Writing Wednesday

The barely clean windows reflected candle-lit memories back to her. She stared past them, into the velvety night, as she sat in a cozy tavern bedroom. She had traveled so many, that they all looked the same, with age-worn wooden headboards polished with beeswax, and well-trodden rugs that had once known exotic colors now covering creaking floors. Before, she would have caroused in the common room, her honest laughter and unapparent wittiness surrounding her with friends and soon-to-be friends. But no longer.

A shadow of anonymity had dampened her spirit.

Those that truly had known her were gone. And so entrenched had she been in that familiarity that she had blocked others out at the time. Now there were none to take their place. Oh, there were new smiles and promises of friendship given, but all without substance--social cordialities passed on as easily as gossip.

Not that she hadn’t tried. Was still trying, she sometimes felt. Had she changed? Or had she been just a nothingness attached to others and thus became special? Or was there something about her that no one could see anymore?

She gently touched her cool forehead, and a gentle whisper of wind alighted against the guttering flames, darkening the room around her. A soft murmur from the bed, with a rustling of sheets, turned her head to the figure sleeping there.

A gentle smile curved on her lips, catching the moon’s light filtering in. She had him, at least. But her gaze watered slightly, as she turned to look back out into the darkness. Was it selfish that she wanted just a little more? That sometimes she needed something--someone--a little different?

A tear sloped down a cheek in loneliness, refusing to answer.

Writing Wednesday: Words and Writings

(With quick book reviews thrown in.)

I know that the last time I did a Writing Wednesday I also talked about words. But this time I want to focus on words grouped together, by authors, that become, well, prose. (I would address poetry, but I'm not very good at that, so it's just prose, and by extension, fiction.)

I admit, I'm a better writer than a storyteller. And I have found that, in writing stories, my writing skills fall a little by the wayside. I feel that as a writer, I can string together some very pretty words to really make the reader picture what I'm trying to depict. However, I do better at vignettes. Which is why the editing of my novel is so ... behind. It's quite a daunting project, because I feel so much of it has to be rewritten into what my actual style is. I was so focused on getting the story out, that I left "me" behind it. I've only managed to get the prologue redone and one scene. Sad, but true.

One of the books I read recently had very beautiful writing. The author depicted things in a new and interesting way which really kept me intrigued. Just a page in, I was struck by this phrase: "His face was weathered and brown, his eyes set in origami creases of skin." I LOVE that! Origami creases of skin. One of my favorite authors (though I have yet to read a lot by him) is Thomas Hardy. I have never read his poetry, but he infuses his novels with that same poetic beauty that just captures the pretty-word crafter in me. What can I say?

I did a quick search of my writings, and came across one of my vignettes. There's actually a little more to the scene than what I am posting, but when I look at it, I seriously wonder if I really did write it! It's so ... beautiful! *laughs* I'm not really tooting my own horn, more like wishing I could get back to this. I know, practice, practice. I really wish for my old RP days -- they helped my writing SO much!

So, a little snippet of what I once could accomplish:

Soft.

That was the susurration carried on the wind, painting the evening sky with a thin glaze. Her dusky eyes stopped scanning. Her head tilted, trying to discover the origin of the gentle whisper which was now beginning to permeate her being. Words? No words were carried in the murmuring. Her eyelids slid to close, and she let her arms fall free from their own embrace as she let herself relax. Her breathing slowed, her chest rising and falling softly, and then her eyes opened in deft surprise. "Something," her tone whispered lightly in curiosity. Eyes narrowing for a moment, she caught her lips on a simple smile. "A willow," was all the indulgence her sweet voice caressed. She turned back toward the parapet, leaning out, the violet flecks in her eyes catching the iridescent, ivory fingers of the lazy moon's light.

The silent breeze ruffled against the willow, and her eyes caught the shadows, where she blinked in surprise. Amidst the phantasms of nature, there was something manmade, though wholly unaffected in its own naturalness. This was the something. She envied his position, if it was a "he" indeed. But how could it not? To be self-removed from such a party could only be a man's tolerance.

