my readers will understand.

What do you think? Should a writer (say me) focus his or her energies to a single project at a time before moving onto something else?

Tags: 5 rivers publishing, anhk-morpork, comedy, commander vimes, discworld, rincewind, science fiction, scifi, superhero, terry pratchett, witches, YA

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Apr

Get Published Episode 54 – Lorna Suzuki – Self-Published Success

Posted by: Michell in Get Published (Podcast)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Hello Everyone and thank you for joining me. In this week’s episode of Get Published I had the pleasure of speaking with Lorna Suzuki. Lorna Suzuki is a full-time scriptwriter specializing in biographic documentaries for TV. She is also the author of both the Imago series and the new Young Adult Fantasy series, The Dream Merchant Saga. If that weren’t enough, she has over 25-years of experience in various forms of martial arts and is a 4-dan practitioner and instructor of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.

I also did a review of Terry Pratchett’s latest release, “I Shall Wear Midnight”, another tale of Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegle. Finally, I talk a little about my own writing projects.

I hope you enjoy the show.

Show Notes

00:00 — Opening – Get Published Episode 54 – Lorna Suzuki – Self-Published Success

Everything has to start somewhere and this is the start of “Get Published”

00:14 — Introduction – Get Published Episode 54 – Lorna Suzuki – Self-Published Success

Welcome to the show.

02:44 — Promo – The Shrinking Man Project

03:51— Tips and Typos – Get Published Episode 54 – Lorna Suzuki – Self-Published Success (continued)

Mike provides a review of “I Shall Wear Midnight” by Terry Pratchett
Email feedback at getpublishedpodcast dot com with your comments

05:58 - Promo – View from Valhalla

06:11 — Get Published Episode 54 – Lorna Suzuki – Self-Published Success (continued)

Lorna Suzuki talks about her experiences self-publishing her Imago fantasy series and the success she has had thus far. She also talks about collaborating with her daughter and some of the lessons learned as a writer.

46:47 — Promo – Explorers Anthology

48:108 — Closing

Thank you for listening.

Websites mentioned in this episode:

Lorna Suzuki - http://web.me.com/imagobooks/IMAGO_FANTASY_REALM/About_Me.html

The Shrinking Man Project - http://theshrinkingmanproject.com/

View from Valhalla - http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/

Explorers Anthology - http://deadrobotssociety.com/anthology/

Review of “I Shall Wear Midnight” by Terry Pratchett - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7576115-i-shall-wear-midnight-tiffany-aching-4

Tags: Book Review, dead robots society, discworld, doc coleman, explorers anthology, Get Published, goodreads, i shall wear midnight, imago, lorna suzuki, Michell Plested, nac mac feegle, nayla, odin1eye, scaleslea, shrinking man project, terry pratchett, tiffany aching, vfv, view from valhalla

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Dec

Writing Humor

Posted by: Michell in Irreverent Muse

I’m working on a project right now that is stretching my brain and moving me into territories both unfamiliar and daunting. I am trying (note the word “Trying”) to write a Science Fiction Comedy.

I love comedy writing whether it is Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” series (yes, I know it is parody. It’s still funny), or Douglas Adams ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ or even Robert Asprin’s “Myth Inc.” series. Comedy writing is some of my favorite to read. It is also the reason I chose the title that I did for my blog.

But, darn it, it is a LOT harder to write than I thought. I’m about 5,000 words into the project so far. I’ve got detailed character sketches, most of the plot and some of the setting. I started writing and tried to come off with humor. The next thing I know, one of my characters is faced with a serious situation and I don’t feel much like laughing.

What gives?

So, I tried again. Once again, the writing started out light-hearted but quickly moved towards something more serious. I took a break a tried to reason out why this kept happening.

Then I realized, I made the characters too real. They all thought they were alive and were acting in ways that I thought of as normal. What I need to do is keep them real, but make there reality totally different from my own.

If you’re wondering what I mean, picture Cletus the yokel from Simpsons. He collects roadkill for food. Not because he has to, but because that’s the way he was brought up. It’s normal to him. Or how about Homer (also Simpsons). He and the rest of the family don’t think twice about his strangling of Bart. Again, normal behavior.

That’s what is missing from the character sketches I did. I have a clear idea of who the characters are, but I haven’t given them their normal yet. Their normal needs to be considerably different from what I think is normal and correct.

If I can successfully do that, I might be able to get the humor flowing again.

Humor doesn’t need to be about talking funny or slapstick. It can also be about characters acting in ways that make you say WTF? Now that I’ve come to this revelation I can move on with the project. Hopefully it is a revelation and not me fooling myself.

The results of this change of mindset will reveal itself shortly.

Personal Update

NaNoWriMo is over for another year and I am happy to say I hit my 50,000 words. I now have another book in my “Mik Murdoch” series (which I’ll be editing in the new year). Now that NaNo is over, I’m going to spend some time entering a few contests.

The first contest I’m going to enter is a flash fiction contest at Absolute Xpress (http://absolute-x-press.com/flash-fiction-challenge/). I’m also going to enter “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero” in a YA Novel contest that I’ve heard about (I’ve got to do some more investigation on that one).

I’ve also got the writing project (mentioned above) to work on. I’m going to be recording the first, teaser episode for that in the next couple weeks. I will put it into my “Get Published” feed. I’ve also got two episodes of “Get Published” to record and produce for December.

It’s going to be busy.

Tags: absolute xpress, blog, discworld, douglas adams, Get Published, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, humor, irreverent muse, Michell Plested, myth inc., podcast, robert asprin, science fiction, science fiction comedy, terry pratchett, writing humor