Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Bartholomew

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Yep. I'm thinking Dashiell Hammett and Agatha Christi.

Bart, woefully ignorant about the mystery genre.
 

Joel Engesser

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I really like your outline method, and i understand it's meant for really rough drafts, but i usually spend a good many days thinking and rethinking plot before beginning to write (i've been working on multiple projects at once so i always have something to write). Your thoughts?
 

allenparker

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Given the caveats...

a book written well, unique, interesting and totally awesome, could a book like Roots be written today and be published.

The book was like 900 pages, contained a story arc based on family suspense.

Is a book like that viable in this market?
 

James D. Macdonald

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Good writing is always viable.

Don't reject your own story.

BTW, in the course of whoring after Hollywood Respectability, I have my first screen credit here: Yellowbrickroad. It's in teeny-tiny type, and it's all the way at the end in the final credits, but it's there.

How not to get an agent part #58309:


  • Writer leaves briefcase containing manuscript outside agent's door.
  • Agent calls bomb squad.
  • Bomb squad blows up briefcase and manuscript.

We can only hope the writer kept a backup....
 
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James D. Macdonald

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I know entirely too many authors who spent quite a bit of time and money later in their careers buying up and burning all the available copies of their first published novels.

The last time I submitted a story cold was the last time I submitted a short story, which would have been in 2007. I don't write short stories very often.

I wrote it on-line, which you might consider self-publishing (though we put it under a friends-lock at the time). What you can read there is my first draft, unedited by Doyle.

It sold to the first place we submitted it to, and subsequently was reprinted in a Best Of collection. You can read it in its finished version right now, self-published in a variety of e-publication formats.

Book sculptures.
 
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Bartholomew

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I'm in chapter four and chugging along. Just thought I'd share. =)
 

James D. Macdonald

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It's close to 1,000 pages of teeny-tiny print. There are authors who are left out. Bradbury, for example.

There's always a limit in space and time (you can hardly reprint the entire corpus). And in some cases the author, or their estates, either asked fees that far exceeded budget, or never got back in touch at all.

Doyle and I each have essays in the book (mine on Military SF, Doyle's on Writers' Workshops), and we have a reprinted story.
 

allenparker

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BTW, in the course of whoring after Hollywood Respectability, I have my first screen credit here: Yellowbrickroad. It's in teeny-tiny type, and it's all the way at the end in the final credits, but it's there.

Was this a writing credit? Or did you don the color and flavor of the silver screen?
 

allenparker

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Good writing is always viable.

Don't reject your own story.

This, of course, begins with the supposition that good writing and Allen are relatively good friends, at least meet for coffee.

Do you think in this climate, at least the one three years from now, that a book of 1000 pages would be better to be split into several 300 page books? Or is this a question to ask after The End?
 

James D. Macdonald

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From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:

Dear Uncle Jim: I've just had the most dreadful experience. I finished my novel, and I showed it to some folks who promised a critique. The first one came in, and it was horrible! The guy didn't understand a word I'd said, missed every possible point, criticized things that were right, and offered suggestions that were wrong. Plus he hated the book. What should I say?

-- Puzzled in Peoria

Dear Puzzled:

Say "Thank you very much!" and mean it.
 

Jake Barnes

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zanzjan

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An amusing article (although I'd thought PA's cracks about SF/F writers came after the Atlanta Nights sting?) but the UMass Amherst hoax she leads with never would have worked. For one thing, they'd be unlikely to find anyone with lapels, and even more unlikely to find anyone who'd do much more than point them towards the administration building at the far end of campus. Still, would have been worth seeing the attempt. (-: