Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

I can boil it all down to three words:

Write, submit, repeat.

Everything else is commentary.

Nubling, I don't blame you for feeling daunted but I'd hate to see you cheat yourself out of all the great stuff in the thread. You could think of it as a useful textbook, something to read when you take a break from writing. You don't have to do it all at once. Make note of where you left off, and come back to it when you have time. It'll be here.

give me some homework, please

I'm a newbie to posting here (though a long time lurker) and I can't believe I just finished reading this entire thread. Even the arguments about "and then."

I've been a writer for a number of years, mostly in non-fiction. A little over a year ago, I rearranged my work (and life) so I could spend more time and energy on fiction. I've been exploring (i.e., writing as much crap as I can in order to have "clay"). I have an agent who is repping a mystery now and is looking at an historical romance I recently finished. These are two genres I read extensively in. (Please, do not mock me for the romance. What can I say?) I have no questions about these works. Either someone will buy them or not, and my attention is on other matters now.

The problem concerns a science fiction novel I drafted last year and which wants my attention now. I'm a huge fan of fantasy and have been all of my life. Terry Pratchett is one of two novelists whose books I buy in hardcover. I love fantasy. I have a Fabulous Idea for a fantasy novel, though said Idea seems totally indifferent to being written at the moment. But the book that concerns us (or at least me) is science fiction, and I quit reading science fiction in the late 80s. Which means this book has probably been festering in my brain since late adolescence and I should probably drown it, but it doesn't want to drown.

This is where the request for homework comes in. I need to catch up on the last twenty years of science fiction to have any hope of creating a decent science fiction manuscript, it seems to me. Who MUST I read, and (for bonus points), why?

Thanks for all of your thoughts.

Jennifer

Here is a link, just for you:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49506

Jennifer L said:

Either someone will buy them or not, and my attention is on other matters now.

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This seems like the ideal attitude a writer should aspire to.

Thanks for the link.

Note to self: figure out how to use "search" function before posting newbie questions . . . .

Jennifer

A lot of the books in the Best SF thread are quite old.

For What's Happening Now:

Anything by Ken MacLeod. Anything by Robert Charles Wilson. Last year's Nebula winners. This year's Hugo nominees. Three books chosen at random from the SF shelf of your local bookstore, provided you've never heard of the authors.

After that ... write your book.

This might be a good time to express gratitude and good wishes toward someone we owe much to.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jim!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jim. Heard you read at Boskone. Loved it! Love you. Love your wife. Love your daughter. You have no idea who I am; do you? Oh well. We can't all be rich and famous.

Happy birthday, Jim! Linda from VPX here. I just wanted to drop in and say thank you for all your advice and all the time you take to teach us, and to hope you're enjoying cake or good whiskey (or both, if your tastebuds are up to it) to celebrate.

Many happy returns! Nobody deserves 'em more.

Happy birthday, Uncle Jim! I wish you all the best in your birthday glory!

(this is Dave from VPX)

avocadodesperado said:

This might be a good time to express gratitude and good wishes toward someone we owe much to.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jim!

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I'll add to that. Happy B-day!

I like what you say for the most part(very few exceptions), and I love this thread. Thanks for everything youve helped writers like me learn.

Ah, shucks, folks.

James D. Macdonald said:

Ah, shucks, folks.

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You should see the birthday thread devoted to you in Office Party, Uncle Jim.

Joyous Tidings of the Day!
Ok, everyone said 'happy birthday;' I had to come up with something different.
A toast to Jim MacDonald!
May all your Scotch be 60 years old; may all your cigars be from Cuba; may you live another 53 (54?) years and then give it yet another go around; may your children always be grateful; may your wife always be warm; and last but not least, may words always be your kind companions, filling your head with Uncle Jim plots and Uncle Jim wisdom and Uncle Jim wit.
Your VP apostles toast you!
Much love, Jim. I hope your day was a happy one.
(Terri-Lynne VPX.)

HBD, UJ! Coming to your party west-coast late. I hope you had a lovely day -- today and always.

My best wishes for the happy day.

Oh, d'oh! I missed the birthday party. Happy birthday, Uncle Jim!

It's been almost 5 months and I'm still learning from your lecture at VPX.

Question for Uncle Jim:

I'm in a writing group where we encourage each other to meet writing goals, usually a given number of words per day or week. This has been working well for first draft words, but several people now want to edit short stories or articles they've written since the group started.

I've tried to avoid the question of counting words toward progress while revising. But some of the members are wondering whether they should be writing the first draft for one piece on the same day that they're revising another piece. One of them made this comment: "I'm not sure I'm capable of revising one thing while working on something new; reading around the web, I don't think many people, at least in the self-selected group of writers who blog their process, can."

I know you've recommended writing for two hours a day, with additional time for revising, research, and other writing tasks.

In your experience, do very many professional writers revise one piece while writing another one? Is this sort of multi-tasking an important skill to develop? How should new writers approach this?

I don't know how most writers do it. I know that I personally write new stuff and revise older stuff on the same day, just at different times of the day.

This is another case of whatever works for you.

You will eventually have to revise the material you've written (unless you're capable of doing publishable first drafts (and there are some people who can do that)). How your writers' group decides to count that is up to them.

Please let us know what they decide.

Just as an aside to above: East of Eden by Stienbeck was published from the original MS without any changes made by the publisher. Well at least the copy that I have.

Raphee said:

Just as an aside to above: East of Eden by Stienbeck was published from the original MS without any changes made by the publisher. Well at least the copy that I have.

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Hunh?

Do you have any information that it was the first draft? How many drafts did Steinbeck write before the version he submitted?

(Oh -- publishers don't usually make any changes to a manuscript (other than correcting typoes and applying house style). They may request revisions, but it's the authors job to either make them or not, as the author pleases.)

(Example of house style: Numbers below 99 are expressed in numerals, numbers one hundred and above are expressed in words. (Other publishers may have another style for numbers.) Another example of house style: Extracts such as poetry or letters are set off by linebreaks, indented, and set in italics. (Other publishers may have other styles.) Yet another example of house style: The serial comma is used. (Other publishers may not use the serial comma.))

I'll look up the copy, for what it explicity states. I hav'nt seen it in a while and gave the info from memory.
I do remember the book saying that this is the original MS without any revisions on the first or second page. and I am yet to see another book give the same remark; other than the Holy Books.

James D. Macdonald said:

Hunh?

... Yet another example of house style: The serial comma is used. (Other publishers may not use the serial comma.))

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What! not using the serial comma would kill me. I t would hurt my fragile writerly soul. Or something.

I did my homework

A week or two ago, Uncle Jim gave me a homework assignment so that I could catch up on the last twenty years of science fiction. Now I'm reporting in.

I was immensely cheered to see that people were more important than the science/machines in the books that I read. I think this was one of the reasons I stopped reading much SF back in the late 80s; the emphasis was more on the technology and science than on the characters, and that was fine when I was a thirteen year old geek up to my elbows in small engine parts but not so compelling when I got a little older.

Reading Joe Haldeman's Camouflage showed that even a frequently visited subject (aliens among us) can keep you up late if it's done well enough.

Ken Macleod's Dark Light showed how complex world building can be without drowning the reader in details; I know the Macleod knows everything about his universe but he doesn't have to share everything with me. He also is a master of revealing information exactly when you need it and not before. And his subplot on what makes a man a man is often laugh out loud funny while at the same time thought-provoking. Even though science and technology are at the forefront here, it's the characters I care about -- and Macleod has a sure hand at making every character a protagonist, so that I'm rooting for one character until the viewpoint shifts and I find myself rooting for his antagonist, who is now the protagonist. Intelligent and engaging.

So all of this was very exciting and encouraging to me, motivating me to get back to work on my own SF manuscript. But then (I almost said "and then" but, whew, caught myself in time) I picked up Robert Charles Wilson's Spin. And I will never write that well, not if I tried for ten lifetimes. I have a little talent, a useful little talent, and it has not failed me so far, but it is by no means capable of anything approaching Wilson's mastery.

Now what? I feel like I should just put the pen down and back slowly away from the paper.

Ordinarily I'm pretty sure that I can hold my own with other writers, and people not related to me have actually remarked on my ability to put sentences together without hurting myself, so I'm not much given to self doubt. We've all picked up books and gone, eh, I could do better myself, I *have* done better myself. . . but only rarely do I pick up a book and think, I'm not even in this man's zip code.

I'm pretty sure Uncle Jim will tell me to write the damned book, but I'm curious about whether this has happened to other people and how they use it to motivate them.

If there's a way to include tequila and/or chocolate in the solution to this problem, I would be really grateful.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Jennifer Lawler