This is Seth, he's English!

Hello all! It's another wonderful day in Quebec. Day camp is going well, and I feel like me and my sister are starting to get in the groove of things. We know our rhythm, and it's working for us. Now it's just a matter of choosing what stuff we're going to teach and what activities to do with the kids each week! This post is part "here's how it's going here in Quebec" part "here's how it made me think about writing and stuff."

So here goes. Being relatively new to the area, I meet new people all the time. This doesn't bother me as a general rule, what bothers me is how it comes out most of the time. Usually when I'm introduced to new people here, it goes something like this.

"This is Seth, he's English!"

When this is translated into French, and then back to English, it comes out as

"This is Seth, he's mentally handicapped! So make sure to speak nice and loud, use small words, or refrain from conversing with him at all!"

I know it's not that bad, but it always bugs me when I'm introduced like that. People automatically assume that I can't carry a conversation or something because French isn't my first language. Granted, I'm not fantastic, but if given the chance I can usually hold my own. I know it's probably really obvious based on my accent alone, but saying it as a way of introducing me feels awkward.


Thinking about this lately made me think about how characters are introduced in novels. Usually you want to introduce a character doing something normal. Waking up, going through their work day, starting school, doing something that most people can relate to. Even if it's a book where the character is going to be doing a ton of stuff that you can't relate to (blowing up cars, flying spaceships etc.), it's important to establish a baseline where the reader can feel connected to the character.

In the series that I'm planning, one of the characters that plays a major role in a later book has a fairly significant handicap, and I try to keep it hidden for as long as possible, because in my thinking, the moment you slap a handicap on someone, you distance your reader from them. That guy's in a wheelchair? Oh, he's not like me. He's blind? Well, I don't have a clue what her life must be like.

He's English? Well, I guess he's not really just like any one of us.

Now, understand this. I'm not saying that anyone here has snubbed me, or made fun of me intentionally just because I'm not French. After people have been given some time to get to know me I'm usually fine except for a bit of a language barrier. The problem I run into is instead of the usual distance of "They're new, I don't know them." There's the additional hurdle of "They aren't like me, we can't understand each other." This makes it a lot harder to close the gap and go from acquaintance to friend. It takes that much effort on both ends to really form a connection.

I think the same can be said about characters in a novel. First impressions are super important. If you put up barriers between yourself and the protagonist right at the start saying "I'd never do that. What kind of person is this? I don't understand them!" It'll be a lot harder to care about them later.

Now, I could probably go on, but I'm beat from a long week, and even longer weekend (somehow), so I need SLEEP. Which unfortunately and inexplicably escaped me this afternoon when I tried to nap. Therefore, goodnight all, and have a great week!

Right now, I want to know, what do you think of first impressions? Have you ever had a first impression that turned out to be the exact opposite of what you thought? Post a comment about it!

But that's not really where the story starts...

So, I recently watched a movie that finally illustrated to me why piling on the back story is a bad idea. Now, I'm not naming any names, but this John Carter guy has a lot to learn when it comes to opening sequences.

So it all began with - but wait, first you have to know about this other thing where I did this... no, it's still not back far enough. Where it REALLY starts is -

And so on.

Eventually, I'm pretty sure it got to backstory within backstory within backstory within backstory. This guy's on mars, and then you go back to 18th century New York (Don't quote me on the date), which goes back to The wild west somewhere, which goes back to mars at an earlier time, which goes back to his old life with his wife.

I was starting to wonder if the story would ever start! Thankfully, it did get better, and the end result was a movie that I more or less enjoyed. Having said that, I personally think it could have done with a bit less backtracking.

When you get into writing in a serious way, and actually start doing real research in it all, one of the things any experienced writer or agent will say is don't use a lot of backstory at the beginning of your novel. Give your readers a chance to actually care about your characters before you tell us all about what happened before the story started. Because at the end of the day, backstory stops your story. Dead in its tracks. When used properly, it can be really effective in giving the reader a better understanding of your characters, and can even help clarify the plot, or motivations.

The problem I had with the first half-hour or so of this movie was that it didn't really start for me until they finally decided to stop jumping back in time. Once they did that, they kept moving forward at a proper pace, but before that happened I was just left continually wondering when it would go back to the start. This kept me from actually engaging in the movie. Once the narrative found a consistent pace, it was fine.

