Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

euclid said:

What's R-rated?

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I think in the States you'd call it X-rated. Sexually explicit material usually earns that rating.

euclid said:

What's R-rated?

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R rated is a film rating established by the Motion Picture Association of America in 1968 when the old "Hayes Code" was abolished. Standards have relaxed in the past forty years, but the wording has remained R = "Restricted, no one under seventeen admitted without parent or guardian."

I'm not sure how this compares to X Cert in UK. In the late 60s in the US there was an "X" rating which was not trademarked by the MPAA. Midnight Cowboy, Clockwork Orange, and Last Tango In Paris were three films originally released with an X rating which meant "no one under 17 admitted."

Due to the prolifertion of pornography using an "X" on their product, and eventually a "XXX" designation, the "X rating" was seldom used in the US after the late 60s. It was associated with porn and meant box office death. Eventually, the MPAA created a new rating NC-17 to designate a film which it felt should not be seen by minors.

Today, the R rating is quite common and the restriction to younger teenagers is not necessarily enforced. R rated movies today can feature a liberal use of "language", simulated sex, violence, violent sex, frontal nudity, as well as strong themes of drug use. Blue Velvet, Se7en, Tropic Thunder all feature strong content which the R rating advises parents to proceed with caution when considering a trip to the cinema with their 14 year old.

I spew all of this information out because I brushed up on it for my current WIP, Night of the Pentagram, which takes place in 1968 in the Hollywood film industry.

THere is a very entertaining documentary available on DVD titled "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated" which explores the sometimes questionable methods of the Motion Picture Association of America in designating what films receive an R, NC-17, or the less restricted PG and PG-13.

sorry if this went to far off topic

Re: Titles.

Titles can't be copyrighted ('though they can be trademarked). Still, I'd be a fool to call my book Moby-Dick; or, The Whale because of the possibility of confusing my readers.

Some estates are particularly litigious (for example, the Tolkien estate), leading them to launch frivolous yet interminable lawsuits, which nevertheless are sufficiently wearing (since they have more money than anyone needs), such that they were able to make There And Back Again by Pat Murphy permanently unpublishable.

You'll notice that my own The Apocalypse Door shares a title with a book by William Todd which came out at roughly the same time. This never caused me any trouble.

Okay, writing groups.

If there isn't one in your area, you can start one yourself.

Are there four or five writers, working at about your same level, in similar (or compatible) genres? Good. Discuss forming a writing group with them.

Having decided to do it, find a meeting place. A public library or a community center would be good, since if you start meeting in people's homes pretty soon the tea and muffins will become more important than the writing.

Establish minimums for how much work you need to present each week. Every week, everyone brings in that number of pages of their work-in-progress. Folks take 'em home. The following week, everyone presents their comments on that week's works, and collects the next week's stories/chapters/sections. Continue.

No free rides! If someone doesn't come up with the requisite number of pages each week -- you can be merciful once or twice, but after that, they're out.

No reviewing for blood. There are enough things in the writing life that'll make you cry without having one of your friends do it to you too. The goal isn't to show how clever you are, but to be both helpful and truthful.

Are there four or five writers, working at about your same level, in similar (or compatible) genres? Good. Discuss forming a writing group with them.

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How do you find these people? That's always been my biggest question

Until Waylander that is.

R rated is a film rating established by the Motion Picture Association of America in 1968 when the old "Hayes Code" was abolished. Standards have relaxed in the past forty years, but the wording has remained R = "Restricted, no one under seventeen admitted without parent or guardian."

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Did you know about the british board of censors' knuckle rule? Apparently it pertains to feet too.

There are some weird autobiographies out there

IdiotsRUs said:

How do you find these people? That's always been my biggest question

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A note on the bulletin board at the library, or seeing who goes to local writing conferences, might help. Get wired into the writing demi-monde in your area. Writers who are social enough to be a in a writing group aren't invisible.

James D. Macdonald said:

Re: Titles.

... they were able to make There And Back Again by Pat Murphy permanently unpublishable.

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Hm. I have a copy on my shelves. Do you mean it's now out of print and will never be reprinted, because of this?

Berry said:

Do you mean it's now out of print and will never be reprinted, because of this?

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That's exactly what I mean.

What a pity; it was a fun read.

RE: Titles

I think titles should not be subject to copyright issues because its the content of the book that matters

skyscrape32 said:

RE: Titles

I think titles should not be subject to copyright issues because its the content of the book that matters

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Except that if the title is instantly recognizable, then the content received may be different than what the reader expected.

Say I wrote a book about dinosaurs for children. It's about a zoo-like facility where candycolored dinos interact with the kids on a daily basis to teach them basic learning skills (math, grammar, and the like). Sure, I could call it Jurassic Park; it fits the material and is a fair representation of what's inside - but just about everyone has an instant idea of story goes along with JP.

Say I wrote an NC-17 level book about a mage who fights evil with his two sidekicks. He undergoes training to perfect his craft and his name happens to be Harry Potter. (I think this one actually couldn't be done because HP is a trademarked charrie, but I'll use him for the sake of argument.) No matter what warning is put on the book as to it being adult content, anyone seeing Harry's name on it will automatically assume it belongs to a certain genre for a certain age range. They wouldn't be expecting graphic sex or bloody violence on every page.

You may have a WIP with a title you LOVE - one someone else got to use first. You'll be a lot better off if you change it rather than digging your heels in because you've had something named "Twilight", "the DaVinci Code" or "The Lovely Bones" on your computer for fifteen years. (IMO, of course )

James D. Macdonald said:

Establish minimums for how much work you need to present each week. Every week, everyone brings in that number of pages of their work-in-progress.

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I have never belonged to a writer's group, but would love the oppurtunity for informed feedback. However, I would baulk at showing people WIP stuff that was still at 1st draft stage. I never show work to my betas until it has been redrafted several times. Is it worthwhile getting crits on something that hasn't properly taken shape yet?

Sharing work that was more polished I would have no problem with. Or does this go against the ethos of a typical writer's group?

Aschenbach said:

Sharing work that was more polished I would have no problem with. Or does this go against the ethos of a typical writer's group?

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First draft? No need for that. There's no reason why you should be workshopping anything less than ready-for-beta material.

Aschenbach said:

I have never belonged to a writer's group, but would love the oppurtunity for informed feedback. However, I would baulk at showing people WIP stuff that was still at 1st draft stage. I never show work to my betas until it has been redrafted several times. Is it worthwhile getting crits on something that hasn't properly taken shape yet?

Sharing work that was more polished I would have no problem with. Or does this go against the ethos of a typical writer's group?

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I do think you can find good feedback while you're still in the shaping phase. I've done it a few times with projects I started for a sort of "would the idea/plot point/whatever work for you" thing. As long as there's the understanding that it's not finished, and I don't want in depth critique on the finer details or things I obviously haven't finished working out yet, I think you can still get good general feedback. As you have something intelligible, you can get something.

For me, letting people see what I've got to start with works, because it keeps me going in a direction that makes sense, and I can figure out what people expect of the plot, character, etc. It cuts back on some of the work later if I can avoid some bigger plot holes. It allows me to edit faster, sometimes.

Considering I've always been in the habit of just writing papers for school straight and turning them in without edits, and I was never much for editing (school or otherwise) until I decided I could be a whole new level of BA if I did, I never felt like what I wrote to start with was so indecent no one could see it. So maybe that's just a personal thing for me. I wouldn't ask for too much time from people, and I'd still want someone to look at the more polished piece, but you can find useful feedback with a far less than perfect draft.

(Like, okay. So my new WIP I started just this month last friday I printed off so I could take with me, not realizing immediately how long it was. I showed it to my friend because I was amused at how large the stack of paper was, and she skimmed it instead. What she said was she liked the style, the voice, and the general idea was cool. I mean, that wasn't an in depth critique, nor did I ask for one or expect her to look at it at all, but it's still helpful. She'd be honest if it wasn't working for her. If I asked she'd probably say more too, but it wasn't important.)

was vs. were

Hi Uncle Jim,

Is there a simple way to explain why was should be used instead of were? Without it getting too complicated or for it to sound like the explanation came from the Oxford Dictionary?

Calliopenjo said:

Hi Uncle Jim,

Is there a simple way to explain why was should be used instead of were? Without it getting too complicated or for it to sound like the explanation came from the Oxford Dictionary?

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Hmmm.

It would help if you had an example. But:

In general:

Was is singular (I was walking down the street) while were is plural (We were walking down the street).

I was, you were, he/she/it was; we were, you were, they were.


Or are you talking about the subjunctive mood?

If you have a statement contrary to fact, you use were. "If I were you."

Use were for the conditional mood (some condition needs to change for the statement to be true) "If it were raining."

Subjunctive and conditional phrases often (but not exclusively) start with the word "If."

Thanks Uncle Jim

In the design field, when you create and present design solutions to team members and clients (all arts are related), and if you have a half-hearted design that your're not quite sure of, people will always run away with it. They will sense the incompleteness and insecurity and a lot of discussions happen that help nobody. I don't understand where and why and how a reading group is a good thing for a starting author.

pictopedia said:

In the design field, when you create and present design solutions to team members and clients (all arts are related), and if you have a half-hearted design that your're not quite sure of, people will always run away with it. They will sense the incompleteness and insecurity and a lot of discussions happen that help nobody. I don't understand where and why and how a reading group is a good thing for a starting author.

