Ten Bests: Writing, Writers, and Such
So I figure for this blog I will put some of my personal top tens of things. These lists change periodically though, so while one day someone may be in the top ten, another day they won’t be. Still, with my first chapter coming up it is remotely fitting.I don’t get to read as much as I would like. There are a couple reasons for this. First, I work and go to school and as such can’t sit down and dig into a lot of books while doing homework and reading for school and dealing with the labors of a full time job. I combat this by reading like mad during non-school months or by listening to audiobooks at work. Second, I am so damned picky when it comes to books. Some people have long attention spans for books. I don’t. If the book doesn’t hook me by page 50, I usually will put it down and never read it again. This is why I can’t read Stephen King or Tom Clancy. They take far too long to get into the interesting parts. I don’t want to be bored! Entertain me! Audiobooks are a little different though. Generally I have a longer attention span for them. Anywho, here goes! Top Ten Scifi/Fantasy Writers1. Poul AndersonThis guy writes some of the greatest shorts and short novels ever! Anything I have ever read by him has been fantastic. Never a disappointment. One of his best shorts in my opinion is Call Me Joe. He has a great writing style that seems to really grab you from the start. 2. Orson Scott CardIf you don’t know who this guy is then you have been asleep. One of the greats in my opinion. Hart’s Hope and Ender’s Game are possibly some of the best written books there are in the fantasy and scifi genres, respectively. He has quite the knack for telling a compelling tale. 3. J. K. RowlingI’m sure some will cringe at the fact that I have put J. K. Rowling at the third position on a top ten list. Well, sorry to disappoint anyone, but she has easily earned her reputation. The Harry Potter books are excellent. Well written, driven, powerful stories. Nevermind the exploding popularity and the movies. If I had picked up the first book of this series I would have kept reading even if the movies had never been made. They are great works of art. 4. Larry NivenI’ve not read a lot of Larry Niven, but have read a few shorts and listened to several audiobooks. He gets a lot of flack for not being a real good hard scifi writer but I find that not to be true. His stories are just as compelling as everyone else’s. 5. Ben BovaEver heard of his book Mars? If you haven’t, you need to pick it up. It’s not one of those “there’s life on Mar’s” alien type stories, actually, in all honesty, it’s not that far fetched from reality at all. It’s something we have the capability to do now, we are just so bogged up in all this “procedure” and “protocol” and “safety” bullcrap that we don’t take risks for the betterment of mankind anymore. Seriously, Bova is a master of hard scifi. He knows how to write! 6. Richard A. KnaakThis author was the first to introduce me to hte world of fantasy. Granted, The Legend of Huma wasn’t exactly the greatest of fantasies, seeing how it was placed in an already created universe (Dragonlance) and followed most of your typical cliches that fantasy is known for. Regardless, it was a great first book. His DragonRealm series is fantastic. It’s truly a work of art. He also does a lot of other writing as well. You might know him by his works for the Warcraft and Diablo novels. I’m not too fond of those, but his other writing is fantastic. 7. Greg BearThis guy just got on my list with Eon, one of the best hard scifi books I have ever read. I have yet to read his other works, but I know he has written a lot, has won several awards, and is a good writer. If Eon is any indication of his talent as a scifi writer then all of his works should be good. 8. George Orwell1984. Need I say anything else? I do? You haven’t read it? If you haven’t read his greatest novel, a scifi tale for its time, then you are missing out on one of the greatest works of all time. It’s one of the starters for all the dystopian novels you see out there, and he was influenced by We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, who in no way even stands up to the power of Orwell’s writing and the way he developed the futuristic world dominated by an oppressive government. Think V For Vendetta only without the super hero element. That sort of world completely controlled in every way by the government. There is a bit of trivia right here too, and if you caught on then you are a smart cookie. In the 1984 movie adaptation to 1984, the gentleman who played the main character (the good guy) also plays, alternately, the role of the head of an oppressive government in V For Vendetta. Total switch of roles. It’s quite neat. 9. Isaac AsimovMost people know about his Foundation series, or should know about his robot works, of which the movie I, Robot was based on. I liked the first Foundation book immensely, hence why his is on my list. Some will hit me for having him at 9th, but as of yet I have not read any of his other works and as such can’t put him any higher on the list. Greg Bear only beats him out because Eon was so fresh and new for me. 10. Crawford KilianA lesser known author I think, he crafted quite an amazing tale of time travel in a
