Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

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sc211

Re: To dream or not to dream

It could work well in contrasting the boy's wishes of who he'd like to be against the stark reality. But you can't have it go for more than a page (at most) if you don't clue us in it's a dream.

Look at "Risky Business." The opening lines are "The dream is always the same..." And then it shows his deepest desires and fears - sex vs. studies - which plays out in the rest of the film.
 

pianoman5

Re: To dream or not to dream

Good example, Jim, of a great way to do it. Walter Mitty's fantasies are daydreams actually, while he's out shopping with his wife, and are beautifully integrated into the narrative.

Incidentally, at just 2,084 words, for a long time that story held the record for the most money ever earned per word, although I'd imagine it's since been overtaken by King or Rowling.

Here's an online version of it: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
 

James D Macdonald

Locking

Ya know, if we can't add new messages, this thread will drift away off the front page. Maybe time for an index, and a Son of Uncle Jim?
 

aka eraser

Re: To dream or not to dream

Now if the last person posting just leaves a shoe between the door and the sill, we might be OK for a while.
 

James D Macdonald

Another Good Site

<a href="http://www.blackholly.com/writingresources.htm" target="_new">Holly Black's Writing Resources</a>
 

HConn

Re: Locking

In her link to James Russel's 20 tips to getting published, the article states that:

It is near impossible to be published and expect your book to be a bestseller if you do not invest in professional services to bring your manuscript up to industry standards. To save money on editing services is a recipe for absolute failure.

I don't have a problem personally with paying an editor. I can't afford it myself, but good luck to those who can. But isn't that a canard?
 

Fresie

Deja vu

In her link to James Russel's 20 tips to getting published

This article gave me a very weird deja vu feeling... I've read quite a few submission advice articles in my lifetime, some of them written by well-known publishers, and I can swear that at least some of what he says I've seen in their articles first. It's not even about the advice as such, it's the wording, the air, the tiny quirky bits... can'T place it myself, really, but I know it. Of course you can't be very inventive about submission format, but I'm sure that this article doesn't really come from his professional experience, but is rather a compilation of other people's advice.

Out of curiosity, I visited his website (or so I think) and it left me pretty unimpressed. His publishing company seems to mostly sell how-to writing books and his own works (also available on eBay). There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, it's great he promotes his own work this way, but I'm not sure he's experienced enough (compared to other people in the industry) to give advice. <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/nerd.gif" />
 

macalicious731

Re: To dream or not to dream

James, thanks a lot for that link. It's the first place where I found information for writers under 21 specifically addressed.
 

pianoman5

Re: Deja vu

I like Mr Russell's observation in point #18:

Good editors and ghostwriters know more than the technical side of writing; they know how to write a bestseller.

He clearly has some uniquely qualified people at his disposal.

Of course, having a generous and well-known boss must help. How many of us could claim in a 'personal testimony' that:

My employer is Jesus Christ and He pays the bills.
 

Writing Again

Thank you, Uncle Jim.

I have to say that between writing, working, living, posting, and various family disasters, it has taken me some time to read through this entire thread, but it is finally done.

It has been worth it.

The entire thread is now saved on a CD, and will be referred to often in the future.

It will be after the first of the year before any books are purchased (I have a budget specifically for books and it was long exceeded before the holidays arrived.) But the first book on my list will be Logical Chess.

Actually the mere mention of chess as an approach to writing helped me to solve a problem in my current fantasy novel. A kidnapped woman had to at a certain place at a certain time and I was chugging my brains trying to figure how to get her there when she needed to be there. Once I started thinking chess the answer was obvious: Find the reason the kidnappers needed to be in the vicinity allow her to escape while they were there. The rest took care of itself.

I wish to add my thank yous to those who have gone before. Even had I not personally gained from this thread I feel what you have done is a wonderful service to all writers who are willing to listen and think things through.
 

Am Kenemet

Yet more gratitude

I, too, wanted to add mine to the list of thanks you emphatically deserve, Uncle Jim.

Being a night owl, I found myself a few weeks ago, in the wee hours of the morning, completely bored with all the things I typically amuse myself with and wishing for something new when a thought struck me. Why not something old?

I enjoyed writing very much when I was in the tail end of my high school years, but seemed to have given it up as a childhood dream in the intervening years. Now I am 33. I have pulled out some earlier works here and there, but they always departed back to their places of dark and forgotten storage with small wistful smiles of days gone by.

So here I was, dawn fast approaching, and I decided to just sit in front of the blank page of Microsoft Word until I put something down, or sleepiness finally sent me to bed. Writing won the day. The next day I went searching the net for resources and found this thread almost immediately. Seems I had just the night before discovered the BIC method of writing. :D

Thank you, Uncle Jim, for starting this wonderful thread and helping me to realize that this was a dream that is possible. I am greatly encouraged by what I have read here and through links. Thank you also, everyone else here, for turning this into one of the most amazing threads I have seen on any subject. I feel vastly honored to enter into the company of you all.

