Fiction

What’s On the Bookshelf? Vol. 3

What's On the Bookshelf?

Today kiddies is a nice treat. This book doesn’t have too many pages. Heck, it doesn’t have too many words.

It’s a comic book.

Not just any comic book, mind you. It’s Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist (Volume 3). Like it’s predeceeding volumes, this is a collection of stories based on the character The Escapist, from Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

This slim volume, published by Dark Horse, is very entertaining. Each story is written by a different member of the comics community, like the late great Will Eisner (The Spirit makes a cameo). Also, each story has a different artist drawing it, so the look varies greatly.

One of my favorite parts of the book (apart from the art) are the pseudo-historical essays about The Escapist and his importance in comic book history. They’re a lot of fun, especially if you know a bit about that subject (I don’t know too much, but I did write an essay on the history of Marvel Comics that got me into college. True story).

Blogger’s block vanquished.

On Fan Fiction

General Geekiness

My feelings about fan fiction are wavery at best. I enjoy reading it; you could say that it’s a guilty pleasure of mine. My first long form story was a Lord of the Rings fan fiction. I was very proud of the fact that I had hand written well over 50 pages.

Yet fan fiction often is crap. For every good story, you get thirty seven that fail miserably. My first fic? Well, let’s just say that it was one of the thirty seven. These days, I find myself writing fan fiction (and reading it) when my own stories grind to a halt. I worked on a Highlander fic last month because my own characters were being uncooperative. Don’t expect to read it, though.

What can I say? It’s fun to try on other characters, to imagine how their writers crafted them. Trying out different situations with preestablished characters is a good way to work on maintaining characterization. I can see why people like reading and writing it (because I certainly do). But just the same…I really don’t want to read the dross.

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.