Nathan!

Love, The Armchair Society!

Happy Thanksgiving!

- The Armchair Society

The Gamekeeper.

     Anthony told me I had to join The Armchair Society. I just laughed at the idea, I didn't think the four theatre kids who actually enjoyed writing would have enough time to sit down and meet weekly.

     Well the rest is history. Here I am. The Rubeus Hagrid. I gamekeeper. I manage most of the Armchair Society along with E. Logan while Nathan and Anthony bicker like little children.

     I write, though I don't get any enjoyment from sharing my words. And you'll never catch me listening to an audio book. If I cannot create the story and voices myself--in my brain, it's not something that draws me in. And I never, ever, ever read aloud.

     These silly rules have made me the gamekeeper of the group. I hold the secrets and know the things. I'm really happy to be part of this group and it always feels nice to boss people around.

Why Join a Writer's Group? 'Cause I Want to Finish

Let me first start off by saying that the amount of files in my computer and flash drives labeled with some sort of ‘story’ or ‘novel*x*’ is a bit on the insane.  What’s worse: I don’t label them with any sort of distinguishing title.  I have no idea what these stories were or are about and why I didn’t finish them until I click them open and begin to read.  Some of them I have no idea why I stopped, others, I see right away.  I hit a block, a complicated, boring, or slow part of the story that just doesn’t work and the story ends.  It happens every time.

I’ve only finished one story to date and that was because it was a Nano story and I wrote it as a Christmas gift to my grandmother.  It isn’t her kind of story per se, but she has always dutifully read my work and demanded more, which, in turn, has kept me writing.  Even if it is just my grandmother.  But see the problem here?  I finished ONE.  And only gave it to my grandmother.  Yet, here I have, a computer full of stories and potential words to explore but no push to complete.

I think by now you can guess why I joined this group and thought it was a fantastic idea after visiting ConTroll 2014.  I want to finish a book.  I’ve always wanted to actually finish a book and by holding myself accountable to a small group of people, I can do that.  My inner self will always push to finish a chapter or assignment out of respect for my fellow writers and I hope they will do the same.  Therefore, by pushing myself to meet my deadlines, I will finish a book…and right now, this story that I’m working on?  I’ve been laying the ground work for a year and it’s time.

Is it easy to have a writer’s group?  Does it require work, even when you are good friends?  Hell yes!  That, my friends, is the beauty of it.  You work hard and you work hard with other artists and in the end, hopefully produce work that you are extremely proud of.  Isn’t that what we have always wanted to do?




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Writing Club? KEWL!

Not much to say on this topic really. When we were at ConTroll and we went to eat lunch we were all bouncing ideas around for our book and-I forget who said it- said, "We should make a writing group!" I said, "Yeah!" I thought, "Dafuq?"

I had no idea what a writing group was or did. So, ever so tactfully, I said, "So, what would we do in said group?" It was then described to me that a writer's group is a group of writers that sit down once a week and accuse the other members of procrastinating while attempting to hide the fact that, they too, have procrastinated.

My thought process. "I'm a writer. I procrastinate. OI LOIKE DA SOUND O DIS STOILE!"

So I joined up.

The Story of Inspiration

Bear with me.

My mother has this bizarre tradition of parking as far from the entrance to any Wal-Mart superstore, especially if it's in town (Anderson, SC), because she says, "We've got properly functioning legs for which we ought to be thankful. We don't walk enough. So let's walk." The day Adam Sutton first spoke to me, I resigned to remain in the car; it had been a particularly trying day at community college and, for reasons beyond me, I needed time to myself.

I've no idea what the hell I was thinking about. Truly I do not. I will say this must have been around the time I physically attached myself to several disreputable, disgusting guys who wanted one thing and one thing only. Recalling heavily how that felt, I can say I was most likely ruminating on that time and those actions in my life when Adam Sutton first spoke to me.

