Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

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btinternet

Waxing the cat

I always heard it as 'flossing the cat' but same concept.

(also a terrific excuse for avoiding social engagements one wishes to avoid - "I'm terribly sorry, I can't come that evening, I'm flossing the cat")

Howdy all.

BT
 

Kate Nepveu

Re: Waxing the cat

Also cat-vacuuming (or, on the other side of the pond, cat-hoovering).
 

LiamJackson

Re: Patriarch

Grew up with the cat-waxing thing. Thought it was an old, obscure military analogy/axiom.

And a belated welcome to Editrx. Hope you enjoy your time in the AW happy house.

Oh, and Jim D., have I got a deal for you. Letter on the way.
 

ChunkyC

Re: Patriarch

A welcome to all the new folks. Nice to meet you all. Also nice to see that the linguistic discussion led to some interesting insights of value to us writers. I especially like what Joanna said about using Jewish words for characters in a Star Trek novel.

I think this subject interests me so much because my writing tends to be dialogue-heavy, so I am always on the lookout for ways to make speech in fiction more interesting, more flavourful.

Oh, and Dreckly? Things like that are priceless nuggets for a writer. If you can find a way to throw one in like a potent spice, your whole piece heats up. Great stuff.

My cat is far too shiny, by the way. Better get back to the book....
 

HollyB

Re: Patriarch

Welcome Editrx!

One of the joys of this message board is that it's a mix of experienced and clueless writers (myself being the latter) who share a common love of the written word. Your expertise will certainly further enrich our discussion! Welcome!
 

laurence ashton

Whew!-- Hello!

Hello,

I'm just going taking a moment to give this introductory post. I've read from the beginning (it took me about a week to get through all 85 pgs.) and just finished. So:

My name is Lauren (penname Laurence Ashton) and I've been writing for years, so I wouldn't consider myself a newbie. Currently I'm employing BIC to get through a novel I started in high school that I needed to recycle. It's a fantasy and the universe I'd created had gotten bigger than the plot, so that needed to change. :nerd

BIC got me through chapter three of this novel when I seemed to be stuck-in-a-moment!planningfrenzy. Whoot. I have great and t00by love for BIC.... Although I feel like I cheated because I don't write in a linear fashion (the times that I do, I get stuck in debates with myself, which is a terrible form of writer's block). So really chapter three doesn't literally mean third chapter--yet.

Still, I'm getting there. I've finished the prologue, chapter three, part of chapter one, and various scenes. Note: the prologue, I realized after reading this, is indispensible, so it will be renamed Chapter One. Thanks for upthread!comments that helped to clarify the prologue subject.

That's all basically. I've been staring at the rather distracting purple bouncing... thing :)jump ) for the past ten minutes, and I think I need to post this before I become a jumpingpurpleball!zombie and am completely in its thrall.

Thanks to Uncle Jim for this thread. Thanks to everyone else for helping to make it so great. I loff the comments.

lash

PS-- quick question before I forget: In a third person past tense novel, is it too distracting to have (a) dream sequence(s) as such:

Character A dreamed:
CONTENT OF DREAM IN THIRD PERSON PRESENT TENSE
Continuation of narrative in third person past tense

Thanks!
 

Marcusthefish

Just thanks

I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of thankful newcomers to this discussion--Uncle Jim, your advice and examples have been more interesting and useful than 90% of the writing books I've read.

I've been an SF reader since I found Time for the Stars in the library when I was twelve years old (I think that was the one that infected me--it might have been the Chronicles of Narnia), and got the writing bug in my second year of college. I've been starting novels for more than 10 years, and after three years at my latest attempt (no. 5), I think I've figured out how to build a whole story. Anyway, I finally have a complete draft that I'm slowly chipping into shape.

My impetus isn't money, fame, or dedication to art or craft. I just want to make it to the top of the Geek Hierarchy www.brunching.com/geekhierarchy.html

Thanks again to Uncle Jim and everyone who's contributed.

MTF
 

Jules Hall

Re: Patriarch

Character A dreamed:

I would try to avoid explicitly stating that something's a dream. Unless your character is a lucid dreamer, they're probably not aware at the time that it is a dream...

I would just make sure there were cues in the text to let the reader know it's a dream. Like people turning into small furry animals, that kind of thing.
 

laurence ashton

re:Character A dreamed:

Ah! Thanks for mentioning that. The character does know that she's dreaming. It's a major plot point in the book because she doesn't really sleep; sleeping, for this character, is something completely different from what it actually is for us.

Wondering now: does that change your answer at all, or do you still think that it's a bad idea?

Thanks again,

Lauren
 

Yeshanu

Re: Whew!-- Hello!

MTF,

:rofl

Thanks for the link. However...

Could you please edit your post to take out the ). at the end of the url? That way, people can click on it and not end up with an "error" message.

Until he edits, if you want to click on the link, when you get the error message, go up into the address bar, remove the two offending characters, and press enter.

It's funny... :lol
 

Yeshanu

Re: Dreams

Lauren,

Regarding dreams. If I was going to write a dream into a novel (and I may yet, folks, just not as the opening scene) I wouldn't write it in present tense and tell the readers "Character A dreamed..." That's telling, not showing. I might have the character recount the dream in dialogue, if it was short, or I might put it in the same tense and person as the novel, possibly with the dream sequence in italics to set it off from the rest of the novel.

In my own novel, the protag has nightmares that later prove prophetic. I think I'm going to insert a little bit of the nightmare at several points in the novel, in italics, so the reader knows that this is a dream.
 

Jules Hall

Re: Patriarch

I'd probably write something more like "<A> sensed that she was beginning to dream." and then follow that with a description (as Yeshanu said, in the same tense & POV style as the rest of the story) of the dream. It sounds to me as if you might have a lot of this, in which case I'd avoid using italics or fancy formatting for it, but make it clear where the dreams start and end in the prose itself.
 

Editrx

Re: re:Character A dreamed:

Re: dreams.

I've had dream sequences run across my production desk that were in italics (quick giveaway that it's not standard narrative), begun with a prose line such as, "And I started to dream..." (a bit bulky, in my opinion, but some people prefer this trick), and dreams that were not set off in any manner whatsoever except for a line break before and after (in which you have to be very clever to make it clear it's a dream, but it certainly can be done).

There is no right or wrong way to do dream sequences; chef's choice.
 

Editrx

The Creator returning soon

Uncle Jim passed through here a few hours ago on his way home. I can report he's been properly caffeinated, hugged, and given chocolate biscuits (in that order, of course).

He should reappear within a day or so (or sooner) here.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Metric/English

I'd use Metric if the character would think in metric, English if the character would think in english. This is a chacterization problem.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Canadianisms. :)

Do you know how Canada got its name? These three Canadians were trying to think of a name for their country, so the got a Scrabble set. The first one reached into the bag, pulled out a tile and said, "C, eh?" The second pulled out a tile and said, "N, eh?" The third pulled a tile and said, "D, eh?"

On dialect -- you don't need it. Use word choice and sentence rhythm then let your readers provide the right amount of accent for them.

<hr>

As you know, Tennessee Williams wrote his plays in dialect. Now imagine this: A group of students from the Sunny South, whose natural accents were the magnolia-scented tones that Williams was trying to reproduce. Imagine them trying to pronounce the the written dialect phonetically. Trust me, it is weird sounding.

You can derived Rudyard Kipling's personal accent by reading the dialect he uses in Captains Courageous, if you know what a Gloucester fisherman's natural accent sounds like. You have to read the dialog with a British/Indian accent if you're going to come up with something at all accurate.

Dialect was formerly used more often in fiction than it currently is. Styles change. Please, if you're planning to write in dialect, reconsider your decision.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: wow, great thread

Hi, Joanna --

I am wondering what you think of writing exercises.

First, no writing is wasted. Any writing you do can teach you something of the art if you let it.

Second, writing exercises can help get you past the blank screen or blank sheet of paper problem. Some people freeze when faced with that faceless nothing. So use 'em if they get you going.

Beyond that, it's my opinion that sitting down and writing a story all the way to "The End" will teach you more than any number of writing exercises.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Whew!-- Hello!

Hiya, Laurence!

In a third person past tense novel, is it too distracting to have (a) dream sequence(s) as such:

Character A dreamed:
CONTENT OF DREAM IN THIRD PERSON PRESENT TENSE
Continuation of narrative in third person past tense


That could work. Try it, see how it reads, see what your beta readers have to say.
 

robertquiller

He's Back!

:clap

-----------------------​

Iustitia, Consilium et Aequitas
 

Fresie

I need a method in this madness!

Hello, Uncle Jim and everybody,

I'm going slightly mad, la la la. Can somebody help me please? Could the more experienced novel writers share with me (and all of us) how you go about saving, backing-up and organizing your novel files, both electronic and hard copy? Mine at the moment seem to have a life of their own and reproduce at leisure. More than that, sometimes I have drafts on disk that are only slight variations of each other, so sorting them out turns into a find ten differences game. G-r-r-r! <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/eek.gif" />

I've just spent the entire evening glueing one chapter draft together out of four different versions sketched earlier. To say I'm annoyed is an understatement.

Please, ladies and gentlemen -- how do you control your drafts and sketches and keep them in order? I inevitably end up with three or four backups of each chapter or scene and each of them by some mysterious reason suffers consequent changes (either I mistakenly grab the wrong disquette or the stories just keep on developing on their own while I'm not looking). <img border=0 src="http://www.absolutewrite.com/images/emoteDisappear.gif" />

Thank you!

Fresie
 

maestrowork

Re: wow, great thread

I use file folders with version numbers and dates embedded in the name.

I keep my drafts in one file (I don't have one file for each chapter, etc.). Again, the version # and dates are in the file names.

I also back them up on CD-ROMS as a group. I don't just back up individual files. Again, each version gets their own CD-ROM.
 

JoannaC

Re: wow, great thread

I have my whole novel in one file. I write on my alphasmart (I get too distracted writing on my computer) and do a quick edit when I upload the alphasmart file. Sometimes I will leave gapsd which I indicate with an XX (for example, in my current project I know the villains need a few POV chapters and I know where but I have not decided what to do with them yet, so I just put the XX as a place-holder because then when I am ready to write, I can just do a find for the XX and jump right to that spot). I have been giving pages to my writing group partner as I write them and making minor changes. I will probably not start a second file until the whole thing is done and I am ready to do major edits. Then I will save the as polished as it can be without major edits draft and begin a new file for the major edits draft.
 
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