This has just solidified in my mind the importance of starting at the right place when telling a story. You need a place that catches your attention, and makes you want to read more. You need a place that you could call to some extent the beginning. I've heard it said like this. Your first chapter is a contract with the reader. The rest of the book is going to be like this. If you stuff that chapter with backstory, you're just misleading your reader into thinking that it's something it's not. You can't make the first three chapters of your book filled with car chases, beautiful women and war and then reveal that actually this is a story about what this guy's life is like in his retirement home he went to 50 years after all of that. I didn't buy this book to hear about Bingo and Pea Soup.

I guess what I'm saying with all of this is that like I've said before, consistency is key. You need consistency in tone, and pace. Backstory completely throws off the pace of the book/story, and if you start out with a lot of it, you run the risk of throwing off your readers and making them feel duped. Or worse, just plain bored.

Now I know what you want to ask me. Do I use backstory in my book? Yes. But, I don't use it often, and I definitely don't use it right away. That's one thing I've tried to implement from what I've read from the 'experts'. I think it can be great when used sparingly. Like cinnamon. Too much, and it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

When, if ever, has backstory put you off a book or movie?

PS. HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!

I'm Back! ...Kind of.

I mean, I'm in Canada now, just not Calgary. :P

Greetings my illustrious, loyal, numerous blog followers! Where has the time gone? It seems like forever ago that I last posted.

First off, let me say that Mexico was nice, but as far as I'm concerned, Canada is WAY better. I'm currently reading The Wizard of Oz for the first time, and I thought what it said was actually very fitting. Yes, I know what you're thinking "There's no place like home.", and that IS what I was going to say, but there's more to it than that.

In the book, there's a conversation that Dorothy and the Scarecrow have that doesn't appear in the movie. Dorothy is walking through Oz with the Scarecrow, and she sees the amazing flowers and trees and everything is really colourful. Dorothy explains how everything in Kansas is gray, and the only people around are her aunt and uncle. The first chapter explains that the only thing that brings Dorothy joy is her dog Toto... and Toto is IN Oz with her!

When Dorothy is asked why she is so eager to get back to Kansas, she says simply that "There's no place like home." I don't know why, but after that context was given, the statement held a lot more weight for me.

In Mexico I saw palm trees, beautiful beaches, and had tons of amazing food. But none of that matters to me, because at the end of the day it's not my home, and there really is no place like home. There's some kind of intrinsic value to it that pure setting can't beat. When you have a place where you feel you can truly belong, where you have friends, and a life ahead of you, no beach in the world could possibly be worth more.

*sniff* *sniff* I'm getting all emotional now!

But seriously, I really like Canada. Like, A LOT. So I think that I'm gonna stay a while.

As for blogging, that may not be quite as consistent as I'd hoped it could be. As my internet connection here is VERY touchy. There may be some days when I won't be able to post on the right day, but just know that I'm still here, and I'm still doing... writer stuff. As well as leading an english camp. So that'll be fun! Tomorrow's my first day. Wish me luck!

Photoshoots, Planes and Good-Byes Oh My!

So this could have easily been two posts, but I figured I'd stick to my two posts a week thing and combine the two. So here goes. Light stuff first.

Last Saturday I went out with a great friend of mine, Hannah, and did a bit of a photoshoot in downtown Calgary! It was so that I could have some more professional-looking images of myself to put on things like MY BLOG, the back cover of my future book, book proposals, etc...

What I didn't expect was for it to be such a fun and hilarious time of just goofing around and taking pictures in random areas that you'd never expect would turn out.

So here's a few of my favourites from that day. Calgarians, can you spot where they were taken? :P

One thing I loved about the whole thing was that there were some places that I really honestly did not think were going to be good settings for photos. But they turned out really great! They were some of the most obscure spots ever, but they were awesome, and I'm so glad we did them.

It's funny how often we skip over random places in our everyday life never stopping to see the beauty of it all. We never bother to look beyond the mundane to see the extraordinary because we've convinced ourselves already that it's not there. We subconsciously "know" that something as normal as a mirrored wall isn't worth our time.

This trip has definitely made me more aware of my surroundings, and I actually find myself thinking about other possible venues for photoshoots. I think more than half the fun was just doing wacky shots and running all over the place together. Thanks Hannah for an awesome time! It wasn't even close to being as awkward as I'd feared it might be! (People only stared at us a couple times. I almost felt like an actual celebrity! :P)





Now to Planes and Good-byes.

*Sigh*

This is honestly so sad for me to say, but this is my last blog post from Calgary for quite some time. I won't be back here till September.

I KNOW. September.

I'll try to keep posting lots, but I can't make any guarantees at this point. I'll definitely be taking at least a week hiatus while in Mexico, but after that who knows. Hopefully by the time I'm settled in Quebec I'll be able to get re-established into my routine of blogging.

I'm really not looking forward to being gone for so long though. It feels like I'm some kind of toffee being stretched between hungry children. I have people I want to be with on both sides of the country and in the middle, but never before has the division between them seemed so significant.

I really think what a friend of mine told me tonight is true. When you go into a new situation where you don't know anyone, you become super attached to the people you do latch on to. You feel so lonely at first that anyone you can get along with you stick to like glue and hold on for dear life. It's as if you don't have any life-lines, so you anchor down as soon as you can, and the friends that you make are all really important to you really quickly.

Having said that, I grew up in Nova Scotia, I love the place, and I love the people too. The simple fact of the matter is I don't live there anymore, I live in Calgary. That's really hard for some people to hear, but you have to understand that this is not some kind of 'us vs. them' thing of who can get Seth to themselves, it's just about where God's putting me right now. I feel like I'm meant to be in Calgary, so that's where I'm gonna be. This summer I'm gonna be in Quebec working with my sister whom I love dearly and want to hang out with lots before she goes and gets married.

I'm trying to think of ways to relate all of this back to writing, but to be perfectly honest I just don't feel like I want to right now. It's all so close to home, and all so real that it's hard for me to step back and just say "That makes me consider how this relates to my dreams of getting published..."

 Saying good-bye has never been easy for me. Villa du Carmel, Encounters with Canada, Park View Education Centre, Saint-Prosper, Bridgewater, and now Calgary. The one huge thing that's been super helpful in learning to cope this time 'round is the fact that I'll be coming back for sure. So many times I've had to explain to little kids that I wouldn't be there for them next time. It killed me to say good-bye to my Terrain du Jeux in Saint-Prosper. It killed me to say good-bye to all my Encounters buddies. (I still stay in touch with a few, here's to Sue and Jess! :D)

All that to say, I'm gonna miss all of you guys, and I wish there could be some way for everyone I know to just all live in the same place so that I could be with everyone. It's not fair that cloning hasn't been approved for use by the general public. One of these days...


Feel free to comment on any photos you like, and if you want to see more I'll see if I can make a page on here with a wider selection of the good ones I got. Do you have anything to add on the subject of goodbyes? Leave a comment below. See ya in September Calgary! It's been a blast!

Good Afternoon Good Evening and Good Night!

One of my all-time favourite movies (as in, in my top ten) is The Truman Show. If you haven't seen it, you really should. It's one of those movies that just blows your mind. For me, it was like the Matrix, or Inception... for others, not so much. What can I say? One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Those of you who haven't seen this movie, I will briefly describe what it was about. Basically, this guy Truman was adopted as an infant by a corporation to be the star of a reality TV show in which he would star. But he has absolutely no idea this is happening. He seemingly goes through life normally, unaware that every person he's ever met is an actor, and everything he's ever done has been seen by millions. The story follows his journey to discovering the truth, all the while questioning what 'real' really means.

I love this movie for so many reasons. One of the things I like is how it jabs at the way our culture is so transfixed with reality TV, and what that's doing to our outlook on life. The audience seems completely unconcerned with the fact that this man is being manipulated and controlled for his entire life without consent for their entertainment. Sure they might be distressed when Truman is being battered near death in his sailboat in the storm the producers made for him, but they show only as much concern as they would any other character from a movie or TV show. They don't stand up demanding the producers to put a stop to it, they don't cry out in outrage. They just watch. Glued to their screen, wondering "Is he gonna make it?"

Another reason I like it, is because the idea that everyone you've ever met is an actor is a profound idea. What if your entire life was a lie? How would you possibly know? I think the producer put it best when he said (forgive me if it's not exact) "We accept the world with which we've been presented." So what kind of world have you been presented with? Is there a possibility that it's all been a lie?!?

Like I said. Mind blowing.

One other interesting tidbit, is that this movie doesn't really fit snugly into a genre. At least not to me. It's kind of a love story, kind of a drama, kind of a comedy, but not a rom-com, and not a fluff piece...

It's just a story. And a darn good one at that.

Through the majority of the film, Truman is driven only by his own determination that something is not right with his world. Everyone is against him, and yet he cannot discern a single antagonist to act against. He's not really working to overcome some great evil, or right some terrible wrong, he's just searching for the truth. With everything he has in him. To me, that's really inspiring.

One could also argue that he's driven by his desire to see Sylvia again, and I would be okay with that interpretation. However, personally I think the search for truth is just as important to him as his potential relationship with the woman he loves.

So what am I trying to say with all this? That sometimes, a book is just a book. I think we do a disservice to many books when we slap a label on them. Now, I understand that we can't just not label books, because then, where would we put them in the bookstore? General? That would get crowded pretty fast. No. What I'm saying is, I don't think we should get so hung up on genre when it comes to what books we'll read.

I'll be the first to say that I write sci-fi, but I'm really not a hard-core sci-fi fan. Before you crucify me, let me say one thing in my defense. I have read many sci-fi books, and what I've found, is that the ones I like,  I really like. And it's because they have really cool ideas, or great characters, or plots that drive you to read on forever. What I don't like, is when either A. The book is so focused on the setting that it neglects to develop anything else, or B. When a book gets boring, or complicating beyond belief. What is my point in saying all that? Simply this.

I like good books.

I will not say I like sci-fi but not romance, or I like thrillers but not spy books. I'm just a fan of well written books. It really doesn't matter to me what kind of book it is. I just want a good story. So, bringing it full circle, I like the Truman Show because it's a great story. And on top of that, it proves that you don't have to be a stereotypical genre piece to be good at what you do. If you just tell your story the way it's supposed to be told without giving in to the gimmicks of the genre, you'll do far better in the long run in making a great piece of art.

Having said that, not many people know what The Truman Show is. Is that because I'm alone in saying it's great, or because it didn't fit into a nice little box that people could understand and gravitate towards? But I digress.

I'm gonna leave you with that. What do you think of genre? Do you think it's a necessity to fit a label, if only for convenience's sake? Should we embrace a new way in which we don't have to label everything? Or is this topic only relevant to the few books that actually have trouble fitting into specific categories?


PS. I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone here in Calgary yet, and I know my time is short. So in case I don't see you, good afternoon good evening and good night! :D

Internal Conflict

Inside my body a war rages on.


Between good and evil
Between darkness and light
Between antibodies and the flu


It's a bloody mess inside my arteries, hemoglobin scattered everywhere, poor little parentless platelets running scared. It's chaos. But let's get straight to the heart of the matter with one question. Is this struggle against a foreign body all in vein?


I'm sorry. I should be locked up in a cell for my careless use of puns.


Anyway, I'm planning on keeping this short so I can get lots of rest tonight. I just wanted to say how this cold reminded me of what a realistic character always needs. External, and Internal conflict.


External


My external conflict in this case is my battle against a cold. I know, that sounds like it's going on inside my body, but it's something that manifests itself in a physical, visible way, so I count it as external. If others can see it, then I think it's external. Also, external means it's against something other than yourself.


Characters that are never conflicting with anything around them are boring, uninteresting, and very unrealistic. Most people don't have too much difficulty with this one. You need to have something opposing your hero, or else nothing will happen. There won't be any action.


Internal

This is the one that gets people sometimes. For example, you probably didn't guess just by what I said here that I had some internal conflict going on where part of me actually wanted to be sick did you?

It's true! Part of me was saying last night "I actually kinda hope I am really sick tomorrow. Because then I'd take the day off work." Now, don't get me wrong, I love my job, it's a great place to work. However, I'm leaving in a little over a week, and with all the stuff that I have on my plate right now, a day off right now would be really nice.

Having said that, I probably would have just slept the whole day if I had been really sick. That's fine for the most part, except for the whole being sick part.

The reason why I had this conflict, was because of my opposing values.

1. I love being healthy.
2. I love having days of rest.

Last night, these two values were at odds with each other, because I knew that I could only really have one thing. Either I'll be healthy(ish) tomorrow, and work and get really tired, or I'll be sick enough to take the day off to rest. In this particular case, I didn't actually have a choice in the matter, but that's really moot at this point.

What's important is that this conflict changed everything. This conflict was what made my thoughts even slightly interesting to listen to. If you're inside a character's head for any length of time, it better have some wicked stuff going on in there, or else you're gonna put me to sleep. If all he's thinking is Oh no, I better beat this cold! Then woop-dee-do, wow, he doesn't want to get sick.

If the princess is in a tower, and Prince Charming wants to kill the dragon to rescue her, then that's great. But if he's only rescuing her to appease his controlling mother who wants him to marry the enchanted princess instead of his little village sweetheart, it's suddenly more interesting. Why is he doing it? Does he actually care about this princess' fate? What is it about the village girl that's so appealing? And why is he so concerned about what his mother thinks?


Clearly Mr. Charming has a lot to think about besides fighting dragons. And that makes you want to read about him. At least that's the kind of thing I'm looking for.


There it is! Short and sweet. Now I'm going to fight this monster for all I'm worth, because as much as I hate working while under the weather, I hate letting people (including co-workers) down more.

Life of a Story Addict

No matter how many stories I read/hear/watch/tell, it will never be enough for me. I can say that to you with complete certainty. I'm a story addict through and through.

But what does that really mean?

It means that I'm a voracious reader, and listener of audio books, I can talk with someone for hours about our lives and the things we've seen and done, and movies/video games have always been a love of mine. When I was little, one of my favourite things to do was play pretend. I'd run through the woods in my backyard being chased by a minotaur, or hide top-secret information on CD's in my high-security tree fort.

In a way, I never grew out of playing pretend, it just transferred from acting out these stories to acting in school plays/musicals, and writing stories of my own. I'm quite certain many if not all of the people still reading this post up to this point can relate with me here. When I'm engaged in a story, I'm completely immersed in that world. I often find myself actually portraying on my face the different emotions an author expresses in words on a page. Sometimes when a storyteller is vivid enough with their explanations, even when it's a friend telling me of their adventures, I feel like it was actually me who experienced all these things, and my friend is simply the narrator explaining it all.

For me, where it seems to become a bit different than most people I know, is I'm almost never actually content with just finishing a book. There are times when I'll get a chapter or two away from the end and I start to slow down to a glacial pace because I know I'll go through withdrawals if I stop reading at that point. Sometimes even if it was a very good ending, I'll be really depressed because the book's over, and I have to go find something else to read.

With that in mind, add the fact that I'm extremely picky about what I read. Unless I'm thoroughly convinced I'll enjoy the book, I won't read the first chapter, and if I don't get sucked in within a couple pages I'm done. It's back on the shelf, and I have to find something else.

It really is like I'm some kind of drug addict who can't get a buzz off the weaker stuff anymore. I've been taking it too long, and now my body's immune to it. I have to have really good stories to fuel me. Anything sub-par just won't cut it anymore.

This goes for movies and video games too. If I'm watching a movie, and it has incredible special effects and flashy, attractive A-list stars but no real substance, I'm gone. If I'm playing a role playing game where there is absolutely no attempt made at constructing an interesting, or even logical plot, it's very hard to engage me.

All these things make up my profile as a story addict. One who needs stories all the time, but also can't stand mediocrity. I love to be in the midst of reading a book, but I hate hate hate ending one. Especially a series. One series in particular, The Circle Series, by Ted Dekker, was a series that I grew up reading, and was essentially what made me love books so much that it got me to start writing. The first three books came out in 2005, but the last book came out in 2009. At this point I thought the story was over, but to my everlasting joy and excitement the story could continue! With this book, I limited myself to a chapter a day, no matter what. It was excruciating. Every day I would battle with myself to either not read anything so that there would be more to read later, or to read as much as possible because I loved it all so much. This was the book where the tug-of-war inside me was most evident. I wanted so badly to finish it all, but I wanted desperately for it to never end.

Since this book came out in 2009, I've made it a tradition of mine to re-read the entire series every summer. And it still hasn't gotten old for me.

The thing that really sucks about this set of attributes, is that I'm someone who absolutely loves to write, but at the same time I'm my own worst critic. I'm super critical of what everyone else writes, and this criticism inevitably bleeds into my own writing. My inner editor is very loud and annoying. I want to tell stories, but I basically want them to be perfect before I share them with anyone. This is obviously not going to happen anytime soon.

So my dilemma is knowing how much critique is too much. Where do you draw the line? I have to revise my books of course, but how many times will be 'enough'? When will I be satisfied with my work?

With my current work in progress, it's gone through one revision, and will go through a second set of revisions once my friend is done reading it and giving me their thoughts on it. I feel like I simultaneously love and hate this book right now.

It's my baby that has spent two years as an infant. Everybody loves kids, but eventually, they have to grow up. Right now, I just really want this baby to go through publication puberty. It's gonna be nasty, there will be lots of changes it won't understand. But it has to happen.

My goal is to start looking for agents by the end of June... scary. Final edits, here I come!

Any other story addicts out there? Do you have a story burning inside you?