Author Appleton

Writing. Fantasy. Sci-fi. Mystery

writing tip

How to use music while writing

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Music. Like a literary masterpiece it has the ability to depress your spirits or make them soar. It can deepen sorrow, strengthen resolve, bolster you through tough times, and make sweet moments more memorable. When writing I have found it can be a great ally.

My father loves classic rock and roll, also country music. But he’s not a fan of the ‘pop’ country artists. Something I’ve always appreciated is good story in music lyrics and I think that appreciation comes from being his son.

On the other side of influence is my mother. She loves classical music. From an early age I loved Mozart, Vivaldi, and especially Tchaikovsky and Strauss. How I love the 1812 Overture!

When writing I choose music without lyrics because my mind is distracted by the spoken word when it is creating with the written word. For some writers this may not be true, but for me it certainly is.

Some movie soundtracks make excellent inspiration. My movie soundtrack selections range among Rudy, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, The Time Machine, Pirates of the Carribean, and Gladiator.

The key is for the tracks to blend almost seamlessly together. That way it can encourage a certain writing mood for long enough that I can write out a longer scene or even a total chapter.

In the last couple of years I’ve found some modern, digital compositions that work as well. The group Two Steps From Hell has some excellent epic music.

The best way to zone out from the world around me and fall fully into my imagined one is to sit down with my headphones on, computer keyboard positioned before me, my digital manuscript open on the screen, and listen to music with my eyes closed. Sometimes it can take a half hour before inspiration strikes, but when it does I feel like smiling (and often do). Music can so deeply relax my body and yet it keeps my mind sharp.

This year because I’ve not found time to sit and do this my writing has fallen behind. But this is one of the best ways to start a great piece of story. Emotions engaged. Soul inspired.

Q: Do you use music to inspire your writing?

Are sidekick characters necessary?

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Merry and Pippin fumbling across Middle Earth. Donkey jabbering his way out of trouble with Shrek. Sidekicks abound in fiction. With their success has come an unwritten expectation that great fantasy (and fiction in general) requires sidekicks. Modern culture prizes comedians above serious thinkers, adding to the problem.

While we can relate to the reasons a sidekick can sometimes empower a story, there are also drawbacks we must recognize. Sidekicks provide an easy release of tension in emotionally uncomfortable or charged situations. Their primary function is (often) to provide comic relief in situations that the protagonists are sweating over.

What is the drawback to this? We need to be fully absorbed in the story’s moments, especially with their most uncomfortable moments of tension. We need to sweat with the protagonist, not have some other character insert a distracting jab that attempts to lighten the mood. Surely there is a time and place for that, but often the humor is better left out.

Story is a powerful conductor of thoughts, ideas that motivate, and convictions that make the reader want to change or improve themselves. Humor distracts, makes light of, and de-emphasizes truths that build good character. I have spoken before about not modeling ourselves after the villain… but it is also imperative that we not look to comedians and sidekicks as our role models. Humor is a gift to be used sparingly. Deep thought and consideration of how humble and small we are beneath God should be our focus. Meditation and reflection are more beneficial to our souls than the funniest jokes.

Sidekick characters have trouble taking things seriously. They see humor in every moment. They get so caught up in jesting that they are either slow to mature or miss the opportunity to mature altogether. There is great wisdom in keeping silence. There is vast spiritual reward in learning to think, live, and act in sobriety.  “Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the Devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” (quote from 1 Peter 5:8 The Bible).

It is easier to be foolish than it is to be sober. It is easy to jest especially when it has become the cultural norm. When I look back at some of the great fiction I loved I realize they did not use sidekick characters. Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe, etc.

I do believe sidekick characters serve necessary purposes in some stories, but I do think they are overused. The focus of story most often should be a sober consideration so that we can benefit from the tale we read. The trick when writing in sidekick characters is to not think of them as sidekicks. Let the story guide the character’s evolution so that you (the writer) begin to know their personality. As your understanding of the character deepens you may find opportunity to throw in a little humor, but the beauty of humor is in its spontaneity. Therefore let the sidekick characters be spontaneous and do not drown their story segments in predictable foolishness.

Humor is a gift from God, if used wisely. But used frequently it creates endless foolishness and leads to spiritual decay.

Q: How do you view sidekicks in fiction?

 

Frustration of time-constraints on writing

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For many of us the greatest hindrance to getting writing done is the constraints on our time. And on a deeper level we are hindered by the frustration that those constraints cause to our creative process. If the frustration is removed our brains act creatively to produce better writing. Looking back over the past seven years I recognize how this affected the writing process.

The first novel I wrote was while living with my parents. It was just after high school and my mind was free of most of the responsibility I carry today. I had a full-time job, dated infrequently, and later started seeing my future wife and got engaged. During that time I wrote for hours on end, late into the night, in the early morning hours.

Creativity ran on a full tank unhindered (mostly) by the burdens of responsibility.

By comparison, today I provide for my wife and four kids. Having young children takes a lot of creative energy and while I don’t resent that in the least (in fact I love it) I also recognize that I am in a different stage of life. Frankly speaking I cannot get the long hours of stress-free and distraction-free creativity that I used to luxuriate in.

When I updated my cellphone recently I found I could write blog posts and such in the small moments I have free. I am getting it done when I am away from the house because my mind knows I am not going to be called upon by a family member who needs me.

Small moments are proving more fruitful than late nights.

Time-constraints on our writing produce frustration and some writers resort to boatloads of coffee and late nights in order to accomplish the task. I will admit to doing that sometimes myself (albeit with dark chocolate and yogurt instead). But a well-rested writer will be less stressed, and one whose mind is free will be more creative.

One of the keys in continuously improving as a writer is to find those moments free of distraction. Time to meditate, center and clear your mind for the creative task at hand. Writing comes from the heart. A story is grown in the mind. Do everything you can to clear your mind to write from the soul because frustration only ruins productivity.

Q: How do you deal with frustration as it relates to creativity?

Refusing the Villain

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A villain is not someone to look up to,
They should not be.
A villain chooses evil over good,
They choose a damnable fate for their soul.

Faces for the reader to remember,
Visions for them to interpret.
A villain is the worst among humanity,
Yet we see them extolled by viewers and readers.

A story needs to communicate to the reader,
It needs to reinforce the proper values.
The villain should remain the villain,
Unless a different path they choose.

Redemption is the answer,
The only answer.
Repentance is the only gate,
And it is a difficult one to open.

Consider well the path of a villain,
Do not glory in his destruction.
The toll his acts take on those around him,
Most importantly the consequences.

Know your soul,
Understand what you aspire to be.
Know your enemy,
Do not look to glory in the villain.

Refuse the villain and learn from his errors,
Rising in honor and glory.
Where he fell in pride,
Look to rise in humility.

Villains are to be condemned,
Their story a blight on the journey.
Villains will never rise again,
Ultimately their path leads to death.

Q: Do you see villains despised or glorified in contemporary fiction and films?

Pondering: futility of godless stories

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Ponder with me the shallowness of stories that omit any divine purpose. Any intervention or God-given purpose. As writers creating fictional realms we have the opportunity to omit God… or do we?

A story I moderately enjoy centers around a Buddhist monk who is on a quest to find the equivalent of the chosen one. The chosen one must have certain qualities and the monk seeks out a man with those qualities. In his quest he relies heavily on a prophecy that gives him signs he can follow so that he will know for certain he has found the one. There is never a mention of divine intervention. The story as a whole is devoid of God and in this missing element it becomes shallow.

It makes no sense for there to be a prophecy unless there was One to inspire the prophecy. And it is contradictory to choose one man based on moral qualities and yet ignore where those moral qualities come from.

Is it not interesting? While purporting high moral standards, secular stories miss the all-important question, which is, that if there is a moral law then Who gave that law. And if there is no Divine giver of moral law then morals are dictated by mankind. And if mankind dictates morals then he is not responsible to a higher power, and without that responsibility mankind is free to follow their own moral codes. One person may say that a thing is wrong while another will say that it is right. Who is to say which is which? They are both men. They are both fallible. More importantly there is no Judge to hold them to a standard of morality.

You cannot have moral law without a Lawgiver, and the same law loses its power if you deny the existence of the One who established and enforced those laws. In truth there would be no solid consequences to immoral actions because no one could say that the law was any better than the lawbreaker’s moral opinion.

Q: Do you ponder the necessity of God in stories?

 

Materialism: the writer’s enemy

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Recently I took my wife and kids to the mall. It is only about twenty-five minutes from our house but I had never been. In fact, it had been a long while since I had been in any mall. Firstly, I am not a big shopper and second, I find malls are filled with clothing above all else (which generally I find clothes shopping boring). We only moved to South Carolina in the past year so there is much of the area yet to explore. But in my trip to the mall I was reminded of the dangers of materialism and specifically how they impede creativity and writing.

After eating dinner we had walked through a portion of the mall. As I said before there were many clothing stores but there were also other shops. The myriad of jewelry stores, a few department stores, various kiosks in the aisle offering anything from bracelets to perfume. Then, on the lower level, there was an apple store. You must understand that I am not an Apple-only customer. My laptops have always been Windows machines due to the flexibility of the programing. However, I bought an iPad2 a few years back and have been thrilled with the quality of the product. Battery still holds almost 10-hours of life. I’ve dropped the thing on a tile floor and still it works seamlessly. But I have never been inside of an Apple store, though many people have told me it is fascinating because they carry the latest gadgets.

I love gadgets. Technology fascinates me and I do not mind spending good money on tech that lasts longer and gives me greater flexibility in my life. My wife stopped at one shop and I walked off with my youngest boys in the stroller to check out the Apple store. When I arrived I stood outside of the doorway and looked in. It looked like fun. But the desire to go in and fiddle with the new tech left me. I found myself thinking about all of the good in life that I have… and I have it without creating new cravings for more stuff.

Do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with shopping for good tech. But in that moment I realized that I have all I need. A beautiful wife and four great kids, a house and a bit of land, and a good job. Above all of that is God’s love surrounding and feeding that contentment.

No greater illustration can be given of this struggle than that of Pilgrim’s Progress, in which Christian carries a burden of sin along his journey to the Celestial City. The writer is Christian and the burden is Materialism. Especially in America where we are given so much and given the opportunity for so much more. Materialism consumes many of us. It drowns creativity and exterminates healthy ambitions.

I do not want to be always desirous of the things in this life, I want to be creative in expressing the love, the satisfaction, and benefits I enjoy. Writing is my way of expressing myself and when I write I convey the things that matter most to me and why they matter most to me.

Materialism is the writer’s enemy. Seeking after things only leads to more lust. Seeking instead to find that inner peace and communion with God leads to an abundance of creativity.

Q: How do you view materialism?

Your greatest asset in writing a novel

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I can’t tell you how many times I encounter people who, after hearing that I am an author, tell me that they had a book idea and someday they will write it. You want to know the truth? Most of those people will never write a book. Most will start at some point, then they with either lose interest or prioritize other tasks. They discover that writing an entire book is not so easy as they thought. Yep, it takes blood, sweat, and tears. The majority of people lack the key asset needed to finish a novel: perseverance.

To set out and write a novel means you are committing to writing 50,000 to 80,000 or 100,000-plus-words. Not a small task!

Perseverance will be your greatest virtue.

During the writing of my novels I have encountered so many obstacles that could have stopped me from completing the task. But writing is a love and a passion. It is an unquenchable desire that grows and must be exercised in order for the soul to find a measure of contentment. Distractions of family, friends, work, home, and entertainment can all stop you from completing your novel. But if you persevere through the distractions you can learn to use them to advantage.

The distractions are a tool for you to use. Family and friends provide inspiration. Just listen to the people around you. Watch their behaviors, their interactions. Listen to the way they speak. Try to understand their motivations and their convictions. Then process that information into inspiration for what you are writing. Inspiration for your characters and their world. Persevere through the distractions to find the inspiration. Persevere to finish the work you started.

In our world of instant gratification the greatest liability we face is our own distraction. We need to center our minds, hone our focus. Discipline is our ally and perseverance is our greatest asset. Without perseverance nothing noble can be accomplished. With perseverance anything is possible. Writing a novel is hard work, yet the reward of having completed it and then sharing it with others is vastly satisfying.

Q: What is the greatest hindrance you face in completing a novel?

Unspoken laws of fantasy fiction

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While fiction is itself an exploration of human imagination (and some might add an exploration of ingenuity as well) it must remain bound by laws if it is to impact the reader’s thinking in a positive way. The writer’s philosophies, persuasions, convictions, all of these things create the laws that bind their fiction. And this is a necessary difficulty for the writer because without laws fiction can confuse minds, even persuade them of non-factual things as factual. The unreal and imagined can be made to seem more important than reality.

If a reader is of a confused mind, or a troubled mental state, they are prone to falling for falsehoods. If a reader is, for example doubtful of God’s existence or is inclined to wish that God were not a supreme authority in the universe, the right fictional story could turn their mind against that authority. Fiction can create an excuse, which is a means of escape from the reality.

Truth and lie can be confused in story in such a way that it reinforces confusion in the reader. It may even persuade them that they are not accountable to the same laws that we know to be right and good.

For example, let’s say we have a fantasy story where the main character, a male protagonist, goes through multiple tragedies. With each tragedy he becomes angrier. First at the perpetrator of the tragedy, then at himself for not stopping the tragedy, and then at God for not stopping the tragedy, and then at God for not giving him the means to stop the tragedy. “If there was a good God then why would this have happened?” he would ask himself. Then later, as the story progresses, he submits that there is no God because cause A should have led to effect B. Therefore God, if he exists, is not good but indifferent or, worse, is himself evil.

Now to most readers this sort of transformation in the protagonist’s mind would seem tragic. We would see him as slipping into self-delusion as a result of his reaction to the tragedies he’d experienced. We would pity that protagonist, perhaps enjoy the journey as he seeks out revenge on his adversaries, but little else.

But to other readers this transformation becomes one of their own minds. They who suffer tragedy and feel just as the protagonist does. Instead of blaming the fallen sinful world in which the events occurred, they blame God. These readers find themselves relating to the protagonist, even learning from him despite the fact that he is a fictional character.

This is the power of fiction. This is the power of storytelling. This is the heavy responsibility of the writer.

To show that the man who falls to this is not a hero, but instead to show the negative consequences his thinking. Or, better still, to show a protagonist who rises above the tragedies and humbly accepts his bitter role in the created world. These are unspoken laws of fantasy fiction, to deliver truth and instruct in good and not in evil. To demonstrate what we should be and to show the consequences of wrong actions and even wrong beliefs. We look to show the good and encourage the faithful.

Q: How do you think writers should deal with unspoken laws of fantasy storytelling?