Her reverie was broken for a moment with a smattering of applause from within, so completely isolated from her now. "Are you the one?" she wondered in a hushed vein, recalling her earlier conversation with Anteak. She smiled mildly. Whether he was or not, the intrigue had been caught. Would they meet? Could they? If the stars allowed. But only wholly as herself. Decency required the staying of clothes -- though they weren't uncommon on her. But her hair, caught in the confines of the pseudo-refinement those inside believed in, was altogether different. More applause. With each swell she removed a pin from her glossy locks, and soon it sighed in relief to be set free, glinting in the surrounding light as it played on the nightbreeze, once in awhile caressing its length almost to her knees.

She held the pins in her palms, staring at them for a moment, before she also set them free, tossing them over the balcony, where they glittered like a school of silvery fish swimming in the ocean of the night sky, on toward their destiny.

With a lull in the breeze, her hair covered her like a warm wrap as she continued to watch the shadows....

***

And now on to the quick book reviews!

Merlin and Arthur by Stephen R. Lawhead
Oh, Lawhead. You certainly do love changing up the point of view -- no matter if it's in the same book. Overall I thought Merlin was interesting, as there's a lot more to play with, as far as inventing a new story. It was mostly told in Merlin's point of view, but then Arthur changed a lot and I didn't think there was all that much more of an interesting story to tell. Not to mention the ending just kinda ... ended. I know Lawhead didn't think to make this past three books (the first was Taliesin), but there are actually more, so .... It's okay, but I think I may abandon Lawhead. Don't know.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
This was an Oprah book club book, and this is the story from which the "origami creases of skin" phrase came from. Wroblewski's writing was just beautiful. So many "mundane" seeming things were really put into a new light. I like the book up until the "ghost story" aspect was introduced. It was so REAL, so vivid, so retro-feeling that I really empathized with the characters. And then a sort of surreal element was introduced. I don't mind it, normally, especially being a reader of fantasy -- I suspend my disbelief a LOT. But, to turn so drastically. I don't know, I felt a little betrayed. Like he had sensationalize some of it to make it interesting. Overall I liked it. But ... there was just that something that bothered me.

Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
Brian and I are fans of Card (not only because he's Mormon ^_^), and his Ender books are great. So Brian found this and gave it a try. It's a sort of "what if the American revolution didn't quite go as planned and the Native Americans really COULD wield some sort of magic and they weren't run out of their lands" re-telling of history. Apparently the seventh son of a seventh son is especially special, so ... so far the story is interesting, although there are supposed to be seven books in the series and Card has yet to announce when the last one is out.

Sorcery and Cecelia by Wrede and Stevermer
Ah, one recommended to me by my friends. At first I had a little bit of a time getting into it, because it's written as letters back and forth from cousins, set in the Regency period (or close to it) and so you don't have much to go on for character introduction, but I quickly got into it (it's Austen meets magic) and I was so sad that it was so short and quick! I definitely want to pick up the next one, and it makes me wish I could do something like this with a friend (the authors wrote the stories in bits, just like letters, where the other didn't know what the one was writing, and so on, they then got together in the end to flesh out things). So fun!

Spindle's End by Robin McKinley
Another recommendation. I wanted to get Beauty, but even though the library said it was on the shelf, I couldn't find it, so I picked this one up instead. Overall I really liked this book, the story was definitely a new one and a very fresh take on the Sleeping Beauty story. However, the first few ... chapters, it seemed like, were world-building, and I honestly feel that it wasn't necessary. I don't mind a little info dump (maybe a couple of graphs), but chapters??? Also, toward the end of the story, the way everything gets resolved seemed a little ... murky. I can't quite figure out how the heroine did what she did. I feel it was poorly written, and a little lengthy to "save the day." I also didn't "feel" one of the relationships. It didn't seem realy to me. But, it gave me enough of the author to make me want to try Beauty.

What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris
I picked this one up because I love period pieces and felt that something Regency, without being girly, would be refreshing. Maybe I prefer the girly. I don't know, for having been written by a woman, it seemed a lot like a man. Does that sound funny? It's a mystery, with a murder having taken place (and VERY gruesome and perhaps I could have done without some of the imagery), but while the pacing of the whodunit was pretty good, I think the ending was a little bit of a let down, ONLY because, to me, the person that did end up doing, wasn't a character I had remembered very well. Maybe that's good, or maybe not. I had to go: wait, who was that again?? Anyway, I guess I don't think it's my cup of tea, but at least I'm trying new things, right?

As always, I'm up for recommendations (still have some on my list from last time, but finding them at the library isn't always an easy task).

Writing Wednesday: Words

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of "Writing Wednesday"s. While I'd love to tell you that I will do this every Wednesday, I just can't make that promise. So, you will just have to be content with what you get. ^_- I plan to make either observations on writings or perhaps a tidbit or two of my own writings to help me get writing a little more -- goodness knows I have quite a few stories that need finishing!

As some of you know, I do like to write, though truth be told I'm not prolific enough nor do I practice enough to probably ever make it to a published work. I mean, I still have a NaNoWriMo novel in the heavy editing stage (that it still needs a lot of). So, instead, I have contented myself with being a proofreader, and of course am attempting a freelance career with that skill. So far, I have only had one job, BUT it's better than nothing. (To be honest, I have had a good deal of responsibilities at church and home things that I haven't had the time that I would like to devote to this career as of yet, but things have seemed to calm down a little, so we'll see.)

This book that I'm currently proofing got me thinking about words. The reason I bring this up is because this author, bless his soul, has a real problem with some of them. It's interesting, because every so often he puts a word in there that makes me think his vocabulary is actually better than some of the misused words he puts down. Unless he used a thesaurus. Oh that he had also used a dictionary.

The most misused word he has in there is "chuck." He writes about a "chuck of clear ice" or a "chuck of metal" or "chucks of matter floating [in space]." Clearly he meant "chunk" and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how he could have gotten this so wrong! Interestingly enough, he actually did use it correctly in another place. Hmm.

Sometimes, while proofing, I thought that maybe some of his misused words were words that he knew what they meant, but as he was typing them, he either had an auto-correct function (sort of like when you're texting and you get suggestions for what your phone thinks you want to say), or he just spelled it as close to what he thought it should be, and left it as is so long as spellcheck didn't tell him it was wrong (or he did run spellcheck and he chose the wrong word to correct his spelling mistake). Here are some examples (with my thoughts in italics):

A mummer swept the room.
(Now, out of context this might seem okay, except why would a mummer be sweeping a room? Turns out the author meant "murmur." Yep. AND, he made this mistake very, very often.)

Morris Code echoed from the speakers.
(First off, "Morris"??? And it echoing? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of Morse Code?)

She is temporality unavailable.
(Darn, don't you hate those temporal displacements?! A few shifting of letters, and some additions makes it "temporarily.")

The palace was inundated with bright flowers, aged wine, garment food, and colorful musicians.
(There are a few things wrong with this sentence that make it a little odd, but the one that struck me first was "garment food." It took me a few seconds to realize the author meant "gourmet." Hehehe....)


Anyway, there are several more, but these were probably my favorite. The thing is, I understand typos. I even understand leaving out words as your writing (becuase your brain is thinking faster than your fingers can type). But the completely WRONG word? I wish I knew if he just really put them there wrong or he chose the wrong word while running spellcheck.

However, those weren't his only issues, as there were some grammar and tense issues as well (not to mention punctuation, and even some places where he misspells some of his own made-up words or even changes a character's name!). (There are also a few things that I think the author should have done a little research on, because they're not quite correct.) Brian thinks that perhaps he's not a native English speaker. It IS possible, I suppose. But if it were me sending this to be published, I would have had a friend I trust read it over for me. I also think the author should have read over it as he wrote it. I know I do, especially to make sure I didn't leave words out or used the wrong word (like the author of this book used "souls of his feet"), but especially to make sure the flow feels right.

I know some of you are writers, but many of us have blogs and the like. Are there words that always mess you up? Or are there words you see others mess up? I always think young children are funny when they're learning new words and don't quite get it right.

Any thoughts on this subject?

***

AND, this is a lead-up to a regular (I mostly promise) post: my First Friday Fanfic. This coming Friday (March 6), I will begin posting parts of my Stargate fanfic (which some of you had asked me to finish some time back). I'll be honest, I'm not done with it. I'm stuck at a little bit and don't quite know where I want things to go (though I do have a lot of the end mapped out in my mind, but I need to get there). However, I have enough written to start posting bits for your perusal, and hopefully so you can not only catch any typos I have (it's true!) but also help me in making my writing, and the story, better. Hopefully this will help me finish it so I can move on to the next one.

I also hope everyone will read it, and I don't believe you don't need to be a Stargate watcher (or fan) to enjoy the story. I think. So, stay tuned for this Friday, when I will post the first couple parts of my Stargate fanfic Dream Giver.