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It's different.

pictopedia said:

In the design field, when you create and present design solutions to team members and clients (all arts are related), and if you have a half-hearted design that your're not quite sure of, people will always run away with it. They will sense the incompleteness and insecurity and a lot of discussions happen that help nobody. I don't understand where and why and how a reading group is a good thing for a starting author.

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It depends on the group. I've been in situations where I've had a good idea for something (a play, worship service, whatever), and I've worked with a group and the idea got even better.

If the group is about competition, then the group isn't going to make any idea better. But if it's about co-operation, and the folks in the group know what they're doing, then weak ideas will be revealed as such, and strong ideas will be made stronger.

I wouldn't think much of a team that spent a lot of time "running away" with an incomplete idea--the most constructive thing for that team to do would be to table it until it was more complete. And if the team consistently spent a lot of time on useless activity, I'd find another team, not give up on teams altogether.

Even in groups where one feels comfortable sharing an early draft (and like Yeshanu I think this is restricted to co-operative groups, and to groups where people know one another and have seen polished work from one another so know what they can do), it's useful to mark it as such so that people don't waste their time detail-editing something that will change a fair amount.

Character thought

[FONT=&quot]Hi Uncle Jim,[/FONT]
When indicating thought from a character in a story, how is it indicated? I have two samples here. Would it be Sample 1 or Sample 2? Or is it a matter of personal style?


[FONT=&quot]Sample 1
Arrosa looked at Edwina’s light brown eyes. Her hair is showing signs of aging: more gray now than the earthen color it normally is. Signs of eating too many sweets showing themselves as well. She deserves them, for all that she does. As for the request, it is unusual and my dear sister Lila knows how I feel about unusual requests. That would be the reason for sending MacGivvit, to avert attention away from her and onto someone of less significance. It will save her from having to wait for the spell to ware off, and be free from the cage. Arrosa turned around and walked back to the cliff overlooking the ocean below. She watched the waves crash on shore. “Edwina, bring MacGivvit to me.” A small bolt of energy emanated from her index finger, igniting the hindquarters of various vermin in the surrounding area.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sample 2
Arrosa looked at Edwina’s light brown eyes, she thought, her hair is showing signs of aging: more gray now than the earthen color it normally is. Signs of eating too many sweets showing themselves as well. She deserves them, for all that she does. As for the request, it is unusual and my dear sister Lila knows how I feel about unusual requests. That would be the reason for sending MacGivvit, to avert attention away from her and onto someone of less significance. It will save her from having to wait for the spell to ware off, and be free from the cage. Arrosa turned around and walked back to the cliff overlooking the ocean below. She watched the waves crash on shore. “Edwina, bring MacGivvit to me.” A small bolt of energy emanated from her index finger, igniting the hindquarters of various vermin in the surrounding area.[/FONT]

I like the vermin with the smouldering hindquarters.

You can indicate thought any way you please (italics are more common, though).

Please consider re-paragraphing, whichever way you go.

spelling

Calliopenjo said:

[FONT=&quot]Sample 1
Arrosa looked at Edwina’s light brown eyes. Her hair is showing signs of aging: more gray now than the earthen color it normally is. Signs of eating too many sweets showing themselves as well. She deserves them, for all that she does. As for the request, it is unusual and my dear sister Lila knows how I feel about unusual requests. That would be the reason for sending MacGivvit, to avert attention away from her and onto someone of less significance. It will save her from having to wait for the spell to ware off, and be free from the cage. Arrosa turned around and walked back to the cliff overlooking the ocean below. She watched the waves crash on shore. “Edwina, bring MacGivvit to me.” A small bolt of energy emanated from her index finger, igniting the hindquarters of various vermin in the surrounding area.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sample 2
[FONT=&quot]Arrosa looked at Edwina’s light brown eyes, she thought, her hair is showing signs of aging: more gray now than the earthen color it normally is. Signs of eating too many sweets showing themselves as well. She deserves them, for all that she does. As for the request, it is unusual and my dear sister Lila knows how I feel about unusual requests. That would be the reason for sending MacGivvit, to avert attention away from her and onto someone of less significance. It will save her from having to wait for the spell to ware off, and be free from the cage. Arrosa turned around and walked back to the cliff overlooking the ocean below. She watched the waves crash on shore. “Edwina, bring MacGivvit to me.” A small bolt of energy emanated from her index finger, igniting the hindquarters of various vermin in the surrounding area.[/FONT][/FONT]

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I spotted a spelling mistake: That should be wear off

Thanks guys. The story is still in its infancy so any mistakes that pop up I apologize for.