The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

On notebooks

General Geekiness, The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I’m a sucker for notebooks. Not the spiral bound, 70 pagers that you pick up at Shaws or Wal-Mart in your frantic back-to-school shopping, but a real, archival quality paper, beautifully bound notebook.

These, unfortunately sometimes with the word “Journal” sprawled across the cover, are my favorite things to write on. Yes, I know a cheap spiral bound college ruled notebook would do just fine, and they have. There’s something special about writing on good quality paper.

When I was in Italy in April 2007 (has it really been that long?), the first thing I bought while I was there was a leather bound notebook. That was the only souvenier that I knew I needed to have. I’ve filled it, but writing on its pages brought me back to Florence and Rome.

My current notebook was a gift from my grandma. It’s red with faux gold foil on the cover. The paper is thick so the ink from my pen doesn’t run through (except when I accidentally fell asleep while writing. There’s a big ink spot going through four pages. Oh well, that adds character.

At Christmas, my parents gave me a beautiful notebook, also from Italy, that’s yellow with pink and blue flowers with gold vines all over it. I’m looking at it right now and smiling.

The thing about these notebooks is they hold specific memories of when I received them. Those spiral bound notebooks do not. They are boring, identical in every way. Plus, those spirals get caught in everything.

Blogger’s block

General Geekiness, The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Ironically, I just posted an entry on writer’s block. Never thought I’d get blogger’s block so quickly afterwards.

So what am I doing? Looking for info on the Highlander remake penned by the Iron Man writers. Not coming up with anything new. Also reading bad fan fiction. Maybe I’ll go and write bad fan fiction.

On a happier note, I found my copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way.  I forgot how much I loved that book. Now I’m drawing random characters who may or may not make an appearance in Nerds Have More Fun. Which I drew the first story of today. So sometime next week it will be posted (no scanner).

I forgot how out of practice I am with drawing action poses.

On writer’s block

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

O fiend, o devil, o cursed beastie!

Writer’s block was the bane of my existence, until I learned how to engage the wild beast. Not tame it, as it still gets the better of me, but I find that I can best it often enough.

What do I do to stave it off? Well, when the beast attacks, I try talking to it. I just put pen to paper and write. Sometimes it isn’t fiction or a part of my story. Sometimes I just write words on paper, in order to trick the little devil.

Other times I just yell, listen to music, read a book, watch TV or have a cup of tea. Miraculously, the nasty little beastie goes away. Behold the power of a good cup of tea.

There’s a very physical side to writing that I find needs to be dealt with. If you find you can’t write on your computer, back away from the keyboard and pull out a pen and paper. Writing is more akin to art this way (in the visual sense), and using the different muscles just feels better.

What do you, dear readers, do to destroy Writer’s Block?

Together we can vanquish this beast.

On vampires

General Geekiness, The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Vampires have intrigued me since I was in third grade. One of my favorite books at that age was the Great Illustrated Classics edition of Dracula. I remember reading that over and over again, especially during a visit to my grandparents on Nantucket. I can’t say that I’ve finished the actual version of the book, but Dracula holds a spot near and dear to my heart.

But more on vampires and less on my emotional attachments to a book I haven’t finished.

Vampire myths are some of my favorite things because they are so strange and varied. Disease, desire, death. If you watch the History Channel as often as I do, you’re bound to have come across some of the interesting hour long specials about vampires in history (Countess Bathory, Vlad the Impaler, the New England vampires). The methods for killing them are so different. Shoving a brick down their throats. Decapitation. Stabbing them with a stake. Sunlight (damn you Twilight with your sparkly, fangless non fiends).

My favorite portrayel of vampires in pop culture is probably in the show Supernatural. The vampires there look like normal folks, they drink, etc, and even if they don’t drink human blood, its for blending in and survival, not because they have a moral code. Oh, and their fangs descend from their gums. How awesome is that?

So, dear readers, any favorite vampire myths?

On Names

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I’m on a bit of a naming kick lately. I’ve been thinking about what makes a good character name. Is it one that conjures up images of grandeur with mythological connotations? Or is it one that is bland, simple, and easy to build a character around?

These days, I favor the latter. My characters have everyday names, ones that won’t garner too much attention. Geoffrey. Julia. Will. David. Linda. When I was younger (i.e., in my early Tolkien obsessed days), my characters had slightly (to very) ridiculous names. Unlike Tolkien’s world, there failed to be any rhyme or reason to the names. My personal favorite? Random Redux. A friend and I came up with Mr. Redux while in high school. He was a space captain, out to save the world, and so on and so forth. The thing was his name didn’t fit into the universe. Not to mention it is rather silly.

Back to naming things.

These days, I name characters before I come up with their personalities. This might be a bit counter productive, but I see it as naming babies. The kid’s born, and you look at him and say, “My! He looks like a Brian!” or a Julian or a Michael. The babies have no  (or minimal) personality. They’re red and sticky and look like lizards. Note that the last time I was in a delivery room was the day I was born.

Sometimes, though, I find I have to wait until I find the perfect name. When I started writing my novel (the first draft is done, but I still think of it as in its infancy), my main character didn’t have a name. He ended up being named William relatively quickly. The name just sort of fit, perfectly. I like to think of it as the characters naming themselves.

My attempts to name my characters often ends up with them throwing off these given names, and ending up with names they’ve “selected.” I tried to saddle Geoffrey with some pretty horrific pseudo-Tolkien monikers (I currently don’t have access to these notebooks), but fortunately he bucked them. It was during my freshman year of high school attempt to read The Canterbury Tales when he said, “Screw it all. My name’s Geoffrey.”

What’s in a Name?

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Good morning campers!

I’ve decided to start posting writing prompts to help get our creative juices flowing. Even though I write a lot (every day), I sometimes find myself falling back to the same old same old.

Today’s prompt is a simple one.

Here’s a list of locations and things. Your job? Name them. Mine are in italics.

A greasy spoon type diner: Stick to Yer Ribs

A race horse: Tommy Can You Here Me

A rock band: Tears of Ophelia

A summer cottage: Sand Between Toes

A castle: Castello della Torre

Triplets: Madison, Pierce, Grant

A new religion: Followers of Manfred

An avant garde restaurant: Sushi On the Rocks

A soda: Mango Fizzle

Have fun and come up with more of your own. Feel free to post here.

This is adapted from What If? by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter