As stated earlier, I've been wanting to write some short stories on random topics to help practice and fine tune my writing. I've studied stories from Poe to Richard Matheson (Terror at 20,000 Feet, and I Am Legend) to various others, looking for varied approaches and such.
Given the break-neck pace at which the story "E. B. Samuelson" came to me - virtually dictating itself to me - I think I got a little spoiled by the experience. I guess I was hoping that that would continue to happen with other stories. After all, that one just came to me out of the blue and literally came word for word as I was waking up one morning.
But, such was not to prove to be the ongoing case.
It had been several weeks, and no inspiration had come. I had some ideas, sure, but nothing was clicking and I couldn't get interested enough to actually sit down and type up any of them.
Then, last Saturday, I was sitting with my son listening to President Monson's talk during Priesthood Session. I've heard it said that during church you should make note of the thoughts you get, even if they aren't related to what is being said, because it might be inspiration for something important in your life.
Well, I'm not sure how "important" a short story is, but I certain had some interesting thoughts pop into my mind that had NOTHING to do with the talk (that I at least thought I was paying attention to, up until then).
The first one that hit me with the vapid permanence of a dream. All I remember is it had something to do with a guy managing to get out of a plane that has crashed in the ocean, and that he's the only one in a life raft and he's able to see the lights of the plane sink away into the murky depths.
The second one really stuck with me though. It was of a guy on a mountain path who is lying on his stomach reaching over the edge of a cliff. In his one hand is his wife. In his other is his teenage daughter. He's desperately trying to pull them up to safety, but doesn't have the strength. He gets to the point where he has to choose which one he will save. He's going to have to let go of one so he can use both hands to rescue the other, and making the choice is KILLING him.
What a terrible predicament!
I jotted down a key paragraph that night. I was hoping for another flooding of inspiration moment, but it didn't happen. Cool plot. No story. Monday I added a sentence or two for another portion of the story.
I was still questioning pieces of the plot. Why were they there? How did they fall? How did he get himself into a state where he's holding both? Will I need some "filler" information to make the story long enough to be worth reading? Will that filler info be background info on why they all care so much for each other, etc.?
Nothing on Tuesday.
Wednesday, I decided to just start writing. I was shooting for a 3-pager.
Rather than leading up to the fall, I started with him hanging over the edge with his girls clinging to him. I pictured it all in my mind, slowly, trying to envision what was going on in everyone's mind. Trying to decide on and describe what all would be tried or happening.
It was a pretty tense situation. The palms of my hands were starting to sweat as I wrote - and empathized with them.
Just before midnight, I finished the first draft. Seven pages. My heart was pounding having "experienced" the whole scenario over the past couple of hours. I was pacing with energy. It was a great feeling to get the story out in completeness and see it through.
I had Teresa read it right then. She normally would have zonked out after about half a page at that time of night, but she zipped right through it. It's probably the best page-turner I've written to date.
I titled it, "30 Seconds" because that's about how long the story lasts in real time.
Given as our car-trip in July (see previous posts) will take us through ~27 States and 6000+ miles, I decided to ping some groups that might find it interesting to use our experience as a plug for their services. E.g. "27 States, 6000 miles, 4 kids, and we enjoyed every night of it because we slept soundly at such-and-such hotel...."
I've received a few "What a brave dad!" replies. I didn't realize that "brave" was a synonym for "foolhardy"! ;^) As well as several "Thanks, but no thanks" replies.
I just received one from an audio book company who said it sounds very interesting. They've asked me to make a narrative of the trip for them to review and consider marketing. Cool! I had thought of blogging the trip, but an audio narrative could make for a fun artifact at the end. I could capture some sounds along the way of the different places. Put them with photos and we could have an interesting slide show.
Of course, I'd have to edit out the "Don't make me come back there!" comments that are bound to occur at some point along the way!
I'll have to give this some thought on how to generate an effective intro and conclusion, as well as the central commentary. I'll also have to stop by the library to see if I can find similar audio narratives that I could use as a guide.
This makes for a fun slant on the trip that I hadn't anticipated.
Have any of you done something like this before?
BTW, Happy Leap Year Day! My wife and I have a tradition for Leap Year Day - We go out to a restaurant that neither of us have been to before. Tonight marks our 5th such outing together. It would have been 6, but Leap Year Day was on a Sunday last time and we don't eat out on the Sabbath...
I've had a peculiar experience this past week. I decided I wanted to write some short stories, for writing practice. I also decided to get some tutoring on the concept by reading some short stories by a master. I've done this in the past, where I've read several works by a specific author and then written a tale using their tone. This time I chose the writings of Richard Matheson. Stephen King recommended him as a significant inspiration for him.
Granted, I'm not really a Stephen King fan, as I'm not that into horror, but I know him to be extremely successful which means he has an opinion that is at least worth listening to. I've now read a couple compilation books of Matheson's short stories.
Some of them were a really fun read, particularly because I enjoyed watched "The Twilight Zone" many years ago, and several episodes were based on his short stories, such as the classic, "Terror at 20,000 Feet" starring William Shatner (which, BTW, I read while flying back from Oklahoma). Then there's "Mad House" in which everything in a guy's house becomes animated and hostile, including his electric razor which comes at him like a cobra.
Fun stuff, although there began to be a noticeable trend: the hero/heroine always ended up either dead or insane. At first it was a fun twist to find out that the hero didn't survive to fight another day, but when every story seemed to leave the protagonist in the grave, it became increasingly difficult to root for him or her. It had about the same satisfaction of watching "Episode III" of Star Wars in which you knew Anakin would give into the Dark Side, you just didn't know all of the details. Did ANYONE find themselves rooting for Anakin? It's just awkward.
But, the stories themselves are great tools for showing how to pace and orchestrate a short story. They illustrate key nuances, such as how much detail to provide vs. how much innuendo. For example, if the characters experience a recurring event, it's simply not necessary to restate each detail of that event repeatedly. A simple, brief reference to the repeating - so long as it's essentially the same event again without a key step forward in the plot - can suffice.
Sunday morning, I woke up and continued to lay there debating whether or not to actually get up, or take an early Sunday nap. While I lay there, the opening lines to a short story began to dictate themselves to me. The character's name (E. B. Samuelson), the tone and pace of the writing, the words themselves were coming to mind very clearly.
I had the first two paragraphs running through my mind, as well as the final sentence. As these wouldn't leave me, I decided to get up and write them down. I had the beginnings of a short story in the tone of Richard Matheson - sort of.
The odd thing for me was that my typing was more a matter of uncovering text that seemed to already exist. It was like using a coin to scratch off the silver bar on a coupon to see if it included a winning number. The more I typed, the more of the story I was able to see. Perhaps oddest of all was that I had know idea what was going to happen next.
The final sentence had very little to do with the opening paragraphs. They seemed to indicate a tremendous change in the mindset of the character, and I had no idea what would occur to cause that change to take place.
The more I wrote, the more I would guess at what was coming up. I began to have a feeling that I knew what Mr. E. B. Samuelson was up to, or going to experience next, or what the point of his story was, and then the topic would take an unexpected shift and another aspect of the story would present itself in a way I hadn't predicted. Small things became significant, and obvious plot lines faded to the background.
My goal was to write only a ten-page short story, not a novel. I was growing fearful when I was on the 10th page last night, and it appeared from the direction of the story that it would go on for at least 24. Then some more scratching away at the words revealed that it was actually only a couple of paragraphs away from being completed. Things that I thought had to be said, or were going to be said, needed no saying at all. The story climaxed and ended with the very appropriate final line that had been written long before the story itself had formed.
I read through the thing from start to finish and am surprised that it works. I'm not saying it's the greatest short story ever written, far from it, but it works.
There is much about it (the tone, the verbiage, the characters, the topic, even the plot) that is something I would not generally care to read, much less write, but somehow, working together, they form an experience that is worth reading. I found that the tone became an essential defining aspect of the main character's character, as clearly, or perhaps moreso, than a written description of his physical persona.
I also enjoyed the twist that the story is timeless in that the reader is left to wonder if the story takes place today, or in the 1950's. Either would work. Likewise, the location is left to the imagination. It could take place as easily in London as it could in New York City, or any of a dozen other cities. Those aspects are not critical. What is critical are the degrees of change the character undergoes as he tries to maintain his rigid life. The tagline for the story also dictated itself to me: "A punctual salesman discovers that there is more to life than selling shoes."
I enjoyed the writing being an act of discovery as much as creation. For example, while I often have trouble coming up with names for characters, these names seemed to come pre-written. As each character introduced itself to the page, it arrived fully named and depicted.
I'm sharing this little experience for the benefit of those who have had other similar experiences, or as an encouragement to those who are becoming interested in writing and might want to get a feel for what it can be like.
I have to confess that I don't remember when it was. How long ago. What I was doing at the time. What we were even talking about. But, I do remember my oldest daughter, Holly, declaring that before she graduated from high school, she wanted to have visited each of the contiguous United States - and then go to Hawaii for a graduation present. (Obviously, being somewhere in her pre-teens, she didn't actually use the word "contiguous" but that was what we knew her to mean. Although she was probably throwing Alaska in there, too. Sigh.)
I also remember agreeing to the "contiguous" part of her request/goal. At the time, we had relatives living in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and even South Carolina. Maybe I've even left a couple off... At any rate, with all of the traveling we did, it seemed like a pretty easy thing. Hit the South and New England, and be done with it.
Well, now she's finishing up her freshman year in high school, and there's a family reunion in Palmyra, New York, so it seems like this summer is the year to hit the missing States.
I just mapped it out. To get the ones we're still lacking, we need to drive from Utah to South Carolina, to Maine, to Upper Michigan (just to visit my old stomping grounds), to Butte Montana, and back home again. We'll cover 27 States in all - several we've already hit before. And, thank goodness we've already hit the Deep South, or this would be an even longer trip.
All in all, mapquest says it will be a trip of 6066.76 miles and take 95 hours and 34 minutes. Ouch!
I'm estimating $2000-3000 in gas, depending on prices. We'll get an oil change and tune-up before the trip and then need another one - and probably new tires - about the time we pull into Maine.
It will take at least 10 days of 9-hour drives. This from a group of kids that can rarely make it through dinner without a squabble...
It should be quite a bonding experience. And, I'm sure that at several points along the drive we'll ALL feel like we're in bondage.
It's bound to be one for the books, so I'll have to make some notes.
BTW, when did the concept of "graduation trips" enter the picture? Is that suddenly some sort of right? When I graduated high school I got a pat on the back and an overly large suitcase. I hope she's got some frequent flyer miles saved up if she's expecting to go to Hawaii.... ;^)
I've had a few people ping me asking about how to arrange an LDS cruise, or how to get an LDS tour guide. I'm happy to help, although I'm really not an expert on it. I've had enough people ask that I thought I'd post the info that I can so that others can get it more easily.
Please realize that I can only speak for my own experience. I'm sure there are many other resources out there that will have better info.
That said, here's what I can share, which I'm afraid will sound like an advertisement. (Honestly, I am not currently employed by or subsidized by this company. I'm just sharing what I know...) We booked our cruise with FunForLessTours (http://www.funforlesstours.com/ 800-591-2432). They have been in the tour business for many years, have a lot of connections and experience, and have several LDS experts at their disposal to both host you and educate you on the areas you visit. I believe there are few places in the world which they do NOT travel to. They offer some specialized tours to LDS historic sites, etc. I've only done the one tour with them, so far, so I can only speak to that.
For the Book of Mormon cruise, they bought a block of tickets on a cruise ship (in this case it was with the Carnival Cruise Line). They made reservations on the ship for rooms in which we could meet for firesides. They had a host couple that made all of the arrangements for the shore excursions (everything from getting taxis and buses to buying tickets to admit us to the sites). The host couple was a lot of fun and kept us focused on getting to where we needed to be when we needed to be there.
FunForLess also hired an LDS scholar to accompany us on the site tours. He would let the local tour guide explain the site and then he'd give us an LDS perspective on what may have happened at or near the site, and what Book of Mormon peoples may have lived near there. He also spoke at daily fireside chats on the ship.
If you want to go on an LDS cruise, this is definitely a great way to go.
If you already have a cruise planned through a non-LDS cruise line or company, and want to try to get a local tourguide who is LDS, who might be able to give you a similar experience, I haven't tried either of these, but there are two things you could try.
1) Call FunForLess and let them know where you're going and ask if they can give you contact info for a local tour guide that you can hire. I don't know if that would be like stealing their corporate secrets, or if they'd be happy to help. I do know that they are a business and that that IS their business, so I wouldn't be surprised if that would be something they'd rather not do. You'd have to be sensitive to that. They are a fun-loving helpful bunch, but they need to preserve and continue their business, and that comes via making money as well as friends.
2) Go to http://www.LDS.org and use the "meetinghouse finder" tool to locate the contact information for the ward or branch that is nearest to the places you will be visiting. With that, you may be able to contact the local bishop or branch president and ask him if there is anyone in the ward or branch that you could hire to give you a tour at the local sites. (Our local tourguide in Tulum (near Cozumel) was named Moroni and I understand that he was the local branch president. So, we got LDS perspectives of the site from both the local tourguide and our FunForLess LDS scholar.) I would highly advise that you plan to pay the local guide and not take advantage of him or her on behalf of being a fellow LDS member. Kindess is great, but you shouldn't take advantage of wonderfully helpful people.
I will also add one more bit of opinion. I absolutely loved the cruise. Great food. Great people. And, I love not having to figure out where I'm going to eat or sleep or how to get to the next travel spot. Plus, I love snorkeling...
But, in talking with the LDS scholar, he said that if you REALLY want to see the BofM type ruins, you need to take the land tour, not the ship tours. The reason is that you spend a lot more time at each site when you do the land tours. Sometimes you can camp out or stay in cabins near the sites. You can spend an entire day or more at some of the sites, as well.
The ship tours are very fast-paced. For the Tulum tour, which looked like a very interesting place at which I wanted to linger, we spent 45 minutes cued up to get off the ship, 40 minutes on a ferry, 2 hours on a bus to the site, and then all that time in reverse on the return trip. Given all of that - that it took the full day - we spent only 35-45 minutes on the actual site. That was my biggest disappointment. It wasn't anyone's fault, it was just a reality of getting from the ship to the site and back. I would have rather spent 4 hours at the site, or more...
At any rate, I still had no regrets about going. I'm very glad we went. Very enlightening. I highly recommend it!
Well, getting the book onto Amazon.com was a good thing. Revenue-wise it isn't a major immediate score, though. Because they take 55% up front, and because it was self-published, I have to cover the printing fees, shipping, and packaging. When all is said and done, I make about $.08 per book. (Depending on the cost of the packaging supplies. I could actually lose money.)
Where this is potentially a good thing, is that Amazon has a program in which they allow publishers to view self-published products, and the stats regarding their sales. If a product shows promise, then a publisher may contact the owner and propose a contract. I've signed up for that program (it's free) and am interested in getting people to generate activity around my book in hopes of attracting a publisher's attention. Long shot, yes, but the printed books are a sunk cost at the moment and I may as well try. I've got no potential of success if I don't try.
I previously sent an e-mail out to family and friends asking them to search for "The Shopping Cart Man" from Amazon.com, write reviews, or buy the book, in an effort to move the book up in Amazon's rankings. It worked surprisingly well.
It started out somewhere around being the 1,000,000th best seller. I was hoping to get it somewhere into the 10,000th place. It peaked at about the 4,200th best seller, surpassing that goal.
It's a bit of a shot-lived victory, however, as once the initial flurry ended, the ranking tanked again. It's currently ranked 335,239th. (Which is better than the last time I checked.)
The trick is sustained activity, of course.
I appreciate people helping with this effort, so I've generated a tangible "thank you" for anyone who helps out. "Hidden" on my book's website (http://peepsockpress.com/Cartman/) is a book-on-tape recording of the book that I made. I have it for sale on that site, but I've also temporarily posted it for free download to those who help me at this URL: http://peepsockpress.com/Cartman/new_page_1.htm
I plan on leaving it there for a few weeks, only. And, I still intend to keep the copyright to it and so forth going forward. But, I felt that this was the best and easiest way to get my "thank you" out to those who have helped.
I've also been told by friends that on Amazon.com, you can post "search tags" and create "lists" that include the book, which also helps with its ranking.
I don't want to pester people, so I'm going to send out one more e-mail to an expanded list of people and let them know that I'll post updates on whether or not this is successful here. Those that are interested can come here to find out the latest news, or ping me.
For anyone else foolhardy enough to ponder self-publishing, you can see what's posted here and see if that will convince you one way or the other...
