Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

The TOTEK.

Hello everybody and especially Uncle Jim. I have read a few of these posts and love some of the creative content that has been put together.

Which makes wonder what you all think of this line from my book:

The Perennial-City had long withstood the crossings of time as a bastion of hope for both kith and kin alike, but those days shall come no more as each pale stone teeters upon the edges of their doom. Such polished towers of pale white with yawning archways that spewed forth each winding stairwell had seen much joy and sorrow throughout the days of Avian reign. Though those days have long since passed, and much alike the driven rains upon the meandering streams, such days were as raindrops of wonder that did once exist, but are washed away in such a hurry that they return to us the same nevermore.

I hope you like it...

Welp.

Hi.

I've recently started writing in a new genre. I really want to write short stories or novelettes, at least starting out. One, because writing in that length is what I'm used to, and Two, I'm still trying to "get the feel" of the genre. Don't get me wrong; I do like it. However, I think I would understand it better if I could write short stories or novelettes for it at first.

There's just one small problem. The genre that I'm writing--Urban Fantasy--is more popular as novels or novellas than as lengths I want to write. Plus someone mentioned that market is really only beneficiary to authors who already have a name for themselves in that genre. But part of me still wants to try it. Another person did suggest that I just submit my stories to Fantasy markets, unless they strictly say "no Urban Fantasy".

I am working on something right now that I plan to fall in the novella range. But I still would like to try at short story/novelette range. I'd just feel more comfortable doing it that way, and seeing even this is a genre I really want to try to write in.

Would it be beneficial to do that despite the fact that most other work in the genre is in the novella and novel range?

Also do you have any advice for writing Fantasy short stories and novelettes? I know that Urban Fantasy probably doesn't have as much world-building as other sub-genres as Fantasy. However, that sometimes gives me trouble when I'm writing(or trying to).

Silver-Midnight said:

There's just one small problem. The genre that I'm writing--Urban Fantasy--is more popular as novels or novellas than as lengths I want to write. Plus someone mentioned that market is really only beneficiary to authors who already have a name for themselves in that genre. But part of me still wants to try it.

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If you need my permission to write a short story, I grant it to you. An excellent story makes its own market, regardless of genre.

Just make sure your story is excellent.

Which I'm sure it will be.

Write it, polish it, then send it out 'til Hell won't have it.

Also do you have any advice for writing Fantasy short stories and novelettes? I know that Urban Fantasy probably doesn't have as much world-building as other sub-genres as Fantasy. However, that sometimes gives me trouble when I'm writing(or trying to).

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Short stories don't have a lot of room for world-building. So don't build worlds. Write the story as if everyone already knew what was what. Readers will receive their information from the way your characters act and react.

If you need a challenge:

It's 1971, late in Nixon's first term. Maud is at work when she suddenly goes into diabetic shock. She needs sugar. Unfortunately, elves have stolen all the sugar in the employee cafeteria -- again. Trace Fred, her co-worker's, efforts to get help for Maud.

Do it in around 5,000 words.

Deadline is Wednesday.

Lee HH Cope said:

Hello everybody and especially Uncle Jim. I have read a few of these posts and love some of the creative content that has been put together.

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Hi, Lee.

I think I see what you're trying to do there.

Two things you can do:

1) Read it out loud, making a red check-mark in the margin every time you stumble whilst reading it.

2) Get a copy of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, and go through it marking a) every modifier, and b) every punctuation mark. (That's to help you think about both.)

3) Dropping over to Share Your Work after you've been active on the board for a while isn't a bad plan either.

A story from yet another Viable Paradise graduate: http://strangehorizons.com/2012/20120312/dignity-f.shtml

The days are akin to the falling rain upon the flowing waters.

zanzjan said:

Welcome to AW!

Your best bet for constructive feedback is to get up to your 50 post mark and then post over in SYW ("Show Your Work")

That said, although there's some intriguing hints about your world here, this is a bit too densely florid for my own tastes. There's a sense here about being present for a lecture about the setting, rather than actually being *in* the setting as a reader, and although that can be used quite effectively as a technique, if that's the effect you want you may need some hints very soon about who is telling us this, and how they connect to us, to cement for the reader the sense that they are hearing a story inside the story. As the opening of a novel, you may want to try to work some of the background into (Avian reign, etc. -- anything not immediately pertinent to pulling in the reader) into the narrative itself as the actual story unfolds. If this is the opening of a short, you would really need to grab the reader much more quickly. (Short story markets, and readers, are impatient and more than a little ruthless.)

I very much like the "raindrops of wonder" line. Excellent imagery.

My own $.02 of course, and I could always be entirely wrong.

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Hi zanzjan, Many thanks for the comments and the advice, it is always very much appreciated. The paragraph I chose was from my 15th chapter of the TOTEK, so was just a taster of what I have written thus far.

I rearly liked the way the words came into being and painted the image that every day is just like the falling rain upon the water, because very much akin to raindrops they are what they and nothing more; but they never return to us the same.

James D. Macdonald said:

If you need my permission to write a short story, I grant it to you. An excellent story makes its own market, regardless of genre.

Just make sure your story is excellent.

Which I'm sure it will be.

Write it, polish it, then send it out 'til Hell won't have it.


Short stories don't have a lot of room for world-building. So don't build worlds. Write the story as if everyone already knew what was what. Readers will receive their information from the way your characters act and react.

If you need a challenge:

It's 1971, late in Nixon's first term. Maud is at work when she suddenly goes into diabetic shock. She needs sugar. Unfortunately, elves have stolen all the sugar in the employee cafeteria -- again. Trace Fred, her co-worker's, efforts to get help for Maud.

Do it in around 5,000 words.

Deadline is Wednesday.

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Thanks for the advice!

James D. Macdonald said:

Speaking of epistolary novels, there's Dracula, and our own Land of Mist and Snow.

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Will do! I've never read an alternate history novel before. The opening makes me want to read more... Thanks for the recommendation.

I've just started writing after a lifetime of reading. It's a lot harder than it looks. There's this inertia that I have to overcome every time I start to write. It gives me a new perspective for every time I think "I could write a better book than that."

Elsewhere at AW, I posted:

danrupe said:

That's what gives me the feel of a children's book. A lot of these "rules" make these crazy blanket statements. We are writing words on paper, not giving someone CPR. Nobody is gonna die if we end a sentence in a preposition. (Well, there was that time in '72, but that'll surely never happen again.)

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"Don't end a sentence with a preposition" is not now and never has been a rule in English. A bunch of 17th century grammarians, who thought that Latin is the perfect language and therefore English should follow Latin's rules (where a "preposition" quite literally cannot end a sentence because it's a pre-position), tried to impose it. It's been over three hundred years now, and their attempt has definitively failed.

As far as said: You get the My First Reader effect if you end every line of dialog with a tag. Doesn't matter what the tag is.

The purpose of tags is to keep the reader from losing track of who's talking, or to add information that the reader can't pick up from the dialog or action.

You're writing a story, not a stage play. You don't need to give stage directions.

James M. Cain (a master stylist) ran five pages of dialog among three different people with no tags at all in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

When you do use tags, words other than said are a spice. Enough makes the stew tastier. Too much makes it inedible.

When using words other than said, do try to use verbs that describe how dialog can be delivered. Screeched or whispered, okay. Grinned or skated, not so okay.

First off, I just have to say 'Wow'. I found this site a few days ago, and since yesterday afternoon when I saw someone mention 'Learn to Write With Uncle Jim' I haven't read anything else, other than the first chapter to 'The Apocalypse Door'. I just wanted to thank you so far for the information I've gleaned from your thread!

Even though I'm only on page 3 of 389 in the FIRST thread. So far however, you've talked me into scrapping my idea of writing a new first chapter and just using my second chapter as my first. Though, the action doesn't really even happen in that chapter.

May I borrow you for a few months? I have a spare couch that you may only have to share with my wife's cats once in a while.

Jaegur said:

Even though I'm only on page 3 of 389 in the FIRST thread. So far however, you've talked me into scrapping my idea of writing a new first chapter and just using my second chapter as my first. Though, the action doesn't really even happen in that chapter.

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Just write through to "The End." You'll discover later what the first chapter is.

MVK said:

It gives me a new perspective for every time I think "I could write a better book than that."

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Many have. You can too. Sit down and write. The Muse doesn't visit when you aren't at your keyboard. Give me 500 words before you come back. Then do another 500 words tomorrow. In six months you'll have a novel-length pile of pages. It may be tripe, but you can't edit a blank page.


--------------

Meanwhile....

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:

Dear Uncle Jim,
Confused Scribe in San Francisco


Dear Confused:
Uncle Jim

James D. Macdonald said:

Get a copy of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, and go through it marking a) every modifier, and b) every punctuation mark. (That's to help you think about both.)

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Hi Jim, Why did you recommend this story? Was it because Dunsany was a master of modifiers and punctuation or because he sucked at these?

Is the story a good read? I tried a book of shorts by him recently and thought it was dreadful. Put me right off him.

euclid said:

Hi Jim, Why did you recommend this story? Was it because Dunsany was a master of modifiers and punctuation or because he sucked at these?

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Dunsany is absolutely a master of modifiers and punctuation (and archaic word-choices).

It struck me, based on the small sample, that Dunsany would be a good choice of folks whose style would bear study.

James D. Macdonald said:

Many have. You can too. Sit down and write. The Muse doesn't visit when you aren't at your keyboard. Give me 500 words before you come back. Then do another 500 words tomorrow. In six months you'll have a novel-length pile of pages. It may be tripe, but you can't edit a blank page.

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So, unless you're trying to meet a deadline, it doesn't matter how much you write a day. However, you should get in the habit of writing everyday, right?

Silver-Midnight said:

So, unless you're trying to meet a deadline, it doesn't matter how much you write a day. However, you should get in the habit of writing everyday, right?

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I may be wrong, but I think the 500 word day is to put into perspective the writing process as a bunch of small, obtainable goals as opposed to a 80,000 word afternoon no one could master.

As a person who suffers from a mild form of ADD, I find smaller goals... Oh look a humming bird by my window. I wonder why no one ever cleans these windows? I could get a ladder, but then cleaning the garage is so tedious... It would be easier if the garage just burnt down and I bought all new.

Anyone know why we are talking about a fire department sex scandal in a writing forum. geez, y'all get so far afield here.

Silver-Midnight said:

However, you should get in the habit of writing everyday, right?

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That's about the size of it.

allenparker said:

I may be wrong, but I think the 500 word day is to put into perspective the writing process as a bunch of small, obtainable goals as opposed to a 80,000 word afternoon no one could master.

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That makes sense. I just thought that might've actually been the right amount of time. I'm still trying to figure out what works me, doing timed exercises or setting a word count goal for myself for the entire day. So, I'm trying each a little bit. The only reason why I'm doing it like that is because I know, mostly due to my schedule, I can't always spend a lot of time doing free-writing, and I have to benefit from the amounts of time that I do have.

James D. Macdonald said:

That's about the size of it.

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Okay.



I have another quick little question. A publisher is having an anthology that I want to try to submit something to. There's only one, somewhat small problem. The deadline is 20th of April. Usually, I just pass if the deadline is that close. However, this is a regular occurrence for me. I'll find a line/anthology I want to submit to, but the deadline is really, really close. However, I still want to try. I was going to try to do about about 357 words a day if I could. I got that number by taking the minimum amount of word count needed for the anthology(5,000 words) and divided by 14 days(2 weeks). The bad thing is that typically when I try the "I'm going to write X amount of words a day thing" it doesn't work out for me. It might the first two or three times, but after that, nope. What would you suggest I do in this situation(and ones similar to it) where I fairly close deadline like this? Are there any other tactics I can use to meet deadlines?

James D. Macdonald said:

Elsewhere at AW, I posted:




"Don't end a sentence with a preposition" is not now and never has been a rule in English. A bunch of 17th century grammarians, who thought that Latin is the perfect language and therefore English should follow Latin's rules (where a "preposition" quite literally cannot end a sentence because it's a pre-position), tried to impose it. It's been over three hundred years now, and their attempt has definitively failed.

As far as said: You get the My First Reader effect if you end every line of dialog with a tag. Doesn't matter what the tag is.

The purpose of tags is to keep the reader from losing track of who's talking, or to add information that the reader can't pick up from the dialog or action.

You're writing a story, not a stage play. You don't need to give stage directions.

James M. Cain (a master stylist) ran five pages of dialog among three different people with no tags at all in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

When you do use tags, words other than said are a spice. Enough makes the stew tastier. Too much makes it inedible.

When using words other than said, do try to use verbs that describe how dialog can be delivered. Screeched or whispered, okay. Grinned or skated, not so okay.

Click to expand...

In the latest Jake Reacher novel there was a page of dialogue with an attribution accompanying each bit of dialogue. The next page was a page of dialogue without a single attribution. I can only think Lee Child was trying to vary the rythym of the dialogue (I always work on the assumption that published writers do what they do for a good reason).

Silver-Midnight said:

What would you suggest I do in this situation(and ones similar to it) where I'm fairly close deadline like this? Are there any other tactics I can use to meet deadlines?

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Just grit your teeth, sit down, and write. Even if you aren't inspired. Even if what you're writing is crud. Just do it.

(When you're making your schedules, don't forget to schedule in editing/revising time.)

You can write a 5,000 word story in somewhere between three and four days, without breaking a sweat. Sit down and do it. Make your fingers move.

If you need permission to write badly, just ask. I have a certificate I can give you.

James D. Macdonald said:

Just grit your teeth, sit down, and write. Even if you aren't inspired. Even if what you're writing is crud. Just do it.

(When you're making your schedules, don't forget to schedule in editing/revising time.)

You can write a 5,000 word story in somewhere between three and four days, without breaking a sweat. Sit down and do it. Make your fingers move.

If you need permission to write badly, just ask. I have a certificate I can give you.

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Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

Let me know when you finish your story and when you send it out.

James D. Macdonald said:

Let me know when you finish your story and when you send it out.

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I will. I just I hope I make it.