Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

I think this whole discussion about whether men can write women protags and vice versa doesn't apply to children's books. I mean, I think it's much easier to swap genders in a children's book.

See also: James Tiptree, Jr.

Wow!

James D. Macdonald said:

See also: James Tiptree, Jr.

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Another great writer to add to my "to read" list. Thanks, James

Harder for an author to be anonymous these days, even just with gender. They want photos, and there's publicity and book signings and...

I believe my writing is much better when I'm writing with a male protagonist. If I write a character that's my own gender, I'm at risk of putting too much of myself into her, consciously or subconsciously, and then that character doesn't have such a unique voice. I might get sloppy and let her talk a bit more like myself for awhile, and then that's the narrative gone to tatters.

Author photos aren't universal (or even necessary), and signings are such pains in the patootie that no one will think twice if you decide to skip the honor entirely.

James D. Macdonald said:

Author photos aren't universal (or even necessary), and signings are such pains in the patootie that no one will think twice if you decide to skip the honor entirely.

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How many signings does it take to get to that point?

Ken Schneider said:

How many signings does it take to get to that point?

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Just one, if it's bad enough.

Thanks for all the interesting and informative replies.

Ken Schneider said:

I once e-mailed Danielle Steele about my sisters and how they forced me to sit on the couch and listen/squirm as they read her early novels to me.

Danielle sent me a long rousing e-mail of how my story delighted her to no end.

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Hahaha, that's hilarious! I have a friend whose sisters used to dress him up in their clothes and put him in make-up...

It's really cool that she replied to you - I've never written to an author and if I did, I wouldn't expect a reply.

Mission accomplished, right? Well, not quite. I hooked myself in the process.

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*Gasps* You're one of the mythical Men Who Read Romances? I'm honoured to meet you, sir.

I've written King, Lumley, David Gerrold, Sterling Lanier, and a few others. To a one, they have all replied.

I once sent King a hardcopy of one of his books and asked him to sign it for me and included money. I sent it through his publisher. The book was returned with signature and the money I'd sent.

I've corresponded with King at least a couple times since then and he's a consummate gentleman. A couple of the others have been somewhat abrupt, but only because I was young and asking them things they really couldn't tell someone who was obviously as young as I was at the time.

Ninety-nine percent of the time when I've contacted an author, they've written me back and we've corresponded amiably (Glen Cook and J. A Konrath are recent examples).

Huzzah! Reached. End. Of. Thread.

Awesome stuff. Thank you, Uncle Jim. Thank you, other contributors of useful knowledge.



BIC is working well. Now instead of worrying about revising as I write, I worry that my story won't be long enough and that my characters have too much angst. However, the only way to resolve those fears is to keep writing until I get far enough along to answer it. It gives me a bit of motivation to keep going.

"So you think this story'll be irreconcilably flawed? Finish and Prove it!"

jinap said:

Thanks for all the interesting and informative replies.



Hahaha, that's hilarious! I have a friend whose sisters used to dress him up in their clothes and put him in make-up...

It's really cool that she replied to you - I've never written to an author and if I did, I wouldn't expect a reply.



*Gasps* You're one of the mythical Men Who Read Romances? I'm honoured to meet you, sir.

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Read romance? Yes, Write it? Yes, doesn't everyone? Keep in mind that most genres contain a whisp of several other genres.

Our own James McDonald, and Deb Doyle's, Lands of Mist and Snow, though Sci-Fi, had a romantic element to it. Buy it read it, and you'll see what I mean.

Yep Greg, I've found the pubbed authors we think are untouchable very friendly. I've e-mailed a few.
Piers Anthony, and Kat Martin are a couple who are very kind. Adding that being rotten to someone wouldn't sell many books. And, you don't know who you might be typing to on AW. You'd be surprised who is here.

And, don't forget Uncle Jim. Jim has done more things for me than any of you will ever know though e-mail. He's a Saint, and if truth be known I think he's also a Druid, or Wizard, or at least a Knights Templar— incognito.

I wish UJ would teach a writer's time management class. The guy must not ever sleep!

What type of romance do you write?

My surprise at author's responses isn't so much to do with thinking that they're too high and mighty, but that they get so much fan mail that they can't respond to all of it. I thought that their replies may be more along the lines of form letters.

jinap--I'm going to pose your question to Uncle Jim as he is the closest well-published author I know of (he posts here) who probably gets that kind of mail.

Jim--When someone takes the time to write you a nice letter and addresses it appropriately (ie through your agent or publisher) so that it does get to you, what is your protocol for responding? Do crayon scratches on wax foil get immediately circular-filed? Do copies of their Harry Potter/HP Lovecraft/Danielle Steele cross-over fanfic get reviewed? Or do you sic 'the boss' on the mail? I'd enjoy knowing Debra's response too.

lauraannwilliams said:

Huzzah! Reached. End. Of. Thread.

Awesome stuff. Thank you, Uncle Jim. Thank you, other contributors of useful knowledge.



BIC is working well. Now instead of worrying about revising as I write, I worry that my story won't be long enough and that my characters have too much angst. However, the only way to resolve those fears is to keep writing until I get far enough along to answer it. It gives me a bit of motivation to keep going.

"So you think this story'll be irreconcilably flawed? Finish and Prove it!"

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Man, I have the opposite problem. Kind of wish "well, I need more words!" was my problem instead. I don't think there's a lot of wordiness or anything, but capping the storyline at 100K words is looking to be one hell of a challenge.

I'm wondering how best to signify a chapter that basically takes part in a dream. Besides the character noticing things are different from her real world, should there be a different font? Different tense (like 1st person)?

Every reader I've had so far has figured out what's going on as they get into that chapter, but I still don't want to confuse.

Alphabeter said:

jinap--I'm going to pose your question to Uncle Jim as he is the closest well-published author I know of (he posts here) who probably gets that kind of mail.

Jim--When someone takes the time to write you a nice letter and addresses it appropriately (ie through your agent or publisher) so that it does get to you, what is your protocol for responding? Do crayon scratches on wax foil get immediately circular-filed? Do copies of their Harry Potter/HP Lovecraft/Danielle Steele cross-over fanfic get reviewed? Or do you sic 'the boss' on the mail? I'd enjoy knowing Debra's response too.

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I try to respond personally to everything. It isn't hard to get a writer to write, y'know?

One young fan sent a crayon illustration of one of our Circle of Magic books. I hung that on the refrigerator just like our own kids' artwork.

The annoying ones are when you get thirty letters all at once because some teacher made "Write to an author" be a class assignment.

K. Taylor said:

I'm wondering how best to signify a chapter that basically takes part in a dream. Besides the character noticing things are different from her real world, should there be a different font? Different tense (like 1st person)?

Every reader I've had so far has figured out what's going on as they get into that chapter, but I still don't want to confuse.

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Changing font is something that's beyond your control. That's going to be the book designer's problem. (And how will the changed font show in the audiobook version and the Braille version?)

You could change person. Or, you could just set it off between two linebreaks (without having read your book I'd favor that, myself.)

Incidentally, Person is first, second, or third.

Tense is past, present, or future.

Voice is active or passive.

(Aspect is perfect or imperfect, but let's not go there.)

Tense is past, present, or future.

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I knew that. Can I blame that on having 5 hours of sleep in the past 36?

The section in that particular book is one full chapter, so it's already technically separated from the rest of the text.

Thanks, Uncle Jim.

Salis said:

Man, I have the opposite problem. Kind of wish "well, I need more words!" was my problem instead. I don't think there's a lot of wordiness or anything, but capping the storyline at 100K words is looking to be one hell of a challenge.

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I've got 17K words (according to Google Doc's word count) and figure I'm about 1/2 to 2/3 through the plot ( they know who the bad guy is but not how to get him ). Most of that is dialog. I don't have a lot of description in there yet, or a lot of smooth transition between one scene and the next. I think this is going to be more of an outline style draft.

Once I'm done that, I have to flush out my minor characters, add description and missing scenes, split up some of the scenes, maybe figure out a subplot to add. I'm hoping at the end to have enough for an Urban Fantasy novel submission, which I think is 80-100K. That feels like a lot to add! I'm going to study a lot of my favorite books when it gets to that point, and see how they fill up pages.

This is the first time I've gotten this far in on a novel attempt. I usually get about five pages in, switch to plotting and world building, change my mind constantly, realize I have nothing -- and quit. I'm learning a lot more by actually writing. I'm going to leave the heavy duty analysis for later.

I'm learning a lot more by actually writing.

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That's the way it works.

The best way to learn to write a novel is by writing a novel. (The dreadful realization comes later: All you've learned how to do is write that novel. The next novel has something else entirely to teach you.)

How do you get hold of an author's address to write to them?

To:

Author
c/o Publishing House
Where Their Book
Is Published.

It's polite to include an SASE.

K. Taylor said:

I'm wondering how best to signify a chapter that basically takes part in a dream. Besides the character noticing things are different from her real world, should there be a different font? Different tense (like 1st person)?

Every reader I've had so far has figured out what's going on as they get into that chapter, but I still don't want to confuse.

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Do not put it in a different font. Jim's explanation covered that one. I'll add that just seeing the word "font" in a cover letter is enough to make my heart sink. Your notion of putting one chapter in a different font is actually one of the saner proposals I've seen. It's usually something more like "I am working on digitizing the font I have devised to accurately represent my people's language." Even when the proposed use of extra fonts is for something relatively sane, it's a great deal of trouble.

You say all your readers have figured out what's going on. That may be your answer right there: if it's not broken, don't fix it. But if you're still worried about having readers understand it's a dream, IMO you can't improve on simply telling them so at the beginning of the chapter. Really. It's an underrated device.

I know Joss Whedon gets a lot of mileage out of dream sequences that aren't labeled as such, so that viewers have to figure it out for themselves. However, he's working in TV and movies. The confusion isn't going to last very long, and neither is the dream sequence. With written fiction, it takes longer and the reader does more work. If they miss the clues at first, belatedly figuring it out is going to feel like driving over a speedbump at forty miles an hour. At minimum, they'll be bounced out of their reading-trance. That's never good.

Worse, they may resent being played with, and lose trust in you. After that, nothing you write will work as well for them as it would have if they still trusted you; and getting their trust back will be a hard slog.

Finally: a dream sequence that's an entire chapter long? I haven't seen yours, but as a general rule, dream sequences are tricky, hard to handle, and very easy to overdo. They've got a double dose of the basic problem of fantasy: in theory you can do anything, so what you do must never, ever seem arbitrary. The usual advice will serve: be parsimonious, build in internal logic, and do nothing that doesn't serve the story.

James D. Macdonald said:

Author photos aren't universal (or even necessary), and signings are such pains in the patootie that no one will think twice if you decide to skip the honor entirely.

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Speaking only from my personal experience, I was contractually-required to provide an author photo (taken at my own expense) for the book. Maybe my agent could have gotten that struck from the contract, but it wasn't a fight I wanted to have.

Also, I had my first signing this past weekend at San Diego Comic-Con (actually, I had two). I suspect it was very different from the usual signing experience, since I was told where to be and when, and I had no other responsibilities besides bringing a pen I liked.

It was nice to meet people who were about to read the book (not fans, since I was signing ARCs and no one had a chance to read it yet but the bookstore staff) but I wasn't prepared for the number of people who asked for advice breaking in to publishing.

If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have directed them here.