Writing Through Irritation
I’m going to compile a little list of things that are really irritating when you are writing. I get really bothered by being unable to write when I’m in that writing mode due to factors out of my control. So, I decided to make a little list of those things that really irritate. This isn’t just the fault of those things, but also the product of my flashes of writing genius coming at the most horrible times when I can’t write. 1. Work: I hate when I get a sudden spark of creative genius and I’m at work, leaving me unable to write anything more than a tiny sentence that won’t help me later on because I will have forgotten whatever it was I was talking about. I’m one of the many writers who has to have a full time job, a job in which there is no conceivable way to begin writing while on the clock. 2. School: This is not quite as bad as being at work, but it is just as troublesome, depending on the class and how much attention I actually have to put into whatever is going on. Sometimes I can start jotting things down, other times I am furiously taking notes and don’t even have time to write a quick note to myself. 3. Important Phone Calls: How many times have you been writing amazing stuff, on and on, page after page, and suddenly get a phone call that you can’t avoid? I hate when this happens. Yes, I can ignore the call, but when it comes to calls dealing with bills or whatever else is bothering my life at any particular moment, phone calls become rather difficult to avoid. And with me, when I’ve lost concentration in my writing, I’ve lost my creative burst for the whole day. 4. Being Interrupted: I find it rather annoying whenever I am interrupted by a member of my family or someone else when I’m right in the middle of writing. It breaks my concentration. The same thing goes for when I’m doing homework. Then whatever it was that I was doing is lost for hours or even the whole day. 5. In the Car: Have you ever been in the car and suddenly get a stroke of genius and can’t write it down because you’re on the highway and can’t stop? Annoying isn’t it? And then you try to remember what it was later so you can write it down and it’s gone… 6. Brain on the Fritz: This happens to me from time to time where my brain will be churning out awesome words, and then suddenly it just stops. It’s as if my brain is running Windows XP and randomly had to reboot, losing all those lovely images and ideas just as would happen if you had a Word document open and the computer died before you could save it. Gone to the abyss and if you are lucky your mind autosaved the stuff somewhere in the dark recesses of your subconscious and you are able to retrieve it. But that’s if you’re lucky… 7. The Internet: The Internet is one of those fascinating products that is both useful and distracting. The problem with the Internet too is that while you would think you could just set it down and not worry about it, you often find yourself using the Internet to feed your writing. At least that is the case for me. With writing fantasy and scifi, I find that I constantly go to the Internet to look up certain terms, research concepts that might already have been started in our world today, or even to spark and idea in my head. What runs along with that is all the email checking, random searches that have nothing to do with my writing, and all those other things that have a tendency to stop you from doing anything productive. 8. Music: I am one of those people that can’t write when there is music running, even if it is classical. I love music, don’t get me wrong, and I sometimes can write when it is playing, but for the most part I find it distracts me from doing much of anything, especially if it is music with words. I don’t know how anyone can write while their CD of Greenday is blaring in the background. How do you concentrate on the writing when you are singing the words outloud or in your head? When it comes to classical or orchestrated music I find myself humming along, but sometimes the music will really help my mind get moving. But only sometimes… 9. TV: This use to be one of the things that distracted me the most next to the Internet. Luckily for me I don’t watch it much anymore because, in all honesty, I think commercials are the most terrible inventions since Hitler invented the Concentration Camps. I hate commercials with every fiber of my being. That isn’t just exclusive to TV either. Radio commercials are just as retarded, annoying, and downright bad for society. Don’t get me wrong, there are some commercials that I actually enjoy. In particular are the Geico commercials (most of them except for any with the new gecko voice because I don’t like that accent on my gecko…). Regardless, in the days when I actually watched TV I found myself always distracted by it and if there was another factor that distracted me beforehand I always reverted to the TV or the Internet to occupy my mind. I do watch things on tape and DVD, just not on actual TV. Alright well I think that is a good enough list for now. I might come up with new reasons and add them when I can think of them. If anyone pops by leave me a comment if you have anything else that you think is distracting or irritating. Now in other news, it’s 8:09 AM and my new leopard