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Art as Growth

It’s finals week at Grove City and I should PROBABLY be studying for my Biology Final. But I’m taking a short study break and I decided to write this post I’ve been thinking about for a few days. A conversation with my roommate inspired this–we were talking about art. Specifically, our art.
My roommate and I have similar stories of our art. He’s a musician, I’m a writer. We both put out works (him: songs, me: stories ) when we were younger and now, as we’re both about to enter our twenties, we must decide what to do with those older pieces. Do we take them down, hide them, try to forget about them? Do we leave them there and cautiously promote them?
This was a question I wrestled with for a long time. I published my first book when I was 16 years old. I’m very self-conscious now of this book. It’s not great literature by any sense of the word. The plot and characters are shaky at best. Even so, I’m proud of it. For a while, it embarrassed me, but then I had to recognize that this book reflects my writing abilities as a 14/15-year-old. It shows where I started, and what I write now shows my growth.
Art is beautiful for many reasons, but this is one of them. It can reveal the growth of the artist. It shows how their beliefs have changed, or how they’ve matured, or how they’ve found love, or gone through a hard time. And this is all art–writing, painting, music, sculpting, acting, poetry, etc. Very few things paint as vulnerable a picture of a person as their art. Re-reading some of my old writings, and then reading what I’ve written recently, it’s easy for me to see how I’ve grown. I’ve been conscious of some of that growth, and blind to it in other ways. Some of it was so gradual that I didn’t notice it until it happened, and some of it I noticed because it came about from specific experiences or events.
I’m excited to see how my writing continues to develop, and I look forward to the day I can read my current stories and see how I’ve grown. Speaking of current stories! Soon I’ll be releasing new information about an upcoming novel. A mystery campus novel, it follows two young college students in a world of academic intrigue and, no, it’s not inspired by a true story. I’ll release the tentative title soon!
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Editing my manuscript, and making it feel real

This semester I am taking two Literature classes to go with my English major. I’m in American Lit II, a requirement for all English majors, and Fantasy lit, an elective. American Lit is shaping up to be one of my favorite classes so far. In it, we discuss literary theory and analyze American novels from Mark Twain to William Faulkner. I haven’t read most of the books in the class, which adds to my enjoyment.
The class has helped me as I work on my new novel. This is my first book that isn’t fantasy or science fiction, which has proven to be a surprising challenge. Before, I could invent my world, so I was only accountable to myself for making it believable. But now, I am accountable to all reality. In American Lit, we have discussed the role and responsibility of the writer. As an observer, they must do their best to represent the world as it is. When something claims to be realistic but isn’t, a reader senses it and loses trust in the writer.
That has been one of my biggest concerns writing this book. And it has been a challenge, writing characters and situations that feel real. I want the novel to feel poetic; I also want it to be poignantly realistic. Most of the characters have emotionally-driven character arcs. They often find themselves in situations that force them to make hard decisions. These hard decisions produce growth, even when they make the wrong decision. I never wanted these situations to come across as forced. I wanted to honestly communicate the emotions so many freshmen experience. Doing so was a challenge, but one that I relished.
During the first draft, I wrote only the words that were necessary. I included very little artful description or poetic language. I wrote it in a tight third-person perspective. Since I’ve begun editing, I’ve had to add to the narrative, because I felt that something was missing. I’ve played around with the style, and found that a semi-distant omniscient narrator works best, with much more poetic imagery to describe characters and scenes. Though recently I’ve shied away from imagery in my prose, I found that I needed it in this manuscript. Only once I added my personality through imagery did I feel that I could truthfully represent reality.
I am far from done editing this book. But I’ve found a title (hopefully), and greater themes have grown as I write. The writing process has been powerful for me, and I hope that the end result will be just as powerful to read.
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Learning to Say “No”

As I near the halfway point of the second semester of my freshman year, I’ve had to learn another hard lesson about my own ability to do things. I tend to enjoy taking on a variety of projects, challenging and pushing myself to always do more and to do better at whatever I do–whether this is academic, extracurricular, or job -related. I like to say yes to things when asked, both because of what I just said, but also because, simply, I don’t like to say no. It comes from being a “people-pleaser”–I don’t want to disappoint someone by turning down their request or offer. I often feel obligated to say yes, even if they aren’t putting any pressure on me. It also comes because I don’t always have a good grasp of my limits. I will push myself until I drop because I don’t know when I’ve reached a point of over-working. This past month, I’ve had to confront this in two specific areas of my life–employment and writing.

For several months, I’ve been searching for internships or jobs for this summer and the upcoming school year, with no success. Then, in one week, I was offered three different positions working for my college. All three were positions I wanted to do, and I felt called to all of them. I recognized that I could do good work and help people through all three positions–which were a tour guide, receptionist, and admissions assistant in my college’s Admissions Office. All three positions would help me develop a variety of necessary professional and interpersonal skills for my future career, and I could see very tangible ways in which I would be helping and serving others by working in any of the jobs.

I wanted to accept all three positions. As I thought it through, however, and talked it over with my parents and some friends, I realized that accepting all three wouldn’t be the wisest choice for me. I had to consider the fact that I am also a full-time student, and had recently been accepted onto Orientation Board, a team of upperclassmen who welcome freshmen to school at the beginning of the year. This would take up a lot of my time during the first half of my fall semester next year.

Ultimately, I decided that I couldn’t accept all three jobs I had been offered. I ended up turning down the position as a receptionist, which was very hard for me because I didn’t want to say no. They had offered it to me and I felt almost obligated to say yes. But I recognized eventually that this was an unhealthy mindset and I needed to be more judicious and focused in deciding how to spend my time.

This has been largely a lesson in time-management. My time is precious and I have to be responsible in choosing how to spend it. I’ve also had to learn this recently in another area of my life–writing.

For the past five years or so, I have been working on developing and writing a series of books, and about two weeks ago, I decided that I had to put this series aside. Essentially “kill” the series. This was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make when it comes to my writing career, because I have invested a massive chunk of my life and talent into this series. I had every book (there were to be 7) planned out in detail. Each character had a long, rich, compelling backstory, and I had built a vast mythology and history for the world. I had started a few drafts of the first book, but for some reason I could never get it to work. 

I kept thinking that if I just tweaked this, or changed that, I would be able to make the series work. I desperately wanted to write it. The series, which was essentially a prose take on the superhero genre, contained compelling themes related to faith, courage, racism, medical ethics, war, terrorism, politics, and more. It was going to be epic in scope.

But it didn’t work.

I don’t know why it didn’t work. Perhaps it’s because I had too many versions of it in my head. Perhaps I’m just not a mature enough writer to write it right now. Maybe I was trying to write it in the wrong medium–maybe a graphic novel series or a screenplay would fit it better. Whatever the reason, I decided that I had to say no to this project. Maybe, someday in the future, I will revisit it, but right now I have put it aside indefinitely. I am no longer working on it, and I don’t plan on working on it at all. This was not an easy decision to arrive at, because of how deeply invested I was. It still is not an easy decision, but I think it was the right decision.

Since I’ve said no to that project, I’ve finished a draft of my Untitled College Novel, and have been able to begin editing it. It was when I finished the rough draft of the College Novel that I realized I had made the right choice. I started writing the first superhero book a couple years ago and in the time it took me to get half a draft of that finished, I had written three other books and published two of them. I finally realized that my pace on the superhero series wasn’t normal for me, and I needed to put it aside and let myself focus on other projects that didn’t constantly discourage me.

I am excited about my new projects, and I am optimistic that I may finally release another book in 2018, after not releasing anything in 2017, contrary to my original plan. While I do think I’ve found a niche in YA contemporary fiction that I enjoy writing in, I hope to make a return to science fiction and fantasy sometime in the near future. I have two ideas, one for a YA pirates fantasy series, and one for a YA dystopian/science-fiction thriller series, that I might allow myself to explore. I’ll hopefully be posting updates on the College Novel soon, once I have a more concrete plan for what to do next!

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New Project Announcement

Since November I have been rolling around the idea of a new novel, and I started working on it in earnest about a month ago. Last week, I finished the rough draft. I haven’t posted about it yet because I wasn’t sure until recently if I actually wanted to write it, but then it all came together much more quickly than I had expected.