Here's where it began: Adam and his father, an Adventist pastor/chaplain/clergy-of-some-sort, walk into Wal-Mart. There Adam sees a beautiful boy his age he's never seen before with raven-black hair and eyes, a pale complexion, a Crest smile. When he speaks, his deep voice vibrates inside your chest as if you'd spoken instead of him. His name is Terry, short for Terian.

From the outset I loved these boys. I loved that they loved each other. Initially, I thought, "I'm writing a romance about two boys who fall in love. Cool." Little did I know. A swarm of influences would, within nine months or so, invade my life and alter my perception of myself and others like me in ways I couldn't possibly reverse.

The seminal works of David Levithan, the author responsible for my coming out: Boy Meets Boy (2003), The Realm of Possibility (2004), Love is the Higher Law (2009), and the co-written Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2009). John Green's life-saving (literally: this book entirely reversed my suicidal mindset) debut Looking for Alaska (2005). What They Always Tell Us (2008) by Martin Wilson, the single-most important standalone novel I've read starring a gay character. Nick Burd's superb The Vast Fields of Ordinary (2009), which showed me, while my own excursions into sex had been disastrous, it could have always been far worse. Dream Boy (1995) by Jim Grimsley showed me I didn't have to write a traditional, feel-good romance; the darkness I felt could be expressed without utter shame or contempt for one's sexuality being part of that darkness.

These books I read within two months' time. It would take two years before I felt comfortable enough to 1) come out, coinciding with 2) writing Adam Sutton's story in full. Four drafts later, entirely different influences have surfaced. Both of Bill Konigsberg's books: Openly Straight (2013) and Out of the Pocket (2008). The many interviews of author Toni Morrison, whose words on race, black characters in literature, the wonky term "African-American literature", etc. This Creative Life, a podcast conducted by one of my all-time favorite authors, Sara Zarr (whose 2013 novel The Lucy Variations destroyed me in the best possible way; I totally fanboy-emailed her AND SHE RESPONDED IN KIND). Plus a slew of "dark" contemporary young adult novels a la Andrew Smith (Ghost Medicine; In the Path of Falling Objects; The Marbury Lens; Stick), Steve Brezenoff (Brooklyn, Burning), A.S. King (Everybody Sees the Ants, Please Ignore Vera Dietz), Craig Thompson's Blankets, Hannah Moskowitz's Gone, Gone, Gone, and Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower. And a plethora of others...

So...

Adam Sutton went from a blond-haired, blue-eyed pastor's kid in a romance novel to the dread-headed, hazel-eyed son of a private school chaplain who cheats on his boyfriend, falls shamefully in love with his best friend (who reciprocates), all the while desperately seeking to avoid the school scandal involving a freshman boy physically assaulted for the suspicion he's gay because he's a ballet dancer and so are his two moms. The book Adam Sutton needed his story to be could never have been without all these insane, somewhat sporadic influences.

Just looking at this all, I cannot help but wonder why the hell I've tried writing anything else these past four years. Clearly, Adam Sutton's where the gold's at.

You inspire me....

What has inspired me to write? That’s a loaded question. I am inspired to write because I cannot stop writing. I've tried, trust me. I am inspired to write because it’s one of my few ways of coping with life. It’s easy to tell a story of loss, depression or anger.

I was inspired to work on my current project because I needed to get a story of New York on my chest. Better yet I mixed a bitter mental-break up into the mix and I've became very proud of the project. I feel the need to rid myself of these emotions through characters that I've grown to love.

My newest project, which I’m currently plotting out, deals with my own personal losses. Mix that with witches and you have a mix of emotions especially when you mix in modern day witch trials.

Inspiration is everywhere and I’m honestly inspired by so many things every day.

Sorry for the late post, I’m currently getting over an ER visit and a tumble down cement steps.

Cheers,
Devyn  

Space Pirates? Space Pirates.

Who's seen Treasure Planet?

'nuff said.

