Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

Chris, The antagonist character makes 2 chapter appearances in a 44-chapter book although that might change. Due to the POV, I am seriously constrained to not reveal any of the character's thoughts, actions, or attitudes as he is not the focus character and the POV is as tight as I can make it on the protagonist.

The focus might widen out a bit in the next book so I can show certain motivations and characteristics of the "bad guys", but they don't think they're bad guys at all. They firmly hold to the belief that what they tried to do was right and morally responsible (right up until and to the point where someone within their organization gives the order to try to kill the protagonist and sends out the hit team). They believe they simply did not anticipate all the consequences and made a scientific mistake. Mistakes happen all the time in science, especially important scientific research so they think they can fix the problem and are working to do so (another antagonist character makes this statement to the protagonist about third or halfway through the book).

I'm just thinking that, since this particular antgonistic character is so well-positioned, has wormed his way into the protagonist's confidence, and is fairly powerful and respected in his own right, he might be perfectly positioned to become a very powerful and perhaps, morally ambiguous, main antagonist towards the protagonist, in subtle and non-obvious (until he has to become obvious) ways.

Yeah, I am doing a little brainstorming here too and using this forum and you folks to help me clarify my thoughts before diving back into my current rewrite.

Thanks! (?)

Perle_Rare said:

Uncle Jim,

I'm writing in 3rd person from one character's POV. As such, my main character can only observe people around her and deduce how she thinks they're reacting to events.

For example, I've been avoiding the use of constructs like "her mother was angry" because my character can't know but only assume this is the emotion felt by her mother. So instead, I'm using "her mother appeared angry" or "her mother was obviously angry".

Is there another solution which would not involve abusing such words as "obvious", "appeared", "seemed" throughout the book?

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Try showing instead of telling.

Her mother stormed in, hands planted on her hips.

This makes it clear to the reader that her mother is angry, without having to just say to.

Edit: Apparently my browser cached the page from yesterday, and I didn't see the other responses that were made.

Neversage said:

Try showing instead of telling.

Her mother stormed in, hands planted on her hips.

This makes it clear to the reader that her mother is angry, without having to just say so.

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Ah... *lightbulb flashes on* Thanks! I think that's exactly what I needed to hear.

I just can't figure why I didn't think of that myself... *blush*

Perle_Rare said:

For example, I've been avoiding the use of constructs like "her mother was angry" because my character can't know but only assume this is the emotion felt by her mother. So instead, I'm using "her mother appeared angry" or "her mother was obviously angry".

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I'm not Uncle Jim, but...

John LeCarre's books often contain "He seemed pleased," or "She appeared to be interested," which suits the story because he's writing about spies. No one can trust that what they're seeing is authentic.

My point: if you're going to have the POV character constantly stating that characters "seem to be" something or are "obviously" something else, the reader will pick up on POV's unwillingness to state forthrightly what they're seeing.

It's a choice.

So I got up two hours early this morning to BIC, and I discovered that I have a much harder time writing in the morning than the evening.

Before I changed jobs, I was doing IT support for a car dealership on a schedule of 4 10s. This meant that I was there for a good 2 hours after most people had gone home, just to provide coverage. I got most of my first draft done during this time, and all of the backstory. It was easy and enjoyable; the words just flowed. In the morning, however, it takes an effort to get any words out. I feel like my quality is much less. If I had my druthers, I'd write for two hours from 5-7 in a deserted office building.

The problem is I have too much noise, or things going on in the evening, and I can't stay in the office, because my family would never see me. So which do I do? Learn to write in the morning, or learn to write amidst distraction? Are there techniques for either?

Once you've formed a habit around your writing it's hard to break. This includes time of day, lucky hat, and sharpening three #2 pencils before you get started.


(That's one reason you shouldn't associate bad habits with writing -- if you smoke while writing you won't be able to quit smoking without quitting writing.)

I'm still trying to find my optimum time. I used to write between midnite and maybe four in the morning, on and off while I took care of other household tasks. My severe back problems proclude me from sitting at the desk for more than fifteen minutes to a half-hour at a time. Then I trained myself to sleep at night and get up when I shuffled my son off to school in the morning. After fifteen years plus of being a nite-owl it's quite a change. But I find morning writing harder because it's harder for me to get the fog out of my head. What a conundrum.

The only habits I have associated with writing are silence, solitude, and pacing as I talk to myself. It seriously helps if I know I'm the only person in the room, and the adjacent rooms are all empty. Hopefully I can make this work.

Do any of you write a bunch on one day, and a little less on others? I'm hesitant to do that.

Writing Habits

Neversage said:

The only habits I have associated with writing are silence, solitude, and pacing as I talk to myself. It seriously helps if I know I'm the only person in the room, and the adjacent rooms are all empty. Hopefully I can make this work.

Do any of you write a bunch on one day, and a little less on others? I'm hesitant to do that.

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I think my list of habits is a little more extensive-LOL-there is the silence, but it's punctuated with a lot of sighing, and periodically swearing The solitude is my companion also, and I'm an extrovert, so you can imagine what that does to me. I do sometimes go out to a cafe' or something similar and write when I can't bear the aloneness (is that a word?) anymore. And yes, I get up and move around, talking to myself, or on occassion hand-waving. (Sounds like fun hum?)LOL (I try to avoid the windows when I do this, so no one can watch all these gyrations. And it's another yes, to I wait until I'm home alone to do all this.

I can understand the hesitation of writing more on one day, less on another. But, my life has thrown me so many curve balls that I have to be able to adapt to that also... otherwise, I'd stop and never start again. I "do" prefer that I be able to concentrate for several days in a row though, because of the sense of accomplishment and the continuation of flow.

k, that's my reply, possible typo's and all!

That's a good perspective. I suppose what really matters is: am I putting forth the effort and getting words on paper? I'll be a little more flexible, and see if I keep moving my drafts forward. Thanks for all your help.

Life is keeping me much too busy to carve out a slice of day and just write. Each day is different. So instead of worrying about whether it's possible write more one day and potentially less the next or whether it's all done in the same say within the same environment, I've trained myself to use every available moment. If I didn't, I wouldn't get anything written at all.

The kids have a trampoline class? I'm there with my laptop. I'm at the dealership waiting for my winter tires to be taken off? I'm there with my laptop. Whichever slice of time in whichever environment, it's all the same to me.

The only time I am incapable of writing is when the kids are playing on their computers right beside me. Their chatter overlaying the game music drives me batty. Before I had my laptop, I would plug in the headphones and listen to some music so I could filter out their noise and concentrate on the writing. Now, I just take the laptop to a different room and write there.

Is this conficker for real? A lot of these internet threats turn out to be practical jokes - especially if they occur on April 1.

I plan to backup my WIP and switch off my modem for at least 24 hours that day, just to be safe. I have the full protection package from McAfee. Not sure what more I can do.

Thanks for the heads-up, Jim.

euclid said:

Is this conficker for real? A lot of these internet threats turn out to be practical jokes - especially if they occur on April 1.

I plan to backup my WIP and switch off my modem for at least 24 hours that day, just to be safe. I have the full protection package from McAfee. Not sure what more I can do.

Thanks for the heads-up, Jim.

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Euclid, go read the Wikipedia entry about Conficker. The worm is spreading right now. It simply starts looking for what bad things it should be doing to your computer on that date. Turning off your modem on that date will not save you unless you turn it off forever.

Anyway, the Wikipedia entry has some info on how you can protect yourself. Take a look. I've also put in an entry under the Tech Help forum for Calliopenjo who was asking about this.

And if Microsoft makes a public bounty offer of US$250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the criminal / criminals behind conficker, you better believe it's real.

But what I'm wondering is, where, oh where, did Uncle Jim give a heads-up about this? What did I miss?

Perle_Rare said:

But what I'm wondering is, where, oh where, did Uncle Jim give a heads-up about this? What did I miss?

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In his signature.

best time to write

Biologically, they says: plan in he evening, execute in the morning. Maybe we have adapted to this routine also because of 2000 years of no light at night forcing people to sit still in the evening and think. For the writing, I would say ideally one would create structures and outlines in the evening, and do the actual writing in the morning. I'm always a different person at night and my strategy now is to let that inner evening person do what he's good at: see far and wide and feel and understand a lot. But he's terrible at getting stuff done. His viewpoint is too high, like that of a general. He knows too much as to be useful for digging a trench. In the mornings I switch to being a front line soldier with energy and little ability to see the big picture, which makes me just numb and dumb enough to not question the reason of the fight and run away but to stay and push the cause forward, trusting in the generals orders (and hoping he's not insane)

This tool removes all versions of Conficker.

This tool removes all versions of worry.

pictopedia said:

This tool removes all versions of worry.

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Yeah, I had a Mac once. Most expensive computer I ever bought. It spent most of its life in a repair shop, and when it died for good I didn't replace it with a Mac. I'll never buy another Apple product.

There is Apple malware, by the way. It's just that because it isn't a very popular platform, not many malware makers concentrate on it.

Just a warning.

James D. Macdonald said:

Yeah, I had a Mac once. Most expensive computer I ever bought. It spent most of its life in a repair shop, and when it died for good I didn't replace it with a Mac. I'll never buy another Apple product.

There is Apple malware, by the way. It's just that because it isn't a very popular platform, not many malware makers concentrate on it.

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My son has a Mac. He needs it for his film work. I would never own one. I could not be convinced they are any better than the cheapest PC laptop.

The machine cost $4000 dollars, plus software. He has had it a year and two months. 3 logic board failures. Two DVD burners. $900 in rentals while the machine was being repaired.

And the best news? It is in the shop today. They believe the logic board is bad and they plan to fix the DVD burner that NEVER worked from the previous replacement.

Hi! Men in Customer Relations. Told you I would tell everyone.
(BTW the relation they are talking about does deal with a sexual nature.)

Hm, well that's not really true with the cost. (I'm correcting Jim (edit: and allenparker), now that's fresh). But it's also true. They all produce in China, and it all costs the same. PCs just market the parts differently. You pay less and you get less, while being told you get more, of course (Marketing). A technical comparison reveals the trick.

Marketing is really a kind of storytelling, like writing. It's novelwriting in disguise. The story is a lie just the same, but marketing people are magicians of the dark kind. They not only perform the trick of selling a fake story that rings true with human truths, but they simultaneously make themselves and the stage disappear, so you don't even understand the act setup any more and you forget that you are in a theater. There is some hellish kind of psychology involved in marketing making everyone, including me, think things that actually reveal themselves as not being true, when looked at closely.

I find it annoyingly important for my mental health to check and state the facts, to exercise my free will muscle. That's why I'm objecting here to the cost and virus thing (In17 years of daily Mac use I have jet to see my first Mac virus). But another thing is more interesting. You said you had lots of problems with your Mac. That happens rarely with creative. A writer and problems with a Mac? That is strange. You got my writers curiosity sparked there.

allenparker: just trying to easy the bad feeling with a shot of reality (I know this never works, but let me try nevertheless): Even including the 900 $, your son saved money compard to PC. A flower is a flower and a fact is a fact.

You're trying to tell me that $1,149 really isn't more than I'd paid for any other computer? Wow.

Actually, it is. And half that again on repairs over the course of two years before it became a permanent paperweight. Logic boards? Oh, yes. What eventually died that I decided not to replace was the screen. Did I mention the three-hour each way drive to get to the nearest "Genius Bar"?

No thanks, never again. Reality is what I can measure.

I paid just over $700 for my Compaq desktop. It's easy to work with, and when I crashed my motherboard HP sent out the container to ship it back, and I had my computer returned to me in two days good as new.

I have (nearly) unlimited space to store and backup my documents, if I could only get the damn thing to make my coffee for me I'd be set. Now back to writing.

pictopedia said:

H

I find it annoyingly important for my mental health to check and state the facts, to exercise my free will muscle. That's why I'm objecting here to the cost and virus thing (In17 years of daily Mac use I have jet to see my first Mac virus). But another thing is more interesting. You said you had lots of problems with your Mac. That happens rarely with creative. A writer and problems with a Mac? That is strange. You got my writers curiosity sparked there.

allenparker: just trying to easy the bad feeling with a shot of reality (I know this never works, but let me try nevertheless): Even including the 900 $, your son saved money compard to PC. A flower is a flower and a fact is a fact.

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Well, perhaps you should visit the Mac Store and ask for a FinalCut Pro Macbook Pro series. The student cost through Virginia Commonwealth University sits at $4750.00 right now. Add the Final Cut Pro software at a cost of $1299.00 and the cost zooms over $6000.00. Now, do you want the extras like the ability to stream to a 30" display monitor? Or how about being able to port cameras into the system via other than firewire?

Now you are over $7,000.00

Don;t take my word for it. Go to Mac. Click on the Macbook Pro and add the extras and watch that minimum $2.799.00 cruise on up.

http://store.apple.com/us

For what it's worth, I really like my iPod.

But I like my PC--that cost me half the cost of a PowerMac of equal ability to build--better.

Still... I really do like my iPod.

That's too bad about your negative Mac experience. Yeah, they do cost more than most other computers, but the flip side is the lack of malware and typically never-fail aspect.

I've had Windows-based PCs since I can remember, and half the time I've had 'em, they're up on blocks. Whether it's viruses, replacing some beaten component, or constant need for upgrades... I hate PCs.

Uncle Jim, the very reason you won't buy a Mac is why I won't buy another PC. The damn machine is just supposed to work, I shouldn't have to spend a chunk of my time either fixing it or having it fixed. I've had two Macs in the last few years, one laptop and one desktop, and neither has ever needed a single repair or reinstall due to viruses. One is nearly a year old and the other is nearly three years old. No failures of any kind.

Again, sorry that you had a really bad experience with 'em, and for whatever it's worth, your experience is quite atypical.