The novel started as my first NaNoWriMo project. NaNoWriMo is basically a worldwide challenge encouraging writers to finish a novel in a month (November). Of course, since I finished the rough draft in February, I failed dreadfully at NaNoWriMo, but that was the kick I needed to get started on the book.

Originally the book, which as of right now is still untitled, was conceived as a roman à clef, a novel based on real-life experiences. It was to be based around my own freshman year of college. However, as I progressed through the outlining stage, it moved away from autobiographical to simply a novel about college students’ experiences that strives to reflect reality, without actually recording any real events. Ultimately, it is an honest book, without being a true story.

The book is told in a semi-episodic format. In some places it works as an epistolary novel, with the story being told through fictional journal entries, emails, text messages, and blog posts. It’s told from a variety of perspectives of different freshmen. None of the main characters are directly based on real people, just as none of the events are based on real events.

Working on this book was a stretch for me in a variety of ways, mostly because it is my first book that isn’t science fiction or fantasy. Because of that, I had to pay extra attention to representing the real world as it really is–from a variety of perspectives, because of the variety of narrators. Getting the different voices accurate was and is the most difficult part. I wanted all of the different narrators to sound like real 18-20 year-olds, and as distinct as real individuals. Though at times a challenge, I enjoyed the writing process.

I don’t have a release date in mind, yet. Only the rough draft is finished, and there are many steps that need to be taken before I think about releasing it. Next week I will begin the editing process, and once I have an idea of how much I need to edit, I will start planning for the future. As I know more, I’ll continue to post updates!

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Naming Characters

The name is one of the most important aspects of a fictional character. Names can become iconic–Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, Huckleberry Finn, James Bond, Elizabeth Bennet, Luke Skywalker, etc. Most people will recognize who those characters, even if they haven’t read the books or seen the movies in which they appear.

It can sometimes be hard for me to choose names for my characters, simply because it’s so important for me to get it right. Some authors use random name generators to get unique names for the characters, and I tried that out at one point but I ultimately decided that I didn’t like that. The names I choose for my characters are part of what makes the story my story, and the names I choose reflect me.

Some authors will name their characters in a way that reflects something about the character’s nature–like a wise character will have a name that means “wisdom”, or a beautiful character will have a name that means “lovely” or something. While I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing to do, I think it’s a hard thing to do well. You run the risk of sounding gimmicky or heavy-handed when you do that. I think a good example of this is in Twilight. While I’ve never read the series, I know that the main character is named “Bella Swann”, which essentially translates as “Beautiful Swan”. I feel like naming a character like that can be clumsy or awkward, though at times it can work very well, especially in satire.

I like to give my characters interesting names. Names that are fun to say, realistic but creative. Names that reveal something about the character–not their personality, but who they are, their history. Because that’s what names do in real life: they tell you about a person’s family, their ethnic background, their age, and more.

For instance, in my upcoming novel Vigilante, there are several characters who have very significant names, in that the more the readers learn about their names, the more they learn about the characters’ histories, backstories, and plot significance. Several characters go by aliases or pseudonyms, which become significant to the plot as their real names are revealed. Other characters simply go by unusual nicknames, and character moments occur when their real names are revealed.

I like to create what I call “layered names” for my characters, where there are multiple levels to a character’s name. There are the names the narrator uses to refer to the character, the name they call themselves, the names their friends and colleagues call them, the name their family calls them, and more. For instance, there is a character named Emily O’Gorman in Vigilante. The narrator always calls her “O’Gorman” when she is the POV character, while her friends call her “Emma” and her boss calls her “Emily”. There are more layers to her name, however, which are revealed throughout the plot.

Some of the early advice I was told regarding character names is that the narrator should always call a character by the same name. I followed that for a very long time, but now I want to qualify that a little bit. I think that if your story is being narrated omnisciently, then the characters should always be called the same thing. But I almost never use the omniscient point of view. I prefer third-person limited with multiple view points (so far everything I’ve written has been third-person limited except for some passages in The Ground Z Duology). Right off the top of my head I can think of eleven characters who narrate in Vigilante. When I switch between viewpoints, I sometimes switch the names used to refer to characters, because everyone views the world differently. For instance, character “Mary Cunningham” is called “Mary”, “Mrs. Cunningham, and “Agent Cunningham” at different points because of the different relationships she has with various characters.

I feel like the characters I create reflect who I am, and that is seen in the names as well as the other aspects of the character.

In a couple days I’ll be posting an update on the Vigilante project as a whole!

As always, if you liked this post, please like and share it on WordPress or Facebook.

Thank you!

Stuart Rozendal
Numbers 6:24-26

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My Upcoming Projects

Announcement: Through the end of December, The Apollyon Plague will be free on Amazon.

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I briefly mentioned in this post that I have already decided on my next project. It is a soft science fiction story set on an alien planet several hundred years in the future. It will have a similar format to The Ground Z Duology (two short novels of the same story, separated by themes and characters). This duology, which is under the working title “Space Story”, will feature space travel and aliens, as well as theological themes–somewhat like Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time or C.S. Lewis’s Out of The Silent Planet. I would hope to have “Space Story” finished by the end of 2017, or the first half of 2018.

That’s not the only project I have in development, however. After I finish “Space Story” I plan on making a return to fantasy, probably with a young adult fantasy trilogy that is already in the earliest processes of development. This trilogy would be set in a world of harsh deserts where the sands have strange magical properties. The trilogy would be primarily fantasy, but would also be influenced by the dystopian and post-apocalyptic genres. My guess is I won’t get the first book of this series out until 2019 or 2020 at the earliest (mid 2019 would be the most likely date for the first book to be released).

I have recently been drawn to a vague sort of idea for a story that is fantasy but set in our world. This story would be intended for middle grade readers and up, and would have an almost fairytale atmosphere to it. I don’t have as much a plot in mind for this as I have a mood and style. So much fiction for young readers nowadays is either shallow and empty, or dark and “gritty”. I would want this story to be deep and meaningful, but still lighthearted and ultimately uplifting. I am not entirely sure where I’ll go with this idea, but I think that I will explore it more.

I am still in the process of cowriting a superhero-themed anthology of short stories, novellas, and novelettes. The first installment of that series should be out before the end of 2018, most likely.

I have multiple other projects spinning around in my head right now. I don’t know if I’ll get around to writing any of them. One is a sort of modern fairytale that involves emotions, virtues, and values personified as modern “gods” (think Inside Out meets Percy Jackson); another story involving a group of teenagers who find themselves stranded on a desert island after their plane crashes and only the people between ages of 12 and 18 survive; another story is a mystery-thriller involving cyberterrorism and locked-room kidnappings. I also have multiple ideas for other fantasy novels/series, though because those are planned as longer series, I don’t currently have the time or skill to tackle them.

Whatever my next few projects are, I am excited to continue to grow and expand my talent. I will continue to post updates on “Space Story”.

The Apollyon Plague and The Coldest Sun are now available on Amazon, as well as Elfson. (See “Books” Tab for links and descriptions of these books)

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The Ground Z Duology has been published!

The Ground Z Duology is out on Amazon! I am very excited–this has been a long but enjoyable process. I started working on GZD in August of 2015, and I finished the rough drafts of both The Apollyon Plague and The Coldest Sun in December of 2015. The past year has been a year of edits, rewrites, and revisions.

You can download both books on a Kindle or the Kindle App if you have a smart phone. I would love feedback in the form of reviews on Amazon or Goodreads.

In the next couple weeks, I will be posting some supplementary materials about the books, including character lists and bios, just as I did with Elfson last year.

Thank you again for all your support!

This is the link to The Apollyon Plague

This is the link to The Coldest Sun

This is the link to Elfson 

 

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Several Announcements!

It has been some time since I posted on my blog–I’ve been busy with schoolwork and editing Ground Z recently. However, I now have some very exciting announcements! First, you probably have noticed that my blog looks different. The old “StuArt: Blog” no longer exists. Welcome to my new website! However, due to the change of websites, all old subscriptions have been cancelled. Please subscribe using the field to the right! You will receive an email every time I post.

The second announcement: The Ground Z Duology has been finished! You can expect it on Amazon in the next few weeks. I will let you know the release date as soon as we have picked one. If you would like more information on the Ground Z Duology you can check out the Books page or check out the Ground Z category of posts (categories can be found in the drop-down menu to the right).

