Month: December 2012

Symbiosis – or why I love writing so much

sym·bi·o·sis/?simb???sis/

  1. Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
  2. A mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that my characters are real, nor is the world, however realistic I might try and make it.

But, all the same, my characters mean something to me. No matter what goes on in life, I rely on them to distract me, and subvert the truths of my existence that day. For their part, my characters can’t live without me, they need my troubles, my joys, and my truths to exist themselves. They are no aware of it, truth be told, being figments of my imagination they are not aware of anything, yet there is a mutually beneficial relationship.

Therefore I can only conclude that I have a symbiotic relationship with my own imaginings. On some levels all writers do, we get involved. Doesn’t matter whether it’s writing for a book, or a film, or a game, it doesn’t matter if it’s just a story you tell your two and a half year old niece on the fly.

Well here’s the thing, that symbiosis doesn’t last forever, eventually move on. Maybe that character, or that world might be still in small way active at the back of your mind, it does however fade. A cruel ending you might say to such a relationship. Except it’s more a parting of the ways, certainly for some writers. The writer gets a new character, and a new world to become symbiotically attached to. The character or world gets, if the author shares their work, to form a new type of symbiotic relationship with a reader.

I love that, I really do. I think it makes each book special, every character amazing.

I’m not the best at conveying these worlds and these characters to paper, but when I do, and I share it, my one true hope about my writing is that the reader forms a different but important relationship with my characters.

I would love that one day, I write something that connects with enough people that my characters exist on in fan fiction. To know that my characters connected with an audience in that way would be truly special. Don’t get me wrong, writing for profit also handily goes with this particular want, but I’d honestly take much loved and cherished characters than simple cash.

So, yeah – it’s corny, a little cliched but I do genuinely feel a connection with my stories, that’s what I love. I’m hoping one day to have the craft to be able to actually put these fantastic stories into words that people understand and appreciate.

A writer should always be reading, and sometimes that means going beyond their normal stable of genres. So I’m branching out into what currently sells. It’s a new thing, I’ve only just started, but I’ve just read The Hunger Games trilogy, and I certainly can see why the first book became so popular. (my initial view having just finished the trilogy are three things: emotional blackmail, food, fast pacing – and I don’t mean any of that in a bad way, it’s a great trilogy  especially the first book).

I have no problems coming up with ideas, and now I’m getting a dab hand at the planning stuff. Now I need to learn how to connect with an audience. Next year’s NaNoWriMo will be to write a first draft that I won’t have any reservations about letting someone else read. I’m not too fussed that the kind of thing I write doesn’t get into top 100 books very often, I can write in most genre’s comfortably. Instead it is just how these top authors connect with their audience, and maintain that connection.

So what’s next? Well, given that I have a focus for what I want to get out of reading, I will sit down and properly lay out my thoughts from Hunger Games, a review, but one that is focused on that audience connection. Then I’ll do it for the other books I go for. I’ll do it at one a month, (I’m not a millionaire after all, and I need to fit it around the other things I read). I can see my Kindle being very busy next year.

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 3: Conference Nookie

This is the third in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing from 2nd December 2012 until the 1st December 2013. It’s intent is to keep me writing throughout the year, and not just in November. you can find out more about the challenge here.

Conference Nookie by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 4th December 2012

Word count: 1,000

Warning: Very mild sexual content

The story:

Claire surveyed the wreckage that was her life. It had been two weeks since Michael had left her, she had taken it hard. He was meant to be the mythical one, they had been engaged, but apparently the feeling turned out to be not mutual. He left her, though not it appeared for anyone else. At least she hadn’t bought the dress yet, she thought.

She didn’t know what she was meant to do now though, other than work. So she threw her self into her job. She was currently at a conference in Buffalo, New York, and tomorrow she would fly back to Europe ready for the follow up conference in Dortmund.

She packs up her things ready for the next day then headed downstairs to the wind down reception for the North American Trade Expo.

She stuck to the bar, ordering just soft drinks, the conference was coming to an end, but she still needed her wits about her. The reception was reasonably busy. As she sipped her lemonade she surveyed the crowd.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 3: Conference Nookie”

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 2: Damnation in the Living World

This is the second in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing from 2nd December 2012 until the 1st December 2013. It’s intent is to keep me writing throughout the year, and not just in November. you can find out more about the challenge here.

Damnation in the Living World, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 3rd December 2012

Word count: 1,000

Theme: fantasy, sex, devil’s pact

Warning: Some relatively mild sexual content, and gore beyond the read more

The story:

In an inn, a huddled figure wrapped in a hood, drinking from a mug.

A well dressed noble entered the inn and looked around, and walked over to the huddled figure.

“You’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble,” the noble said, his voice was that of a snake’s hiss. “Might be, you can make up for your transgression, Raynard.”

The figure grunted, and suddenly found his mind flying backwards through his recent history, quite involuntarily.

Raynard Climes looked around blinking. He had been lying on the battle field amid a pile of soldiers, all dead or dying, his guts trying to escape from the gash across his belly, trying to hold them in, struggling to stay alive. Now he found himself stood up, on what he did not know, because it was just glowing red, all around. He was still holding his stomach though, he could see the blood still seeping.

“Ah, you poor dear,” a woman’s voice said.

Raynard turned behind him, looking for the voice, as he turned the red gave way to something more solid, a bedroom, the likes of which he had never seen before, a room fit for a noble. In the centre was an ornate four- poster bed, and equally ornate furniture.

Then his eyes focused on a lithe woman dressed in a gossamer gown that seemingly covered her modesty, yet offered tantalising views of the figure beneath.

“Won’t you sit?” she asked, nodding at a chair.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 2: Damnation in the Living World”

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 1: The Orchard

This is the first in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing from 2nd December 2012 until the 1st December 2013. It’s intent is to keep me writing throughout the year, and not just in November.

This is the first in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing from 2nd December 2012 until the 1st December 2013. It’s intent is to keep me writing throughout the year, and not just in November. you can find out more about the challenge here.

The Orchard, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 2nd December 2012

Word count: 1,000

Theme: Supernatural, werewolves, survivalist

The story:

Tony sat in the orchard catching his breath, shivering in the cold night. He remembered back when he was here only a year ago, when he had fallen out of the tree and broke his leg.

For six months he had to use a crutch to get around. It had been a lovely sunny day then, with little else to care about in those halcyon days of summer holidays, and the camaraderie of casual acquaintance. When it happened, it proved painful and embarrassing, he climbed as he high as he dare, and then higher still on a dare. If he completed the dare, there was a promise of a kiss from Sarah Dalstein, a girl of particular beauty in this out of the way little village in Suffolk. However, falling and breaking his leg had dashed his hopes. Everyone was very concerned of course, and then the ambulance came and took him away. When he returned to the village, that his family spent every summer in, he found himself to be the butt of far too many jokes.

Now, here he was running for his life through the very same orchard, the wounds in his side weren’t nearly as painful as the broken leg, but it didn’t feel that much different. Only now it wasn’t only himself that had fallen, it was the whole village to a hoard of werewolves.

“Come on!” he shouted at himself hoarsely, trying to force himself up.

“Hawoooooo!” he heard in the distance.

They were on to him again, this time he didn’t need to shout at himself, their howls were enough to set him going. He staggered deeper into the orchards trying to keep himself hidden, yet instinctively knowing that these wolf creatures that were spreading across the whole of Britain would be like their name sakes, fast, deadly, and keen hunters.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 1: The Orchard”

My Daily Challenge for 2013

Introduction to my daily challenge to 365 flash fiction stories from now until this time next year

Okay, so now NaNoWriMo is over for another year, I have to face up to something. I’m not really writing at any other time of year, which is a very bad habit. So, I’ve had this cunning plan of copying someone else sort. There’s a member of NaNoYorks called LittleSparks, who is writing 750 words a day, and has done so for the past 340 days consecutively.

This, I find incredibly impressive, and so I’m going to copy, kind of.

What I’m going to do though is try and do a single story every day for a year. Including right through NaNoWriMo, and the two Camp NaNoWriMo’s that precede it. Completely separate from any other word count scores I should add.

Then, I’ll post them here, after a little bit of editing.

It’s an act of creativity, perseverance, and timing.

It doesn’t matter where I do it, or how I do it, it just has to be done everyday, no catchups, no getting ahead. Each one has to be greater than 500 words, but less than or equal to 1,000 words. It doesn’t have to be super original, in fact I doubt I could do 365 short stories and be truly unique with even a handful of them, so there’ll be cliches, and things might seem familiar on occaision. They will hwoever be my words, and my idea at the time of writing.

What else? Oh yes, to achieve this awesome goal, I’m going to use prompts. Anything from a random photograph, conversation, and yes my much trusted and used StoryCubes. Where possible, I will try and include the prompt, if someone feels they can do better, who am I to stand in their way?

This is running from today (2nd December 2012), until the 1st December 2013

Anyway, I’ve set up a category for my daily challenge, let’s see if on 2nd December next year I can look back and count 365 seperate posts in there.

In the meantime, a post is coming up with my first offering.

Also, if you want to find out a bit more about Flash Fiction (i.e. very short, self contained stories), there’s a wikipedia page to explain here, and here you can go read countless examples of the art form.

 

Ta ra folks.