When I first got the idea for my book, it took place in the 1600's. Then I watched Treasure Planet and realized I had to change EVERYTHING. With the canon from that movie, I could keep the style I wanted while adding some cool stuff and giving myself room to make things up.

My other major influence is John Flanagan. His Ranger's Apprentice series and, more importantly, Brotherband series gave me great inspiration for characters and relationships and variations of people.

So I was sitting there with my pirate story watching Treasure Planet when Isaac walked into my skull. I showed him what I was watching and gave him a plan layout for what I had planned. After all was said I looked at him and asked, "Space Pirates?". His response, "Space Pirates."

Influence: A little bit Dystopia and a little bit Fairytale

So when you are writing a dystopia novel with touches of the familiar, what do you read and use as an influence?  Only the very best of the dystopian classics, oh, and a little bit of the fairytales we all grew up hearing.

Let’s look at the dystopian world for a minute.  It’s hot and it’s now, or at least, that’s what the media likes to make us think.  In reality, dystopia has been around for as long as we’ve been creating; this sense of a world broken or in its opposition: utopia, a perfect world.    Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia and that was in the 16^th Century.  Frankenstein, which has many dystopia concepts , was written in the early 19^th Century.  More recently we have the works of Golding (Lord of the Flies) in 1950’s and my favorites:  George Orwell publishing in the late 1940s (Animal Farm, 1984) and Lois Lowry (The Giver).  Dystopia isn’t a new concept and it has always been a concept that has appealed to me.

When I read The Giver in middle school, I gobbled it up.  I read it twice: I read ahead with the class and then again with the class as they read aloud in a slower pace.  I loved it.  It thrilled me and engaged me and made me think.  Only a few years later and I was reading Orwell (and I fell in love with everything that he’s written) and discovered just how much I enjoyed seeing a world where politics played such a huge part.  The protagonist was never what we thought they were and the ending was never so black and white. 

Sit that along aside fairytales.  Yes, that’s right.  Put dystopia next to a fairytale…the real fairytales.  Now, I love the Disney version as much as any girl.  I played Cinderella every day when I was a kid, then The Little Mermaid after that, and then Beauty and the Beast and so on.  But once you dig into the original versions, you realize how dark they really are and how closely you can mix it with dystopia.  I had this beautiful, illustrated Little Mermaid that told the original story where she threw herself into the ocean rather than kill the prince; see, not so black and white and not so ‘happily ever after.’  It makes sense… and fairytales are populated with dozens of classic, colorful characters… why not pull from their lasting influence?  I certainly won’t shy away from the power of a fairy godmother or sea witch.

Of course… these are just the influences for my current book.  There are dozens of blog posts worth of influences for any number of other books…

Not a god damn arms race.

Character building... I would love to say I know extensive histories of my characters. I wish I knew what happened to them when my stories ended, but it just isn't that simple. When I'm writing I see myself as the characters I'm portraying.

I find that helps me get the words out easiest if I envision myself in their shoes and react accordingly. I've never had a character talk to me and feel that I'd seek mental help in the event one did decide to talk to me.

The downside to this process is that I easily write myself into the characters. At the core of every character is an important piece to my puzzle that once it's been figured out can quickly unravel each and every character.

I'm tired,
I'm hurting
and I'm going to bed.

Goodnight.

Character Building: Organic and Emotional and Free

Some people use character sheets where they fill out everything you need to know about a character.  Some people base their characters off of something they already know.  Some people hear the voice of the character in their head and it organically comes together.  I could go on and on about how people build a character and all of them would be a perfectly legit way to do it.  For me, however, it is a crazy mash of all of it and here is how it goes:

There’s usually a song, image, feeling that makes me write a little scene.  It isn’t even a thought out plot or story, just an emotion filled scene with a voice blazing through it.  Suddenly, I have the heart of the character.

From there, an image burns into my mind.  I am a very visual individual and if I can’t see how the character dresses, their features, the way they walk, how they move when they speak, then I can’t see the character.  But I am also coming from a very performance based world where those are the things that come across to the audience and so, that is how I begin to build a character.

Then comes the character chart so I can keep track of my descriptions and what relationships they have with the other characters because for me, that informs every one of their decisions in the story.  Once again, this is a very performance  based approach: they have to be doing/trying to achieve something and that is usually through interactions…  So one character isn’t built at a time, but a cast.

It spirals outward from there… over and over and over again.  But what is strange is how organic the process feels.  It is as if I am a sculptor and I am sculpting a character out of clay and then they open their mouths and have the run of the world that has been created.  It is then that they tell me how to write their story and if I try to control them, I learn the hard way.

My characters write themselves because they have built themselves and I am only the vessel they use to come out.  I create and then let them run free.  It might not be the wisest choice, but I have learned through the years that this is the process that is the most freeing and creative for me.

In many ways, this is how I want to create myself and therefore, I treat my characters in the same way.  We have to live with each other after all.

I Write Characters Not Buildings

Character building is, for me, in no way like worldbuilding. Although both thrive once I learn to let them grow organically, there's something rather sinister behind the idea of "building" a character. In the same way I think the idea of predestination sinister.

So if I'm being truthful, I do not build characters. They simply show up and refuse to leave my head until I've completed their stories. For many that has meant I write their stories once and wave goodbye a la Sam and Merry and Pippin to Frodo at the end of The Return of the King. For others it means I must write and rewrite and rewrite their narratives, revising and reshaping them over the years, until their stories are published and read. I have learned to live with both.

I do not build characters. I build stories.

Once those characters show up, I heed their voices until I can see a clear path through to chronicling their story. Then I sit down and start writing. Notes are often required but I can no longer write to outlines, else the story dulls. It becomes a chore, a headache, something I'd rather not deal with. Thus I hear the voices until the story or a method by which to tell that story emerges, then pants my way through to the end.

It's a hectic process but a fun one.

Character building....character building....character building............character building.

*sigh*

Is it really truly character building if a boy my age in a pirates outfit walks into my room one day and goes, "Have I gotta tale to tell you."?

Isaac Carter is the deepest man I've ever met.. He explained to me his change from what he was, to what he is.At first, I saw his joy, his confidence, his naivete. Then I saw his pain, his determination, his ANGER. I saw everything about this guy at one time and yet the first I saw, was the last.

He shared the camaraderie of his crew. He shared the feeling of his ship. He shared the world he lived in. He poured into me every ounce of his universe. When he had finished, he stood up and began to walk towards the door. I asked him what was I supposed to do with such a tale. He looked at me, and simply left. I thought about what he had told me.

Someone had to know about Isaac. I couldn't be the only one so I began to write it. I told of the man Isaac Carter in the way as I met him. I hope I have let you meet him too.

I write because I like creating...

I really didn't know how to answer this weeks question, "Why I write?" It should be simple enough, I mean we don't just sit down and decide we want to write a book for the shits and giggles. But I didn't want to give a basic blanket meaning to my writing. I don't write because I feel the drive to get published, I don't write because I was so inspired by someones writing I had to one-up them. No, none of that.

It really didn't occur to me why I wrote until the other day.

I was sitting in reversal for a show I'm stage managing and I just mentally left my body. I moved though the room, almost as if my spirit had been released. I looked at everyone in that tiny room, on the second floor, singing Christmas songs before Halloween,

Then it hit me, I like to write--or for a better term I like to CREATE things because I am in love with the feeling of being part of something that's bigger than myself. Almost the same reason that people cling to religions. There is comfort in numbers and having control of a project.

I like creating my own worlds where I am in charge. I love exploring and creating on my own. But in the same thought I like creating large events where I'm working with people from all over the world. I like existing outside myself and when I'm forced to be me for even a few minutes--when I'm grounded to earth, I become a snappy, stressed person.

I think it's funny that in my psychology class I was told to take a test, it told me that I was over stressed. But I'm not, no, not right now, I'm in control... I'm creating. I'm doing things that I love. I'm existing in a world of people, living together, working together.

So that's why I write: I want to be part of something bigger than myself. I like to be in control. Almost conflicting thoughts. But they're mine.

Why I Write: The Act of Expression

Not only am I the token female, I am also the poet who just so happens to dabble in narrative when the mood strikes.  I say this to begin my explanation of why I write:  I write as a means to express emotion and poetry has always been an emotionally charged bit of writing.

I have many outlets for this type of expression.  I dance.  I paint.  I draw.  I act.  So why do I have to write?  Because there are some things that can only be expressed by the painting of words.  I do not have the capacity to let them stew and swallow them down; I must express them and explore them.  In fact, much of my writing tells the story of my life and what I was feeling in that particular time.  Even the fantastical stories.

I find the expression of writing fascinating.  Why did a writer choose this topic?  Why did they choose that phrase?  What meaning does it have for the writer?  What meaning did it invoke in the reader?  How can I affect the reader?  All of these things factor into the act of writing for me.  I want to move and entertain.

Maybe it is a single moment of emotion exposed.  Or a lifetime written out on the pages.  No matter the concept or idea, my goal is to make the reader feel something. 

I write to express something, anything because there is something in me that needs to be expressed.  Every artist has that impulse or they would not create.  So I create to express and I express to create.  It is a vicious, colorful circle.

And while this isn’t my best piece of poetry, I thought I would end with this, as my expression of writing:

A pen-stroke.  A dash.
Slice it open.
Slash it out.
Curl the ink into monuments
Fill the room with parchment
White and black.
An aching heart bleeding letters
Soaring into the fibers
A soul freed.
A question unanswered.
Left on the page.
Sitting.
With just a pen-stroke.

Why I Write

Compulsion.

Straight up. That's why I write. Because I must.

When I was a boy, I told stories very much like that old man in the bazaar whose snake occasionally pokes his head out of the wicker basket.

"Now?" she asks.

The old man answers with a small, stiff shake of the head. Not yet.

She understands. She waits. She listens. When her turn comes, slowly and with practiced poise, she lifts her head above the basket's rim. She peers out into the audience--men, women, children from across the empire--and shares a hiss. She watches as a collective shudder seizes each member, resisting the urge to howl with laughter.

With a word the old man dismisses her and silently she descends, where she may now rest with ease.

You see? I couldn't help myself. Very much like when I was a boy, the compulsion to tell stories lives and breathes in me. I cannot watch television, read a line of dialogue, inhabit a stage character without spinning tales and side-tales and sequels and prequels and companions.

Why?

Hell if I know! It literally just happens. My brain's wired to tell stories in the same way my body's wired toward male romantics. I could tell you I need stories. I could tell you I love stories. (I do.) I could tell you I frame my life with story.

Truth is, I just write. If I could stop... well, I've tried. Doesn't seem to work for me. The way I see it is I ought to get paid to do this thing, whether I need it, love it, or whatnot, I cannot stop doing.

I'm a writer.

That's why I write.

Why Write?

That is a question that simply cannot exist on its own. It requires it's cousin.

Why Read?

I read because the world that I live in is fairly boring. It isn't filled with grand adventure, magical abilities, or such grand scale independence for teenagers. It SHOULD, but isn't.

Even the stories that exist in our universe, with our laws of nature, even they have a better story than what the average day in my life has in it. To read is to escape and educate.

So what do you do when you read the library dry?

When you can see the villain a mile away and the word cliche becomes cliche?

When you start seeing plot holes and MAJOR character flaws that no real person could have?

When you begin to panic because you're afraid you have NOTHING worth reading within your reach?

When you ask the librarian, "What do I do? I've read everything!"?

You take her advice when she looks you dead in the eye and says, "You've read stories. Now make your own."