Kiln-Fired Ceramic DM

[mythago]

I'm sorry. You can be scarier than undead, too, if you like.

Bran....BRAAAAANNNNN.....

My creative writing prof in college always tried to get me to quit writing fantasy, she considered it "not literature."

You would have liked my prof. I spent an entire semester trying to write something so grotesque that she would have no choice but to give me a rotten grade, to no avail.

 

[barsoomcore]

Hey, I tried that with my ninth-grade English teacher! See, he'd hand out pictures and we'd have to write stories about them, and he gave me one of those old Kliban cat cartoons (the one with the cats in the sardine tin) and so I wrote this story about this guy who hated cats and so he canned them in his sardine factory for years and years.

And one day the cats took revenge.

It was pretty revolting. My teacher gave me a good mark, I think, but he did seem a little green when he handed it back.

 

[orchid blossom]

I have to admit, this was the same prof who asked me several times if I had anything I was ready to send for publication. She may not have liked my choice of genre, but she still graded me fairly and was supportive of my actual work if not my style.

 

[Sialia]

Ok, 5 pictures. No word limit. No time limit.

Show me what ya got.

 

[mythago]

Not that I'm complaining, but #1 was in a previous round of Ceramic DM.

 

[orchid blossom]

Thanks Sialia. I've been wanting to write, but coming up blank for inspiration. These should do the trick.

 

[Sialia]

Not that I'm complaining, but #1 was in a previous round of Ceramic DM.

Just thought y'all might be curious about what went with it.

I think of that first one--the collage--as a cover piece. I'm not not sure whether it's a front or back cover. I suspect back cover--not much room left for a title, but just enough to fit in a barcode and ISBN.

I think there's a third character in this piece, but I haven't figured out how to draw it yet, or what kind of a character it is.

I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Zhaneel]

So story writers, how do you do it? Just sit down and go? Plan, plan, plan? Wait for the last minute and write with the pressure? What works for you?

Coming late to the discussion here:

Story 1: To Cut a Deal [rejected 4 times at magazines]

This is a dragon story. The ending came to me when I was about 14 and it was just the ending line. I managed to eek out the rest of the story while in college. This story showed my belief in euthanasia, though I didn't mean for that to happen. Wrote over the course of 3 days for an assignment.

Story 2: Corporate Dryad [on the way to F&SF mag]

This is the story of a dryad who is trapped in an office tree. Came from stopping at the BofA near Lake Merritt and noticing all the trees inside the glass windows. My environmentalist heart broke and demanded a story. Wrote over the course of 2 three hour writing sessions. The idea had been bubbling for about a year before being put to paper

Story 3: Better Crops [Writer's Workshop for BayCon]

This is a story about GM crops. I wanted to write about this and to write a true SF story. It is okay, but the clilmax doesn't work in my opinion. This story idea germed while I was reading a story about pharmacrops about 2 years before I started writing. Took 2 weeks of effort to get it out, and I'm still not happy with it.

As for Ceramic DM:

1st round:

I looked at the pictures at 6 AM in the morning while half asleep. The story of the invisible girl confronting the cultists in the tower just leapt out at me. Given some stuff I knew it was a cross-planar story. The croc worked great for the catalyst. After another 2 hours of sleep [I was also sick that day] it seemed cliche. Then I heard the ending piece with the two priests talking. Wrote the most of it in one night. The rest over the course of the next day while traveling and upon my return home.

2nd round:

I looked at the pictures and decided I was doomed. I thought about doing an In Nomine piece, where the weird guy was a Soldier of God. Maybe working for Jordi [AA of Animals] to clean up the river of blood. The river worked well for an Armageddon thing and IN works well with that. The boar was almost coming to me, but I just couldn't get into the character. I abandoned that idea without writing anything.

After sleeping I kinda had an Indian theme. And I knew Kali could do river of blood stuff and decided that was more interesting than a Christian angle. So I worked the other stuff in [though it wasn't until writing the piece that why the little boy was carrying the boar came in]. I talked it out with my husband and my carpool mate, and they seemed supportive. My main problem was I really wanted the line "Devang had trouble with authority and that's why we liked him" in there, which made it a 1st person narrative. Which I hate. And I didn't know why the narrator would be along for the trip or who the hell he was. So I was struggling with that and my husband pointed out Kali and rebirth and the egg. He wanted Devang to take the egg on his own, in that challenging authority way, but I couldn't work that in.

This was a hard piece to write and I'm convincing writing in blood would have been eaiser.

Zhaneel

 

[Zhaneel]

I have to admit, this was the same prof who asked me several times if I had anything I was ready to send for publication. She may not have liked my choice of genre, but she still graded me fairly and was supportive of my actual work if not my style.

My first creative writing teacher was like that too. Not fond of my choice of genre, but supportive.

My second, that required an example of good writing to get in, let me in with a fantasy story, and then told me I shouldn't write fantasy for this class. Pissed me off.

Zhaneel

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Those are really nice pictures.

I may just have to see if i can do anything with them.