Hah, now that I have really laid it on thick (this community truly deserves it), I suppose it's time to be off to BIC. I look forward to joining in and becoming a part of this.

Jason
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Yet more gratitude

Hi, Jason -- I too stopped writing shortly after I left high school, and started again when I was 35.

Best of luck to you, and find joy in what you do.
 

sc211

Re: Deja vu

Hey Uncle Jim,

On the last page you posted a reply about writing a Star Wars novel. The link didn't work, and I couldn't find it elsewhere on this site or on Google.

Where is that bit, and have you really been hired on to go to that galaxy far, far away...?

In a related bit, I got the DRIN newsletter today, which has a sidebar from the Star Wars editor. You can get this monthly newsletter here...

www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Deja vu

No, I've never done a Star Wars novel.

(I have, however, fixed the link -- thanks for picking up on that!)

I've done Mortal Kombat, Prince Valiant, SpiderMan, and Tom Swift, though ...
 

Adam Mac Brown

Re: Yet more gratitude

Uncle Jim,

I'm delurking to thank you for this wonderful thread which I've just finished reading. I've posted a bit elsewhere on the cooler but this is my first time on this thread.

I have a question. Two or three times you mentioned that "bestseller" is a genre in itself. What do you mean by that? Thanks
 

sc211

Tom Swift and "the perils of cheap reading"

Thanks, Uncle Jim. I see now that the question was written to AC Crispen. Too bad you can't do Star Wars - I'm sure you'd do it more justice than many (including Lucas of late).

By the way, very cool cover to Murder by Magic. And which Tom Swift did you write? I got a whole collection of the originals here, and saved an article from Smithsonian describing how they were banned from libraries for...

Well, I was going to copy it out, but the article's got so much good stuff on the techniques and business of writing that I think many here would enjoy checking it out. Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew... they all started from Stratemeyer.

seriesbookcentral.bobfinn...medad.html
 

sc211

Re: Deja vu

Actually, for the best part of the article, start halfway down at "Fiction full of slam-bang action." The first half is all setting up the times.
 

Eowyn Eomer

Re: Learn Writing with Uncle Jim

I have a quick question that I'm hoping I don't need to start a new thread for.

When saying the age of a character, which is better or correct?

. . . it was 10 year old Josh who. . .

. . . it was 10-year-old Josh who. . .

I assume that up to age 9, you spell the number out (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine) but you write the actual number for 10 and above (10, 11, 12, 14, etc. . .). I'm making sure because I know some of the rules change from Journalism to English writing.
 

aka eraser

Re: Learn Writing with Uncle Jim

I'd write "it was 10 year-old Josh who..." and if I'm wrong reph will be along to set us both right.
 

reph

Re: Deja vu

Eowyn, your two examples differed only in hyphenation, but the next paragraph talked about the choice between spelling out numbers and using numerals. Which question are you asking?

Two hyphens are necessary no matter which way you write the number. "X-year-old" is a compound modifier.

"It was 10-year-old Josh . . ."

"It was ten-year-old Josh . . ."

But "Josh was 10 years old that summer"

Whether to say 10 or ten depends on what style manual your publisher uses. If you don't know, going with words up through nine and numerals from 10 onward is safe.
 

Pthom

Re: Deja vu

... numerals up through 9 and words from ten onward ...
Isn't this backwards? I always thought the convention was just the opposite:
One, two, three ... nine, 10, 11, 12...99...674, etc.
Writing six hundred seventy-four is only necessary when beginning a sentence.
 

evanaharris

Re: Deja vu

Isn't this backwards? I always thought the convention was just the opposite:
One, two, three ... nine, 10, 11, 12...99...674, etc.
Writing six hundred seventy-four is only necessary when beginning a sentence.

But what happens when you have to write out 4,075,862,321,598,340,654,123,456,789,012?

Or, worse yet, Pi? :|
 

Pthom

Re: Deja vu

Evan:
Admittedly, I was tired when I posted isn't that what I said? The convention is to use Arabic numerals for numbers of two digits or more, not, as was presented, the other way 'round.

So you're lucky; you don't have to write out pi as "three point one four one five nine two six and so on," and probably shouldn't. Instead, you may write this: 3.1415926535897932384626433832795..., or this: 3.1416..., or when talking to scientists and mathematitions (or wannabes), just "pi."

The only caveat I know of to NOT write a number of more than two digits in Arabic numerals is when it occurs at the beginning of a sentence: 144 is a gross. Should be: One hundred forty-four is a gross.

Yah, yah, bad example. Better to write: A gross is 144 or a dozen dozen, then go make an omlette.
 
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