The third announcement: I have decided my next project. It will be a duology, similar to the Ground Z Duology. (Two short novels with a continuous story, though with different characters and themes separating the books). I will experiment with writing styles again in this duology, just as I did in Ground Z. The genre of this duology could be called space opera or science fantasy (space opera is not an opera set in space–it’s a fantastical sort of science fiction set in space and not necessarily considered “realistic” science fiction). I plan on including Christian themes prominently in this story. It will be set primarily on an alien planet, and will feature alien species. I have not yet set a goal for finishing this story, though I hope to have it out by the end of 2017 or early 2018.

As always I encourage you to subscribe to my blog, and to check out my Facebook author page and give it a like to receive more updates.

Stuart Rozendal
Numbers 6:24-26

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“What if….?”

My books have all began with “what if’s…?”. The Ground Z Duology began with “what if the United States was hit by a gigantic alien disease?” Three of my next projects began with “What if something like Jurassic Park happened but with spiders?” and “What if the French Revolution ended differently and there were steampunk alien robots involved?” and “What if the war on terrorism involved superheroes?” Elfson began simply with “what if I wrote a book?”

I begin most of my ideas, sometimes unconsciously, with a “what if” scenario. These scenarios are an attempt to synthesize my interests and ideas into what I hope make good stories. These “what if’s” often blend my interests in science, history, astronomy, politics, and philosophy and fuse them with my favorite genres: science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and adventure.

I like experimental fiction. Ground Z contains passages based off of the questions “what if the reader was a character?” and “what if you could accurately show how someone thinks?” Some future projects I’m considering right now are based on the following: What if…

  • A novel wasn’t divided into traditional chapters?
  • A novel was told in verse form?
  • A novel was told using only dialogue?

I don’t know how well any of these ideas will translate into an actual story–or if I’ll use any of them! But I might!

As I’m considering what I want my next project to be I decided I want others’ input! These are some “what-if’s” for ideas I have. I’d love it if you’d let me know in the comments’ section which you find most intriguing!

  • What if the French Revolution ended differently and there were steampunk alien robots involved?
  • What if something like Jurassic Park happened but with spiders?
  • What if the war on terrorism involved superheroes?
  • What if wonder and amazement (and other emotional concepts) were personified and interacted with humanity?
  • What if all that remained of humanity was contained in one underwater city?
  • What if a NASA team sent to the moon Titan discovered more than they bargained for?
  • What if a plane crashed on a mysterious island and only the teenagers survived?
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Having Faith in Yourself as a Writer

I haven’t been doing a very good job at posting regularly lately, and I’m trying to get back on schedule for that. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to stay motivated when writing, and how to have confidence in yourself. When you write, it is very important to have self-confidence. A lack of self-confidence is only harmful to your work. These are some strategies I employ when writing to make sure that I am confident.

  1. Don’t underestimate ideas: If I have an idea that I like, I go with it. If it seems shaky, I don’t worry. Rarely will an idea start as a rock-solid one. I will build on ideas as I go.
  2. Don’t force it: I have to recognize when something isn’t working, however. If an idea isn’t flowing, I don’t force it. If I want it to work, I proceed with caution and let it develop as I go.
  3. Recognize when potential is and isn’t there: I have to be able to discern between story ideas that just sound good and those that are good. Sometimes I get a book idea that I think sounds really cool, but after a little bit, I will realize it has no potential, and I have to put it aside.
  4. Don’t give up on something good: Too often, I’m afraid, I’ve abandoned a project that had potential, and I regret that now. If you are passionate about a project and are doubting it, do not give up. Put all you have into it, and it will produce a result you are satisfied with.
  5. Let an art be an art: Writing is an art, not a science. Really, I could write a whole blog post about that. Maybe I will… Anyways, a while back, I got really into the “process of writing”, the “writing method”, the “outline formulae”. Writing became a structured science. That is not how writing should be. When writing, don’t expect pieces to fit together immediately like a formula. Expect them to grow and change and flow, like art.
  6. Listen to reason, not doubt: Being able to discern between reason and self-doubt is an invaluable skill I’ve developed. If self-doubt is telling you to abandon a story, don’t listen. If reason is telling you to abandon a story, then perhaps you should.

These are just a few strategies. As I think of more valuable ones, I will likely write another post.