Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

James D. Macdonald said:

(And Berry -- you have learned well. Now you are the master.)

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Thank you, sir! However, I realize I still have a LOT to learn from the wise ones, such as your august self.

I've never counted how many manuscripts go in each category.

We stop looking after we've filled the class.

Capitalization of titles

I have a request for help wiht capitalization: when a word cna be both a noun and a title, such as king, pope, or lord, when is it capitalized?

These are the ways i've been using them:

"Hello, Lord."

"who's he?" "The King of England."

"I've just been to talk with the king."

"popes are elected by a group of cardinals."

are any or all these correct? incorrect? what, exactly, is the rule?

fallenangelwriter said:

I have a request for help wiht capitalization: when a word cna be both a noun and a title, such as king, pope, or lord, when is it capitalized?

These are the ways i've been using them:

"Hello, Lord."

"who's he?" "The King of England."

"I've just been to talk with the king."

"popes are elected by a group of cardinals."

are any or all these correct? incorrect? what, exactly, is the rule?

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Most of these are correct, fallenangelwriter. You would capitalize when using the person's title in a name. For example, King John, but not, as in your second example, "the king of England." I can't quote the rule specifically and I don't see it in my Strunk & White. Generally, though, the title is capitalized only when you're referring to the specific person, as in President Abraham Lincoln, but not when you're referring to the office in general, as you did correctly in your fourth example, "popes are elected by a group of cardinals."

fallenangelwriter said:

"popes are elected by a group of cardinals."

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Well, that's wrong, but not why you think. "Popes" should be capitalized as the first word of the sentence.

But in general, if you're talking about popes or cardinals or lords or kings in general, lower case is OK. If you're talking about THE Pope, or Her Majesty the Queen, or Cardinal Gizorninplatz, capitalize.

Something like the Chicago Manual of Style will be more authoritative.

But really, this is something the copyeditor will have to worry about, not you. Don't obsess about it, choose something consistent and keep writing.

I have also seen the capitalzation question covered in Strunk and White's Elements of style. As well as, The Well-Tempered sentence, by Karen Gordon, Merriam-Webster's Guide to punctuation and style, and the Associoated Press style book/AP stylebook.

Simplified help for grammar -- http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml

Titles are capitalized when it's the guy's name.

As others have said above. When you're writing, just be consistent (and Beware the Curse of Promiscuous Over-capitalization).

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And a brief comment on my latest bit of self-publication. In this case, I'm using Lulu as an easy Xerox machine. This coming February, Doyle and I have been invited to speak to a couple of classes on publishing at the University of Connecticut. The instructor wanted the students to read some of our works, without making them go out and buy multiple anthologies just for one story in each. So I genned up a quick chapbook of three of our stories, my beloved wife did a cover (yes, it's legal to own those things in New Hampshire), and we put on line. Rather than keeping it private for the students, though, I pressed the button that said "make this available to the public" (or words to that effect). The advertising that I'm doing, sig lines, on my web page, etc., is no-cost. I've not yet decided if I'll leave it up after the class meets. I probably will take the PDF down (leaving only hard copy), if I put the same stories on Fictionwise.com (something else I'm thinking of doing with our old short stories).

James D. Macdonald said:

And a brief comment on my latest bit of self-publication. In this case, I'm using Lulu as an easy Xerox machine. This coming February, Doyle and I have been invited to speak to a couple of classes on publishing at the University of Connecticut. The instructor wanted the students to read some of our works, without making them go out and buy multiple anthologies just for one story in each. So I genned up a quick chapbook of three of our stories, my beloved wife did a cover (yes, it's legal to own those things in New Hampshire), and we put on line. Rather than keeping it private for the students, though, I pressed the button that said "make this available to the public" (or words to that effect). The advertising that I'm doing, sig lines, on my web page, etc., is no-cost. I've not yet decided if I'll leave it up after the class meets. I probably will take the PDF down (leaving only hard copy), if I put the same stories on Fictionwise.com (something else I'm thinking of doing with our old short stories).

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Did you have to worry about rights when you put the stories together in the book?

katee said:

Did you have to worry about rights when you put the stories together in the book?

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Any time you publish something you have to worry about the rights.

In this case, it was stories Uncle Jim had sold the first serial rights to, and collecting them in an anthology/chapbook doesn't conflict, assuming he kept all other rights, which I know Jim is far to savvy not to. (He also doesn't write sentences like that last disaster there. I'm still learning.)

All I sold were first serial rights, with a six month exclusive period after publication of the anthologies. Since the most recent of the anthologies came out in 2002, that's long passed.

One of those stories has been reprinted two other times in two other anthologies (with new payments each time, hurray, go me!). Since I kept all the rights other than first serial (which, of its nature, can only be sold once), I can do with them as I please.

VP question again

James D. Macdonald said:

Other instructors may have other criteria, but mine is: Do I think I have something useful to tell this person?

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If this isn't too off-topic, what sorts of something useful have you found to tell people?
I realise that to some extent the answer is spread through this thread, but I think what I'm wondering is - what do you find lacking or insufficient in the work of beginning writers that can be encouraged or developed over the course of the workshop?
-Barbara (who only got Logical Chess a few months ago and is still catching up)

I'm the shape-of-a-story guy.

I don't really care much about the grammar; I ask "Does this person have somewhere they're going?" If yes, I can talk with them about refining that. If not ... I can't help.

I may have asked this before (or someone else did!) but---is there a thread like this on crafting short stories?

Sailor Kenshin said:

I may have asked this before (or someone else did!) but---is there a thread like this on crafting short stories?

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Well, there's the Short Fiction studio (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15).

But I don't think there's a thread like this, where someone like Uncle Jim, who is both a successful novelist AND a gifted teacher, does the same for short fiction.

Right, Berry. U.J. has said, "Every story must have a,beginning, middle, and an end.

I think that holds true no matter the word count.

I (we) have sold about as many short stories as novels.

The differences are these:

You don't have any room for error in a short story.

A novel can do many things; a short story only does one.

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Think of 'em this way:

If you're doing aerobatics, and you're flying at 5,000 feet, you have room to recover. If you're doing aerobatics and you're flying at 500 feet, you're dead.

A short story is a single joke. A novel is a comedy routine.

The Confessions of Peter Crossman

Hi Uncle Jim,

I just finished reading the three stories in "The Confessions of Peter Crossman." I enjoyed them thoroughly and recommend them to everyone. They're taut, terse and imaginative. Like I told my husband, "God with a gun." An uncommon combination of style and subject matter that works, tongue firmly planted in cheek. They're good examples of what's talked about in this thread, very tightly packed.

The book is good study material for everyone, plus Valentine's day is coming up and it makes a great gift.

On the uselessness of Amazon Comments:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-522532.html?legacy=zdnn

aertep said:

I enjoyed them thoroughly and recommend them to everyone.

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If you think my books suck, tell me.

If you think they're great, tell everyone else.

I think they're great. If I didn't, I probably wouldn't have said anything at all.

James D. Macdonald said:

If you think my books suck, tell me.

If you think they're great, tell everyone else.

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I'm working on a political satire and I have a couple general questions about the do's and dont's concerning names of public/famous people and the use of song titles.

Example:

"You write a book. You write a manifesto, your views and opinions, what you want to accomplish. What do you think Al Gore did before he ran for president? He wrote a book. John McCain? He wrote a book."

Junior was a huge fan of a diverse array of country artists ranging from the Texas sound of The Derailers, Junior Brown, BR-549, Robert Earl Keen, Charlie and Bruce Robison to mainstream country acts such as Hank Williams, Jr., Travis Tritt, Darryl Worley, Brooks and Dunn, Vince Gill, and Toby Keith.

People still talk about the night the Pirates’ performed on Valentine’s Day at Hack’s Rusty Nail Saloon and played a steel-guitar, fiddle-laced medley consisting of George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex,” “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” by Jimmy Buffett, Barry Manilow’s classic “Copacabana,” and topped it off with a two stepping version of Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls."

Would any of the above be problematic?

Now if I'm writing a character based on a specific person, obviously I would change the name to something fictional. George W. Bush would become Robert W. Rush for example. John Kerry- John Carey.

Is there anything else I need to be concerned about in general?

The more public the person, the less protection that person has.

Titles can't be copyrighted, but songs may be special cases if, for example, the title is also one of the lines.

Always ask if the effect you want requires the particular name/title/whatever.

For real answers, please talk to a real lawyer.

Understood. Obviously, I would write it in for background purposes to define a particular character.
Thanks James.